Subodh Teotia of Urban Farms Speaks on ‘Revolution in Organic Agriculture’

Introduction

At Urban farms, they have created an Organic Ecosystem where in vegetables are grown organically, with a vision to save mother earth from chemicals used in farming and to rejuvenate the soil. They promote organic agriculture and provide all sort of support to farmers of Delhi NCR including all the technical guidance and encourage them to do organic farming.  

They have created an “Organic Production Eco-system” on the outskirt of Delhi at Village Palla, near Bakhtawarpur (Around 10 Km from Karnal Bye pass towards Delhi – Chandigarh highway). The farm produces compost and other bio inputs by using local Agriculture waste sourced from the close vicinity areas. 

In urban farms, various seasonal and exotic vegetables are cultivated. Their Demo farm serves as a resource centre and motivates other farmers to take up organic farming. 

Vegetable Cultivation and recent reforms 

They also produce various farm inputs, organic seeds and seedlings at centralised commercial nursery and then supply them to farmers, besides using it at their own Demo farm. They also provide technical guidance to farmers on crop monitoring, pest and disease management for successful organic vegetables cultivation. 

The organic produce (within QA Specs) grown by their network farmers is procured at a premium price and applied for certification with IMO, a Bangaluru based organisation. It takes minimum of two years to get Organic certification, however, till then the produce is deemed as “In conversion” and Organically grown. 

Besides, production of vegetables at Delhi, now they have also started producing pulses (red gram, black gram and bengal gram), Desi wheat (Bansi variety), Onion with their network farmers in Wardha region, who have also taken up Organic Pomegranate cultivation since last four years over > 800 acres. Their lands and produce are 100% certified organic by IMO. 

At present, Urban Farms supply their organic produce to Bigbasket and directly to families living in apartments in Delhi / Sonipat area. 

Composting at Urban Farms 

The compost is prepared from following ingredients, which they source from place in their vicinity: 

• Paddy Straw

• Cow Dung

• Green Matter

These ingredients help in generating an additional income for the farmers and prevent various sources of pollution in Delhi NCR. 

A revolution for farmers

Farmers in Delhi and nearby areas use high chemicals in farming and do mono cropping, which affects the fertility of the soil. The Urban Farms aims to transform this by popularizing organic farming and multi-cropping among the network farmers, so that both producer and consumer can prosper. 

Meet Subodh Teotia, Urban Farms Co. live at Krishi Jagran Facebook page today at 10.am