Indian Soil in Revolution/on Ushuaia TV: cow dung and urine to the rescue of the planet
A documentary by Renuka George tells how a senior Indian official from the state of Andhra Pradesh managed to set up a vast transition program in favor of ecoagriculture.
The recipe is simple. Take 100 grams of cow dung, add 2 kg of raw sugar and 2 more chickpea flour, drizzle with bovine urine, mix, knead, make balls, and voila: you are an «agroecologist», proud supporter of a new green revolution in India. It is better named than that which, in the 1960s, was used with pesticides and chemical fertilizers to eradicate the spectre of famine in the country of Gandhi…
The film by French Indian director Renuka George, Indian Soil in Revolution, tells how an innovative program started in 2015 in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (53 million inhabitants) managed to convince hundreds of thousands of farmers to convert to natural agriculture. «This is the largest agricultural transition program in the world» says the documentary, a sequence of which shows a peasant woman demonstrating the simplicity of the above recipe by kneading dung balls during a «training» session. in front of other farmers. The principle is to give up all chemical inputs and use cow dung and cow urine exclusively as fertilizer – resources that India does not lack…
By 2031, the promoter of «agroecological» agriculture Vijay Kumar hopes to convince the six million farmers of the State to these new methods of sowing. Even Hindu temples are getting started, now almost all sourcing organic food to feed pilgrims for free, as tradition dictates. «This sent a very positive message to farmers who were still hesitating or practicing conventional farming» Kumar said. Given the prestige that religion enjoys in rural communities, this «conversion» from temples to «soil revolution» has indeed played a very important role.
The herald of this green revolution sees far, far beyond Indian borders . «The principles we follow are universal principles» he says, concluding a documentary that, like him, is premonitory, and that is to convince the world that «there are alternative mechanisms» to save the planet.
