Farmers_Regenerative_Guide

 🌱 Regenerative Agriculture: 

A Simple Guide for Every Farmer - By @EAFARMS (A certified farm's experience - EAFARMS is a Sustainable Organic Natural Agriculture (SONA) Farm with regenerative, permaculture, indigenous, ZBNF and spiritual farming methodologies) 

Healthy Soil • Healthy Food • Healthy Future
Today’s world needs farming that protects soil, water, food quality, human health and the planet. Regenerative agriculture is not a new concept, it’s a return to natural, smart, and sustainable farming practices that our ancestors followed. 

The goal is simple: 

Give back more to the soil than we take from it.

Regenerative farming in simple terms so any farmer can understand and start practicing today.

🌾 What Is Regenerative Agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture means farming in a way that improves soil health, 

increases crop yield naturally, 

protects biodiversity and reduces chemical usage. 

Instead of only focusing on crop output, it focuses on the long-term health of soil and future generations.

🌟 Key Principles of Regenerative Agriculture
1️⃣ Minimize Soil Disturbance (Low or No Tillage)

• Avoid deep ploughing.
• Use tools that loosen only the top soil.
• Reduces soil erosion, maintains microbes, and increases water retention.

Why it matters: Soil organisms like earthworms and microbes are nature’s factory for healthy crops.

2️⃣ Keep the Soil Covered at All Times
• Use cover crops like cowpea, horse gram, green gram, and mustard.
• Apply mulch using crop residues, leaves, straw or coconut husk.

Why it matters: Soil stays cool, moisture stays longer, weeds reduce, and microbes thrive.

3️⃣ Mix Different Crops (Biodiversity)
• Practice intercropping and crop rotation.
• Example combos:
• Groundnut + Red gram

• Sugarcane + Vegetables

• Coconut grove + Turmeric + Banana + Fodder grass
• Millets + Pulses

Why it matters: Diversity reduces pest attacks and improves soil nutrients naturally.

4️⃣ Integrate Livestock Into Farming
• Cattle manure, poultry droppings enrich soil.
• Controlled grazing improves grasslands and nutrient cycling.

• Prepare natural fertilizers like jeevamrutham, panchagavya, compost - ZBNF - Preparation Details.

Why it matters: Animals complete the nutrient cycle and reduce external input cost.

5️⃣ Continuous Living Roots in the Soil
• Grow short-duration crops between main crops.
• Keep something always growing (green cover + living roots).

Why it matters: Living roots feed soil microbes throughout the year.

6️⃣ Reduce Chemical Dependency
• Reduce chemical fertilizers and pesticides step-by-step.
• Increase compost, green manure, and biological pest control.

• Use pheromone traps, neem oil spray, and bio-pesticides.

Why it matters: Healthier soil, healthier food, lower cost, and safer environment.

7️⃣ Improve Water Management
• Use drip irrigation and mulching to save 40–60% water.

• Create farm ponds for rainwater harvesting.

 

• Use contour bunding and check dams.

Why it matters: Prevents drought stress and increases yield even during low rainfall.

🌍 Benefits for Farmers, Families and the Planet
✔ Better Soil Fertility
Organic matter increases, leading to stronger and healthier plants.

✔ Higher Yield in the Long Term
Regenerative farming builds soil that gives consistent and stable output year after year.

✔ Lower Input Costs
Less chemical usage = more savings.

✔ Improved Water Holding Capacity
Soil stays moist longer, reducing irrigation needs.

✔ Healthier Food for Families & Future Generations
Chemical-free food reduces lifestyle diseases and supports community health.

✔ Carbon Sequestration
Healthy soil absorbs carbon and reduces climate change impact.

📘 A Simple Regenerative Farming Model for a Small Farm:

🌱 Step-by-Step Yearly Plan

Season 1:
• Prepare compost + apply mulch
• Plant diverse crops (millet + pulses)

Season 2:
• Introduce cover crops (cowpea)
• Reduce chemical fertilizer by 30%

Season 3:
• Add livestock manure
• Introduce crop rotation
• Set up drip irrigation

Season 4:
• 100% soil cover with mulch
• Use only bio-pesticides
• Grow long-term perennials (banana, moringa, fruit trees)

💡 Very Important Message for Farmers:

“Regenerative farming is not only a technique, but also it is a promise. A promise to the soil, to our children, and to our future.”

One do not need to change everything in one day.

Start small. Implement one principle each season.

Within 2–3 years, your soil will become your greatest strength.

Healthy soil → Healthy crops → Healthy foods → Healthy families  → Healthy income  → Healthy planet 

Dear Farmers, wherever you are, there are many ways to grow produce, but the best way is to work with nature to produce your agriculture produce. Please make it regenerative to enhance soil health for the benefit of current and future generations. Thank you.

Makesh Karuppiah, PhD

Circular_Economy_Farming

Circular Economy in Farming  - EAFARMS:

In a world facing resource scarcity and environmental challenges, farmers are uniquely positioned to lead the shift toward a more sustainable system. Enter the circular economy, a model that focuses on minimizing waste, reusing resources, and regenerating natural systems. For agriculture, this means healthier soil, less dependency on synthetic inputs, and more resilient farm businesses. In this article, we explore what the circular economy is and how farmers - big or small - can benefit from it.

Unlike the traditional "take-make-dispose" model, the circular economy is all about reusing, recycling, and regenerating. It focuses on keeping materials and resources in use for as long as possible. In agriculture, this could mean:

• Composting waste instead of throwing it away

• Using farm byproducts as animal feed

• Harvesting rainwater instead of depending solely on groundwater

• Repairing tools and machinery instead of replacing them

 5 Ways Farmers Can Benefit from a Circular Economy

1. Turn Waste into Resources

Food scraps, plant residues, and livestock manure can all be composted into rich organic fertilizer—cutting costs and improving soil health.

2. Boost Soil Regeneration

Practices like crop rotation, cover cropping, and composting feed the soil rather than deplete it, making your land more productive long-term.

3. Save Money & Energy

Reusing water through drip irrigation or bio-digesters can cut your water and electricity bills significantly.

4. New Revenue Streams

Farmers can sell compost, handmade products, or energy (via solar or biogas units) to nearby communities.

5. Reduce Environmental Impact

Circular farming lowers greenhouse gas emissions, limits landfill waste, and reduces chemical runoff—benefiting the planet and local ecosystems.

What Is a Circular Economy – and How Can Farmers Benefit from It?

At EAFARMS , we follow Sustainable Organic Natural Agriculture using positives from zero budget, indigenous - Nammalvar,  permaculture and regenerative principles - Our Methods.

 Steps we followed:

• Start composting kitchen and field waste

• Using farm byproducts as animal feed

• Harvesting Water - We use Swale, contours and ground water recharging techniques, drip irrigation, and also use rain barrels to collect water

• Swap synthetic fertilizers for natural ones

• Find ways to reuse containers, tools, and plastics:

We avoid plastics as much as we can and reuse them for rain water barrels and mixing natural manure and nutrients - Jeevamrithm.

            

The circular economy isn’t just a trend—it’s a necessity. 

For farmers, adopting these principles can mean lower costs, healthier crops, and a more sustainable future for generations to come. Start small, think long-term, and let your farm become a model of resilience and regeneration.

By EAFARMS TEAM.

Save Farmers

I never thought I would write a blog article with a title Save Farmers. Every human at least for now depend on Food for survival. The way it is going, one day we would be living just on Pills. Until then we should respect and support farmers who work in the dirt to produce our food. Every health article talks about fruits, vegetables and grains. These food items do not come magically. It is the hard work that is being put in by the farmers with the help of the nature. Yes they need natures's help such as rainfall. When the rain Gods ditch them they undergo severe hardships that they could not withstand. Some of them in Tamil Nadu commit suicide, which gives us heavy heartache.  Now they are protesting in Delhi. As always I support them. I kindly request the government to work on this immediately and provide support as soon as possible.
Those who are protesting and fasting are not Rich,

They are the farmers who give us Food on the table by working hard. Because of their work we eat wonderful Rice, tasty and healthy vegetables, greens, grains and fruits. They work hard in Sun without proper covering, clothing in the dirt and uncovered feet in wet paddy fields among snakes and other animals. It is not easy. Comparing to sitting and typing in a AC room with a state of art computer (what I am doing right now) it is very very tough to do farming activities.. 

We understood this when we tried traditional farm work at EA FARMS:
However I am glad that I support them, pray for them and write for them.. They are not asking government's help to become rich. Even if they receive support they are not going buy lavish things, they are going to invest in their agriculture land to produce more food. For living healthy we need good Food along with other elements.
If they receive normal monsoon rains, they would not even come to this state. That's the reason I always pray for normal Rain all over the Globe. But as nature's rule, droughts cannot be avoided. But we need to take necessary steps to counter the drought. We should curtain air pollution that contributes to climate change. We need to use renewable resources.
Water management is very important. When there is heavy rain, it needs to be conserved. There are ideas to merge Rivers. Rain water harvesting should be done everywhere. Swales need to be created in the farm to recharge ground water.

A Swale at EA FARMS

Water should be used as if we are in drought even when there is ample water. We have to conserve soil, rivers, mountains and forests (whole environment). Future technologies such as Graphene Sieves should be embraced soon to provide water in severe drought conditions.
Farmers including poor farmers should jump into Sustainable Natural Integrated Farming.

Growing cattle for Dairy Products and manure

They should do multi layer crops instead of single crop.

There are wonderful gurus who guide us on best agricultural practices.

Families need to buy produce from them. Youngsters and every citizen should support them.Then they will not face this situation.
Government, politicians and officials should support farmers and farming activities.

With Farmers at EA FARMS

They should stop activities and projects that affect agriculture.

Our Deiva Pulavar Thiruvalluvar said this long back and it is for a reason;

உழுதுண்டு வாழ்வாரே வாழ்வார்மற் றெல்லாம் 

தொழுதுண்டு பின்செல் பவர்

Simple explanation - Farmers life is the best and others follow them for the food.

So it is very important to save the life of a farmer. We need to support every farmer in the Globe, because they provide us with the best ingredients for tasty food on our table. Praying to God to Save Farmers.

TamilNadu

On December, 2011 in my 100th blog post I wrote:

I was born in Tamil Nadu and had good education there until M.Phil (Bharathiar University - Environmental Sciences specializing in Environmental Physiology). Moved to USA to pursue
Ph.D in Environmental Sciences. God gave me privilege to complete MS in Computer Science also. During this period I have traveled so many places and had vast experiences. 
Acquired environmental knowledge from excellent people who were very knowledgeable in these fields and want to do something for Environment. 

Even after several decades of independence and great rulers with future vision, Tamil Nadu state still have not lived up to its potential.
We have best institutions - IIT, Anna University, REC, several other universities and best schools in India. But what has improved in these years of independence.
We still have poverty, lots of pollution and environmental problems. For example - we have so many polluted areas where so many industries pollute the fertile resources. 
Several part of the state are without trees. We don't care for our soil resources - river beds are dug for using soil for constructions and more and more buildings are built in agricultural areas.
We spoil our lands, forests, soils and marine environments, as much as we can. Foreign industries also flock over here. We did not learn even several years after Bhopal disaster. Proper Environmental laws and mitigation have to be designed, implemented and strictly followed. Escrow accounts should be maintained by the Government, funded by all these industries for environmental benefits. These industries should show their environmental improvement plans, how they are going to implement them and what actions will they take in case of environmental issues. I am certainly sure that these foreign industries will do these things to save their environments in their country. So they should equally treat the country they are using to manufacture their products and getting the profit. These environmental benefits can be efficiently implemented with very little percentage of their profit.

We have best natural resources such as SOLAR and WIND. We have been utilizing wind (I personally feel we went overboard in putting up the so many windmills). But we need to tap on Solar energy.
Also in Tamil Nadu, We always have been fascinated by the movie industry. We have been selecting movie people as our rulers for the most period after the independence. I am not against movie people coming into politics, but all I am asking them is to do GOOD AND MOVE FORWARD if they end up as political winner. 

These days I see more and more people flocking to TASMAC - irony is that their main office is in a road that has a name starting with Gandhi ( who stood against liquor - Still Prohibition is practiced in Gujarat - his birth state).
As an Environmental toxicologist, I am always against any toxic substance affecting health. I am crying from my heart seeing our young resources flocking into these liquor stores. See how this bad and evil industry have flourished in front of us.
Already we live in extremely polluted Area (AIR, WATER, SOIL and FOOD). Along with that TASMAC products will do a symbiotic effect on these people's health. These people also smoke. How much one's heart, kidney and brain can take. 
I need not say this, they themselves have said that in their website - http://tasmac.tn.gov.in/brands.htm - The topmost letters in the webpage in red letters - MADHU - NAATUKKU, VETTUKKU, UYIRUKKU KEDU = meaning - ALCOHOL - BAD FOR COUNTRY, HOUSE AND LIFE. Even the government is knowingly doing this evil thing for money.

So many negatives - industries flocking (wrote an earlier article on 2008) and polluting Tamil Nadu environment, Negative Politics with only greed as objective and no ethics, abusing environment (extracting non renewable resources and depleting the sterile agricultural lands, building non environmental friendly system which would affect exponentially in the case of natural disasters) without proper following of environmental law. 
Building systems without any limits with greed as only objective and not caring for environment, human health and future generations.Fracking can cause pollution and additives that are needed can cause so many adverse affect on human health, animal health and environment, contamination, toxic chemical exposure, sterile lands and Earthquakes. Now without any hesitation you are trying to do fracking in the rice bowl area. Please don't do for the sake of future generations.
Cutting off trees, creating concrete jungles on lakes and watershed areas, building non environmental system all along polluted coast, removing top soil from river beds and rivers, removing mountain tops - all these are leading to desertification. Already the area is affected by severe droughts, 
God men, Politicians, Educators, Hospitals to name some - You know who you are and you have earned enough for your eight generations to follow - so Please do something good for all the people especially future generation (which includes you children also).

Previously wrote:

மலையை, மண்ணை  சுரண்டி எடுத்தாலும் ... Mountain Mining
மரத்தை அறுத்து போட்டாலும்...Deforestation Cutting Trees
பல மணி நேரம் மின் வெட்டு செய்தாலும்...
தண்ணீரே கிடைக்காமல் போனாலும்...
இயற்கை வளத்தை அழித்தாலும்...Titanium Mining
விவசாய நிலத்தல் வீடு கட்டினாலும்...Industries Flocking
கழிவுகளை கொட்டினாலும்...Cancer Village, Dumping
அரசாங்கமே சாராயத்தை விற்று மக்களை குடி மகன்களாக்கினாலும்...Liquor 
தமிழ் மீனவனை சுட்டாலும்...
இனத்தையே அழித்தாலும்...Innocent Deaths 
கோடி கோடியாய் ஊழல் செய்தாலும்...Food Adulteration
அரசியல்வாதிகள் என்ன சொன்னாலும்... என்ன செய்தாலும்..Selling Expired Drugs
தமிழ் நாட்டு மக்கள் சகித்து  கொண்டே இருப்போம்...

பாலைவனம் ஆக்காதீர் தமிழ் நாட்டை.

தற்போதைய சராசரி தமிழனின் நிலையை நினைவு படுத்த - 

எவ்வளவு மொட்டை அடித்தாலும் தாங்குவான் தமிழன்.

I can only pray for the future generations.  Youngsters should learn from all these happenings and take control for the future generations to come. Internationally, Hate crimes have increased and some of the innocent people have been killed. Where is the World going?. We need good leaders to take control of the situation and provide appropriate solutions.

Now it is February, 2017 and the state of Tamil Nadu has become more worse. I am settled in USA and I always wanted to do good things for the ROOTS. We are doing that in many ways. But Nature - rainfall has almost stopped and slowed us down.My brother who was an IT expert in Singapore has become sustainable Farmer. He started farming in 2010 and until now we did not get proper power (utility)  even after 7 years for agricultural purposes. As educated farmers, we face these So think about the normal farmers what they had to go through.

We are proud of our cattle we rear. 

But we are more worried about the negatives that are taking place. 

As a son of a honest Tax Officer, 

Dad

who worked in Tamil Nadu Government - Department of Commercial Taxes, I am too worried about the corruptions. and non ethical happenings, All I can do is do our good deeds such as helping and training people and businesses to get better opportunities and Pray to God for Positives to Tamil Nadu. Historically, We had very very positive personalities such as Thiruvalluvar   (who contributed the great Thirukural which gives us details of how to lead, live a life), Avvaiyar (who gave us Aathichoodi which starts with அறம் செய விரும்பு meaning - Intend to do right things), Bharathiar and several greats from Kamarajar,  to  the recent Great Dr. Abdul Kalam. So along those lines praying for Positives to my Brothers and Sisters. On May 2011, I wrote this blog topic on leaders and youngsters should select and elect good leader(s). Praying for everyone. Peace and prosperity for All.

எத்தனை காலம் தான் ஏமாற்றுவார்... கொஞ்சமாவது நல்லது செய்யுங்கள்...

விவசாயிகளுக்கு நல்லது செய்யாவிட்டாலும், வயிற்றில் அடிக்காதீர். அது நல்லது அல்ல. நாட்டிற்கும் உலகத்துக்கும் அது கேடு விளைவிக்கும்

பிறக்க போகும் நாட்கள் எல்லாம் நல்லவையாக பிறக்கட்டும்.

Food Adulteration, Toxins, Unhealthy Future Generations

Recently I have been hearing about high amount of food adulteration.
Farmers are injecting Oxytocin directly in plants to increase the size of vegetables and in cows to increase milk production.
This indirectly enters the human system and cause untreatable effects such as hemorrhage, heart, blood pressure problems and brain damages.
This increased greed can affect health of future generation. Already alcohol intake is high among young people. Along with that, uncontrolled pollution (air and water) symbiotically affect the health. What is supposed to save people from these things - healthy food - is now tainted with these chemicals - Only God can save the future generation from these greedy creatures. These greedy creatures went ahead and labeled new expiry dates for already expired medicines.

I was so upset when I heard that they are adulterating goat droppings (which is used as fertilizers by farmers).
How low these creatures went.

I hope more people should stand against this (like they did with Anna Hazare) and government should vigourosly act against these crimes or else we will have a very very unhealthy future generations.
Hearing more and more people are sick and have dreadful diseases like cancers and are diabetic.

God - Please save us from this.

We are doing our part at EA FARMS - growing agricultural products using natural organic materials.

Here is our produce - completely organic and we are proud of it.
If we can do it anybody - any farmer and people with conscience can produce it.
EA FARMS PRODUCE
Peanut (Groundnut):

Corn (Maize):

We have to eat food without chemicals. There should not be greed in making money over food and medicine.