Miyawaki Lakshmi!

Miyawaki Lakshmi!

I heard about Miyawaki method of growing forests (oxymoron?) a few years back. Miyawaki is a Japanese guy who proved that a forest can be grown in a small space at 10 times the speed of naturally grown forest...provided we take care of some basics.

The idea is to plant indigenous trees in very young sapling form, lot of them in a small space, each sapling 3 feet apart, tall and short types mixed well, and rely upon natural competition for sunlight to do the rest. I wanted to try this in one of my farms mainly as wind breaker, of course with all the assorted benefits a forest would bring in. I gathered all I could about this method from various online & offline resources except the info. about trees that are to be included/excluded in such a forest in my region.

It so happens, there is an NGO in my city who has demonstrated this method successfully in a few places within the city, including one just outside their office. So I went there a few days back during lunch time to get such a list that suits local conditions.

A kid girl, barely out of college with out-of-state looks greeted me and told me that all the office staff except her were on holidays, sorry we don't have any printed material on Miyawaki trees, the only person who knows about the trees list has gone out to his farm and that I would have to visit again after making an appointment with him. The whole conversation was in English as she too thought that I was out-of-state :-)

Just then, something happened. A Saree clad sweeper lady doing her work in the floor looked up and suggested to the kid that this guy talks to Lakshmi; 'Lakshmi knows. She could show him around the forest'. I was startled because the whole conversation was in English and somehow this sweeper lady was able to follow it, maybe because our conversation was filled with the name Miyawaki, maybe because this lady was educated, maybe both. 

The office staff opened a window and shouted down (where a well maintained nursery lives) for Lakshmi, rattled some instructions in Tamil (!), turned around and asked me whether I understood local language. I grinned, told her that I would meet Lakshmi and went down to the Nursery Area.

Lakshmi, a Saree clad woman the likes of whom I could see in any of our villages, was waiting for me at the nursery gate. She took me for a walk through the various saplings planted in close range over a few hundred feet and talked non-stop for the next 45 minutes laying bare the do's and don'ts of Miyawaki method and particularly some tweaks she has done to adapt to the local conditions. 

Highlight 1: Her command on the subject!

Highlight 2: Height of those trees! 10 to 12 feet growth within 12 months!

I told her that I gathered much more than what I would have in the office floor had those people turned up for work and that I was happier that it happened this way. 

She introduced her husband Balraj who was tending to plants in the nursery. We picked up a 'Post Miyawaki' chat that unfolded in a totally unexpected way. 

They were from a hilly region in my State which could be reached only by two wheelers / two leggers - no roads for bigger vehicles. They owned a 3 Acre coffee estate. Chemical farming, pest attack, dwindling yield not enough even to pay the wages of labourers who picked coffee bean for them, their children not having any interest in farming ("Who would waste time in this place? We are going to work in a garment factory, leave us and the farm!").

So they sold it to somebody who is growing pepper now in the same farm and making a tidy sum.

'What happened then?' asked curious me.

'We ran a coffee shop for some time' laughed her hubby. 'Then we ended up in this nursery, about an year ago'.

For the next 30 minutes they poured me so much details about growing pepper, I could smell pepper in the air!

They suggested that I plant a pepper vine under every tree in my Miyawaki forest and retire happily ever after! (Mr. Miyawaki, are you listening?!)

('You know Sir, in Kerala, people grow pepper vines just around their homes, three to four vines even in a small home. Each year they harvest few thousand rupees worth pepper just like that, doing nothing!')

I came back much happier as I have a ready reckoner for my own Miyawaki forest, a place to source Karimunda Pepper vines and a couple of people who are eager to help me try both!