The recipe is simple. Take 100 grams of cow dung, add 2 kg of raw sugar and 2 more of chickpea flour, sprinkle with bovine urine, mix, knead, make balls, and that’s it: you are an “agroecologist”, a proud supporter of a new green revolution in India. Which bears its name better than the one which made it possible, in the 1960s, with pesticides and chemical fertilizers, to eradicate the specter of famine in Gandhi’s country…
The film by French-Indian director Renuka George, The Indian Ground 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, footage of which shows a farmer demonstrating the simplicity of the above-mentioned recipe by kneading dung pellets during a training session. “practice” in front of other farm wives. The principle consists of renouncing all chemical inputs and using exclusively cow dung and urine as fertilizer – resources of which India has no shortage…
Filmed as close as possible to village reality in the middle of the sumptuous landscapes of South India, devoid of any commentary, the film lets the actors speak and chooses the path of pedagogy: expressed thus, among others, the ” hero” of the “revolution” – the senior civil servant Vijay Kumar – and, above all, the farmers of the model village of Anthapuram, who have become the spokespersons of a movement which goes beyond them and could be emulated far beyond. beyond their rice fields.
“Conversion” of temples
However, some were not convinced at first, before converting to agriculture without chemical fertilizers, the promise of a greater and faster yield. “My wife thought I was crazy, she threatened to leave me,” says one of them, gently mocking, in front of the person concerned – who smiles at the evocation of this memory: “It’s true , I was angry. » The husband never doubted: “That’s progress! »
By 2031, promoter of “agroecological” agriculture Vijay Kumar hopes to be able to convince the state’s six million farmers to these new sowing methods. Even Hindu temples are getting in on the act, now almost all sourcing organic farming to feed pilgrims free of charge, as tradition dictates. “This sent a very positive message to farmers who were hesitant or still practicing conventional farming,” says Vijay Kumar. Given the prestige the religion enjoys in rural communities, this “conversion” of temples to the “soil revolution” played a very important role indeed.
The herald of this green revolution sees far, well beyond the borders of immense India. “The principles that we follow are universal principles,” he says at the conclusion of a documentary which, like him, aims to be premonitory: it is nothing more and nothing less about convincing the whole world that “there are mechanisms alternatives” to save the planet.
