Biodynamics Conference – 25 Years of BDAI

While surfing the internet suddenly an ad popped out about the a conference on Biodynamics. I heard this word for the first time and  assumed that it is going to be about some form of mixed cropping. I did not think much and registered for it after looking at the website, as some of the topics interested me. The conference was scheduled for 22nd and 23rd Oct’24 to celebrate the 25 Years of Biodynamics Association of India.

On the event day after attending the introduction and first few talks including from the honourable law and tourism minister of Karnataka – Mr. H. K. Patil , I realised that I have underestimated the subject. 

Biodynamic farming is a holistic, ecological, and ethical approach to farming that considers the farm as a living organism in balance with the environment. It was developed by Austrian philosopher and social reformer Rudolf Steiner in 1924. In Biodynamics, Farms or Gardens are considered as living organism.  This organism is made up of many interdependent elements: fields, forests, plants, animals, soils, compost, people, and the spirit of the place. One important thing about Biodynamic thing is that it works in Rhythm with Earth and Cosmos. There are special days for planting and harvesting. For more details you can checkout here.

In every talk there was mention about late Peter Proctor and his wife Rachael Pomeroy on how they worked with Indian farmers for many years to have them adopt to Biodynamics. If you look at, traditionally Indian farmers have been following the cow dung based methods for farming. To make India as a part of global supply chain in 1960s, uses of chemical fertilisers, pesticides were introduced in the name of Green Revolution. Because of chemicals initially the yields were good but later they made the soil dead. Our farmers are now paying the price for it. In the name of Green Revolution, we did un-justice to our farmers and then eventually to ourselves. I would highly recommend everyone to watch a documentary on Peter’s work in India One Man, One Cow, One Planet .

Soil is a living an organism. It has a digestive, respiratory, circulatory, excretory, reproductive systems along with the brain. This has been beautifully depicted and taught by Dr. Sultan Ismail. I would say it was the best session of that entire conference. You can listen his similar talk here.

During the conference many practising farmers (both small and big) shared their stories on how they are using biodynamics practices and yielding benefits from it. One other theme of the conference was Climate Change. The data was presented by researchers from the Azim Premji University on how we are living on the edge and if we continue to do the same then in just few years we’ll do irreversible damage to our earth and later we’ll all pay very hefty price for it. Remember we have borrowed this earth from the future generation and if we just treat it as a resource for our current consumption, we’ll not last for long. Our future generation would suffer a lot.

You’ll be surprised to know that there are only handful of companies who controls the seeds production and distribution across the globe. They make seeds such that one needs chemical fertiliser to get decent yields and that too after using the pesticides produced by them. Some of the seeds produced by those companies do not have the reproductive feature, which means we can not use the fruits from the plants for the next season for planting. Such level of control companies are having in our agriculture. That is why conservation and uses of native seeds have become very important. Farmers which are doing any kind of natural farming have realised that and there are active efforts for build the seed banks of native and desi seeds. Again remember one can control the entire nation, only if they can control the seeds.

Apart from the knowledge sharing the conference also had a cultural program – Yakshgaana, which I watch live for the first time and stalls from different farmers/oragnizations.

After a long time I attended a non-tech conference and throughly enjoyed it. This has been a great addition on my understanding about farming and would immensely help me with my green world. Thanks a lot to the organisers to organise the event and looking forward to join one of the Biodynamics workshop soon.