Surinder Sud: Ancient rituals and modern farming

FARM VIEW/ More experiments are needed before recommending Vedic agriculture

Is there any scientific basis for the Vedic era belief that agnihotra (havan or homa) enhances crop yield?

The answer seems: no. Some voluntary organisations, however, are trying to promote this concept. Even one of the institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) seems to endorse this and other ancient concepts of farming.

It has brought out a manual on what it calls "Vedic Krishi". But, scientific investigations carried out by another institute of the ICAR has exposed the hollowness of this claim.

The brochure with the details of several forms of Vedic agriculture, such as Rishi Krishi, Panchagaya, Amrit Pani and Agnihotra or Homa farming, has been published by the Lucknow-based Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (CISH).

And the fact that agnihotra farming does not pass the scientific test has been ascertained by the Bhopal-based Indian Institute of Soil Science (IISS).

The basic philosophy behind the agnihotra is that the havan fire purifies the atmosphere, reversing the changes caused by pollution.

The agnihotra therapy in agriculture is based on the conviction that homa or havan harmonises the pathological and nutritive structure of the plants and facilitates higher yield by acting as a catalyst for plant metabolism.

Havan is also believed to help plants to acquire a protective coating against pests and diseases.

Agnihotra therapy involves a havan with prescribed mantras in the crop field twice a day "" at sunrise and sunset "" by lighting fire with dried cowdung blocks in a copper havankund.

The ash produced is spread in the field. It also prescribes a mixture of agnihotra ash and cow urine, incubated for 25 days, to be used for treating the seed before sowing, and spraying it on the crop afterwards to ward off pests and diseases.

The scientific evaluation of this therapy was conducted by the IISS during the last kharif and rabi seasons. The crops used for these tests were soyabean in kharif and chickpea and wheat in the rabi season.

This study had three objectives: to compare agnihotra farming with conventional agriculture; to study the effect of agnihotra on the composition of plant nutrients in the havan ash; and to evaluate the effect of the agnihotra system of farming on crop growth, pests and diseases.

To maintain objectivity of the experiment, personnel of M/s Nalni Madhava Ashram were involved. Its representatives visited the experimental fields daily in the morning and evening to perform agnihotra according to the prescribed norms and rituals.

The results of the experimentation not only ambiguously discounted any significant positive impact of agnihotra on the crops but actually revealed some negative influence of it as it encouraged the attack of pests and diseases.

The summary of the conclusions categorically states that in the kharif season, there was no increase in the soybean yield in the agnihotra field, compared to the non-agnihotra field.

On the contrary, heavy infestation of insects, pests and diseases was observed in the soyabean field where agnihotra was performed. The incidence of girdle beetle pest and yellow mosaic virus disease, in particular, was relatively far higher.

During rabi, the chickpea crop suffered due to adverse effect of the agnihotra treatment on the germination of seeds, causing a yield loss of nearly 29 per cent. In the case of wheat crop, too, the field where no agnihotra was performed showed about 6.2 per cent higher yield compared to the one where this ritual was observed regularly.

On the other hand, the yield of all three crops was much better in another plot where the modern concept of integrated plant nutrient supply management was followed, indicating that modern farm practices are more suitable for present day agriculture than ancient rituals.

However, the chemical composition of the agnihotra ash differed somewhat from the ash produced without agnihotra rituals though on the whole both were quite similar. The copper concentration was quite high in the agnihotra ash.

This was attributed by the scientists to the burning of cowdung pieces in the copper vessel. The other ash contained more iron and zinc, perhaps, due to burning cowdung in a galvanised iron vessel. The rest of the composition of the two kinds of ash was almost identical.

To conclude, there is need for conducting similar science-based testing of other forms of Vedic agriculture before commending them for adoption by farmers.

Of course, the utility of some of the elements used in Vedic farming, such as cowdung and cow urine which constitute good manure, is well known.

These concepts do have a place in modern agriculture, too. But, it is ill-advised to follow everything that the protagonists of the conventional wisdom intend us to believe. At least the scientific institutions should display scientific temper.