Some days ago, our CEL shared some of their favourite agricultural methods with new, international volunteers, i.e. NADEP composting and Permaculture.

NADEP compost is a type of compost consisting of 4 different layers: green leaves, kitchen waste, cow dung and soil. NADEP method of making miracle compost was first invented by a farmer named Narayan Deotao Pandharipande (also popularly known as “Nadepkaka”) living in Maharashtra, India. The NADEP method uses a permanently built tank of mud, or cement to make the compost.

The volunteers cut down a couple of bushes that were just planted just for that purpose. They will regrow soon to provide new leaves during the next few months. The leaves were separated from the bigger branches and put on top of the already existing NADEP compost. After that, some kitchen waste was distributed evenly on top, and they mixed cow dung slurry with water to put next. A couple of buckets full of soil came at the end.

Next, we introduced them to PERMACULTURE, with the Seedling method. The ethics of Permaculture are Earth care, People care and Share.

In the field allotted to Permaculture, the volunteers prepared 3×3 sizes of 2 beds for seedlings, consisting of different steps. The volunteers first cut the weeds, so the ground was free. Then, they prepared the ground by making it loose and put compost, too. The plantation consisted of chilli and melon seeds. Papaya and ladies finger will also grow soon.

The volunteers learned how these methods work and how to apply it by themselves. They got a good view on how their work for the next year might look like and had fun learning.