Organic Farming with Agnihotra and Agnihotra ash applications in Indonesia

Correcting pH of soil, removing salinity in water and eradicating viral disease through Agnihotra Organic Farming

‘I ran a food production area on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia from May to November 2018 starting completely from scratch. It is a really dry island with only two seasons: the dry and the rainy season. The Rainy season was only about one month that year.

The small farm is slightly bigger than 1 hectare, fully organic, so no use of chemicals were allowed. The project started with a foundation of scientific knowledge, as I come from a university background, plus I implemented a few intuitive wisdom principles like: moon cycle, companion plantings and the use of copper tools. The situation wasn’t the best as the soil pH was above 8, the bore water salty and the soil mainly clay…rock hard clay. A big help was also given by being completely free from EMF and electro-smog, cell phones having no reception at all there. Here, without EMF smog, seeds germinated overnight.

For the first few months everything was going fine, not amazingly as the conditions were pretty tough, but reasonably OK. Plants were growing alright, showing few deficiencies that I thought were related to the high soil pH; some fruits were rotting from the bottom and a few leaves were turning yellow.

Overall view of Farm  

Around August I couldn’t lie to myself anymore and had to acknowledge that also the mosaic virus was present and proliferating throughout the farm.

Mosaic virus on cucurbits Aug 2018

At first I thought I brought over infected seeds as all our seeds were organic and heirloom imported from Australia but I then noticed it was everywhere, also in the jungle kilometres away from the farm. (Mosaic virus first arrived in 2014 with an infected batch of soybeans sent by Monsanto to a few Indonesian islands like Sumbawa, Flores and Sulawesi. I don’t want to argue about the reason why but I can tell you they now only grow GMO and Hybrid vegetables).  This virus affects the crop, altering the shape of leaves and significantly lowering the fruit production. With the mosaic virus that is nothing one can do, it goes in the RNA of plants, last for 50 years, and it is spread by drops of water, chewing insects, manure (if the livestock eats an infected plant the manure will be infected) and if you harvest seeds from an infected plant you will grow an infected plant. The only thing that would stop it is fire so, burning the whole place down is the scientific solution; I’d spent days researching and really the only thing to do was to burn all the crops; from a scientific approach at least.

I was desperate, already been through many kinds of pests and diseases imaginable but it was manageable and now I was faced with having to burn the place down. I didn’t know what to do. While sharing this with the founder of the project he mentioned, again, to me the Agnihotra practice, or Homa Organic farming method. I had previously heard about it but I guess I was still skeptical and for sure was not ready to believe that by burning some cow poo and singing a silly song you can actually do anything. Well desperate times call for desperate measures.

Luckily the founder had a pyramid (a bit out of shape) and some ghee and cow dung to start. I searched on the internet and found Homa Therapy Association of Australia website (www.agnihotra.com.au) from where I learned the guidelines and mantras. From the next day I was practicing Agnihotra every sunrise and sunset in the middle of the farm. 

Agnihotra spot, just done on the ground in the middle of the area.
(Editor’s note-For optimum results it is best to utilise the pyramid in its undamaged shape)

During the first week I noticed that the negative thoughts were gone: I wasn’t afraid about the virus anymore, I was sure instead that it would be overcome. A big shift of energy was also happening to the people working in construction just next door. Most of them were disgruntled and there were a few explosive emotions due to episodes of hunger and frustration; a few people left at the end of that week but those who stayed experienced many benefits in their bodies and minds with an overall growth in positivity.

In the following weeks I started spreading Agnihotra ash on the soil and infected plants and put some Agnihotra ash in the bore water daily, performing Agnihotra every day. Surprisingly the virus was confined to the already affected plants, not spreading to any new ones.

After about 5 weeks I was taking the soil pH in another area nearby, for future fruit tree production; the pH was above 8 there also. While walking back through the farm, holding the pH tester in my hand, I thought about sticking it in the soil to get a reading of the farm situation, while being sure that it would be still at 8 (soil pH doesn’t change without any work; indeed I was about to place an order for 1600 kg of elemental sulphur to lower it down by about 1 point in around 8 -12 months). I was almost shocked when it came out at 6.5, perfect for growing vegetables.  Still shocked and excited I started taking samples all around the farm, finding the highest result about 7.2 while still at 8 outside the farm. There is no scientific explanation for it. It just won’t happen that the pH drops by itself without application of any agronomical amendment. (like Elemental Sulphur or lime).

View of the nursery and surroundings taken on the 29th June 2018

View of the nursery and flourishing surroundings taken on 2^nd Nov 2018

In another month the water from the well wasn’t salty anymore and the plants were no longer manifesting  lack of nutrients;  I was also finally finding earth worms in the soil, another sign that the pH was lowering as they don’t exist when is higher than 7.5. By October the place was flourishing, full of bees and birds…and monkeys; even though we had no rain since the beginning.

Okra crop December 2018

I’ve been performing Agnihotra every day since. I learnt how to use the Agnihotra ash in many different ways and I now promote it to everyone willing to learn about it. Farming with Agnihotra and its ash is now part of the foundation of my agricultural method. Currently I am applying it here in Australia, implemented with other methods from a lost wisdom that must come back and walk hand in hand with science, if we want to restore our planet and save not only ourselves, but LIFE on Earth.’

Luca Foglietti