Homa Farm: Huerta Ecologica
Mesa de los Santos, Santander
Colombia, South America
tomato
beans
“We have 18 years of organic tradition and we now have 2 years of HOMA experience. Since we began to use the HOMA farming technique, we have noticed an improvement in the quality and production of the fruits.”
Tomatoes:
“We used hybrid tomatoes called “Long Life”, these seeds are imported mainly from Holland and they are very expensive. Now, with HOMA, we can save the seeds from our garden and they are of better quality than that of
“Long Life”. Tomatoes that used to last 5 days after harvest, now, they last 45 days!”
“Also, the production level is permanently increasing. The tomato plant is growing better and the tomatoes are bigger and heavier. It is so incredible! A basket of tomatoes that usually weighed between 28 and 30 kilos, with our Homa tomatoes weighs 35 kilos. It is a tomato that has less water, is more resistant to damage and handling, has better flavor and lasts longer. HOMA changed the physical characteristics of the tomato. They have 25% more weight.”
“The hybrids have a good production, but they produce very few seeds. Non-hybrid varieties can transfe their genetic properties to the next generation but the production and quality is low. What HOMA does is to improve the seeds of both hybrid and non-hybrid varieties. So it increases the production and quality.”
Beans:
“Initially, we sowed a hybrid seed, imported from France, called “Habichuela”. It was a very good quality bean. We collected its seeds and, as always happens with hybrid seeds, it generates a number of other varieties: yellow beans, green beans, tasty beans, bad beens, etc. We selected one that seemed to be good in taste and color. The seeds of our selected variety were planted with HOMA Farming Technology and we were able to establish a new variety. It no longer generates other varieties.”
“It is a variety which is a little bigger and has some characteristics which are different from the original bean, but it is wonderful. It is such an incredible bean that, when the moms come to get products from our farm, they tell us that their children don’t like beans. I tell them to try ours and then they continue buying them, because they say that it is a marvelous bean and that it fascinates their children. Our beans can be eaten raw or for one minute cooked in water.”
“Near to my house, there is a small garden which has a lime tree and which is about ten years old. It gives good fruit. This year again there were a lot of flowers but during flowering the tree was attacked by an insect pest and it lost all its flowers. People gave various advice for chemical treatments. Then I remembered Dr. Basarkar telling about the Agnihotra ash water solution.”
The leaves of most of the coconut palms were being eaten away by the caterpillars and the attack was fast spreading from the palms in the north portion to the southern region.