Guest Lecture

Organic Farming, the cow based Economy and the

Environment- An Overview
On August 20th, 2009 Mr. G.S MURTHY (Retired Professor of Chemistry) from Andhra
Univertsity visited Rai Business School, Delhi and delivered a talk on Organic Farming,
the cow based economy and the environment. He explained the importance of organic
farming which is cow based to the students. He said that it looks odd but it is the reality
that without cow there is no organic farming. He further added that economy is the main
challenge in front of us. And, its our opportunity to create our design and choice. Then,
he gave the example of 2 babies which is very educative. This example helps the students
to better understand organic farming. He also told the students about evolution of organic
farming. He said Albert Howard(1873-1947), a botanist by profession is the pioneer in
the field of organic farming. Then he talked about other renowned personalities who
make organic farming a popular thing among people. He also told students about 5
principles of farming. He also gave a practical example of war to make students think
how important is environment, soil, climate and nature to us. He talked about post war
scenario which results in bio diversity erosion and loss of soil fertility which further
resulted in climatic changes like global warming and green house effect. He further
talked about the various advantages of organic farming. He said answer to bio diversity
erosion, loss of soil fertility, contaminated foods is only and only organic farming. He
said organic farming provides “living soil” theory. Living soil is rich in nutrients NPK,
has sufficient minerals for plant nutrition, rich in micro organism that support plant
growth. He also told us about how use of fertilizers is contaminating the ground water
level. He took the latest example of NASA satellite which said ground water is depleting
by 1 foot per year in north India.

He said that cows are forever. He also told us that cow dung from 75 mn cows can meet
the keroscene and LPG requirement for 100 crore population. We can also meet all the
fertilizer requirement for 150 mn hectares of crop land of India. He also introduced the
concept of methane farming which is a concept of alternate energy. He told students that
methane produced can entirely replace LPG, keroscene for cooking and petrol for
transportation.

At last, he concluded that organic farming is the answer to all our problems related to
environment. He also suggested students to take it seriously and make it as your career
option. There is no harm in it. It provides monetary benefits and further we are
performing our duty of saving our beautiful environment.

The lecture was very informative and the students enjoyed the lecture very much and
looking forward to attend more such lectures in future.