BENGALURU: Indian-origin American Manju Kumar’s love for farming can be clearly seen on her social media platforms, with most of her posts somehow related to her passion. She was in the city for a discussion on farming and her zero-waste lifestyle at Go Native, HSR.
She loves trees, so much so that she didn’t hesitate to lash out at municipality workers for insensitively handling the living beings. She says a tree needs everything from love and companionship to a healthy environment, just like a human needs to survive. “It is a miracle to see a tree survive on the roads of India. The roads are cemented till the roots of the tree, without leaving any breathing space. It hurts to see a badly pruned tree. Municipality workers cut them without knowing the proper techniques to do it. They don’t even have proper tools used to prune the trees,” says 60-year-old Kumar.
Coming from the suburbs of Los Angeles, Kumar calls herself the ‘black sheep’ of the family. When people were moving ahead with modernisation and urbanisation, she followed a path where she can do things in the traditional way. That is what led her to grow her own food. But how does zero-waste farming work, is it even possible? Yes it is, according to Kumar. “I do a lot of mulching in my garden. Mostly, it is using any material like dry leaves, wood dust etc to spread it over the surface of the soil as a covering to retain moisture in the soil,” says Manju, who has around 87 trees in her garden. She mostly uses greywater (bathroom water) and black water (kitchen water) for irrigation. She also practises rainwater harvesting.
With no formal training, Kumar has been farming for the past 45 years. Now she maintains her garden with 87 fruit trees and a farm where she grows vegetables. Her aim in a year is to plant at least 10 trees, and to preach the same, she uses social media as her tool. “I love the way social media works. It has helped me connect with so many like-minded people. People easily reach out to me for queries. Together, it’s easier to make an impact than being a single warrior,” she says.
Easy steps to take
Start with herb gardens.
Easily grown plants like potatoes,tomatoes, chilli, etc.
Change your detergents to plant-based one so that you can reuse the water.
Your kitchen waste are the best kind of carbon.
Get a compost pit to compost it at home.