Indore hosts BRICS agriculture conference:City’s 100-year organic farming legacy continues; students from 54 countries receive training

A conference of agricultural officials from BRICS countries is going to be held in the city from June 9. The special thing is that about 100 years ago, Indore itself showed the world the way to organic farming. The British government had sent Sir Albert Howard, educated at Cambridge, to India to promote chemical farming, but he was astonished to see the understanding of soil and natural techniques of the farmers here. Holkar Maharaj appointed him as the director of the Institute of Plant Industry (IPI) in 1924 and gave him 300 acres of land. It was here that Howard developed the ‘Indore Composting Method’ using agricultural waste, cow dung, cow urine, and ash, which laid the foundation for organic farming in the world. Based on this, he wrote the books ‘An Agricultural Testament’ and ‘The Soil and Health’. According to organic agriculture expert Arun Dike, Mahatma Gandhi also visited this centre in 1935. Even today, Indore’s agricultural experiments remain an example at the global level.