Beautiful cows with sad eyes languish in dark, damp dairies giving birth again and again until they are exhausted and then are towed away to be eaten. They cannot nurture their calves or feed them. They watch their babies starve to death and have their male calves snatched from them for slaughter. The tiny calves who could become the sturdy beautiful bulls we all are fighting for today are thrown into trucks with their legs broken for an early grave. All so that our human babies could be nourished with the milk and we may make more sweets, shakes and ice creams than we will ever need; much of which is thrown and wasted. What a tragedy. When cow slaughter was banned, the buffaloes who are also beautiful indigenous cattle now take the brunt.
Those cattle that are not in factories are in Gaushalas that run unsustainably on crores of rupees that come by way of donations. These funds are often misused while hundreds of cows and bulls wait without proper food, water, sanitation and medical facilities. Above all they have no freedom. Many Gaushalas are nothing but dairies where animals stand in their own refuse amidst a cloud of flies and mosquitoes. The precious dung in the meantime lies in tall large heaps with no takers. No one visits them, volunteers or helps contribute to their welfare.
The solution to protect indigenous cattle; especially the bull and its cultural identity, is intrinsically linked to agriculture. We need to revisit our traditional agrarian systems, value dung over milk and bring our cattle back into our farms. We need to mechanise agriculture in small holdings and encourage farmers to adopt practices that have a low carbon footprint. Mechanisation makes the life of a farmer easy but it has also made farming communities lazy. Less work has meant a life of idleness and consequent rise of crime and gang wars in rural areas. We have contaminated soil, water and air and the very food we eat by making cattle irrelevant to a farm.
Dung Ho!
This is why we Celebrate the role of dung in producing clean food and adding sustainability to a farm with a zero carbon footprint. The yields are amazing and our whole farm is off the grid thanks to our cattle. We save indigenous seeds, use cow dung to make biogas, solar to make electricity and use indigenous earthworms and bees for greater fertility and pollination.
DUNG HO! Is Beejoms most passionate project.
We generate 1000 kgs of dung at the farm on an average. Not even a bit goes wasted. One of our biggest ways of utilising this surplus dung is to make these lovely dung pots in three sizes. Now we are tying up with local nurseries in the hope that they stop using plastic covers and start using these beautiful pots for their seedlings. When the seedling outgrows this pot, one can transplant a seedling into the ground along with the pot which is nothing but good rotted cow dung manure. A beautiful sustainability project that is great for the environment and an additional income source for the farmer.
We also have a cow dung log machine and make dung logs that can replicate wood. These logs are a fantastic reason to not cut any more trees and be kinder to your environment. It’s a superb best out of waste project. The logs can be used in crematoriums, bonfires or Havans.
With more surplus dung we make Vermicompost, Gobar khad and Ghan Jivamrit (a lovely fertiliser with enriched cow dung). With cow urine we also make various liquid fertilisers and pest repellants like….
Panchagavyam, Jivamrit, Agnihastra, Nimastra, Brahmastra, Gomutra for gardening etc.
We also make Gobar Ash.
These products are made from some of the most outstanding cow, goat and chicken dung and cow urine generated on our farm and are sold in these beautiful eco-friendly packaging to all farmers, urban gardeners and other growers across the city.
To know more about this product and buy them please check out our online shop on the website itself.