This document discusses the use of cow dung, or "bullshit", as organic fertilizer by farmers in Arunachal Pradesh, India. It describes visits by the author to farms in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam that practice organic farming without chemical fertilizers. The farmers collect and use large volumes of cow dung, which they sometimes purchase from the market. One "progressive farmer" owns 100 cows primarily to produce cow dung for use on his 1,000 orange trees. The document emphasizes that cow dung is a valuable resource for organic farmers in the region as a replacement for chemical fertilizers that are difficult to access.

1. What has
Bullshit
got to do with northeast?
PLENTY!!!

2. Horticultural Field Assistant
Kulkamal Pandey
(the man in the foreground with half sleeve
sweater ) and his immediate boss
Horticultural Development Officer
Safior Rahman stepped out of
their heated home braving October 2012
chillness for a ride across the mighty Siang.
Mighty Siang? Don’t know? No worries. It’s
the name by which the perennial
Brahmaputra is known in Arunchal Pradesh,
possibility the largest Indian state in the
northeast.
Just not Siang. It’s called “mighty Siang” – like
the way the Assamese call ‘mighty
Brahmaputra”. Not just Brahmaputra.
It was 7.30 in the moring. Gurgling and icy
river beneath the barge carrying us –
including me to the other side.

3. It was my third day in Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh - six hour drive on the rickety Border Road
Organisation built road that had been washed away by floods couple of months ago followed
by a boat ride on Mighty Siang along with the Tata Sumo that had ferried me from Tinsukia in
Assam. What was I doing? Good question. I was trying to understand the vegetable & fruit
growers’ challenges in marketing their produce. Yes, it’s all about post-harvest management. I
was travelling on behalf of National Centre for Cold-Chain Development (NCCD) as a member
of its Committee on Supply Chain & Logistics.

4. .
Over the first two days, HDO Rahman and his team of officials briefed me about the
horticultural scenario in Arunachal. Then it was time for field visits. Chokhkam, on the other
side of mighty Siang, was one of the chosen spots.

5. At Chowkham government nursery, Pandey led me to a 5 x 12 feet shed in the nursery and
began to dig with a stick seriously.
Suddenly, he hollered: “Look …look.”
Finding that I did not respond positively to his alert, Pandey nudged me to another corner and

6. Then I saw what he wanted to display.
Multitude of earthworms actively engaged in eating
the muck - waste collected within the nursery and
gathered together mixed with cow dung (bullshit.)
Rahman joined to proclaim, “Our farmers practice
organic farming by default. They have no access to
fertilizer. This is not a recent phenomenon, but age
old practice.”
Suddenly I recollect an incident at Profulla Moran’s
vegetable farm at Tamuli Bangaon in Tinsukia district,
Assam a week ago. He also kept pointing to a 3 x 3
feet pit near the farmgate near his residence.
I wondered what was so special about it until Dr
Rubul Gohain, working with DAO, Tinsukia explained
that Moran had achieved twin purposes with this 3X3
ft pit. It was where cow dung was shoved into the
biogas plant set up underground and the gas piped to
his kitchen and the waste used as fertilizer. This again
was an organic farm. No chemical additives.
S

7. From where did the cow dung come from – in such
large volume? “We procure from market,” pat came
the response. Buy? Yes, because nothing is free. A
truckload of bull shit/cow dung was bought a price of
Rs.300. At times, salt is bartered.
Cow ung, a prerequisite for compost making, and it
was working out cheaper to ‘outsource’ than rearing
government’s own cattle perhaps.
What could be the volume of bullshit orange growers
@ Wakro – the best place in Arunachal Pradesh for
oranges – be running around in the marketplace for ,
yes, bullshit!
Horticultural Development Officer Ramshankar Singh
@ Wakro could not hide his glee. Since lassi
(sweetened/salted curd) or drinking coffee/tea with
milk is a no-no, what do cow/bull owners with
copious milk?
Who wants milk? We want bullshit! says this
“progressive farmer” owning 100 cows and 1,000 plus
orange trees @ Wakro.

8. Where did the cowdung/bullshit
come from? “We buy from market,”
pat comes the reply. A bag of salt per
tractor load of bullshit from
cowsheds was the exchange value!
Can’t it be procured free of cost?
“Nothing is free in this world,” am
told curtly.
There is always a demand from
orange growers in northeast for this
‘special item’.
“A tractor load of bullshit cost
Rs.300,” confesses a farm hand.
Anything for bullshit because organic
items fetch higher market price.
Next time, when trying to utter
“BULLSHIT” contemptuously, think
twice.
Goodbye!