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Other Breaking News Land Free Agriculture: Passion Of A Microbiology Professor Hisar 27 October, 2006 (Nature News Network)

Internationally renowned Salmonella specialist and an ex-professor of Microbiology at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Dr Y K Kaura has developed a novel natural farming based technique called 'Land Free Agriculture' of growing a variety of crop plants, vegetables, medicinal & ornamental herbs, aromatic plants, and even small trees on cemented floor covered by 3 to 6 inches of soil without the need of any land at all.

Photograph: Dr Y K Kaura, the inventor of Land Free Agriculture proudly shows his all natural vegetables (Gourds also called 'Tori' locally) at his home.

Internationally recognised authority on Salmonella Research, Professor & National Fellow (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) Dr Kaura has devised a new method of growing diverse crop plants, vegetable crops, ornamental plants, medicinal and aromatic herbs and even small trees without any land.
Speaking to Nature News Network, Dr Kaura says that he has been practicing home gardening at his home for the last over 10 years after retirement from his active research and teaching job, calls his new practice as 'Land Free Agriculture' which he carried out using only 452 kg of soil spread over a cemented floor of about 34.8 square feet surface area.
In fact, he used only 3 to 6 inches thick layer of soil spread on 'pucca' floor. The quantity of soil works out to be only 6 to 13 kilograms per square foot of floor area.
Recognised worldwide for discovery of new species of a dreaded bacterium Salmonella hisar, and three other unique Salmonella species, a rare feat for an Indian scientist, Dr Kaura has been practicing home gardening just to kill the boredom after retirement from his active university professorship when he hit upon this revolutionary novel 'land free agriculture' technique.
The idea of 'Land Free Agriculture' came to his mind when after shifting from his residence at university he found that the land area required for home gardening at his newly purchased home was not enough and was not even exposed to direct sun. The idea of kitchen gardening on pucca floor came from his wife, Mrs. Santosh, a housewife, who occasionally helps him in his gardening adventures.
In the first few years of this new practice, a Night Jasmine (Parijat) tree grew to a height of over 5 feet on about 3 to 4 inches layer of soil which provoked Dr Kaura to go on with this unique land-free agriculture adventure. Thereafter, he has been able to grow a variety of plants successfully by this method.
This technique has been tested by him on a variety of plant species for the last over five years. By this unique farming technique he has grown a variety of medicinal plants like Aloe vera (Ghrit Kumari), Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi), Tinospora (Giloe or Amrita- the perfect antidote for falling blood platelet counts in Dengue patients), Har Singar (Night Jasmine or Parijat), Vinca rosea (Sada Bahar), Turmeric (haldi), Ginger (adrak), Brinjal, etc. Scores of seasonal vegetables like mint (pudina), coriander (dhania), onion, garlic (lahasun), spinach (palak), chilli (mirch), ladies finger (bhindi), tori (luffa), bitter gourd (karela), mustard (sarson) and fenugreek (methi) easily grow in bounty by this method. Numerous flowering and ornamental plants like chrysanthemum, rose, and various varieties of cactus and flowering plants have been grown successfully under this system of farming.
Encouraged by the production of delicious vegetables and good growth of useful medicinal plants, now Dr Kaura plans to systematically demonstrate growing of all the major crops like sugarcane, wheat, chickpea, potato, etc.; all seasonal vegetables and other medicinal plants under this agricultural production technology.

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