Both Dr. N. K. Malpani and Dr. (Mrs.) C. N. Malpani came for small town India. They went on to become successful doctors in Mumbai, but never forgot their roots.

They realized that if they wanted to do something for most Indians, they would need to address the needs people in villages. And for most of these people, there was only one thing they knew how to do - farming.

Both Drs. Malpani were also early conservationists and environmentalists. They attributed at least part of this to their "Marwari" genes, where wasting anything was considered sinful....

When asked why, as doctors, they didn't do something like a medical center, Dr. Mrs. Malpani said, "Things in this world are mainly driven by money. If a farmer has good health, he still won't necessarily have access to a good livelihood. On the other hand, if he has money, he will be able to buy access to good health. Our first priority needs to be to help income generation in rural areas".

About Natueco Science.

Natueco Science is all about harvesting the sunlight using farming as a medium to do that. The focus is on energy conservation and energy generation rather than on mere farm output by weight. It emphasizes optimal and efficient use of soil, water and labor. It questions many of the traditional methods used in agriculture and yet is scientific and experimental in its approach.
Natueco Farming emphasizes `Neighborhood Resource Enrichment' by `Additive Regeneration' rather than through dependence on external, commercial inputs. The four relevant aspects of Natueco Farming are as below:

SOIL-Focus on enrichment of soil by recycling the biomass and by establishing a proper energy chain.

ROOTS-Focus on development and maintenance of white root zones of the plant for efficient absorption of nutrients.

CANOPY-Focus on harvesting the sun through proper plant canopy management for efficient photosynthesis.

EXTERNAL RESOURCES-Focus on minimizing the use of external resources including water.

Why would anyone get interested in Natueco?

Natueco is about playfully creating an occupation where learning, living, livelihood and laughter is generated from the same work at the same place. There is just one objective or goal here and that is to live with joy, ease and grace. It is not about working or producing an output. It is also not about producing more for selling to others. In fact it is not at all about producing. It is about living a rich life.

The fundamental belief system in Natueco concept is that it is a science of life and life is all about Energy.

Those who want to learn the art of living, the art of being free and at the same time want to earn their livelihoods with dignity and non violence can only appreciate and make the best of this science. However those who are in the business of farming and are only looking for productivity or profit improvement in their existing farms may get disappointed if they are not ready to change some of their fundamental belief systems about life itself.

What is the Philosophy behind Natueco Farming?

Natueco is for those who firmly believe in living a life of abundance, fearlessness, love and above all non aggressiveness. Having said that, Natueco is paradoxically also about maximizing output with minimum input in energy terms. Its goal is to maximize carbon or biomass and not necessarily maximize economic gain in the narrow sense.

In an age where farming is considered as a source of income, Natueco brings home the point that such activity needs to be holistic and stem from a larger vision. Mere learning and practicing a few skills can never be a substitute for this larger understanding and vision for life. In this context, Natueco farming and its practice requires one to draw connections of their life with this culture and live in sync with the other elements in their immediate environment. The loving nurturance provided to the plants in a natural environment creates positive energy and healthy environment. For instance, healthy soil with balanced composition of elements and microbes improves not only the health of the plant but also transcends into the life of people interacting with this environment. Thus, it is not just a science but also a culture, such that it can be understood in any local context without any barriers of language, conventional education, region, and the like.

What is Primary Productivity and why should we care to improve it?

This is a hypothesis that Natueco Farming has a strong correlation with how we use energy and water as a resource rather than how we do farming. We believe that the present day conventional farming may be productive and high yielding in the short run but in terms of water and energy use, it is highly inefficient and it is this inefficiency that is the root cause of all problems associated with farming in the long run.

Primary Productivity
We define productivity of a farm (called ‘Visible Productivity’) as drymass/ per hectare which is a combined effect of ‘Primary Productivity’ and ‘Secondary Productivity’.’ Primary Productivity’ by definition is the productive efficiency of land without any external input while ‘Secondary Productivity’ is defined as the incremental productivity achieved over and above the primary because of external inputs like water(brought in from outside), fertilizers, pesticides, transportation etc. Secondary therefore is a multiplier of the primary.
How do we measure Primary Productivity?
‘Primary Productivity’ is measured in terms of output efficiency (dry mass/ per hectare/KL of water consumed) while ‘Visible Productivity’ is measured in terms of gross output.(dry mass/per hectare). Hence it is very much possible that while ‘Visible Productivity’ seems to be going up, the underlying ‘Primary Productivity’ is going down sharply.
What is wrong in the existing system?

So far all our efforts have been to increase the ‘Visible Productivity’ by enhancing the ‘Secondary Productivity’ which in itself is perfectly sensible thing to do. We have so far got phenomenal results indeed. In fact the so called ‘Green Revolution’ has been all about increasing our ‘Visible Productivity’ through enhancing ‘Secondary Productivity’. Example of Punjab is the most glaring case of what we are talking. The enhanced ‘Secondary Productivity’ has given us a false sense of pride that ‘Visible Productivity’ is up. However, the reality was that the ‘Primary Productivity’ had been steadily going down all these years and we were unaware because our focus was just measuring the ‘Visible Productivity’.

In the beginning the total ‘Visible Productivity’ can be easily increased by external inputs and all seems to be going good. However, over time an effort to increase ‘Secondary Productivity’ impairs our farm’s ‘Primary Productivity’ and we start seeing a decline in the ‘Visible Productivity’ even though external inputs are the same.

Our Hypothesis
Natueco methodology is a way to enhance the ‘Primary Productivity’ of a given land. In other words, it is a way to increase the dry mass output per hectare per kilolitre of water consumed.
We believe this is a very subtle but an extremely important point because the Sun’s energy can only be harvested optimally if the dry mass output is maximized while minimizing the water consumption.
We believe that sustainable farming is all about the ‘Primary Productivity’ never ever being allowed to decline.
We also believe that if land is harvested at its most optimal levels of ‘Primary Productivity’, it WILL give maximum yield per hectare FOR EVER at the least input cost! So even financially and business wise it makes sense to protect the ‘Primary Productivity’. This has not been happening because to increase “Primary Productivity’, the multinationals don’t sell anything and therefore there is very little money made by the traders, politicians and businessmen!
To increase ‘Primary Productivity’ we just need an aware and alert farmer-called Natueco Farmer.

What do plants need to grow properly?

Plants need 104 elements, out of which 4(carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen) they get from the atmosphere. The rest of the 100 elements they take from the soil.  

98% dry weight of the plant structure is composed of 4 (carbon 44%, oxygen 44%, nitrogen 2 to 4 % and hydrogen 6%) essential elements from the atmosphere.  

The rest 2% is composed of the l00 elements, which come from the soil.  

How do we provide for these 100 elements in the soil?

The following, together provide all the 100 elements which the plants need, from the soil:

• Tender leaves

• Mature green leaves

• Flowering stage plant’s leaves, branches, stem, flower and their roots

• Dried Leaves along with the decomposable parts of the plant

• Ash of the thick parts

So then, why do plants need water (if none of the essential elements that plants need are coming from it)?

Water is needed to act as a media for exchange of ions between the soil and the roots. In this ion exchange, the elements from the soil are taken by the roots and H is given back by the plant, through the root.