Jeewa Murtha is a cultivar of useful microorganisms which increase the decomposition of organic matter to provide necessary nutrients to plants for healthy and vigorous growth. Thejani has learned about this organic fertilizer at the Sewalanka organization, for which she works in Sri Lanka. Originally, the technique comes from India, where farmers used Jeewa Murtha 2000 years ago already.

On the 15^th of July 2014, a workshop about the preparation of “Jeewa Murtha” organic fertilizer was conducted by Thejani (FK intern at FFS HEPA) in Nam Kha village (Nam Bac district, Luang Prabang province, Lao PDR). 

Conducting this workshop was one of the objectives of Thejanis’ study visit to Laos during her one year FK internship period at HEPA. She already shared about the preparation of Jeewa Murtha one time in March 2014 for the students and staff of FFS HEPA, who applied this new technique successfully. You can see the link bellow it was training to FFS HEPA students:
The workshop was organized at Bun Lieng’s house in Nam Kha village. Bun Lieng and Bun Huong (two young farmers and alumni from FFS HEPA) informed and invited other farmers and about 15 farmers participated in the workshop. The workshop was conducted in English and Anong (HEPA alumnus and Thejani’s supporter in Laos) translated in to Lao language. 

Jeewa Murtha is a cultivar of useful microorganisms which increase the decomposition of organic matter to provide necessary nutrients to plants for healthy and vigorous growth. Thejani has learned about this organic fertilizer at the Sewalanka organization, for which she works in Sri Lanka. Originally, the technique comes from India, where farmers used Jeewa Murtha 2000 years ago already.

Jeewa Murtha is prepared by using naturally available raw materials: cow dung, top soil from the forest, sugar or waste fruits and air-dried Gliricidia leaves (or another kind of leaves with a high Nitrogen percentage). Please see the PowerPoint presentation attached to this article for more information on the preparation and application.

The basic ideas and knowledge about preparation and application about Jeewa Murtha were shared through a presentation and practiced by preparing one bucket of the liquid fertilizer.

After the preparation, there was still some time for open discussion. Farmers shared their experience, challenges and asked questions, and Thejani shared more of her knowledge on organic fertilizers and pesticides. All farmers gave positive feedback and found the workshop useful and successful. They said they will apply the Jeewa Murtha when it is ready to use and if it is beneficial for their crops, they will prepare more.
 
 Written by: Thejani
 A few pictures attached