Govar Gaana

The voic­es of our ancients echo through space and time

Only to an alert mind do they res­onate and chime

Hold­ing solu­tions to prob­lems small and mighty

Care­ful­ly encased in lay­ers of sim­plic­i­ty

You, Govar they said are a boon

We now under­stand, after study­ing your micro­bio­me

Bet it Agri­cul­ture, Con­struc­tion, Health or Ener­gy

Above milk, you are cen­tral to sus­tain­abil­i­ty

Healthy soils to healthy plants — you hold the key

Ensur­ing long-term food and nutri­tion secu­ri­ty

For the sim­ple farmer, you are avail­able local­ly and cheap

Sav­ing him from all the debts that oth­er­wise run so deep

Fer­til­iz­ers, Pes­ti­cides and all kinds of for­mu­la­tions

With you can be pre­pared for all agri­cul­tur­al appli­ca­tions

Fer­ment­ed, burnt or pow­dered in vary­ing con­cen­tra­tions

A mul­ti­tude of recipes are found across civ­i­liza­tions

For even if our soils were to degrade to dust

You hold the pow­er to raise it back to life from that rust

We cre­ate liv­ing spaces with breath­ing walls

By rolling you into mud mixed balls

The rus­tic and sim­ple hous­es of cob

Rammed earth, Adobe, wat­tle and daub

Knead­ed with mud, lime and grass

You keep us warm and cool with your ther­mal mass

Ancients cre­at­ed struc­tures for grain stor­ing

And you safe­guard­ed them from pests attack­ing

They smeared you on the ground for floor­ing

Your fibers bound and pre­vent­ed crack­ing

Coal, oil and many a kind of fos­sil fuel

Which on Moth­er Earth is so cru­el

For long enough have we relied

It is now time to make a bold stride

Let’s reroute from plun­der­ing into Earth­’s crust

By har­ness­ing, your latent pow­er to com­bust

Fuelled by all the anaer­obes

And nour­ish­ing all the microbes

To pro­duce ener­gy that is renew­able and green

Its time to invest in your pow­er that is so clean

To fuel cars, bikes and auto­mo­biles — why not go local?

And focus on mak­ing govar-based ener­gy afford­able?

Bio­gas to replace fum­ing fire­wood

Or desi prod­ucts for enhanc­ing rur­al liveli­hoods

It is time to make sus­tain­abil­i­ty a real­i­ty

By enabling rur­al self-reliance and pros­per­i­ty