prime minister narendra modi is growing on the ground in a farm this modi has sprouted from traditionally harvested seeds and not genetically modified this modi is spreading the message of grow in india and not make in india he is asking the farmers to go back to old methods of farming where all that is grown is sans any chemicals in an apparently firstofitskind project in india two city artists shweta bhattad and lalit vikamshi have made a land art by growing leafy vegetables which have taken the shape of narendra modis face alongside is the message dear prime minister please grow in india grown from the same vegetables red and green amaranth and ladys finger spread over 7200 square feet land in paradsinga village which is 60 kilometres from nagpur the land art is encouraging bt cottongrowing farmers to explore other crops using indigenous seeds rather than going for those from international companies bhattad has been a maverick when it comes to raising important issues for which she has been putting up art performances in india and abroad in december last year bhattad and vikamshi gave an art performance in paris to draw attention of the farmers plight in india and around the globe bhattad dressed as bharat mata was placed in a coffin which was buried in the ground for several hours earlier she had also taken up the cause of the girl child the idea of this land art germinated from their previous i have a dream project focusing on the farmers plight while we found that local farmers are battling against seed and land mafia water shortage electricity and other issues we also realized that they have completely shun traditional agriculture which was more sustainable modernday farmers are a misguided lot living under fear instigated by private agencies says bhattad swayed by their farming techniques our farmers have forgotten knowledge about nonchemical methods a company lures them to buy genetically modified cotton seeds promising that it will show better results then buying specific fertilizers pesticides and insecticides to maintain those seeds becomes imperative this results in high investment but low profit for farmers points out vikamshi the artist duo feels that going back to timetested farming methods can be an answer to prevent farm suicides while growing the land art they took constructive measures to reintroduce centuryold lost approaches cultivating vegetables was a start depending too much on bt cotton most of the farmers in our region are living in poverty as harvesting of cotton takes six months to have a better food security farmers should grow vegetables in vacant areas and make weekly profits the artists say they started with uprooting cotton crops from the farm farmers passing by bhattads farm would initially frown upon their efforts some even predicting that it would turn out to be fruitless you cannot grow vegetables in this heat how can you not use chemical fertilizers and pestcontrols your crops will never survive they would say