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Organic Farming in India

DECCAN HERALD 

                                                                           
                                                                           

Sunday, June 21, 1998 



                                                                   
Green farming recipes

The story of Purushottham Rao is a happy and encouraging one because he
set out to find new answers
to the problems and issues related to farming, says DAKSHA HATHI.

Suicides by farmers all over Karnataka and other parts of India has been
the chilling harvest reaped from the rampant use of
pesticides. Tales of treachery, exploitation and ruthlessness, death and
disease from the pesticides industry, have emerged
steadily over the last decade and yet, many farmers are still relying on
these dangerous chemicals.

The story of Purushottham Rao then, is a happy and encouraging one,
because this adventurous farmer set out to find new
and healthier answers to the problems and issues related to farming. He
reaped many golden harvests and this column will
celebrate his unique achievements in the hope that other farmers too
will learn from him.

Rao is a farmer of Kuruvalli, Thirthahalli, Shimoga district, who
decided to switch over to organic farming in 1989. He has a
farm of 10 acres on which he grows several different crops and his
principle is ''Twelve months - twelve harvests.`` He
therefore has a rich variety of crops during all the months. His story
has been related by Dr T N Prakash and B A Anil
Kaushik in Honeybee a newsletter or journal which describes itself as
''A voice of creative farmers, artisans, pastoralists and
other grassroot innovators.``

When Rao suffered heavy losses in 1988, due to strong winds which
ravaged his arecanut plantation, he suspected that the
stems of his areca plants had been weakened due to heavy doses of
chemical fertilisers. He decided to find other, safer ways
of farming. Through Pradeep Tapas, an organic farmer, he began to learn
the new way. He experimented himself and tried
out new methods. He was soon rewarded - costs came down and yields
increased! His coconut yield surpassed that of his
companion farmers by about 80 per cent! In the case of paddy, his costs
were about 80 per cent lower than that of other
farmers!

Here are some of his recipes and methods which are truly organic gold!

Krishi Nivas Kuruvalli compost: Clean and level a piece of land
measuring three square feet. Place the following
materials in layers upto a height of three feet: dried and green leaves
and farm wastes; slurry from a bio-gas unit; poultry
manure; forest soil and press mud. Cover this heap with dried leaves and
let it stand in the sun for a month. Then dilute 100
litres of cow urine in 1,500 litres of water and spray this on the heap.
Mix it up well and cover it with dry farm waste and let
it stand for another 45 days. Now dilute ten litres of sour buttermilk,
one litre of honey and 10 litres of butter water with 500
litres of water and sprinkle over the heap. This enriches the bacterial
activity and quickens decomposition. Add amniotic fluid
of the cow to increase hormonal activity of the compost. Now leave the
heap alone for three months. When the compost is
ready, one to two baskets (about 10 to 20 kg) are applied per tree.

Manure to heal depleted soils: If you want to restore soil that has been
weakened and damaged by too many chemical
fertilisers, follow Purushottham Rao`s recipe: Add 50 kg of cow dung
fortified with one kg honey and one kg ghee to about
one acre of land, for two to three years.

Growth stimulant from earthworm castings: Make or get a concrete tank
(six feet into two feet into 2.5 feet) and fill
it with farm waste, farmyard manure, cow dung, vegetables and household
waste. Put broken tiles along the inner sides of
the tank. Dig a channel of water around it to prevent ants, worms and
rats from entering. Cover it with aluminium mesh to
keep rats out. Add about a 100 earthworms of local varieties to the
tank. When enough worm castings are formed, sprinkle a
bucket of water on the surface daily. The water seeps through the
castings and organic waste collects at the bottom from
where it is tapped through an outlet. The water collected in this way
(about half a bucket) is used as a liquid manure and
growth stimulant. Rao says that brinjal plants sprayed with this
fertilizer grew to a height of about 1.2 m within 20 days!
They also got a good foliage and pests did not attack them.

An all-round herbal pesticide: Collect the leaves of Lasiosiphon
eriocephalus (mukkadaka) or Strychnos nuxvomica
(kasaraka) or neem or Agave americana in a bucket and pour ten litres of
boiled water on them. Allow to ferment for a day.
Keep the fermented solution in the sunlight and remove the leafy
residue. Dilute the solution with water in the ratio of 1:10
and use as a pesticidal spray.

Herbal growth stimulant: Chop and crush the leaves of Eupatorium or
stinging nettle (Tragia hipede) or gliricidia, and
put them in a drum with enough water. Allow to stand for 15 days. Filter
the mixture and use the filtrate as a growth
stimulant. Companion planting to repel fungal disease: Purushottham Rao
grows amorphophallus plants between rows of
arecanut trees because he believes that they have anti-fungal qualities.
Last year when fungal diseases affected many farms
having areca plants, his crop was protected.

General purpose insecticide: Crush the nuts of the casaraka tree and add
to coconut milk. The combination becomes
lethal and appropriate concentrations can be sprayed on different insect
pests.

Recipe to treat paddy leaf curl: Steep one kilo of agava leaves in 10
litres of boiling water in a copper container and
allow to stand for 24 hours. Spray the extract on the crop.

Recipe to tackle Rhinoceros beetle in coconut plantation: Arrange two to
three tubelights in various spots in the
plantation so that the beetles are drawn to the light instead of to the
coconut trees during the night! However, in the long run
this could be harmful since many predators are also attracted to the
light!

Neem oil is mixed with honey in equal proportions and sprayed on the
apical part of the tree.

This farmer has also grown organic vanilla on his farm very successfully
by interplanting it with coconut and arecanut. His
vanilla crop is ready for harvest every ten months!

If you would like to know about other such farmers and innovators,
subscribe to Honeybee, by writing to Dr T N. Prakash,
Dept. of Agri. Economics, UAS, Hebbal, Bangalore 560 024.


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