The Hindu : Organic farming yields results

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004

Other States

Other States - Rajasthan

Organic farming yields results

By Our Special Correspondent

NAWALGARH (RAJASTHAN), FEB. 28. A campaign for promoting "organic farming'' launched by the M.R. Morarka Rural Research Foundation in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan has started yielding positive results — reduced cultivation costs and improvement in the quality of farm produce.

The techniques promoted by the Foundation since its establishment in 1995 in Jhunjhunu and Sikar districts have benefited the small and marginal farmers who were earlier using chemical fertilisers and complaining of degradation of land and a decline in productivity.

The officer in charge of the Foundation's research centre in Nawalgarh, Om Prakash Dhaka, told a visiting group of mediapersons here that the use of vermi-compost in place of fertilisers had become very popular in the region following a drive to educate the farmers and generate awareness among them.

The research centre produces compost by treating cow-dung with earthworms.

Mr. Dhaka said the production of vermi-compost had been taken up as an experiment to apply agri-biotechnology to the farm fertility management. The first book on the subject in the country published by the Foundation serves as a guide for the beginners in the field.

The "organic farming'' introduced on a large scale through natural resource management has focussed on the enhancement of the ecological basis of production and sustenance system so as to mitigate the impact of recurrent droughts and create sustainable livelihood opportunities in the agricultural sector.

Some of the positive results of the use of vermi-compost were requirement of less water for irrigation, better flavour and size of the produce, faster growth of crops and reduction in damage to crops by insects and termite. Mr. Dhaka said the research centre had organised 277 demonstrations on its techniques in and around Nawalgarh during the past three years.

The Foundation is now concentrating on developing the techniques to enrich vermi-compost through micro-organisms that would enable it to offer location-crop specific packages for application in difficult and degraded lands.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News Update

Stories in this Section

Congress open to alliance with BSP, SP

Congress may tie up with 23 parties

Organic farming yields results

In pre-poll season, Raje rains sops on govt. staff