Karnataka - Bidar   

Farming without harming the land

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

CUTTING COSTS: Pentareddy Patil of Hokrana (B) standing near his vermiculture pit.

BIDAR: While most farmers across the State are faced with a severe scarcity of urea and other inorganic fertilizers, organic farmers remain insulated from the crisis.

The Natural Farmers' Association of Bidar strongly advocates the use of organic fertilizers, such as vermicompost, use of green manure, such as sun hemp, and additives, such as neem and pongamia seeds.

Organic farming is the only way that farmers can survive the onslaught of globalisation, which has driven up the prices of inorganic fertilizers, says association president Ishwarappa Chakote.

He has not used inorganic fertilizers, insecticides or pesticides for seven years. This has helped him reduce the cost of cultivation by half as well as labour costs.

Mr. Chakote sells organically produced jaggery across the country. His Bengal gram is very popular in cities such as Hyderabad where the demand for organic products is going up.

Association secretary Shankarappa Patil feels the high prices of farm inputs will create more problems. If a farmer buys urea at Rs. 200 a quintal, his cost of cultivation will go up drastically. Then he will have to sell his produce at a high price, which the market may not pay. Mr. Patil gradually reduced the use of urea over a decade and completely replaced it with vermicompost, neem cake and a slurry of pongamia and cow-dung.

Many farmers in Bidar and other districts have had a similar experience.

"It has been eight years since I used urea and other inorganic fertilizers. I use vermicompost and other organic fertilizers," says progressive farmer Pentareddy Patil of Hokrana (B). This has saved him an average of Rs. 2 lakhs a year on fertilizers alone.

The other benefits are that soil quality has been improving every year the quality of produce has gone up.

He has been growing sugarcane, toor, green gram, black gram, soyabean, mulberry and even teak using vermicompost on his 70-acre farm.

Mr. Patil says organic farming makes crops immune to diseases. "I have not used insecticides or pesticides in the past eight years," he says.

Gurunath Odugowdar, member of the Empowered Committee on Organic Farming and the Board of Regents of the University of Agriculture Sciences Dharwad, feels organic farming can solve many problems, including changes in the prices of farm inputs. Saving seeds also helps. "We then need not depend on seed production companies before sowing every year," he says.

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