The Hindu : Karnataka News : It is victory again for organic farming

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 23, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

It is victory again for organic farming

T.V. Sivanandan

Students of Vasavadatta Vidya Vihar in Gulbarga district show the way

WINNERS: Sulochana Reddy (left), teacher-guide, Priyanka Reddy, Raghav Reddy, Anjali Tapadiya, Nihal Shah, Soumya Ainapur and school principal Neeta Purohit.

GULBARGA: A group of students of Vasavadatta Vidya Vihar, run by the Vasavadatta Cement Factory in Sedam taluk in Gulbarga district, has done the district proud by emerging second in a State-level contest and getting selected for the Indian Science Congress scheduled in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in the first week of January.

School principal Neeta Purohit and guide-teacher Sulochana Reddy told The Hindu here on Thursday that the team, consisting of its leader Anjali Tapadiya, Priyanka Reddy, Soumya, Raghav Reddy and Nihal Shah, had come out successfully in the gruelling competition with its project, “Jiyo Aur Jeene Do” (Live and Let Live). As many as 310 science projects featured in the competition.

Ms. Tapadiya said that the innovative project was the brainchild of Ms. Neeta Purohit who encouraged the students to pursue experiments on the benefits of organic farming in comparison to chemical fertilizer-based farming.

According to Ms. Tapadiya, the team after experimenting with organic farming in a small way in the farms nearby the factory, decided to take up the experiment in a larger plot and chose Betegera village in Sedam taluk for a comparative study of the merits and demerits of organic and chemical fertilizer-based farming.

The students, who camped in the village during their holidays and spare time, took up the cultivation of black gram using organic fertilizer. They used chemical fertilizer for the same crop in an adjacent plot.

The results were amazing, according to the students who found that the height of the plant in the plot where organic fertilizer was used was 5 cm more than the crop in the plot where chemical fertilizer was used. The nodules of the plant treated with organic fertilizer was also higher.

Ms. Tapadiya said that the observations recorded showed that the crop in the plot where organic fertilizer was used was healthier.

The number of flowers and pods was also comparatively more. Another important finding was that organisms such as arthropods, annelids and molluscs useful for maintaining nutrients in soil and keeping it fertile, thrived in the plot where organic fertilizer was used. While only two arthropods were found in the first layer of the plot where chemical fertilizer was used, nine were found in the plot where organic manure was used, she added.

Similarly, eight arthropods, annelids and molluscs were found in the second layer of the plot where organic manure was used, while only four arthropods were found in plot where chemical fertilizer was used.

There were no organisms in the third layer of the plot where chemical fertilizer was used, while there were six annelids in the plot where organic fertilizer was used. Biomass of annelids, arthropods and molluscs was heavier in the plot where organic fertilizer was used.

Ms. Tapadiya said that nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and pH were comparatively higher in the plot where organic fertilizer was used.

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