By Ranjana Narayan, IANS
Faridkot (Punjab) : Don’t drive away the ants from your fields or shoo the birds pecking at your crops – they are good for agriculture, say a new breed of farmers in Punjab who are doing away with pesticides and fertilisers in favour of “natural farming” that is fetching them higher economic returns.
Turning the usual ideas of agricultural practices on their head, these farmers in Punjab assiduously lure ants to build nesting grounds on their fields by using powdered sugar, or ‘shakhar’ as they are called locally, as bait and place perches on their fields for birds to sit on.
“That is the way farming used to be many years ago till pesticides and fertilisers spoilt our land over the years. The ants eat up all the aphids and mealy bugs that wreck our crop and no money is spent on expensive and harmful pesticides,” says Charanjit Punni, a farmer in Chaina village of Punjab’s Faridkot district.
“The birds do peck at our harvest, but they also eat up many of the caterpillars and other bugs, so the benefits outweigh any losses.”
After years of despairing over low yield, Punni is today a happy man after the switch to natural farming. From the usual one or two crops that he would plant in his nine-acre farm in one season, Punni has this season planted an unbelievable 21 crops!
“I have planted wheat, chana, methi, tomatoes, spinach, other vegetables, plus four types of apple trees,” an enthusiastic Punni told IANS.
“Under natural farming, we have multiple cropping. Not an inch of land is left empty. We plant cereals, pulses, vegetables – all side by side and they all grow very well,” says Kheti Virasat Mission’s Umendra Dutt, whose NGO based in Faridkot, 225 km from Chandigarh, is trying to spread awareness of the harmful effects of pesticides and fertilisers and promoting natural farming.
Instead of pesticides and chemical fertilisers, Punni uses cow urine and cow dung as manure and pesticide in addition to a decoction prepared from ‘tambaku’ (tobacco), which he swears is the cheapest and best pesticide.
“I don’t spend money on buying pesticides or weedicides, and the economic benefits are enormous,” says Punni.
Elaborating, Punni says using ‘desi’ or indigenous cotton seeds grown under natural farming, he gets around eight quintals cotton yield per acre and spends only Rs.120 per acre on tambaku for pesticide.
In comparison, using Bt cotton, a transgenic plant that produces an insect controlling protein, farmers have to use pesticides worth around Rs.5,000 per acre and the yield is only 4-5 quintals, he said.
But the biggest benefit of natural farming is that the vegetables are “very tasty” and fetch higher prices, said Punni, who switched to this mode of farming over a year ago.
The obvious benefits of natural farming are catching on in several villages in Punjab, with farmers in Bathinda, Faridkot, Mukhtsar, Mansa, Moga, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Amritsar and several districts opting for it, says Dutt.
Around 1,000 farmers in Punjab have already started on natural farming and many others are taking to it, attracted by the low cost and high returns, he said.
“Farmers not only get better yield at cheaper rates, they get much higher prices for their crop as it is free of pesticides,” says Dutt. Wheat grown through natural farming fetches Rs.1,500-1,800 per quintal. “The flavour and taste of wheat and other produce grown through natural farming is unique and people are prepared to pay higher rates.”
Kushal P.S. Yadav, a senior researcher with the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), says produce grown through natural farming is “very good”.
“We are against the use of pesticides and fertilisers which have done a lot of damage in the Malwa region of Punjab. Natural farming is a far, far better way of agriculture. The farmer does not have to purchase expensive pesticides and fertilisers and the crop is also chemical-free,” says Yadav.
Punni is going to grow cotton, along with many vegetables, on his field next year.
“I will not buy hybrid seeds, they fall prey to aphids and mealy bugs very fast. Last year my cotton crop grown on normal desi seeds was not very good because there were not many seeds, but next year I shall buy more seeds. With natural farming, the cotton crop is good,” said Punni.
The KVM, which is primarily focussed in Punjab, is being invited by farmers in neighbouring Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh to tell farmers about their way of farming.
“It is just a beginning, and we hope it catches on among more farmers. They will have reason to smile,” promises Dutt.