Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Earthen pot offers a bounty of benefits for Kanyakumari ryots

M.J. PRABU

The timing is very important for spraying this formulation

— Photo: VK-Nardep

Easy practice: Women farmers being trained to manufacture the mud pot nutrient in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu.

The farmers of Kozhikodupothai in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, have a traditional knowledge base regarding bio-pest repellent formations and also plant growth promotion formulations.

One such traditional formulation called Manpannai sedi thailam in Tamil (Mud pot formulation) combines the effects of both fostering nutritional growth as well as being a pest repellent.

Field experiments

Initially the formulation was experimented with in a small area owned by a rose cultivator Ms. S. Thangam, and was found to completely obviate the need for chemical fertilizers. In addition, Panchagavya was also used for her rose plants.

"The mud pot formulation on my rose plants had a good effect on the size, yield and growth of flowers. In fact all the flowers had a deep colour and a longer shelf life. The flowers after plucking remained fresh for 2-3 days when kept at room temperature," said Ms. Thangam.

Natural farming

In fact she was featured in a video at London for the Ashden Award presentations that showcased Vivekananda Kendra-Natural Resources Development Project (VK-Nardep)'s efforts at increasing food production through natural farming practices.

Ms. Thangam's adoption of this innovation encouraged other farmers to try it. Though initially reluctant to stop using chemical fertilizers, they experimented on a small scale first.

The economic benefits that each farmer incurred created a cascading effect. For example, two years ago, Ms. Thangam was spending about Rs.3,500 for an acre of rose cultivation. At present her expenditure for an acre has come down to Rs. 1,300.

Decreasing expense

"Using this mud pot formulation and following organic practices has greatly decreased the expenditure I was regularly incurring when using chemical fertilizers," she said.

Who was responsible for developing this mud pot plant nutrient?

Mr. Aravindan, social scientist, of the kendra said, "an eminent organic farmer and retired agricultural officer, S. Murugan, is responsible for developing this formulation. He had developed a local plant formulation method with a traditional technique practised in Madya Pradesh."

"Once this formulation was tested successfully in Ms. Thangam's rose field, we decided to give training to more farmers in making this formulation, which has almost been forgotten."

According to Mr. Aravindan, about 100 gms of Vitex, Neem and Calotropis leaves each, 50 gm of powdered pulses (any pulse), one litre of curd or thick butter milk, and 1.5 litres of water are the basic items required for making this formulation.

The leaves are first ground into a fine paste. The paste is then mixed with the powdered pulses (any pulse).

This mixture is then added to one litre of curd. To this is added 1.5 litres of water. The mixture is kept in a mud pot and the mouth covered with a cloth.

The mixture is stirred every day in a clockwise and anticlockwise direction. After 15-20 days the formulation is ready for use. The formulation is diluted in 20 litres of water and sprayed in one acre of crop. The spraying is done on the foliage. The timing is very important for spraying this formulation. The best time is just before dawn and after dusk.

Effective control

The spraying effectively controls several pests and serves as a growth promoter and nutrition provider for the plants.

"Organic inputs have multiple advantages. Apart from reducing input costs, they also keep the environment safe from toxicity.

If one compares a field where chemical fertilizers have been used to grow the crops and a field where organic inputs such as farmyard manure, vermicompost and panchagavya have been used, one can clearly see the presence of earthworms, millipedes and ants is more in an organic field," Mr. Aravindan explained.

Useful organisms

"Our kendra conducted studies for the presence of earthworms and ants in different fields. We found that chemical inputs greatly disturbed the presence of these useful organisms and in several fields where chemical fertilizers were used these organisms were totally absent.

"Once some of the farmers started switching over to organic practices, we were able to observe the presence of these organisms again in the soil," he said.

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