Veena Annadana
Well-Known Member
DK farmers cool to organic farming
MANGALORE, January 11, 2010: The district of Dakshina Kannada which has followed the innovative farming in the past has now threaded an organic way. The last crop of the year 2009-10 will be cultivated with organic manure. According to trends available with the agriculture department about 65 per cent of the Rabi crop will be applied with organic manure.
Encouraged by the model developed by the Innovative farmer of Amaravati in Maharashtra Subhash Palekar some of the farmers have taken to innovative methods of farming -particularly the paddy cultivation in Rabi season. 93 percent of the Dakshina Kannada farmers are small farmers and there are no medium farmers and only 7 percent of them are big farmers (having more than 8 acres aerable lands).
In some pockets of the district like Neerumarga and Harekala in Mangalore taluk, the farmers have gone in for organic farming. One of the innovative farmer in Neerumarga Sunny D'Souza has taken up Madagascar Rice Intensification method along with innovative 'mulching' method which has worked out wonders in his patch of paddy field.
Mr. D'Souza who had attended one of the 'natural farming' camps in Hassan held by Subhash Palekar has inculcated some of the features of natural farming in his farm in Neerumarga and says the results are there for everybody to see. The 'mulching' method where the field is covered with green waste and spray water if it was not raining. After sometime the green waste will 'mulch' and sink into the ground. This was the time when the farmer should sow the 'soaked' paddy seeds in pre-determined distance. Since the monsoons will do the rest, the farmer may have to resort to weeding now and then. This method had yielded him in the last Khariff season some two thirds more paddy than in the conventional method of paddy cultivation.
In other parts of the district the farmers have seriously taken up production of organic manure and according to the sources in the agriculture department the district needs over 20,000 tonnes of organic manure to cover all the 35,000 hectares under Khariff cultivation. But presently the total availability was less than 10,000 tonnes which gives about 30 kgs per hectares which was enough for only one application. Hence the farmers still have to use chemical fertilizers to some extent.
Krishi Pandit Srinivas Rao Pailoor of Kukkujadka village in Sullia Taluk has this to say - natural farming methods had been there in Dakshina Kannada from a long time and only recently it has been given a scientific outlook by Mr. Palekar. The 'Jeevamruta' mix which is attained by mixing several natural ingredients including the cow dung, water, 'Gomuthra' and limestone works out well on the paddy and vegetables which he himself has experimented during his life as a 'Krishika'. But since the monsoon was so vigorous in Dakshina Kannada, many of Palekar's innovative and natural ways need to be experimented and re-researched for adapting in Dakshina Kannada district.
From: Mangalorean.Com- Serving Mangaloreans Around The World!
MANGALORE, January 11, 2010: The district of Dakshina Kannada which has followed the innovative farming in the past has now threaded an organic way. The last crop of the year 2009-10 will be cultivated with organic manure. According to trends available with the agriculture department about 65 per cent of the Rabi crop will be applied with organic manure.
Encouraged by the model developed by the Innovative farmer of Amaravati in Maharashtra Subhash Palekar some of the farmers have taken to innovative methods of farming -particularly the paddy cultivation in Rabi season. 93 percent of the Dakshina Kannada farmers are small farmers and there are no medium farmers and only 7 percent of them are big farmers (having more than 8 acres aerable lands).
In some pockets of the district like Neerumarga and Harekala in Mangalore taluk, the farmers have gone in for organic farming. One of the innovative farmer in Neerumarga Sunny D'Souza has taken up Madagascar Rice Intensification method along with innovative 'mulching' method which has worked out wonders in his patch of paddy field.
Mr. D'Souza who had attended one of the 'natural farming' camps in Hassan held by Subhash Palekar has inculcated some of the features of natural farming in his farm in Neerumarga and says the results are there for everybody to see. The 'mulching' method where the field is covered with green waste and spray water if it was not raining. After sometime the green waste will 'mulch' and sink into the ground. This was the time when the farmer should sow the 'soaked' paddy seeds in pre-determined distance. Since the monsoons will do the rest, the farmer may have to resort to weeding now and then. This method had yielded him in the last Khariff season some two thirds more paddy than in the conventional method of paddy cultivation.
In other parts of the district the farmers have seriously taken up production of organic manure and according to the sources in the agriculture department the district needs over 20,000 tonnes of organic manure to cover all the 35,000 hectares under Khariff cultivation. But presently the total availability was less than 10,000 tonnes which gives about 30 kgs per hectares which was enough for only one application. Hence the farmers still have to use chemical fertilizers to some extent.
Krishi Pandit Srinivas Rao Pailoor of Kukkujadka village in Sullia Taluk has this to say - natural farming methods had been there in Dakshina Kannada from a long time and only recently it has been given a scientific outlook by Mr. Palekar. The 'Jeevamruta' mix which is attained by mixing several natural ingredients including the cow dung, water, 'Gomuthra' and limestone works out well on the paddy and vegetables which he himself has experimented during his life as a 'Krishika'. But since the monsoon was so vigorous in Dakshina Kannada, many of Palekar's innovative and natural ways need to be experimented and re-researched for adapting in Dakshina Kannada district.
From: Mangalorean.Com- Serving Mangaloreans Around The World!