Agriculture

Maharashtra farmer Chandrashekar Bhadsavle’s method, SRT (Saguna Rice Technique) farming avoids tilling completely and lets the residue of the earlier crop (in the rice crop’s case-- paddy stubble) disintegrate into the soil with the help of weedicides and microbial cultures.

What could make a direct and immediate impact on the farming family’s nutritional status is what’s grown and consumed.

Today, this resident of Pune has successfully converted a 3,500 square feet plot into a beautiful garden where she grows various fruits and vegetables, and she does it without using a drop of chemical pesticides or fertilisers.

Once a barren piece of ancestral land that was wasting away, the Rangamalai Organic Farm established in 2015, is a fully integrated organic farm today, thanks to the vision of 34-year-old Pradeep Kumar and his pillar of support, his wife, Mangai.

However, as most organic farmers would agree, in the natural technique of farming, pest management is a lot more important than the eliminating pests completely. Here is a list of innovative pest management techniques being adopted by farmers across the country and globe.

After attending a five-day training programme at Devalpara, Nagpur and two-day training programme held at Chhattisgarh Kamdhenu University, Rohit Ram Sahu decided to go against the tide and started practising the method himself.

He has earned ₹ 7 lakh from farming on a square piece of land that measures only 1 acre.

Apart from this he also keeps researching on herbs which can cure various diseases and spreads his knowledge for free.

A student of Pulamanthole Government Higher Secondary School, Abhilal dedicates few hours in morning and evening on the field during regular school days and the entire day during holidays.

Falling under a zone that perpetually grapples with various agrarian crises, not a single farmer in the village has committed suicide owing to droughts and crop failure.