Amid the widespread shortage of fertilisers in the ongoing planting season in several states largely owing to spiking international prices, farmers in Himachal Pradesh are using homemade alternatives for cultivation that are not only safer for the Environment but are also boosting their incomes by reducing their dependence on chemicals.
records say 146,438 farmers, including 14,000 apple growers, in the hill state are doing natural farming either partially or fully, over 8,268 hectares.
This means they are not rushing to the market to plant the winter cropsnot hampering their planting season like in neighbouring states Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh where farmers are currently facing a severe shortage of fertilisers.
Middle-aged vegetable grower Raman Saini, a progressive farmer from Haroli in Una district adjoining Punjab, is one of many to benefit from an alternative method of cultivation that saves the Soil from deterioration, boosts his bottom line and importantly without sacrificing much food production.
Earlier, he struggled to market the vegetablesa fact he attributes to overuse of chemical pesticides to control diseases and pests. Even the Soil fertility was deteriorating.
Under the Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Kisan Yojana, the technique is based on the farm inputs that are prepared at Home with dung and urine of a ‘desi’ cow, ‘besan’, jaggery and some locally resourced leaves.