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Neem, garlic and green chillies: Recipe for abumper crop

By Manipadma Jena

Veera Narayana was once a desperate farmer in drought-hit Andhra Pradesh, spending Rs 10,000 in chemical

inputs per acre of watermelon crop. Today, he is the guru of organic farming in Singanamala block, his

watermelon harvests healthy and his input costs a fraction of what they were

Veera Narayana and his wife Ramadevi on their farmland in Korivipall i vil lage.

“The atmosphere’s heat trapping burden (has come) not just through emissions of carbon dioxide from burning

fossil fuel… but also from another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide. More than four-fifths of these emissions are

from agriculture, from the use of chemical fertilisers.”

-- State of the World Population 2009. Facing a Changing World: Women Population and Climate

Today, organic farming is not just the ‘in thing’, it’s also paying. Ask Veera Narayana who has farmed both the

‘chemical way’ and the ‘organic way’. Till 2004, Narayana (41) and his two brothers did what every farmer was

doing on their nine acres of irrigated land in Korivipalli village -- feeding the crops tonnes of di-ammonium

phosphate (DAP). “We spent around Rs 10,000 on an acre of watermelon,” he says. And it worked initially --

returns were nearly double the input.

Narayana’s village in Singanamala mandal (mandals are administrative blocks) of Anantapur district in Andhra

Pradesh belongs to the rain-shadow Rayalaseema region that is arid, treeless and made up of poor red soil. It

boasts an annual average rainfall of just 553 mm.

Even as farmers began to rely more and more on chemical farm additives, the frequency of drought increased

from every alternate year to an annual crisis. In eight out of the 10 years from 1997-98 to 2007-08, all 63

mandals were declared drought-affected (government of Andhra Pradesh’s Handbook of Statistics 2007-08,

Anantapur district).

Farmers borrowed from private moneylenders at monthly interest rates ranging between 2 and 5% to buy

fertiliser and pesticides, and to drill deep borewells to water their fields. With crops failing year after year, the

region began reporting farmer suicides as early as the 1970s.

In July 2000, Narayana applied DAP to his watermelon creepers that were just opening into three leaves. Days

passed and still there was no rain; the plants wilted. A desperate Narayana would carry water in a 16 kg tin

container from an open well and ration a mug for each plant, hoping against hope that the rains would come

and save his plants. But there was no rain for three weeks. July ran into August and still the sun bore down

relentlessly. That year, Narayana and his brothers incurred heavy losses.

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The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) -- the United Nations body responsible for

stemming the spread of deserts -- says that about 6 million hectares of productive land around the

world have been lost every year since 1990, as land becomes degraded and less fertile. An estimated

135 million people are presently at risk of being driven from their lands because of continuing

desertification that can reduce productivity in some regions by as much as half. The UN estimates that,

over time, more than 1 billion people and one-third of the earth’s surface will be threatened by mostly

creeping desertification. The Convention now has 191 signatories; India is one of them.

“Something had to give, or we have to give in somewhere… this cannot go on,” said a worried Narayana. In

2004, the 13-NGO network Anantha Paryavarana Parirakshana Samithi (APPS) staged a street play in his

village on the ill-effects of chemical fertiliser and pesticides, and that home-made alternatives could be the

answer in low rain areas. The APPS calls it non-pesticide management (NPM). The farmers enjoyed the play

but went home laughing at its message. “If the most toxic of chemical pesticides, Monoprotophos (a

phosphate-based insecticide), was not able to kill the stubborn red-haired caterpillar, the worst enemy of the

groundnut farmer in this region, how could a home-made concoction of neem (Azadirachta indica), garlic and

green chillies kill it?!”

But Narayana decided to give it a try. His brothers admonished him: “Has your brain taken leave of your head?

Do it if you insist, on your portion of the land.”

“If it does not work then it won’t be the first time I’ll lose my crop,” Narayana replied. “But it will be less

investment down the drain.” He started organic farming on one acre, following the instructions of APPS organic

farming co-coordinator Hanumantha Reddy word for word.

“A world that takes seriously the need to rid the atmosphere of carbon dioxide however is likely to

rediscover the value of farmers who work directly with their soil and crop on land they can own and can

keep. The world’s farmers will have to transform themselves from net emitters of greenhouse gases to

net absorbers of carbon dioxide to slow and reverse the rise of concentration in the atmosphere. The

process will require different agricultural production systems based on boosting the carbon content of

soils while reducing the need for chemical fertilisers. Women as well as men who own and improve

their own land and food production as climate changes can become the models of resilience humanity

needs. This can be one part of the broader social transition towards health and equality and the

environmental transition towards sustainable use of resources and balance with the global

atmosphere and climate” -- State Of the World Population 2009. Facing a Changing World: Women,

Population and Climate

Narayana ploughed his field thoroughly in order to expose the eggs and larvae of pests to the hot rays of the

sun thereby eliminating as many as possible. He then lighted fires in the furrows; the ash too acted as a

pesticide. As the saplings opened into tender leaves, Narayana sprinkled the juice of neem seeds to kill the

remaining red worm pests. Then he sprayed a thin paste of green chillies soaked in water and garlic soaked in

kerosene on to the plants.

Processing groundnut harvests from an organic farm in Chinnajalalapuram.

Watermelon faces repeated pest attacks. Eighty ml of chemical pesticide concentrate costs Rs 1,800; a single

spaying per acre worked out to Rs 1,000. With the everyday neem, garlic and chillies, the cost was not even a

tenth of what they incurred earlier. Neem seeds could be gathered from the nearby forests; a farmer pays Rs

500 for a 50 kg bag of powdered neem pesticide.

As the fruit began to appear, Narayana sprayed a decoction of neem powder fermented in cow urine -- original

urea and available abundantly for free. Fermented buttermilk is another option, although its usage depends on

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availability.

As watermelons grow in size and sweeten inside, insects find them irresistible. It’s now time for a cowdung and

jaggery (which acts as a sticky trap, immobilising the insects) spray fermented for four whole days. Ugh! So

much easier to pop open a can of chemical pesticide, mix water in the correct proportions, and spray the crop!

But organic insecticide has no toxic side effects on the consumer’s health. And it does not destroy earthworms

and other plant-friendly insects, keeping the soil surface soft and absorbent which is not the case with chemical

fertiliser and pesticides. Best of all, the truck-load of watermelons Narayana harvested and took to Bangalore

stayed fresh and sold at a premium price for an entire week. Narayana was smiling all the way to the bank with

a thick wad of Rs 49,000 in his pocket. His input costs? Only Rs 6,000, including labour costs.

Korivipalli, 37 km from Anantapur town, is a hamlet of 272 families, half of them belonging to backward

communities. Today, five years on, 87 farmers have converted to organic farming; one-third of a total of 1,392

acres of arable land is under organic farming. Narayana is a guru here, and not just amongst the farmers. He

also trains new converts in villages across Singanamala block, moving around on the red motorbike he bought

after the last harvest.

In Chinnajalalapuram village, Nagamanamma (31) has taken two acres of temple land on lease. As her family

could not make ends meet at her marital village, she returned to her native village. But here too farming was

depleting the family’s scarce resources. Nagamanamma opted for organic farming for one reason only -- it

involved family labour, not the kind of investment chemical farming demands.

With all the scepticism, Nagamanamma herself was surprised at the dramatic results she got. She harvested

15 bags (42 kg each) of groundnut per acre instead of the usual seven to eight bags, and with an expenditure of

Rs 600 against Rs 2,000. In fact, she and Narayana received a rush of visitors curious to see the 126 groundnut

pods on each plant, against the normal 20-35 pods.

These green farmers are getting more and more innovative every season. Narayana found ghaneru (Nerium

oleander, whose bark, fruit and flowers contain toxins called neriine and oleandrin), a strong bio-degradable

pesticide, very useful for treating pests. He also uses Pongamia pinnata, called pongam or karanj, one of the

few nitrogen-fixing trees whose dried leaves are used as an insect repellent for stored grain. The seeds, which

are 30-40% oil, are used for bio-fuel. Applying oil cakes (after the oil has been extracted) to the soil is

particularly effective against nematodes and helps improve soil fertility. The root, bark, leaf, sap, and flowers of

the tree also contain medicinal properties. In order to keep pests away, organic farmers resort to border-

cropping and inter-cropping with sunflowers whose leaves attract pests, keeping them away from the main

crop.

There is plenty room for ingenuity too. Instead of mixing cowdung cakes directly into the soil, Narayana puts

them under the water drips, near the roots of the plant, thereby reducing fertiliser wastage and ensuring that the

right amount of organic nutrient goes in the right place, and lasts longer. Home-made fertiliser cakes are a mix

of powdered pulses, anthill soil (which is rich in micro-bacteria), cowdung, cow urine and jaggery. After the

watermelon crop is harvested in summer, the vines and leaves are left to decay into the soil providing biomass,

nutrients, nitrogen and good bacteria. These help the soil retain moisture for the next crop, which is groundnut.

For Ramadevi (37), Narayana’s wife, low investment is the biggest advantage of organic farming despite labour

inputs being continuous and backbreaking. For both Lingamma (35) and Katamayya (38) of Chinnajalalapuram

who went organic in 2006, low financial input remains their main motivation although they now know from the

many awareness sessions conducted by Oxfam India, through APPS, that organic produce is healthier as well.

With one cow and one buffalo each, and less than four acres of land, they get 30 bags of groundnut during a

good year, whereas with chemical fertilisers the returns were at best 10-15 bags which they sold for Rs 800-

900 against the asking price of Rs 1,400 for their organic produce. Indeed, buyers have started flocking here

from further afield because, they say, the nuts are larger and tastier. The farmers are now hoping to receive

organic certification that will allow them to export.

Awareness about the benefits of organic farming is spreading. A group of dalit forest-gatherers, women and

men farmers, and women’s self-help groups from 10 surrounding villages have set up a unique cooperative --

the Singanamala Producers’ Cooperative -- working out of Chinnajalalapuram village to produce organic

pesticide. What is today a 260-member collective with a share capital of Rs 52,000 started as a counter to

exploitative shopkeepers who depressed the price of neem seeds and cheated buyers on the weight of the

produce.

Earlier, the women would sell the neem fruit the very day they gathered it; small quantities against which they

bought their daily groceries. The village shopkeeper would offer them groceries on credit because he bought

the neem seeds at 75 paise and sold them at Rs 4 a kg. The women decided to get together to dry and store

the seeds and sell them at the weekly market. There was only one problem -- the shopkeeper refused them

credit for their groceries. The women went ahead and set up a cooperative, each putting in an amount taken as

a loan from the Rural Integrated Development Society, a local APPS NGO that also gave them a seed-

pulverising machine.

“At least 50% of farmers are slowly getting attracted to organic farming though all have not yet taken the leap,”

concludes a satisfied Veera Narayana.

(Manipadma Jena is a senior development journalist working out of Bhubaneswar)

Infochange News & Features, November 2009

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3 COMMENTS

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MITHILESH KUMAR 2009-11-30 10:44:43 (0) Vote

REPLY COMMENT QUOTE

This is a timely documentation of indigenous knowledge that was a core part of India's

farming practices. Such other traditional practices need to be systematically documented

from each region.

This article is a commendable effort.

ANJALI PATHAK 2010-02-03 14:39:45 (0) Vote

REPLY COMMENT QUOTE

The wheel is coming full circle and I am happy to note that farmers in many parts of

Andhra Pradesh are going organic and also improving their incomes. More power to them

and to the NGOs that are facilitating this transition.

KRISHNA MOHAN. 2010-02-17 13:27:30 (0) Vote

REPLY COMMENT QUOTE

Really good work Veer Naryana, you have taken the bold step and shown others the way. I

am a to-be farmer, politician and s/w engineer. I want farming to be natural and organic. I

really don't know how to tell my village people to stop using chemicals and go organic.

Even my dad uses chemicals. I hope one day I can change the village people over here in

Hoshalli village, Channagiri taluk, Davangere, Karnataka.

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