The Tanzanian variety of sunnhemp is superior to the traditional Indian sunnhemp, both as manure and as fodder. The author offers 200g of this remarkable variety to those interested.
Plant nutrition has become a major problem in India..The soaring human population and the demand for foodgrains have worsened the dependence of farmers on chemical fertilizers – which have devastated soil health, polluted the environment, poisoned food and fodder and lowered crop yields.
It is high time that we discovered alternative plant nutrients. Green manure — obtained by growing some short-duration legumes – is one such alternative. It is inexpensive too, even for for small and marginal farmers. Grow a few perennial green manure crops like glyricida on the edges of a farm and on un-cultivable areas around the farm. The plants can be used directly as green manure or as raw material for composting.
Sunnhemp and susbania have for ages been grown as green manuring crops in India, before the transplanting of paddy and sugarcane. The sunnhemp grown traditionally in south India was Crotalaria junea. Luckily, I was able to get 10 gram of another variety of sunnhemp (Crotalaria ochrolenca) from Tanzania. It belongs to the family known as “Macrostachyae”, and contains only a small amount of poison compared to the Indian sunnhemp. The Tanzanian variety is not only a better green fodder but also a better green manure crop, since it produces almost twice the amount of biomass. Another plus point: when grown with maize, it can be a very good deterrent against the stem borer and against insects when dry seeds are stacked along with rice and maize. It can yield 12 to 15 tons of green manure or fodder per acre on average soils with just three rounds of irrigation or three spells of rain (2 cm). It is a wonderful companion crop to maize and red gram and helps control pests.
To grow sunnhemp either as green manure or as fodder (for cattle, goats and pigs), you need six to eight kilos of seeds. To obtain seed-producing plants, you need two kilos of seeds. Apply 200 to 300 kilos of rock phosphate fertilizer per acre to get nutritive green manure. Do so just before pod formation – that ensures early decomposition and better manure. Carry out a similar exercise for use oif sunnhemp as good-quality fodder. From the date of sowing, it takes about 110 days to obtain fodder and green manure and 200 days to get seeds. You. can harvest almost 100 kilos of seeds from an acre.
I have been growing the Tanzanian variety of sunnhemp for the past eight years, at least once after every two crops. It can serve as ground cover for coconut, coffee, arecanut, guava and chickoo orchards. Since it is cut at a height of ½ meter from the soil, it is possible to get even a third cutting and use it as mulch and manure. The amount of atmospheric nitrogen it can fix on your land is unbelievable.
I offer those interested 200 grams of seeds of this remarkable sunnhemp variety for multiplication. I hope farmers, NGOs, and agriculture departments and universities take up my offer and popularise this multipurpose miracle crop, thereby reducing the dependence of farmers on chemical fertilizers.
L.Narayana Reddy, Srinivasapura Vai Maralenhalli, Hanabe P.O
Doddaballapur Taluk. PIN 561203, India.
About the Author: Narayana Reddy, 65, is a much-decorated Indian farmer. He has won several Karnataka state and national awards for excellence in agriculture. He is a committed organic farmer and grows only organic crops in 10 acres of land in his Karnataka village.
