Introduction
With an interest in nature and a fancy for driving a tractor, I entered this field of agriculture in 1959. With no experience in farming and with an attitude of not learning from others, I had committed many mistakes in the beginning. By the time I realised my mistakes, I had already incurred a lot of loss both financially and resource-wise also. But later I started observing nature closely and followed organic way of farming, not wasting any farm waste. I have used every inch of the land. I have planted even on waste lands to produce some biomass. I feel that every farmer should treat his farm as an experimental ground and try various methods on his own, learn and share his wisdom with others. This is how I have been farming and trying to reach out many other fellow farmers. For example, in 1968, by adopting zero tillage and not burning the trash of sugarcane harvest, allowing it to decompose, achieved higher yields in sugarcane consistently. Was able to harvest 120-125 tons/ha which was higher than the state average of 64 tons/ha. I have tried out many things on my farm, like the zigzag planting method in coconut for instance (see box) and have also got recognition from various institutions and the state government for many of such innovations.
Below is one of the trials or innovation that I have carried out and found very useful. I would like to share this with as many as possible.
Weeds as a source of wealth
An increase in weed growth indicates better soil health. But, weeds are considered as competitors to plants and there is a tendency to remove, throw or burn them. Owing to their longer decomposition time, weeds are often destroyed. However, with increasing awareness on organic way of farming, weeds are increasingly being used for making organic manure.
I tried a method which could convert weeds to organic form within 15 days. The method is as follows:
Collected about 25 kg weeds from my farm land, wastelands, roadsides etc. Then mixed them with 200gm jaggery, 200 gm salt, 200 gm. tamarind in 100 lts. of water and left to decompose in a drum for 15 days. This mixture was rotated once in every three days. In 15 days the mixture was emanating a bad odour and was then converted to liquid form.
When this liquid manure was used for vegetable crops, the growth was very luxurious. Though this indicated that the manure had high nutrient content, but still I wanted to know its nutrient composition so as to recommend to other farmers. So I got the liquid manure tested in a lab and was amazed to know that the manure was high in nutrients (See box).
I feel that it is the best manure among the various manures I have used. By making use of the weeds in a productive way, they can also bring down their costs of production.
Farmers with large farms can prepare this in big tanks and attach sprinklers to it. This will help in releasing the liquid manure in drops to the soils, thus avoiding wastage.
Dr. D.R. Prafullachandra, Krishi sampada, Lakshmipura, Hosahalli Post, Teerthahalli Taluk, Shimoga district-Karnataka, Ph: 958182 – 272730
