Agrodad

Image Courtesy: Andrew Flachs News in last week of September has shaken souls of the public. In Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, more than 600 farmers were admitted to hospital due to fatal attacks caused immediately after spraying of pesticides. More than 18 farmers died. How can farmers die while spraying a pesticide?  Numerous reasons are being given. Lack of knowledge and responsibility has led to this despair.  Many have lost vision and most have become convulsant. Authorities immediately banned the sale of few pesticides in this region. Licenses of several Krishi Seva Kendra were suspended. All Krishi Seva Kendras were asked to stop the sale of organic inputs. Bureaucrats and politicians have taken a strong stand, to save their own skin, against farmer's  illiteracy and negligence of Krishi Kendra. Directive to stop the sale of organic input was another act that misleads public and covers bureaucratic deficiencies and absence of political will....

In Agriculture, conventionally, we have learned to classify substances either as pesticides or fertilizer or fungicides or plant growth regulators and so on. Lets think of Urea and it is a fertilizer. Endosulfan is a pesticide, glyphosate is a herbicide and so on. This is true for most of the chemical substance. Of course, there are exceptions like potassium phosphite - fungicide as well as fertilizer. However, when it comes to Microbes, we can't label them like the way we can do about chemicals. Lets take the example of most humble microorganism in my point of view - Azotobacter. Azotobacter has been labelled as a nitrogen fixing bacteria.. It is sold as a fertilizer on legal basis. It is interesting to know that many strains of this organism do show phosphate solubilizing properties. Moreover recently it was found to resist the growth of numerous plant pathogenic fungi through production of siderophores. More over they are also known to produce phyto-hormones. Through p...

As soon as we observe some pest infestation in our crop, we get advice from agri-shop keeper for pesticide spray. However, in case of fruit fly infestation, you may not necessarily observe fly seating on fruits. You will find that some fruits fall down, look okay from outside but rotten from inside. You may also find some sting marks on developing fruits. In some cases, stings can be found on buds. If you are facing these problems, you should not use any pesticide. None of the pesticides is efficient for control of Fruit fly. Newly developing Larvae just below skin of fruit Fruits rotten inside. If you are growing fruits that are known to host fruit-fly, you should install fruit fly traps before budding/flowering stage. More than 125 fruit crops are known to host fruit fly. Oriental fruit fly ( a closely  related group of fruit-fly that respond to methyl eugenol) infests fruits viz. Mango, guava, lemon, orange,  kinnow , cus...