Plant doctor brings in floral revolution

BENGALURU: As you traverse through Mandya district and step into nearby villages,  there are only dry crops and farmers’ tears. But away from this grey world, is Dinka Shettihalli, a small village  in the district, which presents a contrasting and vibrant picture. As you enter the village, you  get a floral welcome…you see a variety of chrysanthemums (known as Sevantige in Kannada).

What has turned the grey world for these farmers into colours? Well, an agriculture scientist’s flower revolution. Rajyotsava awardee Dr Vasanth Kumar Thimakapura is the man who brought about this happy change in this region. He runs ‘Krishi Jnana Vignana Vedike’ , a forum which assists farmers by giving vital information about crops and crop diseases and provides solace to farmers in distress.
Vasanth Kumar says, “A few years ago, farmers in this region had given up on growing fruits or vegetables and had started growing chrysanthemums. Not many know that growing flowers requires a lot of attention, effort, hard work and involves high cost of production. However, the profit is good provided the yield is good.”

“The farmers here are marginal, poor and voiceless. Nobody really cares for them. A few months ago, I read about farmers from this region suffering huge loss because of spraying spurious pesticides supplied by a local dealer. And that’s when I decided to visit there and help them,” he says.
Vasanth says, “As we know, the pesticide dealers lack knowledge and all they know is some basic idea given to them by pesticide companies, which are basically product-based and they are only interested in profit making rather than providing solution to farmers’ woes. They insist on spraying more ‘pesticides’, leading to overuse, abuse and indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides. Farmers innocently follow their directions, with the sole aim to save their crops but only to end up losing crops.”

What the farmers lacked were crop doctors who can provide solution to crop problems. That’s when Vasanth, a plant doctor himself (plant pathologist), decided to step in to fill the knowledge-gap.
When he visited the region, in addition to the problem of pesticide, he also found out about Root rot – the disease that was a real nightmare for the farmers.

Dileep, a farmer, “In 2009, we had lost all our yields to root rot. When enquired at a local shop, they said they don’t have any pesticide for the rot. We were helpless. In 2010, Dr Vasanth came to our rescue and from then on, it’s only colours here.”

Dhannajaya, a farmer from Bilekahalli says, “Earlier, if we invested `40,000, we would get around `10,000 to `12,000. Now, if we invest the same amount, we get around `1.5 lakh to `2 lakh. All we did was to follow Dr Vasanth’s instructions.”

Vasanth brought the diseased crops to his labs, conducted several experiments and found a viable solution to cure the disease. He then invited a farmer and gave him the ‘plant tonic’. Vasanth expected more number of farmers to follow him. But to his surprise, none of them turned up. When he tried to find out what happened, he realised about the seriousness of the situation – that the poor farmers found it difficult to arrange money to go to his lab in Mysuru. That’s when Vasanth decided to camp in Dinka Shettihalli and  provide them onsite training.

The farmers were in for a surprise with that season’s yield-- cost of production had come down drastically and the yield had grown up dramatically. The nightmare was transformed into sweet dreams.
Impressed by the results of this village, Vasanth recently adopted 20 villages and will train ‘crop doctors’ in every village.As of today, over 100 farmers are benefitted by Vasanth’s intervention.