A farmer from Telangana has been making a good income with liquid detergent-based farming in order to save his crop from pests at a low cost.
Kunarapu Ramesh is a native of Rayadandi village of Anthargam Mandal in Peddapalli district, Telangana. He has been involved in farming for the past 25 years using his own 0.75-acre land.
In the initial days, he sowed paddy crops on his land but it didn’t good results. This forced him to turn to alternative crops. Then he came to know about detergent-based farming followed by farmers in other states and got the inspiration to use it.
Ramesh sowed seeds of vegetables like tomato, ridge gourd, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, brinjal and so on. Ramesh sprayed the mix of liquid detergent (40 ml), vinegar (40 ml), and baking soda (40 ml) with water filled in a can of 16 litres capacity on the crop in 0.25 acre. He sprayed the solution three times on 0.75-acre land.
“I will spray the mix twice a month. Generally, it takes 45 days for the first crop. After 45 days I will get the crop alternative days. I am getting about 1.5 quintals of vegetables every alternative day. I am getting better crops compared with normal pesticide users,” said Ramesh.
He also stated that he is earning about Rs 45,000 per month with just 0.75 acres of land.
Further, he said that detergent-based mix can be used as a pest control and it works better than normal pesticides. “The mix is not harmful to health too. Generally, people will wash the vegetables before cooking. The mix works well especially insect-based diseases,” Harish, Agriculture Extension Officer told News18.
Ramesh has become an inspiration for other farmers in nearby villages to use detergent-based liquid for pest control.
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