Lankan farmers take lessons in natural farming

A delegation of farmers from Sri Lanka on Friday visited farm of natural farmer Ramesh Raju at Kurahatti in the taluk.

Raju has succeeded in reaping good yield by adopting natural farming. Instead of fertilisers and other stimulants, Raju uses cow urine, cow dung cakes and jaggery to increase productivity of crops like banana and sugarcane. Sharing his success story with his Sri Lankan counterparts — led by Jayant Tilak on a study tour Raju said he cultivated 50 tonnes of sugarcane on one acre of land, spending Rs 30,000. He has already earned Rs 50,000 by growing sub-crops like brinjal, chilly and others.

The sugarcane expected to be harvested in five months will help produce 50 quintals of jaggery. According to the prevailing price jaggery costs Rs 3,500.

He advised the delegates to adopt natural farming as propagated by Subhash Palekar — invest less and earn more without depending on fertilisers. “Already five workshops have been conducted in Sri Lanka. It was the workshop that aroused the curiosity of farmers and hence we are on a study tour. We will also urge the government to adopt natural farming to increase food production to meet the growing demand,” he said.

The delegation included president of Sri Lanka Farmers Association Darshan De’Silva, Subramanya Pillai and Reverend Gunaratne. They were accompanied by natural farmers Pratibha Nagavara and Anantaraj Keragodu.