Totaraju Yadagiri, a farmer was donated a cow by officials in the beginning of this year as he was finding it difficult to cultivate his land under organic farming. The officials procured the cow from a donor and handed it over to Yadagiri, but with a rider. He has to donate the calf to another farmer in case he is unable to look after it. As promised, Yadagiri donated his calf to Chakali Yadagiri of Magdumpur village of Havel Ghanapur mandal a few days ago.
As many as eight farmers in Medak district, with the active involvement of officials from the agriculture department, have taken to cow-based organic farming and were able to reduce the input costs drastically.
Take the case of Ch. Narender from Anantasagar village in Chegunta mandal. He has about five acres of land and is doing organic farming in one acre for the past four years and cultivating paddy. And he had been getting cow dung and urine – the raw material for preparing Jeevamrutam and other required inputs for land. Observing his problem, the officials have ensured that he got a cow. From then on, his job has become easy. As both cow dung and urine are available at his farm, he has been preparing the required inputs for the land on his own. The investment he has been making to prepare fertilizers and pesticide – both cow based – is about ₹ 2,000 for buying 15 kg of pulses and 20 kg of jaggery.
The soil health has also improved considerably. Mr. Narender, who used to spread Jeevamrutam in his field four times a year, has reduced it to three times from this year. “Surely, but slowly, the soil health has been improving. I am able to save between ₹ 10,000 and ₹ 15,000 per acre with cow-based farming. Even the customers are coming forward stating that the rice is good,” Mr. Narender told The Hindu.
“We are able to get as many as seven cows donated to farmers in the last one year. Now a farmer donated one of his calves to another farmer who is practising cow-based farming. The results are encouraging,” said Ms. Vijrumbhana, agriculture extension officer of Haveli Ghanapur.
