Natural Farming: Farmer Devi Lal promoting natural farming in Jhalawar, income increased manifold

Farmer Devi Lal Gurjar, resident of Puradevdungri, Dhaturia Kalani village of Jhalawar district of Rajasthan, is one of those farmers who are promoting natural farming. Devi himself has been doing natural farming since 2013. He fully adopted all the techniques of natural farming and this gave him good harvest as well as high profit. He is also inspiring the farmers of his area for natural farming, so he has also been honoured many times.

Farmer Devi Lal Gurjar, resident of Puradevdungri, Dhaturia Kalani village of Jhalawar district of Rajasthan, is one of those farmers who are promoting natural farming. He himself has been doing natural farming since 2013. He adopted all the techniques of natural farming completely and this gave him a good harvest as well as more profit. Devi is also inspiring the farmers of his area for natural farming, so he has been honored many times.

From Seed Treatment To Pest Management

Devi Lal Gurjar started Natural Farming in 2013 and he started cultivating spices, linseed, urad, moong, turmeric, wheat and papaya. He used all natural methods for farming. From fertilizer to pesticide, natural techniques were adopted instead of chemicals.

Used Beejamrit for seed germination, Dashparni extract for pest control and Ghanjiwamrit for nourishing the soil. Apart from this, used Neemastra, Humic Acid and Gortankada.

Use of Crop Residues

Mahua extract was used for nematode control. Crop residues are collected and fermented for 15 days and after 15 days the fermented mixture is sprayed to control nematodes.

Using crop residues as natural mulch does not require much irrigation i.e. irrigation can be done after a longer interval, weeds do not spread quickly and the organic matter of the soil increases.

Mixed Farming Is Beneficial

He did mixed farming of turmeric and chilli and the benefits of which started showing soon. The outbreak of diseases was very low in both the crops. Leaf curl disease of chilli can be controlled by growing it with turmeric. Devi Lal Gurjar also established 8 units of vermicompost along with farming.

Advantages of Natural Farming

1. Natural farming reduced the cost of farming, because there was no need to buy expensive fertilizers and chemical pesticides, that is, overall dependence on external things decreased.

2. Compared to traditional farming, natural farming produced record-breaking crops of wheat, fenugreek, coriander, linseed, urad, moong, maize, gram etc. This improved the quality of the crop, which fetches a good price in the market.

-3. Improvement in the health of the soil and an increase in its organic content from 0.39% to 0.68%. There was an increase in the number of earthworms and other microorganisms in the soil that make the soil more fertile.

4. While Devi Lal Gurjar used to earn an annual profit of Rs 1,08,500 from traditional farming, he is earning a net profit of Rs 1,49,300 from natural farming.

Honored With Many Awards

He was given a special honor for organic farming by the Rajasthan government in 2017-18. Devi has received the Organic Expo Award in February 2020. He now trains other farmers with the help of ICT tools at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Jhalawar.