Herbal Pesticide
About the Practice
The pesticide developed from natural herbs like ginger, garlic, tobacco, neem oil without the use of chemicals, would help fighting various insects like aphids, bollworms, etc. at lower price. Detail: Cotton is the main crop of Vidharba region. Other crops include pigeon pea, jowar and vegetables. In 1992, Uplenchwar began to be concerned about the rising prices and decreasing productivity of modern agricultural inputs, in particular chemical pesticides. He felt that farmers needed a low cost multi-purpose pesticide to deal with the situation.The search for such a product began with the discovery of a formula being promoted by Dr W B Rahudkar, who happened to be Uplenchwar‟s teacher at the University. The pesticide was made up of garlic extract, chilli extract and Nirma detergent powder. The cost of making it at the farm level was less than Rs.10. Uplenchwar wrote the details of the formula on the wall of a house, in his village. That year about 10 to11 farmers tried out the recipe. The trials showed that it was only moderately effective. Also, the high proportion of kerosene in the formula had caused side-effects on the cotton crop. These deficiencies prompted Uplenchwar to work on an improved version of the formula. He sought Dr Rahudkar‟s advice who informed him that a farmer from Karnataka named Kussanavar had found tobacco solution more effective for preparation of chilli extract. The idea appealed to Uplenchwar and he tried it. He found that a 10 per cent solution provided best results. By accident, he also discovered that the tobacco solution was equally effective for preparing garlic extract. This led to a process innovation. The following year (1993) saw two major changes in the formula. The first was the use of tobacco extract. The second was the addition of Neem (Azadirachta indica) oil, a well known insecticide and anti-feedant. He lent his own name to the formula to distinguish it from the earlier one. He constantly devised methods to upgrade the product. However, Uplenchwar was still not satisfied with the formula. The next year, he introduced a few more changes. A farmer friend had told him to use cow urine for control of leaf curl, a viral disease of the chilli crop. He decided to include cow urine in his formula. A few days later he discovered, again by chance, that neem oil dissolved easily in cow urine. He added ginger extract to the formula for its ability to control aphids, and Hing (Asafoetida) for its property of improving fruiting. He also decided to double the proportion of neem seed oil, since the local supply seemed to contain only 50 per cent oil. Uplenchwar received feedback from a number of farmers. The perceived effectiveness, in terms of percentage control ranged from 40 to 60 in the case of bollworms of cotton, 70 to 90 for leaf eating caterpillars of soybean and pigeon-pea, 70-85 for pod borer of pigeon-pea and 80 to 90 for sucking insects like aphids or jassids on cotton crops. The time taken to control the insect pests ranged from 12 to 30 hours, after spraying. Some of the farmers compared the knock-down time of the Uplenchwar formula with chemical pesticides by putting a few larvae in direct contact with the pesticides. They found it equal in strength to Nuvacron and Fenval and superior to Endosulphan. Uplenchwar had used both horizontal (in other farmers‟ fields) and vertical methods (in his own field over time) of validation. As a result, he was able to test the efficacy of his product on a wide range of pests and situations within the short span of three years. Many of the big and well-to-do farmers were willing to buy the product if it was made available by Uplenchwar. This led him to launch an enterprise to manufacture the product and supply it to farmers in his region. The demand for his product has been steadily rising. Starting from 700 litres in 1993, the demand rose to 1300 litres in 1994 and an estimated 7000 litres in 1995. This was perhaps the most conclusive evidence about the acceptance of the pesticide amongst farmers of the region. In future Uplenchwar would like to see the idea grow amongst the farmers of his region. He visualizes a decentralized poly-centric network for scaling-up the activity. The network would consist of several units of cottage industry status. Each of these units would be run by presently unemployed youth. The criteria for selecting members of this network would be based on two criterira. The first would be the willingness to work for the welfare of farmers through the enterprise and not for their exploitation and the second the willingness to contribute to research and development.
About the Innovator
Agro-Ecological Zone: Central Vidarbha zone (MH-8)
Address: Vichardhan, Harsul, Digras, Yavatmal
District: Harsul
State: Maharashtra
PIN Code 445203
Practice Details
Crop: Cotton, Pigeon pea, Jowar
Crop Family: Malvaceae
Crop Scientific Name: (Cajanus cajan)
Crop Vernacular Name: Kapas, Tuver, Tur, Legumes
Formulation: Liquid
Ingredients: Ginger extract, Garlic extract, Tobacco extract, Neem (Azadirachta indica) oil, Hing or Asafoetida
PAS 1:
"Extraction fractions of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) and residue in the control of field and storage pests"-
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272814907_Extraction_fractions_of_ginger_Zingiber_officinale_Roscoe_and_residue_in_the_control_of_field_and_storage_pests
"Comparing the Effectiveness of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) and Hot Pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.) in the Management of the Major Pests of Cabbage Brassica oleracea (L.) - "
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301271770_Comparing_the_Effectiveness_of_Garlic_Allium_sativum_L_and_Hot_Pepper_Capsicum_frutescens_L_in_the_Management_of_the_Major_Pests_of_Cabbage_Brassica_oleracea_L
"Tobacco and its evil cousin nicotine are good as a pesticide"
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2010/acs-presspac-october-27-2010/tobacco-and-its-evil-cousin-nicotine-are-good-as-a-pesticide.html
"Products derived from neem can contribute to sustainable development and the resolution of pest control problems in agriculture (Lokanadhan et al., 2012). These products benefit from the natural properties of neem as a powerful insect growth regulator (IGR) that also affects many other organisms (such as nematodes and fungi) and can act as a plant fertilizer (Brahmachari, 2004)."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061770/
"Hing - Effect of Ferula assafoetida essential oil in controlling the black bean aphid" -
https://www.innspub.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/IJB-V5No12-p350-356.pdf