(912) Search Results for




Kriya Labs, a start-up incubated at TBIU-IIT Delhi, has developed a process to convert such Agri waste into pulp. This pulp can be used to make bioethanol, paper, tableware and helps the farmers generate profits from their waste instead of burning it off. Unlike existing pulp making process, which requires heavy machinery and economy of scale, the process used by this start-up can be economically integrated and sustainably run even in smaller scales (1-10 TPD). It is a cyclic process producin...



Sustainable Livelihood Initiative India Private Limited offers 'Vardan' Water Purifier which is an extremely affordable and sustainable solution to the global problem of water purification. It purifies water under 8 paisa per litre. It works without the need for any external energy and purifies water for at least 10 years without the need for any maintenance. This is achieved by the use of Graphene and Solar Cells. The technology that powers the Ultraviolet (UV) Germicidal light used is terme...



Agriculture, Natural Resource Management: Distinct Horizon, a Delhi-based agritech startup seeks to address food production, while protecting the ever-degrading environment. Founded by Ayush Nigam, an IIT-Madras alumnus along with his friend Santosh Kumar, an electronics engineer from Galgotia College of Engineering and Technolgy, Distinct Horizon has patented DH Vriddhi, a tool that helps farmers place fertilisers deep into the soil, using the Urea Deep Placement (UDP) technique thereby redu...



Sense it Out Intelligent Solutions Pvt Ltd is an Agri-Tech startup with a vision to make technology affordable for farmers and thus bringing dignity to the farming community. “More Yield Per Field” is the underlying motto behind their technology. Sense it Out’s product SICCA (Sensor-based Intelligent Crop Centric Automation) maximizes yield by optimizing the use of water and fertilizers. It is a wireless sensor-based IoT product that automates the Irrigation & Fertigation system using agri-re...



The coconut master craftsman, Vijayadutta Lotlikar lives in Parra, Goa. He has been working with these coconut shells for about 25 years and has won many prizes and awards for his works on coconut shells. He has made more than 500designs in which 90percent of them are utility ones. The products are cutlery items, decorative ones, oil lamps, table items, spoons coffee/tea pots, cups and more that are all durable. Earlier there was an issue where the coconut product partitioned from the base wi...



Agriculture/water management/"The Statometer is a Digital Water Level Recorder (DWLR) which can be used in piezometer wells as well as tube wells for measurement of water level data. Non-contact devices in Water level measurement are the next generation products in the water sector. Statometer uses an indigenously designed patented signal processing algorithms of acoustic waves for accurate measurements."



"AGRI-FIBER PANEL: As an eco-friendly substitute to the brick-mortar approach, Strawcture uses agri-fiber panels as the building block for structures. Panels are made by compressing the potentially hazardous agri-residue, which works in conjunction with a steel framework to give birth to structures that epitomize sustainability. A sustainable alternative to concrete walls and ceilings, the fibre panels are made from agricultural waste. The panels are combined with steel, to provide wall and c...



"Rimagined is an entrepreneurial venture founded by Bengaluru resident Shailaja Rangarajan in 2016, which not only provides super cool and interesting upcycled products in diverse categories such as furniture, jewelry, clothes, and home décor but also employs women from underprivileged sections of the society to offer them a dignified source of livelihood. With 15 years of experience as a business consultant in the IT sector, Shailaja’s tryst with waste management began when the local residen...



Our proposed product is a bio-pesticide which is quite different from chemical pesticides. Moreover, the product shall be prepared from a weed of no economic value. Secondly, the raw material can be cultivated at bare and non-cultivable lands with very less irrigation water. Thirdly, the product will be cheaper than the existing pesticides and bio-pesticides. Our product can mimic the activity of both pesticide and insecticide therefore it is a one for all type of product. So, a farmer buys o...



Mr Jagtar Singh Brar innovated with new technology to reduce this menace, especially utilization of straw as mulch which eventually enhances soil fertility, help in moisture retention and also reduces the weed menace. But the practice is usually avoided by most of farmers due to its labour-intensiveness. He used the rake to collect paddy straw from the field in just five hours with the involvement of only five labourers. The practice otherwise require 24 hours along with at least fifteen indi...



Bhupinder Singh started innovative methods to manage paddy stubble in his field. With the help of local fabricator to manage the problem of rice residue, He developed Tudi Machine which could be used effectively both in paddy as well as wheat crop. This machine is a low-cost technology as compared to baler machine and costs around 4 lac. It took nearly 1.5 years during manufacturing process in 2014. During 2017-18, machine was further improved attached to a trolley so that residues can be con...



Dharnidhar Mahato, Balakdih, had developed a Rs 500 paddy thrasher with one-fifth the cost and twice the output (1000-1200 kg paddy thrashed per person per day) of a regular thrasher. The machine consists of a threshing cylinder, driving mechanism and supporting frame. To achieve the cylinder speed about 300 rpm+10rpm, two numbers of cast iron gears are being provided with gear ratio of 1:2.5 operated by paddle. Two men are enough for easy operation at a time. The main part of the machine is ...



Ranjit of Jagdalla village had developed a simple but very effective parboiled paddy spreading machine. It could spread about 800 kg parboiled paddy in five minutes. Generally this task is done manually using a tray. The parboiled paddy is very hot, and labourers get hurt sometimes, and get blisters on their fingers. He wanted to develop a solution for this. He was scouted by a volunteer, Jagataran Ghosh of Panchad village, who is also an innovator. In this case also, the problem is very perv...



He took an oil can, cut its sides, fill it with some water and light a candle or diya in it. The can was then placed in the middle of the farm, at a height where the light could be seen from far. It is known that Nilgai fears light thus the candlelight would keep it away. Also, the insects that come to feed on the farm would get attracted towards the light and fall into the water in the can. The birds which come in the morning to feed on the farm would instead feed on the insects. Source: htt...



It is a plough with two wheels and a seat for the person ploughing.



Because of the backache, Yogesh’s father was not able to drive a tractor and work on his farmland properly. This inspired Yogesh to develop a tractor which could be operated with the help of a satellite remote. The innovation developed by him does require an operator, but he does not need to sit on the tractor to operate it. It can be operated from outside the farmland as well. To build this robotic tractor, Yogesh installed two signals on the tractor that are further connected to the remote....



He has assembled with the locally available materials (available with auto shops, lathe workshop) and it costs Rs. 6000/- only. Many farmers visited his innovation. He advise them to make their own production by themselves by supporting all engineering sketches, design and the process of assembling. Already 2 farmers assembled the same model with the innovator’s guidance.



The tractor mounted combined tillage (combi tillage) implement does primary tillage operations as well as secondary tillage operation together. It consists of a soil cutting tool (modified plough or cultivator tynes) and soil clods breaker cum levelling unit (tractor PTO powered auger shaft).The modification includes replacement of bar point share of MB plough by tractor PTO powered auger. It consumes 3 liters of diesel to cover up to 1.25 acres of land in 1 hourat a field efficiency of 79%. ...



The distinct characteristics of JK-1 variety are early maturing variety requiring 60 to 65 days for first picking, longer fruiting period ranging from August to April, lengthy, pale green lustrous bunched pods,over 700 pods per plant, high green pod yield (675 q/ha) and high seed yield (64 q/ha). JK-1 is the most preferable bean variety for making Undhiyu (Gujarati mixed vegetable dish) During the validation of the variety by SardarkrushinagarDantiwada Agricultural UniversityDantiwada, Gujara...



The variety is most suitable for early sowing in first week of July and produces narrow elliptical, creamy-white coloured curds. The average weight of curd is 750g, having medium compactness and are partially covered by inner leaves. It has delectable taste, is tolerant to insects and pests and fetches good market price due earliness. Since 2005, the variety has been distributed to neighboring farmers and relatives for cultivation. Most of farmers at Langpok and Nambol area of Manipur are gro...



Datatrey Nanasaheb Kale (55)is a progressive grapes grower. Studied up to class-XII, he has been involved in grapes farming following the footsteps of his late father NanaSaheb Kale who had developed Sharad seedless grapes variety in 1980s. Datatrey owns 25 acres of vineyards and grows various varieties developed by his family. He has started a nursery to sell the grafts of his seedless grape varieties and is also involved in producing and selling black raisins prepared from Sarita and Nanasa...



Jyotsna Mayee Patra (18) is a young innovator, studying Political Science Honours course for her graduation. In her home garden, she noted that the rose hedges were severely infested by insects and were not bearing flowers. She observed a climber (name withheld due to IP reasons) bearing fruits was growing close to the vicinity of the roots zone of the rose plants. The fruits of the climber decayed and decomposed in the root zone and the insects infesting the rose disappeared soon. The growth...



Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi is a serial innovator who has developed several high-yielding plant varieties including Kudrat-5, an improved variety of paddy developed by using the recurrent selection method. The Kudrat-5 seeds are accessible, affordable and easily available. He is known for numerous varieties of wheat, paddy and pigeon pea. His contribution and work in improving crop varieties have been widely acknowledged. In 2007, he was awarded by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF). He a...



The Sandip pyaj variety is highly rewarding with an average yield ranging from 42 to 45 tons per hectare.It enjoys unique characteristics like early maturation, a sizable diameter of leaves, absence of cranking in foliage, ovate, non-splitting, uniform-sized big bulbs and light red-colored dry skin. This was validated at Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Maharashtra, which found it to besuperior based on traits like average bulb weight, degree of splitting, shelf-life, sk...



Gurtej (38) owns a workshop where he carries out the manufacturing of combine harvester, hole digger, maize cutter, high quality screw conveyor vermi segments and straw reaper, and also undertakes repairing of farm machineries. He has been manufacturing reel type combine harvesters since 2000. However, he found them to be inefficient formaize harvesting due to the crop height. This led to farmersbuying new header cutting type combine harvester. Gurtej then tasked himself to developa reel typ...



Gurtej's cutting unit for combine harvesters has a triangular-shaped rotating reel with three tin bars for effectively covering the maize crop. The triangular-shaped reel and its large diameter increase the effectiveness manifold by protecting the crops from damage. It covers an area of 4.5 to 5 acre/h with an operational speed of 5 to 6 km/h operating in a space of 3.425m width. As on date, close to 70 modified combines have been sold with a unit cost of Rs. 2,10,000. Besides this, Gurtej ha...



During 2009-2013, he worked for the improvement of the variety by selecting healthy, early-maturing plants with bigger and more compactcurds. Sanjeev selectionvariety is well known for early maturity (60-70 days); white, bigger (up to 940g) & compact curds and high yield (up to 175q/ha). Facilitated by NIF, the variety has been validated byBihar Agricultural University,Sabour, Bihar. The variety was found to be superior in terms of vegetative yield, curd weight and Vitamin-C content and also ...



For farming operations, tractor is not an affordable option for farmers having small land holdings. Increase in the cost of fodder for bullock, regular occurrence of drought and shortage of farm labor forced the farmers of Saurashtra area of Gujarat to look for an alternative to Bullock. Inspired by a local mode of transport, the three-wheel taxi chakdo (common transport in the Saurashtra region, innovator has developed an innovative multipurpose farming machine which can do all the operation...



Shri. Ranabhai and his brother developed a machine which can able to collect stones from the farm field. This machine is tractor operated and collect the stone from the 5 to 6 inch. They spent around 11 years of his life in optimizing various mechanisms to perform this function (stone picking and collecting) optimally. Able to collect stone per Acre (2.5 Bigha) in only 3 hours.



This is a tractor mounted PTO powered machine with a propeller shaft suitable for tractors of 45 HP and above to dig out and uproot the groundnut. Groundnuts are uprooted from the soil with the help of the harvesting blade (V shaped) of the machine. The uprooted groundnuts are conveyed from ground level to a higher level for collection using a conveyor chain. The belt keeps vibrating as a result of which the pods get cleaned of the attached soil. Opening the collection box forms the spread be...



A Device to Separate Tamarind Seeds After spending about three lakhs rupees and six months of hard and intensive labour in 1994, he could finally design and develop a machine to separate tamarind seeds. It had a system wherein due to the sliding action of the pegs that were tapered at the end, the seed gets thrown out of the tamarind pod. Tamarind Slicing for Pickles The next step in pickle making was to cut the unripened tamarind into small pieces. The process was difficult and tedious. This...



Innovations for The Society Chandrakant was motivated to do something new and unique since the very beginning. Being an engineer and having a special liking for machineries, he worked on a number of innovative products, which were energy-efficient and appropriate for the rural and as well as urban areas. He devised a bullock lifesaving system wherein sturdy accessories were designed for the bullock carts to update their safety. He also has developed a ‘flat belt brake system' fitted to the ru...



Mansukhbhai’s tawa is an earthen griddle with a non-stick coating. It gives the advantages of non-stick cookware while preserving the natural taste of food cooked using earthen griddles. The tawa are 8’-10’ in diameter (with and without handle) and cost between Rs 70 to Rs 145., It is a cheaper alternative to metallic non-stick cookware. Also, in this case, the consumption of LPG is low. As the coating gets absorbed in the pores of the earthen material, it does not wear off too easily.



The groundnut growing areas in Gujarat is spread over an area of 20 to 25 lakhs hectares, accounting for 25% of the total production of groundnut in India. The groundnut picking is currently done manually which takes around 50 man days per ha as compared to the machine that can cover the same are in a day. Bhavin Sinojiya, an innovator from Saurashtra region realized the need to develop a machine, which can reduce the cost of collection of the 35% of the crop often left in the soil after the ...



Traditionally paddy is threshed by beating followed by winnowing and cleaning by the fan. Paddy stalks are the main source of fodder for the animals in the region and in addition they are the raw materials for paper industries. There was shortage of labour and hence the labour charges were quite high too. These constraints were the basic ones when he planned to make such a machine. To overcome this labour intensive paddy threshing and to conserve the paddy strains, Dilip Sinh developed paddy ...



The machine can make tapioca chips of adjustable thickness (2 mm – 25 mm), and can also be used to cut vegetable and fruits. It is capable of processing 200 kg/hr of tapioca and 100 kg/hr of vegetable and fruits. Being portable (50 kg in weight), it can be used for processing of raw material at the point of origin/source. It can run on electricity, fuel or by attaching to a cycling mechanism.



In the tradi­tional bullock cart, with two wheels, part of the load is borne by the draft animals on their shoulders and neck and the harnessing system at present makes it difficult to negotiate sharp bends or turns in the road. This causes the gals on the neck of the bullocks, which affects not only the efficiency of the animals but also their stamina. This cart is thus designed to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional carts by having an additional wheel to balance the load. In additi...



This is a tractor mounted PTO powered machine with a telescopic propeller shaft suitable for tractors of 35 HP and above to dig out and uproot the groundnut. Groundnuts are uprooted from the soil with the help of the harvesting blade (V shaped) of the machine. The blade has been hardened by treating at very high temperature in oil and can work in different kinds of soil. It has an adjustable width and penetration angle can be varied. The uprooted groundnuts are conveyed from ground level to a...



Cooking for community where food is to be prepared for hundreds of people sometimes becomes difficult. The innovator has developed a rice cooker where steam generated by boiling water in a drum is used to cook 25 kg of rice each in two different cookers. The cooking time for the first batch is an hour but reduces to 45 minutes in successive batches as water is already hot. This cooker is used in community functions to cook large quantities of rice.



Nileshbhai observed that farmers faced scarcity of labor at the time of groundnut harvesting. The use of conventional threshers, requires adequate labor to collect the harvested/dug groundnut stalk. Delay in collection of harvested stalk, which is allowed for drying after digging, results in loss of groundnut. To overcome this problem, Nileshbhai started working on a solution, which could move around the field and pick up the heaps of harvested and dried groundnut stalks on its own. He develo...



This is a tractor mounted sugarcane planter with a unique metering mechanism for planting sugarcane buds directly into the field. As per claims the field capacity of the machine is 0.5 acre/ hour. Using this planter the plantation cost is estimated to reduce to about Rs 800/acre from about Rs 6000/acre using labour. The plant to plant sowing distance can also be adjusted according to the requirements. It can also be used for simultaneous application of fertilizer, pesticides or herbicides in ...



Jitendra started Mushroom cultivation in the year of 1996, after learning techniques of cultivation from his maternal uncle in Himachal Pradesh. In year 2002, one bed of mushroom fell due to misbalance, as the bamboos were not placed properly inside the soil. It forced Jitendra to make some machine for turning of compost placed on the ground. He developed a machine for turning compost in 2006 but it was suitable for dry compost only and the requirement for mushroom cultivation is moist compos...



It is a tractor operated modified combine harvester with the provision of collecting chaff. The machine has been manufactured to enable farmers perform both the tasks viz. harvesting and threshing simultaneously. It can be operated using tractor of 65 hp and above. The combine harvester, having two separate chambers for storing fodder and wheat grains, cuts stalk of wheat in a manner, which minimizes the loss of grains and fodder during harvesting. The chances of wheat grains getting cut or d...



The harvester is a set of two machines first for cutting the leaves of onion and then digging and picking them up without causing any damage to the bulbs. While harvesting onion, separation of the leaf/stalk from the bulbs is a tedious task and involves a lot of manpower. If leaf/stalk is not removed properly the onion fetches less price. Also if the onion is picked up along with the leaves, separation of soil from the onion becomes a difficult job. In order to mechanize the process, Shrawan ...



The brothers have developed a seed drill/seed cum fertilizer drill using a single gang of disc harrow as the furrow opener. This tractor mounted harrow seed drill consists of a gang of discs (11 in the present prototype), ground wheel, seed box, agitator for preventing bulging, vertical disc type seed metering mechanism, chain and sprocket for transmitting power from ground wheel to seed metering mechanism, seed box, fertilizer box, etc. The row to row spacing is maintained at 20 cm (average)...



In the conventional groundnut digger the innovator has added vibration pad/shock absorber spring and two pivoted wheels in the rear of groundnut digger. It is claimed to reduce load on the tractor’s three point linkages and increase maneuverability due to wheels, reduction in breakages (mainly bearings) due to vibration pad, approach of machine in corners and easy driving on bunds and channels in the field. The machine, which can be fitted to standard 540 rpm PTO, can cover 4 ha in 8 hours, c...



It is a tractor mounted combine harvester with the provision of collecting chaff. The machine is combination of vertical conveyer reaper, crop conveying mechanism, thresher and sheet metal tank/bin for chaff and straw collection. It can be operated using tractor of 45 hp and above. Front mounting on tractor and collection of straw with less height of left over straw after harvesting are unique features of this combine harvester. A vertical conveyer reaper is mounted in front of the tractor wh...



Labor scarcity, loss in yield of crop during harvesting made the innovator search for machine but found significant wastage of grain and loss of stalk as left over. The innovator developed a machine for harvesting crops, which overcomes such problems. It is a front mounted attachment for tractor and windrowing unit which facilitates gathering of harvested crop at the center of machine ultimately reduces the shattering loss. It consists of self made chassis, frame for mounting it to front of t...



Cracking walnuts manually is a plodding and tedious job with low output (maximum 10 kg/h). Innovator thought of developing a machine that could mechanize this process relieving in drudgery involved of doing it manually for hours. The machine was originally designed to crack walnuts but Mushtaq found it suitable for peeling green walnuts as well. Green walnuts are difficult to peel manually and in the process the skin also gets irritated and sometimes it even flakes off. An improved model of t...



The manual paddy transplanter requires two persons for its operation. One person is needed to pull the machine while another for cranking the handle in order to provide drive to seedlings’ trays and fingers, which place the seedling in the soil bed. The machine can transplant five rows while maintaining row to row spacing of about 18 cm and plant to plant spacing of about 15 cm. It has a field capacity of 0.3 acre/h. When tested at IIT Kharagpur, which NIF facilitated, it was found to consume...



The Shivraj Multipurpose Equipment is a multipurpose tool frame drawn by paired bullocks. It is lightweight and can perform up to six agricultural operations. Different accessories can be attached to it for different operations like shallow ploughing, interculturing, weeding, sowing, residue collection, groundnut digging and soyabean harvesting. With modifications, it can also be used for spraying. It consists of a multi-purpose tool frame mounted freely on the central shaft of ground wheel t...



The sheaves of grains are carried to the threshing floor manually or on the backs of animals like donkeys and bullock. Tractor trolleys and bullock carts are mostly used for transporting harvested crop to the threshing floor where they are spread out to dry in the sun and wind for a few days. The threshing and separation of the grain from the straw is done in a variety of ways. The crop may be beaten with sticks. As an alternative, implement consisting of a series of steel disks may be used. ...



While marketing and promoting the sugarcane bud chipper, Roshanlal realized that in sugarcane farming, many drudgery related issues have remained unaddressed. He observed that farmers prefer to plant sugarcane buds directly inthe field manually, which is a cumbersome and time consuming process. Once the problem got identified, he started working on the solution. Initially he developed a manually dragged planter with one particular type of metering mechanism. He tried it in his field and when ...



Machine is used for weaving Pochampalli silk sari, an exquisite tradition of double ikat style of weaving with variety of colors and intricate designs. It reduces a very tedious and cumbersome hand winding process of yarn. Traditional process involves to and fro moving of the hand thousands of time in a span of four-five hours. Before weaving various patterns on the loom, a hand winding process of yarn is required in the traditional ‘Tie & Dye’ Pochampalli silk sareetradition. This is a very ...



The dedicated bamboo processing machine is an integrated unit that can remove knots, do the planing and polishing of the surface and facilitate inner and outer contouring of the job. Precision control is achieved with a soft touch, four-way joystick linked to a robust electro-mechanical control logic kernel. The machine has overall size of 4x2x12 ft and weighs 75 kg. It is electrically operated using a 1 HP motor running on 230 V AC supply to drive a spindle at the range of 40 to 90 RPM. It h...



There are many technologies/methods that are designed to protect crops/trees from Hail Storms. Anti-Hail Netting Umbrella also intends to be one in line but cost effective and reliable at the same time. The method works as:- Whenever a Hails Storm occurs a sensor senses it. This sensor gives an input pulse to the microcontroller. The microcontroller, along with other circuitry, opens a suitably designed umbrella. This umbrella is placed above the tree. The umbrella spreads over the entire tre...



The task of transplanting onion seedlings manually is time consuming, labor intensive and toilsome process. Innovator Shri More, who is a farmer, has developed an affordable, semi-automatic transplanter for timely sowing of onion seedlings. It is a tractor drawn semi - automatic Onion transplanter. It can perform three functions at a time viz. transplanting the onion, applying the fertilizer and making the irrigation channels. When the tractor moves forward, the star wheel type metering mecha...



This sac filler designed in such a way that it holds sac during filling of harvest instead of holding the sac by a labour. It is a stand like instrument which holds sac and so lessens the labour. Its height is 3 ft having diameter of 2 ft. Its dimensions can be reduced to half of its size after closing. Its weight is approximately 2 kg and is simple to use, affordable easy to carry and foldable. It can be used in flour mills rice mills in short a useful innovation for the agricultural purpose...



His automated system is somewhat similar based to the Catch Cord Technique drawing device for looms. (United States Patent 4616680, 1984) though he was not aware of it. No assistant is In this technique. Multi Catch Cords are used to make Temple Borders. The number of catch cords is equal to the number of steps required in the Temple borders. Each step in the Temple Border is controlled by a separate Catch Cord and is individually operated by Dobby or Jacquard. In this technique, the picks pe...



Modern rice cooker don't facilitate the draining of starch water, which contains more carbohydrates that cause blood sugar and high BP Innovator has developed a cooking vessel having two compartment for making sambhar as well as rice separately but simultaneously. For cooking rice, in one compartment, innovator provided perforated plate and outflow pipe at the bottom so that one can easily drain starch water once cooking is over. It has two pressure valves, aluminum filter, a bowl with compar...



Sukomal thought about an apparatus having a container and a dispenser that pours liquid as soon as a glass is kept below the dispenser. The main container with four dispensers (on four sides) would be kept on a stainless steel base. Below each dispenser, on the platform, there would be four switches. These switches will be connected to a valve, which opens when the switch gets pressed due to the weight of the glass placed on it. As a result, the liquid from the main container will flow out th...



It is an electrical device with timer controller to stop the gas flow according to the preset time. The timer switches off the gas regulator after cooking. It has digital display system for cookers to count the number of whistles too. The preset cooking time for different varieties of rice or different dishes can be preset with the clock and this system will automatically switch off the gas once the cooking gets over. This system also gives an alarm when the gas stove is switched off. It cons...



As reported by Coconut Development Board, coconut Tree climbers are a rarity these days in Kerala and other coconut growing states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, with very few taking on the traditional profession. There is a reluctance to enter this field because of the occupational risk and the arduous labor involved in climbing tall coconut trees. Due to scarcity of labor as against the general norm of harvesting cycles of 45-60 days, farmers are currently ab...



A new variety of onion was produced by mix-matching. This Onion variety is a high yielding variety with very good keeping quality due to its tightly attached skin. Its yield is about 350 q/ha and good thickness of rings, tolerance to stemphylium blight and moderate pungency are the other features, which have been noticed. Its dark red coloured globular shaped bulb about 5 cm diameter, neck thickness of 0.8 cm and 50-60 g weight appears more attractive than the conventional ones with firm, bri...



Innovator has developed a thresher that can thresh without chopping the straw of the moist crop. The straw, chaff, grains are separated and thrown separately, thus reducing labor and drudgery. Using this machine threshing can be done even in rainy days under a shade. The thresher can be operated by a 5 hp electric motor or tractor PTO. It requires only two people to thresh. The thresher is consisting of feeding chute, threshing cylinder, blower, straw outlet and grain outlet. The body is made...



Jayprakash’s innovative stove is a double chambered efficient portable stove, used primarily for community cooking. It can use coconut shell or wood as a fuel. This portable stove is made of bricks, cement, clay, cast iron and can cook food upto 100 kg. The base of the bottom chamber is made of iron grill on which the fuel is kept. Below the grill is an air chamber. When the fuel burns, smoke mixed with unburnt hydrocarbons reaches the upper chamber, which has been provided with air inlet hol...



The variety is an improved high yielding pepper variety with highly branched spikes resistant to quick wilt disease. Pepper Thekken is noted for its highly branched spikes, which result in high yield. Eight hundred to thousand berries can found in a single spike of this variety against 60 to 80 berries in locally popular variety. The berries are present on both main and branched spikes. Increased Lateral branches with more nodes and inter nodes, resistance to insects and diseases particularly...



Juice/Pulp-extraction from various edible fruits is an essential requirement for making juices and other products (sauces, puree, ketchup, gel etc.). Also, extracting the juice, pulp, essential oils, essence from non - edible fruits having medicinal properties, is also a primary source of raw material for the Pharma/ Food Processing Industry and they need machines to extract juice etc from the fruits / flowers etc. In the market, available machines are useful for a specific purpose only (pulv...



Ranjeet has developed a simple but an effective par-boiled paddy spreading machine. It is a trolley having a sluice gate kind of opening at the bottom where the size of the opening can be adjusted. While carrying the par-boiled rice to a different site for drying, the opening is kept closed. It can spread about 800 kg par-boiled paddy in five minutes. This machine can also be used for spreading cow dung, compost etc in the farm field and there is no need of hiring any labour for this purpose.



Krishnan has developed a cauldron (kettle) shaped roasting pan with oscillating arms for turning /churning the sago rice. The pan is coated with Teflon material to avoid the sticking of sago rice. The processed and sized sago rice balls are roasted in this device. The arms ensure that the roasted rice is moved to the basket from where it can be packaged. Krishnan developed this machine for his own use at the cost of Rs. 5.5 lakh INR. Prior art search did not disclose any method except roastin...



It separates the outer cover and thin inner membrane without damaging the seeds. It has a capacity of deseeding 50- 55 kg of pomegranate fruits per hour. The machine has been exported to Turkey and USA.



His machine is an extension of the mechanism of the already existing motor operated chilli pounder for giving oscillating motion to sieves from the camshaft. The pounded chilli is filled in the sorter in batches of 1.5-2 kg and can be sieved with the efficiency of 95-98% without much human intervention. Apart from reduction in drudgery, this machine reduces physical contact with the chilli and thus, the associate health risks like skin irritation, allergies, etc.



Sugar cane juice is an energetic & sweet drink, consumed during summers in all parts of our country. People go to different road side vendors to drink the juice. But, there is a continuous threat of diseases like cholera & Jaundice primarily caused by unhygienic conditions. There is no machine available in the market which can be used for extracting sugar cane juice at home. Keeping this in mind, "Bachubhai Thesia" has designed the "Sugar cane juice extractor" which serves the purpose of extr...



Coffee is not an available option at majority of the places and most roadside tea stall vendors provide tea only. The electric coffee-making machines are very costly (more than Rs.5000 each) and out of reach for most roadside. The innovator has modified the normal pressure cooker and made it into a coffee-maker. A simple attachment of a metal pipe along with pressure-releasing valve has been provided in the cooker lid. Cooker with water is heated over a stove. Once steam is formed, it is rele...



The innovator has developed cooking stoves whose walls have been insulated by brick made from special clay, which reduces heat loss. It has grills for better aeration and thus resulting better combustion. He also claims that in this stove any kind of waste wood can be used as a fuel.



Mohanbhai Sagar is a farmer from Vaghada village in Patdi taluka in Surendranagar district in Gujarat. He has developed an equipment to build mud wall quickly around farms. The wall stops rainwater from washing out the soil of farms. All farmers of his village have been using this equipment for several years now. He thought of this because flowing rainwater erodes the soil of farms during the monsoon. Farmers using this equipment do not need to go far to get the soil for their farm because t...



Gagjibhai Vanabhai Sagar is a farmer from Vaghada village in Patdi taluka of Surendranagar district in Gujarat. He has developed an equipment to farm hard and uneven land. He thought of this equipment because plough tends to jump while farming hard and uneven land. It may also hurt the bullocks or the farmer. He removes the two teeth of the plough and joins two "sambhda" with an iron bar to make it stronger. This contraption prevents the plough from jumping and there is no danger of hurtin...



Narsangbhai Mori is a farmer from Kaliyana village in Viramgam taluka of the Ahmedabad district in Gujarat. He has developed kantiu (a custom made plough) to clear the farm after the cotton plucking is over. Mori developed this kantiu to quickly clear large farms before monsoon starts. Initially this had six to seven teeth but now he keeps only three. Instead of manually collecting the dry cotton twigs, he uses bullocks to drag the kantiu and clears the field fast. This kantiu costs Rs.1,000...



An innovative method of using differential gear system of the motor vehicle (preferably a mini truck) run by bullock power to draw water from well. This replaces diesel engine, thereby saving on fuel and energy. The differential gear system is found at the rear wheels of the motor vehicle. In this method, the innovator first installs the differential gear system of a mini truck in place of the diesel engine. He then fits the engine pulley with axle of the defferential. Thereafter,...



This is a new and improved version of the tool usually employed for weed removal. The old tool has fewer and smaller teeth which digs out less soil and removes small weeds only. The improved version has more and larger teeth which digs out more soil and removes bigger weeds also.



When using the old device for ploughing the space between two furrows for inter-cropping, Karsanbhai found that the double-blade design of the plough-share uprooted and damaged some of the groundnut plants, resulting in low-yield. Old device had two plough-shares (blades) hence the plants got entangled between the two. The modified version has only one blade, hence it does not damage the crop while deep ploughing between the two furrows is possible. This self-developed device costs between Rs...



Laljibhai Karsanbhai Ramani has taken the cue from the complaint by a mill worker. Their plan is that the farmers bring in their harvest of many crops and that it is difficult for them (workers) to keep a separate thresher for each crop. This raised the imagination of Laljibhai who has gone about buidling a multipurpose thresher. Now Laljibhais prototype can not only separate the chaff from the wheat but also the hull from the seed of castor and the pod from groundnut, among other seeds. This...



It is one such wishful thought of a worker that inspired Laljibhai. One worker told him a couple of decades ago that if you want the complete harvest done faster, then it would not be possible without a diesel engine. That was the cue, sufficient to set Laljibhai thinking and tinkering. Laljibhai chopped and changed and tinkered with angles, sheets, shafts and pulleys. As the culmination of his effort, he came out with the very oil engine that the worker originally wished. It has got off the ...



Ranikbhai Bavkubhai Dhadhal has parctical experience. He started as a labourer who worked his way up into manufacturing machines. Today he is a manufacturer of threshing machines with over three decades experience behind him. Since he was a farm labourer he is well aware of the problems of farm hands as well as farmers. Both the viewpoints have gone into the making of his machine. Since he began over 30 years ago, Ranikbhai has made many changes in his thresher before devloping his <i>pucca<i...



Babubhai Popatbhai Pansurias threshing machine has unique qualities that has made it popular: Above all it has speed. The machine is stated to wash and clean seed at the rate of 600 to 800 kilograms per hour. The thresher that is driven by an oil engine is claimed to be within the reach of the small farmer. A small farmer who possesses a small piece of land can also afford to purchase it. With the help of the thresher wheat, groundnut, millet, pulses, sunflower and soyabean are prepared for t...



By this grain cutting machine one inch small pieces.This grain cutting machine workes with 5 to 10 hours power electronic chain in that machine that pusher the green an dry grass farwed and cuts it into small pieces and do not waste much. The cort of this animal feeding certai charitable asylum place of animal use this grain cutting machine. Thsi machine is self developed and manufactureing since last 5 Years they hone given this machine to animal feeding and charitable asylum places. At t...



Ranikbhai Bavkubhai Dhadals machine specifically meets the requirements. It shells the almonds and prepares the nuts for the market. Because of fewer trade inquiries, Ranikbhai manufactures the machine only on order and delivers the machine in a fortnight. There is demand for the machine only when there is bumper crop of almonds or a dry fruit merchant wants the machine to fulfil his obligations. Six machines have been supplied to a Mumbai merchant. The almond husk machine is such that...



Thersher operated with help of tracter can be in different crops like groundnut heat pulses etc by output of six hundred per hour this thresher is self developed and is being manfutured suce last two years threasher operated with help of oil engine given less output and cannot be operated in monsoon Idea of using originated will help of teacher originated to remedy this sitiuation. All the farmers in this area who are owners of trachors who uisng this instrument since last ten years. Di...



According to techinican formaerly farmers were using bullock or bullock cart for reaping crop it was a time consimung procs more wind minute it there was lesser wind mnute impartied were notived in the crops to meet with such inconvenincer thersher was made In such thersher crops like groundnut wheat can be reaped by changing cutter and nets Because of small size of such thersher it can be shifted from one place to other with help of bullock cart. Its size is as under Height 4 feet three i...



According to this technician farmerly farmer obtaining crops by thrashing operations manually and it reap crop idea ocured to experite threshe operated by ol engine for last 38 years In this threuher also farmer experenced certain difficiluti when is possibility of rain or there is actual rainfall In such a stuation an idea occurs to,prepare large thresher andit manfacturing threser operated with help of tracter since last ten years Its cost is 60to 80,000 whereas thersher operated with help ...



Gagjibhai Vanabhai Sagar has forged a new farm implement which he fondly calls "kaliya" after a popular name. Now "kaliya" is a good friend of not just the farmer ploughing the field but also the pair of bullocks doing their routine work. "Kaliya" has been designed by Gagjibhai specifically aimed at not hurting the pair of bullocks in the front. Hitherto the iron ploughs were merely dangled to the harness and these could hurt the unwary animals. "Kaliya" not only protects the animals but also...



In the groundnut huller, Jamsinghbhai has brought about the necessary modifications by introducing two filters, one for the seed and another for the pod, as also for washing the seed . In the vertical huller, groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) used to be opened in the cutter and the nuts would fall into the filter where the shells were separated from the nuts and the latter collected. Now Jamsingbhai Vajuba Gohil has modified the huller that could lift the machine by hydraulic pressure. By turn...



In crop lemon if there is minor plantition, Ths instrument can be used to remove that manuallyand to increase cleanliness. This is a new instument the idea was consided when is was noticed that proprotion of grass was more in chess of lemon tree one farmer has prepared this instrument it is being used since one years. Since its use is not widespreadf other are not using it. Cost of this instrument is 60 Rs.



Whip known as "Chabuk" in local language. Stick is commonly used to drive the bullock in the field condition. Whip is made with the help of cotton string and bamboo stick. At the end of 1 m long bamboo (Bambusa bambos) stick, cotton string is knotted. This cotton string is well knitted in the cone shape around the bamboo stick. The whip is not made for beating the bullock, but only to produce sound. The bullock got frightened with the noise of whip and continues to work. Thus, without beating...



Farmers in these parts normally use rope to tie plough or cart with yoke. The rope takes much friction and as a result of which it may break also. To reduce friction and wear of the rope, farmer Laxmanbhai Soniyabhai Chauriya has devised a tool called as "khodagi" which he makes from teak (Tectona grandis) wood. This tool is first used to join yoke with plough or cart and then the rope is tied. This means that "khogadi" bears all the friction instead of the rope. It is a traditional p...



Farmers of Junagadh district are sowing garlic (<i>Allium sativum</i>) at a distance of 4.5 inches. It is not possible to sow at such a short distance with normal sowing instruments. In the normal sowing instrument, distance between two jaw is 9 inches, so to sow the seed at 4.5 inches, the farmer has to sow 1st normally and then again sow the seed in between two already sown rows to maintain the distance of 4.5 inches. But in second sowing the bullock pulling the sowing implement may walk on...



In Saurashtra and North Gujarat, a common problem while harvesting groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is the breakage of pods right in the ground. In fact, the farmers of Sabarkantha, harvest the crop by irrigating the field before the actual harvesting is done. This helps in pulling out the plants easily. However, this practice also does not solve the problem of breaking of pods. Many farmers and workers have tried innovative practices to overcome the problem of breakage of pods. Babubhai ...



an iron pointed rod on the upper part of the tiller is attached in such a manner that this rod remain two inches out from the teeth (arms) of the tiller. As a result of which there is benefit to the farmer like, while drilling or sowing the teeth (arms) do not come in direct contact with the land and hence the arms do not get blunt. And by fitting this iron rod in front of the arms deep and straight drilling of land is also possible. It is experienced that by doing this improvement in the dri...



"Khaatri"- a water conservation arrangement: Hilly areas, dry regions, and flood-prone areas are susceptible to environmental dangers. A lot of ingenuity is required for day to day survival in such areas. Still, its a reality that people living in such areas. Still its a reality that people living in such areas strive to protect their natural heritage in spite of lack of policy of support. A traditional, yet modern rain water conservation method known as khaatri or dingi is quite popular...



In common practice, while digging well, for drawing out soil, rope is pulled by man or bullock. This requires more pulling force and the process is slow. In the new plan, on two wings of wooden plank, iron drum is placed. On both sides of drum, handles are arranged. By rotating this, rope will go on winding on the drum and soil will be pulled out of the well, and by reversing, rope will unwind and go down the well. The main feature of this device, are compared here with that of traditi...



Ratnabhai Vankar from Panchmahal district of Gujarat has developed a yoke with modified wooden tool known in these parts as "tarilu" for training the young bullock that is engaged for farm or draught work for the first time; when yoke is mounted on the young bullock for the first time, it does not like the intrusion and tries to throw the yoke away from the body. As this happens repeatedly, much time is wasted and this also frustrates the farmer. This modified yoke is designed in such a manne...



A normal harrow proves inadequate in the rocky or hard surface. Round steel rings or a roll of strings can be attached to the harrow to make it mobile and mechanical. By this method sowing can be done successfully in rocky lands also. This implement has huge potential if perfected. Farmers in most parts of the country do not or cannot bring under the plough such land as that which has a lot of embedded rocks or stones. The mobile harrow has potential to put fallow lands to continuous ...



In a way, Jivajibhai Datada of Gujarat is among the pioneers to pull Indian farming out of the bullock-cart age. The ubiquitous motor-cycle has raised his imagination. Hard pressed as he was about maintaining farm animals, he decided to use the motor-cycle instead of his pair of bullocks in the field. The result has been wonderful. Farming has been faster, simpler ever since. Jivajibhai has put the functional idea in practice in a simple way. He took a clamp and fitted it to the pillion s...



An innovative spray pump is prepared to spray the pesticides on cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), groundnut (Arachis hypogea), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan). A wooden platform to keep the barrel is prepared which is supported by four scooter wheels. The wheels are placed at the distance of 55 cm. this so prepared cart is drawn with the help of a bullock. Keep the barrel on wooden platform with small engine having water pump. Arrange pipes from barrels to engine and engine to lance with nozzles.. Star...



Initially make a stand of 6-6 ft angles and set a tank with capacity of 400-500 L water. Make two bearing wheels and set on the stand. Use fanner belt to mobilize the wheels and couple stand and with mini 9 HP tractor and use three cylinder pump for proper pressure. Use plastic pipes with sprayer nozzle and spray the required pesticides. One person can handle this sprayer pump.



Making an innovative use of mini-tractor barrel, tube and hydraulic system He has made a device for spraying out of these implements. He first places a large barrel in the trailer of the mini-tractor and fills it with the pesticides. He then puts one end of a tube inside the barrel and fits the other end to the hydraulic system of the tractor. He finally binds the belts of the hydraulic system. This creates pressure inside the tube which draws the pesticide form the barrel and sprays as ...



With the advent of technology, a tractor is a must for any farmer. However, not many farmers can afford the high cost of modern tractors. The innovator who developed this tractor got the idea while removing old and unused tractor spare parts and iron scap lying in his house. After some unsuccesful attempts, he finally managed to build an improvised, light weight, custom made tractor capable of all sorts of farm jobs like sowing, weeding, reaping, ploughing etc. And this cost him just Rs. ...



An innovative multi purpose mini tractor is developed by Bansi Trailers Co. of Junagadh district, Gujarat. The tractor is an assembled device and one is already bought by farmer Purshottambhai. It is capable of working 3 "bigha" or 0.75 ha of land in one hour . Its normal speed is 25 km/hr. The trailer-tractor device is suitable for ploughing upto 15 cm, turning soil, sowing and mowing. Market value of this tractor is Rs 90,000. Its registration process is not yet initiated hence has to b...



Shankarbhai Valjibhai, residing in chachka village of chuda taluka, made an indigenous harrow that be easily fitted in bullet motorcycle. This harrow can easily remove weeds of the farms and with the help of bullet motorcycle, insecticides can be sprayed. This process saves time as well as labour cost. To draw harrow, small wheels are attached to the back of frame, which are adjustable. Interculturing operation can be done effectively with this bullet motorcycle, as removing of weeds ...



Sri. R. Balachandar is 45 years old and runs a lathe workshop at Pandanallur, Thiruvidaimaruthur Taluk, Thanjavur District of Tamil Nadu, India. In his lathe workshop he undertakes repair work for agriculturual implements. He has a keen interst in changing the old design of the implements to maximize their efficiency and work output. His innovations include new types of soybean hole dibblers. Soyabean Seed Hole - Dibbler: The existing soyabean hole dibbler model was developed by...



Sri. M.Thirumalai is 44 years old, running a lathe workshop for the past 20 years at VaddakkuMalaiyadipatti village near Rajapalayam town. He studied up to 2nd standard. He could not go to school due to his family circumstances. He then joined a lathe workshop. Due to his long experience in the lathe workshop he is well versed in various types of engineering work. He once noticed a tractor mounted maize sheller 7 years back. He wondered how its efficiency could definitely be improved upon. Hi...



Sri Pasupathy Pandian is 65 years old ex-serviceman in Kuttam village in Nellai District. He has developed many prototypes of implements for using the raw materials from palmyrah tree. He feels that such steps will lead to conservation of palmyrah trees (I) Palm leaf / Coconut leaf Mat making machine These mats are produced in millions by hand by rural artisan, who is able to make only a substance living out of this handicraft. Description of Machine: It comprise...



Shri. Pandiyan, 36, has been involved in his family profession of rope making. His family members have been involved in this profession for the last 2 generations. Pandiyan has not been to school and has from childhood been involved in rope making. Over the last 17 years he did ropemaking by hand. He had an occasion to visit Singampuneri village and saw a new machine used for rope making. At that time it cost Rs. 2000/- and he didnt have much financial backing for purchase of the machine. How...



Shri. Thirumaran is 47 years old farmer living in Puliankulam village, Madurai District of Tamil Nadu. He is a post graduate and has been farming for the past 10 years. He purchased a power tiller for support in agricultural operations. Due to non-availability of labour, he used to drive the tiller himself. While using this tiller he encountered several problems. For example for taking the power tiller from one place to another, there was no provision for seating arrangements and also the pow...



Low-cost, labour-saving Seed Drill The tractor-mounted seed drill has 6 to 11 tines, and it costs Rs.18, 500. It can cover one hectare in 2 hours. In these seed-drills the steel seed-pipes can be changed to suit the seeds of different size. The implements can be fabricated with local materials, and this sturdy implement needs little maintenance. Any repair can be attended to locally, according to Mr. S. Gnanamani, one of three sons of this enterprising farmers, who fabricates al...



Simple Coffee Pulper Mr. P. Sudhakar of Nagappan Motor works in Periyakulam, Theni District has developed a Coffee berry pulper to extract Coffee bean separately without any damage to the bean. This is a simple hand operated device, which is very compact in size. It can be easily dismantled into small units, transported and reassembled in a place where it is needed for the purpose. The components and the materials required Sl. No. Description 1) 2.1/4" Angle 2) 2....



Usually men and women laborers are manually engaged for paddy winnowing operation. Using the advantage of naturally blowing wind performs all the winnowing operations. Sometime there will not be good blow of wind and therefore winnowing operation will be delayed. Nowadays in Tamil Nadu the Govt. procurement system insist on clean paddy for procuring from farmers and the need for quick method of winnowing is almost needed everywhere. The innovator Sri. Ganesh has designed this machine by spend...



Sri. Ganesh has designed tractor drawn puddler for levelling the wetland. The puddler is mounted with the cultivator links of the tractor. This tractor mounted puddling operations is carried out during the las ploughing. The puddler has 11 x 2 frame with thin blades. During the puddling operation the thin blades gets overloaded with mud and tilted or broken. To avoid this the innovator aimed to split long puddler in 2 parts. Advantages By using this puddler the cost is saved ; bull...



Palm leaf sizing machine is operated by 0.25 HP motor to tear the palm leaves longitudinally in few seconds. This is described. 1. It makes the palm leaf sizing speedily. 2. Less time consuming.



Motion and Voice Making Traffic Signal Traffic signal is usually understood by the light signals. However this could not be used by blind people. In his new design it has cut out of human and it lift its hands in the direction it wants to execute. It also gives voice saying that " go left or right etc ". It will cost Rs. 7000 for installation. His prototype has been displayed in many exhibitions over the last 2 years.



After the harvest of the planter crop, ratoon is being allowed by the farmer as a second crop in sugarcane. Weeds are being infesting the ratoon crop for 3 months continuously. Manual weeding is done for thsi Rs.100 to Rs.1200 is given as wages for manual labour. By using this implement weeding operation is being done at the cost of Rs.500 only per acre. Thus ther is a saving of Rs.500 to Rs.700 per acre. Apart from this, leafy weeds are being incorporated in the soil. This adds organic matte...



In recent years, Tamil Nadu Government has given power tillers to farmers under subsidized schemes. Along with the power tillers accessories are being given for puddling, ploughing. Farmers are growing green manure crops and they are ploughing the crops insitu. For this suitable implement is needed by the farmers. For this a rotovator has been designed for the power tiller. By using this rotavator the green manure is incorporated in the soil and at the same time the land is brought in to good...



For taking the power tiller to far away fields the operator has to trek the distance by walk along with the powre tiller. The operator gets tired at the time of reaching the spot for operation. As simple device has been designed for taking the power tiller on the roads By this the operator can sit on the single wheel attachment & drive the power tiller safely to the field without any drudgery.



The problems identified were: All farmers are raising paddy crops more or less same time during the season. So there is heavy labour shortage during that period. Yield from transplanted crop is comparatively lesser than direct sowing method. Tillering is more in direct sowing paddy crop; attain maturity well in advance i.e., before 10 days in the direct sowing method.Cost of cultivation is high in transplanting of paddy.With this idea he contacted Mr.M. Gopal who is running a lathe wor...



Single Bullock Drawn Weeder Sri. Dhanaraj has developed a weeder, which can be drawn by a single bullock. Usually one pair of bullock is engaged in ploughing or weeding operations by farmers. Now a days due to labour problem in weeding, the farmer has experimented a design over the last 10 years. This has resulted in designing new weeder by using a single bullock. Method of Operation 1. Single bullock is sufficient for weeding operations. 2. It covers 2 acres of land in a...



Sri. Kulandaivelu ( 71) has been using bullocks for forming irrigation channel bunds. Due to maintenance problem of bullocks he thought of designing "Tractor mounted Bund Former". With the help of a local lathe workshop mechanic he has designed the equipment. For the last four years he has been using this Bund former. This has also been replicated by more than 10 farmers. Operation of Tractor drawn Bund former This Bund former can able to cover 5 acres in one hour for forming bunds...



Sri.Kumar is a farmer owning 4 acres of land. He is cultivating millets and pulses. Farmers in this area will start sowing after ploughing the land followed by levelling the field by using wooden leveller. The wooden leveller was a bullock drawn model, which requires 1 person to stand above the leveller for giving grip and sufficient weight for pressing the soil. This will make the levelling process very cumbersome. Sri. Kumar has designed iron leveller by using old wheel axil and fitted with...



The load lifter is an iron shaft up to a length of 6 feet attached with the tractr working on hydraulic principle. It lifts upto half ton capacity and up to a height of 7 feet. By using this load lifter one can load or unload gunny bags filled with agricultural produce in a tractor while transporting them for marketing.



Farmers used to take out the coconuts from the whole nuts harvested from the coconut trees. For peeling out the coconut from the whole nut, crowbar is used. Instead of taking out the coconut from the wholenut Mr. Duraisamy developed an iron cutter. By using this cutter the wholenut can be split into two halves. Then they can be used for extracting the oil or for culinary purpose. At present he is fitting a motor with 1/2 hp or 1 hp so that the cutting of nuts can be mechanised. He is also adv...



For some time Mr. Batcha has been involved in drilling operations for the purpose of installing borewells. In some areas when the soil profile is sandy the conventional drilling machine is not efficient. He thought of using ordinary 5HP oil engine for the purpose of drilling bore hole of 2" - 4" dia. He makes a pit o f 2-21/2 depth in the place where a bore well has to be drilled. He fills the fit with 150 - 200 lit of water. He uses 5 HP oil Engine to suck the water thro footvalve.. He takes...



Palm leaf / Coconut leaf Mat making machine These mats are produced in millions by hand by rural artisan, who is able to make only a substance living out of this handicraft. Description of Machine: It comprises body frame 2 palm leaf folders a ,at roller a cross pave section 2 pedal levers in left and right It enables an skilled operator with an unskilled person to produce about 6 mats of 2x4 it size in a hour. These mats can be used for packing purpose for items like fish,...



Usually prawn ponds are 0.6 ha size .Already there is a oxygen feeding machine exists which costs Rs.15,000./ This machine is pedal type kept on surface level of water and operated by a oil engine. This pedal type machine stirs or churns water and push oxygen to other side of the pond. But it has to be shifted for 4 course of time in the pond or a single engine to be moved to the other courses after every 5 hours of running or 4 engines are needed at four courses. Also it has low capacity.Dif...



Land leveler In paddy cultivation, land levelling is an important farm practice before transplanting. Now-a-days ploughing by the draught animals is time consuming and expensive. He found it very difficult to level the field after ploughing by animals. So he started thinking of attaching a land leveler with power tiller to reduce the difficulty. One end of the leveller was attached to a L shaped rod and another end to the rotar. So the farmer can stand on the leveller and levelling wil...



To increase the life period of the existing model Mr. Manivannan simply advises that the farmers had to frequently change Blade, Worker shaft, Crankshaft, 35 bearing weights since all the items were made with cheap Cast Iron. Based on the idea, he had developed the model with M.S. iron rods. He used thread bolts against the troublesome small bearings. It is based on the simple principle similar that of hand threshing performed by labourers in the field. It is operated by tractor PTO sh...



It consists of a flower tank, flower assembly belt, flower clamping belt, knot mechanism, cam, and a vibration system. The tank is used to store the flowers. At the bottom of the tank, flower-shaped holes are provided. The hole exists up to the conveyor belt. The flowers come out of the tank and fall on the conveyor. At the end of the conveyor belt, two more belts are constructed in the opposite direction for proper clamping of the flowers. Finally, the knot mechanism is introduced to make a ...



Amrutbhai developed the Mini Kaliu, which is exclusively used for the harvesting of the groundnut crop under severe drought condition. It is a simple twin bullock drawn implement, which is used to dig out the groundnut in hard soil condition. The implement is made up of cast iron weighing about 30 to 35 kg. The length of beam is 40 inches, which rests on two supporting wheels. These wheels help the attached blade to penetrate in the soil uniformly and easily. The thrusting of blade to a part...



The cardamom variety developed by Baby, belongs to Vazhuka type cardamom cultivars bearing purely white flowers, has high productivity than other cardamom plants and can be grown in waterlogged areas as well. The variety has wider adaptability to different shade conditions apart from having high production with good quality that is even higher than other Mysore and Vazhukka cultivars viz., Njallani, Green-bold, Palakkudi and Veeraputhara varieties, which are locally popular. It has sturdy pla...



It is a Malabar type variety with a dry yield of 4-6kg per plant and is highly suitable to Santhampara area of Idukki district, Kerala. It gives good yield even under rain fed condition and is mostly suited for areas with less shade (<40%). The medium bold and parrot green coloured capsules fetch good market price. In this variety about 60 - 80 productive tillers per clump, 50- 60 racemes per panicle and 15- 20 capsules per racemes can be observed. Due to the higher number of panicles per til...



The cotton boll picking machine is a self propelled one in the form of big chamber that removes cotton bolls from the plants. This was developed to suit the varieties of cotton generally grown in country which does not ripen at same time and is available at the affordable cost. This tractor mounted machine takes the drive from tractor PTO and can be raised or lowered to a desired height from ground level through hydraulic system. It can be easily attached to a tractor and taken to the field ...



Compared to conventional multi-crop threshers, the present innovation works at quite low speed (150 rpm against 500) to ensure least breakage. When operated using tractor PTO the present machine, which has the threshing capacity of 17q/h consumes about 2 litres of diesel per hour.



"SRISTI Drop, a herbal product for the control of pests, was thus developed on the basis of community knowledge. The product is being promoted by SRISTI Innovations and the benefits are being shared with the communities."



"NMS-2 is fine rice of brick red colour and high yield (80 q/ha) than the conventional locally popular variety (65q/ha) along with the good quality fodder. It also does not shatter and is suitable for low external input cultivation. As a variety, well adapted to the local conditions, it is highly tolerant to biotic and abiotic stress. "



"he sowed Bt cotton with some space between the two consecutive rows. To make optimum use of the space, he decided to sow suva in between the cotton rows. The same year he observed the incidence of sucking pests in other farmers’ fields while his own field was free from the pest."



He experimented with different types of herbs which increased the yield. RRS-ICAR recorded 30 per cent higher yield during their trials.



The prototype we have built is made up of simple mechanics of load distribution in which we have considered two things to reduce the load effort which are: 1. To minimize the distance between the centre of gravity of the human body and the centre of gravity of load. 2. To divide one type of stress into multiple components. In the traditional approach, there was only a single tensile component, thus the point of load falls on the particular point on the shoulders. Now, our prototype divides th...



The innovator has been doing budding of ordinary pepper with Piper colubrinum, a wild variety successfully for the past 8 years. Many farmers in Kerala and Karnataka are using budded plants based on his advice. It can be propagated by ordinary pepper with Piper colubrinum, a wild variety, which could withstand disease and pest attack. The cuttings of Piper colubrinum is collected in December and January and planted in polythene bags. Source: http://nif.org.in/innovation/propagation__of__peppe...



Laljibhai Ramjibhai Murani has been farming for the last 20-25 years. He has three acres of land and he takes lot of interest in agricultural research. He has kept one acre of land exclusively for research purpose. He has named his new variety of til as ADARSH-8 where Adarsh stands for Agricultural Development and Research Super House Seed Farm and 8 means presence of eight lines in the pod. Lalbjibhai Ravjibhai Murani is a resident of samdiyala village. He does farming for the last 20-25 yea...



• Details relating to the new variety of pigeon-pea developed by Amrutbhai Agarwat: • Variety name: gdp-1 • Harvest time: 160 days • Height of the plant: 6to 7 ft • Direction: after flowering, the plant grows erect • Pod size: 2.5 to 3 • No of grain per pod: 5 to 6 • Grain size: not uniform • Yield\20guntha : 25 to 30 maunds • Pest % -12 to 15 % • Resistant to sucking pest because of the colour • Water required during the year: water from normal rains • Price of grains: less compared to norma...



The new variety of Morisa plantain plant (banana plant) is cultivated by this innovator organically without using any fertilizers or pesticides. Developed the seed by cross breed method. Each plant can produce a banana bunch weighing 50 to 60 kgs. He also distributes the seed to other farmer.



In 1987, while walking through his fields, he observed that the trees that were closer to the water canal had a lot of honeybees buzzing around them. Later, he also found that compared to other trees, the number of fruits was much more on these trees, though their fruit was smaller. He observed this for a couple of seasons and thereafter planted one of the high-bearing trees in between four trees of the old variety. The logic was that cross-pollination between them would improve fruit-quality...



Sugar cane juice is an energetic & sweet drink, consumed during summers in all parts of our country. People go to different road side vendors to drink the juice. But, there is a continuous threat of diseases like cholera & Jaundice primarily caused by unhygienic conditions.There is no machine available in the market which can be used for extracting sugar cane juice at home. Keeping this in mind, "BachubhaiThesia" has designed the "Sugar cane juice extractor" which serves the purpose of extrac...



Dayaljibhai discussed the idea of a bullock-driven pump with Amurutbhai, the village blacksmith, and both decided to put in Rs.1000 towards making it. They bought all the material to make the equipment. For nine days and nights he worked with Amurutbhai to fabricate a pump. On the end of the ninth day, when the pump was ready and was tested; it failed. The water did not rise in the pump. Dayaljibhai was extremely disappointed. He told Amurutbhai that he would not bother him any further and wo...



Take 1 Kg dried cow dung in an earthen pot and mix it with 15 gms of tobacco. Fume this mixture keeping the earthen pot below the vegetable canopy. The smoke is enough to kill the harmful pests. The procedure is to be repeated every week. For treatment of insects and pests affecting grams (choli), grind 25 gms of tobacco, dilute with water and keep overnight. In the morning, mix it with a little quantity of coconut oil and soap solution and sprinkle on the leaves of choli.



Jita Kodar Patel (55 years), owns 65 acres of land in village Vetla. Twenty years ago at the age of 20, he inherited ancestral agricultural land following partition of family property among brothers. He had got married at the age of 10. He had dropped out of studies early, just after completing primary school. Jitabhai resides in a semi-permanent house along with his wife, daughter and son-in-law. The attached cattle shed houses one bullock and three buffaloes. He grows cotton, wheat, sesame ...



Raja bhai observed that nearly all fruit trees like guava, mangoes, chikku etc. are susceptible to attack by pests, or animals while lemon trees face no such a problem, so the thought of growing lemon trees struck him. He was also convinced about its constant use in the kitchen and its ever increasing demand. He thought it to be an economically viable proposition. He wanted to buy the best lemon grafts, however could not afford to purchase them. In 1992, he had gone to the vegetable market at...



The betel nut cutter looks a lot like a metal Charkha(wheel). It is about 6 inches (15cm.s) wide and 6 inches high and is operated by an 0.5 hp. motor. It has a metal hopper at the top where 400-500 gm. of raw betel nuts are placed; these funnel down to a blade by rotating a handle. The betel nuts are cut to the size required by the customers i.e. mainly the paanwalas. One kilogram of supari takes a minute to cut. Only one person is required to run it. In comparison, if this operation is done...



Detection is done using PIR sensor at one point, which detects the change in Infrared waves which are emitted by movement of hot-blooded animals or human. PIRs will sense movement of Nilgai and give signal to the Arduino Nano. This data will be used to trigger the Preventive actions at other point. This data is sent via RF communication. Preventive actions include flashing of lights and Siren (Hooter) after the data is received. The team also thought of adding other preventive actions at the ...



This innovation of insecticides manage the attack of ‘Mandari’ (Eriophyid mite), a kind of insect that destroys tender coconuts by hanging two plastic bottles (200-mg. capacity). In the innovation its include two hanging two plastic bottles (200 mg. capacity) with the help of a strong rope with kerosene would prevent the insecticide. The capacity of bottle can have 200ml. The bottle needs to be open and someone place the yarn to neck of the trees, it should not near the flower bunch and tende...



The problem of scales is a serious threat to pepper. He found an innovative method for preventing the scales in pepper. Pepper is the main crop cultivated in the area. Tapioca, the starchy root is preserved in Kerala by drying normally in the sun. Tapioca is hard boiled in water and then dry it. It was found that the remaining water in the vessel used for boiling does not cause serious burns. Because of the sticky nature of the water, he thought it would stay on the leaves of the Pepper killi...



Modern rice cooker don't facilitate the draining of starch water, which contains more carbohydrates that cause blood sugar and high BP Innovator has developed a cooking vessel having two compartment for making sambhar as well as rice separately but simultaneously. For cooking rice, in one compartment, innovator provided perforated plate and outflow pipe at the bottom so that one can easily drain starch water once cooking is over. • It has two pressure valves, aluminium filter, a bowl with com...



Nutmeg (Myristica Sp) is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus. It is a unisexual plant. After planting several nutmeg trees only a few grow to be female plants bearing nutmeg fruits. The remaining are male tree.



The innovator developed a decoction from tulsi (basil) leaves for preventing insect attack, especially from green worms and thrips in Cardamom. ‘Kirshna tulsi’ leaves are crushed, without adding water in it. Then one pinch of mosquito killing powder is added and this mixture is then kept in a small vessel (metal vessel may be avoided). Thereafter these vessels are placed in different parts of the cardamom field. The vessel should be kept open. This reportedly kills all the insects affecting c...



Raghuvanshi has developed a number of improved high yielding wheat, paddy, mustard and pigeon pea varieties, which are resistant to major pests and diseases and have seeds with good flavour and taste. These varieties have been developed using simple selection based on specific character features of the plants. The improved varieties of Paddy The three varieties Kudrat 1, Kudrat 2 and Lal Basmati of paddy were developed from HUVR-2-1 and Pusa basmati varieties. The number of days to maturit...



In view of the shortage of diesel/ kerosene in the villages and the electricity-crisis, Mr.Pooranlal Kushwaha developed the bullock-driven water lifting pump so that the farmers could use their existing resources and get sufficient water for irrigation and domestic work. The pump has a gear box, crown gear teeth (24” diameter), pinion teeth (4” diameter), gear 70 teeth (12“ diameter), pinion 20 teeth (2” diameter), gear shaft, bearings, shaft, pulley, V belt, centrifugal pump ( without electr...



Mr. A T Thomas, a marginal farmer, had plenty of arrowroot in his field which had to be powdered manually - this task is time-consuming and as it is also strenuous, labour demands high rates to perform this job. These challenges led him to devise a machine that would efficiently perform the grinding of arrowroot. He then developed a machine with a 16-inch wooden roller which also proved to be time-consuming. After continuous trials, he developed a more efficient machine to powder arrowroot. T...



The current situation of irrigation uses a large amount of water. For semi arid and arid condition of water availability is quite low. Drip and sprinkler irrigation is efficiently but difficult to irrigate long and dense crops by them in short duration. Chandraprabha Water Gun (Rain Gun) have the nozzle assembly have each been separately given gear connections to the transmission. Which is different from the existing sprinklers; single nozzle assemblies, which deflect the single water stream....



The device is a walnut cracking machine that can process dry walnuts of various sizes, shapes and hardness and crack them open without damaging the fruit inside. The major components of the unit consist of a feeding hopper at the top, twin rollers with specific geometries to grip the walnut and deliver impact action, bearing support, a motor with a belt and pulley drive arrangement, related electrical circuits, and a metal flap angled at 45 degree located at the bottom to slide out the cracke...



The traditional bullock cart to plough the fields become expensing as their maintains cost is quite higher. Increase in the cost of fodder for bullock, regular occurrence of drought and shortage of farm labor forced the farmers of Saurashtra area of Gujarat to look for an alternative to Bullock. Inspired by a local mode of transport, the three-wheel taxi chakdo (common transport in the Saurashtra region, innovator has developed an innovative multipurpose farming machine which can do all the o...



Innovators Oil expeller can crush all kinds of seeds using planetary gear system coupled with screw press. On an average, it saves power by 40 per cent when compared to the conventional oil expellers of the same capacity. It has higher production efficiency, which has been achieved by providing an improved and energy efficient transmission mechanism in a very compact design. Occupying just a third of the space of a conventional expeller, this machine is low on maintenance too. Energy conserva...



The traditional paddy variety, their productivity is low in the region and per unit is area is low. The (Oryza sativa L), variety can canmatures in 100 days and is disease- resistant. .The plants are taller and the leaves of this plant are longer. This fine variety has a much synchronized ear emergence and maturity of grains. As the production is higher than farmer can produced



New cardamom variety – ‘Njallani’ developed by Sebastian Joseph with the help of his son Rejimon Joseph. The variety was developed by selecting and cross pollination of berries with better characteristics features. Earlier the income was quite low due to food crops damaged by wild animals and leads to financial loss. This variety acts as cash crops and increases the income to the Sebastian Joseph and other farmers. The New cardamom variety – ‘Njallani’ can be cultivated in lower altitude too.



This cycle-operated spraying machine helps in ploughing as well as spraying operation with much ease minimising the hardship. It is low-cost and user-friendly.



All purpose grinding machine is capable of doing all household-grinding applications (wet and dry). On one side grinding can be done using the grinding stone and roller. On the other side dry pounding of soaked rice, chilly etc. using mortar and pestle can also be done. The gear allows selecting a specific function and carries it out.



Agriculture products which are perishable can be preserved for longer duration of time if it dried properly. To overcome the drawback of convectional driers, the innovator created a machine in which the hot the hot air is generated separately outside the drying chamber and is conveyed upward through a separate duct by natural convection. At the top of the duct an opening is provided for the entry of the hot air to the drying chamber, where perforated trays are arranged one above the other. Ex...



The dimension of machine for making is 1 is 1-ft Square 3-ft Height And 40 Kg Weight In Dimension With This Machine 100kg Of Fresh Arrow Root Can Be Powdered In 25 Min. It can be transported In a auto rickshaw. 100kg Fresh Arrow Root Will Give 8kg Powder &amp; 1kg Powder Costs Rs. 250.



The husking of dry areca nut is done manually, which is a very tedious process and requires a large number of skilled workers. Getting skilled workers during the peak season is a challenging task for the areca nut farmers. For better peeling of dry arecanuts, Narsimha modified his earlier arecanut husking machine using the relative motion between the high-speed rotating cushioned discs. A 1 hp motor powers the husking disc and a blower of 2 hp power is provided to blow away the husk. The capa...



The device makes slicing faster and easy for the bakery shop that makes chips get benefitted. It has five cylinders to put banana. It has blade attached on round plate that can slice the banana. There is a holder of spin action of cylinder to keep banana vertically in it. In order to keep the banana tightly in the cylinders there is a spring load system is attached.



Photo Singh has designed a manual paddy seedling planter. Honey Bee Network discovered him during the 18th Shodh Yatra from Gangagarh to Daula in western UP (2006-07). With the back and forth movement of the machine, mechanical fingers are actuated, which pick seedlings from the tray and transplant these into the puddled soil bed. The machine currently enables farmers to plant three rows of paddy at once, but design improvements could eventually increase this figure to five, nine, or even ele...



Cardamom Drying Chamber is used to dry the cardamom and able to retain its natural green color. Cardamom is just filled in a container and not spread over a large area. It can saves time space and labour. The main part of the drying chamber is an air blower run by 1 HP motor.



It was observed that budding in Nutmeg tree for high yield. It is usually it takes 100-120 nutmegs and 800 to 1000 nutmeg mace to weigh 1 Kg. As against this, it takes only 80- 100 nutmegs and 300-350 mace of the budded variety to weigh 1 Kg A 15 year old tree yields 3500 to5000 nutmegs in a year. The Scion of nutmeg tree is budded to the stock of a forest variety.



For many decades farmers have been sowing genetically modified (GM) seeds as these seeds are much cheaper than the traditional 'desi' seeds available. GM seeds have a short term advantage of being less expensive to the farmer who is facing many hardships such as droughts and blackmarket selling. In the long term, GM seeds ruin the quality of soil which coerces the farmer to resort to using chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Not only does this reduce the quality of the crop harvested but als...



Madhav Fresh Products Mr. Yograjsinh Gohill, the Managing Director of Madhav Fresh Ltd started this venture in 2012 after years of on-ground experience in organic farming. For four years he had worked as the coordinator for “Nav Nirmann Abhyan Bhuj Kutch” in Kutch. Prior to this, he had worked as a lecturer at the Department of Social Work. A successful Entrepreneur with degrees in both Rural Studies and Social Work, he aims to provide a natural drink that has the best of both taste and quali...



Challenged by an engineer to make a machine that can remove buds from the sugarcane for the plantation purpose to minimize losses as well as time, money and seeds, Roshanlal came up with this implement. By pressing the handle, the unit removes the bud from the node of the sugarcane, which is then used for planting. As per CIAE (Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal) the technique is considered novel though they have suggested some ergonomic feasibility study. Slightly differen...



Yada Venkateshwar rao developed a machine which is self propelled and cuts the paddy as is cut manually by a sickle and puts aside for collection manually. It harvests the paddy like cutting manually with sickle. A three wheeler engine was used that consumes one litre diesel for one hour and can harvest one acre. 8-10 acres per day can be harvested thus increasing the speed of harvesting and catering to the shortage of labour which is faced by the farmer.



Mastan developed a mini tractor which is 31 inches in width and 3 feet in height is capable of working in between the rows of cotton crop with ease. All farming activities required for growing the cotton crop after its transplantation, this tractor will be able to do without any help from labour. It can also transport one ton material in its trailer. By adding various attachments, this tractor can be used for much other farming activity. The tractor is powered with 10.2 hp engine and uses mos...



"Vikram developed a long train of pulleys and belts. One end he linked to a cycle and the other end he connected the Pump. He pedaled the cycle and the pump operated in full swing. He managed to irrigate 2 acres with his sustainable innovation and harvested the crop after few months."http://www.pallesrujana.org/viikramrathore-=2014.html



"This is a machine for harvesting coconuts by operating with a remote control. The machine is fitted on the tree using two iron rings. There is a double sided robotic arm on the top portion of the machine which can be moved to all directions with remote control .On one side of the long robotic arm there is an electric cutter blade for cutting coconut bunches and coconut leaves and on the other side of the arm there is a twisting round fork for picking single coconuts by twisting. The machine ...



"This is a machine for harvesting arecanuts and spraying insecticides on arecanut tree without man climbing on tree. The machine has a long body with a knife on the top facing its sharpened portion upwards. The machine is fitted on the tree using two rings encircling the tree. A rope and a string is hanged from the machine to downwards. When the rope is pulled a spring between the rings gets tensioned and when it is released the upper ring jumps upwards on the tree. The string is for descendi...



"This is an alternative to cutting coconut manually. The device is fitted with a 1 HP motor that adjusts the speed of rotation so as to make possible to have a lever cutting blade that moves 27 times per minute. Coconuts are then moved to this blade one by one. The whole thing is made in such a way that a worker can do the labour in a convenient standing position. Coconuts are smoothly rolled through a semi-circular chaneel to the moving blade which instantly cuts them into two. "



This stripper saves cost involved in manual labour and eliminates drudgery for women and children. It processes 400 kg cotton per hour. It improves the quality of cotton. The machine is available in two models. It is available with suction feed as auxiliary attachment.



new machine for speedy weaving of mats from palm leaves. This mat-making machine would help to ease up the drudgery, increase productivity and thus help earn more revenue.



The machine functions on a very simple principle. The integument of the coconut fruit, called husk, is manually passed through a conveyer. Spiked pressure plates located inside the machine work on the husk resulting in the separation of the pith from the fibre. Fibre and pith are delivered separately from the respective outlets. Minimal damage is done to the fibre during the process. Consequently, the fibre obtained from this machine is very strong and of good quality. About 3200 husks can be...



A tinned cylindrical container is cut from the center and a rotor with metal blades is fitted to it. The rotor is attached to a motor driven by battery power from torch. Regulator is attached to a fan and a scattering machine. The quantity of seed or fertilizer scattered can be regulated with it. Seeds are fed into the machine from top. The implement weighs 800 g and costs Rs 280. A motor of tape recorder can also be used for dispersing the seeds.



The innovator has developed a tractor operated machine, which mechanically digs out the left over pods from the soil. It consists of elaborate system of crankshafts, flywheel, connecting linkages and rotating vanes on a shaft. A sieve is provided with a vibrating mechanism to filter the groundnut from the soil. As the tractor moves forward, the vanes rotate and dig into the ground, scoop and drop the soil-groundnut mixture into a vibrating storage unit with a sieve base. The system of linkage...



This is a single unit that removes dust and twigs and grades raisins by size. The machine consists of three motors and three sieves, blower, a belt and pulley mechanism and a rubber brush. The grapes are dried for 15 – 20 days and then treated with chemicals to ensure proper drying and protection from pests. The dried grapes are fed into the machine through a feeder, which has a rotor with a rubber brush. A 3 HP motor drives the mechanism. The brush hammers the dried grapes to get the small...



This machine is capable of cutting lemons ranging in size from 0.75 inches diameter to 2.5 inches diameter with the help of a spring loaded mechanism which also provides a better grip on the lemon which ensures uniformity in cutting. For packaging in smaller quantities, the lemon has to be cut into smaller pieces (12 to 16 pieces). Changes can be made in the present machine to do this as well as to grade the lemons. This results in lower cost of production.



The garlic peeling machine consists of a 2 HP electric motor, blowers, a peeling chamber, inlet, outlet, exhaust pipe and drives. The peeling chamber has a provision for garlic inlet and a shaft on which the blades are arranged in such a manner that there are six rows and each row consists of four blades placed at an equiangular distance of 90 degrees. The blades are arranged in two consecutive rows. In one row, the blades intersect vertically and horizontally, and in the other row, the blade...



a petrol-driven mechanical blower which could be mounted on the back of a jeep. The blower, fabricated in Rajkot at a cost of around Rs 12,000, could blow seeds to a distance of 15 m. Premjibhai soon adapted it for use on railway tracks as well, to broadcast seeds on the sides of the tracks. He has two machines of this kind.



The main innovative components of the Barthakur rice mill are its principal components the Sheller and the Polisher.



Patan Patola, a traditional form of silk textile that is more than 750 years old, is on the verge of extinction. This ‘dyeing’ art is currently pursued by only four families in Gujarat. Can it be saved and can production of this kind of intricate silk textile be encouraged by people living in Patan? Will the protection of this tradition under Geographical Indications help these producers in commanding a better premium in the market place and thus attract more workers and producers to this tra...



The rotary huller developed by Manoharan is an ingenious system that can be used to hull small quantities of different items simultaneously. This machine uses the principle of the inherent gravitational force of falling bodies to do the hulling, without using any electricity or fuel. The machine can be operated manually as well as electrically. Since the hollow tubes are individual and discontinuous, six different varieties of items such as spices, cereals, rice and other grains may be hull...



Safe milking of cow/buffaloes is a requirement across rural India. In rural India availability of skilled labor for milking is also a problem now days. Adding to this is the fact that milking by hand is not considered healthy or hygienic anymore. Power operated milking machines are available in the market which are very expensive, suitable and affordable only for large cattle farms. Innovator has made a manually operated as well as a power-driven milking machine that helps small farmers to m...



Each step in the Temple Border is controlled by a separate Catch Cord and is individually operated by Dobby or Jacquard. In this technique, the picks per inch and the weave in temple border and the body of the sari are equal. This technique does not employ the ?Three/two cut shuttle? style and thereby eliminates an additional manpower requirement. The steps of temple border are formed automatically by the operation of catchcompared to the traditional three cut shuttleweaving.Bhanumurthi has i...



Being a handicap himself, innovator was not able to drive four wheelers. He was deeply moved by the problems faced by physically challenged people when it comes to mobility. There were no alternatives available which could enable a handicap person to drive a four-wheeler and few car companies providing retrofitting in cars for physically challenged are costly and difficult to operate. Innovator thus developed a retrofitting, which makes driving very easier for physically challenged persons wi...



The innovation is a modification kit that can be fitted to cars for lower limb physically challenged. With the retrofitting brake, accelerator and clutch controls can be actuated with a single hand. This fitment can be retrofitted in any vehicle with a power brake. Specific illustrations are already there in art.1 Physically challenged people who do not have one or both legs can use this car efficiency. The modifications made are in brakes, clutch, gear and accelerator. All these controls are...



The cardamom variety developed by Baby, belongs to Vazhuka type cardamom cultivars bearing purely white flowers, has high productivity than other cardamom plants and can be grown in waterlogged areas as well. The variety has wider adaptability to different shade conditions apart from having high production with good quality that is even higher than other Mysore and Vazhukka cultivars viz., Njallani, Green-bold, Palakkudi and Veeraputhara varieties, which are locally popular. It has sturdy pla...



The PNS- Vaigai seed size is large compared to the local variety Njallani. The yield is higher and consistent: 900-1400 kg/acre from 1996 till date. The number of internodes (average 40-45) is higher than in the locally popular varieties. The rhizomes are bigger, bolder bearing 3-4 inflorescences each, which in turn bear around 25-32 racemes each. The rind (skin of capsule) is thin and hence the recovery percentage is higher than Njallani. In addition, there is no difficulty in post harvestin...



The produce grams gets easily sold in the market and fetches good price ranging from Rs. 1500 - 2000/quintal. The potential and worth of the variety can also be gauged from the fact that with very little effort on marketing it, it has registered a sale of about 600 quintals (year 2005) of seeds and advanced orders worth 1900 quintals (year 2006) have been already received. The variety is reported to be highly popular among the farmers across the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pra...



The variety developed by Manaram is an early maturing, less water-dependent, and is superior in taste to other local varieties. This variety takes 110-115 days after transplanting as compared to the normally cultivated varieties (125-140 days) and has higher yield (40 metric tons bulbs per hectare) than the commercially cultivated varieties (25-30 metric tons bulbs per hectare) in the area. The variety has attained wide popularity in the northern states (Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana) ...



Shri Lingamadaiah got 10 g of seeds of a unique paddy variety from a Philippines farmer. The farmer had advised him to grow this seeds in organic manner. Hence a new field was prepared for this purpose. He put all the 10 g seeds in the field from which only twelve seeds germinated. He planted one seedling/hill and in fifteen days each seedling got about 6-8 tillers. These were again removed and replanted in more spots that grew up well and started giving panicles. The uniformly grown panicles...



The new `jaiphal' (nutmeg - Myristica fragrans) variety is the result of systematic selection from the seedlings planted at Kallanode in 1971 from a collection of seeds. This collection had come from a nursery that developed nutmeg seeds originally introduced from Sri Lanka in 1946. Indian Institute of Spice Research (IISR), Calicut studied this variety in detail and has certified its superiority.



. The innovator did softwood grafting by using old jack tree as stock and another old jackfruit with very good taste and with negligible gum as scion. This was done by trial and error method. On the10th attempt, he succeeded in his experiment. He had done first successful grafting in 1988. After three years, it started yielding. But during the first year of yield, fruits dropped from the tree at immature stage itself. Next year tree bore ten fruits. When these ripened, a big surprise awaited ...



Dadaji Ramaji selected and bred the HMT rice variety from the conventional ‘Patel 3’, a popular variety of that time developed by Dr. J. P. Patel, JNKV Agriculture University, Jabalpur. He succeeded after five years of continuous study and research on a small farm owned by him without any support from the scientific community. It has an average yield of 40 – 45 quintals per hectare with short grains, high rice recovery (80 %), better smell and better cooking quality in comparison with the par...



This idea for an improved paddy variety stemmed in response to apparent problems that Indrasan faced in cultivating high yielding variety seeds procured from the Pantnagar University. Eight years back he had got a few seeds of the ‘Ratna’ variety from Pantnagar. After planting, he found that one plant was different from the others in terms of shape and structure, so he marked it and harvested seeds from this plant separately. He got eight spikes from this plant and kept the seeds in a safe pl...



Crossing many local varieties, he developed many varieties of mustard, which include Mahavir Kishan Chandravarni, Mahavir Kishan Pittavarni, Mahavir Kishan Kanka, Mahavir Kishan Harsh, Mahavir Kishan Sunahari. The maturity period of all these varieties varies from 130 to 150 days and the yield from 18 quintals per hectare to 24 quintals per hectare. All the varieties are disease resistant and high yielding.Similarly, he has developed many wheat varieties too. Mahavir Kishan Mahan, Mahavir Kis...



"This machine is made using iron pipes, iron rings, springs, pulleys ropes, knife etc. The machine is fitted on coconut tree using two rings. There are 3 ropes and a string hanging from the machine. By pulling and releasing one rope passing through a pulley of the machine, the machine climbs on the tree step by step. There are systems to pull the knife for plucking coconut from the ground and to spray insecticides."



The practice of keeping cut branches of Calotropis (Calotropis spp.) at the entrance of rain water channel in the field minimizes the striga population.



Concentrated solution of jaggery is prepared and poured in and around the grub holes to attract ants. Ants are the natural predators and help to reduce populations of white grub. A mixture of sugar and ghee or clarified butter oil is poured in the holes to attract ants.



Cultivation of groundnut after two lines of maize production in the `Kharif' season



This practice begins at the appearance of the symptoms and is continued at 7-19 days interval. Thereafter the water is filtered out and sprinkled over the chilli plants.



500 g tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) powder or snuff is mixed thoroughly in 2.5 l water. Then this solution is filled in a pump and sprayed on the crop. In case of severe infestation the mixture is sprayed once every week. Moreover, decoction of pungent chillis is also sprayed. The idea of using tobacco came to Bhikabhai the as snuff powder is regularly used by humans to destroy head-lice in hair."



Green larvae infestation leads to a heavy economic loss for the farmer due to less production of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) crop. To prevent the loss, Nathabhai Vankar uses the leaves of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) as well as one kilogram of its fruit. He thoroughly mixes the bitter gourd leaves and fruits in water and sprinkles the juice on the okra crop. This effectively controls infestation by green larvae on the crop.



A secondary stem sprouts in brinjal (Solanum melongena) plant when it attains about half metre of height. At this stage the brinjal plant becomes prone to termite attack. Arjanbhai Bharwad of village Sheel, district Amreli of Gujarat at such time allows the small pieces of aloe (Aloe vera) leaves to flow with water of irrigation channel. This eradicates the termite infestation. He learnt this method from his forefathers



Sucking pest aphids generally attack the standing crop, vegetable plants and vines. It damages leaves, flowers and stem of the plant and gets the food gradually by sucking the sap. It remain stuck to the plant, damages the crop and thus plant becomes unproductive. According to Dharmendrabhai Gorad of Pharangataa village of Junagadh district, take one kilogram fruits of neem (Azadirachta indica), which are crushed thoroughly. In this mixture, one liter of water is added and concoction is prepa...



Gram hay is useful for the preservation of gram (Cicer arietinum) seed. In the storage house, the bags of gram seed are systematically arranged over the hay layer.A second hay layer of one and half to two feet on the top of to expel air pockets. Thereby air circulation is prevented and seeds are warmed by hay heat and their germination power is retained. Learnt the method from his forefather.



Increased aphied infecatation of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) reduces its yield the aphied is va very minute pest It lands on the plant leaves & sucks leaf anested to control the pest green leaves of custured apple (Annona squamosa) are boiled in water for long, cooled filtered and the filterate is sprayed on the infested crop. The method has desceded from his forfather.



Brinjal (Solanum melongena) crop is infected with fruit and shoot-boring insects. Due to boring of leaves the plant wilts and due to boring of fruits the yield is reduced. Control of such insects is necessary. For this purpose, carom (Trachyspermum ammi) and dillseed (Peucedanum graveolens) are powdered and mixed with ash. This mixture is sprayed on the crop. The spraying controls infestation by shoot-boring insects. Many farmers in rural Surat use this traditional practice.



Larval infestation in the sapota (Achras sapota) crop leads to a heavy loss of production due to sucking and eating of fruits and leaves by the pest. To control larval infestation, Khatubhai Patel prepares a juice of the leaves of basil (Ocimum sanctum ) after grinding and then adds 500 g water to the mash. This solution should then be sprinkled on the peach crop. This traditional technique completely eliminates the larvae.



Paddy (Oryza sativa) seed for raising plants/seedlings should be kept for 24 hours in rain water containing manure. The paddy seeds are thus washed in rainwater. The leaves of pungent toothbrush tree (Salvadora persica) should then be mixed with the paddy seeds and tightly secured in a quilt/gunny bag. Soon small sprouts, of half an inch, arise from the seeds. At the same time, the leaves of tooth-brush tree are spread in the area of paddy culture. Tiny paddy plants grow in the culture within...



Insect infestation and blight affect the crops of rice (Oryza sativa), mustard and lucern causing loss of production. These insects thrive in cold and humid weather. For the control of insects and blight, Ratilal Patel prepares a mix of 1 kg castor (Ricinus communis) oil and 20 kg ashes of dung-cake. This mix should be sprinkled on the crops. The medication shows its effect within 2-3 days. About 80% insects are controlled by this technique. The use of 20 kg of the mix is sufficient for one b...



There are several ways to preserve grain for long. To store edible grain for one year and more, Gandabhai Patel has a simple method. He mixes 250 gram seed of red chili (Capsicum annuum) with the grain proposed to be stored. But it will be better if the grain is stored in a cylindrical structure such as drum or vessel. Such a structure and the chili seed have a greater scope to preserve the grain from insects and so on. It goes without saying that after ensuring the two requirements the mou...



When cumin (Cuminum cyminum) crop is sown repeatedly in the same field, the yield of crop is reduced. For increasing the yield, Mansukhbhai Patel takes the flour of pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) . It is sprayed on the cumin crop in the proportion of two mounds of flour per one "bigha" land. This increases land fertility and controls diseases and insect infestation. The yield of cumin also increases.









White ant infestation mostly occurs in black soils that are generally wet with high humidity. In such lands, Dhamajibhai Dihora suggests the spreading of common salt to prevent white ant infestation. Besides, he makes heaps of dry pasture around the field so as to draw the white ants and leave the crop alone. This is a traditional method used by farmers in the Sosiya area in Bhavnagar district.



White ants attack the root and trunk of the plants and trees and leave horticulture crops dry. This infestation mostly occurs in the summer season. As prevention is better than cure, Roopsangbhai Kodipatel in fact prepares the crop land to ward off white ants. He makes a solution of 1 kg leaves and stalks of crown flower (Calotropis gigantean) in water. Then he makes small pits at regular intervals in the horticulture field. He pours the solution into the pits and ensures it lasts for some t...



Seeds or grains of wheat (Triticum aestivum) can be stored for long time by storing them along with the wheat husk.



Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) crop, which is to be irrigated at that site, 5 feet long, 3 feet broad and 3 feet deep pit is made and it is filled with the water and onion (Allium cepa). Before the onset of monsoon season, three days prior the initiation of striga (Striga asiatica) weed, 100 kg castor cake (Ricinus communis) is placed in that pit and allowed to ferment. This quantity is sufficient for 1 ha of land. The water is passed from this pit as and when irrigation is required. One p...



Newly transplanted finger millet (Eleusive corocana) are mainly affected by stem borers. Infested crop shows symptoms of yellowing and dead heart. The infest plant do not bear penicle, or the penicle may remain empty. Finally affecting the yield. To control these stem borers, 500 g of fresh water fishes are packed in a air tight container with 4 to 5 liters of water. These containers with fishes are placed in a lonely place and allow the fishes to decompose. A typical smell of decomposed fi...



A typical solution to ward off the breeding of the insects in the buds of the plants consists of neem (Azadirachta indica), turmeric (Curcuma longa), cows urine and cowdung. Pound neem leaves 3 kg into fine powder, add turmeric 300 g, cow urine 5 l, and cowdung 5 kg. Add water 20 L, mix well, and leave the solution to stand for two days. After filtering this solution through a cloth, dilute in 200 l of water and spray on the crop. Apart from bringing the insects under control, presence of...



Rice horn caterpillar is a serious pest of paddy crop (Oryza sativa), it feeds on leaves and young penicles. This all results in yield loss. To control this insect pest, 500 g seeds and one kilogram leaves of castor (Ricinus communis) are fine grinded and one liter of concentrate extract is prepared from it. About 5 L water is added in this concentrate extract and sprayed on the pest affected crop. The remedy controls about 50 % of pest in paddy crop.



Whenever crops are affected by pests, the stalks become weak and the grains become black in appearance. Even the plant develops a black colour and the yield decreases. To protect the crops from damage, the farmers of the Dangs region extract 2-3 l of juice from the fresh fruits of the mahua (Madhuca indica) tree. They then add four liters of water to it. This concoction is sprayed over the field. On spraying this mixture over a one acre farm leads to about 50% control over the aphid infestati...



Left over tea (Camellia sinensis) leaves and buttermilk are mixed and put around the curry tree (Murraya koenigii) to improve growth.



Seed treatment with Neem (Azadirachta indica) helps to keep away stray animals



Naranbhai Sarvaliya confirms prevention is better than cure. Even before transplanting mango (Mangifera indica) and black plum (Syzygium cumini), he puts 2 kg of castor (Ricinus communis) oil cake in the pits dug up for transplanting either mango or black plum saplings. This he does to ensure that termites do not attack the roots of the two important fruit trees. The addition of oil cake is intended to prevent possible termite attack on the fruit trees. Termites apparently do not relish the b...



Rats eat away the cotton capsules [pods], the stalks, roots, etc. of the crop and create a lot of damage. Nanji Bhagwanbhai Chauhan of Sosia village, Bhavnagar has adopted a very interesting method to control this epidemic. They put pods of kuvech (Mucuna pruriens) in the rat holes so that when the rats come out they come into contact with it. The minute fibres on the pods create a lot of itching if they fall on some part of the body or if they are touched, so the rat starts running around a...



The epidemics of diamond back moth starts from 25 to 30 days of cabbage (Brassica oleracea Var. Capitata) plantation. The catter pillar proceed from the upper leaves to the inner core of the cabbage. Consequently the market value of cabbage is reduced. Farmers call these worms the ""Hagariya"" worms because there is an accumulation of lot of excreta outside the hole. For this per 2.4 ha of crop mix, juice of 1.5 kg lime, five litre buttermilk and 20 L water and sprayed on the crop, before th...



To prevent grasshoppers and aphids from destroying the sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) or chastiya crop, use one bagful of the branches of crown flower (Calotropis gigantean). The branches along with leaves are soaked in a big vessel containing water. This becomes the stock solution for spraying on the sorghum crop. Before spraying the solution, take out the used branches and place them at random in the field. This furthers the spraying effort. Farmer Naranbhai Sarvaliya has adopted this method ou...



To prevent the grasshopper from destroying the pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) crop, the seeds are first soaked in the juice of wind killer (Clerodendrum phlomidis). The seeds are then sown. The grasshopper keeps off such a field. Thus the destruction caused by the grasshopper is controlled. Besides, adopting the practice will increase pearl millet production. Many people have adopted this traditional method.



Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) is cultivated in semi-arid areas of Gujarat. However, one of the major limiting factors in its productivity is bacterial blight disease. Disease is favoured by humid and cloudy weather, especially off season raining at flowering stage of the crop. To control this disease, proper care is required at the very critical stage. About one kilogram of sugar is mixed with 5 kg of salt and grinded to powder. The powder thus obtained is dusted on the cumin crop on the cloudy ...



A quarter to one feet pieces of alangium (Alangium salvifolium) and organic manure are layered on each other for three to four times in trench and compost is ready after 8 months of buried. This compost is layered, around the trunk of mango (Mangifera indica) tree. It will induce early flowering and fruiting in mango tree. This is a traditional practice learnt from forefathers.



Brilliant gardenia (Gardenia resinifera) is also called as "jangali champo" in the forest area of Dang and Chhota Udaipur. This plant is 3 to 6 ft in height and bears white coloured fragrant flowers in the month of October. Fruit setting starts during the month of December and lasts up to the month of February. Seeds are light green in colour. About 150-250 g brilliant gardenia seeds and 100 g ocher are crushed and added to 1 L of water. This mixture is smeared on the trunk of mango (Mangifer...



Ergot disease causes heavy loss to the pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) crop. For the control of the disease, collect equal quantities of the leaves of wind killer (Clerodendrum phlomidis) and worm killer (Aristolochia bracteata) and extract the juices. Soak the seeds of pearl millet in this compound juice and dry them in the sunlight. Then sow these dried seeds. So treated ergot disease will not affect the crop which is a traditional method.



For every 10 kg pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) seed, Rubabhai Rathod takes one kilogram worm killer (Aristolochia bracteata) plant and keeps the plant soaked in two litres water for some time. He filters this solution and sprinkles it on pearl millet seeds. The odour of the worm killer in the seed keeps away ""khapedi"" (grub) and secures the plant through the seedling stage. Thus ""khapedi"" infestaion in sprouting crop of millet and sesame (Sesamum indicum) can be prevented.



Cotton gets offected by the bloat pots when cotton gets to three month old its affected areas according to makhwana farmer head 1 kg situated leaves in a vessel so that only four liter out to 10 L after allow it to cool sprinkle 10 L of water mixed with 100 gm of this medicine over cotton field cotton contineus to sprinkleing every 8 to10 days the treatment depennds on the age the crop used treatment in areastral and is contineus for years. Everybody inthe village known this is learnt from oi...



There are a large number of mango orchards in the Valsad district of Gujarat. These are host to a variety of mangoes. Many a times, because of the fruit fly menace, rotting sets in the mango (Mangifera indica) fruits just as they near ripening. To prevent such damage to the crop, the farmers plant shrubs of jungali tulsi (Ocimum basilicum) and krishna tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) in the mango orchards. They believe that the medicinal properties of the tulsi plant prevent the fruit flies from affec...






In Valsad district of Gujarat, to keep disease free lemon (Citrus limon) plant, two inch long rusty nails of iron are placed on the trunk of lemon. Innovator is using this treatment at the interval of three to four years. He believed that by this technique, the lemon plant can be made disease free and more production of fruits can be obtained.



The farmers Shri Bhavanbhai said that to stop fox eating berries, thorns are put the perimeter of the farm. The entire village uses this traditional method.



Cultivation of cotton and tuvar is done on a large scale in the Valia taluka of Bharuch district. About seven to eight years ago immense epidemic of various pests like green larvae, lashkari larvae, parasites etc was seen in cotton. The farmers used chemicals indiscriminately, still insects were not controlled. How would they get controlled? They grew in the atmosphere of these chemicals so it was like tonic to them. In this situation Ahmedbhai Kadiwala, Gamalsinh Rana, and other farmers of ...



Cumin seed (Cuminum Cyminum) seeds are scattered all over the field. This is a useful method that ensures burying of the seeds in the ground and saving of time. However, sometimes many of the seeds may remain above the ground, and when the field is watered, the seeds are washed to any corner of the field, where they collect. The growth of all these seeds at one location results in improper growth and causes loss to the farmer. Using small branches of spunge tree (Prosopis Cineraria) or tooth ...



During the growth phase of rice paddy (Orysa sativa) saplings, deadly stem borers known as ""gabmaro"" worms start appearing. They cling to the inner wall of the stem and the length could be as much as 30 centimetres. These insects prevent healthy rice spikes emerging out of the stem. The insects are usually green in colour with black spots in their body. Patel learnt of a very effective method from Ambalal Jivabhai, a senior resident of Rasalpur village in Thasra taluka of Gujarat, to con...






Use leaves of sun hemp (Crotalaria juncea) and toothbrush tree (Salvadora persica) are added in the soil before planting of onion and garlic crops. For this practice approximate, two tractor load of sun hemp and toothbrush leaves are enough for one acre land. This practice increases crops yield. This practice is learnt from forefathers.



The humidity in the air following the first rains during the monsoon season makes the environment ideal for the breeding of various insects. Several species of insects like the fruit fly, sucking insects, and Castor semilooper insects abound and attack fruit crops. These insects damage the jujube (Ziziphus jujuba), mango (Mangifera indica), guava (Psidium guajava) as well as other vegetable crops. To control extensive damage to the crop, Shah makes use of powders of tamaku or tobacco (Nicot...



To increase the yield in paddy (Oryza sativa) crop, seedlings needs to be healthy. and so following method has proved to be efficient in increasing the yield of crop.Waste grass, weeds, and other plant material on the land to prepare seedbed are burned. This is known as raking. The process of raking helps in burning the residues of diseases and the soil insect pest. Thereafter, 2 cart load of husk of castor (Ricinus communis) is added to the soil and watered. The material added gets decompos...



Gram (Cicer arientinum) is consumed as vegetable which fetches more price compared to dry grams. Manually harvest needs more time and altimately more cost, so to reduce the cost of separating green pods of gram from plant, iron nails of 3 inches are fitted on the wooden block and the plant with pods is allowed to pass through it. This separates the green pods from the plant. Method is very efficient and a single person can separate about 450 to 500 kg of green pods a day.This is self develop...



Damage in field crops like castor (Ricinus communis), sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) and maize (Zea mays) is due to stray animals. To control this problem at the time of sowing of these crops, the two line of castor (Ricinus communis) seeds sown around the field as border crops which are coated with three days old sour buttermilk. Animals are away from the field due to foul smell. This practice is learnt from forefathers.



Farmers of Junagadh district are sowing garlic (Allium sativum) at a distance of 4.5 inches. It is not possible to sow at such a short distance with normal sowing instruments. In the normal sowing instrument, distance between two jaw is 9 inches, so to sow the seed at 4.5 inches, the farmer has to sow 1st normally and then again sow the seed in between two already sown rows to maintain the distance of 4.5 inches. But in second sowing the bullock pulling the sowing implement may walk on t...



We should be careful before storing the grains in the granary. Due to the store grain pests, the keeping quality of grain deteriorates. The exiguous holes are observed on the grains by which the grains are not used for the food purpose. Dudabhai Arjanbhai Pandav of Dholka taluka of Ahmedabad district uses, traditional method for storage of wheat (Triticum aestivum) grains. After harvesting of wheat crop, the chaff is left. This chaff is tightly filled in a room to settle. From the middle por...



Nut grass (Cyperus rotundus) is a natorious weed, observed all the year round, but is more prominant during monsoon season. It has tubers at the base, which remains dormant in the off season and gets active during monsoon on availibility of moisture. To control this weed in field crops, the shells of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) (that remains after picking of cotton from cotton bolls) are spread on nut grass weed infested land. Ploughing is done to mix the cotton shells with the weed infested...



In the crop of bottlegourd new sprout stops developing and this affects the yield if there is continuous rain, poor soil type and similar other factors. Under such circumstances, farmers try out large number of practices to tackle the problem. Shri Dineshbhai Jivabhai of Hatrod village of Sabarkantha District uses buttermilk and castor oil (Ricinus communis) to improve the productivity of bottlegourd. According to the information provided by the farmer use 10 L two days old buttermilk and 5 L...



If the papaya (Carica papaya) crop does not fructify, it means a heavy loss for the farmer who is banking on it. When he was faced with the problem of his papaya crop not flowering or bearing fruit, Maganbhai Sheladiya hit upon a good idea. He put a coconut shell and pressed it hard on the crown of the papaya tree. To his pleasant surprise a strange thing happened. Soon tender leaves, followed by flowers, started growing from the groove of the trunk. Maganbhai explains that by pressing down c...



To avoid wilting in groundnut, Hasmukhbhai Patel of Chorvad uses lime water. He sprays 200 g lemon juice mixed in 15 litres water on the groundnut crop. This not only stops the green leaves from turning yellow but also leads to resistance against wilt disease and insects. The solution should be sprayed once a week throughout the groundnut season. On our second visit, Hasmukhbhai told us that he stores grains with neem leaves for longer shelf life, a well-known practice. He has made the plough...



There is high incidence of heliothis in the crop of tur (Cajanas cajan) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). This pest creates tremendous damage by feeding on the pods and seeds of tur and balls of cotton. In the current year the farmers of Sabarkantha and Kheda have uprooted and destroyed their 3 months old crop due to the heavy infestation by the pest. Shri Laxmanbhai Radadiya of Jetpur village of Rajkot district uses bajara flour to control this pest. According to the information provided by t...



It is very important to select the good seeds to have higher production. Where farmers are using desi seeds there are many practices prevalent to selection of good quality seeds. For seed using bulb as the seed does production the cultivation of onion. In the North Gujarat the crop of onion grown for the seed production is known as Bhungada. Shri Gemabhai Chavada of Paniwada village of Bhavnagar District uses an interesting technique for the selection of he bulbs for seed production of onion...



There are a number of practices to ripen bananas. Dineshbhai Prajapati from Jeetpura village of Anand taluka uses lime water to ripen bananas. According to him, for 20 to 25 bananas, 50 gm lime should be diluted in 3 l water and the solution should be sprayed over the fruit. The bananas ripen in 3-4 days. After plucking the banana bunch from the tree, lime spraying should be done in the night. This is done just once. It is a traditional practice.



Nagaraju, a potato farmer has developed an innovative practice of sowing seeds. This technique saves on labour and also gives a good yield. He noticed that seeds which were accidentally left lying around were also germinating well. So in this new technique, the seeds are sown using the broadcast method and the soil is then levelled over the seeds using a wooden plank drawn by a pair of bullocks. Manure is applied before levelling the soil and it is ensured that all the seeds are covered in so...



For the control of this insect and its larvae, Hamirbhai Parmar creates a small, spicy but elaborate fire, the smoke of which rids the vegetable plants of insects. He lights the fire by gathering dry grass and bark of coconut (Cocos nucifera) early in the morning (4-5 a.m.). In the fire, he puts twigs of black mustard, swallow wart and neem tree as well as husks of garlic, onion and fenugreek. This traditional practice kills the insects if it is carried out four times in as many days. Farmers...



The infestation of sucking pest (aphids) is seen in fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) when the crop is one-and-a-half to three months old. Some farmers call it "sakariya".Sometimes the sucking pest aphids cause 70-80 % damage in crops like fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and mustard (Brassica juncea). According to the farmer, when the wind is mild in the morning, green or dried leaves of eucalyptus are burnt in the farm to create smoke. If needed, the practice is repeated after one week. As it spreads,...



If smut disease occurs in the sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) crop, Vallabhbhai Patel suggests planting of seeds of Bishop weeds (Trachyspermum ammi) along with the seeds of broom corn. This prevents smut disease in the crop of sorghum. He learnt of this technique from his elders.



During rainy season (Sep–Nov) there is usually a growth of mushrooms in the collar region of the trees of acid lime. If these mushrooms are not controlled it will lead to death of trees. Farmers in this area usually apply Bordeaux mixture for control of mushrooms. Bordeaux mixture needs 4-5 days to suppress the growth of mushrooms. Anthonisamy has found an alternative method of control by using locally available materials. 2 kg of Aloe vera and 1 kg garlic are crushed and ground well by addin...



If the gram crop (Cicer arietinum) is affected by green larvae, the plants become dry as larvae suck all the nutritive elements. To control infestation by green larvae, Rameshbhai Damajibhai spreads juice of the leaves of wind killer (Clerodendrum phlomidis) in the crop area before the planting of seeds. This practice successfully prevents infestation by the green larvae. He learnt of this technique from his elders.



Forty year old Nagjibhai Bachubhai Rathore of Bhavnagar district uses the fruits of ingoria (Balanites roxburghii) to induce flowering in brinjal 476 (Solanum melongena) and chilli (Capsicum annuum). When brinjal and chilli plants are weak, insufficient flowering occurs. Nagjibhai collects 50-60 ingoria fruits which he soaks in water for 24 hours. Then he removes the skin of the fruits and prepares an extract from it. He mixes 250 ml of this extract in 10 l of water. The number of sprays requ...



Centurion Noorbai Ismailsha Sultansha Shamdar Fakir in Jamnagar district continues with an age-old grain storage practice. First, a pit about eight to ten feet deep is made. Ear heads of pearl millet are placed at the bottom of the pit in a layer of about half a feet. The grains that need to be stored are then placed in a layer of one feet. The ear heads, in another layer of half a feet height, are kept on top of the grains. This sequence is repeated several times. The final layer is made of ...



First, Nanjibhai Bhani makes small pieces of stalks of crown flower (Calotropis gigantea) weighing 600 g and soaks these in 10 l of water for 10 to 15 days. After a fortnight, this water is sprayed on the affected chilli (Capsicum annuum) plants. The treatment controls as much as 80 % of white ant infestation and saves the crop by that much. Nanajibhai learnt this technique from a fellow-farmer.



Usually farmers apply urea to boost the growth of paddy seedlings in the nursery stage. This practice is followed 10 days before pulling out the seedlings for transplanting. Mugundan wanted to replace chemical fertilizer with organic means. He tried using groundnut cake and cow’s urine. It worked well. Mugundan has sown 400 kg of paddy seeds (Ponni variety) in 50 cents for raising a nursery. Twelve days before pulling out the seedlings, he soaked groundnut cake (10 kg) in cow’s urine (20 lit)...






Infestation of green larvae leads to a loss of crop production due to their sucking out nutritive elements from the leaves as well as pulses. Therefore, Nathabhai Vankar suggests a solution formed by soaking two kilogram mahuva (Madhuca indica) flowers in two litres of water. This solution is then sprayed on the crop of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) for the control of green larvae infestation. This successful technique has been learnt by the farmer from hi...



Take one measure quantity of paddy which is about 2 kg, is to be taken from the stock of paddy proposed to store. The measured paddy to be heated under dry condition. This heated paddy become puffed. This heated paddy can be mixed with the other paddy which is to be stored without pest attack. If the paddy is stored in this manner, the pest attack will be prevented during storage period.



Nanje Gowda, a farmer was growing red gram using the conventional practice of sowing the seeds in straight line furrows. However, this results in dense plantation and low yield, which did not improve despite the use of fertilizers, pesticides and weeding practices. He then tried a new practice. The land is ploughed both horizontally and vertically to create furrows. The ploughing is done in such a way that there are holes formed at the intersection of furrows. Two to three seeds and two handf...






According to traditional knowledge of the tribal people in Dang district, the branches of Banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) promote flowering in plants. Tulasyabhai Somabhai Bagul has adopted this practice. About 500 gm of tender branches of banyan is mixed with two liters of water. This mixture is sprayed on the plant using a sprayer, during the flowering stages. He has been practicing this in his fields for urad and paddy crops. Tulasyabhai is known as a bhagat in the village. He also has kn...



He developed a formula by using locally available materials for coating the seeds. It includes cow dung 200 kg, Panchagavya 2 L, Leaves of Mango, Glyricidia, Thumbai (Leucas aspera), Tulasi, Neem each 10 kg. Are chopped and immersed in the solution. Keep it for 2 weeks and allow for fermentation in a plastic barrel or trough. All are thoroughly mixed and stirred well. He developed a mixing tool for applying the paste over the paddy seeds. He designed aluminium tray of 6 x 1 feet size and hole...






Circular ridges of about 3 to 4 feet height with 6 feet diameter was made at 10 feet distance between the ridges. It is a raised bed for raising vegetables in order to avoid stagnating water during rainy season. This will avoid problems created due to excess moisture and also facilitating seepage of water for easy drainage. He is sowing red amaranths, snake gourd, bitter gourd, beans, kovaikai (Coccinia indica). If he is planting bitter gourd in the first year then he will change the crop in ...



Aphids cause extensive damage to fruits and vegetables, especially during the flowering stages. They suck out the sap from the flowers and cause them to dry up. Mohanbhai Lalabhai Jala uses the tender leaves of kerda (Capparis decidua) to overcome this problem. Five kgs of tender leaves of kerda is boiled in seven litres of water. The mixture is sprayed on the crop three to four times. The mixture is effective, not only against aphids, but also other sucking pests. Mohanbhai came across this ...



Green larvae suck out the nutritive elements from the leaves of crops leaving them yellowish and drooping and eventually dropping off the plant. Besides, the larvae also eat up the pulses being formed. To control the pest, Kantibhai Vankar suggests that a two-kilogram solution of bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) be sprinkled on the crop of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) at the time of flowering. This prevents the green larvae infestation before pulses formation. Subsequently, pulses of good qua...



He cultivates many traditional varieties of vegetables and he identified one traditional bhendi variety (Pachai bhendi) which is resistant to pest and disease and harvesting of pods prolonged upto 3 months and 2 month in the modern variety. His variety fetches more prize like Rs. 5 extra per kg. due to good taste and look



Mohanbhai Jhala from Kalesar village of Mahemdabad Taluka uses the leaves of Toothbrush tree (Salvadora persica) to augment fertility in his farm. Sprinkling the powdered leaves of (Salvadora persica L.) in the furrows of crops like brinjal, chilly, potato makes the crop healthy, reduces the infestation of pests and the effects of wilt. Using the leaves with organic manure is beneficial even during the cultivation of cereal crops like paddy, millet, wheat. About 20 kg (Salvadora persica) leav...



Green larvae suck out the nutritive elements from the leaves of the Indian cotton crop. Once affected the leaves are prone to droop and drop down. The green larva also eats up cotton developing in the shells of Indian cotton (Gossypium herbaceum) plants. This leads to terrible loss of production for the grower. So, to avoid the fate befalling most of his fellow-growers, Kantibhai Vankar sprinkles two litres of the milk of milk hedge (Euphorbia neriifolia) diluted in three litres of water per ...



For the vegetable crop grown in pandal system he developed smoking method of pest control which is very effective he claims. He is making smoking by using dried agricultural waste materials at every alternate days.



The groundnut fields are immediately ploughed after the monsoon crop and the furrows are kept exposed till the onset of the next monsoon. It is believed that the fine soil and dust deposited on the furrows by the wind during summer benefits the groundnut being planted in the same furrows. Sometimes farmers incorporate small pieces of bricks in the soil as an alternative to trap wind-borne soil.



After mango fruits are plucked from the trees, they are usually kept for ripening for about 10-12 days. Fruits at this stage are very susceptible to pest attack. To control this situation, Mr Venkataramana Bhat puts the fruits in hot water at 60-65°C for 10-12 minutes. The moth eggs laid on mangoes are destroyed, and the fruits remain fresh for longer period.



Leaves of tobacco 250 gm, soap 250 gm, are put in a vessel and 10 L of water is added. Keep it overnight. Next day diluted with water 10 times and sprayed to crops are control of all insect pests.



Farmers prepare an extract of tobacco leaves and mix it with equal quantities of bajra flour and butter milk.



Farmers scrap away the top layer of soil to the boundaries of the field with the help of the tractor drawn scrapper. However, the depth of the scrapped layer is not fixed. It depends on the slope and topography of the soil. Collected soil is used for preparing the strong bunds around the field which help in harnessing the rain water. People believe that most of the salt is removed with the upper layer of the soil. Farmer follows this practice just before the onset of the monsoon.



As informed by farmer to incerease production/yield around the palnts because of this plants growth becomes goood ans more yield of fruits occurs in this plants grows It and flowers donjotn blosom, around the plants bottom cow-dung grows better and the fuirt yield increase. This method has been tried as mentioned above, and got good result claim the farmer this method is tradtional. This method is used for kitchen-gardern in this area, so manu farmer use this this method is learnt from forefa...



As information farmer shir mangigabhai gangabhai caterpillar infestion in crop of (Oryza sativa) and (Elenie coracana) can be the following method. 500 gm of (Nymphaea pubecenus) trees bark, 1 kg of keel trees bark and 5 L of water are required for this process. the first mentional two bark to the fine-ground 5 L through filter cloth in one acres land corps, this solution be sprayed using a buck and broom by so treating caterpiller years, he used in his oryzasativa and Elensine corecana crop...






Caterpillar infestation occurs in paddy (Oryza sativa) and finger millet (Eleusine coracana) crops at the time of grain formation. They cause damage to grains and leaves of the crop. Significant damage is noticed in the monsoon season. Cloudy atmosphere is ideally suited to the caterpillars. As a result the population of caterpillars is increased in this season and the damage altimately. This all leads to yield loss of the crop. The pest is reported here to be controlled by herbal extract. Fo...



As informed by farmershir Radakyabhai Rayajbhai, pest (caterpiller) coracana cops cna be controlled medicine shall be used effctively. 2 L of small calfs urine, 100 gm of (Cocos nuciferas), 1 L of plain water. All mixed together should be applied sprayed on the above crops per one acre crops by so doing caterpiller pse can be controlled is traditional and its use is being doine since 20 years from forefather for last 10 years this methos is being use dby 20% poeple this medicine effect is fo...



To protect the crop, a shed is made on which the creeper is spread uniformly for the growth and development. For the control of heliothis, wastes of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) are placed uniformly over the shed, where the ivy gourd crop has grown and diffused its leaves. As a remedy, 20 kg waste of sugarcane crop are required for half an acre of land to cover. The waste of sugarcane crop are sweet in taste as it attracts other insects, pests and birds to feed on. Similarly, they look o...



Use of dry leaves of banyan (Ficus benghalensis) and teak (Tectona grandis), dry grass, and kerosene for controling of grasshopper in sorghum (Sorghum vulgare)



Take 100 gm bark of payar and 100 g bark of sadad tree, grind it to powder and add water of one dry coconut (Cocos nucifera) fruit to it. Make the total volume of 1 L. Spray this mixture to 0.24 hectare of area of finger millet crop. Crop should be sprayed immediately as soon as the crop starts yellowing. Second spray should be given at the interval of 15 days. This practice is reported to give 60% control of yellowing of finger millet. Good results are obtained with in 20 days.



The pounded 500 gm black thorn apple (Datura innnoxia) fruits were mixed in 1 L water and kept it for soak. After some time, further add 2 L water to make total 3 L solution. Soniabhai finally sprays the entire 3 L solution in half acre of field crop, which provides 40% insect control.



The pounded 500 g black thorn apple fruits. He then mixes the pounded material in 1 L water and keeps it soaked. After some period, further add 2 L water to make total 3 L solution. Soniabhai finally sprays the entire 3 L solution in half acre of field crop, which provides 40% insect control.



Use of dry fishes for controling of flower drop in lemon crop.



For controlling this problem, chang (Crotalaria burhia) plant is sowed as an intercrop with finger millet crop. He believes that infestation of dodder is not found, when chang crop is sown as intercrop with finger millet crop. He is following organic farming using only farmyard manure and avoiding chemical pesticides. He also earlier tried intercropping Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) crop with finger millet, which gave him partial success in controlling the dodder infestation. Once he tried chang ...



In order to control sucking pest (Aphids spp.) in Indian bean (Dolichos lablab) and other creeping vegetable crops. Soaks 200 gm dried flowers of mahua (Madhuca indica) in 0.5 L water and keeps it overnight. He uses this stock solution for spraying on the crop with the help of a broom or pump in the morning for 2 days. This gives total control of sucking pest (Aphids spp.) in 4 days.



To improve the productivity of any crop species or to get higher yield from the crop plants, pieces of young aerial roots of banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) emerging from the branches are collected and then broadcast in the field any day after the sowing of seeds is done with. Following this practice, increases the yield of the crop and there is no risk of crop failure.



While storing raggy 500 gm leaves of lemon and neem tree are mixed and spread along with the food grain while storing it in a vessel. Thereafter, the vessel is covered with the leaves and keeps the food grain for 2 years in good conditions which are not affected by any insects without any side effect.



Sometime the crop of finger millet turns pale yellow at the time of fruiting. To control it farmers in these parts use roots of asparagus. This is a traditionally followed method. When the farmers observe paleness in the crops, they bring 2 -3 pieces of asparagus roots and plant them which is not more than half feet deep that near the patch of crop where more damage is seen. This controls the spread of paleness to the other parts in the crop. Normally the roots are planted at two or three pl...



Pigeon pea crop is prone to heliothis which bore away its seeds. To control it 100 gm flower and bark of jujube are both finely powdered together. The powder is then dissolved in 1 L water and the solution is sprayed per 0.40 hectare of crop. It is observed that heliothis strike the pigeon pea crop at the same time when there is flowering in jujube at beginning of the winter season hence there is no difficulty in getting the flowers. The flowers are collected by spreading a cloth or plastic ...



300 gm stem-bark of asparagus is crushed to fine powder which is then dissolved in 2 L water. This stock solution is used in measure of 200 g for one spray pump per 0.40 hector of crop. This controls the pest in three days.



Flowers of mahuva and pods of golden shower are used to control premature flower shedding and thereby getting higher yields in finger millet and pigeon pea crops. A solution is made by pounding together 8 -10 pods of golden shower and 500 gm of dry or fresh mahuva flowers and adding water to it. The solution is then filtered and used for spraying on finger millet and pigeon pea crops at the time of flowering. This controls premature flower shedding in these crops and also pest control to som...



Pearl millet crop is sometimes attacked by insects called bristle beetle. These insects eat the ear of the pearl millet and as a result no seeds set in the ears which means less production and loss to the farmer. There are two methods to control these insects. One: when there are a lot of bristle beetle insects in pearl millet crop then incense sticks are used to drive it away. A person stands with lighted incense sticks in the direction of the wind blowing towards the crop. As the insects m...



Leaves of "tendu" (goub persimmon, Diospyros palmata). are used for long term storage of mahuva fruits. A layer of "tendu" leaves is first laid at the base of storage container then 5-6 kg mahuva fruits are placed. In this way layer upon layer of "tendu" and mahuva are laid and the container is finally sealed with the last layer of "tendu" leaves. For storage of (Eleusine coracana) grains a novel way is to store these with gram (Cicer arietinum). This way both the grains remain free of pests...



Ramabhai Gigabhia Kamedia is one such. He uses the juice of leaves of custard apple and vasaka. The compound juice is mixed with water and sprayed. The caterpillars die. At least two to three litres of the compound juice derived from the two plants needs to be sprayed. The effect of this spray is that insects can be controlled. Ramabhai has learnt of this method from his friends afar. Few farmers at Dandana village in Bhavnagar district are aware of the practice. Ramabhai has been using it fo...



As informesd by Lembaji, to control insects molomashi infestation in tomato and Alfa alfa (Medicago sativa) following method of treatment is adopted. Take (Calotropis gigantea) plants, whole with leaves will becomes it fully inmeresed in water thus prepared (Calotropis gigantea) solution be put in a 15 L pump, 100 gm mix and spray on the crop in this proper tim method rest, continus spraying the medicine.



To control the insect pest, leaves of each plant of 20 kg congress grass, 5 kg crown flower plant and 5 kg wind killer plant, 250 gm neem and 200 gm thorn apple are crushed together. This mixture is soaked in water for over night in the 200 L capacity vessel. Thereafter, 7 L of solution with 7 L of water are mixed together and sprayed on the affected crops.Thus, crop is saved of the insect pest problem.



Apply castor oil on the buds of brinjal and this will result brinjal acquiring more colour and it also controls the persishability nature of the same. Because of this application, insects like white ant cannot attach the brinjal crop.



Put 1 kg custard apple tree leaves in 16 L water in a big dasim and boil well till the solution is reducede to 4 L go on boiling and then keep for about three hours for cooking. put 100 gm solution in 10 L water



Take a mixture of kamal, neem leaves, sore buttermilk, whey and water and keep in a vessel for 3-4 days, afterthat it is filtered 3-4 times and spary on cotton and other crop.



Leaves of custard apple and freshly leaves of (Aloe vera) are pounded together to get about 1 kg mixture. The mixture is then heated in 1 L water at low temperature and filtered. The stock solution is mixed in quantity of 100 -150 ml concentrate to 15 L water and is sprayed at 15 day intervals.



There is no chemical ingredients can be sprayed at an internal of 15 days in 1-3 ratio water and 1 kg neem leaves, then add 4 kg crushed (Aloe vera) leaves juice and 100 gms Black coe dunk, 100 gm pearl millet and keep it for a month.



The pests are controlled by mixing 500 gm pounded leaves of custard apple in 500 gm neem oil and 500 gm buttermilk. The concentration is mixed with water in quantity of 200-250 ml per pump and then sprayed. No precaution is required while preparing this pesticide. This indigenous pesticide is sprayed twice, at every 15 day interval, even when chemical insecticide is sprayed once. It does not affect directly but all parts of the cotton plant become bitter and poisonous thus it checks the furth...



To control white ants, Madhavbhai Bhopabhai Solanki directly applies his herbal remedy to the groundnut crop. He sprays the beneficial castor oil cake in the field and its effect against termites remains for one year. A spray of diluted lemon juice will have its effect for a forenight. A spray of kerosene will have its effect for a fortnight. These act directly on termites but need to be applied again and again. These can be supplemented with chemical pesticides for effective termite control.



As informed by famer,while watering with (Medicago sativa) at the entrance of each field, 3 to 4 flower branches of (Calotropis procera) and the effected branches fall down from the plant.



When the cotton crop is infested with sucking pest (aphids), 1 kg of iron sulphate and 100 gram "limbu na phool" (citric acid) are mixed in one vessel to prepare a decoction. About 100 mL of this decoction is diluted in 15 litres of water and this solution is sprayed on one bigha (2/5 of hecatre). The combination acts as a herbal pesticide. The effect of this herbal pesticide remains for three days during which sucking pest (aphids) are eradicated. Samajibhai Gagubhai Ratron controls sucking ...



As a remedy, 8 to 10 bunches of tobacco sticks (Cigars spp.) are drenched in water and squeezed and a decoction is prepared. The smell of this decoction is enough to eradicate sucking pest (Aphids spp.). This experiment was successfully tried out in three bhigas three years ago. After the experiment, mustard crop has not been sowed due to shortage of water in the Maniyari area of Mehsana district for a couple of seasons. This experiment was tried out by Kantilalbhai on the advice of his brot...



For the control of hairy caterpillars in any crop, the leaves of crown flower are placed on the plants infested by the pest. This gives good results. According to a modified method, the leaves of crown flower are boiled in water. This boiled water is then sprayed on the crops. This prevents hairy caterpillars from harming the crops and controls infestation of termite and white grub insects as well. The effect of the herbal cure is immediate.



When the maize crop is affected with hairy caterpillar, then branches of crown flower are collected from a farm or pasture. The leaves of crown flower are then plucked and placed around the field and three feet inside the field and in rows every two feet. This prevents hairy caterpillar from devouring maize. Instead the worm attacks crown flower leaves. Corn and crop are thus saved for the farmer. Fresh leaves are placed when crown flower leaves are eaten away by caterpillar.









For this purpose, 5 kg of neem leaves for each mound of wheat is taken. Then water is poured on the leaves and mashed properly. The mash is squeezed to extract one-and-a-half litre of juice. Then wheat seeds are coated with neem juice. The juice is applied with hand till satisfactory coating is ensured. After coating, the seeds are kept aside for 12 hours. This means that if wheat is to be sown in the morning, the neem coating is applied overnight.



For one mound of gram seed, 3-4 jugs of sour buttermilk is required. Only after the seeds are treated for 3-4 hours in sour buttermilk that they are used for sowing.






Farmers prepare an extract of tobacco leaves and mix it with equal quantities of bajra flour and butter milk.



Newly transplanted finger millet (Eleusive corocana) are mainly affected by stem borers. Infested crop shows symptoms of yellowing and dead heart. The infest plant do not bear penicle, or the penicle may remain empty. Finally affecting the yield. To control these stem borers, 500 gm of fresh water fishes are packed in a air tight container with 4-5 L of water. This container with fishes is placed in a lonely place and allow the fishes to decompose. A typical smell of decomposed fishes will c...



The pounded neem leaves 3 kilograms into fine powder, add turmeric 300 grams, cow urine 5 litres, and cowdung 5 kilograms. Add water 20 liters, mix well, and leave the solution to stand for two days. After filtering this solution through a cloth, dilute in 200 liters of water and spray on the crop. Apart from bringing the insects under control, presence of of cow urine cowdung in the solution prevents many diseases.



Rice horn caterpillar is a serious pest of paddy crop (Oryza sativa), it feeds on leaves and young penicles. This all results in yield loss. To control this insect pest, 500 g seeds and one kilogram leaves of castor (Ricinus communis) are fine grinded and one liter of concentrate extract is prepared from it. About 5 L water is added in this concentrate extract and sprayed on the pest affected crop. The remedy controls about 50 % of pest in paddy crop.



Whenever crops are affected by pests, the stalks become weak and the grains become black in appearance. Even the plant develops a black colour and the yield decreases. To protect the crops from damage, the farmers of the Dangs region extract 2-3 L of juice from the fresh fruits of the mahua (Madhuca indica) tree. They then add four liters of water to it. This concoction is sprayed over the field. On spraying this mixture over a one acre farm leads to about 50% control over the aphid infestati...









Rats eat away the cotton capsules [pods], the stalks, roots, etc. of the crop and create a lot of damage. Nanji Bhagwanbhai Chauhan of  Sosia village, Bhavnagar has adopted a very interesting method to control this epidemic. They put pods of kuvech (Mucuna pruriens) in the rat holes so that when the rats come out they come into contact with it. The minute fibres on the pods create a lot of itching if they fall on some part of the body or if they are touched, so the rat starts running around a...



The epidemics of diamond back moth starts from 25 to 30 days of cabbage (Brassica oleracea Var. Capitata) plantation. The catter pillar proceed from the upper leaves to the inner core of the cabbage. Consequently the market value of cabbage is reduced. Farmers call these worms the "Hagariya" worms because there is an accumulation of lot of excreta outside the hole. For this per 2.4 ha of crop mix, juice of one to one and half kg lime, five litre buttermilk and 20 L water and sprayed on the c...



Cumin (Cuminum cyminum) is cultivated in semi-arid areas of Gujarat. However, one of the major limiting factors in its productivity is bacterial blight disease. Disease is favoured by humid and cloudy weather, especially off season raining at flowering stage of the crop. To control this disease, proper care is required at the very critical stage. About one kilogram of sugar is mixed with 5 kg of salt and grinded to powder. The powder thus obtained is dusted on the cumin crop on the cloudy ...



Brilliant gardenia (Gardenia resinifera) is also called as "jangali champo" in the forest area of Dang and Chhota Udaipur. This plant is 3 to 6 ft in height and bears white coloured fragrant flowers in the month of October. Fruit setting starts during the month of December and lasts up to the month of February. Seeds are light green in colour. About 150 to 250 gm brilliant gardenia seeds and 100 gm ocher are crushed and added to 1 L of water. This mixture is smeared on the trunk of mango (Man...



There are a large number of mango orchards in the Valsad district of Gujarat. These are host to a variety of mangoes. Many a times, because of the fruit fly menace, rotting sets in the mango (Mangifera indica) fruits just as they near ripening. To prevent such damage to the crop, the farmers plant shrubs of jungali tulsi (Ocimum basilicum) and krishna tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) in the mango orchards.



In Valsad district of Gujarat, to keep disease free lemon (Citrus limon) plant, two inch long rusty nails of iron are placed on the trunk of lemon. Innovator is using this treatment at the interval of three to four years. He believed that by this technique, the lemon plant can be made disease free and more production of fruits can be obtained. Innovator is using this treatment at the interval of three to four years.



Cultivation of cotton and tuvar is done on a large scale in the Valia taluka of Bharuch district. About seven to eight years ago immense epidemic of various pests like green larvae, lashkari larvae, parasites etc was seen in cotton. The farmers used chemicals indiscriminately, still insects were not controlled. How would they get controlled? They grew in the atmosphere of these chemicals so it was like tonic to them. In this situation Ahmedbhai  Kadiwala, Gamalsinh Rana, and other farmers of ...



During the growth phase of rice paddy (Orysa sativa) saplings, deadly stem borers known as "gabmaro" worms start appearing. They cling to the inner wall of the stem and the length could be as much as 30 centimetres. These insects prevent healthy rice spikes emerging out of the stem. The insects are usually green in colour with black spots in their body. Patel learnt of a very effective method from Ambalal Jivabhai, a senior resident of Rasalpur village in Thasra taluka of Gujarat, to contr...






The humidity in the air following the first rains during the monsoon season makes the environment ideal for the breeding of various insects. Several species of insects like the fruit fly, sucking insects, and (Castor semilooper) insects abound and attack fruit crops. These insects damage the jujube (Ziziphus jujuba), mango (Mangifera indica), guava (Psidium guajava) as well as other vegetable crops. To control extensive damage to the crop, Shah makes use of powders of tamaku or tobacco (Nico...



Gram (Cicer arientinum) is consumed as vegetable which fetches more price compared to dry grams. Manually harvest needs more time and altimately more cost, so to reduce the cost of separating green pods of gram from plant, iron nails of 3 inches are fitted on the wooden block and the plant with pods is allowed to pass through it. This separates the green pods from the plant. Method is very efficient and a single person can separate about 450-500 kg of green pods a day.This is self developed i...



Farmers of Junagadh district are sowing garlic (Allium sativum) at a distance of 4.5 inches. It is not possible to sow at such a short distance with normal sowing instruments. In the normal sowing instrument, distance between two jaw is 9 inches, so to sow the seed at 4.5 inches, the farmer has to sow first normally and then again sow the seed in between two already sown rows to maintain the distance of 4.5 inches. But in second sowing the bullock pulling the sowing implement may walk on ...



We should be careful before storing the grains in the granary. Due to the grain pests, the quality of grain effected and destroyed. The exiguous holes are observed on the grains by which the grains are not used for the food purpose. Dudabhai Arjanbhai Pandav of Dholka taluka of Ahmedabad district uses, traditional method for storage of wheat (Triticum aestivum) grains. After harvesting of wheat crop, the chaff is left. This chaff is tightly filled in a room to settle. From the middle portion...



Nut grass (Cyperus rotundus) is a natorious weed, observed all the year round, but is more prominant during monsoon season. It has tubers at the base, which remains dormant in the off season and gets active during monsoon on availibility of moisture. To control this weed in field crops, the shells of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) after picking of cotton from cotton bolls which are spread on nut grass weed infested land. Ploughing is done to mix the cotton shells with the weed infested soil even...



In the crop of bottlegourd new sprout stops developing and this affects the yield if there is continuous rain, poor soil type and similar other factors. Under such circumstances, farmers try out large number of practices to tackle the problem. Shri Dineshbhai Jivabhai of Hatrod village of Sabarkantha District uses buttermilk and castor oil (Ricinus communis) to improve the productivity of bottlegourd. According to the information provided by the farmer use 10 liters two days old buttermilk an...



There is high incidence of heliothis in the crop of tur (Cajanas cajan) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). This pest creates tremendous damage by feeding on the pods and seeds of tur and balls of cotton. In the current year the farmers of Sabarkantha and Kheda have uprooted and destroyed their 3 months old crop due to the heavy infestation by the pest. Shri Laxmanbhai Radadiya of Jetpur village of Rajkot district uses bajara flour to control this pest. According to the information provided by t...



It is very important to select the good seeds to have  higher production. Where farmers are using desi seeds there are many practices prevalent to selection of good quality seeds. For seed using bulb as the seed does production the cultivation of onion. In the North Gujarat the crop of onion grown for the seed production is known as Bhungada. Shri Gemabhai Chavada of Paniwada village of Bhavnagar District uses an interesting technique for the selection of he bulbs for seed production of onion...



There are a number of practices to ripen bananas. Dineshbhai Prajapati from Jeetpura village of Anand taluka uses lime water to ripen bananas. According to him, for 20 to 25 bananas, 50 gm lime should be diluted in three-litre water and the solution should be sprayed over the fruit. The bananas ripen in three to four days. After plucking the banana bunch from the tree, lime spraying should be done in the night. This is done just once. It is a traditional practice.



The infestation of sucking pest (aphids spp.) is seen in fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) when the crop is one-and-a-half to three months old. Some farmers call it "sakariya." Sometimes the sucking pest (aphids spp.) cause 70 to 80 percent damage in crops like fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and mustard (Brassica juncea). According to the farmer, when the wind is mild in the morning, green or dried leaves of eucalyptus are burnt in the farm to create smoke. If needed, the practice is repeated after on...



The seeds are coated with cow urine before sowing.



After determining the wind direction, ash is sprinkled over the crop at night. The ash forms a protective layer on the crop. By the time the temperature goes up because of the sun, the ash falls off and the crop is protected from "chhasio".



"Kharsadi" (Euphorbia tirucalli) plant is put in watering grooves within the field.



Growing castor trees for the protection of vegetable crops from the summer winds thus increasing the crop productivity.



Juice is extracted by crushing leaves of Kidamari, flower and leaves of arni. The seeds of Great millet are coated with this juice before sowing them.



The seeds are dipped in the juice of the common wind killer plant (Clerodendrum phlomidis) locally known as arni before sowing.



Ash is sprinkled all over the field before ploughing the land for better yield of cumin crop.



A mud pot filled with pearl millet flour is buried under the ground for a year. A lid full of flour is taken out, filled up in the pump and sprayed over the cotton crop.



Wheat stalk is used as a fertilizer to increase the yield of cotton crop.



Soil is dug along the cotton crop once the cotton grows out of the soil and chicken manure is added to the soil.



For controlling smut disease infection in sorghum, a well dissolved mixture of copper sulphate or blue vitriol in water, and cow's urine, is sprinkled by hand on the affected sorghum plant. The treatment also helps in controlling wilt in gram (Cicer arietimum) crop.



5 L of cow urine is mixed with 20 L of water and splashes this solution on the crop. The distance of the sticks will be 5 feet from the crop as per row.



Leaves of wind killer plant are crushed to extract juice which is sprayed in the seeds of the crop before sowing.



Tea dust is mixed with sour buttermilk and fermented for a couple of days. This mixture when applied on the roots of the saplings protects them from infections and ensure better growth.



Approx. 2 kg powder of castor bean (Ricinus comunis) is added to the soil before planting jamboo (Syzygium cumini) and mango (Mangifera indica).



2 ft long transplants of Indian tree spurge (Euphorbia tirucalli) are planted around mango (Mangifera indica) to protect it from the root affecting diease of sukaro. Due to this method the roots of the mango tree are rendered safe.



Two feet long branches of akda or (Calotropis gigantea) are kept in water tank or water canal leading to the crop. This water protects the crop from khapedi and molomashi.



Leaves of kidamari (Aristolochia bracteata) and neem (Azardirachta indica) are collected and mixed in water. Then the solution is sprinkled over the land. This treatment provides 60% protection from the diseases.



Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves are burnt all around the farm and the resultant smoke protects about 50-60% of the crop.



Ladies finger or (Abelmoscus herbaceum) plants are planted around cotton plants. Most of the green worm gets occupied by the ladies finger and 50% of the main crop is saved.



Rope is used for shaking off the dew and protect the crop.



The amniotic fluid that spills out of the amniotic bladder before the calf slither out of the mother's body is a rich source of nutrients for crop. This fluid is collected and mixed with lemon juice to preserve it for longer period. The fluid is stored in an airtight bottle. About 24 hours before sawing the seeds, the seeds are soaked in this fluid mixed with water. After 24 hours of soaking the seeds are dried in a shaded area. The amniotic fluid treatment method increased the farmer's crop ...



Small stones are mixed along with fertilizers to distribute them evenly. These stones ensures enough ventilation within the soil. This facilitates better water absorption and excessive salt are drained easily. It also makes the soil softer and pods grow easily in greater quantity. The farmers tried this technique in a small area first and noticed excellent result in terms of output.



The crushed (Azardirachta indica) is used after the oil is extracted. The dry crush is soaked in water and sprinkled over the crop to be protected. This traditional remedy shows marked result within a day.



Flour of pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) is buried under the ground for one week. 2-3 kg of this flour is recommended per bigha of land. This traditional method shows marked result within 24 hours.



Approx. 40 to 50 kg of flour of pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) is sprinkled per each bigha or 0.25 acres of land. Then the land is ploughed and cumin (Cummin cyminum) seeds are sown. This method ensures protection from sukaro or chamri and output is greatly increased.



500 gm leaves of arani (Clerodendrum phlomidis) is collected and pounded to take out the extract. The seeds of pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) are soaked into the extract and dried in shaded area. The same seeds are then sown to ensure that the crop is protected from grasshoppers.



A vessel is filled with flour of pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) and the lid is closed. This vessel is buried under the mound of farm manure. After 15 days the flour is removed and mixed with seeds to be sown.



Lemon (Citrus limon) juice is mixed with water and sprayed on pest infested cotton crop. Spraying the crop twice a month gives 60% control of sucking pest (Aphids spp.) and white flies in cotton crop.



Seeds are coated with morthuthu or potassium permeganate as protection from angario.



Maize (Zea mays) is planted along with cotton.The insect attack maize and most of the cotton is spared from the diease.



Birthwort (Aristolochia bracteata) plants are pounded to fine paste. 2 L of water is added to the paste and stirred vigourosly. After that this solution is mixed with 15 L of water and sprinkled over the affected crop.



Leaf extract of arani (Clerodendrum phlomidis) and Birthwort (Aristolochia bracteata) plants is used to coat the seeds. These coated seeds grow fast and healthy. They do not get affected by ergot.



Flour of pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) is let to go stale for about 10 days till it tastes bitter. This flour is mixed with ash and sprinkled over the crop of cumin (Cummin cyminum) for protection against powdery mildew.



Ajowan caraway (Trachyspermum ammi) is burnt in four or five places in the farm because the smoke drives away grasshoppers.



Seeds of cotton (Gossypium herbaceum) are rubbed with black soil and planted. These seeds sprout much faster and output is improved.



The seeds of castor are treated with sour buttermilk for 24 hours and then dried in the shade. These treated seeds are then planted in the soil.



Leaves and pods of kuba (Leucas cephalotes) are stored and kept with the grains. These grains do not spoil for one year. They are also safe from termites and other worms.



Red chillies (Capsicum annum) are powdered and kept with the grains for protection against insects.



Farmers form Karnataka use as an effective spray against the attack of pests in crops. They ground together 7 kg each of negundo chaste tree (Vitex negundo), shrubby morning glory (Ipomoea fistulosa) and pongam (Pongamia pinnata) and 4 kg of rooster tree (Calotropis procera). The powder is boiled in 20 L of water for half-an-hour and filtered the next day.The filtrate is then diluted with 100 L of water and used as a pesticide. Ground together 7 kg each of negundo chaste tree (Vitex negundo),...



The farmers inter-sow coriander and garlic plants with chilli seedlings to avoid attack by thrips or woodworms. The coriander plants are plucked regularly, so they do not compete for water or nutrition from soil. Thus this practice does not affect the chilli yield. Inter-sow coriander or garlic plants with chilli seedlings to avoid attack by thrips or woodworms. Then they pluck the coriander plants adjacent to chilli plants and sell as green vegetable, while harvest the coriander grown on the...



Farmers grow black gram and green manure plant kolunchi or Purple tephrosia (Tephrosia purpurea) together at the time of harvesting paddy. Once the paddy is harvested, the seeds germinate. As the black gram seed coat is not hard, it germinates earlier. Purple tephrosia seeds take longer time as their seed coat is very hard. After harvesting black gram, Purple tephrosia becomes the standing crop. Purple tephrosia can withstand drought conditions and animals do not feed on them. Later the purpl...



10 kg of neem (Azadirachta indica), 10 L of cow‟s urine along with one half kg of matti perungayam or waste asafoetida (Serula foetida) and leave them overnight. The solution is diluted with water.



The farmer crushed the leaves of arani and kept the juice for overnight. The next day the farmer coated the jowar seeds with this juice before sowing. Approximately 1.5 kg of arani leaves are needed for 20 kg of jowar seeds. Crush the leaves of Arni or Arani (Clerodendron multiflorum) and keep the juice overnight. The next day coat the jowar seeds with this juice before sowing.



A pit of 6 inch x 6 inch x 3 inch size is made to make a compost. The pit is filled with coir upto a half feet of height. Over this, slurry from a Gober or cow dung gas unit is sprinkled. With every layer of coir, 200 ml of sour curd or buttermilk is added and the pit is filled up. Thereafter the pit is covered with pond or tank silt upto a height of half a feet. After 3 months a good odorous manure will be ready for use. The manure would be ready for use after three months.



When soyabean seeds are sown in saline or alkaline lands, the germination rate is below 30%. The farmers of Tamil Nadu increase the germination rate upto 90% by treating the seeds with the leaf powder of Usil (Albizia amara). Boiled rice water can be used as an adhesive to make the leaf powder, stick to the seed.



He uses large mud-pots, as high as 180 cm or 3 feet, to store paddy grains for long time. These pots are made of clay and paddy straw, and are air tight. Paddy stored inside such pots do not absorb moisture from the air. Use large mud-pots, as high as 180 centimetres (three feet), to store paddy grains for long time. These pots are made of clay and paddy straw, and are airtight



K Kanagasabapathi of the Annamalai agar district in Tamil Nadu uses a very simple method to get rid of termites from the coconut tree. He applies tar on the lower portion of the trunk of the coconut trees, upto a height of 30 cm from the ground level. Alternatively in some places, the coconut garden is flooded with water so that the termites are washed off. So he applies tar on the lower portion of the trunk of the coconut trees, upto a height of 30 cm from the ground level.



Spread the leaves of piludi or Tooth Brush tree (Salvadora persica) at the bottom of a closely knit bamboo basket and fill it with the paddy seeds. Then pour about 10-12 L of water slowly over the basket. Cover it with the leaves of the same tree and put weights on the basket to keep the seeds pressed. If felt necessary, sprinkle a little water over the basket a couple of times. Keep the basket undisturbed for about 24 hours after which sow the seeds in the nursery immediately. Sometimes, the...



Make a mixture of equal quantities of lime and castor cake and sprinkle it between two rows of the crop and cover it with soil. Then irrigate the field immediately, after the treatment. Using this technique and repeating the treatment after eight to 10 days saves the crop altogether.



Kanagasabapathi keeps a plant called kanjananmkorai along with the stored paddy grains. It emanates a pungent smell which drives away the pests. Also he places neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves over stored grains to keep the grains pest-free.



Thavasi Peruma mixes neem (Azadirachta indica) oil and kerosene in equal quantities and sprays on the coconut trees to control the black headed caterpillar and Rhinoceros beetle. Some farmers also put plants of kolunchi or Purple tephrosia (Tephrosia purpurea) in the primordial region of coconut trees to prevent attacks by the Rhinoceros beetle. Alternatively farmers also grow karpooravalli (Coleus armaticus), a medicinal and aromatic plant, in the coconut orchard. They believe that the stron...



Jayaveeran extracts the juice from the leaves of Epinard, dilutes with water and sprays in the chilli fields, two months after planting, for chilli leaf spot and powdery mildew disease. The same extract is sprayed on the fields when Lady's finger pods get discoloured or light yellow or white. Extract the juice from the leaves of Epinard (Prosopis juliflora), dilute with water and spray in the chilli (Capsicum spp.) fields, two months after planting. Spray the same extract on the fields when ...



Thavasinathan Peyodu from the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu control leaf caterpillars in paddy by a specially made application.Thirty days after planting paddy, Peyodu applies powdered neem cake or cakes of punnaika (Calophyllum inophyllum) to control leaf caterpillars in paddy. He uses 10 kg of the cakes for one acre of land.Thirty days after planting paddy, apply powdered neem(Azadirachta indica) cake or cakes of punnaikai (Calophyllum inophyllum).



Samuel from the Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu uses Neem (Azadirachta indica) to control root grubs in brinjal. After grinding the Neem cake, the powdered neem (Azadirachta indica) cake and apply to the field.



R Sundara Raman mixes 5 kg of powdered tobacco leaves with 10 L of cow urine and 5 L of water. This is allowed to ferment for 3-5 days. Then it is filtered and mixed with 80 L of water and sprayed to control all sucking pests.



Patel approximately crushes 500 gm of fruits of (Solanum surattense). along with its seeds and boils it in water. This decoction is enough for treating 20 kg of seeds of groundnut. Nightshade is a thorny plant that spreads on the ground in rainy season. It is generally found on pastures, wasteland and river banks. It bears violet flowers and yellow fruits.



Tender young saplings in kitchen garden need support in the initial stages to grow. Farmers use bamboo strips to support the saplings. Termite attacks are a usual problem in sandy regions. Termite attack bamboo strips first and then damage the young saplings.Amrutbhai Patel of the Mehsana district in Gujarat successfully experimented with oil waste for controlling the termite. Patel brought the waste oil from the oil wells of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) situated near Gram Bharat...



Chaudhary treats the seeds with asafoetida (Serula foetida) solution before sowing. He mixes about 250 gm of powdered asafoetida in 2 L of water. Afterthat this solution is sufficient for 20 kg of groundnut seeds and then the seeds are soaked in that solution for an hour. Thereafter the seeds are then allowed to dry in the sunlight. According to Chaudhary, the treatment prevents the disease and also increases the yield.



Dhirubhai Devrajbhai Kaachhadiya dips about 250-300 gm of Thornapple (Datura metel) leaves along with the stem in 1 L of water and heats it till luke warm. After mix and cooling down the solution,he sprays on the crop. Pests perish within a period of 6-7 hours.



The powder form of 1 kg of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and soak it in 3 L water in an earthen pot for three days. Filter this decoction and add 500 ml of neem (Azadiachta indica) oil. Mix this with soap. Dilute the mixture with water and spray it on the cotton crop. The results of a better flowering and fruit formation and reduced flower dropping, are apparent within a week.



The crop duration is for 90 days and transplanting is done after 21 days. Before transplantation, they apply one bag which is 68 kg of groundnut cake per acre of land as a basal dose in the field. About 22 days after transplantation, weeding is done and 50 kg of neem (Azadirachta indica) cake is applied in the field. Prior to sowing or transplanting paddy, broadcast 25 kg of kolunchi or Purple tephrosia(Tephrosia purpurea) seeds in the field. Forty days after sowing, plough the green manure.



Patel lines a big cane basket with green or dried leaves of khakhra or Bastard teak (Butea monosperma) and it is further lined with leaves of neem (Azadirachta indica). He then places the green mangoes inside and then layers once again with the leaves. After this the basket is left untouched for 7 days. The mangoes get the usual red and golden yellow hue soon after this procedure. People in this area have been following this practice for many years.



To control the pest infestation Gadhvi extracts the juice of 200 gm to 400 gm of the leaves of malabar nut and 400 gm to 500 gm of shrubby morning glory. He then mixes this juice with 15 L of water to make a solution. Gadhvi has been successfully using the technique for more than eight years.



Patel grows the crop of (Echinocloa frumentaceato) decrease the salinity of the soil. The crop sown after sowing of (Echinocloa frumentacea) yields a better output. Patel has been practising this procedure for thirty years and according to him it increases the productivity of the soil. The crop is also an excellent fodder crop. Sow the crop of banti (Echinocloa frumentacea) before sowing any other crop to decrease the salinity of the soil.



Surmaji Ditajee Damor of Sabarkantha district in Gujarat makes a pesticide from the leaves of Oleander (Nerium indicum). He sprays this solution on the maize and cotton crop to control pests. Damor crushes 2 kg of oleander leaves and mixes with 5 L of water. T



The farmers store urad and legumes like chickpea and peas in this way.Thus the seeds can be stored for a longer time. Mix the seeds with ash and then smear with mustard (Brassica juncea) oil.



Arjanbhai D Kodarv of Banaskantha district in Gujarat controls the pests Spotted bollworm and Pink bollworm in cotton by spraying a solution made of mahua or butter tree (Madhuca indica) and tamarind (Tamarindus indica) bark. In order to control the infestation Kodarv makes a 500 ml stock solution with equal amounts of mahua or butter tree (Madhuca indica) and tamarind (Tamarindus indica) bark. The solution is filled in a 15 L capacity pump and sprayed on the infected crop. If the attack is s...



During the kharif season Kalabha sows the maize (Zea mays) crop as it is a deep rooted crop in the first year. The following year rice (Oryzae sativa) or black gram (Phaseolus mungo) is sown as they are shallow rooted plants. Castor (Ricinus spp) is sown in the third year because it is a deep rooted plant whereas in the fourth year groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is sown. Sowing groundnut and black gram ensures a good supply of nitrogen to the soil. All the layers of soil are thoroughly mixed as...



R Sundara Raman from Erode district in Tamil Nadu makes use of milk to prevent the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV). The spread of the virus is believed to take place during the transplantation stage on the tobacco farm and subsequent field operations. The plants affected by the virus show symptoms of mottled leaves and discoloured inflorescence. In order to prevent the infestation, Raman a solution of 5 L of skimmed milk in 100 L of water.



R Sundararaman soaks 5 kg erukku or giant milkweed (Calotropis gigantea) leaves in 10 L of cow urine and 5 L of water in a earthen pot and leaves it untouched for 3-5 days. After this period he filters the solution and dilutes in 80 L of water and then sprays on the foliage that is likely to be attacked by caterpillars.



Compost pit is prepared by allowing farm waste to rot in a mud tank. The waste is digested by earthworms. The mixture of cow dung, turmeric and neem is used to coat the floor and sides of the pit. Alternatively in place of neem leaves, the leaves of any other bitter plant can also be used to prepare this mixture.



The termite infested straw cannot be used as fodder for the animals. This problem is solved by cleaning the Khala or the storage place with a shovel and then laying the floor with milk hedge. According to Parmar the typical smell of the milky sap of the milk hedge plant repels the termites. Another farmer uses a slightly different approach to prevent the attack of termites on the standing crop by using the same milk hedge plant. The farmer crushes the milk hedge plant and puts it in the main ...



Semi-looper is a major pest destroying the castor crop. It damages the leaves by cutting across the leaves. Patel spreads 1 kg of puffed sorghums on one bigha or 0.25 acres approximately of land around the boundaries of the field for three days to attract the maximum number of birds.The birds come to feed on the sorghums and while doing so they also eat the semi-loopers.



Katara sprays 1.5 l of the juice of date palm (Phoenix sylvestris) mixed with 15 l of water on the vegetable crop and spray it on the vegetable crop. According to Katara, her father has been following this traditional practice for a long time.



Vasantbhai dries the leaves of corkwort (Leptadenia reticulata) in the sun. Then he fills the grains into a container layered with the sun-dried leaves of meethidodi or corkwort and can be stored for over a year.



Take about 300 g of the leaves and unripe fruits of datura (Datura spp.) and crush them. Afterthat heat the mixture in 1 l of water. After filtration, about 300 ml of the stock solution is mixed in 15 ml of water and use to sprinkle over the crop This solution is enough for one spray pump. About 7-8 pumps of the dilute solution is required to sprinkle one acre field of 3-5 month old cotton crop. Another approach is that ground 1 kg of sugar and 5 kg of salt together and dissolve them in water...



Hawari boils 5 kg of the leaves of Besharam (Ipomeae fistulosa) plant in a container having 50 l water till it reduces to half (i.e 25 l). Later 2.5 kg leaves are added and boiled. Afterthat add 60 g of zinc sulphate and 480 g of soap to the solution and spray. According to him multipurpose uses of the plant increases its potential as a herbal product. The practice is not new but it has tremendous potential in making agriculture safe by avoiding use of chemical pesticides. Another approach is...



Ratilal takes 200 g of Morthuthu or CuSO4, limbunaful or citric acid, Hirakashi or FeSO4 and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) which is used in a big container of hukka and adds five litres of water to it. This mixture is kept undisturbed for 10 days. It is stirred well and filtered through a cotton cloth. Approximately 70-80 ml of the filtrate is added in 10 l of fresh water and sprinkled on the crop for any larval pest. According to Kachhadiya about 70% success is achieved in controlling the larv...



Take equal amount of 1 kg of custard apple (annona squamosa) leaves, turmeric rhizome, peenari change (Clerodendrum inermi), chothukatralai (Aloe vera), nochi (Vitex negundo) and neem (Azadirachta indica) kernel. Grind all the ingredients into a paste by adding sufficient water. By this process,about 5 l of the juice is extracted and dilute with 15 l of water. Administer the herbal extract into the crown region of the tree at the rate of 2 l per palm after the harvest of nuts.



Dissolve jiggery into water 1 kg for 1 acre in 15 l of water and spray it over the field. It will attract the Ants and they will eat larvae of insects.



500 black ants per acre of land required for control of green larvae in ivy gourd (Cocciniaindica). Black ants are most important us they eat only half larvae and then eat another larvae immediately. In this way they destroy completely all the larvae very quickly. This method is used by so many farmers. The method is economical against cost of chemical medicines and there was no side effect on other crop and land. This method has been used generation to generation.



Take 100 g of green sea algae (Ceratophyllum demersum) in 500 ml of water, keep it for overnight and boil it for 45 minutes in the next morning and after colling down the solution is filtered with the clean cloth and afterthat 500 ml of water is added to remnants of algae and then boil it for 45 minutes and again filter it. The filtratered solution is added to 40 l of water and then sprinkles on plant crops. The remnants of algae in powder form are also used as fertilizer. This technique was ...



Dhirubhai brings 2-3 branches of date palm (Phoenix sylvestris), attached with leaves. The effect of this method is seen after one week per 0.25 ha of affected area of crop. This traditional techniqe is in use since last 50 years.



Before plantation of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), take 3 kg fenugreek in vessels and pour half glass of water then add 500 g dried turmeric (Curcuma longa) powder and shake the mixture properly. Finally the treated fenugreek is ready for plantation which will not be spoiled. This practice is used by many peoples as they learnt from their ancestors.



Farmers have been using algae to increase yield in fruit crops, especially in mango (Mangifera indica) and sapota (Achras sapota) traditionally by 30% increased yield. To prepare the solution, 100 g of algae is pulverized to make a fine powder and mixed with 500 ml of water and soaked overnight. The next day this stock solution is heated for 10 minutes in a low flame, and then filtered through a cloth. This final solution is mixed with water and sprayed with a pump.



Bhikubhai Patel has developed a successful method to prevent termite attack on mango. He takes 100 grams of red ochre and mixes it with 150 g powder of grounded seeds of worm killer (Aristolochia bracteata) in 1 l of water. The thick solution is then applied to the trunk of mango up to two feet with a broom-like brush. Mango trees remain free of termites for one year. He uses this method every day.



Zinabhai Patel virtually intoxicates insects to control fruit fly attack on mango (Mangifera indica) crop. First, Jinabhai takes 2 l toddy obtained from palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifera), 1 l sugar solution and 5 l of jaggery solution. The jaggery solution is made from 2.5 kg of the sweet material dissolved in water in a container, preferably a drum. Toddy can either be from palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifera) or from date palm (Phoenix dactylifera). The three solutions are mixed in the d...



In this method, some pieces of prickly pear (Opuntia dillenii) cactus are placed near and in path of the burrows frequented by rodents. The rats stop visiting burrows as a result. This traditional method is used by many farmers.



Aphids attack different standing crop, vegetable and vines. It damages leaves, flowers and stem of the plant and gets the food gradually by sucking the sap. It remain stuck to the plant, damages the crop and thus plant becomes unproductive. To treat this problem, leaves of swamp cabbage (Ipomoea aquatica) are crushed and appropriate quantity of water is added. This mixture is then sprayed on the affected Indian bean (Dolichos lablab) crop. As a result, the crop is saved from the aphid infesta...



1 kg of ginger (Zingiber officinalis), 500 g of chilli (Capsicum annuum) and 500 g of garlic (Allium sativum) are pounded well or separately and mixed with water. This formulation is then sprayed on the affected groundnut crop. The effect of this spray is observed on the very next day. As a result of the spray, the small sucking pest falls down.



Rodent infestation starts, especially when the crop is at stage of maturity. They destroy the crop by uprooting the plants. To reduce this problem, the sunflower (Helianthus annuus) plants are intercropped with the main crop. Birds like Falcons are attracted to sunflower (Helianthus annuus), to eat the seeds of sunflower. In a way they also eat the rodents, thus helping the rodent control programme.



Poison bait is prepared to control rodents in field. To prepare this bait, 500 g leaves and inflorescence of worm killer (Aristolochia bracteata) plant are crushed. Add 100 g rice grains and 1 kg flour of pearl millet to the crushed material. Mix this material thoroughly and use it as poison bait. Put some quantity of this bait at the opening of the burrows. Rodents eat the bait and get killed.



To prevent insects while storing gram (Cicer arietimum) and green gram (Vigna radiata), at the time of filling the barn, chaste tree (Vitex negundo) leaves are put into the storage area. Apart from this, if the grain is stored for a longer period, worms also infest the grains and damage them. To prevent this, gram and red gram (Cajanus cajan), which is being stored, are coated with cows urine and dried in shade and then stored in the barn. The bottom of the barn is filled with chaste tree see...



To store seeds of pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoideum) for longer period, the ears of gumma (Leucas cephalotes) and chilli are mixed with the grains. Practice is widely used in the area and it is in use for last 40 year. No change has been reported as on today in this practice.



Striga plant grows especially rapidly during the monsoon along with sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) and pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) crops. When striga (Striga asiatica) becomes an adult plant, it preys on the fully mature crops of sorghum and pearl millet. This results in the dying of standing grain crops. To avoid the striga problem, seeds of these crop are treated with turmeric (Curcuma longa) powder before sowing. The crop seeds are thus protected against possible preying by striga.



Senna (Cassia angustifolia) is mainly used for the conservation of sandy soils. When sown senna holds the sand particles together. The decomposed roots of senna make a good compost. It can also be used for the improvement of black and muddy soil and for reducing the alkalinity of the soil.



Use one-foot-long smooth iron sheet to reduce the squirrel (Spermophilus variegatus) menace in mango (Mangifera indica) crop. At the time of flowering in mango (Mangifera indica), the menace of squirrels (Spermophilus variegatus) increases. It eats up the flowers and reduces the fruit yield. To reduce the damage by squirrels, nail a smooth iron sheet to the stem of the plant. The sheet is placed at least 1-1.5 metre above the ground level. Because of the block, squirrels and other animals can...



To control termites, use powder of oil cake of castor (Ricinus communis), which is spread around the mango tree. The oil cake of castor prevents the infestation of termites and thus mango crop is saved. If the infestation of termites increases in the mango (Mangifera indica) trees, the crop is destroyed.



To protect the crops from the insect-pest and (locust menace), use powder of chilli (Capsicum annuum) as a seed treatment at the time of sowing. The chilli powder increases the resistance in the crop against insect-pests and (locust menace)



Due to the store grain pests, the keeping quality of grain deteriorates. The exiguous holes are observed on the grains by which the grains are not used for the food purpose. The mix the leaves of neem (Azadirachta indica), husk of gram (Cicer arietinum) and ash are used to protect the food before storing the grains in the granary. The husk of gram is salty in nature and hence controls the deterioration.



Rodents burrow deep holes along the bunds in of the fields and cause extensive damage to various crops. They scrape at the roots of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), bore holes in the stems and gobble up fresh bolls of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) and munch away ripe grains of wheat (Triticum aestivum). Patel uses pancakes prepared from stale pearl millet or groundnut flour and crushed spikes of bracteates birthwort (Aristolochia bracteata) to fight the menace. He places pieces of the pancakes nea...



After transplantation to the field from seedling pan, it is commonly observed that a number of chilli (Capsicum annuum) saplings develop wrinkles in their leaves. This disease is more pronounced in the winter crop, particularly in the months of January and February. The disease first affects the leaves and then the branches of the plant, which become badly curled. When this happens, either the plant wilts away or fails to produce the usual number of fruits. Sakhia who resides in a farmhouse h...



One should be careful before storing the grains in the granary. Due to the stored pest, the keeping quality of grain deteriorates. The exiguous holes are observed on the grains by which the grains are not used for the food purpose. To prevent the infestation before storing the grains in the granary, use extract of worm killer (Aristolochia bracteata) and wind killer (Clerodendrum phlomidis), which is sprinkled on the empty container before placing the grains in the container. The 250 ml extra...



A basket is made from the stalk of cotton (Gossypiumhirsutum) and Indian elm (Holarrhenaantidysenterica). The Indian elm is placed at the bottom of basket before placing the onion by which, the process of turning is not advocated. The onion (Allium cepa) bulbs are then placed into the basket for storage. The onions can be stored for the period of one year. The onion is saved from the rotting. It is a traditional practice.



To prevent the wheat crop from the pest infestation and to store the grains for longer duration, use straws of wheat (Triticuma estivum), which is mixed with the grains of wheat. By using this treatment, the wheat grains can be stored for at least one year. Use four to five straws of wheat for one granary. It is a traditional practice.



The marine algae is dried out firstly and then the marine algae are soaked in water for overnight. In the next day, the marine algae is decanted and then strained. Afterthat the decanted algae is mixed with the water using the pump in bottle and then sprayed on the brinjal (Solanum melongena) crop. It is a traditional practice.The marine algae are found only in the sea. Due to less availability of marine algae, the urine of cow or ash can sprayed on the crop also.The infected stem of brinjal ...



The fenugreek powder is mixed into the cold water, stir well and allow to stand for 12 to 14 hours. After filtration of the solution, neem leaves are added thoroughly into the boiling water. Filter the solution and pour some neem oil over it to completely cover the surface. Mix the two filtrated solutions together and add lime solution into it. Then heat the mixture for 1 hour and cool it. Spraying the solution, diluted to the required strength with water, gets rid of the invading worms in co...



100 g of asafoetida (Ferula foetida) and 25 g of black cumin (Nigella sativa) are taken and mixed properly in a powder form. Afterthat 10 l of water is added into the powder. The final the solution can be sprinkled on the groundnut crop. As a result, the fungus does not occur in the groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) crop. There is no side effect of this solution and it is used from 40-45 years.



Surface grass hoppers feeds on the leaves and tender parts of pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) crop. Heavy attack of these insect pest leads to economic losses of the crop. Rainy season favors the multiplication of this pest. For the control of this pest, caster (Ricinus communis) cake is grinded and dusted in the affected pearl millet crop.



If cotton (Gossypiumhirsutum) seeds are planted with their hairy surface intact, they take two days longer to sprout. So, the farmer mixes 200 g termite hill clay, 100 g ash and one kilogram of cotton seeds. He adds water to this mixture and coats the cotton seeds to be planted with it. He lets this seeds dry and then sows them carefully. According to the farmer, this ensures faster germination of the seeds. After his father, Dharamsinhbhai has been using this method for 12 years now.Mix 200 ...



To cure this problem, 100 g leaves of eachgumma (Leucas cephalotes) and worm killer (Aristolochia bracteata) plant are mixed together and spread uniformly in the granary for protection.



Crops like chilli (Capsicum annuum), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), red gram (Cajanus cajan) and vegetables, the control of dryness and wrinkling can be achieved by sprinkling 200 g "banjar bhang" mixed with one bucket of the urine of cow at the time of flowering of the plants.



In order to control pests and disease in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) crop, Shatibhai Patel of Surendranagar districts of Gujarat sows dillseed (Anethum graveolens) along side the cotton crop. According to Shantibhai, pests do not frequent the cotton crop due to the strong smell of the dillseed plants. This not only ensures better cotton crop but saves money spent on pesticides and gives added economic advantage of selling the dill seeds.



In order to arrrest the premature shedding of of flowers in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) crop, Sureshbhai Patel of Surat district, Gujarat, sprays a mixture of cow and goat milk on the cotton plants as soon as the flowering sets in. This helps in arresting the premature flower shedding and increases the yield of cotton crop.



In order to improve the saline soil, Pamabhai Parmar of Surendranagar district of Gujarat uses the discarded cotton bolls that remain after cotton lint is removed. He mixes the bolls with cowdung manure and puts this mixture in the field as organic fertilizer. Pamabhai believes that cotton bolls absorb the salinity of soil and the improves its fertility. He also informs that feeding the discarded cotton bolls to cow increases milk yield.



For the purpose, he puts the powdered leaves of toothbrush tree in the space between the furrows of the sowed brinjal (Solanum melongena), chili (Capsicum annuum) and other crops. This makes the plants healthy and gives them protection against invading insects. For paddy (Oryza sativa), pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and other major crops, he mixes the leaf-powder with the dung-manure or organic compost before sowing.



Lucerne (Medicago sativa) infested with aphid becomes sticky, creates problem during harvesting. Yield is reduced. To control aphid in Lucerne (Medicago sativa), ash is sprinkled on the infested crop. At the time of irrigation, caster (Ricinius communis) oil is taken in the container with the hole at its base to drench the oil in the field. This container with caster (Ricinius communis) oil is hanged over the irrigation channel and oil is allowed to flow drop by drop with the irrigation water...



Premature flower-shedding is observed in vegetable crops in the monsoon and winter which results in decreased fruiting, hence low yield and economic loss to the farmers. To avoid this, farmer Mohanbhai Lalabhai Zhala, of Kalesar village in Kheda district, mixes 100 g asafoetida (Ferula foetida) powder and 2 kg pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) flour and keeps the mixture, bound in a cloth, in the irrigation channel while watering. Mohanbhai learnt of this traditional practice from his foref...



To minimize bollworm infestation in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) crop, the corn (Zea mays) grain is scattered and spread in the furrows of the cotton field. The birds like sparrows and pigeons come to eat corn grains, and get attracted to the bollworms in the cotton field. These birds smell the presence of bollworms, get attracted and the bollworms are destroyed.



In the particular method, Mohanbhai boils 5 kg of tender upper shoots of caper plant (Capparis decidua) in 7 L water. He then allows the decoction to cool, discards the shoots, and mixes 1 L of stock solution to 15 L water in a pump and sprays it on the crop. Mohanbhai is using this method in brinjal (Solanum melongena) and chili (Capsicum annuum) crops for over a decade. Mohanbhai now helps the other farmers of his village in preparing this remedy. Among them Kantibhai Zhala, Shakrabhai Zha...



The flour of pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) is kept inside the dunghill for twenty days and then taken out and mixed with water. Take 1 kg neem (Azadirchta indica) seeds, pound them and prepare a juice Add 10 to 15 dead worms paste and add the same to the neem (Azadirchta indica) seed and pound the mixture to prepare a juice. Whenever there is a need of spraying medicine, use this to spray. Fill the pump up to half its capacity with water and add 100 ml of neem juice. Then add one cup or...



Spraying a mixture of 150 g lemon (Citrus limon) juice and 150 g tamarind (Tamarindus indica) leaf extract to 15 l water filled in one spray pump. After successful experimentation, he modified the method by mixing, in addition of the two ingredients already mentioned, 200 g solution out of the decoction of 250 g tobacco (Nicotina tobaccum) powder and 150 g water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) leaves boiled in 5 l water. This showed improved result. Thus the farmer now uses lemon juice, tamarind l...



For softening cotton (Gossypium herbaccum), cut aloe vera plant (Aloe barbadensis) into pieces. Collect the jelly coming out of it. Mix 300 g jelly with 10 l water, stir it well and store the mixture in earthen pot for 20 days. Filter this mixture and use it as a stock solution. Mix 200 g of this stock solution in a pump full of water, stir it and spray it on the cotton crop. The practice is found to give positive results in brinjal and pigeon pea crops successfully.



Coating the wheat seeds with 25 g ginger juice mixed in water per 0.25 ha of land before sowing. Proving successful, he later modified the method. He collected 250-300 ml juice of onion and ginger mixture without water in tin and allowed drops of the juice to fall from a small hole into the irrigation channel.Chimanbhai Ambalal Patel of the same village in Kheda district also followed the method with success.



Farmers of Amdalli village in the Karwartaluka of Karnataka make use of camphor to store groundnut pods and pulses. With the help of camphor, groundnut pods are stored for a period of 6-7 month. The method consists of filling properly dried groundnut pods in polythene lined gunny bags to a height of 30 cm. Approximately 8-10 pieces of camphor are placed on this before filling it further. Likewise, the entire bag is filled up and then its mouth is tied tightly. The bags are kept in moisture fr...



The farmers of Bavikeri village in the Ankolataluka of Karnataka have devised a simple manner to keep away pests from paddy. They burn heaps of paddy husk in the field at night. The pests get attracted towards light and die by falling into the fire. Alternatively (Sphaeranthus indicus) plant is also used as a repellent to stop pests in paddy. The leaves of the plant are spread in the fields. The peculiar smell of this plant has the property of repel insects like leaf rollers and hoppers. The ...



Farmer Bhikhabhai Sonabhai of Gujarat gives protection to such trees. In early May, he first digs out all soil immediately around the tree till the roots are exposed. He then mixes 1 kg each of "aankol" (Alangium salvifolium) fruit rinds and stem bark of mahua (Madhuca indica) fascicles and spreads the mixture on all the sides. Initially, he spades in the soil again to cover the exposed roots. It has been the experience of Bhikhabhai that the tree so treated bears good and quality fruits. "Aa...



Farmers from Racihur village in Karnataka have developed an interesting protective measure to save sugarcane against termites. They burn dry dung and other crop residuals in the furrows opened for planting sugarcane cuttings before planting the crop as a protective measure against termites and other soil inhabiting pests in sugarcane. Detail Burn dry dung and other crop residues in the furrows opened for planting sugarcane cuttings before planting the crop.



Boil 5 kg of aloe vera plant's (Aloe barbadensis) fleshy leaves in 5 L water. After cooling, the stock solution is mixed in proportion of 500 g to 10 L plain water and sprayed in the quantity of 15 L per tree.This stops flower and fruit shedding in guava crop.



Deveshijibhai Thakor of Kathi village, Mehsana district, has come up with an interesting practice to control this weed using dry stalks of the cumin (Cuminum cyminum) plant. According to him, in summer the dry cumin (Cuminum cyminum) stalks used to spread over the field. In the monsoons, the rain water gets absorbed in the stalks before filtering down to the soil. The water filtering through the cumin stalks prevents the germination and growth of the Dharo or Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) w...



Kodarsinh Parmar from the Sabarkantha district of Gujarat makes use of the green as well as dry leaves of nilgiri or blue gum tree (Eucalyptus globulus) together in a heap and burn it in the early hours of morning, at about eight o clock, when the wind velocity is not high. If needed this procedure can be repeated after a week.



Premature flower and fruit shedding in guava crop results in low yield which means heavy loss to orchard owner or farmer. At such times, the farmers in these parts boil 5 kg aloe vera plant's (Aloe barbadensis) fleshy leaves in 5 L water. When cooled, the stock solution is mixed in proportion of 500 g to 10 L plain water and sprayed in the quantity of 15 l per tree. This stops flower and fruit shedding in guava crop.



Muljibhai Patel of Kapadvanjtaluka of Kheda district has tried planting saplings of milk hedge plant (Euphorbia tirucalli) along with fruit trees in the orchards. The roots of milk hedge plant help in warding off soil pests while the thorny, leafless branches of the plant keep away stray cattle from feeding on the fruit tree saplings.



The fruits of vegetable crops like pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica) and bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) turn yellow prematurely. Their outward look is just like ripe fruits. This reduces the yield. Then there is also the problem of aphid and larvae attack on these crops. To overcome both the problems, the farmer with intuitive sense has developed an indigenous medicine by boiling 1 kg each of "Aankol" (Alangium salvifolium) leaves, neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves and tobacco (Nicotian...



Mansukhlal Shambhubhai Pethan from the Dhorajitaluka of the Rajkot district in Gujarat uses a unique method to increase productivity of lemon crops. He dissolves 100 ml of lemon juice in 2 L of water and sprays his lemon trees with this solution in such a way that all leaves become wet. This has resulted in greater productivity of lemons according to him. He has not observed any negative effects of this practice.



Gram (Cicer arietinum) crop fails, if pod borer larvae are not controlled. For control of this pest, 5 kg leaves of Indian beech (Pongamia pinnata) are pounded in the mortar and 10 L water is added to it. The mixture is kept soaked for 24 hour and then squeezed and filtered through a cloth. This solution, if sprayed in the proportion of 2 L in 15 L of water, gives good results. This is a traditional method.



Beligere Krishnasastry of Challakeretaluka in Karnataka uses cactus to prevent blight diseases in crops. He grinds the seeds and pieces of dried cactus into a fine powder. Then he puts this powder over coal fire and passes the fumes over the paddy field, affected by the baterial blight disease. This treatment also prevents many types of diseases affecting paddy or ragi.



2 to 3 fruits of yellow oleander (Thevetia nevifolia), 500 g fruits of neem (Azadirachta indica), 1 to 2 fruits of thorm apple (Datura metel) and 100 g leaves of custard apple (Annona squamosa) are crushed in 1 L of water and then kept for three months. As a remedy, 250 ml of mixture is filled in a pump and sprayed on the heliothis infested gram (Cicer arietinum) crop two times at the interval of 15 days. Thus, the crop is saved of the problem. This treatment provides 80-90% crop protection o...



Aphids attack the standing crop, vegetable plants and vines. It damages leaves, flowers and stem of the plant and gets the food gradually by sucking the sap. It remain stuck to the plant, damages the crop and thus plant becomes unproductive. As informed by farmer, 4 kg of tinospora (Tinospora cordifolia) is boiled in 8 L of water. It is boiled till half of mixture remains in the container. Thereafter, this mixture is strained and 15 ml is filled in 15 L capacity pump. This mixture is sprayed ...



B S Dinesh from the Shimoga district of Karnataka soaks about 1 kg of the leaves of Mukkudaka (Lasiosophon eriocephalus) in 10 L of boiling water and keeps it overnight. Then he filters the solution and dilutes by adding about 100 L of water. The mixture is ready for spraying. While spraying, some people may develop allergic reactions including swelling of the face of water.



Purshottambhai Sojitra of Amreli district, Gujarat has developed an effective pesticide using the locally available material for pest control in field crops. For the purpose, he collects 5 kg desert plum (Balanites roxburghii) fruits, 2 kg pungent chilly (Capsicum annuum) powder, 2 kg tobacco 5 kg desert plum (Balanites roxburghii) fruits, 2 kg pungent chilly (Capsicum annuum) powder, 2 kg tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaves, 500 g asafoetida (Ferula foetida) powder, 2 kg crushed garlic (Alliu...



Termite is the common problem in wheat (Triticum aestivium) crop cultivated under light soils. The termite infested wheat plant gets withered and uprooted, ultimately affecting the yield of crop. To prevent the termite infestation in wheat crop, seeds of wheat are treated with the leaf extract of wind killer plant before sowing. About, 500 g leaves of wind killer (Clerodendrum phlomidis) plant are crushed with 200 ml water to get an extract. This extract is sufficient for treating 20 kg seeds...