Non-Pesticide Management Practice Augmenting Surai’s Agriculture Production

<p>Adopting Natural Farming Practices, Surai Maji, a 46-year-old woman farmer of Ratachuan village in Kodipari Gram Panchayat, has broken the barriers in the agricultural landscape. In order to sustain the livelihood of her family - husband Lada Maji and three other members, Surai actively gets involved in both agricultural and non-agricultural activities.</p> <p>In the kharif season, Surai works as a share cropper alongside her husband. Despite lack of formal education, Surai has become an active member of Maa Tulashi Producer Group. Her deep involvement in community activities led her to a transformative experience by attending a training session on Natural Farming conducted by the CYSD under UANAT Project supported by UAIL and BRLF.</p> <p>In the training, Surai learned about the Natural Farming Practices by applying non-pesticide management (NPM), a methodology that enables farmers to create bio-fertilizers using locally available materials. Realizing the potential of producing homemade bio-fertilizers, Surai could foresee the opportunity to address the high-cost fertilizers challenges, which was not economically viable for a joint family like her.</p> <p>Mingling cow dung and urine, gram flour, jaggery, and Neem leaves proportionately, Surai started preparing organic fertilizers and experimented NPM on her 3-acre land - used Neemastra in Brinjal crop yielded miraculous results, and the application of Ghanajeevamrit and Jeevamrit in potato crop yield resulted fivefold increase in production comparing to the seeds input weight. Of course, the UANAT project supported High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Vermin bed for Vermin compost preparation.</p>