Pledging for "Pest Free Villages"

‘The hatchling from an egg resembles the hen and a child resembles its parent. How are you saying that an egg laid by a moth (butterfly) becomes a caterpillar?’ a farmer in Bolvanipalli naively asked in one of the initial training programs on managing pests without using chemicals. This program was taken up on Redgram in partnership with the Kosgi Mandal Mahila Samakhya under Indira Kranthi Patham in 2004-05. The program was taken up with 350 member farmers in 400 acres in 15 villages. About 80% of these partner farmers did away with chemical pesticides. Yielding to the psychological pressures of the market others sprayed one or two rounds of chemicals.

In the initial situation analysis it was observed that the farmers spend around Rs.2000 per acre on chemical pesticides. Assuming that each member has at least one acre under redgram, the women would be spending anywhere between 50 lakhs to one crore rupees on pesticides - an amount several times higher than what they could save in a year! The Samakhya decided to act. The technology was perfected by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture/ Centre for World Solidarity.

The program started with registration of farmers who want to be part of this initiative. Several training programs were organized by which the farmers slowly understood the science of pest management - the pest life cycle, various ways of managing pests at different life stages. They used neem kernel extract, cow dung-urine solution, tobacco decoction and other manual methods. Once the farmers started observations and deliberations on pest management their instinct for experimentation opened up. Some of the farmers tried several locally available plant decoctions to manage pests.

Kosgi Samakhya is radiating with the confidence of doing away with chemical pesticides in Redgram. The farmers could save 1000 to 1300 Rupees per acre on pesticides. These were replaced with knowledge of pest life cycle , and locally available material.