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Honey bee publish details |
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Tamil Nadu |
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Hums |
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| Title |
A Farm Worker Innovates |
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| Details |
P. Mallika (34) is an agricultural labourer in Pallapatti village, Dindigul District. Mallika has been working in a private nursery garden for the past eight years which sells air layered cuttings and seedlings of Moringa. The farm is maintained by Alagarsamy, a farmer in the same village. He had received SRISTI Samman for developing a new variety of Moringa.
Mallika does not have any formal education. Her husband is a shepherd and maintains a herd of twelve sheep. The couple has two girls.
24301 Double layering method
Mallika has developed a double air layering technique in a single branch or stalk of Moringa.
Air layering is a technique for ornamental/horticultural crops to promote vegetative propagation. Usually in a branch or stalk of a tree (with pencil thickness) air layers are made in a single place. In one tree about 10-12 air layers can be made at a time. Compared with the annual Moringa variety developed by the Agricultural University at Dindigul, the rooting of the air layer seedling takes more than one year. Farmers prefer propagation of Moringa through air layered cuttings rather than seed propagation.
Mallika wondered if two layers could be made in a single elongated branch or stalk. About two years ago, she started experimenting without the knowledge of the nursery’s owner. At the end of one month, both the layers had good roots. She removed the two layers and planted them in separate polythene bags. She was appreciated by the owner for her endeavour and other women workers started following her technique.
The rooting is hastened by applying a widely used organic liquid made by mixing panchagavya, gunapajala and waste papaya fruits, to thesphagnum moss after scrapping the stem.
P. Mallika
Nilakottai Taluka, Dindigul District
Interesting fact
Air-layering has been in use in China for the last 4000 years. Stems are enclosed in a moist compost and moss. After some days, roots develop from the cut areas. Once these roots are well developed, the new plant is severed from the roots and potted separately. In Ireland, after many years of intermittent research, a new product, Comet by Rootgrow Ltd. has been developed, to facilitate the process of air-layering (online at: http://gardens.co.nz/Articles.cfm?NLID=124).
24302 Use of natural pesticide for control of pests in betel vines
Betel (Piper betel L.) is cultivated widely in coastal districts of Odisha. In betel cultivation, farmers face problems of a chewing pest, locally known as dhala poka, which feeds upon green betel leaves. Sthitapragyan Madhi, a student of class 10 in the Shreekrushna Academy of Jagatsinghpur, found a way of dealing with this problem. He comes from a farming family
Sthitapragyan observed that ants in betel vine eat the pests. The ants first surround the pest, kill them and take them away as food. He uses molasses to attract the ants. This practice has now become very popular for controlling these pests.
Sthitapragyan Madhi
Shreekrushna Academy, Jagatsinghpur, District,
Scout-Pradeepta Pala
Interesting facts: Ediberto Cruz, from Chile has found a new way to keep ants from biting him while working in the field. He, places a tortilla in an ant nest. The ants gather around the tortilla instead of stinging him. (Bentley J.W., 2006. Agriculture and Human Values, 23(4): 451-462).
Ants are known predators of pests (Inouye D.W. and Taylor Jr. O.R., 1979. Ecological Society of America, 60 (1): 1-7) and thus used as a natural pest control in Honduras as well (Bentley J.W., Rodriguez, G. and Gonzalez, A., 1994. Agriculture and Human Values, 11 (2-3): 178-182). Some farmers use rotting mangoes instead of sugar, thus reducing cost (Bentley J.W., 2000. In Stoll G., Ed. Natural Crop Protection in the Tropics: Letting Information Come to Life, 281-289). Also see Honey Bee, 6(2):3-5, 1995.
24303 Wild seeds against wart in cattle
Warts appear as small eruptions over the skin of cattle. There can be several reasons for the origin of these warts. Sometimes, they are of viral origin. To treat such warts, Nilamani Bisi uses the seeds of a plant locally called as bhalia (Semicarpus anacardium L.f.). He grinds them into a powder, mixes with it molasses and feeds the cattle for 21 days. Every day, he uses around three to four dried seeds for this purpose.
Nilamani Bisi Badhigaon, Padmapur, District-Bargarh
Semicarpus anacardium is reported for treating warts. The anti-tumour activity has been studied (Chitnis et al., 1980. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, 18(1): 6-8). Bhalia is also used for treating wounded cattle. Also see Honey Bee, 14(4) & 15 (1): 30, 2003. |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 24(3) 19, 2013 |
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