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PROFILE |
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Conservation, Creativity and Cooperation: A Case from Kerala"~"Kettinattu method of seed treatment for paddy |
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Mr. Ajithomas (45 years) studied till standard eight, and has been a farmer for the past 30 years. In Ambalavayal, a Wayanad district, 1.5 acre of his land is under cultivation. He developed an innovative method of seed treatment which reduced the cost of cultivation as well as the duration by 15 days. He conserves traditional paddy varieties. His method is named as Kettinattu method of seed treatment. This method is being followed by 150 farmers in Kerala.He developed a formula by using locally available materials for coating the seeds. He takes 200 kg cow dung, Panchagavya 2 l, leaves of mango (Mangifera indica), glyricidia (Gliricidia sepium), thumbai (Leucas aspera), tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum), neem 10 kg each are chopped and added to the solution and mixed and stirred. The mixture is kept for 2 weeks for fermentation in a plastic barrel or trough.Gliricidia sepium has anti-fungal properties. The ethanol extract of leaves has been used to check the efficacy on parasitic nematodes, clinical pathogens and mosquito’s repellent activity. Nematicidal property of extract was observed in different concentration against Meloidogyne incognita nematode showing 60% mortality. Mosquito’s repellent activity has been studied against Aedes aegypti, the maximum repellence was 78% compared with the citronella oil, the repellence was 74%. Using well diffusion method the antibacterial activity of ethanol extract against E.coli, S.aureus, Pseudomonas spp., S.typhi, Klebsillia spp., (Nazli, R., Akhter, M., Ambreen, S., Solangi, A. H., & Sultana, N. (2008). Pakistan Journal of Botany, 40(6), 2625-2629.)Cow dung and panchagavya is reported for seed treatments. (http://www.ciks.org/6.%20Seed%20Treatment%20Techniques.pdf)He also developed a mixing tool for applying the paste over the paddy seeds. He designed an aluminium tray of 6 x 1 feet in size and the holes are made at 2 inch distance. The size of the hole is about less than half inch and allows paddy seeds to pass through. The cow dung paste has to be placed over a rubber mat (used in the front of the house to arrest dust while entering the house). The rubber mat contains holes and this existing design of the rubber mat available locally is used for this method of seed treatment. After placing the cow dung paste over the mat, gently press over it. The circular size cow dung paste will come out and fall on the ground. Over this cow dung pills place the aluminium tray and fill the tray with paddy seeds. Each hole allows 2 seeds to each of the cow dung pill and is inserted automatically. Then the heaps of pills are covered with polythene sheets for 5 days for germination. The polythene sheets are removed after 5 days and the germinated cow dung pills can be sowed in the main field by using wooden tiller bullock drawn. This method of sowing requires only require 2.5 kg of seeds per acre instead of 32 – 40 kg in the ordinary method of sowing. This method of sowing requires 3 labourers instead of 20 labourers in the normal method of planting and can be harvested 15 days before normal crop. He is conserving ‘Thonnutran thondi’ a traditional variety of paddy, and the crop takes 90 days. The colour of the rice is red in colour. He has also developed a manual tool for extracting rubber milk from the rubber tree (making insertion on the trunk of the tree). He was awarded as farmer innovator by NABARD bank in 2008. Documented : P.Vivekanandan,SEVAScout: Sibhu, Wayanad NGO |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 27(4) 4, 2016 |
