A farmer from the Chittoor district has chosen natural farming after being inspired by Subhash Palekar's views on natural farming and his approach to zero-budget natural farming. On his 20 acres, he has been growing paddy, mango, millets, and other crops, as well as producing jaggery and cold-pressed groundnut oil without the use of pesticides. Yanamala Jagadeesh Reddy, from Bangarupalem Mandal’s Danduvaripalle, has been supplying his products to over 200 families. Krishna Murthy Reddy, his father, was also a farmer.
In 2010, Jagadeesh, who had left his education, began farming with chemicals and suffered losses. Jagadeesh attended a workshop on natural farming in Tirupati in 2012, led by prominent natural farmer and researcher Subhash Palekar.
Palekar's words inspired him to go natural with his farming, and he began using cow dung, urine, green manure, and biological pest control methods.
Using jeevamrutha, nine-leaf kashayam (water decoction), and mulching, it takes more than a year to make his soil fertile. Jagdeesh supplies desi rice types such as dehusked Indrayani, Kullakar Arisi, and Navara, which sell for Rs 100-Rs 130 per kilogram. Natural farming products are in high demand, and costs are high.
"I wanted to protect the land from pesticides and poisons. I've given several workshops across the country and helped many farms in making the switch to natural farming. My move to natural farming has caught the eye of fellow farmers and others. Under my guidance, more than 200 farmers across the country, including several in my village, are now practicing natural farming”, he explains.
Natural fertilizers are made from cow dung, cow urine, jaggery, green and black gram flour, and forest soil. He says that 200 liters of liquid fertilizer are enough for a single acre. To make insecticide, neemastram (a mixture of neem extract, cow urine, cow dung, and water) is used.
Jeevamrutha solution is allowed to ferment for two days. After mulching, the soil attracts earthworms, which makes it healthy by increasing aeration. Jagadeesh has been cultivating mango on 12 acres since 2012. Banginapalli, Alphonso, Mallika, Mulgoa and Neelam varieties of mangoes are available in his orchard.
These mangoes are naturally ripened without using any chemicals. He has been getting more than 4.2 tonnes per acre and around 50 tonnes of mangoes annually.
He has been extracting groundnut oil using the cold-pressed system in which oil is extracted using the traditional wooden mill method without heating or using any chemicals. Groundnut oil made using traditional cold pressed methods is healthy, he said.
The 46-year-old farmer has a WhatsApp group where he receives orders from the public at large and then provides the products to the customers depending on the requests. Jagadeesh is now planning to launch his own brand, Pranachita, to sell rice, jaggery, chili powder, millets, and other items.
He has even been teaching his six-year-old son about farming techniques. Jagadeesh wishes for his son to follow in his footsteps as a successful natural farmer in the future.
Yanamala Jagadeesh Reddy bags several awards for innovative and healthy natural farming
For his innovative natural farming, Jagadeesh has won several awards. He received the 'Innovative farmer' award from the Indian Agriculture Research Institute in New Delhi. He won the Adarsha Raithu award from the Andhra Pradesh government.
He got the NNHS award from the National Nutritional and Health Sciences in New Delhi, as well as the Medical & Health Association of Jaipur's 'Global Outreach healthcare award. 'The farmer was also honored by the Indian Agriculture Research Institute in New Delhi with the IARI fellow farmer award.
