Easy and cost effective organic cultivation and their utilization

To see total organic cultivation and its commercial use may take long time as it involves lot of research and costs. Right now we do not have techniques to cultivate in our country and because of the costs involved, appearance of those crops, packing and transport, grading, standardization of these items, certification etc , these crops cannot be easily marketed. Many times the use of cow products for organic farming also did not yield results. There is lot of scarcity of seeds /reproduction methods for organic cultivation of crops. Further it is also suspected that due to BT cotton, traditional seeds of many crops, vegetables are disappearing or becoming incapable of germination. In future, even grass, weeds may also do not come on this earth because their seeds are losing germinating capacity. The traditional species of many agricultural varieties disappeared in the recent past. For example papaya, brinjal, ladies finger, ridge gourd, banana, French beans, paddy, sorghum etc. in this context, how to make organic farming effective and how to propagate consumption of these items is point of this discussion.

1. Ash gourd, pumpkin, jackfruit , budam dosa kaaya come up without use of any pesticides. The cousins made of them must be given publicity as they are free from pesticide residues. Cattle dung is very effective in their yield How easy to use them is given as follows

a. Ash gourd/pumpkin curry can be done as usually as other curries are done by simple cutting, cooking, taalimpu/tiragamotha with/without addition of soaked green/Bengal gram dhal

b. Koya thotakoora, gongura, chenchali aaku, ganjeru koora, pindi aaku, gunta gargadaaku, chintachiguru, burre bachalaaku, teega bachali aaku,chinta chiguru etc just come in rainy season without use of pesticides/fertilizers .Making recipes with them must be given necessary publicity. Their curry making is as easy as any other leafy vegetable curry making.

c. Making jackfruit curry is little difficult bcz of its gumminess. Otherwise it is also similar. If the people start eating it in large scale, skilled man power comes for their cutting.

d. Budamkaaya avakaaya is simple involving cutting and adding chili powder, salt, hing, menthe powder, mustard powder, oil.

e. Seeds of country beans (chikkudu kaaya) , cucumber , musk Milan, water Milan etc can also be used for making different cousins . All these may not contain many pesticides as they come up naturally.

f. Vamanagaaya, tender tamarind can be used for chutney, dhal etc.

g. Custard apple, black berry, jack fruits come up naturally. Seeds of jack fruit can be used for making different recipes and can be eaten just by boiling/heating.

h. National institute of nutrition, ICRISAT, Hyderabad can also be involved to educate both the farmers and consumers.

i. Dosakaaya/vankaaya varugulu( drying of slightly salted cut pieces) , gummadi vadiyaalu( drying of cut pieces of ash gourd with black gram batter) give us way for effective use and storage of these vegetables.

j. We have to understand that ash gourd, pumpkin can be easily preserved for months together without any fritz/cold storage)

k. Similarly jack fruit comes almost throughout the year

l. To minimize the use of pesticide residues we have to depend upon seasons. For example cultivation of many vegetable crops during summer requires lot of fertilizers and pesticides. Hence we have to plan our food with ash gourd, pumpkin, jack fruit, chinta chiguru, potato, elephant yam , vankaya varugulu, dosakaaya varugulu etc

In the winter and rainy season vegetables come up easily and hence we can relatives have least pesticide contents

Ramprasad Machiraju