A progressive farmer, Mr. Malleshappa Gulappa Biserotti belongs to Hiregunjal village, Dharwad district, Karnataka, India. Karnataka’s Dharwad region is well-known as a transitional belt. Since 1990, the area’s monsoon rain has been declining, which has caused water scarcity for agricultural purposes, and now farmers have to obtain water from neighboring villages.
Under these difficult situations, Mr. Biserotti adopted organic farming practices as a substitute method for crop production. For the last 10 years, he has been practicing organic farming. He initiated the practice of organic agriculture by using compost, vermicompost, and farmyard manure.
He observed the improvement in his crop after the continuous efforts of 4 years, and his interest has developed in vermicompost growth and its ongoing use. He started utilizing the liquid Jeevamrutha organic approach to produce crops with no upfront cost. The only difficulty with this approach is that it needs a lot of water to make liquid Jeevamrutha.
To solve this problem, he began experimenting with the usage of solid jeevamrutha, and over the last 6 years, he has been successful in raising crops.
The making of solid Jeevamrutha consists of 250 g of pulse flour, 250 grams of jaggery, 10 kg of cow dung, and 1.5 to 2 liters of cattle urine. After combining these ingredients, a heap is made under the shade, and then it’s covered for 24 hours with a gunny bag.
After removing the gunny bag, the products are left under the shade for 25–30 days, which results in firm Jeevamrutha in the shape of pebbles. Then pebbles are directly used along with the seeds during sowing and are used as a top dressing.
Later, he noticed that with this technique, a huge number of earthworms were developing, which provided new hope for organic farming. After mixing 2 kg of solid Jeevamrutha with 2.5 liters of water, it was left for three days. After incubation for 45 days, he found around 1000 earthworms in the dish.
After 71 days of vermicompost preparation, he found 1500 grown earthworms in the tray, along with a huge number of earthworm colonies, pupa, and small worms. He receives 20 kg of vermicompost from each tray, and later he mixes it with firm Jeevamrutha and compost to use for crops.
Mr. Biserotti can produce 5 MT of solid Jeevamrutha and 10 MT of vermicompost every year with the help of this approach.
He has been able to produce sustainable crops with these organic products, which are much better than those produced through inorganic products. With this technique, he has been able to achieve agricultural yield per acre of land even with little rainfall.
He believed that he had been practicing organic farming methods for a long if other farmers followed the same, it would help maintain sustainable agriculture.