Indigenous Farming :: Indigenous Technical Knowledge
COTTON
- For delinting cotton seeds, the seed with wet cow dung and dried for 30 minutes and then slightly rub against a stone and clean.
- Coating the cotton seeds with red soil and sun drying them before sowing to ensure good germinationand to make the dibbling easy.
- Mixing one kg of cotton seeds with 200ml. of neem oil and pasting it with fresh cow dung and then drying this over night before sowing to avoid pests.
- Applying groundnut cake three times during the crop period to enhance plant growth and boll reduction.
- Growing castor as intercrop or border crop to attract tobacco cut worms.
- Maize, lady's fingers are also grown as intercrops to reduce boll worm attack.
- A mixture of fish meal and Jaggery at 2:1 ratio is broadcasted on cotton fields to attract cranes and bulbuls, which feed on tobacco cut worms
- Five kg. of neem kernels are powdered and soaked in 100 lit of water for one day and filtered in the next day, diluted, mixed with soap solution and sprayed to control white flies.
- One meter of white cloth is cut in to 10 pieces, soaked in turmeric solution and dried. They are again soaked in castor oil and tied in the fields in different locations under which chimney lamps are kept to control sucking pests like white flies.
- Powdering the seeds of Neriurn oleander, soaking in water and spraying the extract solution to control white flies.
- About 600g. of tobacco is soaked in water for 2-3 days, filtered and sprayed to control white flies.
- Sugar solution and neem oil are mixed with water and sprayed to control mealy bugs.
- Dusting ash on cotton leaves to control aphids/thrips.
- Cultivating sorghum or pearl millet around cotton fields to prevent whiteflies and thrips.
- Powdering the neem kernels with 'Vasambu' (Swnet flag- Acorus calamus), soaking in water even night and spraying the filtrate in the next day to control all pests.
- Kapas (lint + seed) are picked up only during morning hours to avoid dust.
SUGARCANE
- Tank silt is applied before planting for higher yield.
- Sugar content of the cane is increased if sheep penning is practiced or sheep manure is applied.
- Detrashing the canes to control scales and mealy bugs. It is locally called as 'Sogai Uriththal'.
- Providing frequent irrigation to control termites.
- Chulah ash is applied 2-3 months after planting to control early shoot borer.
- Neem kernels or neem cake are powdered, soaked in water overnight and the filtrate is diluted and sprayed to control early shoot borer.
- Dried neem fruits are powdered and applied @ 200kg./ha. to control stem borers and fungal diseases.
- Jaggery (country sugar) is manufactured indigenously Sugarcane juice is poured in to a wide mouthed big iron utensil called 'Kopparai' and boiled for 1 hour. Then baking soda is put to remove the dusts and continuously boiled for another hour with addition of colouring agent. After reaching required consistency of sticky, colloidal nature (Pagu), juice is poured in to moulds or moulded by hands.
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