After years of free use of chemicals, Vidarbha farmlands are waking upto a whole new world, with a little help from the College of Agriculture here run by the Punjabrao Krushi Vidyapeeth. Naturally.After seven years, the college’s Department of Plant Pathology has prepared formulations of biological fertilisers and pesticides as well as disease-biocontrol packages. Farmers as far apart as And-hra Pradesh and Karnataka — especially troubled citrus cultivators — have responded positively to the pick-me-ups.The PVK bio-fertilisers formulated by the five-member team led by Associate Dean S J Gaikwad comprise a package of seven different group cultures of rhizobium and a phosphate-solubalising azatobacter which help fix atmospheric nitrogen in the roots and allow the plant to source phosphate. While rhizobium helps only monocotyledonous crops, azatobacter is effective for all kinds.‘‘Chemicals are inadequate in controlling soil-borne diseases like wilt, root-rot, collar-rot and stem-rot. But they are effectively controlled by a combination of 10 species of trichoderma, bacillus subtilis and pseudomonous floro-scence which we have developed,’’ claims Gaikwad.PKV’s fungal pesticide formulations — namely metarrhizium, beaurea, verticillium, neaumorea and Bt — Gaikwad says, has proved extremely effective in controlling the deadly heliothis disease of cotton. ‘‘The formulations are non-polluting, increase fertility and yield and extremely cost-effective, since a Rs 10-250 gm package is enough for an acre,’’ says Gaikwad. ‘‘Hundreds of farmers are using our formulations.” Among them is Babanrao Likhar of Jalalkheda who used the formulations on his wilting 19-acre orange orchard. ‘‘The PKV formulations have brought new hope,’’ he says.Ditto for pomegranate-grower Ramesh Rao, an agriculture graduate from Anantpur district, Andhra Pradesh., so much so he has set up a unit to produce these products.PKV itself has moved on. ‘‘Nematod and termite control are our next targets,’’ says Gaikwad.
