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Kavitha Kuruganti

When other farmers in Andhra Pradesh are finding it difficult to repay their debts, the farmers of Punukula have saved up to Rs 30 lakh. Find out how.

Punukula, a small village in Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh (AP), declared itself pesticide-free in 2003. Farmers here don't use pesticides even for crops such as cotton, Bengal gram, chilli and paddy — all known to use notoriously high quantities of pesticides.

In the past five years, the State has had frequent spells of drought and thousands of farmers have committed suicide. An estimated 1,200 suicide deaths were reported between June and August 2004. One of the reasons for the rise in suicides has been the crushing burden of debt; many farmers buy expensive seeds and pesticides and when the crops fail, their own survival becomes difficult. Against this scenario the pesticide-free status of the predominantly tribal village of Punukula gains significance.

The Punukula farmers claim that they are able to save up to Rs 30 lakh every year on agricultural inputs by adopting an ecological approach towards pest management. There is a total of 600 acres of farmland; and on every acre, they have been able to save at least Rs 5,000, as they don't have to buy expensive pesticides.

Their success in eliminating the use of artificial pesticides from cotton fields has been remarkable. Farmers who migrated from Guntur district brought the cotton crop to Punukula more than 15 years ago. Local farmers, who saw the Guntur farmers use pesticides on their cotton crop quite frequently, soon started using them in their own fields. Initially, the pesticides worked well and several pesticide shops were opened in the nearby town of Palvancha. Pesticide dealers also gave local farmers the latest pesticides on credit.

But gradually, the pests became resistant to these pesticides. Monocrotophos, methyl parathion, chlorpyriphos, endosulfan and synthetic pyrethroids... nothing seemed to work. The pests would only come back in greater numbers. Pretty soon, the cotton crop needed greater quantities of pesticides, which meant a higher investment.

In addition to supplying seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, the dealers also lent money to the hapless farmers at high interest rates.

But when yields started reducing — due to pests — and debts increased, some farmers in Punukula committed suicide. The high use of pesticides also posed health-related problems. For instance, Srinu, farmer Hemla Nayak's son, had to spend Rs 18,000 on treatment for acute pesticide poisoning in 1999. Women, who did most of the pesticide spraying work, complained of skin problems, blurred vision and body ache.

In 1999, the Socio-Economic and Cultural Upliftment in Rural Environment (SECURE), a local NGO, stepped in and suggested that the farmers try out ecological methods for pest management. Technical and financial support for this project initially came from the Centre for World Solidarity (CWS) and later from the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), both based in Hyderabad. However, the determination and support of five self-help groups (SHGs) run by the village women contributed towards making this shift to ecological methods possible.

SECURE initially began work with 20 farmers, including a few women. Earla Dhanamma, whose husband Nagabhushanam represented the interests of several pesticide companies, also joined in. The farmers were sceptical in the beginning. But the method of preventing pest attacks by understanding the pests' life cycles did appear both simple and affordable. Instead of chemical sprays, the farmers began preparing sprays made with local and inexpensive material such as neem seed powder and green chilli-garlic extract. The farmers also used hormone traps to attract moths and destroyed them before they started mating. Some farmers also used `crop traps': along with the cotton crop they would grow another crop (marigold or castor) that attracted the pests more.

In just one season, the positive results began to show: Useful insects such as spiders, wasps and beetles — which feed on cotton pests — returned to the fields once the chemical pesticides were stopped. In the next season, many other farmers came forward to try out the new approach. However, there were several men in the village who found it easier to buy a container of chemical pesticide from a pesticide dealer than go through the trouble of preparing extracts to control pest population.

But the women's SHGs prevented these men from going back to pesticide shops. "We knew that the savings with the new methods were enormous — upto Rs 10,000 per acre at times. Why, then, would we need to go back to pesticides?" asks Dhanamma.

Others also realised that pesticides meant higher debts as well as high medical costs. The women even took on the additional work of preparing the anti-pest sprays from neem and chilli-garlic paste. They also ensured that no one brought pesticides into their village.

By 2003, most farmers in this 200-household village had stopped using harmful chemical pesticides. Pesticide dealers stopped coming to the village as sales dropped dramatically. Besides covering 400-odd acres of cotton, the new method was also used in fields growing chilli and paddy. No pesticides were sprayed on the 600-odd acres of farmland during the 2003 kharif (post-summer) season. Even during the first crop season of 2004, no pesticides were required.

In August 2004, the women's groups also bought a neem seed crushing machine (extracts for the sprays are prepared from the powder) with support from SECURE and CWS/CSA.

Today, Punukula has become a role model for other villagers who are inspired and impressed by its healthy crops. Just 15 km away, villages in the Julurpad block have high pest incidence despite the use of pesticides.

Punukula farmers now have the money to invest in house repair livestock and buy land. Most farmers say their incomes are higher, enabling them to repay old debts. The villagers now firmly believe that the way to get rid of pests is to rid their farming of pesticides.

Picture by A. Roy Chowdhury

Women's Feature Service

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