Organic Farm Management

Organic farming envisages a comprehensive management approach to improve soil health, the ecosystem of the region and the quality of produce living soil can be maintained by continuous incorporation of crop and weed biomass, use of animal dung, urine-based manures (FYM, NADEP, vermicompost), biofertilisers and bioenhancers, special liquid formulations (like vermiwash, compost tea etc) during a crop’s duration. As a thumb rule, crop residues and cattle excreta should be returned to the plot, directly or indirectly. As a strategy, the quantity of biomass removed for human food and fiber, cattle feed or firewood from an organic farm should be replaced with any other bio-waste on the farm. In phosphorous-deficient and acidic soils, some quantity of mineral grade rock phosphate and lime can also be added either by direct application to the field or through addition to compost. The compost can be further enriched by incorporation of biofertilisers, microbial inoculants, etc. Special composts like biodynamic compost, cowpat pit compost, biodynamic preparations such as BD-500 and BD-501, special formulations like Panchgavya, Dashgavya, Biosol etc are also useful and ensure optimum productivity. Use of EM formulation has also been found effective in soil enrichment and compost making. For high nutrient demanding crops and for intermittent soil enrichment use of oilcakes, poultry manure, concentrated manures (mixture of oil cakes, poultry manure and rock phosphate) can also be an ideal low-cost option of manuring.