Even as Maharashtra continues to grapple with an agrarian crisis, farmers in Latur, one of the drought-prone districts in the state, are slowly moving towards the organic way of farming to reduce input costs and increase agriculture output.
Planting variety of trees on the farmland, using organic manure and bio-enzyme in soil stabilisation are some of ways being adopted by the farmers for a healthy growth of crops that is safer for human consumption. “The government and researchers have been focusing mainly on how to increase the yield. But in the process, agriculture has become a costly affair with the use of costly fertilisers, pesticides and commercial seeds. If the farmer sells his harvest at Rs 100, then his input cost is Rs 80 and hence the profit is only Rs 20. And when crop fails, there is a huge debt burden due to the heavy expenditure on input costs,” Mahadev Gomare, Latur Head of Sri Sri Institute of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Trust told PTI.
