A farmerteacher’s apps for healthy cotton crop and pest control
NANDED: Armed with three farm management degrees and an MSc in agriculture, Parikshit Bokare from Maharashtra’s drought-prone Nanded could have stayed put with his cushy job of an assistant professor at a college in Aurangabad.
But his passion remained in the family farmland to which he belongs. The 30-year-old quit his job and started growing sugarcane, interspersed with groundnuts and soya bean on six acres. His dream is to help farmers get financial security, and encourage youngsters to take up farming.
And so he designed two Android phone apps to help farmers. “I chalked out plans for managing crops, fertilisers and pesticides for my father. My education in agriculture management gave me the advantage. And I want everyone to benefit.”
His “cotton app”, launched in 2015, gives information on growing a healthy crop. It has recorded over 38,000 downloads. “Cotton is most vulnerable to pests and can fail miserably when the slightest thing goes wrong. It has a long gestation period, so there is considerable investment. Plus, a majority of central Maharashtra’s farmers grow cotton,” he says.
There is also an IPM, or integrated pest management, application that gives information about controlling bugs that affect crops grown in Maharashtra. Launched in 2016, it has over 18,000 downloads. “On my farm, I do the same things that others do, but at the right time. Farmers use pesticides after an infestation is discovered. I use preventive pest control measures. I also learnt the optimum physical distance between crops to allow them to breathe, or the amount of pesticides to be used. This planning has helped increase farm productivity,” he says.
Bokare travelled across Maharashtra when he worked with a World Bankdriven programme in 2012. Those trips gave him a repository of hands-on knowledge that he applies now on his farm.