A farmerteacher’s apps for healthy cotton crop and pest control
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. 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 apps. “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 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 said.
There is also an IPM, or integrated pest management, application that gives information about controlling bugs that affect crops. 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 infestation. 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 said.
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