Agartala: Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT) of Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizer entrusted Bio Technology department of Tripura along with Tea Research Institute to experiment the effectiveness of Neem extracts as bio-pesticide and bio-fertilizer.
Head of the Bio-Technology Department and leading organic promoter of Tripura Anjan Sengupta said here on Friday that IPFT has initiated the project in three locations of country to validate the level of benefits of Neem extract in firm production.
“Recently, it appears that a number of companies packaging Neem extract as organic pesticide and fertilizer for agriculture and horticulture but IPFT wanted to get hand on experience of the practice and to ascertain the best effective dose with other bio-synergists,” Mr Sengupta said.
He however, pointed out that IPFT itself developed an experiment plot at Gurgoan in Haryana at extreme climate events are occurred and Tea Research Institute has developed another plot at Nagarkata in West Bengal with moderate climate events besides, Debendra Nagar of Tripura where climatic condition is completely different.
The project formulated at the aim to determine the variation of effects in two different matrixes. How the same dose in specific bio-synergist varies in result in different agro-climatic condition and what would be the best bio-synergy for specific crops and firm production in different environment, Mr Sengupta stated.
He argued that Neem is the most commonly available organic component in India but the use of Neem is still very low and not sufficiently scientific. Moreover, because of insufficient research, Neem products are getting branded by some commercial enterprise in spite of its availability to each and every farmer.
“The project is an initiative to promote bio-firming at affordable resources even to the marginal farmers of India, which would ultimately reduce the use of chemical fertilizers.
It is fact that we could not able to establish confidence of our farmers in large scale commercial production with organic method because still there is a myth, organic firming is costly and less productive but it is far from the truth,” Mr Sengupta attributed.
IPFT assigned Tripura Bio-Technology department to go for firm experiment of Neem effects in a particular firm in with different vegetation initially for three years with complete technical guidance of the experts of IPFT, said head of the project Darchu Chakma adding that a dedicated technical team here will implement the project and monitor the result to feed the institute to draw conclusion for larger use of Neem in firm production.
He stated that the project shall evaluate the effect of Neem in different concentration in the vegetable crops and also to see its variation in nutrient status. Despite Neem based products are exports from India in large scale, still the use of Neem extract in Indian firm production is considerably low. He claimed USA and Italy are the leading importers of Neem extracts from India.(UNI)