Asafoetida Accident Aids Growth Without Pesticides

Posted by Matt Hopkins|17 July 2009

K. Chellamuthu, a farm worker at Kodumudi village, Erode, Tamil Nadu has developed a herbal sray for control of eriophyd mite in coconut trees, according to The Hindu. Chellamuthu details the preparation as: “About one kg of custard apple leaves, turmeric rhizome, peenari changu (Clerodendrum inermi), Aloe vera, Nochi (Vitex negundo), neem kernel (Azadirachta indica) and calotropis (calotropis gigantia) each should be ground into a fine paste by adding sufficient water and about five litres of essence extracted from it. The essence must be diluted in 15 litres of water (to make it 20 litres) and sprayed on to the crown of the tree at the rate of 2 litres per tree after harvesting the nuts.” Chellamuthu recommends repeating the procedure once every two months at the start, and later, twice a year. “Nearly 2,000 coconut trees treated with my herbal formula are healthy and about 300 farmers are using it,” he says.

The farmer also advocates use of asafoetida, or giant fennel, for increasing crop yield. “I accidentally discovered that asafoetida acts as a pest repellent and aids plant growth,” Chellamuthu says, adding that he knows that asafoetida benefits plant health, but does not know why. For an acre he places one kg of asafoetida inside a sack and places it in the irrigation channel. “The water along with the dissolved asafoetida repels pests and aids crop growth,” he says.

He discovered this technique by accident: “I once jokingly suggested to my neighbour to use the surplus half-a-kilogram asafoetida he had on his ring gourd plants affected by pests. I wanted to tease him and did not know the consequences,” he says. Surprising both Chellamuthu and his neighbor, the plants not only survived the pest attack but also grew well to yield bigger, healthier gourds than the normal ones. A farmer from a neighbouring village heard about their success and, after using it on his 2.5 acres of jasmine plants, had a good yield.

“I started experimenting asafoetida’s effect on paddy, sesame seeds, ground nut, tomato, brinjal and other crops and found that the yield increased and the plants were healthy,” says Chellamuthu. After other farmers in the district followed Chellamuthu’s practice, the Centre for Plant Protection Studies at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, undertook a scientific study on the effect of the bio-spray on paddy and brinjal crops and endorsed its usage.