Incense to choke Himachal crop pests

Rajasthan-based cultivator begins production of herbal incense

Farmers in Himachal Pradesh could soon take up a unique eco-friendly way of killing crop-damaging pests by simply burning herbal incense (dhoop).

Select farms, owned by the state horticulture department, are experimenting with herbal incense that can replace widely-used chemical insecticides harmful to crops, the soil, and people.

"If the experiment is successful, we will motivate farmers to take up this eco-friendly practice," said K N Sharma, a state horticulture department official.

Explaining the use of the herbal incense, he said, "125 gm of herbal incense is placed at four spots in an acre of land and set to a slow burning fire, once or twice a week. The spicy fumes and smell of the incense kill the insects which feed on the crops."

Rajasthan-based cultivator Natural Products is a private company that has begun the production of this herbal incense.

Others can also join in if the method catches on with farmers and experts.

It is being tried in a few pockets of Himachal, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, company executives say.

Government officials say this has been tried successfully in apple- and grape-orchards, among others food crops, in Germany.

"Given the harmful effects of expensive chemical insecticide sprays on the environment, this looks like a good alternative to farmers now," Vijay Kumar, a farmer who is already using incense in his vegetable farm, told Business Standard.

The hill state is a major producer of apples and other fruit crops. The mid-hills in the region are also fast emerging as viable options for growing off-season vegetables.