Padma Shri Chintala Venkat Reddy: (Innovative Natural Farmer known for soil fertility and soil swapping techniques)
Today I am blessed to have met a humble man Padma Shri Chintala Venkat Reddy uncle at a dinner party in Alwal. He is my friend Devender Reddy’s wife Chandana’s uncle. I could recognize him from the recent Padma Shri award pictures but was very hesitant to ask him.
Finally I took a deep breath and walked to stand next to his chair. He stood up and said “how r u”. Devender Reddy walked over briskly and said “Chinna, he is our uncle about whom we talked recently on phone. He is my Kaka -Telangana slang for uncle”. I touched his feet and took his blessings. I remembered he holds 4 National Patents on organic farming & soil / nutrient management techniques in farming. Like how James Watt stumbled upon steam engine idea watching hot water in a kettle, he had his “Eureka Moment” in 1982.
“In 1979–80, he entered grape farming. He discovered early in 1982, when drought hit the region. While digging a well on the field, the soil filled water flowed all through their grape field. Unusually, the harvest doubled. He realized that the soiled water carried natural nutrients to the fields. In 2003, he piloted his SM technique on one-acre land on paddy and wheat, and reaped double the normal harvest. His soil management is based on age old principle that the topsoil needs to be rejuvenated for depletion of nutrients. Instead of soil rejuvenation, farmers typically use more fertilizer to increase the harvest, which is counter productive” source-Wikipedia
He started talking about many topics including Global Warming and COVID pandemic. He says he has solutions on how to keep Global Warming under control. Having an innovative mindset myself, it felt so soothing when an ordinary looking farmer talking about solutions.
There were other guests waiting in line to take pictures with uncle. After a brief photo shoot, he spotted me and I ran to spend more time. I said “I am lucky to have met you in person”. With a smile he said “Do you know who else met me”. He immediately said “Your President George W Bush”. I couldn’t believe my ears and he showed 2 pictures with President Bush. He said with a smile “I like this one better as I am standing straight and President Bush is bending to shake hands with me”. What a moment I thought “The most powerful man reaching out to shake hands with simple farmer”
Uncle talked about his SM (soil management) techniques. He says clay is important to farming. Clay slowly get depleted in farm land and it is very important to rejuvenate by restoring clay. Dried soil doesn’t hold water impacting the yield. The technique is to take out clay by making deeper (~8 ft) trenches and swapping dry soil with clay soil. I asked how much does it cost to a farmer. He says Rs 2000 per acre for 2 farm cycles. He says “isn’t it a smarter investment than buying a fertilizer”. He gave an example “you pour water in 2 clay pots : one fresh pot and other an old pot. He asked “which pot will have colder water?”
Before I replied he said “The new pot will have colder water. The reason clay in newer pot holds the temperature whereas old pot looses thermal retention. My technique is similar to this”
He also talked about COVID pandemic lockdowns and it effects on climate. With the whole world under lockdown for almost an year, why didn’t the global temperatures reduce this year. He says there is something else going in addition to carbon emissions.
Today I feel I am blessed to chat with a world renowned organic farmer, who made Soil Swapping and Soil Management techniques as his life purpose.
Some of his contributions on higher yields with soil management & swapping techniques: “source Wikipedia”
-Highest yield of 10.31 tonnes of paddy (BPT 5204 variety) per hectare against average 5 — 6.5 tonnes
-Highest yield of 6.5 tonnes of wheat (Lok 1 variety) per hectare against average 2.5 — 3 tonnes
-For grape farming, a yield of 30–32 tonnes of grape per acre was achieved, whereas the average output, who make use of pesticides, fertilisers, gets a yield between 20 and 25 tonnes per acre
- For his pioneering work, he was awarded a model farmer several times in the State. He showcased his SM techniques when Presidents of the United States, Bill Clinton in 2001 and George W. Bush in 2006 visited Hyderabad.[5] He gifted 30 kg of Thomson, flame and black seedless grapes to both the presidents.
- Soil as pesticide: The dry soil is filtered and made into a consistent liquid and is sprinkled on the stem, leaves on all crops, 2 times a week. The infested pests feed on clay-rich soil, as they cannot digest the soil content they die. Infestation of mealy bug, aphids, defoliating caterpillars, stem borer were eradicated.
- Soil Spray as nutrient: The technique was replicated to grape farm, yielding similar results. After consistent results, encouraged by scientists he applied for an international and national patent for the technique. The claim has been published by the Indian Patent Office in June 2012.
- Black beauty grape variety: He has an organic grape variety called as black beauty seedless grapes. The yield was 20 to 25 tonnes at his five-acre grape garden in Alwal.
-Subsoil application on cattle : Venkat Reddy has 20 cows on his farm. He applied the subsoil on his cattle that helped in driving away insects and increased quality of milk and the output.
- The ICAR, ANGRAU (now Jayashnakar Agriculture University), CRIDA and Dr. YSR Horticultural University agriculture scientists monitored the crop yields by using his soil-based technique and certified the efficacy of the technique.
- The agriculture scientists were impressed by the and consistent high-yields at lowest cost. Government of India did a systematic analysis of the Soil Management technique under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana or RKVY Scheme, and made a publication.
