Sunday 23 July 2017

Most Important Environmental Benefits Of Organic Farming

1. Organic farming maintains the quality of the soil.

When a virgin field is tilled and then fertilized with synthetic fertilizers, it will lose between 50 and 65 percent of its nitrogen and soil carbon over fifty years. After that, increasing inputs of fertilizer — and thus of fossil fuel energy — will be needed to maintain yields. If that no longer pays, the land will be abandoned, becoming a wasteland on which little grows.
Organic farming has a different philosophy. It sees farmers as stewards of the land, harvesting its fruits while they care for it so that they can leave it to future generations in a condition as good as, or better than, it was when they started farming. So organic farmers maintain and enrich the soil by adding organic matter. That increases the number of worms and micro-organisms. Soil rich in organic matter needs less irrigation because the soil holds moisture better. It is also less likely to blow away in the wind, or wash off with every storm. A study of two adjacent wheat farms on similar soil near Spokane, Washington, found that over a 37-year period, the conventional farm lost more than 8 inches of topsoil, while the organic farm lost only 2 inches. The scientists concluded that the productivity of the organic farm was being maintained, while that of the conventional farm was being reduced because of high rates of soil erosion.

2. Organic farming fosters biodiversity.

The expansion of intensive modern agriculture, with its monoculture crops and intense use of pesticides and herbicides, threatens endangered species. Rare plants are indiscriminately sprayed with herbicides, along with more common weeds. Insecticides eliminate the prey of many birds, and small mammals may be poisoned too. Organic farms, in contrast, use no herbicides, fewer pesticides, have more organic matter in the soil, and tolerate hedges or other uncultivated areas. All this makes them a haven for endangered species of plants, insects, birds, and animals. In a survey of the evidence published in the journal Biological Conservation in 2005, scientists reviewed 76 separate studies comparing the impact of organic and conventional farms on such things as plants, soil microbes, earthworms, spiders, butterflies, beetles, birds, and mammals. They found that the majority of these studies demonstrated that the abundance and richness of species tends to be higher on organic farms. Significantly, the differences applied particularly to species that have experienced a decline because of the intensification of modern agriculture. In 2005, a five-year, government-funded study of British organic farms gave further support to that conclusion.

3. Organic farming reduces pollution from nitrogen run-off.

Conventional agriculture relies heavily on synthetic fertilizers, especially nitrogen. World-wide, the use of nitrogen as a fertilizer has increased tenfold in the last fifty years. Half to two-thirds of this nitrogen makes its way into rivers and other ecosystems, affecting both freshwater and marine environments. The most dramatic result is the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Like the dead zone in Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico dead zone is caused by too much nitrogen, but here the dominant source — 56 percent, according to the U.S. Geological Survey — is chemical fertilizer runoff rather than animal manure, which contributes 25 percent. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone has grown dramatically over the past twenty years, and when it peaks each summer, it now covers an area larger than the state of New Jersey. The peak comes a month after the spring use of nitrogen fertilizers in the Midwest Corn Belt — a month is the time it takes for the water from the Upper Mississippi to reach the Gulf. The expanding dead zone is disrupting fishing. This is only one of 146 dead zones around the world, and not even the largest — that is in the Baltic Sea. Nitrogen fertilizer runoff is largely responsible for most of these. Forty-three of the dead zones occur in U.S. coastal waters. A shift to organic farming, which does not use synthetic fertilizers, would dramatically reduce water pollution from nitrogen, and so shrink the dead zones.

4. Organic farming avoids the heavy pesticide and herbicide use typical of conventional farming.

Conventional farming relies heavily on pesticides, including insecticides and herbicides. Pesticide use per acre more than doubled between 1931 and 1997, although it has decreased slightly since then. During the 1990s, the U.S. Geological Survey collected more than 8,000 water and fish samples across the country and analyzed them for 76 different pesticides. Some key findings were:
  • More than 90 percent of water and fish samples from all streams contained one, or more often several, pesticides.
  • About half of all groundwater samples contained one or more pesticides.
  • The highest rates of detection were for the most heavily used herbicides — atrazine, metolachlor, alachlor, and cyanazine — which were common in streams and shallow ground water in agricultural areas.
  • Levels of any individual pesticide exceeding drinking water guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency were found in only 1 percent of samples, but there is uncertainty about the risks of low-level exposure to multiple pesticides. Moreover, for about half the pesticides detected the EPA has not set any guidelines.
  • Close to half of the agricultural streams sampled had pesticide levels that exceeded Canadian guidelines for the protection of aquatic life. (The report referred to Canadian guidelines because there are no U.S. guidelines for this purpose.)
  • Pesticides like DDT and Dieldrin, which have not been used since the 1960s, were still present across the country. DDT was found in almost every fish sample.
Organic farmers are permitted to use only a very limited range of insecticides, selected because they are natural products or their safety is well-established. Hence, organic farms will not, to the same extent as conventional farms, release insecticides into the air or nearby rivers. They are not permitted to use any herbicides at all.

5. Organic farming uses less energy for a given yield than conventional farming.

Organic farms do not use synthetic fertilizers, the manufacture of which requires a lot of energy. According to a study funded by the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, organic crops used 35 percent less energy per unit of production and organic dairying 74 percent less. Scientists at the University of Essex found that organic farmers in a range of different countries required only 30 to 50 percent of the energy consumed in conventional farming systems.

6. Organic farming stores more carbon in the soil, thus off-setting carbon dioxide emissions.

Organic farming increases the amount of organic matter in the soil — matter that would otherwise rot above ground and produce carbon that would go into the atmosphere. So if organic farming spreads, that might reduce the severity of climate change. But how great an advantage organic farming has over conventional farming here is controversial. The Rodale Institute has carried out a 23-year study of the amount of carbon stored in the soil of its model farm and calculated that if the organic methods it uses were applied on all the cropland in the United States, 580 billion pounds of excess carbon dioxide could be sequestered in the soil every year. That’s about four times the quantity of emissions that would be saved if the fuel efficiency of all cars and light trucks on U.S. roads were doubled.  But questions can be raised about how long annual carbon savings could continue, since eventually the organic matter will decompose and release carbon back into the atmosphere.
In any case, much depends on what forms of organic and conventional farming are compared. Organic farmers who use a lot of compost and animal manure and periodically grow cover crops and plow them into the soil will have much more carbon in the soil than farmers who use only synthetic fertilizers and till their soil, because tilling leads to a reduction in organic matter. But the rules for being certified “organic” in the U.S. do not require compost, manure, or cover crops. They simply make the use of such techniques more likely by banning most other methods of keeping the soil fertile. The ideal organic farmer who practices the methods used by the Rodale Institute is making a significant contribution to reducing the carbon build-up in the atmosphere, and the standard conventional farmer is not. Buying food labeled “organic,” however, does not guarantee that it was grown in keeping with the Rodale Institute methods.
There are two offsetting factors relative to climate change and organic farming to consider. It is often claimed that conventional farming produces higher yields per acre, on average, than organic farming. Therefore, if we need to produce a given quantity of food, we might use less land to produce it if we use conventional methods. Suppose we then took this extra land and planted it with trees, as part of an agro-forestry project. According to some estimates, trees absorb about eight times as much carbon per acre as soil can, even organically cultivated soil. That suggests an alternative strategy for storing carbon: grow the food we need by conventional methods on fewer acres, and plant trees on the rest. Of course, this presupposes that conventional farming really does produce higher yields than organic methods. The Rodale Institute conducted a 22-year comparative trial of conventional farming and organic farming. Although the yields from conventional farming were higher in the short-term, over the entire period of the trial, corn and soybean yields were just as high on fields farmed organically.
The second factor relative to global warming essentially concerns cows burping and farting. Cows produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide and, overall, is responsible for about 2.5 percent of the total effect of greenhouse gas emissions. Cattle may be responsible for close to half of the world’s methane emissions. They produce more of it when they eat foods with a high fiber content, like grass or hay. Organic cows generally eat more grass and hay than non-organic cows. Moreover, organic cows do not get bovine growth hormone, or BGH, which increases a cow’s milk yields by about 10 percent. That means that you need 10 percent more organic cows to produce a given quantity of milk, and the extra cows will put more methane into the air.

Thursday 13 April 2017

Neem tree farm












Our Neem tree farm Pics

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1888916678050578.1073741828.1608040362804879&type=1&l=8eec057715

NEEM OIL CONTAINS AZADIRACHTIN



JUST 1 OUNCE PURE NEEM OIL TO A GALLON OF WATER..IT HAS FUNGICIDE TOO...

This compound is found in the seeds (0.2 to 0.8 percent by weight) of the neem tree, Azadirachta indica (hence the prefix aza does not imply an aza compound, but refers to the scientific species name). Many more compounds, related to azadirachtin, are present in the seeds as well as in the leaves and the bark of the neem tree which also show strong biological activities among various pest insects Effects of these preparations on beneficial arthropods are generally considered to be minimal. Some laboratory and field studies have found neem extracts to be compatible with biological control. Because pure neem oil contains other insecticidal and fungicidal compounds in addition to azadirachtin, it is generally mixed at a rate of 1 ounce per gallon (7.8 ml/l) of water when used as a pesticide


SPECIAL FEATURE OF NEEM OIL WHEN USED AS A FOILIAR SPRAY

  • Reduces requirement of pesticides and insecticides
  • Increases plant health 
  • Enhances the qualities of neem 
  • Totally Safe for spray operator
  • Does not harm helpful parasites, predators, pollinators
  • Safe for fish, live stock, poultry and birds
  • Being a natural neem based product, it is bio – degradable & eco friendly, harmless and a good friend of the soil

TIPS ON USING NEEM OIL

1.     Pure Neem Oil will retain its potency much longer if stored at about 40°F in a low light area such as a refrigerator
2.     A new batch of Neem oil, water and a little soap (according to label) should be mixed each time you are going to spray.  Mix only the amount of Neem oil you will use in 4 to 6 hours.
3.     Do not mix anything with your Neem Oil solution other than the water and soap used to prepare that solution.
4.     The soap (ecologically friendly dishwashing detergent) is used to help emulsify the soil.  If no soap is used the Neem will not mix into solution with the water and spraying will not be effective.
5.     Spray the entire plant including the top of the potting media.  Spray benches, walkways and any surface which an insect might travel.
6.     A mixture of 1oz to 1 gallon of water should be used for spraying.  A weaker solution may be used as a maintenance spray.  It is impossible to give a definite schedule for spraying, however a “close eye” will help each person to adjust a timetable to maintain clean plants.  You will probably not have to spray often with Neem as with toxic insecticides.



How does neem oil affect insects?

·         deters feeding
·         repels larvae and adults 
·         stops the molting and  metamorphosis processes
·         disrupts or inhibits the development of eggs, larvae and pupae
·         disrupts mating 
·         sterilizes adults
·         deters females from laying egg
Neem is a natural, 100% organic eco friendly, biodegradable product. It has low toxicity to humans, pets, honey bees and other beneficial insects.  It has been shown to effectively control hundreds of insect pests. Its amazing properties will make it a useful tool in fighting some of the trickier pests such as birch leaf miner.


Neem Oil

The neem tree is a tropical evergreen related to mahogany.  A native of East India and Myanmar, it grows in much of Southeast Asia and West Africa.  It is often referred to as “the village pharmacy” due to its numerous medicinal properties.  


In 1959 a plague of locusts attacked every type of tree in the Sudan except for the neem tree. It was observed that insects would land on the Neem tree but they would not feed. It was at this time that researchers began to study the neem tree to find what made it unique.  They discovered that the neem tree has a complex chemical makeup, making it resistant to hundreds of different insects, mites, nematodes, fungi, bacteria and viruses.  Such findings give rise to the possibility of developing non-toxic pest control products derived from neem.


Although neem products are fatal to insects, they don’t have any adverse effects on humans, animals or birds.  In fact, numerous medicines are derived from this plant and have been used for hundreds of years to cure all sorts of ailments in India.  


Neem has been used for centuries in India for agricultural applications.  It is the best natural bio-pesticide and organic fertilizer with pest repellent properties.  Neem is comprised of 40 different active compounds called Tetranortriperpernoids (or more specifically liminoids).  These liminoids create hormonal disruptions that prevent insects from feeding, breeding and metamorphosing.  


The primary ingredient in neem is Azadirachtin.  It exhibits anti-feedant, insect repellent and insect sterilization properties. Azadurachtin acts on the hormonal system of the insect, not the digestive or nervous systems, which prevents the development of pest resistance.





Monday 27 February 2017

Organic farming

What is organic farming?

Organic farming is a system, which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetic inputs (such as fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, feed additives etc) and to the maximum extent feasible relies upon crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, off-farm organic waste, mineral grade rock additives and biological system of nutrient mobilization and plant protection.

Is there a need to practice the organic farming?

With the increase in population our compulsion would be not only to stabilize agricultural production but also to increase it further in sustainable manner. Excessive use over years of agro-chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers may affect the soil health and lead to declining of crop yields and quality of products. Hence, a natural balance needs to be maintained at all cost for existence of life and property. The obvious choice would be judicious use of agro-chemicals and more and more use of naturally occurring material in farming systems.

What are the benefits of organic farming?

  1. It helps in maintaining environment health by reducing the level of pollution
  2. It reduces human and animal health hazards by reducing the level of residues in the product.
  3. It helps in keeping agricultural production at a higher level and makes it sustainable.
  4. It reduces the cost of agricultural production and also improves the soil health
  5. It ensures optimum utilization of natural resources for short-term benefit and helps in conserving them for future generation.
  6. It not only saves energy for both animal and machine, but also reduces risk of crop failure.
  7. It improves the soil physical properties such as granulation, and good tilth, good aeration, easy root penetration and improves water-holding capacity.
  8. It improves the soil’s chemical properties such as supply and retention of soil nutrients, and promotes favorable chemical reactions.

Saturday 18 February 2017

Who we are

Index International, has commenced its business in 2005.We have been an established and popular with an excellent track record for the best customer satisfaction. We are leading Manufacturer& Exporter of Neem and Coir Products. Our modern plant is run by dedicated professionals and an active R&D department. Our expertise in Neem coupled with a strong technical team gives us a distinct advantage in creating products that meet stringent quality requirements of our customers.


In Tamilnadu, a culturally rich state in India, Our Company endeavors to create value to its business partners in the field of marketing, supply chain management, customer relationship and international marketing.
Though our forte continues to be Neem we along with our associated companies have an ever widening market for other spices such as cardamom, black pepper, cumin seed, cinnamon, cloves, etc..

We have our subsidiaries in Sweden and Canada to promote the sales of our products.


We do not believe in a set it and forget it system, our clients are our top priority. We are always striving to be better in organic agriculture sector so our clients achieve more.”