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Success Story of Harcharan Singh

Posted on March 31st, 2013

Potatoes are one of the most important staple food crops of the world and the late blight of potato caused by Phytophthora infestans is a traditional scourge of the crop. A disease which has altered the course of world history in the past – the infamous, late blight of potato.

This soil borne pathogen is dangerous because it has the potential to destroy yields completely and can attack over 150 commercially important crops. It has assumed increasingly ominous proportions because of its ability to evolve resistance to most fungicides.

A field study was carried out in Karar wala village in the field of Harcharan Singh, to find out the efficacy of our STEP Process in managing this disease on potato. Harcharan Singh was selected since he is a respected farmer of the area and is known for his expertise in growing potatoes. The trial was conducted on the 27th of February and observations were taken on the 8th of March 2013. A section of his field was cultivated in a conventional manner with application of conventional chemical fungicides like Cymoxanyl + Mancozeb and seed treatment with other conventional fungicides. In another section of the field, Biovac and Regalis granules was applied at the first irrigation and earthing up stage. A combination of Helios + Ek Boond was applied on observing the first symptoms of the disease in place of chemical fungicides.

The difference in control was obvious, the black lesions on the leaves receded and the new growth was clear and fresh, devoid of any visible symptoms of the disease. Whereas the symptoms were clearly visible in the plot treated with the fungicide. It was observed that chlorophyll content of the leaves increased and there was a visible increase in the size of the leaves treated with our product.

Even from a distance the leaves of the crop sprayed with the chemical fungicide appeared yellowish and upon closer examination showed lesions. Whereas the crop treated with our product appeared lush green with large leaves.