PG student puts ancient farming to good use

Nellore: In a notable achievement, a master's student of Yajur Veda Bhashyam at National Sanskrit University (NSU) in Tirupati, Kautilya Krishnan, has successfully harvested 40 quintals of black rice (known as Krishna Vrihi) in his two acres farm at Kasimpeta village in Karimnagar district in Telangana state.

The interesting part of his achievement is that he followed Vedic agricultural practices based on Yajur Veda in raising the crop. Sanskrit University Vice-Chancellor V. Muralidhar Sharma disclosed this in Tirupati on Friday and commended the student for following Vedic agricultural practices.

The V-C informed that Veda Bhashyam Department at NSU played an important role in this project apart from Karimnagar district agriculture department.

According to Sharma, Karimnagar Collector Shashank had supported the Vedic agriculture project on behalf of the Telangana government and he also visited the farm and observed the age-old farming methods.

In order to cultivate the Krishna Vrihi crop in the Vedic farming method, based on Yajur Veda, milk, honey, along with Agnihotra Bhasmam (ashes), and cow dung as manure were also used. The seed was selected as per the guidelines in the ‘Susruta Samhita’ book.

The student also followed ancient practices mentioned in the books like ‘Vruksha Ayurvedam’ and ‘Krushi Parasara.’ Sharma stated that they were very proud to announce the success in restoring the agriculture knowledge of sages.

Explaining the importance of Krishna Vrihi variety, he said it has a good demand in Indian and international markets. The price of black rice on Amazon ranges from Rs 800 to Rs 2,000 per kg.

To make agriculture profitable by way of ancient practices, Kautilya Krishnan’s Vedic agricultural experiments would be propagated to instill confidence in farmers about the uses of ancient Indian agriculture practices, Sharma added.