Agriculture - India

For the first time in 2002 the South Indian sugarcane crop came under attack from aphids. Thousands of acres were affected. Many farms lost their entire crop due to this infestation. The average yield fell from 40 tonnes to 10 tonnes per hectare. Organic farmers also suffered losses.

Shri Desai reports that his crop was also infested in 3 places. But in October a predator insect known as "diafa" appeared on his farm in great numbers and completely wiped out the aphid infestation. This he says was due to Agnihotra only. His was the only farm in his area to suffer no loss. Also remarkable was that from April till June there was no rain and he couldn't give a single drop of water to his crop. Despite extreme conditions of drought and aphid attack his yield of 35 tonnes per hectare was fantastic compared with all the other farms.