Use of cow dung as manure is nothing new, but a pair of enterprising farmers in Navli village of Anand in central Gujarat are now selling the same under brands like ‘hiranyam’ or ‘Krushi Ami’, which have become extremely popular with farmers in Saurashtra.

The new business of packaging and selling cow dung with additives like bacteria is now finding increasing use as organic manure.

Every October and April, village sarpanch Pankaj Patel gears up to collect cow dung from every cattle shed in the village so that he can supply bagfuls of the manure under the brand name ‘Hiranyam Organic Fertiliser’ to the farmers in central and north Gujarat.

Anand Agriculture University (AAU) Prof M V Patel told Newsline: “Farmers of Navli village are among those who have applied for the trade mark of cow dung manure. They generally mix cow dung with poultry waste, castor oil cakes, sugar cane paste and gypsum and treat it with bacteria in a pit for a few days. It is then put in a bag with a trade mark and sold to some villages in Anand, Kheda, Kutch, Bhuj, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha and Surendranagar districts.”

Incidentally, these cow dung bags are much cheaper than artificial fertilisers.

Pritesh Patel, another villager, who sells cow dung under his own trademark ‘Krushi Ami’ said: “We sell nearly 5,000 bags to several villages in Anand and north Gujarat per month. The cost of one bagful of cow dung is nearly Rs 120, which is much cheaper compared to artificial fertiliser, which cost around Rs 500. We make a profit of at least 30 per cent per month.”

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