Cow urine as pesticide

Lately, I had been doing a good amount of research on bio-pesticides for cotton, as part of a project we are doing on sustainable textiles. Researching on high-tech batteries for electric cars in the morning to digging up on stuff like cow urine in the afternoon makes it really two different days – and I’m not entirely sure which of the two I like more!

Cow urine? That seems to be one of the contenders for eco-friendly pesticides with quite a few farmers from across India reporting good success with it. Use of cow urine as a soil nutrient is well known, but its use as a pesticide seems to be gaining the attention of the Indian government and farmers (For those with a mischievous mind, let me hasten to add that it was being researched even before 2014).

I’m not sure if it can be a suitable pesticide for cotton farms – there’s no proof that it can kill the dreaded bollworms, for instance – but my reading suggests that it might be suitable for select crops like soybeans, and for many of our gardens. The garden thing also reminded me of a blog post I had written on the topic some time ago, after an interview with a temple gardener in my village – https://lnkd.in/gvshivC .

See my LinkedIn post on this topic