Go-mata worshippers, take a bow. Cow urine has been found to be a most effective deterrent for the deadly white flies that inflict heavy damage to cotton. Before the sceptics snort, here’s another bit of news: The discovery comes not from Bharat, but from far-off Senegal.According to a report in Natural Product Radiance, a journal published by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), cotton farmers in Senegal switched to spraying their crop with cow urine when chemical pesticides proved incapable of tackling white flies. The results, says the report, were excellent.Just before milking their cows, the farmers collect the urine in a bucket and allow it to ferment for a few days. Then they dilute it with water and spray it over the plants once a week. The acidity kills sprouting weeds, and the minerals — iron, potassium, magnesium — present in the urine doubles up as a fertiliser, says the report.Now if someone would only come up with a similar remedy for bollworm. Then the controversy over the genetically modified Bt cotton — the only solution to the difficulties posed by the common pest so far — could be quietly laid to rest.
