In 2013, P Buvaneshwari requested her family to give her 1.5 acres of unused area on their 10-acre farm, to cultivate crops naturally.
When she began full-time farming, she had two issues to resolve on priority — stop using chemicals, and bring back native rice varieties.
She used garlic, 25 plant varieties, cow dung, milk and more such products to make organic fertilisers at zero cost.
To revive native rice varieties and her field, she used sugarcane mulch. Her hack to restore nitrogen with leguminous plants also worked wonderfully.
"Crops suffered, and people told me to use chemicals. But I did not give in, and used my homemade mixtures. It took some time but eventually gave good results": Bhuvaneshwari.
Today, Bhuvaneshwari hosts students, farmers and customers on her farm and offers delicacies prepared from the veggies and rice she grows in her field