How Mati Helped Urmila Devi Protect Her Crops and Cut Input Costs
My crops used to have pests like stem borer and gundhi bug very frequently, so we had to add lot of pesticides. This added to our costs and reduced the value of the produce. After adding Mati, I have seen a significant reduction in pests and there is 50% less fertilizer needed.
Each outbreak meant the same difficult decision: apply more pesticides, or risk losing the crop. “We had no option,” she recalls. “When pests came, we had to spray again and again.”
But pesticides came at a cost. Input expenses rose every year, eating into already thin margins. The quality of the produce declined, and Urmila worried about what repeated chemical use was doing to her soil. Despite her best efforts, farming felt increasingly unpredictable—and unsustainable.