| Select farms, owned by the state horticulture department, are experimenting with herbal incense that can replace widely-used chemical insecticides harmful to crops, the soil, and people. |
| "If the experiment is successful, we will motivate farmers to take up this eco-friendly practice," said K N Sharma, a state horticulture department official. |
| Explaining the use of the herbal incense, he said, "125 gm of herbal incense is placed at four spots in an acre of land and set to a slow burning fire, once or twice a week. The spicy fumes and smell of the incense kill the insects which feed on the crops." |
| Rajasthan-based cultivator Natural Products is a private company that has begun the production of this herbal incense. |
| Others can also join in if the method catches on with farmers and experts. |
| It is being tried in a few pockets of Himachal, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, company executives say. |
| Government officials say this has been tried successfully in apple- and grape-orchards, among others food crops, in Germany. |
| "Given the harmful effects of expensive chemical insecticide sprays on the environment, this looks like a good alternative to farmers now," Vijay Kumar, a farmer who is already using incense in his vegetable farm, told Business Standard. |
| The hill state is a major producer of apples and other fruit crops. The mid-hills in the region are also fast emerging as viable options for growing off-season vegetables. |
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