Now, a bio-product to keep off wild boars

Officials at work to keep the containers filled with the bio-product on a field in Mutharasikuppam near Serkadu.

For several years now, farmers in various parts of Vellore have been facing trouble in protecting their crops from wild boars. Now, the Agricultural Research Station (ARS) and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Virinjipuram, seem to have a solution to keep the animals away from fields – a bio-product.

ARS and KVK have developed a bio-product that has been driving away wild boars from entering fields for the last four months. “We have developed a formulation and have put it in place in over 60 to 70 acres in various parts of the district. We will be disclosing the formulation after getting the approval of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,” said M. Pandiyan, professor and head, ARS and KVK, Virinjipuram.

Farmers have to erect one stick for every 10 feet around an acre of land. They have to tie a twine or rope to a height of 1.5 feet around the field and suspend 50 ml bottles between two sticks. About four to five holes should be made on the bottles, he said.

“We will fill these bottles with three to five ml of the bio-product. The formulation is such that the smell will drive away the wild boars,” he said. The bio-product has been used in fields with paddy crops, ragi, sugarcane, banana, papaya, flower crops, mangoes, groundnut and red grams in several blocks, including K.V. Kuppam, Gudiyatham, Katpadi, Nemili, Anaicut and Walajah, he said.

In fact, a number of farmers said that this bio-product has kept wild boars off their fields in the last four months. G.R. Vijayaraghavan, a farmer in Mel Mittalam village of Ambur taluk, said he had put in place this bio-product for paddy and ragi crops in July.

“There are several wild boars in this area. The animals have damaged my paddy and ragi crops earlier. However, after following this method of ARS and KVK, we have noticed that the wild boars turn away from the field at a distance of 20 to 50 feet. We think it is the smell that is driving them away,” he said. Thirteen other farmers, whose crops were damaged by wild boars earlier, have also adopted this method.