India was never just an agricultural country — it was an agricultural and industrial nation. The British made us forget the difference by destroying the industry and calling what remained “backward.”
Prof. Sunita T. Pandey of G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology presents the field of Vriksha Ayurveda — the application of Ayurvedic Tridosha principles (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) to plant health, disease diagnosis, and protection. Drawing on ancient texts collected by Dr. Y. L. Nainay through the Asian Agri-History Foundation across Sanskrit, Arabic, Farsi, and Tamil sources, she documents a 2,000-year tradition of plant pathology that modern agricultural science has barely acknowledged.
The research results are concrete and recent: herbal Kunapajala (fermented preparation of plant and animal-origin materials described by sage Surpala) tested at GB Pant University across litchi, paddy, potato, and turmeric crops consistently outperformed chemical controls. The one-health argument anchors everything — healthy soil produces healthy plants, which sustain healthy animals and human beings. Prof. Pandey’s closing appeal: every agricultural university in India should host a dedicated Vriksha Ayurveda R&D centre. The thousand validated recipes waiting in these texts represent not nostalgia but the next agricultural revolution.

About the Speaker:
Prof Sunita T Pandey is a Professor in Department of Agronomy at Govind Vallabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology. Her main areas of interest are Natural Farming, Medicinal & Aromatic Plants. She has many Research papers and Publications to her credit and has guided many students in their thesis. Prof Pandey has also been honoured with many awards.