Sowing seeds of success
By P.P.S. Gill
DIRECT sowing of paddy, making dry land fertile, introducing new agronomic practices, devising an integrated model for sustained income to small, marginal farmers, reinventing fertilisation combinations, working out water management techniques, etc. are some of the concepts engaging the attention of scientists at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana.

Role of biofertilisers in vegetable crops
By R.K. Dhall and M.S. Sandha
FERTILISERS has played an important role in increasing crop productivity, but the extensive application of chemical fertilisers has reduced soil fertility, deteriorated the soil structure, destroyed water bodies and created the problem of environment pollution. Self-sustainability of soil has been lost through the continuous application of chemical fertilisers alone.

After Green Revolution there is deluge
By V.S. Mahajan
IT is indeed remarkable that from a high deficit state after Independence Punjab had during the next two decades moved on to the highway of Green Revolution and soon it was contributing substantially to the country’s foodgrain kitty. Soon the country which had been importing wheat and there were regular shipments of heavy imports imposing burden on the country’s weak economy, had stopped by the early seventies and the country was soon on the road of self-sufficiency in wheat production.

Plan to tame choes
By Ajay Banerjee
A scheme to tame seasonal rivulets, known as choes, running down the submountainous region of the lower Shivaliks, is being drawn up by the Chandigarh-based Centre for Soil and Water Conservation (CSWC).

Farm operations for August

Ginger production back on the rails
By Ravinder Sood

GINGER is cultivated in the districts of Sirmaur, Solan, Bilaspur, Mandi and Shimla of Himachal Pradesh. Sirmaur has over 70 per cent of the area under ginger cultivation and contributes to the same extent in the total ginger production of the state. Prior to the outbreak of the yellow disease in mid-eighties, the state used to occupy the third position in ginger production among — various states of the country.

With the epiphytotic outbreak of the ginger yellow and rhizome rot disease caused by fusarium oxysporum f.sp. giniberi since 1985, the cultivated area under this crop declined to 1002 hectares by 1988-89 from 1,600 hectares in 1984-85, and this decline continued further up to 1994-95 when the area shrunk to 802 hectares only. The production also went down from 12,700 metric tonnes in 1984-85 to 7,000 metric tonnes in 1988-89.

According to Prof P.K. Khosla, Vice-Chancellor, HP Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, keeping in view the serious economic and social repercussions of the problem on the livelihood of the farmers of ginger-growing areas, the univeristy’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dhaulakuan (Sirmaur), started investigations into the causes and spread of the disease and also various cultural and chemical measures for its control in 1987. A package of practices was developed to combat this disease. Seed was found to be the main source of disease inoculum and its spread.

Since 1991, the university made a sustained effort in collaboration with the UHF, Nauni, and the Department of Agriculture to disseminate the disease management technology among the farmers of the district through the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dhaulakuan, by organising awareness-cum-training camps at the village level, method demonstrations, result demonstrations, distribution of literature, advisory services, exhibitions etc. The farmers were made aware of the selection of healthy seed and its role in disease control and seed treatment with fungicides and other cultural practices. Prof P.K. Khosla says that as a result of these intensive research and extension efforts during the past one decade, ginger cultivation in the district has regained its old glory. By the year 1996-97 the cultivated area under this crop rose to 1,360 hectare with a production of 16,000 metric tonnes. The productivity of the crop has also shown a significant increase since 1996-97 and during 2000-2001, the total cultivated area, production and productivity are expected to surpass the previous records.

According to Dr K.S. Rana, looking after the research and extension work on this crop at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Dhaulakuan, the disease is completely under check now with its incidence in the district reduced to traces. The recovery of mother rhizomes, which had declined to below 10 per cent during the epiphytotic years of the disease regained to about 95 per cent during the last year’s harvest, resulting in better quality of the produce. He, however, cautions that the incidence of another disease, bacterial wilt, caused by ralstonia solanatirum is now spreading in some areas of the district and the farmers should remain vigilant against it.

Sowing seeds of success
By P.P.S. Gill

DIRECT sowing of paddy, making dry land fertile, introducing new agronomic practices, devising an integrated model for sustained income to small, marginal farmers, reinventing fertilisation combinations, working out water management techniques, etc. are some of the concepts engaging the attention of scientists at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana.

A lot has been done and much more is required to be done. Providing sustainable, profitable agriculture and economic succour to ones living off the land is the prime concern at PAU. Vastly varying agronomic practices pose a challenge when it comes to suggesting alternative cropping systems. Assured marketing and remunerative returns are among the factors that influence research and transfer of technology from lab to land.

It is for the work done on some of these concepts that Dr M.S. Gill, senior Agronomist at PAU, is being honoured with a state award, Parman Patra, on Independence Day at Amritsar.

Though an expert in water management and dry land farming, as Project Coordinator, Dr Gill successfully developed the rural demonstration-training centre for self-employment at Padhri Kalan (Amritsar). This young scientist has involved himself in testing and evaluating the research done at research stations on the farmers’ fields. He has developed an integrated model to increase and maintain the daily income of small and marginal farmers.

His primary concern is water management. In pursuit of this, he went in for advanced training at the University of California, Davis, USA in 1995. Since the Kandi belt, constituting 9 per cent of Punjab’s area, poses a challenge in dry land farming and water management, Dr Gill concentrated on this and published a book.

At present he is experimenting on “direct seeded rice”. Under this method instead of transplanting paddy, farmers will broadcast the seed after preparing the land.

If the experiment succeeds water saving could be between 20 and 30 per cent Paddy, Dr Gill says, is not a traditional crop of Punjab. It is water guzzling. It has changed the ecology of the state. Farmers are content with flooding the fields, rather than maintaining soil moisture.

There is over exploitation of under-ground water, particularly in the central districts where water-table has gone down necessitating the use of submersible pumps. It is estimated that if water-table sinks lower by 25 cm. per year in the state, the lowering in the central districts is at least four times more.

Dr Gill also suggests a combination of organic manure and chemical fertilisers to restore soil health and fertility.

The seed requirement in the broadcast method will be higher. But saving will be effected in terms of labour. For direct seeded sowing a short-duration variety, like, PR-115, is suitable. Experiments show if the recommended dose of NPK fertilisers is cut by half and replaced by green manure, nitrogen saving is 50 per cent.

Dr Gill is determining the seed rate, water requirement and effects of combining organic and chemical fertilisers in the cropping system. The result so far is encouraging: against an average rice yield of 60 quintals per hectare, a combination of NPK and green manure gives 6 to 8 quintals more yield per hectare.

It is now established that crop yields obtained in the experiment farms are higher than what farmers get on their farms. This gap between lab land has to be reduced. Take paddy. Against a recommended plant population of 33 per sq. mt. the actual is between 18 and 22 plants on farmers’ field. The same is true in respect of maize: against the recommended 75,000 plants per hectare, there are around 55,000 plants on farmer’s field.

Dr Gill is against burning of paddy straw after the crop is harvested. “This deprives the soil of nutrients like zinc, copper, manganese and iron, nearly 60 to 70 per cent of which are in the straw.

At the same time, an alternative to rice-wheat pattern has to be found. Maize and soyabean are good to replace paddy. But the absence of assured market and price inhibit their introduction on a mass scale. Insects and weeds are a major detriment to maize and paddy. Even non-availability of maize seed is a problem.

For the Kandi area, Dr Gill recommends only two crops, maize and wheat, as there is medium to heavy soils and sloping topography. For light-texture soil, farmers should opt for wheat only. No field should be left fallow. For the “beet” belt water harvesting is the answer.

Dr Gill is a recipient of the first NFL national award (1989) and the PPIC-FAI national award (1993). He was given a commendation certificate on the last Independence Day in Amritsar. He has authored several research articles and bulletins and has held several key posts, directed research and trained youth in vocational courses.

At Padhri Kalan, he established 22 dairy farms, developed vegetable demonstration plots of 10 acres each with drip irrigation system on 5.5 acres and evolved a system of rural employment in non-farm vocations.

Role of biofertilisers in vegetable crops
By R.K. Dhall and M.S. Sandha

FERTILISERS has played an important role in increasing crop productivity, but the extensive application of chemical fertilisers has reduced soil fertility, deteriorated the soil structure, destroyed water bodies and created the problem of environment pollution. Self-sustainability of soil has been lost through the continuous application of chemical fertilisers alone.

After using excessive chemical fertilisers, a situation has come where these fertilisers are not fully utilised by the plants. There are problems of losses of applied chemical nutrients through teaching, volatilisation and fixation to an unavailable form.

In Punjab, the farmers use the highest quantity of nitrogen-based fertilisers and are now getting diminishing returns from their fields even after using any amount of fertilisers. The soil fertility has declined because of reduced soil microbial activity and reduced soil organic matter.

Vegetables produced with the use of chemical fertilisers alone are of poor taste and flavour and their keeping quality is very low. It has been estimated that by 2002 AD, we require nearly 30-35 metric tonnes of chemicals.

With ever-increasing cost of chemical fertilisers and widening gap between demand and supply, utilisation of biofertilisers offers an opportunity in introduce renewable nutrient source.

Progressive use of biofertilisers offers the best alternative to intensive chemical fertilisers. Moreover, the biofertilisers are an economically viable, ecologically sound, partial substitute to costly and pollution causing chemical fertilisers.

What are biofertilisers?

Biofertilisers are living cells of different types of micro-organisms (bacterial, algae and fungi) which have an ability to mobilise nutritionally important elements from non-usable to usable form. These micro-organisms require organic matter for their growth and activity in soil and provide valuable nutrients to the plants in the soil.

Biofertilisers are grouped broadly into the following three categories.

Biological nitrogen fixers

The process of biological nitrogen fixation is carried out by forming nodules on the roots of the plants. Rhizobium and bradyrhizobium form root nodules in leguminous plants like peas and beans. Legumes are also known to leave behind some residual nitrogen in soil, besides increasing the crop yield.

Similarly, azotobacter and azospirillum play a key role in nitrogen nutrition of vegetables, cereals, etc.

Field experiments done in India on vegetable crops showed that inoculation of seedling roots of vegetables with azotobacter increases yield of onion (18 to 22 per cent) Brinjal (16 to 62 per cent) cabbage (25 to 50 per cent) and tomato (2 to 29 per cent) as compared to uninoculated. It was also observed that inoculation with azotobacter improves root length and diameter in carrot and radish, increased number of flowers in brinjal and chilli and increased carotene content in carrot.

In onion, inoculation with azospirillum brasiliens Sp. Nov, and VAM at the nursery stage and in main field recorded an additional yield of 22.93 t/ha and saved 25 per cent recommended dose of NPK fertilisers. The utilisation of NPK fertilisers is increased in azospirillum-applied crops. Seed application increases germination, seedling growth and vigour index.

Phosphate solubilisers:

Phosphate occupies the second position next to nitrogen in plant nutrition. When water soluble phosphate fertilisers are applied to soil, they are converted into an unavailable form due to chemical fixation in soil. This problem is otherwise referred to as phosphorus fixation. In such situations, a set of micro-organism viz. bacillus megaterium; bacillus polymyxa, pseudomonas striata, aspergilus awamori, pencillium, etc can produce several organic acid (butyric acid, citric acid, fumaric acid, etc) and convert unavailable phosphorus into available phosphorus which is called as phosphorus solubilisation. The use of phosphorus solubilisers certainly enhances phosphorus availability and crop yield.

Mycorrhizae:

Mycorrhizae denote symbiotic association between certain fungi and roots of plants. This is one of the recent biofertilisers which is known to help uptake several nutrients (P, Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, etc). It produces growth promoting substances, help in drought tolerance and impedes soil-borne root pathogens, thus it helps crop plants to improve in growth and yield.

Method of Application:

Biofertilisers are applied to seed, seedling, seed material or soil.

Biofertilisers improve the quality of produce. They are cheap and economical — the cost benefit ratio is more than 1:10. It is an eco-friendly practice and improves natural characters of soil.

After Green Revolution there is deluge
By V.S. Mahajan

IT is indeed remarkable that from a high deficit state after Independence Punjab had during the next two decades moved on to the highway of Green Revolution and soon it was contributing substantially to the country’s foodgrain kitty. Soon the country which had been importing wheat and there were regular shipments of heavy imports imposing burden on the country’s weak economy, had stopped by the early seventies and the country was soon on the road of self-sufficiency in wheat production.

Apart from saving our scarce resources being diverted to food imports, it brought about food security in the country and an encouraging rise in the income of farmers both in Punjab and Haryana.

Such grain revolution could not have been possible without access to high-yielding variety of seeds as well as the needed infrastructure where irrigation facilities, fertilisers, new farm machinery, good rural roads, power supply and marketing facilities are essential ingredients. Punjab was again the first state to realise the importance of these facilities and its government devoted special efforts in their creation. Liberal loans were provided to farmers to have access to these facilities, particularly buy costly farm machinery and improve their irrigation facilities.

Realising the importance of rural power supply, the government went ahead in creating such facility in rural areas which facilitated the operation of tubewells at cheaper rates, for power was highly subsidised and agriculture also got priority in its supply over the needs of industry and other sectors. This helped in fast spread of tubewells and other farm machinery.

It has also the largest network of mandis in the country where several of them are equipped with the latest facilities for handling market arrivals within the minimum time. These mandis are also within the easy reach of farmers. Liberal storage facilities are also available both in rural and urban areas.

After the creation of irrigation and power facilities, farmers had begun to cultivate paddy in a big way which soon became the second important crop after wheat. Thus, soon a two-crop model, wheat in winter and rice in summer, became the production model with an average farmer. And with such combination the average farmer’s income made a quantum jump, encouraging them to further modernise the farm sector.

To get the second crop soon the farmers have to prepare the fields immediately after harvesting the first one. They burn straw after paddy cultivation. This results in two fallouts — rise in mosquitoes, leading to a high incidence of malaria, and rise in the respiratory diseases, particularly among old people and children. Practically for two months in a year an atmosphere of pollution disturbs the rural life.

Not only this, high consumption of water for paddy cultivation has led to its reckless withdrawal from underground, thus disturbing the water table. Several areas have become waterlogged and in the process vast stretches of agricultural lands are now lost being permanently submerged understanding water where the drainage cost is stupendous.

The farmers, who cultivated these lands recklessly with their latest machinery and used heavy doses of fertilisers and insecticides to maximise their revenue in a minimum time are now in a state of shock. To finance their grow-rich projects they have borrowed heavily from state agencies as well as private parties, particularly arhtias.

Unable to repay the loans, quite a few farmers have been forced to take the worst step of ending their lives.

This is the most unfortunate and negative fallout of Green Revolution particularly the result of quick rise in paddy cultivation where it is estimated that more than 50 per cent of land during summer is under its plough and 70 per cent of rice is disposed of in the national market. Thus, it offers highly alluring alternative crop for income earning to an average farmer and he is unlikely to give it up.

If the Punjab farmers continue to follow this pattern of cultivation then during the next few decades much of this area would be turned into permanent wasteland. This should be tackled with great care by concentrating efforts on several fronts to encourage most feasible and environment-friendly land use.

It also calls for measures like agro-processing, cultivation of vegetables and diversifying into areas like dairy, poultry, horticulture, floriculture and other allied areas. Most important is that there is the need for creating social awareness among the farmers through audio-visual, television and other programmes about the harm that was being done by the reckless withdrawing of underground water. If these measures are tried there would be a good deal of change in the working pattern of farmers.

Plan to tame choes
By Ajay Banerjee

A scheme to tame seasonal rivulets, known as choes, running down the submountainous region of the lower Shivaliks, is being drawn up by the Chandigarh-based Centre for Soil and Water Conservation (CSWC).

This will include reducing the width of choes. Almost all choes are more in width than in depth, thus the spread of water which causes damage to crops in monsoons is much more. The CSWC has drawn up a plan to dig up choe beds to create channels for water and use the silt to have some kind of an embankment to keep the water under control. The reclaimed area from the choe bed will be used for plantation, the project proposes.

A pilot project will starts at five place in north-western India by next month, but a formal sanction from the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Government of India is awaited. The ambitious project will be started in the districts of Hoshiarpur, Solan, Ambala, Jammu and Dehra Dun. Each of the five districts has choes that wreak havoc and are part of the Shivalik mountain range.

Dr R.K. Aggarwal, Head and Principal Scientist of the CSWC, says research on models of proper designing of spurs that need to be used to channelise water has been conducted in Dehra Dun. Dr V.S. Katiyar, Senior Scientist (engineering), CSWC, says the idea is to take up five choes to start with to develop the technology for the states concerned to follow.

At present there is no coordination between the neighbouring states. A lot of work is being replicated while it could have been easily used by other researchers for the betterment of the lower Shivaliks hills. Each of the state bodies will be showed how the technology will work in the ecologically fragile areas.

Explaining the need to dig up choe beds, he said heavy siltation had evened out the beds further. In each monsoon water spreads out and destroys crops, besides leaving silt in the fields. After digging, the idea is to make the way for the water. Proper placing of spurs to keep the water under check will also be worked out.

The reclaimed land, which works out to be in several hundred of acres, will be used for plantation of horticultural plants to prevent soil erosion.

Farm operations for August

Cotton:

— To keep weeds under check, give hoeings. For maintaining proper stand of the crop, thinning may be done in the early part of the month, if needed. Apply 35 kg of urea per acre on the appearance of first flower.

— Sometimes cotton crop on high-fertility soil attains excessive growth which results in low cotton yield. To check excessive vegetative growth spray Mepiquat Chloride 5 aqueous solution @ 500 ml/acre in 100 litres of water 80 days after sowing. It increases the seed cotton yield.

— If the second grade jassid injury appears i.e. the leaves start curling, spray the crop with 300 ml Anthio 25 EC (Formothion) or 250 ml Rogor 30/Tara 909 (Dimethoate 30 EC) or 300 ml Metasystox (oxydemeton methyl) or 75 ml Dimecron 85 SL (Phosphamidon) in 100 litres of water per acre.

— To protect the crop from bollworm damage, the following insecticides are recommended. They should be sprayed using 125-150 litres of spray material per acre with manually operated knap-sack sprayer or 75 litres with the shoulder mounted power sprayer and tractor-mounted sprayer at 10 days interval.

Insecticide Dose per acre:

Group A: synthetic pyrethroids

Asymethrin 5 EC 100 ml

Alphamethrin 10 EC 100 ml

Cypermethrin 10 EC 200 ml

Cypermethrin 25 EC 80 ml

Deltamethrin 2.8 EC 160 ml

Deltamethrin 4 per cent 110 ml

Fenvalerate 20 EC 100 ml

Fluvalinate 25 EC 120 ml

Group B: carbamates

Carbaryl 50 WP 1 kg

Carbaryl 40 LV 1.25 kg

Carbaryl 85S 600 g

Carbaryl 42 per cent 1200 ml

Group C: organophosphatics

Profenophos 50 EC 500 ml

Acephate 75 SP 800 g

Monocrotiphos 36 SL 500 ml

Quinalphos 25 EC 800 ml

Quinalphos 20 AF 1000 ml

Fenitrothion 50 EC 850 ml

Fenitrothion 82.5 EC 500 ml

Phenthoate 50 EC 400 ml

Chlorpyriphos 20 EC 2 litres

Triazophos 20 EC 600 ml

Ethion 50 EC 800 ml

Group D: organochlorinated

Endosulfan 35 EC 1litre

— Prefer to use acephate/chlorpyphos/fenitrothion against grown-up larvae of heliothis (more than 1.25 cm long).

— Insecticides recommended against sucking pest should never be used against bollworms at the flowering time.

— If mite, aphid, jassid appear along with bollworms, prefer to use monocrotophos. In case whitefly becomes serious along with bollworms, prefer to use triazophos or ethion.

— Sprays should be stopped two weeks before the first picking.

Caution:

— Do not use synthetic pyrethroids on cotton for the control of bollworm complex after mid September.

— Do not spray mixtures of insecticides or unrecommended insecticides.

— Do not use an insecticide of the same group in two consecutive sprays.

— Repeat spray immediately, if it rains within 24 hours of the spray.

— Spray the crop with Blitox (500 g) plus Agrimycin (20 g) or Streptocycline (3 g) per acre at 15-20 days’ interval to control leaf blight, bacterial blight and leaf spot diseases of cotton. Keep the population of whitefly under control to check the spread of leaf curl of cotton.

Sugarcane

— To prevent lodging, prop up the crop at the end of August by using trash twist method.

— Iron deficiency has been observed both in the ratoon and plant crops on light textured and calcareous soils. Deficiency symptoms first appear on young leaves as yellow strips between the green veins, later the veins also turn yellow. In severe cases, leaves become white and the plants remain stunted. To correct this deficiency, 1 per cent ferrous sulphate solution (1 kg ferrous sulphate in 100 litres of water per acre) may be sprayed 2-3 times at weekly intervals.

— Collect and destroy the infected shoots affected with different borers, particularly that of Gurdaspur borer at weekly interval regularly to prevent infestation of the healthy canes.

— In case pyrilla pest is noticed in serious form then spray 500 ml of Thiodan 35 EC or 225 ml of Folithion 50 EC (Fenitrothion) per acre in 100 litres of water.

— Sometimes whitefly also becomes serious on this crop. Control this pest by spraying Malathion 50 EC.

— Progressive Farming, PAU