Neglect of indigenous rice varieties
By Bharat Dogra
THE Green Revolution technology has been spread mainly in the name of obtaining higher yields of foodgrains. So it may come as a surprise to many people that while spreading the crop varieties of this technology, indigenous varieties which gave higher yield were deliberately kept out.

Tractor — a boon or bane for Punjab farmers
By B.S. Bhatia
TRACTOR is not a scale-free technology like seeds and fertilisers. It implies that purchase of a tractor is justified only if there is sufficient work throughout the year which, besides field operations includes transport and stationery work also. All modern tractors, for this purpose, are equipped with power take-off shaft and pulley.

Farm operations for October

Asia’s useful trees, shrubs and herbs
By K.L. Noatay

BURAS or burans, as called in local dialect, is a small-sized evergreen tree. It has reddish brown bark and is found growing naturally in the hills from 1300 m to 3000 m above main sea level. The scientific name of the main genus is rhododendron. The family is ericaceae.

Nearly 42 different species of rhododendron grow naturally in the Himalayan and Hindukush ranges of the Asian subcontinent. Its habitat starts from Burma and extends to Afghanistan and beyond. A few species are naturalised in south India’s Nilgiri hills and Ceylone as well. Some species are straggling shrubs, which grow at comparatively higher altitude. The species growing in Uttar Pradesh and Himachal hills is rhododendron arboreum. The general appearance of this main species, by a layman’s point of view, is somewhat like a small mango tree.

The buras leaves, elliptic oblong in outline are 10 to 15 cm long and 4 to 7 cm wide. When just sprouting and tender, these are used by villagers as a vegetable as well as medicine for hypernation.

The buras bears large beautiful showy flowers. Their colour is deep crimson. Sometimes pink or off-white also. Some species have a good resemblance to rose as well. These appear during March-April and are shed during June-July. Their taste being sour, the flowers are used for making preserves, sharbats, chatni, squashes, jam, etc.

The rhododendron flowers are also used in worship, especially in Buddhist gompas.

The steam of buras having annual growth rings the tree, attains nearly 20 m height and 1 m grith in some 80 to 100 years. Its wood is brownish or reddish white in colour and soft in structure. Its sweight is nearly 18 to 20 kg per cubic foot. It does not season well and tends to develops cracks/warp on drying. The tree being seldom straightboled, only poor agriculturists may use it as timber for house construction. Even for firewood and charcoal, it’s not that good. However, local artisans carve out toys, cups and plates out of it.

The seedlings of buras come up naturally in favourable soil and environment. And profusely. Artifical raising is, however, not so easy. Nevertheless, keeping in view the beauty of the rhododendron tree, and many uses that its leaves, flowers and wood is put to it is desirable that the plant is given due protection and the maximum opportunity to cover the barren slopes for better environment.

Neglect of indigenous rice varieties
By Bharat Dogra

THE Green Revolution technology has been spread mainly in the name of obtaining higher yields of foodgrains. So it may come as a surprise to many people that while spreading the crop varieties of this technology, indigenous varieties which gave higher yield were deliberately kept out.

In 1983, Dr Richaria, one of the most eminent rice scientists of the world, prepared an action plan for increase in production of rice in India at the request of the Prime Minister's Office. In this plan document he has written, "In a survey carried out in Madhya Pradesh between 1971 and 1974, 8 per cent of the indigenous rice types were observed to fall under the category of high-yielding types, fixing the minimum limit of 3705 kg/ha."

But were these varieties included in the government's extension programme? The answer is "no". Dr Richaria, who had served as Director of the Madhya Pradesh Rice Research Institute from 1971 to 1976, wrote "under the extension services the definition of a high-yielding variety is different which necessarily involves a dwarfing gene and, therefore, growers' own high-yielding varieties are not recognised which are estimated to be 8 to 9 per cent in Madhya Pradesh."

In this plan Dr Richaria gave details of 13 indigenous high-yielding varieties with a very high-yield potential. These are listed in table 1. He further said that such types could also be listed for other rice growing states. Further "rice farmers will willingly accept the improved versions of their own varieties (retaining their original names) about which they possess enough knowledge of their environmental and nutritional requirements, their properties and peculiarities and they know them more accurately then we do." But this potential of indigenous varieties was not tapped and instead there was indiscriminate and hasty introduction of exotic varieties on a large scale. Dr Richaria emphasised that at the level of technology (a part from the wider socio-economic factors) this was the main factor responsible for the stagnation of rice yields. He wrote the most immediate and major cause can be attributed to frequent replacements of the adopted rice varieties in a locality, partly or fully. This is because the agro-ecological balance has been disturbed in environment in respect of the existing rice germplasm which has been built up in the course of time for centuries by the natural process of breeding and selection by farmers, establishing ecological balance in different environments.

A gradual increase in productivity would have become a regular feature if this balance was not disturbed and a simple programme of genetic upgrading of the indigenous cultivars were undertaken."

Earlier from 1959 to 1967 Dr Richaria was the Director of the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. Recalling the work done at that time he wrote in the plan prepared in 1983: "It is high time that the country's 1964-65 breeding programme, which nearly stands suspended to exploit the rich indigenous rice germplasm, is also resumed in the light of the observations recorded above when about 445 improved varieties, bred for specific stress situations, showing environmental resistance to diseases and pests were available and would be still available in the country. To emphasise this point of view yield potentials of these rice varieties under normal soil fertility level are recorded in table 2 to compare them with the average productivity in some major states as reported in 1980-81 when an exclusive allout drive for HYVs of dwarf and semi-dwarf plant type (about 140 in number) was made for large-scale cultivation for different agro-climatic conditions in recent years. It conclusively points to the adverse effects of modern HYVs in rice productivity."

Table 1

Potentials of some high yielding varieties of Indian rice with special reference to MP

Yield potentials of indigenous rice varieties in India

Tractor — a boon or bane for Punjab farmers
By B.S. Bhatia

TRACTOR is not a scale-free technology like seeds and fertilisers. It implies that purchase of a tractor is justified only if there is sufficient work throughout the year which, besides field operations includes transport and stationery work also. All modern tractors, for this purpose, are equipped with power take-off shaft and pulley.

Possession of a tractor for small farm holdings is quite irrational if viewed from its use pattern. It is for this reason that a tractor in such situations is proving to be a liability rather than an asset due to its under utilisation. This problem requires a serious thought, otherwise tractor-owning farmers will be incurring losses every year and consequently may be entrapped in debt due to false prestige. Currently, there are about 3.5 lakh tractors being used in Punjab and annual sale of this vehicle is around 26,000 which is the highest than in any other state of India. However, being a costly farm resource, it ought to be utilised properly.

The problem of inadequate utilisation of tractor may be of two types:

A tractor with a certain horse power has the capacity to pull a certain load. If it is being used for the jobs requiring less load, this is the case of improper utilisation of tractor power. Usually transport jobs without adequate loads are the typical example of under utilisation of tractor.

According to experts, a tractor should be used for at least 1000 hours in a year. This is because, in addition to the initial cost of tractor, the owner has to incur on fuel, repair and maintenance; and cost of operation per hour decreases with increase in the hours of use. It has been estimated that cost of operation per annum comes out to about one-fourth of its initial price. For example, a tractor costing Rs 3 lakh will require approximately Rs 75,000 operating cost in a year in the following order:

i) Fixed cost                     Rs 48,000

ii) Operating cost               Rs 15,000

iii) Incidental charges          Rs 12,000

(breakdown, etc.)

                                     Total: Rs 75,000

Considering 1000 hours of annual use of a tractor, the cost of operation in the above case comes to Rs 75,000 and if the tractor is used for 500 hours, the cost of operation will double.

Several studies conducted in Punjab have shown that tractor is being used for not more than 600 hours in a year. The use pattern of tractor is shown in the following table.

Field operations                        435                                    77.05

Transport                                106                                     18.51

Stationery                                025                                     04.41
                                            _______                               _______

Total                                       566                                        100
                                            _______                               _______    

The table indicates that tractor is primarily used for field operations like preparatory tillage.

Most of the tractor owners do custom-hiring work but that needs to be stepped up. The custom-hiring work being undertaken by different sizes of farm operations are shown in the following table.

Current levels of use per annum in hours

It is clear from the table that there is the need for creating more work for all types of farms but particularly small farm operators use the tractor only for half duration than it needs to be (1000 hours). Some status conscious tractor-owing farmers do not undertake custom hiring due to false prestige values. This attitude is, in no way, in their own as well as in others’ interest. Moreover, those farmers who do not have tractors should go in for hiring it from the fellow farmers because farm operations performed by tractor are not only efficient but the quality of work is also better.

Not only that tractor should be used for a specified length of period in a year but its power should also be utilised adequately. For this proper sizes of equipment should be used depending upon the power of the tractor. A nine-row seed drill, for example, is appropriate for a 35 horse power tractor, but operating it with a 50 horse power tractor is a case of under utilisation of tractor power. For this reason, while purchasing a tractor with a certain horse power, it should be ensured that matching implements are also easily available.

Most of the farmers follow a fixed cropping pattern like wheat and paddy and for this reason the number of working hours of tractor per year are too small. If the number of crops raised from the same field are more, then tractor use increases because the volume of work increases, particularly for raising short-duration crops like fodder and vegetables.

It has been observed that a very few operations are there which are mechanised by using tractor. Field preparation and sowing operations are among the mechanised field operations. If farm operations like interculture, harvesting, threshing spraying etc are also accomplished with tractor-operated machines, then the use of tractor per annum can be increased. Suitable farm machines are available for harvesting of wheat (reaper), digging of potato and groundnut (potato digger and groundnut digger) and sowing of row crops like cotton, maize, soyabean, groundnut and sunflower (planter) for which tractor may be effectively used.

By proper utilisation of tractor in the above stated areas, a farmer can reduce cost of operation per working hour of tractor and thereby can increase his profitability.

Farm operations for October
Ornamentals

Annuals: The seedlings (10cm) of winter season annuals should be transplanted in this month at the four to six leaf stage in the flower beds or pots. The seeds of winter season annuals can also be sown in the nursery beds for raising seedlings. The pot flowering plants like calendula, gazania, pansy, allyssum, petunia, etc. can be planted in the pots to allow sufficient time for their development.

Chrysanthemum: Manuring of weak plants and staking of heavy branches using bamboo sticks is required. If required, disbudding of side branches should be done. The root suckers should be removed. Spray of Malathion @ 0.2 per cent is required to control the insect-attack on the flowering buds.

Rose: Pruning of roses is done in this month for removing the diseased or dead and criss-crossing branches. The cut ends should be treated with Blitox or Bordeaux paste immediately after pruning or spray the plants with Bavistin @ 0.2 per cent.

Hoeing of rose beds, removal of suckers and application of the FYM, near the base of the plants after exposing roots is done in this month. Apply Thimet 10 G @ 1 TSP per plant to check the attack of scales and other soil-born insects. Irrigate the plants after application of the FYM later on.

The new plants of roses can also be planted in this month.

Bulbous plants: The bulbs of narcissus (nargis), gladiolus, dahlia, etc. can be planted at seven to 10 days’ interval in this month. Stop watering summer bulbous plants like caladium, football lilly, etc. When they shed leaves, uproot the bulbs seven to 10 days after stopping water. Store the bulbs in a cool place after treating with Bavistin @ 0.2 per cent for 20 minutes.

Permanent plants: The grown-up shrubbery plants like acalypha should be pinched in this month to encourage new growth because the cold adversely affects the old leaves much more than new ones.

— The newly planted young fruit plants being tender, need a lot of care and attention for their survival and growth. They should be watered at frequent intervals. The young plants of mango, litchi, etc. need stalking so as to make them grow upright and straight. Remove all the sprouts on root stock which have grown below the bud-union. The termite attack, if noted, should be checked by applying Chlorpyriphos 20 EC @ 5 ml or 30 g Lindane per plant followed by irrigation.

— This would be the most appropriate time for preparation of land and sowing of rabi inter-crops like wheat, peas. Keep separate irrigation system for wheat and citrus plants.

— The orchard soil should be cultivated for the control of perennial weeds like baru, kahi, motha, parthenium, etc.

— Apply first half dose on N (0.5 kg urea/plant) to the loquat plants.

— To control the insect-pests of citrus like white and black fly, spray 70 ml of Thiodan 35 EC (Endosulfan) or 300 ml of Malathion 50 EC per 500 litres of water.

— To control citrus leaf folder, spray 625 ml of Nuvacron 40 EC or 1250 ml Dursban 20 EC or 1000 ml Ekalux 25 EC in 500 litres of water. Remove webbing to check the bark-eating caterpillar and apply 100 g Lindane suspension in 10 litres of water into the holes with wash bottle. Treat all the alternate host plants in the vicinity.

— To control citrus canker spray the crop with 50 mg of Streptocycline, _ 25 g of copper sulphate and 500 litres of water during this month and repeat during December and February.

— Spray ber trees with 0.25 per cent wettable sulphur (250 g in 100 litres of water) or 0.05 per cent karathane 40 EC (50-80 ml in 100 litres of water). The spraying should be done in early October and in the end of October to control powdery mildew of ber.

— Remove malformated panicles of mango along with about 15 cm of healthy shoots and spray the whole tree with NAA at the rate of 200 ppm.

— Progressive Farming, PAU