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| AGRICULTURE TRIBUNE | Monday, April 2, 2001, Chandigarh, India |
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Reasons for deformed earing in wheat Stenting for quick propagation in roses 35.31 pc increase in migrant labour
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Asia’s useful trees and plants Semul is Asia’s one of the largest sized and most beautiful trees. It belongs to the malvaceae plant family. Its scientific name is salmalia malabarica or bombax malabaricum. It comes up, grows and flourishes quite easily in low hills as well as in the plains. Altitude-wise, its habitat varies from 200 to 1200 m above mean sea level. It grows happily in openings and gaps, whether in the forest cover or the vacant edges of agricultural fields. The natural habitat of semul starts from Burma in the East extends to Kabul, Kandhar, Afghanistan in the West. Latitude-wise, its habitat starts from southern costs and extends to the foot of the Himalayan ranges. The bark of semul tree is grey-white. It has short thick bristles. The branches take off in whorls at uniform gaps at the height of its bole. The leaves are compound. The individual leaflet looks like the mango leaf. The semul tree bears beautiful red-coloured flowers during January to March. The phenomenon paints the whole landscape in an enchanting red hue. The fruit, of the size of almost of a ping-pong ball, on maturity appears during March and April. These are full of cotton-like fibrous stuff. It is for the fibre that villagers gather the semul fruit and extract the cotton substance called “kopak”. This substance is used for filling economically priced pillows, quilts, sofas etc. Semul is quite a fast growing tree and can attain a girth of 2 to 3 m, and height about 30 m, in nearly 50 years or so. Its wood, when sawn fresh, is white in colour. However, with exposure and passage of time it grows darkish grey. It is as light as 10 to 12 kg, per cubic foot. It is easy to work but not durable anywhere other than under water. So it is popular for construction work, but is very good and prized for manufacture of plywood, match boxes and sticks, scabbards, patterns, moulds, etc. Also for making canoes and light duty boats and or other structures required under water. The semul seed is very light in weight. It has light hair around.The arrangement helps the seed to drift in wind to reach far and wide tracts. Its natural germination and regeneration are accordingly easy. The species can also regenerate itself from root suckers and cuttings. Now, with excessive interference of man with the nature, the forest cover is gradually shrinking. The environment is degenerating. The conscientious people can stop this tendency by planting more and more of fast-growing species like semul. That will be a very good way out not only to enrich the environment but also for garnering raw material for wood-based industries like matches or plywood or making of sofas, beds, quilts, etc. on economical rates. |
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Reasons for deformed earing in wheat Wheat is the premier cereal crop of Punjab. In 1999-2000 it was grown on 33.91 lakh hectares with production of 159.17 lakh tonnes and per hectare yield of 46.94 quintals. Many samples are received in plant clinic showing deformed ears every year. On close observations of the affected plants we have concluded that the disorder is mainly due to four reasons depending upon the locality and type of soil etc and these include ear cockle disease, downy mildew, manganese deficiency and spray of 2, 4-D at an inappropriate time of the crop growth. The symptoms of each disease are being described for the benefit of farmers so that they can avoid the recurrence of deformed ears by taking necessary precautions pointed for each disease. Ear cockle: This disease is popularly known as wheat gall nematode. When the wheat seed is sown galls also are sown unknowingly as they took like wheat seeds. There are 10,000 to 30,000 larvae in each gall and these can remain alive up to 28 years in the galls stored in an ordinary store room. On getting moisture from the soil, the larvae become active and come out of the galls. Larvae crawl in free water and attack the growing point of wheat and lodge them there. As the plant grown, larvae are automatically carried along with. Due to larvae feeding, infected plants show swollen base with twisted, crinkled and deformed leaves. At flowering, larvae enter the floral parts and start feeding on the developing embryo. Such plants have shorter, loose and deformed earheads, which remain green for longer period than normal. Eventually dark brown to black, hard and brown galls are formed instead of wheat grains. These galls cannot survive in the field but in storage with wheat seed, they remain viable and perpetuate the disease as described above. The nematode also carries along a bacterium, the combined effect of which causes yellow ear rot or locally called tundu. Initial symptoms of tundu are like the ear cockle caused by nematode alone. Subsequently a bright yellow slimy mass (bacterial ooze) cover the earheads, leaves and the growing point. This phase is called tundu. Low temperature (16 to 20°C) and high humidity (>90 per cent) favour the multiplication of bacterium and formation of tundu. Control: Clean the seed before sowing. If these galls are found mixed in the seed put it in water and agitate vigorously for a few minutes. Galls will float to the surface which can be skimmed off and burnt. Dry the seed properly before sowing. The disease is prevalent in Sangrur, Bathinda, Faridkot and Ferozepore districts. Downy mildew: This disease is of wet areas and found mainly in Gurdaspur district. But in 1998 there were heavy rains during the rabi season and diseased samples were received from some localities of Ludhiana district where fields remained flooded most of the time during early periods of crop growth. The affected plants are short with pale yellow leaves, the earing is not normal but deformed such plants can be found in low-lying areas of the field. Don’t allow water to stand in the field for long periods. Manganese deficiency: Manganese deficiency generally appears in light soils under intensive cropping, especially in the rice-wheat rotation. The symptoms appear on the middle leaves as interveinal chlorosis with light greyish yellow to pinkish brown and buff coloured species of variable size confined largely to 2/3 lower portion of the leaf, later the specks coalesce forming a streak or band in between the veins which remain green. At the earing stage the symptoms become prominent on flag leaf. The ears of such plants are sickle shaped. Now the farmers should note that this is a problem of sandy soils under the paddy-wheat rotation. In such soils give one spray of 0.5 per cent manganese sulphate (1 kg manganese sulphate in 200 litres of water) two to four days before the first irrigation and two to three sprays afterwards at weekly intervals on sunny days. Do not grow varieties like PBW-233 and PBW34 in sandy soils as these varieties are prone to manganese deficiency. Use of 2, 4-D: 2, 4-D spray is recommended for the control of broad-leaf weeds @ 250 g or 250 ml in 200 litres of water per acre. The spray is to be done to the crop sown at normal time (November) 35 to 45 days after sowing. To the late-sown crop (especially after mid-December), spray 2, 4-D 45,55 days after sowing. Spray when the crop is in advanced tillering but before the jointing stage. The farmer don’t follow the above schedule. If there are rains after 20 to 25 days after sowing they spray 2, 4-D days after sowing they spray 2, 4-D by mixing with weedicides meant for the control of phalaris minor. 2, 4-D affects earing if sprayed before 35 days and after 45 days to the normal crop and similarly the days mentioned for the late-sown crop should be adhered to. The affected plants have short internodal distance. The leaves curl and particularly the upper leaves become thickened and look like the leaves of onion plants. The ears of such plants are deformed and sometimes more ears emerge from the same ear. The farmer should stick to the spray schedule mentioned above to avoid such losses. The farmers are advised to be careful and do each operation well in time and get good yields from their crops. They can consult plant clinic whenever they face such problems. |
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Stenting for quick propagation in roses Rose is one of the most fascinating flower crops of the world and holds the first position amongst various flowers. In India, commercial cultivation of roses for export market has picked up recently. Out of 160 EOU registered on flowers, 75 are in operation, mostly of roses covering approximately 100 hectare area under protected environment. Most of the planting material is being imported from Israel and Holland. At present, in India about eight million new bushes of roses are made each year, mostly for garden display. Budding is the most common method adopted for the multiplication of a majority of rose cultivars for obtaining better quality. Root stocks are generally kept for rooting in October-December and budding is done during next year (December-February) when root stock is of pencil thickness. Generally 16 to 18 months are taken from root stock planting to final budded plant ready for plantation. This method is labour intensive, time consuming and uneasy to budder. “Cutting graft” was firstly proposed by McFadded in 1963 by combining cutting and grafting in one action. Dutch persons named this technique “stenting” (to stent), which is contraction of Dutch words “stekken” (to strike a cutting) and “enten” (to graft). The stented plant is called as stentling. In the highly specialised industry of growing roses, it is very important that cultivars are to be grown on the most suitable root stock. Root stock in stenting should have qualities like vigorous growth habit, mature, easy propagation, fibrous root system, uniform growth, thick bark, free from suckers, insect-pest, etc. The cutting of root stock should be 10 to 12 cm in length and of 6 to 8 mm in thickness. Various root stocks like rosa borboniana, R, indica var. odorata, R. Caniana, R. Manetti, R. multiflora and R. rugosa are generally used in rose propagation. In this stenting technique stem of the cultivar is cut into sections with one leaf with at least five leaflets and a dormant bud, with 1 cm stem above it. The stem of the root stock is cut with sharp pruning knife into pieces consisting of single internode without buds. The absence of buds on the root stock is essential to diminish wild suckering. An internode length of 4 cm is quite sufficient. The scion is either split or tongue grafted with sharp razor blade or machine grafted on the internode of root stock. The machine makes an omega cut in both scion and root stock, after which stentling parts are fitted together. The grafted parts are tied together with ordinary tape of glued paper or by a non-adhesive plastic tape (1 cm width and 0.05 mm thick). After thus, the cutting grafts are treated with IBA 5000 ppm as a quick dip and kept for rooting ina greenhouse covered with shade net (30 per cent shade) or under polythene tent under an outside reed screen. The rooting medium should contain peat: perlite (1:3 v/v) or peat: sand (1:1 v/v) and pH around 5.5 is maintained. About 100 plants/m2, with the scion leaves not overlapping are kept for rooting. The relative humidity of the atmosphere should be maintained around 100 per cent for a week and later reduced to 90 per cent. Temperature of the medium and atmosphere should be kept at about 25°C. The sequence succession of process involve growing together of the partners, root formation and growth of axillary buds. To prevent premature release of the bud and stimulation of root growth in dark periods, the supplementary lighting is to be provided with HPLR 400 W Philip lamps, giving at least 3000 m W.m-2 light intensity at plant level. Pre-treatment of rootstock internodes by application of IBA and storage of 4°C for three weeks improve rooting. The grafted part grow together with roots and thus new stentling can be hardened off and planted out. The technique of stenting by means of grafting a scion on a root stock consisting of one bare internode has many advantages in roses. Generally, rose bush through stenting become ready for further sale or plantation within a year as compared to much longer period taken by conventional techniques. Further, plans can be uniformly grafted round the year with high grafting efficiency at the work bench instead of in the field and has at par quality with field grown budded plants. |
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35.31 pc increase in migrant labour Punjab has been attracting labour for various activities viz agriculture, construction and services through pull factors from various states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, there has been an equally strong push factor for labour from these states since the mid-60s specially after the advent of the Green Revolution when Punjab farmers started adopting the wheat-paddy rotation which has more labour intensive. Now the labourers come to Punjab and Haryana even from far-off places like Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh for gainful employment, according to the Economic Survey of Punjab for 1999-2000. Rapid urbanisation, according to the survey, in towns gave a further impetus to the in-migration of skilled and unskilled labour to the urban areas from other states of the country. The information regarding in-migration to urban areas of Punjab from other states pertaining to the census period is like this: from rural to urban — 37.54 per cent from UP, 16.70 per cent from Haryana, 14.50 per cent from Himachal Pradesh and 13.32 per cent from Bihar in 1991. From urban to urban — 28.92 per cent from UP 20.44 per cent from Haryana, 9.57 per cent from Delhi and 8.72 per cent from Himachal Pradesh in 1991. The number of migrant labour in the lean period worked out at about 11 per cent of the total agriculture labour in the state. The numbers of immigrant labour were estimated to be almost double in the peak period of workload. The report says that it is further interesting to note that there has been 35.31 per cent increase in the number of migrant agriculture labour in the state during 1995-96 as compared to their number in 1983-84. But, on the other hand, this increase was 30.33 per cent during 1977-78 to 1983-84. Now when the cropping intensity in the state is almost stagnant at around 184 per cent, there is little scope in the increase of in-migrant labour in proportionate terms. Given the agriculture scenario, the migrant labour coming to Punjab has also started looking for new employment opportunities in the state in non-agriculture sectors viz rickshaw-pulling, construction work, skilled and unskilled jobs in factories, petty shops of vegetables and fruits, tea stalls, repair services, mali, dhobi, etc. The migrants, according to a thesis by Dr Krishan Chand on “migrant labour and trade union movement in Punjab — a case of sugar industry” were pushed out of their home states by economic hardships. The families back home are large and do not have any supplementary source of income. Being unable to support them, some members were compelled to seek employment opportunities outside their parent states. It was also found that a large number of these migrants were earlier engaged in agriculture. Their income was very meagre and they were under debt. A majority of the migrant workers (74.4 per cent) indicated significant improvement in their lifestyle, food habits, living places and clothing, etc, after migration. They can now spend more on social obligations. Hence, most of them have a preference to settle permanently in Punjab. A very notable finding of the study has been that perceptions and attitudes of local and migrant labour are largely identical. In general, unionism was found to be low among the labour force in the sugar industry. Safeguarding against victimisation by the management was ranked as the main motivational factor of becoming union member by both migrant and local workers. The analysis of data reveals that the interaction between migrant and local labour during their duty times was found limited to having tea or lunch together and exchanging pleasantries. Interaction even after duty hours was found low. Interaction off-job takes place only when their is a social function. A majority of the management personnel (58.33 per cent) state that they do not make any distinction between the local and the migrant labour. However, 30.56 per cent of respondents express their preference for the migrant labour for various reasons like their punctuality, disciplined behaviour and sincerity in doing their work. A substantial percentage of the management personnel feel that the Punjab sugar industry cannot do without migrant labour. |
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Farm operations for April
WHEAT
SUGARCANE Irrigate the sugarcane crop at 7 to 12 days’ interval for getting better growth of the crop. Apply 65 kg of urea to the ratoon crop. Irrigation may be given after the application of fertiliser. The attack of black bug in sugarcane can be checked by spraying 350 ml Thiodan 35 EC (Endosulfan) or 225 ml Sumithion/Folithion 50 EC (Fenitrothion) or 350 ml of Dursban 20 EC in 250 litres of water per acre. Direct the spray material into the leaf whorl. Mite feeds on lower side of leaves under fine web. The leaves turn red and later appear to be burnt. Spray the crop with 400 ml of Malathion 50 EC in 100 litres of water. Do not ratoon the crop if it is severely affected with red rot, wilt or smut. Rogue out the smut-affected clumps and destroy.
COTTON Treat 5 kg seed of American cotton before sowing to prevent primary seed-borne infection. Add 5 g Ceresan wet or 5 g Agallol or 2.5 g Tafasan or 5 g Aretan and either 1.3 g Streptocycline or 8 g Agrimycin 100 in 5 litres of water and soak seed in it for six to eight hours. In case of acid delinted seed soaking for 2 to 4 hours is enough. Avoid growing American cotton in citrus orchards and adjoining Bhindi crop. In wilt-infested fields, prefer to sow LD-327, LD-491 variety and LDH-11 hybrid of desi cotton. To prevent primary infection from seed borne pathogens treat 4 kg seed with 4 g Agallol/Cerasan or 2 g Tafasan/Aretan, 1 g streptocycline and 5 g Bavistin/Derosal in 4 litres of water and soak the delinted seed in it for two to three hours. If underlinted seed is used, soak it for 6 to 8 hours. At the time of sowing, smear the cotton seed with Gaucho 70 WP (imidacloprid) @ 5 g/kg seed for preventing damage by cotton jassid. Sow both American cotton and desi cotton varieties in rows at 67.5 cm apart with plant to plant distance of 30 cm. however, for hybrids plant to plant distance may be kept 60 cm. and for LHH-144 hybrid it should be 75 cm. Apply 75 kg of superphosphate per acre by drilling with last preparatory ploughing. If cotton follows wheat which received recommended dose of phosphorus, the application of phosphorus can be omitted to cotton. In poor soils, half dose of nitrogen (35 kg urea/acre) may be applied at the time of sowing. For controlling weeds, spray Treflan 48 EC, Shaktiman Triflurex 48 EC (trifluralin) @ 1.0 1/acre pre-plant incorporation or Stomp 30 EC (pendimethalin) @ one litre per acre as pre-emergence application in 250 to 300 litres of water. At the time of spray, there should be sufficient moisture in the soil. For controlling itsit which emerges with first irrigation, stomp @ 1.01/acre can also be applied after first irrigation.
SUNFLOWER Control cabbage semi-looper, tabacco caterpillar and hairy caterpillars by spraying 450 ml of Folithion/Sumithion 50 EC (Fenitrotion) or 500 ml of Thiodan 35 EC (Endosulfan) or 200 ml of Nuvan/Divap/Vapona 100 EC (Dichlorvos) in 100 litres of water per acre. Repeat after two weeks, if necessary.
SUMMER PULSES
SUMMER GROUNDNUT
FODDERS Berseem for seed production should be frequently irrigated. Kashni and other weeds should be rougued out of the crop meant for seed production. Gram caterpillar attacks the berseem crop for seed. Spray 500 ml of Thiodon 35 EC in 100 litres of water/acre at the initiation of flowers. Repeat after 10 days, if necessary. Stop irrigation to lucerne after full blossoming to arrest further vegetative growth for better seed production. Cultivate perennial fodder on some area. For this purpose, guinea grass and napier bajra can be sown in April. — Progressive Farming, PAU |
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