Asia’s useful trees and plants — Peepal
K. L. Noatay
PEEPAL is a large deciduous tree. The family being Urticaceae, its scientific name is Ficus religiosa. Regional names, other than peepal, are aswat, pipro, haser, Nyaungbawdi, ashvatha, etc. It is found growing naturally all over the Asian continent from sea coast to the Himalayan ranges having an altitude up to about 1500 metres. In the Indian subcontinent its natural habitat starts from Burma and extents westwards up to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Farm operations for May

Vegetables Vegetable pests and diseases Lawns

Roses Chrysanthemum

Launching Farmer Entrepreneurs Association
Suraj Bhan Dahiya

THE major reason behind India’s poor progress in poverty alleviation is the coming down only marginally the share of agriculture in working population, from 71 per cent in 1951 to about 64 per cent now. But its share in the gross domestic product (GDP) has dropped from 56 per cent to 25 per cent. In other words, 25 per cent of the GDP has to take care of 64 per cent of India’s labour which, in turn, shows the rising income inequality.

Agriculture is basically a private unorganised enterprise. It is the hands of some 125 million farming families, of which 75 per cent are marginal farmers holding one hectare or less. Most of these farmers continue to follow the rice-wheat crop rotation. With the world prices for wheat and rice having declined substantially recently. With the world prices for wheat and rice having declined substantially recently, the odds are pitted heavily against these farmers. Cashing in on the difference in domestic and international prices of these commodities, multinationals for their gains are now increasingly resorting to exports of wheat and rice. The result is that the burden on marginal farmers is becoming increasingly unbearable.

Farmers too understand profit but they fail miserably when they come for marketing their produce. The prices offered for products grown by the subsistence farmers have been far too depressed in the form of minimum support price leaving their agony of distress sale. This has resulted in a very dangerous situation for India. Don’t be surprised, there is every likelihood that the farmers may not go in for diversification in the near future as they have a bitter experience in growing of potato, onion, etc. Indian policy makers, therefore, need to learn some lessons from the past experiences. The global role of India can only be best served by a focus on agriculture and agro-processing. Instead of focusing all its attention on the individual sector, the government should also take steps to integrate the country’s farm sector with global agriculture. Our policy planners would have to think very seriously how well India integrates her agriculture with world markets. Globalisation can become a real threat if the farmers are left to fend themselves against global food majors. The time has come for some major modification in our agricultural strategy. Before restricting to wheat and rice areas of for alternate crops, we must also study our future requirements. The Washington-based international Food Policy Research Institute in its paper on “Prospects for India’s supply and demand 2020” projected that cereal gap would be about 115 to 142 million tonnes if the country becomes a “tiger economy” with 6 per cent growth in per capita income each year. Even if the Indian economy slows down to more historical rates of growth, the cereal gap could grow to as much as 25 million tonnes by 2020, the report cautioned.

So ensuring self-sufficiency in foodgrains, the country has to widen the scope of its business to include agriculture. We see an opportunity in the new world order into an opening for our farmers. What is needed for agriculture to receive a boost is to replicate what was done for the information technology sector for everyone to come together, including government, scientists, managers and farmers. This can be achieved through the Farmer Entrepreneurs Association (FEA) like FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry). To begin with, we want to make entrepreneurs out of farmers. Under this organisation, the farmer not only merely grows but also sells his produce at the farm gate like industrial production. The FEA also aims at teaching him to do some basic value addition at his level, which will increase the shelf life of his produce which, in turn, will fetch him a better price for his goods. This will work in two ways for the country — as a producer the farmer will meet the cereal requirements of his countrymen and as an entrepreneur, he will compete in the world market.

We realise that marketing is a major hurdle for the farmer. Like the FICCI, he has no access to finance or to that equally critical component marketing enterprise. We must involve banks and other financial institutions to help the FEA in meeting its financial requirements. On the marketing front, the FEA should tie up with institutes of management of the country so that the farmers may pick up proven successful agricultural management quickly. In fact, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has started an extensive course on agricultural management to pool the trained talent which will do the extension work of taking it from the laboratory to the farmers’ field. Some agricultural universities should also lend support in this venture. A policy adviser at the Institute of Personnel and Development, New Delhi, says, “Its highly unlikely that farmers will persuade others to manage their careers if they are not handling their own. If you are searching skill for agricultural management, then the children of farmers should be trained in farm management.” A well-known agricultural expert, Mr Ashok Gulati, who is now in the Prime Minister’s new advisory teams has long been advocating complete freeing of agricultural markets and has carced out empirical studies to show its advantage. Mr Gulati says that going rural, agri-business will flourish for the rescue of the troubled national economy.

Asia’s useful trees and plants — Peepal
K. L. Noatay

PEEPAL is a large deciduous tree. The family being Urticaceae, its scientific name is Ficus religiosa. Regional names, other than peepal, are aswat, pipro, haser, Nyaungbawdi, ashvatha, etc. It is found growing naturally all over the Asian continent from sea coast to the Himalayan ranges having an altitude up to about 1500 metres. In the Indian subcontinent its natural habitat starts from Burma and extents westwards up to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Peepal grows profusely and abundantly in and around any openings, inhabited plots, cultivated holdings and forested areas, etc. People, especially Hindus and Buddhists, hold the plant in great veneration. That is more so because Lord Krishna has said in Srimad Bhagvad Gita that among plants. Felling or otherwise hurting this tree is considered a sin.

The bark of peepal is greyish white in colour and nearly 1 to 1.5 cm. thick. On being subjected to a cut, it yields a kind of latex (milk) which dries into a kind of jelly having considerable medical utility.

The leaves of peepal are alternate, orbicular to ovate, like pan leaves. These are reddish when young. Subsequently these are some what coriaceous, shining above and dull green below. Individual leaf is about 10 to 15 cm in diameter. The species sheds its leaves during autumn. New leaves sprout in February-March.

Peepal bears small sessile dark purple hardly visible flowers during February-March. The fruit, purple in colour, globose in shape and nearly 4 to 5 mm in diameter, appear during March-April. These are sweet in taste and greedily eaten not only by birds and animals, but human beings, especially children, too.

The leaves and branches of Peepal serve as fodder for cattle, especially elephants. In fact all parts of the tree have medicinal value. The ayurveda and unani practitioners use these for curing cough, stomach disorders, fever and a host of other human maladies.

Peepal is a fast growing species. In about 50 years it matures to a height of about 15 metres, with a bole about 50 cm in diameter and a dense umbrella like crown about 10 to 15 m in spread. The species has a thick shady crown. It makes an excellent refuse against scorching sun for birds and travellers.

The wood of peepal is greyish white in colour. It has narrow bands of soft tissue alternated with broader bands of firmer matter. It weighs nearly 15 to18 kg per cubic foot and is reasonably hard in texture. Only dead and dry trees are converted into timber, which can be used for making packing cases, charcoal and firewood.

The plant comes up naturally and easily anywhere and everywhere in its natural habitat. The seed is dispersed widely through excreta of birds feeding on peepal fruit. It, thus, reaches difficult most crevices of old houses, ancient monumental structure and hallows in the trunks of other trees and germinates there without any difficulty. In case of necessity, however, peepal seedlings can be raised from seed. Buring cuttings in well-worked soil can also propagate the species.

The planting of peepal tree anywhere in available space or premises of religious institutions is considered an act of high virtue. An admirer may carry young plants to great distances and plant the species at religious places or along paths, tracks and roads most frequented by travelling public.

Farm operations for May

Vegetables

— Irrigate the standing vegetable crops once a week regularly. Pick up the fruits of bottlegourd, pumpkin, chilli, capsicum, long-melon, watermelon, squach-melon, wanga vegetable marrow, muskmelon, brinjal, cucumber, cowpea, luffa, tomato and bhindi at the peak of development and edible stage. Picking in the evening on alternate days in case of cucurbits is more desirable because it causes less disturbance to pollinators. However, pick fruits of bottle gourd and ridge gourd in the morning since their flowers open in the evening.

— Harvest mature umbles of onion and carrot at a weekly intervals. Dry, thrash, clean and store the seed in a damp proof place. Harvesting is to be completed in 3 to 4 rounds in the morning as all the umbles do not mature at a time.

— Harvest the onion and garlic bulbs. Cure under shade and store them in a dry place. The garlic should be stored with stalks intact and after packing in small bundles. The onion stalk should be cut just 2-3 cm above the bulb before storage.

— Start sowing of N-53 or Agrifond Dark Red varieties of onion in nursery beds during the last week of this month. Sow 500 g seed per marla bed area and 5 kg seed for raising seedlings to plant in one acre. Apply water after 3-4 days to protect the seedlings, against hot weather.

— Sow Pusa Chetki/Punjab Ageti varieties of radish.

— Tomato fruits are available in plenty and at throwaway price. Prepare ketchup, chutney, juice, etc for year round domestic use.

Vegetable pests and diseases

— Fruit and shoot borer of brinjal should be controlled by spraying 100 ml Sumicidin 20 EC or 40ml Ambush 50 EC or 200 ml Ripcord 10EC or 160 ml Decis 2.8 EC in 250 litres of water per acre. These chemicals can also be used for checking tomato fruit borer damage.

— Brinjal mite may also be checked by spraying 250 ml of Metasystox 25 EC/Rogor 30 Ec in 250 litres of water per acre.

— Red pumpkin beetle attack on young cucurbits can be avoided by spraying 75-150 g of Sevin/Hexavin 50 WP in 50-100 litres of water per acre.

— For the control of powdery mildew in cucurbit, spray the crop with Karathane 50-80 ml/acre at the appearance of powder on the leaves. Avoid sprays of sulphur or copper based fungicide on cucurbits.

— For the control of downy mildew, spray the crop with Indofil M-45 at the rate of 300-600g in 100-200 litres of water. Repeat sprays at 4 to 7 days interval.

— Spray the onion crop with 600 g Indofil M-45 mixed with 200 ml of Malathion and 200 ml of Triton or linseed oil (as sticker) in 200 litres of water per acre for the control of purple blotch.

Ornamentals

Lawns

In this month, timely irrigation and frequent mowing is required as the growth of grass is very fast due to rising temperature. In the lawn where dila motha is infested in the grass, expose the soil to sun in May-June and all the weeds should be removed from the soil. Proper levelling and grassing of that area may be carried out in July-August.

Roses

Due to hot season, roses require judicious watering in this month but over-watering should be avoided. The rootsuckers and diseased/dried parts of plant should be removed frequently.

Chrysanthemum

In case of large flowered varieties, plants should be repotted in pots and second pinching should be done in case of small flowered Korean varieties.

— Progressive Farming, PAU