Agriculture is backbone to our country. Farmers have to take innumerable decisions at each phase of cultivating the crop. Even though there is vast advancement in the information technology, acceptable and adoptable tools are still not available to farmers to support their decision making at each and every stage of crop growth period. The recent advancement in the field of software technologies especially Artificial Intelligence (AI), IOT and mobile based applications have opened up new challenges as well as opportunities to fulfill the needs of farmers for up-to-date and precise information. Hence, an intelligent mobile based application is needed to reach farmers easily and generate quick decisions for real time problems facing at the field level. Coupling AI, IOT and mobile based applications there is a need to develop adoptable tools to farmers to help them in real time decision making.
Kabuli chickpea variety ‘RLB Chana Kabuli 1’, is a new variety of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) developed by Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi which is notified for cultivation in the South Zone. In multi-locational trials of ICAR- All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Chickpea for three years, it recorded an average grain yield of 15.49q/ha which was higher than the checks. The variety RLB Chana Kabuli 1 (RLBGK 1) has shown resistance against fusarium wilt, moderate resistance against dry root rot and stunt disease at different zones.
An experiment was conducted under All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Dry land Agriculture (AICRPDA), Biswanath Chariali Centre of Assam Agricultural University to optimize the sowing window of both red eyed and white eyed small tuber of potato in Assam. The experiment was conducted at AICRPDA research field of Biswanath College of Agriculture in three years from 2013, 2014 and 2015 consisting four dates of sowing (1st October, 16th October, 1st November and 15th November) and two variety of small tuber (Red eyed and white eyed) and Kufri Pokhraj (recommended improved variety) as control. From the study it has been observed that yield of the small tuber potato reduces with advancement of the dates of sowing and benefit cost ratio was comparatively more in 15th October sowing than 30th October in both red eyed and white eyed tuber. Similar trend of results was also observed in On-Farm Trials (OFT) conducted in three Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam and optimum sowing window of small tuber potato was found best within the month of October , however but 15th October sowing was superior in yield and B:C ratio over 30th October sowing.
Fish farming and livestock production are combined in integrated fish farming. Animal excrement is dumped straight into a fish pond as fertilizer, allowing photosynthetic organisms to thrive. Feed containing growth promoters is frequently fed to livestock, namely chickens and pigs. The impact of integrated fish farming on the levels of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in a pond environment was explored in this study. The article discusses a method for synchronizing two crops in a pond: fish and makhana (Euryale ferox Salisb). Both crops gain from such environmentally friendly combination. Organic matter is formed when makhana crop plant pieces decompose, releasing nutrients into the pond to boost plankton population. Organic detritus offers a good substratum for the growth of zooplankton, insect larvae, nematodes, and gastropods, as well as providing food for bottom-dwelling fishes (mrigal and common carp).
Agriculture plays a vital role in the development of any economy in rural India where the women contributions are very significant. Women are always involved in various stages of agricultural operations, such as, crop production including the sowing and transplanting of paddy, weeding manually as intercultural operations, harvesting followed by the threshing, winnowing and other post-harvest activities, cultivation of horticultural crops, tea planting, agro forestry and fish farming, etc. With time, the technological development in the sectors of agriculture brings out a significant change both in technology adoption and labour employments in terms of the rural women employability. As most of the rural women are engaged major part of their time either in their domestic activities or in the management of livestock, poultry, sericulture, aquaculture, dairy, apiculture and other agri-allied activities. However, they are not being rewarded at par with their male counterparts in terms of economic benefits. Due to these reasons, the productive activities done by the women went unnoticed or unrecorded in most of the cases, though they are contributing economically inn one way or the other. In a patriarchal society of state like Assam, the roles of women in agriculture and agri-allied are undervalued and under estimated. In a country like India with multilingual states, the involvement of workforce in agriculture varies from region to region, and the participation of the women is almost the same throughout the country. But, some regions had a different scenario, where the involvement of women is based on the caste system, classes and socio-economic status of the families. The development of improved agricultural tools by considering the ergonomical factors, modernization and digitalization provides the women with better income source and earning opportunities in the unexplored sectors, displacing them from their age old traditional roles in the rural community.
Weather and climate play the important role in agricultural output. It has a overpowering impact on the growth, development and yield of a crops. Pest and disease incidence, needs of water and fertilizer requirement in terms of differences in nutrient mobilization due to water stress and other cultural operations on a crop. Adverse weather has affected the quality of produce during transportation, viability and vigour of seed and also planting material at the time of storage. The quality and valuable properties of crop produce during movement from field to storage and transport to markets mostly depend on weather. Properly recording of weather data improve the better forecasting at small scale. Accurate forecasting has protected and enhances the farmer produce.
The small sized cherry tomato is a new crop to India, which is gaining popularity in metropolitan markets; is consumed as raw fruit in five star hotels owing its size and shape. The red coloured small fruits of cherry tomato having antioxidants and well flavour along with loads of minerals, and is also offering a broad range of nutraceutical benefits.
Sugarcane juice is predominantly used for the industrial production of sugar and ethanol. Some other commercially significant products obtained from sugarcane involves molasses, bagasse, khandsari (brown sugar) and gur (jaggery). Often sugarcane juice is blended with citrus lime, pine apple juice, ginger extract, gooseberry juice, mint leaves extract and served fresh as a refreshing drink in street markets and also in supermarkets as a bottled beverage. The art of preservation of sugarcane juice by fermentation yields value added products such as sugarcane toddy wine, vinegar and distilled products like rum and beverages similar to rum are Cachaca, Aguardiente and Guaro. Traditionally fermented sugarcane juice products are Sidhu in India, Basi in Phillipines, Australian sugarcane ginger beer. The industrial by-products obtained after ethanol production are vinasse and dunder.
