Moisture stress is one of the most important and wide spread limiting factors for successful sugarcane cultivation. However, under severe stress, yield loss could be as high as 60-70 per cent. Trash mulching is one of the techniques to conserve the moisture. De-trashed and harvested sugarcane trash utilized as trash mulching. Experiment results revealed that mulching @ 3 t/ha and irrigation given in alternate furrows recorded higher cane yield in sugarcane under drought situations.
Adoption of proper time of planting with suitable red rot disease free varieties with drip irrigation and use of organic manures and timely fertilizer management weed management enhances sugarcane productivity.
Pigeonpea is a major Pulse crop of our Country and grown in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The crop is rich in Carbohydrates, Vitamins, Calcium, Minerals and useful for human health. This crop is also affected by many diseases and pests and how to control them also given in this article besides the agronomical practices followed. However, good crop yield is obtained by raising the crop with organic methods.
Onion is a vegetable crop grown in India and used for making subji, pickles, eaten raw, etc. It is rich in vitamin C, Calcium, phosphorus and potassium. There are two different methods of seed production in the plains of North India. This crop is affected by major Pests, Diseases and their Control is given in this popular article.
Agriculture is the back bone of Indian economy. Farmers work very hard to increase the production of crops to feed the growing population. Even though they work hard, they get less for their produce after spending all the inputs (seeds, livestock breeds, fertilizers, pesticides, energy, feed, labor, etc.). Growing crops alone does not make more profit for the farmer likewise rearing animals without crop. Integrating various farm enterprises (crop +livestock) will improve the farmer’s livelihood. Integrating various enterprises in turn improves the usage of farm waste effectively and reduces the usage of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides which cause harm to ecosystem. Integrated Farming System (IFS) is the commonly used term to explain the integrated farming approach compared to monocropping. It integrates crop and livestock or crop + livestock + fish or Crop + fish + mushroom + ducks and sometimes known as integrated biosystems. It is an inter-related approach where waste from one component is used as an input for another component. This reduces input cost and improves income. It utilizes waste as a resource/input which reduces input cost and ensures overall increase in overall productivity of the farm.
Glomalin Related Soil Protein (GRSP) is an insoluble, hydrophobic, proteinaceous extended hyphae combined with soil Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play an important role in the soil health and quality by improving the soil fertility, plant nutrition, soil aggregation and stabled soil structure. The efficacy and concentration of GRSP in soil to form extensive strong and thick mycelia association with soil particles like sand, silt and clay is mainly depends on soil AM fungal isolate and colonies. These AM fungal and GRSP association is directly affect and influence the soil aggregates and soil structure stability by hyphen envelopment of sand, silt and clay particles. This indicates the GRSP effect in soil aggregation and stability. Selection of good isolate of AM fungus from soil ecosystem plays a significant part in improvement of soil quality, health, and land reclamation and restoration activities.
Looming water crisis owing to uncertainty monsoonal rainfall coupled with intermittent dry spell during critical stages, paucity of skilled labourers, steep increase in wages coupled with emerging problems like fall army worm in hybrid maize and pink boll worm in Bt cotton greatly affects the crop productivity in North Western region of Tamil Nadu. Under these circumstances, farmers in these region looks for an alternate crop which has drought hardy, high water use efficiency, water productivity and monitory returns with less cost of production. Consequently, Tapioca and Castor Research Station, Yethapur intervened and hybrid castor was introduced during Kharif season through cluster demonstrations under NMOOP scheme against maize and cotton. The outcome of the cluster demonstrations on castor showed that higher productivity with less cost of production was the key factor for obtaining higher monitory returns over maize and cotton. Moreover, there was no middlemen involvement in procurement process, since most of the produce was sold in regulated market. Even, if its fetches low market price during peak harvesting season, farmers could store their produce for long period without any storage pest. Thus, castor hybrid is lucrative crop under changing climatic condition.
Integrated farming system takes care of optimal utilization of resources which integrate livestock and crop production or integrate fish and livestock along with cropping. The farm wastes of one enterprise become an input for another component. Judicious mix of agricultural enterprises which increases the additional income of the farmers and improves their socio-economic conditions and livelihood options. Keeping this in view under the AICRP on Home Science centre functioning at Community Science College and Research institute, TNAU, Madurai has trained the women farmers in the integrated farming system and distributed vanaraja chicks for the additional income. Mrs. Thamizharasi a dedicated and innovative farm women have got additional income out of IFS and motivated many women farmers in the village to adopt IFS Model. Five IFS models have been established in Madurai District of Tamil Nadu.
