Agri Info

 Women farmers in the hill State of Himachal Pradesh are gradually turning to non-chemical, low cost “natural farming”, which has not only provided them with a sustainable livelihood but also empowered them better.

• Launched in 2018, the State’s Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Yojana (PK3Y) is promoting the climate resilient Subhash Palekar Natural Farming (SPNF), also called ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’.
• ZBNF is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India.
• ‘Zero Budget’ means without using any credit, and without spending any money on purchased inputs. ‘Natural farming’ means farming with Nature and without chemicals.
• Under ZBNF, neither fertiliser nor pesticide is used. Also, only 10 % of water is to be utilised for irrigation as compared to traditional farming techniques.
• Basic concept of ZBNF, which is different from organic farming, is to ensure that profit from supplementary crops is enough to cover the cost of production of the main crop.
• It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved.
• The movement in Karnataka state was born out of by the efforts of Padma Shri Subhash Palekar in Karnataka.

Crop Diversification:

In the annual Economic Survey, the Department of Economic Affairs said that there is an urgent need for Crop Diversification in view of the severe water stress in areas where paddy, wheat and sugarcane are grown as well as to increase oil seed production and reduce dependency on imports of cooking oil.

• Crop diversification refers to the addition of new crops or cropping systems to agricultural production on a particular farm taking into account the different returns from value-added crops with complementary marketing opportunities.
• Cropping System refers to the crops, crop sequences and management techniques used on a particular agricultural field over a period of years.
• Major cropping systems in India are sequential-cropping, monocropping, intercropping, relay Cropping, mixed-cropping and alley cropping.
• Many farmers also use the mixed crop-livestock system to increase their standards of living and income.
  Animal husbandry or Animal Agriculture is the branch of science dealing with the practice of breeding, farming and care of farm animals (livestocks) such as cattle, dogs, sheep and horses by humans for advantages.
• It refers to livestock raising and selective breeding. It is a branch of agriculture.

Earthworm gut is the site of production of genuine humic acids which are distinct from the polysaccharide-gum humic acids. About half of the gums secreted by earthworm are in form of mucoproteins that help stabilizing pore space distribution. The earthworm soil casts are richer in available plant nutrients (nitrate nitrogen, exchangeable Ca, Mg, K and P) and organic matter. The earthworms through their casts and dead tissues supply about 60-90 kg N to the soil. Earthworm eats on fungal mycelia. Earthworms convert farm waste and organic residues into high quality compost. For this, Eiseniafoetida, Perionyxexacavatus, Eudrilluseuginiae and Lumbriusrubellus are important. These species can be cultured on organic wastes and dung. The technique of culturing them is called vermiculture and using these for decomposing residue to make compost is called vermicomposting. 

About 1000 adult earthworms can convert 5 kg waste into compost per day. The earthworm assimilate 5-10% of the substrate and rest passes through the alimentary canal and is excreted as cast. Earthworm cast contains nutrients, vitamins, hormones and antibiotics.  

Vermi-compost is a stable fine granular organic matter, when added to clay soil loosens the soil and provides the passage for the entry of air. he multifarious effects of vermicompost influence the growth and yield of crops.  

Definition of vermicomposting: 

Vermicomposting is a method of making compost, with the use of earthworms, which generally live in soil, eat biomass and excrete it in digested form. This compost is generally called vermicompost or Wormicompost. 

Definition of Vermiculture: 

Vermiculture means scientific method of breeding and raising earthworms in controlled conditions. 

Vermitechnology:

 Vermitechnology is the combination of vermiculture and vermicomposting. Thus, earthworms can be used in the following areas. 

1. For development of arable soils, turnover of soil, break down of plant organic matter aeration and drainage 

2. For production of useful products like vermifertilizer and worm tissue for animal feed. 

3. For maintenance of environmental quality and monitor of the environment for soil fertility, organic and heavy metal non-biodegradable toxic material pollution.   

Types of Earthworm :

Types of earthworms in vermicomposting Earthworms belong to phyllum Annelida of Animal Kingdom. They are long and cylindrical in shape and size having a large number of grooves. There are about 3000 species of earthworms in the world which are adapted to a range of environment. More than 300 species have been identified in India. Although, hermophrodite, two mature earthworms are required to propagate. At the time of egg laying, the clitellum is transformed into hard, girdle like capsule called cocoon. Shedding of cocoon ranges from 1 to 5, only a few of them survive and hatch. The juveniles and again formation of cocoons takes a period of 50-60 days. Normally, the average life span of earthworms varies with species ranging from 1 to 10 years.   

Epigeics (surface feeders) are important in vermicomposting. 

The epigeics such as Eiseniafoetida and Eudriluseugeniae are exotic worms and Perionyxexcavatus is a native one being used for vermicomposting in India. Epianecic are feeders on leaf litter and soil at upper layers of soil. This group such as Lampitomauritii is indegenous and is active in in-situ decomposition of organic wastes and residues in soil. Both epigeics and epianecics groups of earthworms areslender, shorter in length and red to dark brown in colour. They have high reproduction activityand efficient in recycling of organic materials. Increased attention has been paid to Eiseniafoetida and Eudriluseugeniae which have been found to be potential agent in vermicomposting of wide range of agricultural wastes and can grow at a wide range of temperature varying from 0-40 ◦C. However, the optimum temperature ranges from 20-30 ◦C.   

Mechanisum of Vermicomposting: 

Mechanism of vermicomposting Materials consumed by worms undergo physical breakdown in the gizzard resulting in particles < 2 µ, giving thereby an enhanced surface area for microbial processing. This finally ground material is exposed to various enzymes such as protease, lipase, amylase, cellulase and chitinase secreted into lumen by the gut wall and associated microbes. These enzymes breakdown complex biomolecules into simple compounds. Only 5-10% of the ingested material is abosrbed into the tissues of worms for their growth and rest is excreted as cast. Mucus secretions of gut wall add to the structural stability of vermicompost.   

Vermiculture industry or vermicompost preparation: 

1. Basic raw material: Any organic material generated in the farm like bhusa, leaf fall etc., Horse dung, due to the risk of Tetanus virus, lethal to human beings is not advisable to be used as feeding material for earthworms. Paddy husk, merigold and pine needles have also advised to be used as feeding materials for earthworms. 

2. Starter: Cow dung , Biogas slurry, or urine of cattle 

3. Soil animal: Earth worms (Species: Eiseniafoetida) 

4. Thatched roof/vermished.   

Favourable conditions of earth worms in the composting material:

A.pH: Range between 6.5 and 7.5 

B. Moisture: 60-70% of the moisture below and above range mortality of worms taking place 

C. Aeration: 50% aeration from the total pore space 

D. Temperature: Range between 18 0C to 35 0C   

Procedure It is mostly prepared in either pit or heap method. 

The dimensions either heap or pit are 10 x 4 x 2 feet. The length and width can be increased or decreased depending on the availability of material but not the depth because the earthworms’ activity is confined to 2 feet depth only. First of all select a site which is not under any economic use and is shady and there is no water stagnation. The site should also be nearby to water source. 

1st layer: bedding material of 1" thick with soft leaves 

2nd layer: 9" thick organic residue layer finely chaffed material 

3rd layer: Dung + water equal mixture of 2" layer. Continue the layer up to pile to ground level in the case of pit method and upto 2ʹ in heap or surface bed method. Protect the worms against natural enemies like ants, lizards, snakes, frogs, toads etc., Maintain proper moisture and temperature by turnings and subsequent staking. At the day of 24th, 4000 worms are introduced in to the pit [1m2 =2000 worms] without disturbing the pit by regular watering the entire raw material will be turned into the vermicompost in the form of worm excreta. The turnover of the compost is 75% [the total material accommodated in the pit is 1000 kg; the out turn will be 750 kg]   

Harvesting of the vermicompost: 

Harvesting of the vermicompost from the pit Stop watering before one week of harvest. Sometimes the worms spread across the pit come in close and penetrate each other in the form of ball in 2 or 3 locations. Heap the compost by removing the balls and place them in a bucket. However, under most instances, top layer has to be disturbed manually. Earthworms move downward and compost is separated. After collection of compost from top layers, feed material is again replenished and composting process is rescheduled. The material is sieved in 2 mm sieve, the material passed through the sieve is called as vermicompost which is stored in a polythene bags  

Precautions:

1. Do not cover vermicompost beds/heaps with plastic sheets because it may trap heat and gases. 

2. Do not overload the vermicompost heap to avoid high temperature that adversely affect their population. 

3. Dry conditions kill the worms and waterlogging drive them away. Watering should be done daily in summer and every third day in rainy and winter season. 4. Addition of higher quantities of acid rich substances such as tomatoes and citrus wastes should be avoided. 

5. Make a drainage channel around the heap to avoid stagnation of water particularly in high rainfall areas in rainy season. 

6. Organic materials used for composting should be free from non-degradable materials such as stones, glass pieces, plastics, ceramic tubes/bulbs etc.   

Natural enemies and their control:

 The important natual enemies of vermiculture are ants, termites, centipedes, rats, pigs, birds etc. Preventive measures include treating of the site with chlorpyriphos 20 EC at 2 ml/l  or 4% neem based insecticide before filling the heap.   

Transportation of live worms: 

Live earthworms can be packed with moist feed substrate in a container (card board/plastic) with provision of aeration. Feed substrate quantity should be roughly 0.5-1.5 g/individual for 24 hours of transportation journey. Culture should contain cocoon, juveniles and adults because sometimes adults do not acclimatize to new environment and may even die. Under such circumstances cocoons are helpful for population build up of earthworms.   

Conversion rates: 

• 1000 earth worms may convert 5 kg waste material per day 1000 worms weighs about a kilogram   

Advantages of composting over direct application:

 1. There will be no immobilization in compost because of narrow C:N ratio 

2. Application is easy, because the compost is humified and have a structure of crumb and granular. 

3. It is hygienic, pathogens and weeds seeds are destroyed.   

 The rate of application is as Field crops 5-6 t/ha; vegetables 10-12 t/ha; flower plants 100200 g/sqft; fruit trees 5-10 kg/tree. 

Advantage of vermicompost 

1. Vermicompost is a rich source of nutrients, vitamins, enzymes, antibiotics and growth hormones. So it gives disease resistance to plansts. Nutrient content of vermicompost is higher than traditional composts. It is a valuable soil amendment.  

2. Vermicompost harbours certain microbial populations that help in N fixation and P solubilisation. Its application enhances nodulation in legumes and symbiotic mycorrhizal associations with the roots. 

3. Superiority of vermicompost over other synthetic growth media is more pronounced in plant nurseries. It can be used as rooting medium and for establishment of saplings in nurseries.  

4. It improves taste, lusture and keeping quality of the produce.  

5. It has immobilized enzymes like protease, lipase, amylase, cellulase and chitinese which keep on their function of biodegradation of agricultural residues in the soil so that further microbial attack is speeded up.  

6. It does not emanate foul odour as is associated with manures and decaying organic wastes   

 Weather Modification:

Weather modification refers to willful manipulation of the climate or local weather. Research done in this field goes back to as far as the early 1940s when the US military experimented with cloud seeding to stimulate rain. Today, private corporations have joined the weather modification research effort to protect people, cities and assets from the damage extreme weather brings. 

Principles of rainmaking Clouds are classified into warm and cold clouds based on cloud top temperature.

If the cloud temperature is positive these clouds are called warm clouds and if it is negative they are called as cold clouds. The nucleus needed for precipitation differs with type of clouds. 

Hygroscopic materials are necessary as nucleus for warm clouds History of Cloud Seeding  Cloud seeding experiments started with the work of a scientist from General Electric named Vincent Schaefer who discovered that ice crystals can induce precipitation. Since ice crystals are difficult to transport and spread over an area, silver iodide, a compound with similar properties, was used as a substitute. The experiments continued until the 1970's when the program was shelved because of lack of usable results. 

Cloud seeding:

 Cloud seeding is one of the tools to mitigate the effects of drought. It is defined as a process in which the precipitation is encouraged by injecting artificial condensation nuclei through aircrafts or suitable mechanism to induce rain from rain bearing cloud. 

The raindrops are several times heavier than cloud droplets. These mechanisms are different for cold and warm clouds. 

How it Works  Cloud seeding involves the use of water-absorbent materials to encourage the formation of clouds and rain so that there could be increased crop production in areas where there's little water. This practice has already been implemented in some areas like Texas and Utah, though not without its share of controversies. 

The effectiveness of cloud seeding cannot be proven and some worry that it may actually cause harm. Cloud seeding useful in the following applications Increasing Precipitation  The most common application of cloud seeding is to increase precipitation, possible with both warm and cold clouds. There are two primary methods employed to stimulate precipitation. One, hygroscopic seeding, affects warm cloud processes. The other, glaciogenic seeding initiates cold cloud processes. 

 Though occasionally both techniques may be helpful, in most cases one can be utilized more effectively than the other. In addition, either technology can be applied from the surface (ground-based) or from an aircraft. Weather Modification, Inc. can help you decide which method will be most effective. Augmenting Snowfall  Glaciogenic seeding can also be used to increase precipitation from stratiform and orographic clouds. In such cases, seeding may be accomplished through either ground-based or airborne modes. By increasing snowpack and resultant spring runoff, subsequent water supplies for hydropower are increased. In addition to alleviating the need for alternative costly power supplies, cloud seeding increases the water availability for municipal, recreational, and environmental interests. Enhancing Rainfall  Efforts to increase rainfall during the warm seasons are typically aimed at convective clouds. While it is theoretically possible to seed such clouds using ground based equipment, targeting from aircraft is much more efficient and accurate. It is usually possible to affect the cloud through releases of a seeding agent in sub-cloud updrafts, or by dropping the seeding agents directly into the upper regions of the clouds. 

Warm season glaciogenic seeding is typically applied to treat supercooled cumulus congestus clouds, either by releasing the ice-forming (nucleating) seeding agent in the updraft beneath the actively-growing cumulus, or by dropping the nucleating agent directly into the supercooled cloud top. The seeding agents can produce ice at significantly warmer temperatures than the natural process. This is how glaciogenic seeding gives the treated cloud a head start in producing precipitation.  

 When clouds do not grow tall and cold enough to produce precipitation through the Bergeron process, it may be possible to stimulate precipitation growth by seeding these warm clouds with hygroscopic seeding agents. This approach can be quite successful through stimulation of the warm cloud precipitation processes. Hygroscopic seeding is normally done from aircraft flying in the sub-cloud updrafts, in order to affect the initial cloud droplet development which occurs in this zone. Mitigating Hail Damage  Cloud seeding can be used as a tool to help mitigate hail damage and protect crop yields, homes and other property, thus reducing the economic harm from disastrous storm damage. Since hail is itself ice that is produced only by vigorous convective clouds, it is certain that such clouds are cold enough to be amenable to glaciogenic seeding techniques. Hail develops when excess supercooled liquid water develops within strong updrafts. However, if the excess might be induced to freeze into large numbers of small particles rather than much smaller numbers of large particles, the ice that does precipitate may melt during its transit through the warm sub-cloud layer, or if it doesn't it will reach the surface as much smaller, less-damaging, ice. Dispersing Fog  Another useful application for cloud seeding is the treatment of ground-based clouds, also known as fog. Supercooled fogs, comprised of water droplets at temperatures cold enough to permit ice development, can easily be cleared by glaciogenic seeding. This can be done either from the ground or from airborne application. Your choice between the two will depend on characteristics such as local infrastructure, topography, and wind. Seeding of cold clouds  

This can be achieved by two ways 

1. Dry ice seeding and

2. Silver Iodide seeding

1. Dry ice seeding 

• Dry ice (solid carbon-dioxide) has certain specific features. It remains as it is at   –80oC and evaporates, but does not melt. Dry ice is heavy and falls rapidly from top of cloud and has no persistent effects due to cloud seeding. 

• Aircrafts are commonly used for cloud seeding with dry ice. 

• Aircraft flies across the top of a cloud and 0.5 – 1.0 cm dry ice pellets are released in a steady stream. 

• While falling through the cloud a sheet of ice crystals is formed. 

• From these ice crystals rain occurs. 

• This method is not economical as 250 kg of dry ice is required for seeding one cloud. To carry the heavy dry ice over the top of clouds special aircrafts are required, which is an expensive process.

 2. Silver Iodide seeding 

Minute crystals of silver iodide produced in the form of smoke acts as efficient ice-farming nuclei at temperatures below –5ｰC. When these nuclei are produced from the ground generators, these particles are fine enough to diffuse with air currents. 

Silver iodide is the most effective nucleating substance because; its atomic arrangement is similar to that of ice. The time for silver iodide smoke released from ground generator to reach the super cooled clouds was offer some hours, during which it would draft a long way and decay under the sun light. The appropriate procedure for seeding cold clouds  would be to release silver iodide smoke into super cooled cloud from an aircraft. In seeding cold clouds silver iodide technique is more useful than dry ice techniques, because, very much less of silver iodide is required per cloud. There is no necessity to fly to the top of the cloud, if area to be covered is large.

 Seeding of warm clouds 

1) Water drop Technique Coalescence process is mainly responsible for growth of rain drops in warm cloud. The basic assumption is that the presence of comparatively large water droplets is necessary to initiate the coalescence process. So, water droplets or large hygroscopic nuclei are introduced in to the cloud. Water drops of 25 mm are sprayed from aircraft at the rate of 30 gallons per seeding on warm clouds. 

2) Common salt technique Common salt is a suitable seeding material for seeding warm clouds. It is used either in the form of 10 per cent solution or solid. A mixture of salt and soap avoid practical problems. The spraying is done by power sprayers and air compressors or even from ground generators. The balloon burst technique is also beneficial. In this case gunpowder and sodium chloride are arranged to explode near cloud base dispersing salt particles. 

  Pea Oneliner - Agronomy Important Q & A For All Competitive Exam

1.    Origin of pea: Mediterranean region of Europe & West Asia

2.    Botanical name of pea: pisum sativum

3.    Family of pea: leguminaceae/papilonaceae

4.    Chromosome number of pea: 2n=14

5.    Germination type of pea: hypogeal

6.    Other name of pea: pea, matar (Hindi)

7.    Inflorescence of pea: axillary raceme

8.    Annual herbaceous well developed tap root system plant

9.    Maturity of pea is measured by Tendrometer

10.    Seed multiplication ratio of pea: 1:19

11.    Seed rate of garden pea: 100-120 kg/ha

12.    Seed rate of field pea: 70-80 kg/ha

13.    Depth of sowing of pea: 5-7 cm

14.    Protein in peaa: 22-23%

15.    Test weight of pea: 100 g

16.    pea is a C3, long day, self pollinated

17.    Water requirement to pea: 300-350 mm

18.    Storage moisture of pea: 10-11%

Chick Pea Oneliner - Agronomy Important Q & A For All Competitive Exam

1. Origin of chick pea: India, south West Asia.

2. Botanical name of chick pea: Cicer arietinum

3. Family of chick pea: leguminaceae/papilonaceae

4. Chick pea fruit is known as Pod.

5. Germination of chick pea: Hypogeal.

6. Chromosome number of chick pea: 2n=14,16

7. Critical stage of chick pea: Pre flowering and pod development.

8. Post borer is a most important pest of gram.

9. Gram seed sowing 8-10 cm for to avoid wilt disease.

10. Other name of chick pea: Gram, Bengal gram, chana.

11. Protein in green gram: 21%

12. Green gram is Known as king of pulse crops.

13. Gram is an important source of Fe, Ca, Niocin.

14. Blood purify factor is present in gram.

15.Germinated seed of gram is used for scurvy disease.

16.The sour taste of leaves due to presence of malic acid (90-96%) and oxalic acid (4-10%)

17. Chick pea is a long day and self pollinated crop, C3 plant.

18. Ground Nut - Tap root system

19.Water requirement of chick pea: 300-350 mm

20. Seed multiplication ratio of chick pea: 1:10

21.  Desi (cicer arietinum) is a-

•    Desi is small seeded
•    Angular shaped edge
•    Shape like chickens head.
•    90% of the world‘s cultivated 460. C.N. 2n=14
•    Test weight: 140-200g

22.   Kabuli ( cicer kabulium) is a

• Kabuli, large and round seeded with white pale cream seed coat
• Duration 90-180 days
• CO 2, CO 3, CO 4 are 90days
• C. N. 2n=16
• Test weight: 340-375g

23.    Temperature required to chick pea: 15-20 C

24.    Seed rate of chick pea-Early: 75 -80 kg/ha, Late: 80-100 kg/ha.

25.    Depth of sowing of chick pea: 8-10 cm

26.    Spacing required for chick pea: 30x10 cm

27.    Nipping: Plucking the apical buds of the crop at about 30 to 40 DAS is done to stop the apical growth.

28.    Nipping promotes the lateral branching, plants to become more vigorous and produce more vigorous and produce more flowers and pods and yield per plant is increased.

29.    The chemical is used for nipping TIBA (tri iodo benzoic acid) 75ppm. Also it can be done by flock of sheep.

 GroundNut Oneliner - Agronomy Important Q & A For All Competitive Exams 

1.    Origin of groundnut: Brazil

2.    Botanical name of groundnut: Arachis hypogeal

3.    Family  of groundnut: leguminaceae/fabiaceae

4.    Chromosome number of groundnut: 2n=40

5.    Epigeal germination in groundnut.

6.    Ground nut is a Self pollinated, C3 plant, short day plant.

7.    Groundnut Grain known as kernel.

8.    Other name of groundnut: monkey nut, peanut, earth nut, manilanut.

9.    Groundnut pod is called “lomentum”

10.   It contains 45% oil and 25% protein.

11.    Shelling percentage in groundnut is 70%

12.    Nitrogen percentage in groundnut cake 7-8%

13.    Pegging stage comes after 55 day after sowing.

14.    Bitterness of seed due to Aflatoxin. It produced spergilus flavus group                        of fungi.

15.    The gynophores of groundnut are positive gravitation movement in                         soil.

16.    Groundnut is geocarpic crop.

17.    Calcium is most important element for groundnut pod formation.

18.    Pods development without kernels is known as popping.

19.    Test weight of groundnut: 200-250 grams

20.    Seed multiplication ratio of groundnut: 1:8

21.    Temp. required to groundnut: 21-27C