Women’s contribution to farming
WOMEN in rural areas of the developing world will be called upon to play a key role in feeding the additional 2.1 billion persons who will have expanded the world population by the year 2030, according to a report released recently by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

• Farm operations for Nov

Need to identify enemies of mango hopper
By C.M. Kumbhkarni

FARM scientists in Himachal Pradesh feel that the situation created by mango hopper in the state warrants research work on priority to tackle the problem, and formulate a comprehensive programme for the management of hopper and other pests of mango.

Scientists in the Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry feel strongly the need of identifying natural enemies of mango hopper.

Himachal Pradesh has a vast export potential of mango outside the state and other countries, and farmers can get remunerative prices in the market due to delayed harvesting season, extending from late July to September.

Mango, a popular sub-tropical fruit, has been coming up as a major fruit crop quite fast in the state for the past few years. From barely a few hectares in 1970-71, the area under mango cultivation recorded an increase to 28,300 hectares in 1997-98.

The annual growth rate of mango in Himachal Pradesh has been in the order of 5 per cent against an average horticultural growth rate of 3.5 per cent at the state level and 1.66 per cent at the national level.

However, the production of mango in the state has been uncertain. During 1996-97 the production was 19,144 metric tonnes, which received a serious setback during 1997-98 on account of mango hopper under dry weather conditions. The production in 1997-98 was reported to be mere 4.024 tonnes.

A survey conducted by scientists in the Department of entomology and Apiculture of the University has reported two species of mango leaf hopper, amritodus (leth) and idioscopus elypealis (leth) associated with mango trees all over the mango growing areas of the state.

The maximum infestation of mango hopper was found in neglected orchards or those trees raised on seedlings. The extent of the fruit drop in such orchards varied between 70 and 95 per cent, including the natural fruit drop and other climatic factors. During the 1998 season the mango hopper appeared in an epidemic form for the first time in most of the sub-tropical areas of the state.

The scientists feel that no systematic work has so far been conducted on any aspect of this pest in the university. The present recommendations are based on the work carried out in other states, and no systematic study has been taken up to evaluate various commercially available insecticides and their impact on natural enemy complex under agro-ecological conditions.

The pest was first reported from Saharanpur in 1889. It has been observed that there are two generations — first from February to April and the second from July to August in South India. In UP and Punjab the pest is observed to be in hibernation in winter in cracks and crevices, underneath and bark, but hibernation has not been reported from South India, according to Dr S.P. Bhardwaj, a senior scientist of the university.

Some research workers in the country have recorded many natural enemies of the hoppers, but their predatory potential, life cycle and susceptibility to insecticides have not been studied so far. The scientists feel the urgency of working on these lines for protecting and promoting mango cultivation in the state.

Women’s contribution to farming

WOMEN in rural areas of the developing world will be called upon to play a key role in feeding the additional 2.1 billion persons who will have expanded the world population by the year 2030, according to a report released recently by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Demand for food in the world will have ballooned by them, and a large part of the burden of production will fall on women, the Rome-based UN agency pointed out.

“There will be no food security without rural women,” said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf of Senegal, at the inauguration of the October 4 to 6 high-level consultation on rural women and information in Rome.

Some 300 ministers and other high-level representatives of the FAO member countries and observers from other UN agencies and non-governmental organisations attended the conference aimed at underscoring the importance of reliable information on rural women when it comes to formulating agricultural and rural development policies.

The FAO hoped the gathering would serve as a wake-up call to governments and other entities working towards global food security and sustainable development.

For the world’s constantly growing population, They would have to closely review national policies and ensure that the contribution made by rural women was taken into account by those policies.

He pointed to the steady “feminisation” of poverty in many developing countries, caused by customs and traditions that continued to limit women’s access to ownership of land, new technologies, loans, education and training.

While no one today denied women’s vital contribution to economic and social development, the question was now one of compiling reliable data and putting it in the hands of politicians and other policy-makers in order to ensure that national strategies were based on the actual economic situation of any given country, he said.

Diouf also underlined the power of the media and new communication technologies with respect to changing preconceived images of rural women.

According to the FAO, women produce over 50 per cent of all of the world’s food. However, not enough statistics broken down by gender are available in a number of regions to provide a reliable picture of women’s contribution to farming.

Unfortunately, women’s participation in farming, forestry and fishing is often underestimated as censuses and other studies only take remunerated work into account.

Women are active participants in commercial as well as subsistence-level agriculture, but many of the activities they perform in producing food for household and community consumption, so essential to food security, are ignored by the statistics.

In sub-Saharan Africa, women account for 60 to 80 per cent of food production, for the household as well as the market. Although that proportion varies significantly from country to country,women in Africa play a major role in agriculture and in the processing, transportation and marketing of food.

In Asia, women account for approximately 50 per cent of food production, although that proportion varies widely. In the Philippines, for instance, women make up 47 per cent of the rural workforce, in Malaysia 35 per cent, in Indonesia 54 per cent and in Thailand nearly 60 per cent.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the rural population has been shrinking in the past few decades, along with the proportion of workers engaged in agriculture.

While 55 per cent of the population in the region was employed in agriculture in 1950, that percentage had shrunk to just 25 by 1990.

Women’s contribution to agriculture in the region is underestimated by official data as women are chiefly involved in subsistence farming and the keeping of barnyard fowl and livestock for household consumption. — IPS

Farm operations for Nov

Wheat

— Sowing of long duration varieties of wheat like PBW-343, WH-542, PDW-233, PBW-34 and PBW-154 should be completed up to the second and third weeks of November, respectively. After this period, prefer to sow PBW-373, Raj-3765, PBW-138. Under rainfed conditions grow PBW-396, PBW-299 and PBW-175 varieties.

— Drill 55 kg of DAP and 35 kg of urea or 55 kg or urea and 155 kg of superphosphate per acre at the time of sowing. Urea can also be applied before “rauni” irrigation. Muriate of potash @ 20 kg per acre may be applied in soils testing low in available potash. But in Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur and Ropar districts 40 kg muriate of potash need to be applied. A urea dose may be reduced by one-fourth if it followed legume fodder.

— To rainfed wheat 70 kg of urea, 100 kg of single superphosphate and 16 kg of muriate of potash per acre may be drilled at the time of sowing in medium to high moisture storage capacity soil (sandy loam and finer soils). In loamy sand soil (low moisture storage capacity), the fertiliser dose may be reduced to half.

— In recently reclaimed salt-affected soils, the urea dose may be increased by 25 per cent.

— In case zinc sulphate has not been applied to the previous crop of rice or maize, a dose of 25 kg zinc sulphate per acre may be applied at the time of sowing.

— For the control of loose smut of wheat, treat the seed of all wheat varieties except that PDW-233, PBW-34 and TL 1210 with Vitavax @ 2 g/kg or Bavistin/Agrozin/Derosal/JK Stein/Sten 50 @ 2.5 g/kg seed and for the control of root rot, foot rot, seedling blight, black tip and black spot of glumes, treat the seed with Captan/Thiram @ 3 g/kg seed. Captan and Thiram treatment should not be done earlier than one month of sowing as it affects seed germination. These fungicides can be used to control leaf/flag smut.

— For the control of “mamni”, put the seed in ordinary water and agitate vigorously. The galls will float on the surface. These may be removed with sieve and burnt. Dry the seed and use for sowing.

— Termite is a serious pest of wheat, particularly in rainfed areas. Before sowing, seed must be treated with Chlorpyriphos (Dursban/Ruban/Dermet 20 EC). Dilute 160 ml of anyone of the above mentioned insecticide in one litre of water and spray on one acre seed (40 kg) spread on the ground in a thin layer.

— Progressive Farming, PAU