No suicide due to crop failure or debt in Haryana
By V.P. Prabhakar
Though some incidents of suicide by farmers did take place in Haryana in he past two-three years, these had no relevance with the failure of crops or debts.

Flowers mean business now
By S.C. Dhall
FLOWER is not a flower any more. It now means big money, big business. The floriculture industry is in for a major boom. India is undergoing an orchid revolution paving the way for a huge amount of foreign exchange earning. As part of this, a massive effort is on to grow and export flowers.

How much tillage for wheat sowing
By S.S. Brar and Sanjeev Kumar

TILLING land is a laborious and time-consuming operation. The magnitude of the operation can be imagined from the fact that for tilling an acre 8 inch deep, over 1000 tonnes of soil is turned over. In spite of this, farmers till the land repeatedly with the belief that it will enhance the crop yield. Enquiries from the farmers as to why they till repeatedly reveal that their forefathers have been doing so. Further, they tell that till mid-seventies agricultural scientists/extension workers too had been advocating a minimum nine to 10 cultivations for wheat. The factors that favoured frequent tillage during earlier times in comparison to present developments were:

— Absence of assured irrigation facilities: the irrigation facilities were limited and cropping was mainly dependent on rains, so to absorb every drop of rain water fields were kept open before rains and were planked after every rain to reduce moisture losses.

— Use of inorganic fertilisers were limited (3.75 kg/ha in 1970-71 compared to 163.9 kg/ha in 1995-96) and to enhance soil fertility through increased mineralisation repeated tillage was performed.

— Use of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides to control weeds, insects and diseases was quite limited. Thus, to control pests and diseases, repeated cultivation during hot summer months of May and June was a rule without exception.

— Monoculture cropping system at that time allowed sufficient time for excessive tillage between harvest and sowing of the next crop after a period of six months but now intensive system of cropping leaves little turnaround period between proceeding and succeeding crops.

— With bullocks as source of draft power, it was not possible to till the soil to the desired depth in a single operation, so soil was tilled time and again.

— Labour was cheap and easily available and often tillage was done to keep the labour and bullocks busy.

At present, in Punjab wheat is grown on 33.38 lakh hectares, of which about 60 per dent is sown after rice and the remaining after cotton, maize and other crops. Approximately 90 per cent rice is harvested with combine harvesters and to dispose of the residue, a majority of farmers opt for burning, with and without shredding. Burning after shredding leaves fields totally free from crop residue (stubbles and straw) and weeds, if any. On the other hand, in the manually harvested paddy fields, small stubbles of 5-8 cm are left behind. The continuous flooding or submergence of paddy fields for prolonged period and herbicide use, leave paddy fields generally weed-free.

Keeping these facts in view, experiments on research farms were conducted on the minimum tillage requirement of wheat following maize, rice, cotton and moong. To test validity of the results so obtained, on-farm trials were conducted at farmers’ fields through out the state.

The yield data given in the table shows that wheat can successfully be grown without tillage, provided weeds have been controlled properly to permit proper seeding.

During the initial years of experimentation, great difficulty was experienced in proper penetration of drill to desired depth. To overcome this problem, either one or two persons had to stand on the frame of the drill or some extra weight had to be put on it to check the jumping of the drill. This difficulty was brought to the notice of agricultural engineers that there was a need to develop a cost-effective drill suitable for planting wheat in untilled fields, keeping in view socio-economic conditions of the Punjab farmer. With continuous efforts, strip-till drill was developed by PAU engineers. The performance of this drill for planting wheat in untilled fields compared to planting in tilled field with conventional drill has shown that with strip-till drill similar yields of wheat are possible. This drill can be operated with any tractor of 35 HP or above. This drill has two main components i.e. an ordinary conventional drill and a rotary blade attachment fitted in front of it. It is powered through the power take-off (PTO) shaft fitted at the rear of every tractor. Rotary is fitted in front of drill in such a way that 3-inch wide strip ahead of each seed delivery tube is finely prepared and a width of 5 inch between two adjoining furrows is left untilled. This results in saving of 60 to 70 per cent of time and energy. Besides these, the other two benefits of planting with strip-till drill are that due to faster speed more area can be timely planted and fields (residue-free) planted with this drill give appearance as if sowing has been done after cultivation. This is particularly important for Punjab farmers who cannot accept ragged appearance of the fields sown following no-tillage. Realising the potential benefits of strip-till drill, the Punjab Government has allowed subsidy of Rs 17,500 per drill which can be claimed through the Chief Agricultural Officer of the district.

With the recent 35 per cent hike in diesel price and doubling the sales tax on it, the price per litre of diesel has gone up from Rs 10.05 to Rs 14.10 . Under the Punjab conditions tillage after fertilisers is the second costliest input in wheat production. Every year for sowing wheat on about 33.38 lakh hectares, approximately 667 lakh litres of diesel worth Rs 9,400 lakh is spent on tillage. Adoption of no-tillage/strip tillage on just 10 per cent area under what can save Rs 940 lakh.

However, in some areas wheat planted after puddled rice suffers on account of poor infiltration of water due to the formation of impervious hard pan at 15-25 cm depth. In such fields deep tillage (to a depth of 30-40 cm with a chisel plough) followed by conventional tillage gives better yields due to increased infiltration, improved aeration and reduced soil strength.

The importance of reducing tillage for wheat has been recognised at the national level and as a result a project entitled, Development of complimentary practices for zero and reduced tillage systems for establishing wheat after rice” has been sanctioned by the ICAR under the National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) for its implementation in six agricultural universities, PAU being one of them.

No suicide due to crop failure or debt in Haryana
By V.P. Prabhakar

Though some incidents of suicide by farmers did take place in Haryana in he past two-three years, these had no relevance with the failure of crops or debts.

This is the conclusion drawn by the Haryana Vidhan Sabhas’s committee on alleged suicides committed by farmers in the state.

This question came up in the Vidhan Sabha in July, 1998, when opposition members alleged that poor farmers were committing suicide in Haryana due to failure of crops and heavy debts. Though the government denied this allegation, the members persisted with this. The then Education Minister, Mr Ram Bilas Sharma, offered that a committee of the House should be set up to probe this.

The then Speaker, Mr Chhattar Singh Chauhan, was authorised by the House to constitute the committee. He set up the committee under the leadership of the Deputy Speaker, Mr Faquir Chand Aggarwal. Six members, Mr Satwinder Singh Rana, Mr Narender Singh Rao, Mr Relu Ram, Mr Dev Raj Dewan, Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala and Mr Khursheed Ahmed, were requested to bring documentary proof, if any, before the committee to prove the alleged cases of suicide by farmers during the last two-three years due to failure of crops and heavy loans.

Mr Surjewala mentioned five such cases but as per the committee’s report he did not produce any documentary proof to prove his point. Mr Surjewala later in a letter to the committee alleged that his statement was not recorded correctly and that some members of the committee had prejudged the issue. The committee observed that the allegations were baseless, unfounded and wrong.

The committee also called Capt Ajay Singh, Mr Birender Singh, Mrs Kartar Devi, Mr Jai Singh Rana, Mr Chander Mohan and Mr Dilu Ram.

Capt Ajay Singh told the committee that farmers in his area were committing suicide by consuming poison. He said that due to crop failure, sub-standard seeds and rise in prices social tension was increasing and labourers and farmers were under heavy debts. He said that due to this farmers, labourers and small dealers were committing suicide. He also submitted a list of 22 persons of Rewri district but he could not submit any documentary proof in support of his version.

Mr Birender Singh said that heavy debts were not the only reason for suicide by farmers.

The committee then decided to obtain report on the cases mentioned by Mr Surjewala and Capt Ajay Singh from the Deputy Commissioners of Jind and Rewari, respectively.

According to the report of the Jind Deputy Commissioner, of the five cases mentioned by Mr Surjewala, two deaths took place in the past two-three years and the other three in 1991 and 1992. To go into the details of each case, their houses were visited, statements of family members were recorded and other relevant record was also verified. Their deaths were due to other reasons and not failure of crop or debt. The Deputy Commissioner said that no case of suicide had been reported or registered in the police station and neither any report under Section 174, Cr. PC had been made in respect of these five cases.

As regards 22 cases given by Capt Ajay Singh, the Rewari Deputy Commissioner said that no farmer in the district had committed suicide due to debt. No such case had been registered in the police stations. Investigations were made about these 22 persons by tehsildars or patwaris by going to their houses. The DC said that most of the persons mentioned in the list were residents of urban areas and they were not farmers. A few of them were school children. In some cases, the causes of suicide were family feuds, liquor, celphos or illness.

After perusal of the reports, the committee observed that in view of the findings given in the reports by the Deputy Commissioners there appeared to be no justification to further probe into the matter.

On careful perusal of the evidence given by Mr Surjewala, Capt Ajay Singh and Mr Birender Singh, the committee observed that some suicide cases took place in Haryana but it was not proved that any farmer committed suicide in the last two-three years due to heavy loans or failure of crops.

Flowers mean business now
By S.C. Dhall

FLOWER is not a flower any more. It now means big money, big business. The floriculture industry is in for a major boom. India is undergoing an orchid revolution paving the way for a huge amount of foreign exchange earning. As part of this, a massive effort is on to grow and export flowers.

Indications of a global deficit of flowers by 2000 AD paint a rosy picture for India. Impressed by the prospects of an ever growing market, the government has formulated a major action plan for the export of fresh and cut flowers. India should be able to generate foreign exchange worth Rs 200 crore annually through flower exports.

Today India’s contribution to the world floriculture market is $ 20 million. While the global trade is expanding at the rate of 10 per cent a year, India’s exports are growing at between 7 and 8 per cent. India’s share in the global floriculture trade is estimated at 0.5 per cent.

According to trade sources, if its growth in the past few years is any indication, the Indian floriculture industry has shown signs of playing a major role in the world market. The growth rate of Indian floriculture products over the past several years had been impressive at 600 per cent, while its competitors like Ecuador and Zimbabwe have registered a growth of 460 per cent and 313 per cent, respectively.

The first ever specially designed cargo terminals for agricultural produce in Bangalore and Delhi have yielded spectacular results. Fresh and cut flower exports from Bangalore to Europe and the USA have doubled in quantity to 1000 tonnes, earning a revenue of Rs 500 crore.

World trade in cut flowers is around Rs 16,000 crore and India’s share was negligible at 0.2 per cent in 1992. All that is likely to change now and for the first time things are looking better for floriculture exporters who lost large quantities of consignments in transit due to poor cold storage facilities at airports and ports. Rose and carnations are the two flowers in demand in the world market followed by chrysanthemum, orchids and gladiolis. Cut flower export is likely to increase in the international market because of celebration of the new century.

There is at present 60,000 hectares of land under floriculture in India. There is a great potential for orchid growers in India because of their ability to commercially produce orchids in the Indian climate at a relatively lower investment than roses.

The country had only two green house projects in 1989, which have now gone up to 50. Presently an area of about 175 hectares is under green house production. After 1991, 134 export-oriented floriculture units have been registered envisaging an investment of the order of Rs 1000 crore. Experts in the floriculture sector estimate that more than Rs 3000 crore capital investment has already taken place in the floriculture industry over the past three years. In addition, more than 1000 entrepreneurs have applied for registration to start new floriculture projects.

The Indian floriculture industry has started showing signs of stabilisation. The emerging strong domestic market, establishment of basic infrastructure facilities like cold storage at airports in the major growing areas of Bangalore at Delhi by the Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) and the initiative to set up an auction house of international status, apart from an increase in freight subsidy, have come as a shot in the arm for growers and exporters.

Despite facing several set backs the Indian Floriculture trade has made a mark on the global front by delivering quality flowers. India, which began exports at the beginning of the decade to the traditional Dutch markets, has discovered other markets in the past several years. The major destinations apart from Europe, are Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Eastern countries.

Demand for Indian flowers from September to February in Europe and Japan is very high. In summer Indian flowers take a back seat in European auctions as the traditional markets are flooded with flowers from temperate countries.

Christmas offers the second best season, next only to Valentine’s Day, for the floriculture trade.

During the past five years, India’s floriculture export has increased 25 times. The increasing passage of Indian roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, orchids, gladioli, and exotic flowers to foreign nations mostly in the West has given the Commerce Ministry the sweet whiff of a goldmine.

The floriculture industry comprises the following: florist trade of cut foliage, which may be fresh, dried, dyed bleached or impregnated, live plants and bedding plants, and production and sale of seed and bulbs of flower crop, and flower perfumes. The florist trade of cut flowers, cut foliage and pot plants the main revenue earner among the different production and trading activities of the floriculture industry. The Netherlands dominates the world trade in flowers, and plants and accounts for a market share of 60 per cent for cut flowers 50 per cent for potted plants. Other important exporters of flowers and plants are Columbia, Ecuador, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Israel. The world’s biggest importers of floriculture products are Germany, the USA, Japan and Europe.

India is capable of supplying international quality flowers at highly competitive prices due to a number of favourable factors. During the months of November to March — the period of peak production — the weather in the Indian subcontinent is conducive to top quality production. Geographically, the country is located close to most of the South-East Asian countries compared to Europe, Africa, South Africa and South America. Most importantly, India enjoys the advantage of low labour cost compared to other floriculture exporting countries. A few Indian floriculture companies are going in for ISO-9002 which establishes that the producers have ensured to adhere to norms of production to achieve the desired quality.

Packing is crucial in the marketing of flowers. The standards developed by the Indian Institute of Packaging, Mumbai, for roses, gladioli, carnation, chrysanthemum, gerbera, orchids and anthurium are being popularised by APEDA to help exporters to maintain the quality of floriculture products.

Banks are reportedly not financing or offering loans to export-oriented floriculture companies after NABARD warned them of the industry’s poor credit worthiness. According to reports, floriculture units in India are suffering from low productivity, low export sales and lower price realisation.

Keeping in view the increasing demand and better returns from flowers the state governments have started taking steps to popularise commercial cultivation of flowers. India is endowed with rich and varied climatic conditions for floriculture production.

VEGETABLES

Carrot, radish and turnip: Apply 15 tonnes of farmyard manure per acre and mix it with the soil by ploughing about 10 days before sowing these crops. Drill 55 kg of urea, 7 kg of superphosphate per acre at the time of sowing. For carrot, 50 kg of muriate of potash per acre should also be added.

Root crops: Start sowing English varieties of radish (Japanese White), Turnip (Golden Ball, Snowball, Purple Top, White Globe) and carrot (Nantes).

Irrigate these crops only when it is must, otherwise excessive vegetative growth will lead to hairy, cracked, deformed, small and forked roots.

Cole crop: Transplant four to six weeks old seedlings of cabbage, Chinese cabbage and late season cauliflower in lines at 45 cm x 30 cm. Repeat watering once a week. Fill the gaps to obtain good control stand after a week and irrigate.

Transplant fully developed true to type and selected plants of early cauliflower for seed multiplication along with root system intact. Keep lines and plants at 60 to 45 cm, respectively. Scoop the heads from the centre to obtain more seed stalks.

Potato: Rogue out virus-affected plants from seed plots. Apply second dose of 85 kg of urea per acre and increase the dose of urea to 115 kg per acre in case of light soils and do earthing up in 40-45 day-old crop. At the time of earthing up, apply 4 kg Thimet 10 g per acre in the seed plots.

Spray crop with Indofil M-45 @ 500-700 g or Copper Oxychloride 50 WP @ 750-1000 g/acre in 250-350 litres of water before the appearance of disease followed by 5 more sprays at 7 days’ interval. Under heavy disease situation instead of third and fourth spray of Indofil M 45 give two sprays of Ridomil MZ @ 700 g/acre at 10 days interval.

Spray the crop with 300 ml of Rogor 30 EC or Metasystox 25 EC or 75 ml of Dimecron in 80 litres of water per acre for the control of jassids and aphids, etc.

Tomato: Sow 200 g seed of TH-2312, TH-802, Punjab NR-7, S-12, Punjab Tropics, Punjab Chuuhara and Punjab Kesri on raised beds. One-marla area is sufficient to grow seedlings for an acre. At the time of preparing beds add well rotten farmyard manure @ 125 kg per marla.

In the last week of this month, start transplanting. Mark line at 1.5 metre for Punjab Tropic and 0.75 metre for other varieties. Apply 10 tonnes farmyard manure and 55, 150 and 50 kg of urea, superphosphate and muriate of potash per acre, respectively. Transplant two seedlings per hill and keep 30 cm space between the plants. Irrigate immediately, fill gaps next week and irrigate.

For kitchen gardening and for local market, prefer hybrid (TH-2312) or varieties S-12 or Punjab Kesri or Punjab NR-7. For processing, sow Punjab Kesri and for long distance marketing, plant only the Punjab Chhuhara variety. In nematode infested soils, plant only the resistant variety Punjab NR-7.

Garlic and onion: Complete planting of garlic and onion. Plant 4 to 6 quintals medium-size healthy, bold and duplication free bulbs of onion varieties Punjab Naroya, Punjab Red Round, Punjab Selection or Punjab 48 or Punjab White per acre for seed multiplication purpose. Plant at ridges spaced at 60 cm and keep bulbs at 30 cm. Apply light irrigation once after 10 days. Sow 4 kg of seed either of the varieties in an eight-marla bed area to raise seedlings for an acre.

Leafy vegetables: Start harvesting, grading, packing and marketing of spinach, Chinese cabbage and methi. After each harvest apply 20 kg of urea per acre for quick rejuvenation and healthy foliage development. In case single harvest crop is to be taken resow the Punjab green variety after preparing the plot.

Irrigate methi and spinach once a week.

Sow seed or transplant seedlings of lettuce (Punjab Lettuce I) after applying 20 kg of urea and 150 kg of superphosphate and 50 kg of muriate of potash per acre. Keep lines and plants 30 and 15 cm apart,respectively.

Pea: Apply 25 kg of urea, 155 kg of superphosphate per acre and sow the Punjab-87 or Punjab-88 varieties.

Use 30 kg of seed per acre.

After sowing spray Stomp 30 EC @ 1.0 litre per acre as pre-emergence herbicide.

Chilli: Sow 100 g seed of CH-1 and 200 g seed of Punjab Surkh, Punjab Lal or Punjab Guchhedar in 15 cm high raised beds for planting in an acre. — Progressive Farming, PAU)