Techniques to protect plants from frost
By Mahipal Singh
The interaction of weather and living systems is a basic aspect of agriculture. Although great strides in technology have resulted in massive production increases and improved quality, weather remains an important limiting factor. Though man is not yet able to change the weather, except on a very small scale, he is capable of adjusting agricultural practices to fit the climate. Regardless of how favourable light and moisture conditions may be, the plant growth ceases when the air and leaf temperature drops below a certain minimum or exceeds a certain maximum value. Likelihood of damage from freezing temperature depends upon the plant species, the season, the manner of temperature change, the physiological state of the plant, and other factors.

Challenges in dairying
By G.B. Singh Kahlon
Despite official projections of the country's milk production crossing 74 million tonnes per annum the actual availability of milk works out at 167 gm per capita per day against the minimum requirement of 250 gm as recommended by the Indian Council of Medical Research. Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are the only states having an availability of over 250 gm.

Farm operations for Feb

Move to tax farmers impractical: farm experts
By Ruchika Mohindra

EVEN as the government has denied any move to bring big farmers under the tax net in the forthcoming Budget, a lot of heat has been generated over the issue and agriculture scientists of Punjab Agricultural University have criticised it.

Most experts, who spoke to The Tribune, felt that this proposal, as earlier announced by BJP Vice-President Jana Krishnamurthy, would not be in the interests of the farmers and decrease their already declining profit margins.

Dr G.S. Kalkat, Vice-Chancellor of PAU, said that it was still not clear how the government proposed to assess the income of the farmers. “This is going to be a difficult task. If the tax was to be implemented on the basis of acreage, consideration would have to be given to the crop yield in two different fields in the same area, which could be different depending on the inputs and technology used”. Even levying tax on the money earned by the farmer would be an onerous task, he said.

Dr Kalkat argued that tax collection through this way could prove successful only in the case of plantation crops where marketing is also assured. He said that it was still unclear whether assessment for tax would be done on the basis of gross income or net income.

It is learnt that earlier in 1967-68, a committee headed by an eminent economist, Dr K.N. Raj, had also proposed imposition of tax on the farming sector, but it could not be implemented because of similar practical considerations.

A Senior Economist (Marketing), Department of Economics and Sociology, Dr P.S. Rangi, said that bringing large farmers under the tax net would be quite impractical. “The situation in Punjab is such that around 76 per cent of the farmers have less than two hectares of land. Only 2 per cent of the farmers are flourishing and have sufficient resources”.

Dr Rangi alleged that it was in fact big industrial houses who were the trouble-shooters as they were showing their other income as agricultural income to evade taxes.

Experts said that the BJP proposal to impose tax on big farmers originated from a report of the National Council of Applied Economic Research which had said that rich agriculturists in the country outnumbered the rich businessmen and that the tax collection from them would be more than 5 per cent of the total tax revenue of the government from all sources.

Dr Pal Singh Sidhu, Dean, College of Agriculture, said: “With the decision of the Central Government on enforcing a uniform sales tax structure all over the country, prices of various agricultural inputs are also likely to increase, thereby affecting the farmers adversely. As 75 per cent of the farmers in Punjab do not earn the per capita income of the state and there is need to shift farmers from high yield to high-value crops”.

Dr Sidhu said that agriculture in Punjab was at the same critical juncture as was before the ushering in of Green Revolution and there was need to sustain it rather than discourage it by proposing to tax the farming community.

His views were supported by Dr Jaspinder Singh Kolar, Director, Extension Education, PAU, who said that there was a lot of risk factor involved in farming because of its dependence on weather conditions and risks from disease or attack by insect pests.

‘Bringing farming under the tax net could have large-scale implications like exploitation of farmers. The profit margin of farmers has been declining for the past 10 years. It also needs to be decided how income assessment in the case of poultry, mushroom or horticulture farming would be made.

There are lots of things that need to be clarified, but one thing is clear that imposing tax on big farmers would serve no fruitful purpose as there are no big farmers in the state since the imposition of the Land Ceiling Act,” he added.

Techniques to protect plants from frost
By Mahipal Singh

The interaction of weather and living systems is a basic aspect of agriculture. Although great strides in technology have resulted in massive production increases and improved quality, weather remains an important limiting factor. Though man is not yet able to change the weather, except on a very small scale, he is capable of adjusting agricultural practices to fit the climate. Regardless of how favourable light and moisture conditions may be, the plant growth ceases when the air and leaf temperature drops below a certain minimum or exceeds a certain maximum value. Likelihood of damage from freezing temperature depends upon the plant species, the season, the manner of temperature change, the physiological state of the plant, and other factors.

Two types of frost are recognised — radiation frost, which occurs on clear nights with little or no wind when the outing radiation is excessive and the air temperature is not necessarily at the freezing point, and wind or advection frost, which occurs at any time, day or night, regardless of cloud cover, when the wind moves air in from cold regions. Both types may occur simultaneously.

Most frost-protection techniques can raise the temperature only a few degrees, while some are effective only against radiation frost.

Heating is the best known and most effective frost-protection measure. It is most effective on nights with a strong temperature inversion, a condition in which the air temperature increases markedly from the ground up to as high as 12-15 metres. The depth of air to be heated is thus rather shallow, and the area over which a given temperature rise can be produced increases linearly with the strength of the inversion. Lacking a temperature inversion heaters protect by radiating heat to the plants and the ground surface, and by emitting a layer of humid smoke that reduces the net outgoing loss from the ground. For radiation frost protection, the heaters are placed in “view” of the plants or trees, but for advective frost the heavier concentration is placed along the upwind border. In general, a large number of small heaters is most effective; large heaters set up convection currents that break up the warm ceiling and draw in cold air.

The wind machine is popular for frost protection; although it affords less reliable results, its operating cost is much lower than heaters. These machines, which are like fans or propellers, break up the nocturnal temperature inversion by mechanically mixing the air, returning heat to the ground that was lifted during the day. The stronger the temperature inversion, the more effective is the wind machine.

Flooding and sprinkling with water prevent excessive ground cooling by increasing the heat conductivity and heat capacity of the soil and releasing latent heat of fusion, or the heat given off when the water freezes. The temperature of the plant will not fall below the freezing point as long as the change of state from water to ice is taking place. Flooding has the disadvantage of retarding increase in soil warmth during the day; thus it can be used effectively for only one or two nights. Brushing is a frost-protection technique in which shields of paper or aluminium foils are set up to reduce radiation loss to the sky. Wind-breaks can also function as frost protection by reducing inflow of cold air and by shielding plants from the total night sky.

Challenges in dairying
By G.B. Singh Kahlon

Despite official projections of the country's milk production crossing 74 million tonnes per annum the actual availability of milk works out at 167 gm per capita per day against the minimum requirement of 250 gm as recommended by the Indian Council of Medical Research. Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are the only states having an availability of over 250 gm.

After Independence, the livestock population in the country increased at a frightening speed. On the basis of their present population, the daily per head fodder and feed availability at the national level is only 5 kg against the minimum requirement of 40 kg. Almost, a crore of livestock, of which 25 lakh cows and 15 lakh buffaloes, are being added to the existing stock every year. This would aggravate the fodder and feed problem.

Quality of marketed milk:

About 90 per cent of the milk being marketed comes from the poorest segment of the rural population. Milk is collected from villages in droplets — on an average 1.4 litres per family per day — under most unhygienic conditions. Also the quantity of milk available per village is very small, while the procurement agencies for it are so many. In this competition, the quality of milk is the first casualty. Milk being a highly perishable commodity, especially during summer months, there is a very rapid bacterial growth in it which makes it sour and subsequently curdle. To save its texture, preservatives are extensively added at all levels. As a result the milk is devoid of original freshness and flavour.

As the cost of feeding milch animals in cities is on the higher side, city milk producers always try to buy and keep high-yielding buffaloes and cows for better profit margin. These milch animals are kept in unhygienic and insanitary conditions.

Their productivity is soon impaired and their calves are starved to death for economic reasons. Cows and buffaloes after giving milk just for one lactation in the metropolitan and big cities end up in slaughter houses despite being at their prime productive stage.

Cooperative sector milk plants:

On the completion of "Operational Flood" in 1996, their financial status reveals an alarming situation in the most potential dairy states in northern region of the country. Uttar Pradesh has 27 milk plants and its accumulated losses were Rs 52.40 crore, Rajasthan's Rs 44 crore, Haryana's Rs 31 crore and Punjab's accumulated losses stood at Rs 51.46 crore.

Private sector milk plants:

Almost all the important private sector milk plants in India have been established around Delhi in the northern and north-western regions which constitute the Green Revolution areas. These milk plants have been set up exclusively for the manufacture of milk powder and related milk products. These financially sound milk plants procure milk through the agencies of "milk traders" having infrastructure of their own extending up to the village level.

Delhi has the highest consumption of milk and milk products amongst the metropolitan and other big cities. As such, especially during the summer months when the gap between production and demand widens, these "milk traders" resort to all sorts of malpractices to fulfil their commitments and put even synthetic milk in the market.

Legal and fiscal measures:

There is no unified control over the type, location and size of milk plants. The milk procurement areas are not delineated for milk plants nor any organisation is legally obliged to assist in enhancing milk production in the procurement areas. There is a cut-throat competition among private, cooperative milk plants and traditional milkmen in milk procurement. The city milk sale has been monopolised by the "dohjis" and "milk dealers" as agents of the cooperative or private sector milk plants who dictate terms and earn high profits.

There is, thus, a need to enlighten the public by making available factual information.

The major thrust should be on developing high technology milk production with basic sizeable herds of local crossbred cows and their upgrade by the use of imported high quality semen from progeny tested bulls for several years. Those herds should be linked with milk plants which should be made to own the responsibility to bring overall improvement and increase in milk production by providing inputs at the doorstep of the farmers under the guidance of an apex organisation, especially created for this purpose at the state level. The important prerequisite for the success of this programme is the availability of easy credit facilities at reasonable rate of interest for raising the needed infrastructure and a rational milk pricing policy for encouraging dairy farming with cross-bred cows.

Dairy boards at the state level:

The Departments of Dairy Development, Milkfed and Animal Husbandry hold the keys for enhancing milk production. The multiplicity of agencies, apart from increasing the cost, dilutes the responsibility, creates confusion and inter-departmental jealousies. The quality control rests with the Health Department and the Local Government has the authority to license the sale of milk and milk products.

There is, thus, a need to have an apex organisation for coordinating, planning and organising programmes relating to milk production, transportation, processing, marketing and quality control.

Conclusion:

To conclude, milk production in India suffers both from genetic and organisational lapses. Our livestock population is malnutritioned and genetically low yielding. Such a huge cattle population is a great environmental hazard and a bad economic asset.

Milk production in India in the next century can never increase nor dairying become a paying profession nor even the attendant malpractices eliminated unless we address the major issues of increase in cattle population disproportionate to fodder and feed resources, milk stock depletion, misplaced dependence on buffalo and the absence of statutory regulatory mechanism for the effective production, procurement, processing and marketing of milk. The solution lies in the adoption of a scientific approach, a better genetic breed, better technology and efficient diversified management of the dairy sector.

Farm operations for Feb

Ornamentals:

— Second half of this month is the best time for sowing the seeds of summer season annuals like orange cosmos, cailaridia, gomphrana, kochia, vineas, zinnia, portulaca, etc. Sow the seeds of these annuals on the raised beds, enriched with well rotten farmyard manure.

— The deciduous ornamental plants such as lagerstroemia indica (sauni), weeping willow, camposis-grandiflora, ect. can be transplanted without earth ball just before their buds start sprouting. Pruning and training of established deciduous plants con also be done in this month.

— Weeding of winter season flowers (if required) should be done. Off-type and diseased plants should be removed if seed of that particular annual is to be collected. Water at proper time is also very important.

— The bulbous plants like amaryllia, football lily (naemanthus), tube rose, zephyranthes, etc. can also be planted in this month. The bulbous plants prefer sandy loam soil enrich with well decomposed farmyard manure.

— If some new area is to be landscaped, then soil should be preferred well for the ornamental plantation in the end of February or in March. Whenever trees, shrubs or creepers are to be planted, tree pits should be dug of proper size. Additions of two or three baskets of well rotten farmyard manure is also recommended/pit of 3’x3’x3’ size. For shrubs and creeper, smaller pits of 1’-2’ size can be prepared.

— Progressive Farming, PAU