State of foodgrain storage
By V.S. Mahajan
ALREADY freshly harvested stocks of wheat have converged on the markets and grown into bigger heaps, thanks to the encouraging performance during the rabi season. This situation has been repeating over the past 10 years, and is quite unlike the earlier years when there used to be a fairly defined cycle of plenty followed by that of scarcity. If such mood continues, and one hopes so, we would soon need a relook at our entire buffer stock strategy.

Grow improved varieties of rice in Haryana
By Satya Pal Goyal and O.P. Lathwal
THE importance of rice has considerably increased because of the changing agro-climatic conditions viz. increased rainfall, waterlogging and availability of irrigation water. Because of high yielding dwarf varieties and improved agro-techniques, this crop has gained importance as compared to other kharif crops in Haryana. Rice productivity can be substantially increased with the growing of high yielding disease-resistant varieties and adoption of better crop management practices.

Self-propelled riding type rice transplanter
By V.P. Prabhakar
SELF-PROPELLED, riding type 8-row mechanical rice transplanter using mat-type nursery was extensively evaluated at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, the KAU, Tanavar, and the CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, centres of the All-India Coordinated Research Projects on farm implements and machinery.

Farm operations for May

Managing summer stress in buffaloes
By Soshil Rattan

IN the coming months, the fury of blistering sun will rage unabated and mercury is likely to touch 48°C at some places. The high ambient temperature is conductive to reproductive failures and embryonic mortality, especially in buffaloes. Feed intake is reduced and milk yield is alarmingly decreased. The scarcity of fodder and milk make this season lean for the dairy farmers and they are unable to keep pace with the demands of milk.

Efficient management practices

The following long-term management practices are necessary to attain reproductive efficiency. Experience and research-based management system are essential to increase heat tolerance and to improve the level of nutrition.

Availability of water: Buffaloes can bear hot dry and hot humid environment, subject to the availability of clean cool water for drinking showering or splashing purposes as explained under:

— Drinking water three-four times a day is a need in summer months.

— Showering/splashing of water on the body thrice a day (morning, noon and afternoon) decreases heat stress. Buffaloes have found to response more quickly to cooling devices than other animals. An investigation revealed that showering of buffaloes twice at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily during months with temperature of 39°C and relative humidity of 47.3 per cent can give an increased conception rate from 20 to 31 per cent.

— Keeping the floor of shed cool by sprinkling lavishly cold water is helpful during summer.

— Wallowing is the cheapest and least laborious device to beat the heat in summer. Buffaloes are made to wallow in clusters in ponds, rivers, tanks or other water bodies for hours together. Wallowing is an important route of heat loss in view of the labile body temperature which enables the animal to store body temperature. Wallowing tanks with fresh flow of water may be cherished by the ideal buffalo owners. During wallowing rectal temperature decreases gradually but falls abruptly after the buffaloes leave the water. Wallowing becomes more effective if buffaloes remain in shade after getting out of water. This device is more effective than showering, but wallowing in dirty stagnant water exposes the animal to bacterial and parasitic invasions.

Nutrition: Buffaloes with higher plan of nutrition have a higher fertility rate and as such good quality green forage needs to be provided during summer.

Housing: A conventional house with proper facilities for tying, feeding, watering, grooming and showering should be preferred. The built-up of the house should be such that the minimum heat gets transmitted to the animals. It should be possible to reduce the maximum ambient temperature in about depress which may give comfort to the inmates of the shed. This can be possible by covering doors and windows with khas-mating which should be kept ever wet with continuous percolation of water during day time. Fans need to be provided to ensure air circulation inside the shed. Routine showering and keeping buffaloes in an open paddock during night are beneficial practices.

Buffaloes in loose housing with a shade (may be shed) for feeding and shelter during the inclement weather and open area for night hours produce more milk than in conventional houses mismanaged and ill-equipped with cooling devices.

Grazing: Early morning and late evening grazing should be done to eliminate deteriorating effect of solar radiation.

Plantation: Shady trees should be planted in the housing complex. Trees protect the animals from scorching sun. Greenery add to the beauty of the housing and comfort of the inhabitants.

Breeding: During summer, the buffaloes in heat should be inseminated with frozen semen processed during cooler months.

Teaser: To detect silent heat, teasers with extraordinary libido need to be paraded. The buffalo teaser with poor libido usually fail to detect silent heat in summer months.

Seasonality in buffaloes can be broken by improved with these practices.

State of foodgrain storage
By V.S. Mahajan

ALREADY freshly harvested stocks of wheat have converged on the markets and grown into bigger heaps, thanks to the encouraging performance during the rabi season. This situation has been repeating over the past 10 years, and is quite unlike the earlier years when there used to be a fairly defined cycle of plenty followed by that of scarcity. If such mood continues, and one hopes so, we would soon need a relook at our entire buffer stock strategy.

Talking of statistics, it is found that at present the FCI godowns numbering around 1,600 in the country have already a stock of around 12.8 million tonnes of what against the buffer and operational stock norm of 4 million tonnes. Thus, the situation is already grim and would grow grimmer soon with this season’s procurement of foodgrain expected to be all-time high.

Though we might feel smug with such a generous situation which would help to tide over even the worst possible food situation in the country and no longer it would be at the mercy of foreign countries which often we had been during the early years of post-Independence period, simultaneously, however, we cannot overlook the heavy cost that has to be incurred both on maintenance as well as management of mind boggling stocks of foodgrain.

In fact it is found that even after getting a supplementary subsidy of Rs 944 crore the FCI, the principal stocking agency of foodgrain in the country, is finding the situation still quite grim. And let us not forget the fact that the storage problem is not only of wheat it is equally of rice. It is estimated that when added to the existing stocks of the FCI the fresh stocks of wheat and rice purchased this year, the total would amount to around 42 million tonnes.

One can well imagine the amount of resources needed to manage this job. And yet we would not be able to ensure the safety of stored grain where quite a significant amount is going to be lost through pilferage as well damaged by weather and eaten by pest, thus adding significantly to the country’s financial stake.

Under these circumstances there is hardly any justification to go on accumulating these stocks without any planning. The situation has already come to such a pass that it would be advisable to get rid of earlier stocks even if that meant suffering a loss which is surely going to be lower than the additional cost suffered through their further storage.

No surprise under such complex system made worse through announcing high minimum procurement prices mainly to please the farming lobby, the government should be selling wheat at Rs 900 a quintal, while good quality wheat is available in the open market at Rs 700 a quintal. What a big difference! which shows that the entire system of creation of buffer stock should have a rational approach.

First, for easing burden on national as well state storage facilities shouldn’t we prepare a blueprint for creating alternative storage facilities in the rural area, which being close to farmers would be welcome by them as well reduce pressure on major storage centres located mainly in urban areas.

In fact at one time rural godowns had been encouraged. For instance, in Punjab during the 1970s a large number of rural godowns were built. But these failed to take off mainly because of poor construction, unplanned location, lack of proper supervision and management.

These godowns could be brought to use again after due changes. New godowns could be designed in such a manner that they win the acceptability of farmers. Further the government should encourage the entry of the private sector into this area by offering suitable sops.

In view of high cost incurred as well as wastage faced, it would be advisable to encourage storage of foodgrain in central and state warehouses only. Here carry over of earlier stocks should be discouraged and got rid of before the fresh stocks start coming. As it has been suggested earlier, even if some loss has to be incurred it would be wise to incur than to face much bigger liability later.

The system of staggering food sales should be adopted to reduce burden on their stocking as well as for realising better prices by the farmers. Currently nearly 90 per cent of foodgrain—equivalent to their total market sales—arrive in the market within a period of two months of harvesting (in the case of wheat April and May and in the case of rice September and October).

Thus, these months turn out to be the busiest periods and impose the maximum pressure both on the market as well as storage capacity. If we could, with appropriate mechanism, stagger these sales over a longer period it would help farmers to realise better prices and reduce pressure on storage where we are already facing difficult situation.

We should, therefore, develop a functional alternative system which would help both small and medium farmers who are generally forced to bring their produce earlier to the market, to develop their own storage capacity at home as well as have access to larger storage capacity built by each village panchayat as per its needs.

In fact now with the creation of a network of panchyats in the country it would be advisable to involve them to help farmers in finding more friendly storage facility for their surplus grain as well as such capacity could also be used for storing other products of farmers.

By now it has been sufficiently recognised that in several areas in the country, particularly Punjab and Haryana, agriculture has already reached the saturation limit. We should now concentrate more and more on areas that help farmers to diversify into alternative and more income-yielding activities. This has also been the experience of other advanced countries and they have over the time reduced their manpower engaged in agriculture and put it on more income-yielding avenues as well as this system has helped better allocation of resources and technology in the farm sector itself to raise its productivity.

There is much to be learnt from the experience of these countries to reorganise our agriculture for obtaining higher yields and income as well make better use of the storage capacity already created in the country at a heavy cost.

Grow improved varieties of rice in Haryana
By Satya Pal Goyal and O.P. Lathwal

THE importance of rice has considerably increased because of the changing agro-climatic conditions viz. increased rainfall, waterlogging and availability of irrigation water. Because of high yielding dwarf varieties and improved agro-techniques, this crop has gained importance as compared to other kharif crops in Haryana. Rice productivity can be substantially increased with the growing of high yielding disease-resistant varieties and adoption of better crop management practices. High-yielding varieties of rice recommended for cultivation in Haryana are:

Short-duration varieties

Govind: A semi-dwarf non-lodging resistant and very early maturing Indica variety. Its kernels are long slender. It takes 115 days from seed. It is suitable for multiple cropping and early to late planting Moderately resistant to stem-rot. The average yield is 52.5 quintals per hectare.

Pusa-33: A short-statured, lodging resistant and early maturing Indica variety. Its grains are long slender. It takes 115.120 days duration from seed to seed and this is suitable for late-sown conditions and multiple cropping. Its average yield is 52.5 quintals per hectare.

IR-46: A short statured (108 cm), high-yielding Indica variety of superfine quality (long slender) of rice. It is stiff-strawed, non-lodging and highly responsive to fertility levels. It takes 135 days from seed to seed. Moderately resistant to stem-rot and white backed plant hopper. Its average yield is 57.5 quintals per hectare.

HKR-46: A short statured, high-yielding Indica variety of fine quality rice. It takes 135 days from seed to seed. Its average yield is 62.50 quintals per hectare.

Medium-duration varieties

HKR-126: A short statured (110cm), high-yielding, medium duration (140 days seed to seed) Indica variety. It is stiff strawed and highly responsive to high levels of fertiliser application. Its grains are long slender. It is resistant to white backed plant hopper, stem-rot and moderately resistant to bacterial leaf blight (BLB). It tolerates water stress. Its average yield is 67.5 quintals per hectare.

HKR-120: A short-statured (105 cm), high-yielding, medium duration (146 days seed to seed) Indica variety. It is stiff-strawed, non-lodging and highly responsive to high levels of fertilisation. Its grains are long slender. It is resistant to the BLB and white backed plant hopper and moderately resistant to stem rot disease. Its average yield is 62.5 per quintals hectare.

PR-106: A short-statured (115 cm), lodging resistant and high-yielding Indica variety. Its grains are long slender. It takes 145 days from seed to seed. The average yield is 60 per quintals hectare.

Jaya: A short-statured (115 cm), high-yielding Indica variety. It is stiff strawed, non-lodging and highly responsive to high levels of fertilisation. It takes 142 days from seed to seed. Its grains are long bold (coarse). The average yield is 65 quintals per hectare.

Long-duration varieties

Basmati 370: It is tall-statured (145 cm) Indica variety and is famous for its quality rice. It does best on rich soils with plenty of irrigation but lodges under high level of nitrogen application. It is photo-period sensitive and takes 140-150 days from seed to seed. It is resistant to white backed plant hopper and stem-rot. Grains are partly awned. It has superfine quality of rice (long slender) which gives fragrance and elongates more than twice to their normal size on cooking without splitting. The average yield is 27.5 quintals per hectare.

Haryana Basmati-1: A short-statured (116 cm) Indica variety of superfine quality (long slender) or rice. On cooking its kernels give fragrance. It has good cooking and eating qualities. It takes 140 days from seed to seed. It is resistant to blast, white backed plant hopper and moderately resistant to stem-rot and stem-borer. Its average yield is 40 quintals per hectare.

Taraori Basmati (HBC-19): A tall-statured (148 cm) and aromatic Indica variety. It lodges under high fertility conditions. It is a photo-period sensitive strain and takes 145-155 days from seed to seed. It is resistant to white backed plant hopper and stem-rot. Its grains are extra long (7.1 mm), aromatic and elongate twice without bursting on cooking. Its average yield is 25 quintals per acre.

Self-propelled riding type rice transplanter
By V.P. Prabhakar

SELF-PROPELLED, riding type 8-row mechanical rice transplanter using mat-type nursery was extensively evaluated at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, the KAU, Tanavar, and the CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, centres of the All-India Coordinated Research Projects on farm implements and machinery.

After two years of trial on research farm, the machine was tried on farmers’ fields on a large scale by the PAU, Ludhiana, and the KAU, Tanavar, centres. The machine was successfully adopted by farmers, including those growing mat-type nursery, which is a significant step in mechanisation of rice transplanting.

The transplanter, according to the annual report of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Minister of Agriculture, Government of India, and also the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (1999-2000), is powered with a 3-hp engine. The pneumatic wheels used for transportation is to be replaced by steel wheel during the transplanting operation. One operator and two helpers are required during field operations. It has controls to regulate spacing between hills (100-125 mm), the number of seedlings per hill (3-8) and the depth of transplanting (up to 60 mm). The row-to-row spacing is 20 cm.

Describing this as a success story, the report further says that as there is positive displacement of seedlings to the soil, missing hills are minimal. Because of the float, the transplanter does not have any sinkage problem in the field.

The cost of the transplanter is approximately Rs 1 lakh and the cost of transplanting by this machine ranged from Rs 1,967 to Rs 2,600 per hectare in different regions as compared to Rs 3,692 to Rs 5,100 per hectare by manual transplantation. The yield increase was about 15 per cent.

About 140 hectares of rice transplanting, according to the report, was done at the KAU, Tanavar, and the PAU, Ludhiana, centres on about 200 farmers’ fields. The demonstrations were effective and convinced the farmers to prepare mat-type seedlings for use of the transplanter. Large-scale trials of rice transplanter were also conducted by the governments of Haryana and Punjab on farmers’ fields. The results were very encouraging and farmers were receptive to use this machine.

Community nursery were grown, which were supplied to the farmers using the rice-transplanter. Training in raising mat-type nursery and operation of the machine were provided by the research engineers of the centres and also the state government officials.

Tractor drawn no-till drill

In another success story given in the report, at GBPUAT, Pantnagar centre of the AICRP on farm implements and machinery, a nine-row tractor operated no-till drill was developed which was evaluated on farmers’ field on a large scale by the centres and also by state governments. Large-scale trials of this machine were conducted in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar covering about 5,000 hectares. The no-till drill was found working satisfactorily for sowing of wheat in the freshly harvested rice fields without any tillage operation. The drill has T-type furrow openers of narrow width, which penetrate the soil up to the desired depth and place the seed in the moist zone.

Trials of this machine indicated that there was a saving of about Rs 2,000 per hectare by way of saving in cost of seedbed preparation, and the sowing operation could be advanced on an average by 15-20 days as compared to conventional method of seedbed preparation and sowing. This resulted into timely sowing operation resulting into increased yield in the range of about 15-25 per cent on an average. This also resulted into the reduction of the incidence of ‘phalaris minor’ to about 30-40 per cent.

Farm operations for May

Vegetables:

— Irrigate the standing vegetable crops once a week regularly. Pick up the fruits of bottlegourd, pumpkin, chilli, capsicum, long melon, watermelon, squashmelon, wonga, vegetable merrow, muskmelon, brinjal, cucumber, cowpea and bhindi at the peak of development and edible state. Picking in the evening on alternate days in case of cucurbits is more desirable because it causes less disturbance to pollinators. However, pick fruits of bottlegourd and ridgegourd in the morning since their flowers open in the evening.

— Harvest mature umbles of onion and carrot at a weekly intervals. Dry, thrash, clean and store the seed in a damp proof place. Harvesting is to be completed in three to four rounds as all the umbles do not mature at a time.

—Harvest the onion and garlic bulbs. Cure under shade and store them in a dry place. The garlic should be stored with stalks intact and after packing in small bundles. The onion stalk should be cut just 2-3 cm above the bulb before storage.

—Start sowing of N-53 or Agrifound Dark Red varieties of onion in nursery beds during the last week of this month. Sow 500 g seed per marla bed area and 5 kg seed for raising seedlings to plant in one acre. Apply water after 3-4 days to protect the seedlings, against hot weather.

— Sow Pusa Chetki/Punjab Ageti varieties of radish.

— Tomato fruits are available in plenty and at throwaway price. Prepare ketchup chutney, juice, etc. for year round domestic use.

Vegetable pests and diseases:

— Fruit and shoot borer of brinjal should be controlled by spraying 100 ml Sumicidin 20 EC or 40 ml Ambush 50 EC or 200 ml Ripcord 10 EC or 200 ml Ripcord 10EC or 160 ml Decis 2.8 EC in 250 litres of water per acre. These chemicals can also be used for checking tomato fruit borer damage.

— Brinjal mite may also be checked by spraying 250 ml of Metasystox 25 EC/Rogor 30 EC in 250 litres of water per acre.

— Red pumpkin beetle attack on young cucurbits can be avoided by spraying 75-150 g of Sevin/Haxavin 50 WP in 50-100 litres or water per acre.

— For the control of powdery mildew in cucurbit, spray the crop with Karathane 50-80 ml/acre at the appearance of powder on the leaves. Avoid spray of sulphur of copper based fungicide on cucurbits.

— For the control of downy mildew, spray the crop with Indofil M-45 at the rate of 300 g in 100 litres of water. Repeat sprays at 4 to 7 days interval.

— Spray the onion crop with 600 g Indofil M 45 or 400 g Difolatan mixed with 200 ml of Malathion and 200 ml of Triton or linseed oil (as sticker) in 200 litres of water per acre for the control of purple blotch.

— Progressive Farming, PAU