Manage rainwater for agriculture
By J.L. Dalal
HARYANA is a small state. At the time of its creation in 1966, the infrastructure in the state was very poor. It was openly talked about both in public as well as high echelons of the government that Haryana would not be able to sustain and improve its economy. Fortunately, this has been proved a fallacy as the state has made rapid strides in its allround development, and is now considered as a frontline state of the country. it was, in fact, in the late sixties, during the tenure of the author as Director of Agriculture, that the first “yield take-off” took place and the foodgrain production was almost doubled from about 24 lakh tonnes to nearly 48 lakh tonnes. last year it crossed the figure of 121 lakh tonnes. As new problems keep appearing, so there are no limitations to the development activities.

Ayurveda poised to transform India
By Suraj Bhan Dahiya
INDIA has been using medicines derived from plant extract for more than 5,000 years and practitioners of traditional medicines look after the health of almost three out of four persons. Besides thousands of village-based suppliers of herbal medicines, India has more than 40,000 licensed medical practitioners of the codified system of indigenous medicines.

Farm operations for June
Vegetables:
— Start sowing okra and use varieties Punjab-8, Punjab-7 or Punjab Padmini, resistant to yellow vein mosaic virus. Apply 40 kg of CAN, 100 kg of superphosphate and 25 kg of muriate of potash per acre. To the crop sown for seed production purpose, apply 4 kg Thimet 10 G after 21 days of germination. For controlling weeds in bhindi, use Stomp 30 EC @ 1 litre as pre-emergence or Basalin 750 ml per acre as pre-plant (before sowing) application. Dissolve either of herbicide in 200 litres of water.

Developing off-season vegetables
By Ravinder Sood

SINCE our country has attained self-sufficiency in the production of foodgrains, the agricultural scientists now have laid stress on nutritional aspect. All efforts are made to evolve new varieties of vegetables. Besides, much emphasis is being laid on the production of off-season vegetables. HP Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, has taken various steps in this direction. In the past five years the Vegetables Department of the HPKV has made remarkable achievement in this field.

Dr Pritam Kalia, an eminent vegetable breeders, here, after doing advance research in England, has started systematic research on adapting and developing new varieties of high-value nutritious vegetable crop suitable to Indian conditions, especially that of broccoli, leek and asparagus. All these vegetables also carry medicinal properties. His efforts have helped the HPKV to develop India’s first green sprouting green broccoli named as “Palam Samridhi”, which was released for cultivation in 1995. This was really a great success for him. Now this broccoli is quite popular among farmers. This variety has started appearing even in small markets of the country.

Recently Dr Kalia has made another step forward in this direction by developing a few more varieties of broccoli like DPGB 12 (green sprouting broccoli), DPPB 1 (purple heading broccoli) and DPYgB 1 (yellowish green heading broccoli). These varieties will be known as “Palam Haritika”, “Palam Vichitra” and “Palam Kanchan”, respectively. These are quite rich in powerful anti-cancerous compound sulphoraphane, vitamin A and C, calcium, iron, phosphorus, etc. Dr Kalia is confident that these vegetables will also go a long way in checking the dietary deficiency problems of the people. Promoting these nutritious vegetables in the country is the need of the day.

The purple and yellow-coloured broccolies are first-ever varieties developed in the country by the HPKV. Likewise, the DPL-1 variety of leek is also the first-ever variety developed on Indian land, which has been named as “Palam Paushtik”. This variety also carry various medicinal properties and has been specially recommended for heart patients. It can be consumed in the form of soup/salad or cooked vegetable.

Asparagus SL-841 has been adapted by the HPKV. Its planting material is being multiplied and distributed among the farmers. The two more varieties of vegetables developed by Dr Kalia, DPR-1 (radish) and DPK-1 (knol-khol), shall be released soon under the names “Palam Hriday” and “Palam Tenderknob”, respectively. All these vegetable crops shall find congenial environment for growing in the hills and farmers can fetch remunerative return if grown off-season.

Recently, Dr Kalia has been appointed as Consulting Editor of the International Journal of Vegetable Crop Production from Asia. This journal is published from the USA.

Manage rainwater for agriculture
By J.L. Dalal

HARYANA is a small state. At the time of its creation in 1966, the infrastructure in the state was very poor. It was openly talked about both in public as well as high echelons of the government that Haryana would not be able to sustain and improve its economy. Fortunately, this has been proved a fallacy as the state has made rapid strides in its allround development, and is now considered as a frontline state of the country. it was, in fact, in the late sixties, during the tenure of the author as Director of Agriculture, that the first “yield take-off” took place and the foodgrain production was almost doubled from about 24 lakh tonnes to nearly 48 lakh tonnes. last year it crossed the figure of 121 lakh tonnes. As new problems keep appearing, so there are no limitations to the development activities.

The state has always been a victim of vagaries of weather. Erratic rain, sometimes resulting into drought and sometimes floods, is a common feature. For want of proper attention or less attention, these situations continue to be challenging ones. Keeping in view the varied geo-physical conditions of the state, these adversities do provide ample opportunity for future potential development activities. Uptil now for agricultural development, the main emphasis has been primarily on short-term measures, that is, on improved seed, fertilisers, etc. But for sustained production and high productivity, the soil and water management are essential desiderata. Growing alkalinity, salinity and waterlogging in certain localised areas and over exploitation of underground water leading to too much fall in the water-table in others are the twin potent problems which need to be corrected on priority. These are not only adversely affecting the economy of the farmers and the state as a whole, but are health hazards as well. Depending upon the availability of technical expertise and financial resources, both these problems, being directly related to “water management”, need to be tackled on priority. Because, besides land, water is the lifeline of the farming occupation and Haryana being traditionally an agricultural state, it cannot afford wastage of water. It is reported that total water requirement is 34 maf, which is much more than the water available in the state i.e. 18.80 maf from all sources.

The government cannot afford to give or continue to give a marginal approach to tackling the water management for future development of agriculture of the state as also for water requirements for domestic consumption which too is largely on the increase with the extension of water supplies to rural areas.

Water management has three aspects. These are “acquisition”, “transmission” and “utilisation”. As for acquisition, there are three sources of its availability, that is, rainwater, canal water and underground water. It is felt that uptil now scanty attention has been paid to all of these three aspects, with the result that the areas where waterlogging had brought underground water-table on the surfaces, there is an acute fall in the water-table now and the areas where the water-table was nearly 100 feet deep are experiencing waterlogging, alkalinity and salinity problems. Is it not callousness? Besides, what has already appeared in the press vis-a-vis these problems, I have certain ideas for management of excess rainwater which the state receives in certain years.

In a way, Haryana is a low to medium rainfall area and there cannot be much to control its rain water except when there are flood-like situations. Now when the farmers have come forward to adopt new innovations with higher intensity of cropping, it is incumbent upon the government to take steps to manage excess of rainwater properly to meet their demand, especially of water-intensive cropping system.

Haryana does not have uniform land level and strata. Almost every village or cluster of villages has land depressions ranging from small to big johars where rainwater accumulates when the rainfall is heavy. As such either kharif crops are not sown or are damaged, if sown. In certain eventualities, even sowing of rabi crops is hampered. The Irrigation Department should have full statistics vis-a-vis such depressions. It is suggested that, first the government should select areas having medium to big depressions and develop them into lakes by bundhing. To compensate the farmers, the latter be paid compensation equal to the average income that accrues to them every year from rabi crops. As such, most of the excess rainwater can be trapped in these lakes. It is also possible to trap rainwater by raising the level of 75 per cent kutcha roads in the rural area. In the years of two heavy rains, the lake water can be diverted into drains through subsidiary drains or pucca pipes which may form part of the project so that bundhs of these lakes do not get washed. The depressions along the railway lines, metalled roads and canals can also be enlarged at suitable places, especially in areas where water-table has gone too deep. These can accommodate plenty of rainwater during flood-like situations. As Haryana’s geophysical location is so ideal being near Delhi that some of these lakes can be made attractive tourists spots being near Delhi. These will attract tourists all the year round. Good hotels and markets can also be built wherever feasible as also several other social and cultural activities. As such, these can be a good source of income to the government as well as to the local people.

Enormous employment avenues will also be generated for rural youth who are becoming social irritants at present. Even public schools can be started at selected places and melas can also be held. Sports stadia for locals can be established. There will be a lot of interaction of rural and urban people. Even the digging and bundhing of lakes will provide a lot of employment. The rural and urban bias that is being inflated will also be reduced. Haryana can be converted into a place of great entertainment and happiness.

The project be formulated primarily in areas having brackish sub-soil water around Delhi and where water-table has gone down very deep and installation of tubewells has become an arduous task, such as Karnal and around. It should be a World Bank-financed one as the resources of the state government may be too meagre to do so.

The second segment of the above mentioned project can be widening of the existing drains at suitable places and converting them into lakes with falls and using turbines for generating electricity. The very deep places where drains are constructed by bundhing can be most suitable because the sites will be much deeper than the area around, big embankments will not be required to maintain the lakes.

There will be additional advantage of these lakes proposed under both sections that the water so collected can be used for irrigation in the areas around, especially in winter. Suppose 6 inches deep water is standing in 100 acres by the end of October, it can be trapped in a five-acre area lake with 10 feet depth of water, thus enabling sowing of rabi crops in over 90 acres in time.

Irrigation engineers can explore the feasibility of undertaking the proposed project as it is they who are experts in this field. The work may be taken upon an experimental basis near Delhi and in the districts of Karnal and Kurukshetra by selecting the most suitable areas.

Ayurveda poised to transform India
By Suraj Bhan Dahiya

INDIA has been using medicines derived from plant extract for more than 5,000 years and practitioners of traditional medicines look after the health of almost three out of four persons. Besides thousands of village-based suppliers of herbal medicines, India has more than 40,000 licensed medical practitioners of the codified system of indigenous medicines.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that up to 3.5 billion people in the developing countries rely on plant-based medicine for primary healthcare. Ayurvedic healers in India itself use more than 1,000 different plants.

Despite being a treasure trove of rare medicinal plants and birthplace of three therapeutic systems, India’s share in the Rs 51,500 crore herbal industry is less than 1 per cent.

Now, the demand for herbal medicines is storming the Indian Ocean. In the European Union alone the demand has grown more than 5 per cent a year since 1990. An Exim Bank of India study estimates world trade in medicinal plants at more than $ 60 billion a year. While countries in the West are carrying out extensive research on Indian medicinal herbs and even obtaining patents, India’s herbal exports total an abysmal Rs 370 crore, thanks to the government apathy and lack of interest of our agricultural scientists.

The Indian Government has been little slow to recognise and protect its indigenous innovation and knowledge as collective heritage and many countries were smart enough to pirate our ayurvedic wisdom of neem, bhu, amla, karela, sharifa, haldi, angoor, Indian mustard, kathal, adarak, kala jeera, kumari, amaltas, brahmi, carden balsam, jangli erand, pomegranate, kali mirch, arand, black night shade, choulai, harad, ber, isabgol, etc. These countries have got patents on ayurvedic usage of these plants also.

“The government has no long-term sustained planning regarding the herbal industry,” rues Arif Hussein, Marketing Manager of hamdard Wakf Laboratories. A study says that no less than 75 per cent of medicinal plant collection is from the wild, but in India, indiscriminate deforestation of 1,65,000 hectares every year is destroying our invaluable genetic stock. Nearly 100 medicinal plants are facing extinction in the country and the government, of late, has to ban formulations derived from some 84 plants.

While many small-scale manufacturers of herbal drugs are being forced to down shutters due to a harsh taxation policy, bigger players are facing problems in upgrading their products due to lack of funds for research and development (R&D). During the last Plan period, the government allocation for alternative medicines (ayurveda, sidha and unani) was only Rs 36 crore compared to Rs 1,000 crore for allopathy.

Lack of government interest in the R&D in the herbal industry is evident from the fact that the USA has conducted more clinical trial on neem than India. It’s pity that we wait for the Food and Drug Administration in the USA or WHO to endorse the veracity of our medicinal products. nevertheless, major players in the Indian herbal market like Dabur — where ayurveda constitutes 90 per cent of the total turnover of Rs 810 crore — have undertaken elaborate R&D projects. But they are meant to show the right path to our government.

“China, India and Brazil are the principal suppliers of medicinal plants to the world,” says Ronald Watkins, Chairman of Plant Science International of the UK. As herbal medicines become more and more popular, many pharmaceutical companies in the West are developing drugs based on natural plant material. Watkins says there is growing concern about side-affects of synthetic drugs.

China, which has the largest share of the world herbal market, has become an erratic supplier. This provides India a great opportunity to have sway over herbal trade. India is the only country where every botanical species known to mankind is to be found. But to raise the export of medicinal plants in a big way, it must encourage sustainable commercial scale cultivation.

According to the Manila-based Biodiversity Conservation network, there is danger of 25 per cent of all plant species becoming extinct in the next 50 years because of failure of policies. Realising advantageous geographical factors of India many global pharmaceutical companies in the West are searching for a base here. Biopharm of the UK has already formed an alliance with Rallis of India for cultivation of some medicinal plants.

Warning of economic unrest in the developing world in the times to come the thrust area of India should be on enhancing herbal harvesting using all available tools of advanced sciences like biotechnology and genetic engineering. The agricultural universities should widen the base of the R&D on herbal crops. herbal engineering and herbal cultivation study should be introduced as new courses in the universities.

Commercialisation of herbal crops in the country will prove boon to the farmers. In the international conference on biotechnology for sustained productivity in agriculture held at Hyderabad in November, 1999, it was revealed that it is truly amazing that Indian farmers are fully conversant with the ingredients of herbal crops and their utilities. They may be true leaders of tomorrow world. If they are supported to grow herbal plants as a commercial venture for meeting the requirement of manufacturers on one side and diluting the balance of payment difficulties of the country on the other side. Ayurveda and the Aryans (cultivators) possibly may bring back the “golden Sparrow” glory to India in the coming century.

Farm operations for June

Vegetables: 
— Start sowing okra and use varieties Punjab-8, Punjab-7 or Punjab Padmini, resistant to yellow vein mosaic virus. Apply 40 kg of CAN, 100 kg of superphosphate and 25 kg of muriate of potash per acre. To the crop sown for seed production purpose, apply 4 kg Thimet 10 G after 21 days of germination. For controlling weeds in bhindi, use Stomp 30 EC @ 1 litre as pre-emergence or Basalin 750 ml per acre as pre-plant (before sowing) application. Dissolve either of herbicide in 200 litres of water.

— Progressive Farming, PAU