Agriculture World February Magazine 2017 by Krishi Jagran

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VOLUME 3 ISSUE 02 FEBRUARY 2017 ` 70

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BUDGET ANALYSIS GARGI PARSAI

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MICRO-IRRIGATION IN INDIA

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Volume 3 Issue 02 February 2017 ` 70 Pages 84

Directors

Shiny Emanuel MG Vasan

Furkan Qureshi Kanchan Singh Karishma Lehri Aayesha Khan Pawan Kumar Nupur Das

Sr. Executive Editors

Head Pre-Press

Editor-in-Chief

MC Dominic

Dr. KT Chandy RK Teotia Technical Editor

Dr. B C Biswas

Yogesh Kumar Graphic Designer

AnilRaj

Accounts

Editor

Ajith Kumar V R

Udit Mittal K. B Indra

Assistant Editor

DD Nair

Ruby Jain

Imran Khan

VP International Business (Russia & CIS Countries) 6 Mikluho-Maklaya STR, Moscow, Russia 117198 Mob: +7903729 98 30, Tel: +7499501 99 10 Email: ddnair@krishijagran.com

Correspondents

M Mezhukanal

Social Media Head

Aniket Sinha

Sr. Correspondent

Vipin Mishra Sameer Tiwari V.P. Int. Business

D.D. Nair Gavrilova Maria Marketing Head

Sanjay Kumar

GM - Marketing

E-16F - 33, Hamriya Free Zone, Sharjah, UAE Mob: +971 50 2870465 Email: mezhukanal@krishijagran.com For Circulation & Subscription Nishant Kr. Taak Mob: +91-9953756433 Email: circulation@krishijagran.com, subscription@krishijagran.com

Farha Khan

Sr. Manager Marketing

Editorial editor@krishijagran.com

Mukundan Nair K J Saranya Sara Khan

Marketing Manager

Megha Sharma Afsana Malik

Assistant Manager Mrkt.

Mahima Pulyani Upasna Kanan

Sr. Executive Marketing

Chunki Bhutia Poonam Bishwakarma Rinki Pundir Laxmi Pandey Soniya Mahajan Shifali Mahajan Hema Sharma Priyanka Circulation Head

Nishant K Taak Circulation Manager

Rahul Singh Abdus Samad

Sr. Executive Circulation

Prashant Sharma Anku Yadav Preeti Chauhan Pappu Rai Mohit

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Marketing response@krishijagran.com Printed and Published by: M. C. Dominic 60/9, 3rd Floor, Yusuf Sarai Market, Near Green Park Metro Station, New Delhi 110016. Tel: 011-26511845, 26517923 Mobile: +91-9313301029, +919654193353 Web: www.krishijagran.com Printed at : HT Media Press, House No. B 2, Sector-63, Noida-201301, Distt: Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. All rights reserved. Copyright @ Krishi Jagran Media Group. Agriculture World is published by Krishi Jagran Media Group. Editor in Chief: MC Dominic Disclaimer: While every care has been taken to ensure accuracy of the information contained in this publications, the publishers are not responsible for any errors or omissions that might have crept into this publications. No part of this publication may be reproduced or kept in a retrieval system, without the express permission of the publishers.

FEBRUARY 2017

CO N T E N T

08 CARRYING CAPACITY of Natural Resources:

20 MICRO -IRRIGATION AND FERTIGATION for Higher Crop Productivity – an IFFCO Initiative

44 BLOAT IN RUMINANTS

BUDGET CALLS FOR DOUBLING FARMERS’ income but where is the road-map?

14 Problems and Prospects of MICRO-IRRIGATION & FERTIGATION IN INDIA

28 MICRO-IRRIGATION AND FERTIGATION in sugarcane

50 JUICE BLENDING A promising way to improve quality and storage of fruits and vegetable juices

AND MANY MORE

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Volume 3 Issue 02 February 2017 ` 70 Pages 84

Directors

Shiny Emanuel MG Vasan

Furkan Qureshi Kanchan Singh Karishma Lehri Aayesha Khan Pawan Kumar Nupur Das

Sr. Executive Editors

Head Pre-Press

Editor-in-Chief

MC Dominic

Dr. KT Chandy RK Teotia Technical Editor

Dr. B C Biswas

Yogesh Kumar Graphic Designer

AnilRaj

Accounts

Editor

Ajith Kumar V R

Udit Mittal K. B Indra

Assistant Editor

DD Nair

Ruby Jain

Imran Khan

VP International Business (Russia & CIS Countries) 6 Mikluho-Maklaya STR, Moscow, Russia 117198 Mob: +7903729 98 30, Tel: +7499501 99 10 Email: ddnair@krishijagran.com

Correspondents

M Mezhukanal

Social Media Head

Aniket Sinha

Sr. Correspondent

Vipin Mishra Sameer Tiwari V.P. Int. Business

D.D. Nair Gavrilova Maria Marketing Head

Sanjay Kumar

GM - Marketing

Farha Khan

Sr. Manager Marketing

Editorial editor@krishijagran.com

Mukundan Nair K J Saranya Sara Khan

Marketing Manager

Megha Sharma Afsana Malik

Assistant Manager Mrkt.

Mahima Pulyani Upasna Kanan

Sr. Executive Marketing

Chunki Bhutia Poonam Bishwakarma Rinki Pundir Laxmi Pandey Soniya Mahajan Shifali Mahajan Hema Sharma Priyanka Circulation Head

Nishant K Taak Circulation Manager

Rahul Singh Abdus Samad

Sr. Executive Circulation

Prashant Sharma Anku Yadav Preeti Chauhan Pappu Rai Mohit

AGRICULTURE

WORLD

FEBRUARY 2017

CO N T E N T

08 CARRYING CAPACITY of Natural Resources:

20 MICRO -IRRIGATION AND FERTIGATION for Higher Crop Productivity – an IFFCO Initiative

44 BLOAT IN RUMINANTS

BUDGET CALLS FOR DOUBLING FARMERS’ income but where is the road-map?

14 Problems and Prospects of MICRO-IRRIGATION & FERTIGATION IN INDIA

28 MICRO-IRRIGATION AND FERTIGATION in sugarcane

50 JUICE BLENDING A promising way to improve quality and storage of fruits and vegetable juices

AND MANY MORE

www.krishijagran.com

FEBRUARY 2017

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can’t manage what you can’t measure”, management thinker Peter Drucker says. Its very relevant when we approach the agriculture sector of India and our budget. In many cases, most of the survey reports are undependable to assess the socio-economic standards of our farmers. That may be in the mind of our Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitely ,while presenting the budget and hope that be one of the reasons to put special emphasis to agriculture sector . We congratulate Hon’ble Minister for the bold step taken to allocate Rs.1,87,223 crore for rural,agriculture and allied sectors. It is 24% higher than last year’s allocation. It also pointing to the Government’s strong commitment to double farmers’ income in five years.Finance Minister allocated Rs 10 lakh crore for agriculture credit and in that, per person credit is increased substantially to 10 lakh per person. A chain of farmers’ suicide happened some years back may be in mind while fixing the tenure of loans under Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna from 15 to 20 years.The decision to issue soil health cards and set up mini labs in Krishi Vigyan Kendras are commendable. It will ease the tensions related to scientific aspects of the soil and its related link to the yield. Rs 13,240 crore has been ear marked for PradhanMantri Fasal Bima yojana, and through which government aims to cover 40% of the total crop area of the country and it will ramp to 50% next fiscal. Its really encouraging and soothing action towards farmers who suffer loss either due to calamities or diseases. Micro irrigation is another thrust area and to achieve the goal of “Per drop more crop”, an initial corpus of Rs.5,000 crore is announced .It shows the right direction Government moves ,to save the most valuable natural resource of the Earth. The scheme declares Government’s commitment for judicious use water.Rs.8,000 crore dairy processing infrastructure fund is also showing a visionary future of rural India. Another important announcement was that of increasing number of National Agricultural Markets from 250 to 500. Jaitley also provided Rs 48,000 crore to NREGA which in one way or other supports the agricultural production .Its no doubt be the most significant budget for the Narendra Modi –led NDA Government and defines the path forward on how the economy will perform. The Finance Minister has given the agriculture sector the attention and investment boost that it deserves and the impact will be seen in coming times. Prof M S Swaminathan appreciated the budget and at the same time cautioned the Government that it is high time that the recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) to provide the minimum price of C2 (i.e. total cost of production) plus 50 percent are implemented. This has been the demand of farmers all over the country.A model law for contract farming that declared by Jaitely will surely protect rights of farmers and ensure a principle of win-win for farmers and contractors. In the area of Skill Development for Rural Youth, building their skills in modern agricultural methods, including using of agricultural equipments, their maintenance and repairs can create employment opportunities. This is because farming in India is being mechanized on a large scale. An area that could have been provided focus in the Budget is climate change, which has not properly been addressed.In the words of Prof Swaminathan, “Overall, the budget is characterized by the right emphasis in addressing the agrarian crisis. What is important is conversion of the idea to field level action with the help of State Governments, Indian Council of Agriculture Research and Agriculture Universities.” Hope effective implementation of the budget announcements will really make a huge difference in our country’s farm families.

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MC Dominic Editor-in-Chief

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Presenting the Union Budget for 201718 in Parliament earlier this month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley flagged agriculture sector amongst the top priority areas for the National Democratic Alliance government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The demand for a loan waiver scheme originated from Punjab which was among the five states that went to the polls in February. The last time an Agriculture Loan Waiver Scheme was announced was in 2008, which was on the eve of 2009 general elections. The point is that that farm loan waiver comes from political exigencies, not real agrarian crisis. The budget was also silent on the distress faced by farmers on account of sudden demonetisation of Indian currency in November 2016 when kharif marketing season was still on and rabi-wheat sowing was underway. In both conditions exchange of hard cash is a norm and demonetisation hit farmers and traders alike with the result that horticulture (fruits, vegetables and floriculture) sales dipped and farmers had to throw away their produce. They were shortchanged as the price of kharif pulses and rice declined below the government-set minimum support price. If anything, this pushed farmers into deeper distress.

GARGI PARSAI

Gargi Parsai is an award-winning, senior journalist. email: gargiparsai@yahoo.com

he Minister weaved his reforms-oriented budgetary allocations around the idea of raising farmers’ income in five years, but fell short of backing it with a clear strategy or spelling out estimates of farmers’ income and the base year from which the doubling of income will be worked upon. Ironically it is farmers’ suicides that have doubled between 2015 and 2016 and the union budget neither acknowledged it nor made any concessions for it.

The Minister flagged as focus areas the crop insurance scheme, higher institutional credit for farmers, larger funds to bring agricultural farms under irrigation, issuance of soil health cards, strengthening national agriculture e-market, a new dairy infrastructure fund for helping farmers have supplementary income and a model law on contract farming to link horticulture with agro-processing. Except for the dairy infrastructure fund, none of the schemes are new.

The immediate demand for a loan waiver scheme found no mention in the budget even as the government maintained that it had--in the run-up to the budget—waived for 60 days the 7% interest on short-term loans of up to Rs. 3 lakh availed by farmers from the rural cooperative credit structure.

Budget calls for doubling farmers’ income but where is the road-map ?

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That the irrigation development project (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna) was taken away from the Agriculture Ministry and brought under the Water Resources Ministry mid-term last year and the soil health testing labs are just being fully set up, shows that the government is still finding its feet where its flagship programmes are concerned. The National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is also slow to take off because all states have not modified their Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act to allow for private trading outside of traditional mandis.

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GARGI PARSAI

Gargi Parsai is an award-winning, senior journalist. email: gargiparsai@yahoo.com

Budget calls for doubling farmers’ income but where is the road-map ?

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Therefore, it was no surprise that in the 2017-18 budget the government only gave a fillip to the farm sector programmes announced in last year’s budget. The allocation to the agriculture sector is only 4.88 % higher than last year if we compare the Rs. 41855 crore allocated for 2017-18 as against the Revised Estimates (RE) of Rs.39840 crore. And if we include the revenue from the Krishi Kalyan Cess which is estimated at Rs. 10800 crore in 2017-18 compared to Rs. 9000 crore in RE, then the allocation is up by 7.2 per cent which is still not proportionate to the 17 per cent tax revenue collections announced by the Finance Minister.

Committee report that called for levying 4 % interest on crop loans and a 50 % hike over the government-set support prices for commodities to raise farmers’ income. Dr. Swaminathan, also known as “father of India’s green revolution in 1960’s” knew what he was talking about but the panel’s suggestion did not find favour with the earlier Congress-led United Progressive Alliance or the present BJP-led NDA.

Krishi Kalyan Cess introduced last year to support drought-hit agriculture sector, is a 0.5 % cess on all taxable services. It will raise Rs. 9000 crore in 2016-17 and is the source of funding for the highly subsidised Fasal Bima Yojna (Crop Insurance Scheme) and the interest subsidy on crop loans. Some experts favour better targeting of farm subsidies on fertilizers (which go to companies anyway), credit and crop insurance to instead infuse public sector funding into the sector which has an average growth rate hovering around 1.5 per cent of the GDP. However, the government, even while embarking upon the path of reforms, cannot ignore the fact that 85 % farmers are in the small and marginal sector with a landholding of less than 2 hectares (5 acres) and 60 % farmers depend upon the vagaries of weather for producing a good crop and earn a livelihood. High input costs, low investment on irrigation, lack of remunerative prices, lack of storages and proper marketing of produce are the bane of Indian farmers which prompted 40 per cent of farmers to say, in an official survey a few years ago, that they would much rather quit farming. It must be remembered that successive governments have not accepted the recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan

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Funds infusion in infrastructure, innovation in technology, skill development, extension services, timely availability of inputs and fair market practices are the need of the hour. The key, however, lies in proper implementation of policy initiatives by the states, agriculture being a State subject under the Constitution.

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Be that as it may, the agriculture credit target for 2017-18 has been raised to Rs. 10 lakh crore from Rs. 950000 crore in 2016-17 with an assurance that special efforts will be made for adequate flow of credit to under-serviced regions of eastern India and Jammu and Kashmir. Adequate credit and irrigation facility form the basis on Indian farming. The credit is meant not only for inputs but development of infrastructure as well.

The budget was silent on the distress faced by farmers on account of sudden demonetisation of Indian currency in November 2016 when kharif marketing season was still on and rabi-wheat sowing was underway

In three years, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will integrate all of the 63,000 functional Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACs) with the Core Banking System of District Central Cooperative Banks with special support of Rs.1,900 crores. The cost for doing this will be shared with state governments. PACs are the front end for loan disbursements in rural areas. For the flagship crop insurance scheme, the allocation has been raised from the budgeted estimate of Rs. 5500 crore in 2016-17 to Rs. 9000 crore in 2017-18. The target next year will be to bring 40 % of cropped area under insurance and take it to 50 % next year. This year, the government will incur a cost of Rs. 13,240 crore (RE) for the scheme, which only underlines the need for such a programme.

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The demand-driven programme is dependent on how the weather plays out. The scheme was launched from April 1, 2016 and is a shift from claim-based insurance scheme to upfront subsidy for premium-based system with minimal burden to farmers. In the last two years, parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have faced severe water crisis on account of deficient rain during southwest and north east monsoon seasons. It is clear by now that the real benefit in the Soil Health Card programme will accrue to the farmers only when soil samples are tested quickly to know the nutrient levels. For this the government will now set up new mini labs in the 648 Krishi Vigyan Kendras and ensure 100 per cent coverage. In addition, 1000 mini labs will be set up by qualified local entrepreneurs. The government will provide credit linked subsidy to these entrepreneurs which will accelerate the programme.

At the same time, with a high focus on bringing more agriculture land under irrigation, the budget has allocated Rs. 7377 crore to the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna which is dedicated to “Har Khet Ko Paani” (water for every field). This money is higher by 42 % over last year. Augmenting the funds provided in 2016-17 budget for long-term irrigation projects, the Finance Minister set aside another Rs. 20,000 crore with NABARD for fast track completion of 99 identified projects by 2021. In addition, a dedicated Micro Irrigation Fund with an initial corpus of Rs. 5000 crore has been created with NABARD to give a fillip to drip and sprinkler irrigation over flood irrigation. Five lakh village ponds will also be improved.

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To supplement farmers’ income and provide a cushion during distress years, the government allocated Rs. 2000 crore as corpus for a new Dairy and Infrastructure Development Fund to be established under NABARD. The allocation will be enhanced to Rs. 8000 crore in three years. Availability of milk processing facility and other infrastructure will benefit the farmers through value addition. Besides, the government wants to revive and modernise a large number of milk processing units set up under the Operation Flood Programme. NABARD will be the nodal agency for implementing schemes for improved access to irrigation and developing the dairy sector. Reduction in post-harvest losses and getting farmers a good price for their produce is a challenge every government recognises. In the last budget the union government announced setting up of a National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) which would fetch a better price for farmers through a transparent mechanism. An assistance of upto Rs. 75 lakh to every e-NAM market for establishment of facilities for cleaning, grading and packaging facilities will be an impetus to quickly set to the platform. So far 250 APMCs have come on board. The effort is to connect 585 mandis in 2017-18 in this major reform initiative.

High input costs, low investment on irrigation, lack of remunerative prices, lack of storages and proper marketing of produce are the bane of Indian farmers which prompted 40 per cent of farmers to say, in an official survey a few years ago, that they would much rather quit farming.

ance redress has worked against farmers and unless the government decides to be a mediator, this scheme may not take off. On a positive note, following a normal monsoon in 2016, agriculture and allied sector (including fishery, livestock, dairy and forestry) is set to grow at 4.1 % in 2016-17 from the 1.2 per cent increase in 2015-16. Saluting the “commitment and resilience’’ of the Indian farmer, Mr. Jaitley said the 2017-18 budget provides measures to enhance production and productivity and to deal with post-harvest losses. With higher outlays for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural

Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA), rural housing and rural electrification, the total support to rural and agriculture sector had been raised by 24 per cent to Rs. 1,87,223 crore (Rs. 1.87 trillion) in 2017-18. A growth rate of 4.1 per cent, if achieved, will give a boost to the overall economy. But this should be accompanied by improving the lot of farmers and lifting them out of the debt trap in the formal and informal sectors. Funds infusion in infrastructure, innovation in technology, skill development, extension services, timely availability of inputs and fair market practices are the need of the hour. The key, however, lies in proper implementation of policy initiatives by the states, agriculture being a State subject under the Constitution.

As part of market reforms, the union government has decided to urge State governments to de-notify perishables (fruits and vegetables) from the APMC. This will enable farmers to sell their produce outside of mandis and get a better price. Such an announcement, though, should have been backed by plans for decentralised storage facilities and cold storages for small and medium farmers to have a better holding capacity. Seeking to give an official cover to Contract Farming wherein agro-processing units enter into agreement with a farmer for sowing a particular horticulture crop on his field for food processing. Mr. Jaitley said a model law on contract farming will be prepared and circulated among states for adoption. Past experience has shown that lack of regulation, monitoring and griev-

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UTURE land or water for the existence and development of a certain number of populations within the ecological equilibrium which implies a constant attempt to strike a balance between the production and consumption patterns in our country. In a globalized market economy, much importance is given to export-import aspects of the economy forgetting the maintenance of a balance between production potential and consumption pattern. Often we hear much about the export-import balance but not about the balance between carrying capacity and consumption (Invisible Injustice).

Carrying Capacity of Natural Resources: part I Dr. K. T. Chandy

(Retd Professor, XIM. Bhubaneswar Specialist in water resource management) Email. ktchandysj@gmail.com

e often talk about the carrying capacity of a truck or a vehicle, a railway engine, aircraft or even a rocket. It simply means the load it can carry comfortably with least wear and tear. Similarly we also can estimate the carrying capacity of land and water resources in the nature or an eco-system. Carrying capacity of a unit land or water area is estimated by the number of people it can support on a sustainable basis. So we will find that a hectare of land in a high rainfall and high fertility area will support more people than another hectare in a low rainfall and less fertile area. That means the carrying capacity of the first type of land is high while the second type is low. Hence the carrying capacity refers to the average production potential of the land and water area on a long term basis. AGRICULTURE

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It can also be considered as the total amount of products produced. The carrying capacity in short refers to the sustained production potential of a unit area of land and water measured by the number of people it can support in a sustained manner. Carrying Capacity is one of the key ecological principles influencing the whole spectrum of human existence and development. For human beings “Existence without Development is Meaningless and Development without Existence is Impossible”. The things required for the proper human existence and development are from the earth or the eco-system. Unfortunately a vast majority of the people in India (about 75%) remain only at the level of animal existence or at a half human life. One of the reasons for such state of existence is our www.krishijagran.com

collective ignorance or unconsciousness of the carrying capacity of our country (Invisible Injustice). It is again another aspect of the ageold economic dynamics that is operative in our lives: when demand is higher than the supply, marginalization occurs and the law of the survival of the fittest becomes operative. Everyone in any country from planners and policy makers to the common man at the farm level needs to be aware of the correlation between ‘supply-demand imbalance and the principle of Carrying Capacity in their life. Yet no one seems to know about it because no one is talking about it nor any one writes about it (an Invisible Injustice). The purpose of this write up is to fill that gap. However due to shortage of space I shall split this write up into two: part one will be a short theoretical exposition of concepts related to carrying capacity and part two will be related to the impact of population growth on carrying capacity. The production capacity refers to sustained crop and animal production per unit area of www.krishijagran.com

The following figure (Fig 1) is a simple graphical expression of carrying capacity. On the X-axis is marked the units of time and on the Y-axis marked the number of individuals that can be supported by a specific natural resource system. In the beginning the number of individuals that can be supported by the system will increase at an increasing pace; then the rate of increase will decrease to a constant number of individuals supported; that will be the carrying capacity of a specific area of natural eco-system. Hence carrying capacity is the maximum number of individual that can be supported sustainably on a given geographical area. Beyond this the production capacity decreases as there will be a drop in the production potential. In other words the production system will become unsustainable. Hence every system has an optimum production capacity and we should be careful not to operate on a natural system beyond its natural production capacity.

Fig 1 If the population exceeds the carrying capac-

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Carrying Capacity of Natural Resources: part I Dr. K. T. Chandy

(Retd Professor, XIM. Bhubaneswar Specialist in water resource management) Email. ktchandysj@gmail.com

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Fig 1 If the population exceeds the carrying capac-

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UTURE tainable in all circumstances. Special attention should be given to maintenance of carrying capacity of land/water on which people depend on for their existence and development.

Terms Related to Carrying Capacity • Bio-capacity (BC):- Bio-capacity or biological capacity refers to the number of people that a hectare of land or water can support. It refers to the ‘capacity of a given productive area (eco-system) to produce materials needed and useful to the people who depend on it and also to absorb all wastes including carbon dioxide emissions occurring during the production process. It also implies the ‘sustainability’ in the production capacity of an eco-system. There is not much difference between carrying capacity and bio-capacity: the former is an old term and the latter is the modern term used by World Footprint Net work, 2006. The former refers to the number of people and the latter to the production capacity of a unit area of land or water. The former refers to the number of people and the latter to the products that sustain the people or animals.

ity it will start declining slowly by death and natural selection process following the law of the survival of the fittest and in some cases sudden epidemic effect of total annihilation can take place. Often it takes place in a very invisibly slow process that it is hardly noticed by anyone. History is full of such incidences. It is also important to note that different geographic regions have different levels of carrying capacity. Climate and local geography play a crucial role in maintaining the carrying capacity. In some parts of the world, endemic species recover swiftly following a drop in population, whereas in other areas of the world recovery is measured in tens or hundreds of years. Excerpts from https://populationmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/D20Carryingcapacity.pdf are given below as examples of the effect of sharp fall in carrying capacity. • “Polynesian settlers who crossed the Pacific AGRICULTURE

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left behind a landscape which responded well to burning (they used fire to clear land and refresh forest growth) but the lands they settled later did not respond to fire treatment in forest regeneration. The decline in tree cover on Easter Island, Hawaii and New Zealand is attributed to a fundamental misunderstanding of the localized conditions by the newly arriving people. Similarly, the Viking community which settled in Greenland experienced a parallel collapse when they attempted to farm the marginal lands in the same manner they had done with other lands where they settled, but without taking into account of local conditions.” • “Another case where a human community is believed to have exceeded its carrying capacity is that of the Mayans who were a fantastic civilization in Mexico and other adjacent southern countries. It appears that population pressure forced them to cultivate more and www.krishijagran.com

more marginal land, leading to a reduction of carrying capacity in their ecosystem. The forest land was not amenable to long-term intense cultivation, leading to topsoil erosion on a large scale. This in turn led to conflict between Mayan cities to compete for land which inevitably could not support the rising populations; conflict and gradual collapse of their society followed. In a number of other instances where peoples have disappeared, this has been at least in part attributed to their populations exceeding the carrying capacity of their local ecosystems.” The lesson is that we cannot assume that any particular agricultural method is suswww.krishijagran.com

• Ecological footprint (EF):- Ecological footprint is the ‘biologically productive area needed to provide for everything needed for a person. The term footprint comes from the fact that any human being requires a minimum of his footprint area of land to Everyone in any stand up physically as shown figuratively in fig 2. In the country from actual sense it is a measure planners and polof the “load” imposed by a icy makers to the given population on nature. common man at the It represents the land area farm level needs necessary to sustain current to be aware of the levels of resource consumpcorrelation between tion and waste discharge by ‘supply-demand that population. The “footimbalance and the print” of the population reprinciple of Carrying fers to the load of energy Capacity in their life. consumption including food Yet no one seems and other nonfood items to know about it consumed plus the energy because no one needed for management of is talking about it the waste produced during nor any one writes the production, processing, about it storing, marketing and consumption. Ultimately Eco-

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UTURE tainable in all circumstances. Special attention should be given to maintenance of carrying capacity of land/water on which people depend on for their existence and development.

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logical Footprint is Economic Foot Print. EF may be estimated at state, country or global level. The World Footprint Net work, 2006, is the recognized global authority to make esti-

mates of footprint at the global level in global hectare (gha). Fig 2. Ecological Footprint (figurative) • Earth Overshoot Day (EOD), previously known as Ecological Debt Day (EDD) is the date on which humanity’s resource consumption for the year exceeds earth’s capacity to regenerate the same resources in the same year. ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ is estimated by dividing the world bio-capacity (WBC) by the world

World Bio-capacity/ World Ecological Footprint X 365 = Earth Overshoot Day (EOD) (WBC/WEF X 365 = EOD) ecological footprint (WEF), and multiplying it by 365, the number of days in one calendar year: Hence the formula for estimating Earth Offshoot Day is the following. For example if in the year 1916 one hectare could support five people for the whole year then the world bio-capacity (WBC) will be 1/5 = 0.2 ha per person; then the earth offshoot day (EOD) will be estimated as 1/0.2 x 365=1825 AGRICULTURE

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Bio-capacity or biological capacity refers to the number of people that a hectare of land or water can support. It refers to the ‘capacity of a given productive area (eco-system) to produce materials needed and useful to the people who depend on it and also to absorb all wastes including carbon dioxide emissions occurring during the production process.

(5x365) days or 5 years. That means in the year 1916 one person in the world could survive on one hectare of land for five years and the EOD for him came after 1825 days or EOD occurred on 31 Dec 1921. It also means that in 1916 one hectare of land could support five people at a time for one year and hence the population load was five people per hectare.

The estimated footprint for 2017 is 1.66 and hence the EOD for 2017 will occur five days earlier than that of 2016, that is on August 8th 2017 (220 days) as given in equation No 2.

el. Earth Overshoot Day is calculated by Global Footprint Network 2006 and is a campaign supported by dozens of other nonprofit organizations.

WBC/WEFx365 = 1/1.66x365= 220 or on Aug 8th in 2016 (No.2)

But in 2016 (as per estimation by World Footprint Net work, 2006) the global ecological foot print (WEF) was 1.62 ha or one person required 1.62 ha for his sustenance for one year. Hence EOD was 1/1.62 x 365 = 225 days or EOD occurred on 225th day or on August 13th 2016 as given by equation No 1.

When viewed through an economic perspective, EOD represents the day in which humanity enters into an economic deficit. Earth Overshoot Day (EOD) is an estimation of the level at which human population overshoots its environmental production capacity at the world level. Similarly it can be estimated at the national level for any country or at a State level for a state or even at the village lev-

All these estimations denote the rate at which the Earth’s resources are being utilized and the need for regulation in the consumption rate of the people who tend to be limitless in their consumption. Based on these concepts and methodology anyone can estimate and regulate his production and consumption pattern in life. Similarly the production and consumption pattern of a group of people in a village, district, state or country can also be estimated. That is the only way for a sustainable way of living on the Eco-system on which we live and operate.

WBC/WEFx365 = 1/1.62x365= 225 days or on Aug 13th in 2016 (No.1) www.krishijagran.com

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EARTH

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logical Footprint is Economic Foot Print. EF may be estimated at state, country or global level. The World Footprint Net work, 2006, is the recognized global authority to make esti-

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The estimated footprint for 2017 is 1.66 and hence the EOD for 2017 will occur five days earlier than that of 2016, that is on August 8th 2017 (220 days) as given in equation No 2.

el. Earth Overshoot Day is calculated by Global Footprint Network 2006 and is a campaign supported by dozens of other nonprofit organizations.

WBC/WEFx365 = 1/1.66x365= 220 or on Aug 8th in 2016 (No.2)

WBC/WEFx365 = 1/1.62x365= 225 days or on Aug 13th in 2016 (No.1) www.krishijagran.com

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micro rrigation K.G. Mandal

Principal Scientist , ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management Bhubaneswar

ustainable irrigation management is essential to meet the ever-growing demand for food and water scarcity in our country. The area under micro-irrigation must be increased from mere 7.7 million ha to a reasonable level, when its potential is about 69 million ha to minimize water use for irrigation, increase water use efficiency, saving of energy, irrigation cost, fertilizer consumption, and thereby increasing farmer’s income.

Micro- irrigation system saves about 30-40% of water and around 20% of fertilizer and also enhances yield by almost 20%. Further research and development would be required to solve the problems associated with adoption of micro-irrigation by the farmers. Water and nutrients are the key inputs for crop production. Current population of our country is about 1.27 billion and the World

In India, out of 142 million ha net sown area, net irrigated area is only 65.3 million ha. Though there has been a significant achievement in water resources development in the country, a wide gap still exists between irrigation potential created (123.3 million ha) and its utilization (91.5 million ha) Bank estimates that it will reach around 1.6 billion by the year 2050. Though there has been a quantum jump in food grains production, from mere 72.35 to 264.77 million tonnes during the fifty years (1965-66 to 2013-14) of

green revolution, there is a need for increased production to meet the ever growing demand. At the same time, there has been a mounting pressure on both land and water. India accounts for only about 2.4% of the world’s geographical area and 4% of world’s renewable water resources, but the country has to support about 18% of the world’s human population. The net sown area has remained about 140 million ha since 40 years. So, the country has twin challenges of meeting the demand for food and facing water scarcity.

The need for adoption of micro-irrigation In India, out of 142 million ha net sown area, net irrigated area is only 65.3 million ha. Though there has been a significant achievement in water resources development in the country, a wide gap still exists between irrigation potential created (123.3 million ha) and its utilization (91.5 million ha); hence, it is a great challenge to bridge the gap by evolving innovative as well as adopting existing technologies. Per capita availability of water per year is steadily declining from 5177 m3 in 1951 to 1820 m3 in 2001, 1588 m3 per year in 2010 due to increase in population, rapid industrialization, urbanization, cropping intensity and declining groundwater table; and it is expected to decline further to 1341 and 1140 m3 by the years 2025 and 2050, respectively.

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF MICROIRRIGATION & FERTIGATION IN INDIA AGRICULTURE

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Many experts say, if we fail to use water efficiently, we can’t meet the water demand in future. Micro-irrigation is one of the means enhancing growth of agriculture in the country. The greatest strength of this method lies on minimizing water use for irrigation. A survey-based study by Government of India shows that overall, there are tangible benefits of micro-irrigation: 50-90% increase in water use efficiency, 30.5% savings in enerwww.krishijagran.com

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micro rrigation K.G. Mandal

Principal Scientist , ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management Bhubaneswar

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF MICROIRRIGATION & FERTIGATION IN INDIA AGRICULTURE

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gy consumption, 28.5% savings in fertilizer consumption, 42.4% increase in productivity of fruit and crops, 52.7% in vegetables, 31.9% savings in irrigation costs, 30.4% farmers introduced new crops and, 42% increase in farmers’ income. Most importantly, the efficiency of irrigation is enhanced significantly by micro-irrigaDrip irrigation will tion. An impact-study report be fertigation when prepared by National Mission mixed with fertilizer . on Micro-irrigation, GovernIt allows small quanment of India clearly inditity of water, concates that overall efficiency tinuous application, of micro-irrigation (50-90%) reduces loss of water is much higher than the through evaporation, surface irrigation (30-35%) seepage, percolation (Fig. 1) Therefore, it shows of surface runoff. that adoption of micro-irrigation i.e., drip and sprinkler methods are the need of the hour for efficient and sustainable use of water for crop production systems.

Actually, current scenario indicates that there is a large variation with respect to adoption of drip or sprinkler irrigation in different regions of the country and states. Even in eastern Indian states, comparing among Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, it is found that Chhattisgarh is well ahead (Table 1 and 2). .. Through micro-irrigation, there is a prospect of achieving the aim of increasing irrigated area i.e., ‘har khet ko pani’ and improving water use efficiency i.e., ‘more crop per drop’. These are the slogans under the flagship programme of the central Government, ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana’ (PMKSY). Micro-irrigation is an integral component in the flagship programme. Table 1. MICRO-IRRIGATION AREA COVERAGE, AND MICRO-IRRIGATION PENETRATION IN EASTERN INDIAN STATES (2015); PENETRATION MEANS AREA UNDER MICRO-IRRIGATION DIVIDED BY THE TOTAL NET SOWN AREA IN THE STATE States Area under micro-irrigation (ha) as on March 31, 2015 Penetration by state (%) Bihar 1,02,050 1.9 Chhattisgarh 2,56,193 5.5 Jharkhand 16,222 1.5 Odisha 1,00,579 2.3 West Bengal 51,180 1.0 All India Total 77,28,812 5.5 Source: National Committee on Plasticulture Application in Horticulture (NCPAH), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), DAC, Government of India.

Fig. 1. Efficiency of irrigation by different methods (Source: National Mission on Micro-irrigation impact study prepared for the Government of India, consisting of 5892 beneficiaries)

Current scenario of micro-irrigation in India In India, currently area under micro-irrigation AGRICULTURE

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is only 7.7 million ha (2015), out of this, drip irrigation coverage is 3.37 million ha and sprinkler irrigation coverage is 4.36 million ha; whereas its theoretical potential is estimated at around 69 million ha, and untapped potential is 61.8 million ha. That means, we have to go a long way to reach the target. National Mission on Micro-irrigation (NMI) estimate that with the target of achieving 0.5 million ha per year, it will take a very long time to reach to its potential.

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Table 2. ENERGY, FERTILIZER AND IRRIGATION COST SAVINGS, PRODUCTIVITY INCREASE AND NEW CROP INTRODUCTION BY ADOPTION OF MICRO-IRRIGATION IN EASTERN INDIAN STATES Energy Fertilizer Productivity Productivity Irrigation New crop consumption consumption increase-fruit increase-veg- cost savings introduction savings (%) savings(%) crops (%) etables (%) (%) (%)

Bihar Chhattisgarh Odisha Total

40.0 37.8 22.4 30.5

7.6 15.4 40.4 66.7 20.9 35.0 28.5 42.4

31.6 28.6 1.6 98.8 36.5 53.6 28.2 26.5 46.0 52.7 - 30.4

Source: National Mission on Micro-irrigation Impact Study, prepared for the Government of India, consisting of 5892 beneficiaries.

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Fig. 1. Efficiency of irrigation by different methods (Source: National Mission on Micro-irrigation impact study prepared for the Government of India, consisting of 5892 beneficiaries)

Current scenario of micro-irrigation in India In India, currently area under micro-irrigation AGRICULTURE

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Bihar Chhattisgarh Odisha Total

40.0 37.8 22.4 30.5

7.6 15.4 40.4 66.7 20.9 35.0 28.5 42.4

31.6 28.6 1.6 98.8 36.5 53.6 28.2 26.5 46.0 52.7 - 30.4

Source: National Mission on Micro-irrigation Impact Study, prepared for the Government of India, consisting of 5892 beneficiaries.

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System components of micro-irrigation Essentially, micro-irrigation systems are of two types- drip and sprinkler irrigation. Drip irrigation will be fertigation when mixed with fertilizer application. The focus is irrigation root zone of the crop, through fertigation. It allows small quantity of water, continuous application, reduces loss of water through evaporation, seepage, percolation of surface runoff. Sprinkler irrigation simulates natural rainfall, of course, evaporation will be here is a huge posimilar to other surface irritential for use of gation. Water is distributed micro-irrigation systhrough system of pipes, and tems in our country. sprayed on the canopy using Of course, the extent pressure and nozzle. Accordwill vary according ingly, system components to the type of crops , are listed below: their existing acreage

In fertigation, fertilizer is injected into the water application system by selecting appropriate equipment viz. venturi injector or pump, fertilizer tank, fertilizer injection pump.

Problems of micro-irrigation and fertigation

In the past, there has been a lack of focus on spreading micro-irrigation in the country. Some problems are still there.They are as fopllows •

•

Drip and water soluble fertilizers are costly; moreover, mixing of fertilizers through drip irrigation requires use of soluble fertilizers and pumping and injection systems. The systems require a good quality water always to avoid clogging of emitters and sprinkler nozzles.

•

It needs good maintenance of drip and sprinkler irrigation systems, which is difficult sometimes; there is a problem of theft also.

•

In eastern India, land fragmentation is

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Table 3. POTENTIAL FOR MICRO-IRRIGATION SYSTEMS (MILLION HA)

and major growing areas. The penetration of micro-irrigation is very low in eastern Indian states , adoption will further take place if awareness and suitable measures are taken

very high; farmers are not attracted for small holdings unless there is incentive for large scale adoption. •

•

There is delay in release of guidelines/ government order and subsidy disbursement process Lack of dedicated team to track installation and payment.

Apart from these, there are some issues related to fertigation. Patricia Imas of International Potash Institute opined that, effective fertigation requires an understanding of crop growth behaviour, critical physiological stages, nutrient requirements and rooting patterns, soil chemistry such as solubility and mobility of the nutrients, nutrient x nutrient interactions, physical mixing compatibility of fertilizers, their precipitation, clogging and www.krishijagran.com

corrosion if any, water quality factors including pH, salt and sodium hazards, and also toxic ions. Special attention should be given to the pH and NO3/NH4 ratio, nutrient mobility in soil and salinity conditions.

Potential for micro-irrigation systems There is a huge potential for use of micro-irrigation systems in our country. Of course, the extent will vary according to the type of crops (Table 3), their existing acreage and major growing areas. The penetration of micro-irrigation is very low in eastern Indian states , adoption will further take place if awareness and suitable measures are taken. In spite of having good rainfall during monsoon months, large area in eastern India is under rice-fallow. Farmers keep their fields fallow after kharif season because water availability is very unwww.krishijagran.com

Crop Total area (million ha) Cereals 27.6 Pulses 7.6 Oilseeds 4.9 Cotton 8.8 Vegetables 6.0 Spices and condiments 2.4 Flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants 1.0 Sugarcane 4.3 Fruits 3.9 Coconuts, plantation crops and oilpalm 3.0 Total 69.5 Source: A case of micro-irrigation (drip irrigation), Centre forManagement in Agriculture, IIM, Ahmadabad (August 2014)

reliable and undependable. Hence, adoption of micro-irrigation in rice-fallow areas holds promise in future. It has tremendous potential. Moreover, groundwater development i.e., percentage of annual groundwater draft to the net groundwater availability, in eastern Indian states viz. Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal remains low (22-43%), whereas our country average is about 61%. Hence, there is a huge potential for enhancing groundwater development in eastern Indian

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In fertigation, fertilizer is injected into the water application system by selecting appropriate equipment viz. venturi injector or pump, fertilizer tank, fertilizer injection pump.

Problems of micro-irrigation and fertigation

In the past, there has been a lack of focus on spreading micro-irrigation in the country. Some problems are still there.They are as fopllows •

•

It needs good maintenance of drip and sprinkler irrigation systems, which is difficult sometimes; there is a problem of theft also.

•

In eastern India, land fragmentation is

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Table 3. POTENTIAL FOR MICRO-IRRIGATION SYSTEMS (MILLION HA)

and major growing areas. The penetration of micro-irrigation is very low in eastern Indian states , adoption will further take place if awareness and suitable measures are taken

very high; farmers are not attracted for small holdings unless there is incentive for large scale adoption. •

•

There is delay in release of guidelines/ government order and subsidy disbursement process Lack of dedicated team to track installation and payment.

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states; and micro-irrigation would be very useful in using the untapped groundwater and increasing irrigated area in the states. In the tail-end command areas, and also in mid-reach under canal irrigation systems, very often it is reported that those areas suffer from water scarcity, because canal delivery is not always adequate, demand-driven and timely. There is only 40 per cent efficiency in canal irrigation systems. In those areas, micro-irrigation will play a major role when the systems will use water from auxiliary storage structures and in conjunction with groundwater for successful cultivation of crops and fishes in the ponds. A self-sustaining system of

different states, coordinated by IIWM, Bhubaneswar, that micro-irrigation is an economic and efficient means of irrigation methods. During their experiments conducted for several crops, they have found that the microirrigation system saves roughly 30-40 per cent of water and around 20 per cent fertilizer and also enhances the yield by almost 20 per cent. Field trials at IIWM research farm, Bhubaneswar, show that though the crop yields under drip and furrow irrigation system were similar, water saving was more in drip irrigation than furrow irrigation (Fig. 2). By drip method water saving was 29, 21 and 30% in maize, sunflower and tomato, respectively over furrow irrigation method. The irrigation water use efficiency

(WUE) increased when drip irrigation was used. The irrigation water use and WUE, of course differ with of the nature of crops, crop duration, season of growing, soil type, water requirement and weather conditions etc. Fig. 2. Irrigation water used and irrigation water use efficiency (WUE) by maize, sunflower and tomato crops with use of drip irrigation as compared to furrow method; % show the water saving in drip irrigation Micro-irrigation holds promise for Indian agriculture and crop production systems.. There is a need for creating greater awareness among farmers and extension agencies. The cost of

installing micro-irrigation systems should be reduced further, so that adoption of micro-irrigation by poor and small holder farmers becomes easier. A team of dedicated experts should monitor the entire process, starting from the release of guidelines/ government order, subsidy disbursement, installation and actual operation of drip/ fertigation and sprinkler in the field. For fertigation, there is the need for technical guidance to the farmers at real farm situation; guidance will be required for deciding the amount, right type and frequency of fertilizer injection. The prescription should match the soil conditions and crop demand with meta-analyses of crop physiology, soil chemistry, salinity , water quality etc.

integrated farming will be very successful and sustainable.

Evaluation of drip irrigation It has been found through different trials in AGRICULTURE

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integrated farming will be very successful and sustainable.

Evaluation of drip irrigation It has been found through different trials in AGRICULTURE

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Micro -irrigation and Fertigation for Higher Crop Productivity

Tarunendu Singh Manager (AS), A. P. Singh Manager (AS) Madhu Singh Marketing Officer S.V.Kaor JGM (AS) Retd, IFFCO – New Delhi

ater and nutrients are the two critical inputs for sustainable high crop yield. Efficiency of both the inputs is quite low. IFFCO has taken lead towards developing new products and their testing through ICAR / SAU’s for inclusion in Fertiliser Control Order (FCO) for the benefits of the farmers. To address the issue of poor nutrient and water use efficiency through judicious use of these inputs, IFFCO initiated production of 100% water soluble fertilizers and promoted fertigation through drip irrigation.

– an IFFCO Initiative

Agriculture accounts for approximately 70 % of global fresh water withdrawals and approximately 90 % of its consumptive use. According to UN FAO, in 2010 irrigation and livestock accounted for 91 % of water withdrawal in India, which is more than the global average. India has 18 % of world population with only 4 % of usable water resources portending a water crisis. The availability of irrigation water is dwindling day-by-day. Therefore, it becomes imperative to go in for alternate water saving means to have more crop and income with each drop of water. Drip irrigation, makes it possible to increase the yield potential by three times with the same quantity of water, by saving about 45 to 50 % of irrigation water, and increasing both quality and productivity. Table 1.

WATER USAGE EFFICIENCY UNDER VARIOUS IRRIGATION SYSTEMS Parameter Surface Irrigation Sprinkler application Drip Irrigation AGRICULTURE

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Application efficiency 40-70 60-80 90

Surface water moisture evaporation 30-40 30-40 20-25

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Overall efficiency 30-35 50-70 80-90 AGRICULTURE

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Micro -irrigation and Fertigation for Higher Crop Productivity

Tarunendu Singh Manager (AS), A. P. Singh Manager (AS) Madhu Singh Marketing Officer S.V.Kaor JGM (AS) Retd, IFFCO – New Delhi

– an IFFCO Initiative

WATER USAGE EFFICIENCY UNDER VARIOUS IRRIGATION SYSTEMS Parameter Surface Irrigation Sprinkler application Drip Irrigation AGRICULTURE

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Application efficiency 40-70 60-80 90

Surface water moisture evaporation 30-40 30-40 20-25

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Overall efficiency 30-35 50-70 80-90 AGRICULTURE

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Drip irrigation is particularly important in water scarcity areas and undulated lands. The task force on micro irrigation (2004) has estimated a potential of 27 million hectare for drip irrigation whereas the area covered is only 3.37 mha (2016) with still lesser area under fertigation. Adoption of drip system has been more in fruit crops but there is growing awareness to utilize it even for closely spaced crops because of its scalable benefits (Table 2). Fertigation helps in scheduling of nutrients along with drip irrigation. Efficacy studies on a wide range of crops across the country using fertigation method have shown nutrient economy to the tune of 20-25 % less fertilizer consumption with enhanced efficiency of nutrients (Table 3.). The only issue with the adoption of fertigation is availability of fertigation schedules for different crops and 100 % water soluble fertilizers.

recision farming is going to become one of the integral components of modern farming practices since the input economy and concern for environment as well as control on agriculture can be exercised to an extent by this technology. Drip –fertigation is one of the components of precision farming. IFFCO Efforts in Promoting Drip – Fertigation Technologies Installation of drip is costly but it can be reduced by availing government subsidy and use of low cost drip systems such as micro tube and poly tube drip systems. IFFCO has promoted installation of drip units by providing financial assistance to farmers. Under the given scheme states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan etc. have installed drip units. More than 4810 drip units have been installed by utilising assistance from IFFCO during the last 5 years. IFFCO has also undertaken exposure visits of farmers to drip irrigation technology centres in SAU’s / ICAR institutes and other research institutions. It has also sent its field officers to Israel for training on different aspects of drip fertigation for wider dissemination of this technology.

Table 2.

SCALABLE BENEFITS OF DRIP IRRIGATION SN 1 2 3 4 • • 5 6 7

Parameters Benefits Increase in water efficiency 50 - 90 % Energy consumption savings 30.5 % Fertiliser Consumption savings 28.5 % Productivity increase Fruits/ Crops 42.4 % Vegetables 52.7 % Irrigation cost savings 32 % New Crop Introduction by Farmers 30 % Increase in Farmers Income 42 %

Table 4.

COLLABORATIVE TRIALS OF UREA PHOSPHATE (17:44:0) ON DIFFERENT CROPS

Source: FICCI report – 2016

Table 3.

NUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY UNDER DIFFERENT IRRIGATION SYSTEMS Nutrient (Efficiency %) Method of Application Nitrogen Phosphorus Potash Fertigation 90-95 40-45 75-80 Surface flow 50-70 15-20 < 50 Broadcasting (solid) 30-50 - To cater to need of water soluble fertilizers for drip fertigation, IFFCO has broadened its basket of fertilizers through indigenous production of 100 % WSF’s grades like 17-44 (15000 MT annual capacity) and 18-18-18 AGRICULTURE

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(6000 MT annual capacity) at Kandla, Gujarat during the year 2010-11 to assist farmers to increase their crop productivity. Besides, it is also marketing other specialty fertilizers like calcium nirate, SOP, sulphur-bentonite , Boron (14.6 % B) etc.

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Sr. No Institutions 1 National Research Centre for Grapes, ICAR, Manjri Farm, Pune - 412307, Maharashtra 2 Tamil nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641003, Tamil nadu 3 Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Ahmednagar – 413722, Maharashtra banana, pomegranate, 4 Anand Agricultural University, Anand - 388110, Gujarat 5 National Horticultural Research & Development Foundation, Chitegaon Phata, Post Darna Sanghvi, Tq. Niphad, Nasik - 422001, Maharashtra www.krishijagran.com

Crops Grape Maize, bhendi Sugarcane, rose, tomato, Cabbage

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Table 2.

SCALABLE BENEFITS OF DRIP IRRIGATION SN 1 2 3 4 • • 5 6 7

Table 4.

COLLABORATIVE TRIALS OF UREA PHOSPHATE (17:44:0) ON DIFFERENT CROPS

Source: FICCI report – 2016

Table 3.

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Crops Grape Maize, bhendi Sugarcane, rose, tomato, Cabbage

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Collaboration Trials of 100 % Water Soluble Fertiliser – Urea Phosphate IFFCO has made available different water soluble grades to farmers. Some of these grades such as urea phosphate have been indigenously developed and tested through SAU’s/ ICAR Research institutes. IFFCO initiated the work on 100 % water soluble urea phosphate with an objective FFCO initiated to assess its effect on yield the work on 100 attributes, yield and quality % water soluble in fruits, vegetables, flowers, urea phosphate sugarcane and maize crop with an objective during 2007-08 and 200809 in collaboration with 5 to assess its effect institutions (Table 4). Total 11 on yield attribcrops were tested using urea utes, yield and phosphate and the results quality in fruits, were significant. The benefits vegetables, flowof urea phosphate in achieving higher use efficiency of ers, sugarcane water and nutrient, increase and maize crop in cropping intensity and produring 2007-08 ductivity are to be taken into and 2008-09 in consideration for promoting collaboration with urea phosphate in crops.

rip irrigation, makes it possible to increase the yield potential by three times with the same quantity of water, by saving about 45 to 50 % of irrigation water, and increasing both quality and productivity

Fertigation Scheduling for Open Field and Protected cultivation

5 institutions

Fertigation scheduling gives the option of timely application of water and nutrients as per crop growth stages through drip fertigation. In Year 2010-11 IARI, Pusa and IFFCO, New Delhi made an attempt to make available all this complex data to farmers in a user friendly manner. They compiled all the data during last ten years for various horticultural crops grown in open field and protected cultivation at Centre for Protected Cultivation technology (CPCT), IARI New Delhi. This resulted into a joint publication by IFFCO and IARI titled “Fertigation Scheduling For Horticultural Crops” in English (TB-ICN: 80/2010) and Hindi (ICN: H-100/2010) (Hassan et al. 2010). The publication provided guidance to farmers about month wise fertigation scheduling in terms of urea phosphate, Urea and SOP for horticultural crops, mainly of 11 fruit crops, 21 vegetable crops under open field and 4 vegetable crops and 5 flower crops under protected cultivation.Around 15000 copies AGRICULTURE

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each (Total 30000 copies) of the publication has been distributed among farmers, scientists and other stakeholders for wider dissemination of the experimental findings into calendar form.

Case study of collaboration between IFFCO and Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra IFFCO collaborated with state agricultural universities to develop fertigation schedule in different crops. Drip fertigation studies were conducted under ON Station condition in 11 crops such as sugarcane, cotton, tomato, banana, pomegranate, wheat, Chilli, Paddy, Maize, Potato and Groundnut at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra.

The experiment on Sugarcane is summarized as below: www.krishijagran.com

Fertigation as per schedule with recommendSchedule B: The fertilisers were applied in 26 ed dose of 250:115:115 NPK Kg/ ha. Urea, Urea weekly splits Phosphate (17:44:0 ) and Muriate of Table 5. Potash (MOP) were used for fertiWEEKLY SPLIT OF FERTILISERS AS PER SCHEDULE B gation while conventional fertilisers were applied as per the treatments. Weeks from planting N % P % K% Two fertiliser schedules – A ( T1, T2 1-4 weeks 15 10 10 and T3) and B (T4, T5 and T6) with 5-9 weeks 35 35 15 100, 80 and 60 % of recommended dose of fertilisers as water soluble 10-20 weeks 50 55 35 fertilisers were tried to develop 21 -26 weeks 0 0 40 fertigation schedule and dose. These Total 100 100 100 results were compared with only N fertigation (T7) in 12 equal splits at 15 days interval , P and K applied through On the basis of the work done, it was concludsoil, drip irrigation without fertigation ( T8) ed that fertigation can save fertiliser dose of nutrients applied as per conventional practices sugarcane upto 40% and 57 % water saving and conventional method of irrigation (T9) nuwithout affecting the yield. Parameters of trients applied as per conventional practices. Growth, yield attributes, water use, quality of juice, nutrients availability and economics Schedule A: All the fertilisers were applied in were favorable with fertigation schedule. 12 uniform fortnightly splits Similar trend was observed in other crops. The www.krishijagran.com

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Fertigation Scheduling for Open Field and Protected cultivation

5 institutions

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each (Total 30000 copies) of the publication has been distributed among farmers, scientists and other stakeholders for wider dissemination of the experimental findings into calendar form.

The experiment on Sugarcane is summarized as below: www.krishijagran.com

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Table 6. FERTIGATION SCHEDULE FOR SUGARCANE (KG/HA/ SPLIT); BASED ON 80 % RECOMMENDED DOSE – NPK (200:92:92) KG / HA Weeks from Planting Urea Urea MOP Phosphate 1-4 weeks 14.41 5.11 3.75 5-9 weeks 25.06 14.55 4.67 10-20 weeks 15.87 10.54 4.85 21 -26 weeks 0.00 0.00 10.28 results of the experiments and recommendations are summarized in Table 7. Table 7. SUMMARY OF EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED AT MPKV, RAHURI ( 2007 -2011) Crops Sugarcane Cotton Tomato Banana Pomegranate

Recommendation Saving of Fertilisers Application of 80 % RDF (200:92:92 Kg NPK /ha) in 26 weekly splits 20 % Application of 75 % RDF (90:45:45 Kg NPK /ha) in 13 weekly splits 25 % Application of 80 % RDF (240:120:120 Kg NPK /ha) in 14 equal weekly splits 20 % Application of 80 % RDF (160:32:160 g NPK / plant) in 18 fortnighly splits 20 % Application of 80 % RDF (500:200:200 g NPK / plant) in 20 weekly splits 20 %

The work done on sugarcane, cotton, tomato, banana and pomegranate was published in Research Book No. MPKV / Res. Pub. No. 99 /2013, titled “Drip Fertigation For Higher Crop Productivity”. Around 10,000 copies of the publication and folders in local Marathi language were published for farmers and scientist.

IFFCO promoted soil and water conservation measures with drip fertigation, Barwani, Madhya Pradesh Precision farming is going to become one of the integral components of modern farming practices since the input economy and concern for environment as well as control on agriculture can be exercised to an extent by this technology. Drip –fertigation is one of the components of precision farming. With the changing agricultural scenario and shift towards remunerative agriculture this technology will expand. There has been an opinion to cover most of the water guzzling crops such as sugarcane under drip and fertigation in states like Maharashtra and Karnataka. Similarly cotton and even rice and wheat area will AGRICULTURE

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be shifted towards this technology. Therefore, keeping in view the benefit of drip fertigation steps need to be taken for its integration in different cropping systems. The results of work done by the IFFCO in collaboration with ICAR institutes and SAU indicate the use efficiency of both water and plant nutrient can be very well boosted. Therefore as policy, India should encourage the use of water soluble fertilizers and fertigation by promoting micro -irrigation system and the use of water soluble fertilizers. www.krishijagran.com

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FERTI ATION M.R. Yadav Rakesh Kumar R.K. Meena V.K. Meena, Hardev Ram Ashis

ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132 001 Ghosh ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi- 110 012

he practice of supplying crops in the field with fertilizers through irrigation water is called fertigation. Fertigation is a modern agro-technique which, provides an excellent opportunity to enhanced yield and minimize environmental pollution by minimizing fertilizer application, increasing fertilizer use efficiency and increasing net returns on the fertilizer invested. In fertigation, timing, amount and concentration of fertilizers applied are easily controlled. It enables the application of water soluble fertilizer and other chemicals along with irrigation water uniformly and more efficiently in the active root zone of crop.

NEEDS FOR FERTIGATION In the present situation water is the most precious natural resources in the world. The availability of fresh water for the mankind is very limited. Demand for water among agricultural sectors and non-agricultural sectors are increasing; demand for food is equally increasing with increasing population density. So in this critical situation of water scarcity, it is the challenge to the agriculturist to adopt new technologies to improve the crop production and productivity as well as the quality of crops to supply sufficient food to the nations. The present problem associated with fertilizers use are: •

Uneven growth in fertilizer consumption resulting in state-wise, crop-wise variation in consumption.

•

Mining of nutrients from the soil at alarming rate (Soil fertility depletion due to inadequate and imbalanced fertilizer use).

•

Decline in crop response to fertilizers

•

Increase dependence on fertilizer import (mostly for P and K).

•

Weakening relationship between fertilizer use and food grain production.

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this manual operation. •

Higher water and nutrient use efficiency: Nutrient use efficiency by crops is greater under fertigation compared to that under conventional method of application of fertilizers to the soil.

•

Higher resource conservation: Fertigation helps in saving of water, nutrients, energy, labour and time.

ADVANTAGES OF FERTIGATION •

Eliminates manual application: Manual application requires labour and time and is less efficient compared to the advanced fertigation .. The fertigation eliminates

•

Less water pollution: Intensification of agriculture led by use of irrigation water and indiscriminate use of fertilizers has led to pollution of surface and groundwater’s by nutrients. Fertigation helps in reducing pollution of water-bodies through leaching of nutrients nitrogen (N) and Potassium (K).

•

Uniformity of application: Since the drip or micro-sprinkler irrigates a limited area of

FERTIGATION: AN EFFICIENT TECHNIQUE FOR ACHIEVING HIGH NUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY IN CROP

PRODUCTION SYSYTEM

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FERTI ATION M.R. Yadav Rakesh Kumar R.K. Meena V.K. Meena, Hardev Ram Ashis

ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132 001 Ghosh ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi- 110 012

Uneven growth in fertilizer consumption resulting in state-wise, crop-wise variation in consumption.

•

Mining of nutrients from the soil at alarming rate (Soil fertility depletion due to inadequate and imbalanced fertilizer use).

•

Decline in crop response to fertilizers

•

Increase dependence on fertilizer import (mostly for P and K).

•

Weakening relationship between fertilizer use and food grain production.

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this manual operation. •

Higher water and nutrient use efficiency: Nutrient use efficiency by crops is greater under fertigation compared to that under conventional method of application of fertilizers to the soil.

•

Higher resource conservation: Fertigation helps in saving of water, nutrients, energy, labour and time.

ADVANTAGES OF FERTIGATION •

Eliminates manual application: Manual application requires labour and time and is less efficient compared to the advanced fertigation .. The fertigation eliminates

•

Uniformity of application: Since the drip or micro-sprinkler irrigates a limited area of

FERTIGATION: AN EFFICIENT TECHNIQUE FOR ACHIEVING HIGH NUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY IN CROP

PRODUCTION SYSYTEM

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active root zones and fertilizers are placed directly in this active root zone, there is very high uniformity in the application of fertilizers. •

Efficient delivery of micronutrients: Application of micronutrients solely is a very difficult task, but fertigation gives the opportunity for efficient use of compound and ready mix nutrient solutions containing small concentrations of micronutrients.

•

Stage wise availability: In fertigation fertilizers can be given every day and the quantity given is based on the crop nutrient requirement. Hence, nutrients are available as and when the crop requires it.

•

Help in effective weed management: Use of plastic mulch along with fertigation through drip system allows effective weed control in widely spaced crops.

•

Improved soil structure: Due to reduce traffic movement on the surface soil under micro irrigation system during irrigation and nutrient application it helps to reduce sub-surface soil compaction.

Based on the crop, soil type and management practices fertigation methods have been classified into two groups viz. quantitative dosing and proportional dosing: Quantitative dosing: In this method a calculated dose of fertilizer is injected into the irrigation system. Fertilizers are applied once in a pulse and highly water soluble solid fertilizers are mainly used for

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identified for efficient fertigation and their comparative performance is given in Table 1.

Proportional dosing: In this process, a constant ratio between irrigation water and fertiliser solution is maintained, in such a fashion that nutrient concentration in the irrigation water will be constant. Fertilizer dose is expressed as kg/m3 or g/l.

COMPATIBILITY

n the critical situation of water scarcity, it is the challenge to the agriculturist to adopt new technologies to improve the crop production and productivity as well as the quality of crops to supply sufficient food to the nations.

Effective use in undulating soil: Undulating soil can be used under cultivation using micro irrigation system.

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quantitative dosing. Fertilizer dose is expressed as kg/m3or g/l

Mixing of multiple fertilizers for the purpose of fertigation may sometimes leads to formation of solid precipitate. The prime cause of this problem is non-compatibility of the subjected chemical fertilizers with each other in the final

solution. To avoid this problem while preparing fertilizer solutions for fertigation, farmers should consider the following compatibility chart of different commonly used fertilizers. Table 2 indicates that Phosphorus and Potash containing fertilizers are generally non-compatible with calcium containing chemical fertilizers.

FERTIGATION METHODS:

•

ATION

Table.1. SPECIFICATION OF SOME COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS USED FOR FERTIGATION

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF FERTILIZERS FOR FERTIGATION:

Fertilizer

Grade (N:P2O5:K2O) Solubility (g/L)

pH (g/L at 20°C)

Based on the physiochemical characteristics ,a wide range of solid as well as liquid chemical fertilizers are suitable for fertigation. For large scale application solid fertilizers are cheaper and offer a good alternative to the commonly available liquid fertilizers. While selecting fertilizers for the purpose of fertigation following key factors should be considered:

Urea

46-0-0 1100 5.8

Ammonium nitrate

34-0-0

1920

5.7

Ammonium sulphate

21-0-0

750

5.5

Calcium nitrate

16-0-0

1290

5.8

Magnesium nitrate

11-0-0

5.4

SOLUBILITY

Potassium nitrate

13-0-45

133

Potassium sulphate

0-0-50

110

3.7

MAP

12-61-0 230 4.9

Potassium chloride

0-0-60

340

Orthophosphoric acid

0-52-0

457

2.6

Solubility of a chemical fertilizer indicates the relative degree to which given fertilizer dissolves in water. Solubility of the subjected chemical fertilizers is most important factor while preparing stock solutions for fertigation. Based on their relative degree of being soluble in water, following chemical fertilizers were www.krishijagran.com

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active root zones and fertilizers are placed directly in this active root zone, there is very high uniformity in the application of fertilizers. •

•

Help in effective weed management: Use of plastic mulch along with fertigation through drip system allows effective weed control in widely spaced crops.

•

Improved soil structure: Due to reduce traffic movement on the surface soil under micro irrigation system during irrigation and nutrient application it helps to reduce sub-surface soil compaction.

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identified for efficient fertigation and their comparative performance is given in Table 1.

COMPATIBILITY

Effective use in undulating soil: Undulating soil can be used under cultivation using micro irrigation system.

AGRICULTURE

•

quantitative dosing. Fertilizer dose is expressed as kg/m3or g/l

FERTIGATION METHODS:

•

ATION

Table.1. SPECIFICATION OF SOME COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS USED FOR FERTIGATION

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF FERTILIZERS FOR FERTIGATION:

Fertilizer

Grade (N:P2O5:K2O) Solubility (g/L)

pH (g/L at 20°C)

Urea

46-0-0 1100 5.8

Ammonium nitrate

34-0-0

1920

5.7

Ammonium sulphate

21-0-0

750

5.5

Calcium nitrate

16-0-0

1290

5.8

Magnesium nitrate

11-0-0

5.4

SOLUBILITY

Potassium nitrate

13-0-45

133

Potassium sulphate

0-0-50

110

3.7

MAP

12-61-0 230 4.9

Potassium chloride

0-0-60

340

Orthophosphoric acid

0-52-0

457

2.6

(NCPAH, 2012) www.krishijagran.com

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ATION

ndiscriminate use of water for agriculture, industries and domestic purpose resulted into water scarcity throughout the world. The application of chemical fertilisers along with irrigation water through microirrigation technology has advantages mainly to meet nutritional need as per requirement of crops.

Table.2. COMPATIBILITY CHART OF DIFFERENT WATER SOLUBLE FERTILIZERS: Fertilizer

Urea Ammonium nitrate Ammonium sulphate Calcium nitrate

Urea

Ammonium nitrate

Ammonium sulphate

Calcium nitrate

MAP

Mono potassium potassium phosphate nitrate

C C C C C C

C C LC C C LC

C LC

NC NC C

MAP

C C C NC C C

Mono potassium phosphate

C C C NC C C

potassium nitrate

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Water sources that contain high quantity calcium, magnesium and bicarbonates are generally known as hard water and reaction of these water sources is alkaline in nature with pH values 7.2 to 8.5 or more. When water soluble fertilizers are mixed with these alkaline water sources, the interaction can lead to a wide range of problems, such as formation of precipitates in the fertilizer tank and clogging of the drippers and filters of micro-irrigation systems. These problems mostly observed with phosphorus fertilizers because presence of high calcium and magnesium ions and high pH values of these fertilizers in the irrigation system and fertilizer tank lead to the precipitation of phosphorus as calcium and magnesium phosphates. To avoid this ,while preparing the fertilizer solutions the solubility and compatibility of the mixing fertilizers should be considered.

Fertigation method should suit to irrigation

C-Compatible; LC-Limited Compatible; NC-Not Compatible www.krishijagran.com

VENTURI INJECTOR

PRECIPITATION

FERTIGATION SYSTEMS:

C C L C C C

system and the crop in question. Inappropriate choice of the fertigation equipment can cause damage to the irrigation system and may affect not only the operation of the irrigation system but also reduce the efficiency of the nutrients. In market a wide range of fertilizer injectors are available for this purpose with specified pressure and flow range. Fertilizer injectors available in the market are able to operate automatically to convert injector pulses into electric signals. Flow regulators control injection rate through chemically resistant ball valves or by electronic or hydraulic control units and computers. For fertigation normally two type of system are in practice:

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Venturi injectors work based on suction principle. It utilises the pressure induced by the flowing water to suck the fertilizer solution from the fertilizer tank into the irrigation line (Fig 1.a.). For this purpose conical constriction in the pipe is created to induce an increase in the water flow velocity and simultaneously decrease external pressure to an extremely low value, which helps in fertilizer suction from the supply tank through a tube into the irrigation system. Filter screens are used in between. An adjustment valve is used to control the difference between the water velocities across the valves.

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Table.2. COMPATIBILITY CHART OF DIFFERENT WATER SOLUBLE FERTILIZERS: Fertilizer

Urea Ammonium nitrate Ammonium sulphate Calcium nitrate

Urea

Ammonium nitrate

Ammonium sulphate

Calcium nitrate

MAP

Mono potassium potassium phosphate nitrate

C C C C C C

C C LC C C LC

C LC

NC NC C

MAP

C C C NC C C

Mono potassium phosphate

C C C NC C C

potassium nitrate

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Fertigation method should suit to irrigation

C-Compatible; LC-Limited Compatible; NC-Not Compatible www.krishijagran.com

VENTURI INJECTOR

PRECIPITATION

FERTIGATION SYSTEMS:

C C L C C C

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FERTILIZER TANK: This system of fertigation is based on the principle of a pressure differential. In which a valve, elbows or pipe friction in the mainline are used to create pressure difference. The resulted pressure difference in the mainline forces the water to enter through a by-pass pipe into fertilizer tank, and to go out again, carrying a varying amount of dissolved fertilizer. In this system, the fertilizer concentration is more during starting period of irrigation and decreases with time. This results in uneven distribution of fertilizers in the field.

CONSTRAINTS TION:

IN FERTIGA-

•

Initial high cost and required highly skilled labour to maintain the fertigation system.

•

A high range of different graded chemical fertilizers are needed.

•

If the pH of irrigation water and fertilizer sources are high there will be chances of clogging of emitters are also high.

•

Insoluble fertilizers like super phosphate are not fit for fertigation.

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ATION

•

Higher cost and unavailability of liquid fertilizers in the local market.

•

Less popular in closer spaced grain crops.

•

Lack of information in respect of its rate/ method of application, fertilizer to water ratio used and its scheduling further restricted its adoption.

•

Chances of crop injury will more if proper dose/time of application not follow.

•

Indiscriminate use of water for agriculture, industries and domestic purpose resulted into water scarcity throughout the world. The application of chemical fertilisers along with irrigation water through micro-irrigation technology has advantages mainly to meet nutritional need as per requirement of crops. It is an efficient method of applying fertilizers, in which the irrigation system is used as the carrier and distributor of the nutrients to the crop. Fertigation system is useful in achieving higher input use efficiency, crop yield as well as net returns to the farmer. Thus, fertigation has opened a new window for efficient use of water and nutrient supplies in crops and provides a viable option for sustainable crop production and quality produce. www.krishijagran.com

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CONSTRAINTS TION:

IN FERTIGA-

•

Initial high cost and required highly skilled labour to maintain the fertigation system.

•

A high range of different graded chemical fertilizers are needed.

•

If the pH of irrigation water and fertilizer sources are high there will be chances of clogging of emitters are also high.

•

Insoluble fertilizers like super phosphate are not fit for fertigation.

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ATION

•

Higher cost and unavailability of liquid fertilizers in the local market.

•

Less popular in closer spaced grain crops.

•

Lack of information in respect of its rate/ method of application, fertilizer to water ratio used and its scheduling further restricted its adoption.

•

Chances of crop injury will more if proper dose/time of application not follow.

•

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arge volumes of water is required for remunerative sugarcane cultivation. On an average 20 Mega litres of water/ha is required by the crop to fulfill its consumptive use , evaporation and transpiration needs and losses during the course of irrigation and thereafter. T. K. Srivastava Ram Ratan Verma

ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 226002 (Uttar Pradesh)

ugarcane is responsive to water in all the growing conditions of the country. To produce one kg of sugarcane 88 and 118 kg water is required for plant and ratoon crops. Since the water application efficiency of surface irrigation methods hover around 40% , use of micro-irrigation methods hold the key for sustaining the cane cultivation and its productivity under the present water scarcity scenario. Irrigation through surface or sub-surface drip irrigation results in double advantage of water saving and enhanced cane productivity per unit area and time. A widely spaced long duration crop with multi-ratooning ability, sugarcane is the most suitable among field crops for large scale adoption of drip irrigation. Subsidy on drip irrigation by the state governments make it convenient for sugarcane growers to adopt drip irrigation

Micro-irrigation and fertigation in sugarcane AGRICULTURE

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Large volumes of water is required for remunerative sugarcane cultivation. On an average 20 Mega litres of water/ha (01 Mega litre = 1000000 litres) is required by the crop to fulfill its consumptive use (metabolic activities), evaporation & transpiration needs and losses during the course of irrigation and thereafter. Plant and ratoon crops differ in their efficiency to use water. Normally 88 kg water/kg cane www.krishijagran.com

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ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 226002 (Uttar Pradesh)

Micro-irrigation and fertigation in sugarcane AGRICULTURE

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is required for a plant crop whereas, ratoon requires 118 kg water/kg cane produced. In India ,sugarcane is, by and large, an irrigated crop and acreage of sugarcane in most of the sugarcane growing states is 95 to 100% irrigated. However, irrigated area under sugarcane in Assam, Bihar and West Bengal is limited to just 2.2, 23.7 and 44.6% of the total area under the crop.

ven distribution in the field and consequently water use efficiency is low. In view of fast depletion of ground water in north and north western parts of the country covering major sugarcane growing and sugar producing regions having more than 80% ground water irrigation through deep well pumping ,it is imperative to adopt irrigation methods which are low water requiring, precise in application and where water use efficiency is highest. Drip method of irrigation has been found to address these concerns as with this method soil moisture is uniformly maintained at or near field capacity in the rhizosphere, which enhances nutrient uptake and eliminate unproductive losses of water (deep percolation, runoff etc.). In Maharashtra drip irrigation is catching up and nearly 5000 ha of sugarcane area have been brought under drip irrigation. Drip irrigation required 940 mm of water/ha as against 2150 mm in conventional flood method of irrigation. The cane yield observed under drip method was 170 t/ha compared to 128 t/ha with conventional flooding.

The average cane yields in irrigated areas are 67 t/ha, while that in partially irrigated or totally unirrigated areas are 41 t/ha. Thus nearly 43% of the cane production comes from about 25 per cent of the area which ince sugarcane is fully irrigated and the reis cultivated as maining 57% is produced a row crop planted from 75% of the total acrewidely through flat age which does not receive method surface optimum irrigation. Since irrigation is widely sugarcane claims 6 per cent of the total water resources adopted. Farmof the country, limited availers of sub-tropical ability of water to cane crop region adopt flood is the major factor responirrigation because sible for low average cane of convenience, yields in the country.

Sprinkler system may be employed for soils of topographic conditions which are undulating and not suited to surface irrigation. High pressure nozzles (500-700 Kpa) are commonly used but recent advances include the development of low pressure nozzles (100 Kpa or less) which are tailored as per the requirements of the soil and cultivation practices.

however, a lot of

Research done to work out water goes unused the water requirement of in this method owsugarcane at Padegaon (Maing to uneven distriharashtra), Shahjahanpur, bution in the field Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), and consequently Anakapalle (Andhra Pradesh) and Coimbatore water use efficiency (Tamil Nadu) revealed that it is low ranges between 1400 mm to 2500 mm, being the lowest in Bihar and the highest in Maharashtra. Annual requirement in different sugarcane growing precipitation is the major contributor to the states. Volume of water required to be aptotal water requirement of the crop as the plied through irrigation varies from 60 to 200 highest water requiring grand growth or eloncm in various states. In the states of sub-tropgation phase wherein rate of dry matter acical region where main season of planting is cumulation is highest coincides with the rainy February-March, 60-80 cm water is applied season both under tropical and sub-tropical through 6-8 irrigations; 4-6 prior to the onregions. However, water application through set of monsoon during tillering phase and irrigation is highest during emergence and remaining two irrigations after withdrawal tillering phases which pass through dry and of monsoon for maturity and ripening. Irrigadesiccating atmospheric conditions during tion is stopped one month before harvesting March to June. in sub-tropical region to improve sucrose accumulation. Comparatively higher amount of Factors like soil texture, planting season and water (120 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 200 cm) and more frequent irriweather, hence determine the total water gations (20-36) are needed in tropical states AGRICULTURE

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like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Adhsali crop, grown in Maharashtra needs irrigations at weekly interval; hence irrigation water requirement goes up to 250-270 cm. It is reported that sugarcane yields are higher when more water is made available to the crop during the tillering phase. Since sugarcane is cultivated as a row crop planted widely through flat method surface irrigation is widely adopted. Farmers of sub-tropical region adopt flood irrigation because of convenience, however, a lot of water goes unused in this method owing to unewww.krishijagran.com

In order to get better growth of sugarcane , irrigation has to be given at a time when soil does not cope up freely with the plant water requirements. Several approaches have been adopted to decipher the interval of irrigation and the quantity of water required to be applied in each irrigation based on all or some of the factors like crop stage, climate, soil texture and depth, effective root zone and infiltration rate. Since water application efficiency under flood irrigation is only around 40%, application of water through micro-irrigation saves water and also keeps the root zone moist at comparatively less expense of water. Adoption of surface and sub-surface drip at 100% cumulative pan evaporation in sugarcane at Faridkot (Punjab) and Lucknow, respectively, could save 31.5 and 40.6 % water

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however, a lot of

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Micro irrigation and fertigation:

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ater productivity enhances conspicuously with sub-surface drip irrigation even if 100% cumulative pan evaporation is maintained throughout the growing season in comparison of flooding . Being laid at 20-25 cm depth, laterals do not interfere with the inter-culture operations and ratoon crop gets a vigorous start leading to higher cane yield over the previous crop.

with additional 17.86 and 36.96 % cane yield over that of conventional flood irrigation.

Table 1: CANE YIELD AND WATER PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT THROUGH DRIP IRRIGATION AND FERTIGATION Location

Sub-surface drip irrigation 100 % CPE

80 % CPE

Flooding

Fertigation

100% RDN

Conventional (100% RDN)

75% RDN

Cane yield (t/ha) Faridkot*

83.8

77.8

71.1

81.0

77.6

75.6

Lucknow

101.6

94.3

74.2

98.1

93.8

80.2

Cuddalore

133.8

122.0

129.4

139.8

131.6

122.1

Fertigation in sugarcane through sub-surface drip at Lucknow resulted in higher (17%) cane yield with only 75% of N dose against the yield obtained with 100 % recommended dose of nitrogen-RDN (150 kg/ha) applied conventionally. At Faridkot (Punjab) surface fertigation of nitrogen with 75% of RDN out yielded the full dose applied as broadcast at planting and topdressing during tillering phase. Positive effects of fertigation on cane yield and water saving was conspicuous at Cuddalore too where 7.7% higher cane yield was recorded at 75% N over the same at 100% N given as soil application. Initial cost of drip irrigation set-up proves to be major hindrance in its adoption by the average cane grower, however considering the improvement in the durability of drip laterals and techniques for de-clogging of emitters a system once laid works effectively for 3-4

Water expense (ha-cm) 97.2

89.7

142.1

Lucknow

57.0

43.0

96.0

Cuddalore

110.2

82.6

161.0

Faridkot*

Water productivity (Cane yield in kg/ha-cm) Faridkot*

1760.0

1940.0 720.0

2040

1950

Lucknow

1783.2

2194.8 773.1

1612.4

1549.3 840.8

Cuddalore

1214.0

1477.0 803.6

1200

1132

770

1048

*Surface drip; RDN, Recommended dose of nitrogen; CPE, Cumulative pan evaporation

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Similarly in tropical climate as observed at Cuddalore (TN) irrigation through sub-surface drip saved 31.5 % water and produced higher cane yield than the conventional furrow irrigation. Supply of nutrients to plant rhizosphere along with irrigation water is termed as fertigation. Aimed at enhancing the fertilizer use efficiency and also the utilization efficiency of applied nutrients the practice effectively cuts the loss of nutrients through volatilization, leaching and uptake by non-target plants (weeds).

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years under plant- ratoon cycle. This not only makes drip irrigation in sugarcane cost effective but also favours multi-ratooning which is essential to improve overall productivity and profitability of sugarcane production system as growing more number of ratoon crops reduces the overall cost of cultivation. Among micro-irrigation methods for sugarcane, sub-surface drip is more suitable as sprinkle is useful only up to tillering stage of the crop and water pipes and outlets come in the way of inter-culture operations. Surface drip involving laying of laterals on the surface interferes with the inter-culture practices and equipment. As for water, expense is concerned the sub-surface drip irrigation saves around 40% water as compared to 30% saving under surface drip irrigation. Water productivity (kg cane/ ha-cm water used) also enhances conspicuously with sub-surface drip irrigation even if 100% cumulative pan evaporation is maintained throughout the growing season (1783.2) in comparison of flooding (773.1). Being laid at 20-25 cm depth, laterals do not interfere with the inter-culture operations and ratoon crop gets a vigorous start leading to higher cane yield over the previous crop. Another benefit of sub-surface drip is deeper root development providing adequate anchorage and lodging resistance. It is well known that lodging of sugarcane crop leads to loss in tonnage as well as sugar content. FEBRUARY 2017

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Micro rrigation

with additional 17.86 and 36.96 % cane yield over that of conventional flood irrigation.

Table 1: CANE YIELD AND WATER PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT THROUGH DRIP IRRIGATION AND FERTIGATION Location

Sub-surface drip irrigation

Flooding

Fertigation

Conventional (100% RDN)

100 % CPE

80 % CPE

100% RDN

75% RDN

Faridkot*

83.8

77.8

71.1

81.0

77.6

75.6

Lucknow

101.6

94.3

74.2

98.1

93.8

80.2

Cuddalore

133.8

122.0

129.4

139.8

131.6

122.1

Cane yield (t/ha)

Water expense (ha-cm) 89.7

Faridkot*

97.2

Lucknow

57.0

43.0

Cuddalore

110.2

82.6

142.1

96.0

161.0

Water productivity (Cane yield in kg/ha-cm) Faridkot*

1760.0

1940.0 720.0

2040

1950

Lucknow

1783.2

2194.8 773.1

1612.4

1549.3 840.8

Cuddalore

1214.0

1477.0 803.6

1200

1132

770 1048

*Surface drip; RDN, Recommended dose of nitrogen; CPE, Cumulative pan evaporation

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Hereditary factors, foaming of the ruminal contents produced by the high viscosity or surface tension and the low amount of saliva are the major animal factors Factors attributing in secondary ruminal tympany are physical obstructions like eructation and is caused by foreign body stenosis-pressure from enlargements outside the esophagus or obstruction inside the esophagus or at the cardia. Vagus indigestion and diaphragmatic hernia also interfere with oesophageal function and cause chronic tympany. The condition may occur in tetanus in young lambs due to spasms of the oesophageal musculature.

BLOAT IN RUMINANTS Dr. Sandhya Morwal

Assistant Professor, Department of Veterinary Medicine (TVCC) College of Veterinary & Animal Science, Navania, Vallabhnagar, Udaipur -313601

loat, a digestive disorder of ruminants, is the distension of the stomach with gas. The swelling is limited mainly to the first two compartments of the stomach—the rumen (or paunch) and reticulum (or honeycomb). The bloat classified into “frothy” and free-gas types. Problems arise when the gas layer is trapped in a stable froth AGRICULTURE

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or foam which prevents it from being belched out. Bloat can be a serious issue and even occasionally result in the loss of an animal. Bloat ,also called tympany is a clinical condition where rumen and reticulum are filled with gases of fermentation due to excessive intake of easily fermentable foods. If the gas bubbles www.krishijagran.com

remain intimately adhered with the ingesta,the condition is referred as frothy bloat as there is lot of production of foam within the rumen. It is divided into primary and secondary tympany. Major dietary factors for primary ruminal tympany are excessive intake of highly fermentable leguminous plants, particularly young rapidly growing legumes in the pre-bloom stage and the leguminous vegetable crops like peas beans and young grass pasture with a high protein content. www.krishijagran.com

Interference with the nerve pathways are responsible for maintenance of eructation reflex. The receptor organs in this reflex are capable to differentiate between gas and foam liquid lesions of the vagus nerve and that may interrupt the reflex action, which is important to remove gas from the rumen. Atony in normal tone of the musculature of the rumen and reticulum also attribute for secondary ruminal tympany. Sudden change in pH either to acidity or alkalinity may cause such atony.Persistent or enlarged thymus may also cause chronic tympany in calves up to 6 months.

Epidemiology of Ruminal tympany are as follows. •

Bloat occurs in dairy cattle which consume bloating forage.

•

Spring and autumn are the most danger-

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BLOAT IN RUMINANTS Dr. Sandhya Morwal

Assistant Professor, Department of Veterinary Medicine (TVCC) College of Veterinary & Animal Science, Navania, Vallabhnagar, Udaipur -313601

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Epidemiology of Ruminal tympany are as follows. •

Bloat occurs in dairy cattle which consume bloating forage.

•

Spring and autumn are the most danger-

FEBRUARY 2017

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ANTS Treatment of the Primary bloat

ous seasons when such forage is lush and young. •

Leaves of these plants contain a high concentration of soluble protein.

•

Feeds with high moisture content, immature forage and environment factors such as rainfall and temperature have also been implicated in foam formation.

•

In some cattle, the occurrence of frothy bloat is thought to be genetically influenced.

Oral administration of any vegetable or mineral oil mixed with a detergent (300-800 ml for large animals and 60-100 ml for sheep) can control primary bloat. A stomach tube can be used to avoid aspiration and to remove excess free gas .Oral administration of poloxalene (25-50 gm) will reduce stability of the foam.In severe cases trocarization should be adapted and oils can be introduced through the cannula by a syringe with a long nozzle.Turpentine oil (30-60 ml) will reduce the viscosity of the foam.Purgatives may be administered with the oil to facilitate evacuation of the tympany-produced ingesta. Anti-histaminic may be recommended but their use in frothy bloat may have a dangerous effect.Severe cases may need rumenotomy or Secadine (Anti bloat drug).

Pathogenesis of Ruminal tympany:Two types of bloat are observed, corresponding to different mechanisms which prevent normal eructation of gas: Frothy bloat (primary tympany) results when fermentation gases are trapped in stable, persistent foam which is not readily eructated. As quantities of this foam build up, the rumen becomes progressively distended and bloat occurs. This type of bloat occurs most commonly in two settings: •

•

Animals on pasture, particularly those containing alfalfa or clover (pasture bloat). These legumes are rapidly digested in the rumen, which seems to results in a high concentration of fine particles that trap gas bubbles. Animal’s feed high levels of grain, especially when it is finely ground (feedlot bloat). Again, rapid digestion and an abundance of small particles appear to trap gas in bubbles. Additionally, some species of bacteria that are abundant in animals on high concentrate rations produce an insoluble slime that promotes formation of stable foam.

Free gas bloat (secondary tympany) occurs when the animal is unable to eructate free gas in the rumen. The cause of this problem is often not discovered, but conditions that partially obstruct the oesophagus (foreign bodies, abscesses, tumours) or interfere with rumenoreticular motility (i.e. reticular adheAGRICULTURE

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FEBRUARY 2017

sions, damage to innervations of the rumen) clearly can be involved. Another cause of free gas bloat that should be mentioned involves posture. A ruminant cannot eructate when lying on its back, and if a cow falls into a ditch and is unable to right itself, she will bloat rapidly. Regardless of whether bloat is of the frothy or free gas type, distension of the rumen compresses thoracic and abdominal organs. Blood flow in abdominal organs is compromised, and pressure on the diaphragm interferes with lung function. The cause of death is usually hypoxia due to pulmonary failure. Clinical signs of Primary pasture bloat are as follows, obvious distension of the left side of rumen occurs suddenly .Due to discomfort , the animal may get up and lie down, frequently kicks at the belly and even roll.Dyspnoea may occur which characterized by mouth breathing, protrusion of the tongue, salivation and extension of the head.Respiratory rate will increase up to 60 per minute.Projectile vomiting may occur and the faeces may be expelled in a stream.Ruminal movements are at first increased but later on the sounds are reduced in volume. When the distension is severe, the movements are decreased or comwww.krishijagran.com

pletely absent.Percussion produces tympanic sound all over the rumen.In acute stages rumination and eructation disappear .Pulse rate of the animal increases up to 100-120.Death can occur within 3-6 hours from the onset of the clinical signs due to the absorption of the toxic gases (H2S, toxic amines, histamine), depression of the cardiovascular, respiratory systems and death Clinical signs of Secondary bloat are excess of free gases on the top of the ruminal contents and increase in rate and force of ruminal movements in the early stages followed by atony.Passage of the stomach tube or trocarization induces the expulsion of large quantities of gas and the retention subsides. Pulse will increase, systolic murmur will often audible which is due to displacement of the diaphragm and distortion of the base of the heart. Ruminal tympany can be identified by watching abdominal distension include kicking at the abdomen, bellowing, increased frequency of lying down and getting up, respiratory distress, excessive salivation, tongue protrusion and vomiting in extremely severe cases.Mild cases can be diagnosed by passing a stomach tube which result in the escape of gas. www.krishijagran.com

Treatment of the secondary tympany depends upon the removal of the cause. In any form adopt the first aid to save the animal.Tying a stick in the mouth can be the first activity.Let the animal to stand with the front feet raised.Then drench with non-toxic vegetable oil or mineral oil. After that smear the back of the tongues with wood tar.Then passage of the stomach tube to relief gases can be done and in emergency cases trocarization must be performed. Pasture bloat can be prevented by taking certain precautionary measures. Prior to grazing dry rough straw should be fed.Silage and molasses mixture may be fed at least few minute before pasture grazing.1:1 ratio of gases and legumes may be fed.Alternatively legume in the morning and grass at night may be fed.Strip grazing may be encouraged.Antifoaming agent may be drenched. For this, fat and oils or synthetic non-ionic surfactants can be used. Linseed oil, soyabean oil, peanut oil may also be used.Antifoaming agents may be sprayed in the bloat prone pasture.Strains of legume which produce less gas can be used. Feed lot blot may be prevented by providing at least 10-15% chopped roughages.Grains should be cracked but never be pulverized or fined ground.The non-ionic surfactants, such as poloxalene, have been ineffective in preventing feedlot bloat.

FEBRUARY 2017

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RUMI

ANTS Treatment of the Primary bloat

ous seasons when such forage is lush and young. •

Leaves of these plants contain a high concentration of soluble protein.

•

Feeds with high moisture content, immature forage and environment factors such as rainfall and temperature have also been implicated in foam formation.

•

In some cattle, the occurrence of frothy bloat is thought to be genetically influenced.

•

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AGRICULTURE

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Wilt

Guava

Management of Guava Wilt for Higher Productivity

Mamta

Department of plant pathology G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar

uava, the important fruit crop of India is mainly grown in tropical and subtropical part of the country. Guava is considered as one of the exquisite, nutritionally valuable and remunerative fruit crop. 100g fresh guava fruit contains 228 mg of vitamin C ,14 per cent of dietary fiber and is also a good source of calcium (18 mg), phosphorus (11 mg), and iron (0.26 mg). Besides it is a good source of pectin. Annually, guava is grown AGRICULTURE

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in about 2.68 lakh hectare area with an annual fruit production of 36.68 Metric tones. Besides domestic consumption, India exports premium guava variety fruits to several countries like USA and Arab nations. Recently it is observed that orchardists suffer huge economic losses due to dying of fully grown plants of guava. To enchance the profitably of farmers, this disease needs to be conwww.krishijagran.com

trolled as soon as the symptom starts on some plants. This disease commonly known as wilt was first reported by Das Gupta and Rai 1935 from the orchards of Lucknow Wilt is one of the most important disease of guava especially in India and losses due to this disease are substantial. Wilt affected plants die slowly and slowly and in an orchard the mortality may go as high as 60 per cent. Therefore to minimize the losses due to wilt a number of control measures are to be adopted by orchardists. Wilt is caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. psidii www.krishijagran.com

ilt is caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. psidii and Fusarium. Solani. Normally it is observed by the orchardists and researchers that disease develops during the heavy rainfall season particularly in the month August and September. Pathogens develop very fast if the range of temperature is 23-32oC and relative humidity is 75-80 per cent

and Fusarium. Solani. Normally it is observed by the orchardists and researchers that disease develops during the heavy rainfall season particularly in the month August and September. The causal agent Fusarium oxysporumf. sp. psidii

FEBRUARY 2017

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Wilt

Guava

Management of Guava Wilt for Higher Productivity

Mamta

Department of plant pathology G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar

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Wilt

Guava

contain several chemicals those help in suppression of wilt pathogen.

o control the disease in initial stages itself ,orchardists should not depend on any one measure. Instead they must adopt a combination of different methods to control this disease. This includes time to time field sanitation, proper training and pruning of the plants, proper irrigation and if required suitable botanical/ chemical control measures.

Biological control It is observed that some fungi like Trichoderma . virens, T. harzianum and T. viride have adverse effect on the growth of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. psidii and Fusarium. Solani. and therefore these can be used to control the pathogen. Among such fungi Aspergillus niger strain 17 were effective in complete suppression of wilt as this not only parasitises the Fusarium but also helps plant to be more vigorous. The use of VAM symbiont at the rate of 5 kg per tree is very beneficial for the control of wilt if applied in the canopy area of the plants.

Botanicals

and Fusarium. Solani develops very fast if the range of temperature is 23-32oC and relative humidity is 75-80 per cent. Further, stagnation of water for long duration helps in rapid development of pathogen.

Symptoms As soon as the rainy season starts the disease symptoms appears in the wilted infected plants which is characterized by light yellow foliage with loss of turgidity and epinasty. The pathogen attacks young as well as old fruit bearing trees but older trees are more prone to the disease. However as soon as the disease progress the infected plant show unthriftyness and results in premature shedding of leaves and in some cases the complete defoliation. With the further advancement of disease in infected plants the twigs become bare and fail to bring forth new leaves or flowers and eventually dry up. Even if some bear fruits ,but remain underdeveloped, hard and stony. With the passage of time the infected plant is defoliated and eventually dies. The pathogen infects the vascular tisAGRICULTURE

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sues and if examined critically, roots of infected plants also show rotting at the basal region and the bark in such infected plant is easily detachable from the cortex.

Survival and spread of pathogen: â&#x20AC;˘ Since the causal agent of wilt Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. psidii and Fusarium. solani survives in soil for several years and if the newly developed plantlets are grown in such infected soils and be sold, such plantlets will spread the disease to newer and newer areas. Normally irrigation is provided by flooding and with this irrigation water the innoculum spreads to the adjoining areas and infects other healthy plants in orchards. With the excessive run-off water from the wilted infected orchards ,the innoculum spreads to great distances and infects guava plantation. If during inter culture operations, roots are injured due to different reasons like mechanical injuries during harrowing etc, the healthier plants get infected by the pathogen. www.krishijagran.com

Disease management The pathogen of guava wilt survives in soil and since the infected soils cannot be replaced the control of this disease is very difficult. However the combination of a number of preventive measures is adopted to control the disease.

Cultural practices The disease infects all plant parts and the defoliated leaves also carry the pathogen. Therefore proper sanitation of orchard is necessary. For this purpose all the defoliated and infected leaves should be collected and burnt. The wilted trees should be uprooted. It is also advisable to provide nutrients through organic sources like FYM and green manures. To control the pathogen soil solarization with 30 cm transparent polyethylene sheet during the month of May and June is suggested for the control of wilt pathogens. The intercropping with turmeric or Marigold is useful to check the wilting of guava trees as the secretions from the roots of these crops www.krishijagran.com

The use of certain botanicals is found promising in controlling the guava wilt. Highest percentage of inhibition for all the five isolates ofFusarium oxysporum f. sp. psidii infecting guava plants was achieved by applying extracts from Achyranthes roses, Curcuma longa L. and Calotropis gigantea L. R.Br. and Tagetes erecta L. Leaf extract of Calotropis gigantean L. R.Br and Cannabis sativa L. showed comparatively maximum inhibitory effect to Fusarium solani.As soon as the first symptom of the disease appear ,spray should be done thrice at 15 days interval.

Chemical management Normally it is difficult to control the wilt disease once the symptom appears however use of certain chemicals is found promising. Among these Carbendazim 50% WP systemic fungicide is very effective against guava wilt if applied in the roots zone. The application of 15 g Bavistin dissolved in 2 litre of water to the trunk of each infected plant helps in reducing the disease incidence.

Integrated management â&#x20AC;˘ To control the disease in initial stages itself ,orchardists should not depend on any one measure. Instead they must adopt a combination of different methods to control this disease. This includes time to time field sanitation, proper training and pruning of the plants, proper irrigation and if required suitable botanical/ chemical control measures.

FEBRUARY 2017

AGRICULTURE

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Wilt

Guava

contain several chemicals those help in suppression of wilt pathogen.

Botanicals

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sues and if examined critically, roots of infected plants also show rotting at the basal region and the bark in such infected plant is easily detachable from the cortex.

FEBRUARY 2017

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KRISHI JAGRAN AGRICULTURE WORLD NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

COMPETITION

rishi Jagran announces its first Agri-Rural National Photography Competition in 2017. Both professional and amateur photographers can participate in the competition. The title of the competition is “A snap shot of Indian Agriculture”. In this contest , participants can send photographs related to Indian agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries and anything connected to our agriculture and farmers of India. The best photograph will receive an award of Rs. 25,000/- a citation and a certificate. 2nd prize will be Rs. 20,000/- and third prize Rs. 10,000/- plus citation and certificate. Ten consolation prizes of Rs. 1,000/- each will also be given. A jury comprising experts from this field will screen and select the best photographs. The entries should not have any mark or address to identify the photographer. Name, Address, Mobile No. and email id should be attached separately. The size of the photograph will be 12 x 18 inches. A colour copy and soft copy in CD with minimum size of 3 mp should be sent to the address below. A competitor can send a maximum of 3 photographs. Photographs should be original and any manipulation will be a disqualification. The right of entries send by the competitor will be the sole property of Krishi jagran Publications. Krishi jagran should have the freedom to use it in our magazines, exhibitions and virtual media. Proper acknowledgement will be given to the used photographs. Those who agree with the terms and conditions can participate in the competition. LAST DATE FOR RECEIPT OF ENTRIES - 30TH APRIL 2017.

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THE PULSE OF RURAL INDIA

WRITE ON THE TOP OF THE COVER : ENTRIES FOR PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION 2017 AGRICULTURE www.krishijagran.com

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Address :KRISHI JAGRAN 60/9, 3rd Floor, YusufSarai Market, Near Green Park Metro Station AGRICULTURE www.krishijagran.com Email: photo@krishijagran.com Contact - 011-26511845, 26517923 FEBRUARY 2017

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Address :KRISHI JAGRAN 60/9, 3rd Floor, YusufSarai Market, Near Green Park Metro Station AGRICULTURE www.krishijagran.com Email: photo@krishijagran.com Contact - 011-26511845, 26517923 FEBRUARY 2017

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Juice

lending

Juice blending A promising way to improve quality and storage of fruits and vegetable juices

Shashi Meena

Ravi Kumar Meena

Division of Plant Physiology Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012

uring the last few years the demand for beverages made from fruit and vegetable juices have been increasing, which may be attributed to change in dietary habits, increase in health awareness, taste preferences, and the way of life of present-day consumers. It has been reported that increasing intake of fruits and vegetables is good for heath. Several studies shown that eating more fruits and vegetables a day can lower the risk of heart stroke by 26%. Besides this, it also reduce other heart related diseases. Eating fruit and vegetable juices may also play an important role in delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The more fruits and vegetables you consume, the greater the benefits! But it can be difficult for some people to consume the recommended five or more servings in one day. Juice blending of fruits and vegeta-

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bles can be one easy way to get your daily servings. But in case of some of the fruits and vegetables, the utilization for consumption becomes limited owing to their high acidity, astringency, bitterness, and other factors, despite of possessing high nutritional qualities. Therefore, blending of two or more fruit and vegetable juices for the preparation of ready-to-serve beverage may be a preferable and economic alternative way for the utilization of such fruits and vegetables. The formulation of blended mixed fruit, vegetable, and spice juice beverage is extremely useful for satisfying user’s preferences and possess a longer shelf-life (3– 6 months) without having any microbial infestations in comparison to pure juices. By overcoming few limitations, there exists a great potential for utilization and commercialization of blended juice beverages as a natural health drink from major and underexploited fruits FEBRUARY 2017

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Juice

lending

Juice blending A promising way to improve quality and storage of fruits and vegetable juices

Shashi Meena

Ravi Kumar Meena

Division of Plant Physiology Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012

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Juice

not only in the domestic market but also at the export front.

lending •

Overcoming scarcity or seasonal non availability of certain juice components.

• Balancing out excessively strong flaIndia has a wide range of agro-climatic vours, primarily high acidity, astringency regions, on which a large number of horticultural crops such as fruits, vegetables, spices, or bitterness. medicinal and aromatic plants can be grown • Correcting low soluble solids level. successfully. Fruits and vegetables are important constituents of our diet and provide significant quantities of nutrients, especially vitamins, The more fruits sugars, minerals, and fibre. Daily consumption of fruits and vegetables and vegetables reduce risk of you consume, the cancer, heart disease, premagreater the benture aging, stress, and fatigue efits! But it can be primarily due to the integrated difficult for some action of oxygen radical scavengers such as β-carotene and people to consume ascorbic acid. The post harvest the recommended shelf life of most of the fruits five or more servand vegetables are very ings in one day. limited due to their perishable Juice blending of nature. In India more than 20fruits and veg25% of fruits and vegetables are spoiled before utilisation. etables can be one Despite being world’s second easy way to get largest producer of fruits and your daily servings vegetables after China, still only 1.5% of the total fruits and vegetables produced are processed here. • Balancing juices with weak or bland Fruit and vegetable beverages have higher flavour, but possessing other nutritive nutritional, medicinal, and calorific values positive attributes. compared to synthetic beverages, which are now widely available in the market. But in • Improving poor colour or making colour case of some of the fruits and vegetables the stability utilization for consumption becomes limited • Overcoming undesirable single strength owing to their quality parameters and nutrijuice consistency. tional qualities. Therefore, blending of two or more fruit and vegetable juices for the Effect of Juice blending on impreparation of ready-to-serve beverage may portant qualitative parameters be a preferable alternative for the utilization of such fruits and vegetables. Storability of Juice blends

Merits of blending fruit and vegetable juices •

•

Blending of multiple cultivars ensure a consistent availability of product in the market. Overcome the high cost of some juices (exotic fruits) by blending with other fruit juices.

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Storability of fruit and vegetable blend juices depend upon factors like presence of acids, moisture percentage, time of sterilisation, methods of preservation, relative humidity and the storage temperature. All these factors are complimentary in nature, which are responsible to extend shelf life for storage stability of fruits and vegetable beverages. Some fruits and spices have natural antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, and these www.krishijagran.com

to the chemical interaction between the organic constituents of the juice induced by the temperature and action of enzymes. The acidity levels can be increased to optimum by juice blending with natural antioxidants (spices extract) which declined conversion of acids into

juices can be stored effectively for long periods of time without any chemical changes. Blending of different fruits, vegetables and spiced juices improve storability and inhibit microbial growth in juice. •

Ascorbic acid: Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is natural antioxidant and also cofactor

in many enzymatic reactions including several collagen synthesis reactions. Vitamin C is extremely sensitive to heat and is oxidized quickly in the presence of oxygen. There are many fruits and vegetables in nature which are source of Vitamin C, viz., orange, kinnow, aonla etc. Blending other juices with ascorbic acid rich fruits such as aonla, acid lime etc., could help in maintaining balance of vitamin C levels in juice blends. •

•

Vitamin A: The carotenoids are one of the major sources of colour . Blending of carotene rich fruit and vegetable juices such as papaya, mango, and carrot significantly improve the carotenoid content in beverage. Astringicity: Acidity in juice is an important factor and its maintenance in juice assumes special significance during storage. The decrease in acidity observed during storage is attributed

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sugars and salt by enzymes and oxidation during storage. •

pH: The pH of fruit juice plays an important role in the preparation of beverages. The pH of juice is increased during storage of juice due to decrease in acidity , which in turn may be due to the chemical reaction between organic constituents. It is a measure of the acidity, which not only influences the flavour or palatability of a product but also the shelf life. Blending of juices with low pH fruit or vegetable juices allows chance to decrease pH and hence increase shelf life of juice.

Microbial population Fruit juice is the best media for multiplication of microbes hence there is an increase in microbial (bacteria, yeast, and mould) population with respect to the storage period. The microorganisms use food materials for their growth. They utilize nutrients and cause FEBRUARY 2017

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Juice

not only in the domestic market but also at the export front.

lending •

Overcoming scarcity or seasonal non availability of certain juice components.

Merits of blending fruit and vegetable juices •

•

Blending of multiple cultivars ensure a consistent availability of product in the market. Overcome the high cost of some juices (exotic fruits) by blending with other fruit juices.

AGRICULTURE

WORLD

FEBRUARY 2017

Ascorbic acid: Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is natural antioxidant and also cofactor

•

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sugars and salt by enzymes and oxidation during storage. •

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Juice

lending

enzymatic changes, contributing to creating off flavour by breakdown or synthesis of new compounds and hence spoil the food. These organisms are either present in fruit or get incorporated into the product during processing and multiply tremendously during processing and at the time of storage. Minimum increase in the microbial population was recorded when juice was blended with spices like ginger, mint, and black pepper. This might be due to their inhibitory effect towards micro-organisms.

torability of fruit and vegetable blend juices depend upon factors like presence of acids, moisture percentage, time of sterilisation, methods of preservation, relative humidity and the storage temperature. All these factors are complimentary in nature, which are responsible to extend shelf life for storage stability of fruits and vegetable beverages.

Sensory evaluation of juice Marketability of juice depends on the flavour, colour, and the organoleptic taste of fruit juice. Organoleptic quality like colour, flavour, and nutritive value of fruit products generally reduces with the increase in storage period. The colour, flavour, taste, and appearance as well as the nutrient component of the blends were found to be superior as compared to juice prepared from individual fruit.

SA . A . C + SB . B . D = SM . M . m Limitations in Juice blending

Blending offers the opportunity to adjust sugar/acid ratios and compensate for other imbalances in juice from a single harvest or cultivar, since many factors influence the composition and quality of juice. These differences can be dramatic and complicate the task of a manufacturer committed to a uniform product with established standards. Fortunately, by blending several batches of juice with complementary compositions ,a uniform, standard juice is practical. Adjusting 100 % juices is much more of a challenge than manipulating acid and sugar in juice beverage blends.

• There is a chance where original flavor of the base juice may be lost while blending with different fruit and vegetable juices.

In a similar sense, defects in many juice quality or nutritional attributes can be overcome by proper combination of juices. Further adjustments call for additional ingredients. Extremely acidic and/or strong flavoured juices completely mask more subtle juices. In which case, non-juice sweeteners can greatly extend the juice, although labelling regulations must be precisely followed. Storage life of juices is related to acidity and was found that when pH is 4.0 to 4.2 or lower, the germination of surviving spores is inhibited and comparatively low temperature process, 1000C or under may be used safely. Blending of less acidic vegetable AGRICULTURE

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• Identification of suitable blending ratios of juice needs several experimentations. Perfect blend would be a mixture of different fruit and vegetable juices, to satisfy consumers’ need both in nutritional levels and sensory values.

juices with highly acidic fruit juices, can be used in order to increase acidity of less acidic juices thereby increase storage life.

BLENDING FORMULAS Weight- composition relationships Algebraic method: This method can be used whenever it is desired to mix together two products of different composition to produce a definite or indefinite weight of a third product of definite composition. Let A and B be the weights of two ingredients to be mixed to produce of (A+B) of mixture. Let C and D be the percentages by weight in two ingredients of some compo-

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nent common to both of them and let M be the percentage of the same component in the final mixture. Then the total weight of the component in the two ingredients, that is

A : B : : (M - D) : (C - M) Algebraic treatments: Let A and B be the volumes in gallons of the two ingredients to be mixed to produce M gallons of mixture. Let C and D be the percentages by weight in the two ingredients of some component common to both and let M be the percentage by weight of the same component in the final mixture. Let SA , SB , SM be the respective specific gravities of the products. Then total weight of the component in the mixture is the sum of the weights of that compound in the two ingredients, i.e. www.krishijagran.com

• Variation in processing methods for original juices and in blended juices is the major problem while preparing juice blends as processing methods for different fruits and vegetables are different from each other. While preparing juice blend, one must have knowledge of difference in processing methods, as this factor may damage quality of the product.For example,while preparing a blend using pomegranate juice ,one must keep in mind that the phenolic constituents of pomegranates give colour, astringency and bitterness to the juice. These compounds are also responsible for the formation of cloudy appearance of fruit juices during concentration and storage. Although pomegranate juice contains only trace amounts of pectin, clarification is necessary to prevent the formation of haze in the juice during process and storage. Phenolic compounds can form complexes with proteins. This complexes increase the turbidity of fruit juices • Specific standards are not yet made for juice blends which in turn create complexity in license acquirement procedure. FEBRUARY 2017

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SA . A . C + SB . B . D = SM . M . m Limitations in Juice blending

• There is a chance where original flavor of the base juice may be lost while blending with different fruit and vegetable juices.

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juices with highly acidic fruit juices, can be used in order to increase acidity of less acidic juices thereby increase storage life.

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nent common to both of them and let M be the percentage of the same component in the final mixture. Then the total weight of the component in the two ingredients, that is

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ent of Power or steel beam is attached to the vertical shaft of the rotary gear box assembly to hitch the animal. The rotary unit converts the animal power into mechanical power for operating different machines. To make the complete unit economically viable, one pair of bullocks was used to generate power. For safer design of animal powered rotary unit, the ultimate power developed by a pair of bullocks can be assumed as 0.75 kW (1 hp) for sustained working of 6 hour in a day. Two systems are usually followed to transmit power to the input shaft of machine through the output shaft of rotary transmission system:

Enhancement of

Animal Power

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during Idle Period by Rotary Transmission System Swapnil Choudhary Parmanand Sahu

SRF, AICRP on UAE SRF, CRP on EA ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal

raditional Indian farming was based on the human and animal power and still it has relevance for the mechanization of small farms in the coming years. Marginal and small holding size farmers of India constitute 85.01% (117 million numbers) of total operational holdings sharing 44.58% (71.15 million hectare) of total operated area. Even though tractors are replacing draught animals in rural areas, small and marginal farmers (< 2 hectare) continue to depend on human and animal power. Draught animals have been the backbone of Indian agriculture through ages for supplying draught power. Major draught animals used by farmers are bullocks and he-buffaloes. Other draught animals are camel, yak, mithun and equines (donkey, horse, pony and mule). Animal operated implements AGRICULTURE

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Animal operated rotary transmission system

available in the country are primarily meant for field operation and haulage. Therefore animals remain idle for a considerable period for which the farmer continues to provide fodder and shelter.It is estimated that the potential use of animals in a year is nearly 1800 hours but actually they are utilized only 300-350 hours. The farmers have to spend a substantial amount on feeding and management of the animal throughout the year. For increasing the annual utilization hour of animals we can use them in rotary power transmission system for following operations: Operation of Agro-processing machines like thresher, grinder, winnower, etc.). Electricity generation. Water lifting. www.krishijagran.com

In first system a pit is made outside the circular track and the agro-processing machinery are installed below the level of circular track. This system permits taking the drive from output shaft directly.

The animal operated rotary mode system consists of circular track on which the animal moves in a circular path. The diameter of track would generally be 10-12 m. The rotary gear box assembly is installed at the central place of circular track. The gear box assembly involves combination of crown bevel gear and pinion, pairs of helical or spur gear and V-belt and pulleys. Animal power is transferred at right angle through this gear box assembly to operate small capacity machine. The rotary system increases the rpm of the animals from 1.252 rpm to about 400-500 rpm at the output shaft. A wooden www.krishijagran.com

In second system an intermediate shaft attached to universal joints at both ends was provided to transmit power to the output shaft at ground level from which drive is taken to the agro-processing machinery through belt and pulley. In this case the agro-processing machinery are installed at ground level. nimal operated

implements available in the country are primarily meant for field operation and haulage. Therefore animals remain idle for a considerable period for which the farmer continues to provide fodder and shelter. It is estimated that the potential use of animals in a year is nearly 1800 hours but actually they are utilized only 300-350 hours

Operation of agro-processing machinery: Utilization of draught animal for running Persian wheel, cane crusher and oil expellers (Ghani) are well known. The traditional design suffers with low output and designed for a specific operation based machine. The design of draught animal powered power take off unit (PTO) has been now updated to rotary transmission gear system for versatile operation of new post harvest machine with high efficiency and a new hope of optimized draught animal and farm labour use, giving rural employment and income generation. Various agro-processing

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Enhancement of

Animal Power

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during Idle Period by Rotary Transmission System Swapnil Choudhary Parmanand Sahu

SRF, AICRP on UAE SRF, CRP on EA ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal

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Animal operated rotary transmission system

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machines which require 1-1.5 hp electric motor can be installed successfully near the rotary complex and can be operated using animal powered rotary transmission system. The Details of machines which can be operated using animal powered rotary transmission system are given below.

tary power up to 0.75 kW (1 hp) can be efficiently operated by this system.

Generation of electricity:

As the population increases the demand of electric energy rises. In India there are various rural areas where electric power is not availa• Paddy Thresher: A hold on type paddy ble. This system has unique features of using thresher is suitable for threshing animal power as prime mover of paddy using this system. for electric generator. An It may be single or double automobile alternator can drum type having wire used to convert mechanical s the populaloops on its periphery energy to electrical energy. tion increases for threshing. Threshing For this purpose, the output the demand of of paddy crop is done rpm will be increased to about electric energy by holding the paddy 1300-1500 rpm through belt rises. In India against the wire loop and pulley arrangement. The of revolving cylinders. current generated can be used there are various The grains are easily to charge one 12V battery and rural areas where shattered out. Due to that can be used for home electric power is centrifugal forces, the lighting or other purpose. not available. An grains are thrown away automobile alterfrom operators. There Water lifting is no looping of paddy nator can convert straws. As the rotary transmission mechanical energy system can run many devices to electrical energy. • Chaff Cutter: A chaff cutwhich is run by electric power For this purpose, ter is a mechanical device just like- chaff cutter, flour mill, the output rpm used to cut the straw or thresher, winnower, etc., it can will be increased to hay into small pieces so also be used for water lifting as to mix it together with using pump. The water lifting about 1300-1500 other forage grass and using reciprocating pump, rpm through belt fed to horses and cattle. centrifugal pump and positive and pulley arrangeA power operated chaff displacement screw pump can ment. The current cutter having power be done by this system and generated can be discharge of about 80-100 liter requirement up to 1hp per minute can be obtained. can be operated by rotary used to charge a transmission system. 12V battery and So the rotary transmission systhat can be used • Winnower: Winnowing, tem for operation of selected for home lighting or the process of separatpost harvest machinery is exother purpose. ing quality grains from pected to increase the income chaff. A power operated to farmers by increased use of winnower having power draught animal and farm labour. requirement up to 1hp The operation of agro-processing can be operated by rotary transmission machinery, electricity generator and water liftsystem. ing pumps are the best option to utilize animal power in idle period and get additional income Similarly various agro-processing machineries for small and marginal farmers of our country. like seed cleaner cum grader, maize sheller, As per availability of draught animals with the flour mill, maize de-husker cum sheller, groundfarmer, they can use any animal for operation of nut decorticator, spice grinder, mini dahl Mill, rotary transmission system viz. bullock, camel, aloe vera jell extractor, etc., which requires rodonkey, equines, etc

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tary power up to 0.75 kW (1 hp) can be efficiently operated by this system.

Generation of electricity:

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Transgenic grass to neutralize toxicity Suresh Muthukulam

cientists from the University of Washington and University of New York have developed a transgenic grass species that can neutralize toxic compounds found in bombs, explosives and ammunition. The discovery of this has been reported in the ‘Plant Bio-technology Journal’. The grass has been genetically transformed to attain the ability to remove contamination from the environment. According to Stuart Strand a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Washington, the roots of the grass are found to take up the RDX, which is a toxic compound forming the base for many military explosives and degrade it before it reaches the ground water. Morover RDXC is also a potential carcinogen and is found to cause organ damage. Scientists introduced two genes from RDX-eating bacteria into two perennial grass species namely Switch grass (Panicum Virgatum) and creeping bent grass (Agros-

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tis stolonifera). It seems very interesting to note that these grasses were able to remove all the RDX from the soil and break it down to harmless constituents. Also no traces of RDX were found in the leaves and stem of the grass, so that no toxin will be re-introduced into the soil when the grass dies. Scientists consider this as a sustainable and affordable way to remove and destroy pollutants. Another interesting thing is that these genetically modified grasses use RDX as a source of nitrogen which helps it to grow faster also.

A Super Banana to fight Panama disease The soil-borne fungal disease known as Panama or Fusarium wilt is not only a huge concern for the global export banana sector. It exerts an even greater impact in the domestic production of the staple crop as many locally preferred cultivars are also endangered threatening the livelihoods of millions of small holder producers and farmers.

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According to FAO bananas are the eighth most important food crop in the world. With 85% of all bananas being produced for domestic consumption we can imagine the impact of this disease also known as Fusarium wilt destroyed the most popular verity of Gros Michel in the early 1960s. Today banana growers are in a fight for survival, continuously applying newly formulated fungicides in an effort to keep off the disease. Some experts argue that we need to breed or genetically modify a new type of banana that is resistant to the latest train of Panama disease. Meanwhile it is a news of hope that Brazilian scientists have launched a new banana that they claim is more resistant to diseases than other commercial varieties. The variety is named ‘Belluna’ and is resistant to Sigatoka disease also apart from Panama disease. An added advantage of Belluna is that being resistant the variety can also be grown or-

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ganically without the use of pesticides.

Cows can’t talk But can message! It is a fact that cows cant talk like human; this becomes a curse when the cows are not doing well and they cant communicate with their beloved owners. But now it’s a great news that an Austrian tech company SmaXtec has developed a smart innovative tool with which the cow can text its feelings under the weather variations. It is about the size of a hot dog, which can be inserted into a cow’s throat and get lodged in the rumen, the first chamber of a cow’s stomach. After being inserted successfully the device which has a battery that last four years, would transmit uptodate minute data such as PH of the cow’s stomach, temperature, movement of the cow, and the quantity of water the cow has consumed. All such information transmitted by the device would be uploaded to the cloud. When anything unusual happens, a text message is sent to the farmer

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Transgenic grass to neutralize toxicity Suresh Muthukulam

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ganically without the use of pesticides.

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letting them know allowing for quick treatment and speedy recovery. Moreover these sensors are capable of predicting when a cow will give birth with 95 percent accuracy allowing farmers to plan the cowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pregnancy in a manner which maximises milk production. Almost 15,000 cows in Britain are already equipped with this smart monitoring technology and 350 farms in almost two dozen Countries are using the same.

Drones to monitor agriculture growth The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) through the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has developed a Drone technology for crop and soil health monitoring usimg Hyperspectral remote sensing (HRS) sensors. This is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which has the ability for smooth scouting over farm fields, gathering precise information and transmitting the data on real time basis. This will be used for the benefit of farming sector at regional or local level for assessing land and crop health for assessing the quality of soil as well as crop losses after floods. This technology can also be integrated with satellite based technologies for large scale applications. The drones can capture a big area in a very less time. The mappings and analysis by drones will also be done at a very low cost. The farmer will be able to analyste his profit or loss because he will get to know the yield even before it grows. Using this analysis he can reduce input costs and raise yield. AGRICULTURE

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GREEN UPPLY The various aspects of wholesomeness and safety of radiation processed foods have been studied in great detail in scientific laboratories of the world. These results have been reviewed by the experts of the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ed that foods preserved by radiation pose any special problems in relation to microorganisms. The composition of food remains largely unchanged, their taste remains the same, though some losses in certain vitamins may be encountered. Such losses are however also encountered with other methods of food processing. The losses are often minor and could be made up from other sources.

FOOD PRESERVATION BY RADIATION PROCESSING N.S.Arun Kumar Science Journalist

raditionally India has a very hot and humid climate. This climate is quite favorable for the growth of numerous insects and microorganisms that destroy stored crops and cause spoilage of food every year. Spoilage can also occur due to chemical and physiological changes in stored foods. Sea-foods, meat and poultry may carry harmful microbes and parasitic organisms that cause illness associated with their consumption. The traditional methods of foodpreservation such as sun drying, pickling and fermentation are more energy consuming. Techniques like refrigeration, freezing, drying and canning are costlier ,time consuming and not free of demerits . So, radiation processing AGRICULTURE

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of food is one of the promising methods we could rely upon. Basically, radiation processing means exposure of food to short wave radiation energy to achieve a specific purpose such as extension of shelf-life, insect disinfestations and elimination of food borne pathogens and parasites. In comparison with heat or chemical treatment, irradiation is considered a more effective and energy-efficient. It offers a number of advantages to producers, processors, retailers and consumers. Many of us may have fear of X-rays as they are hazardous to health. But the truth is oppowww.krishijagran.com

site to it. X-rays are quite safe and the fact is that ,no other method of food processing has been subjected to such a through assessment of safety . The various aspects of wholesomeness and safety of radiation processed foods have been studied in great detail in scientific laboratories of the world. These results have been reviewed by the experts of the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and also independently by the governments of various countries and recommended safe. At the energy level recommended for X-rays and gamma rays from Cobalt-60 or those from accelerated electrons, no radioactivity can be induced in foods. The effects of these radiations upon micro-organisms have been studied in detail. None of the studies have indicatwww.krishijagran.com

Expertise and know-how for designing, fabrication and commissioning of irradiators is available in the country with BARC. A prototype commercial demonstration irradiator with an initial throughput of 20 tons/day for treatment of spices has been commissioned in Vashi, under the management of Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT), a constituent unit of the Department of Atomic Energy. The first prototype commercial demonstration irradiator for potatoes and onions (POTON) with a throughput of 10 tons/h is being set up in Lasalgaon, Nashik Dt., Maharashtra. Two pilot-plant irradiation facilities, namely the Food Package Irradiator in Food Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and another at the Defense Laboratory, Jodhpur have been licensed for irradiating food items that have been cleared for domestic trade and consumption. It is proposed to use these irradiation facilities for treatment of limited commercial quantities for test marketing and consumer response surveys.

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FOOD PRESERVATION BY RADIATION PROCESSING N.S.Arun Kumar Science Journalist

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REVOLUTIONISING INDIAN FARMING WITH ISRAELI TECHNOLOGY

ertical farming, drip irrigation, soil solarisation and the like were terms that farmers to the Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence for Vegetables , Gharaunda ,Karnal,Haryana. Those joined for training adopted the Israeli farming skills and, within months, saw a staggering five-fold increase in production.The farmers who traditionally grow wheat and barley now earmarks a portion to cultivate vegetables using Israeli know-how.They are growing cherry tomatoes, seedless cucumbers, brinjals and coloured capsicums and earns comparatively higher value to their crops. Situated 145 km from Chandigarh, the centre opened in January 2011 and is spread across six hectares. Built for Rs.6 crore by the Indian government, it was set up following the signing of the Agriculture Cooperation Agreement between India and Israel in 2008.Experts from Israel regularly visit the centre and organize free training sessions for farmers, teaching them “protective agriculture” to increase their crop yields while using fertilizer and water optimally. The experts also visit the farms if needed. In addition, corporates and professionals are also taught ways to produce quality vegetable seedlings at a nominal fee. The idea behind the centre is to transfer applied research and technologies to the farmers in various states across India. While Israel has already entered into agreement with seven state governments to set up these centres, the most successful model has been Haryana.These Centres of Excellence give special focus on mangoes,

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pomegranates and citrus fruits. By 2015, their number increased to 28 as they also branched out to flowers, bee keeping and dairying. In Gharaunda centre, farmers, not only from Haryana but also from states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Tamil Nadu attend training. Last year, over 16,000 farmers were trained at the centre. Training is given on diverse technologies so that they can choose the technology that suits them best and maximize their yield and profits. In fact,the centre is playing an important role in transforming the lives of many farmers.Methods like vertical farming help save space on the ground by growing the crops vertically while drip irrigation saves almost 90 percent of water. Though the concept of “protective agriculture” is expensive as it requires greenhouses and poly-houses, government subsidies have ensured that interested farmers take the plunge. Government provides 90 percent subsidy for installing a drip irrigation as well as automatic irrigation system, while for the poly-houses, farmers get 65 percent rebate from the government. Centre provides the retail chains with the names of farmers, their contact details and the crop they are growing so that they can contact them directly without leaving any room for intermediaries.Government works to improve the quality of seedlings by providing valuable feedback to seed companies and supports farmers by providing the top quality materials to plant. Contact: cev.karnal@gmail.com www.krishijagran.com

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REVOLUTIONISING INDIAN FARMING WITH ISRAELI TECHNOLOGY

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ABTL PARTICIPATES AND PLAYS AN ACTIVE ROLE IN SUPPORTING NEPAL POULTRY FEDERATION EVENT

ABTL played an active role in supporting and promoting the Nepal Poultry Federation event which was inaugurated at the hands of Hon’ble Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on 13th of January, 2017 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

EVENTS AND ENGAGEMENTS AGRI INDIA EXPO 2017

EXPO 2017

ndia’s only International Trade fair dedicated to tea,coffee and allied sectors will launch its 5th edition at Bombay Exhibition Centre ,Goregaon(E),Mumbai on 16th

gri India Expo 2017 will be conducted at Ramanagar stadium,Ramanagara ,Bangaluru Rural from 21 to 23 April. Its an expo focusing on Agriculture,farm machinery,dairy,poultry,live stock equipment,agri processing technologies products and machinery. For more details:- 8105733556/ email-info@agriindiaexpo.com

BANANA FESTIVAL

th Edition of Asia’s largest banana festival will be held at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Madurai Campus from 9th to 11th March,2017. For more details-contact- 044-42444555/ email- arun.roberts@cii.in, M-9843740508

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November 2017. Contact—022-28625131/ 32 , Web:- www.worldteacoffeeexpo.com

9TH GLOBAL SUMMIT ON AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE

ill be held at Beijing ,China on August 10 -11,2017 . Contact-+1 -888-843-8169/ emailagrisummit@conferenceseries.com

ICAAA 2017

asetsart University ,Bangkok hosts 7th International Conference on Asia Agriculture and Animal on 28-30 August,2017. Contact email- icaaa@cbees.org/ Web:www.icaaa.org

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ABTL PARTICIPATES AND PLAYS AN ACTIVE ROLE IN SUPPORTING NEPAL POULTRY FEDERATION EVENT

EVENTS AND ENGAGEMENTS AGRI INDIA EXPO 2017

EXPO 2017

ndia’s only International Trade fair dedicated to tea,coffee and allied sectors will launch its 5th edition at Bombay Exhibition Centre ,Goregaon(E),Mumbai on 16th

BANANA FESTIVAL

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November 2017. Contact—022-28625131/ 32 , Web:- www.worldteacoffeeexpo.com

9TH GLOBAL SUMMIT ON AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE

ill be held at Beijing ,China on August 10 -11,2017 . Contact-+1 -888-843-8169/ emailagrisummit@conferenceseries.com

ICAAA 2017

asetsart University ,Bangkok hosts 7th International Conference on Asia Agriculture and Animal on 28-30 August,2017. Contact email- icaaa@cbees.org/ Web:www.icaaa.org

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