• Authors:
    • Hebbar, K. B.
    • Mayee, C. D.
  • Source: Current Science
  • Volume: 100
  • Issue: 11
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: There are several reasons why plants wilt. Some of them are over-watering, lack of water, too much sun, not enough sun, too many/much fertilizers, diseases caused by infection, etc. Wilt due to lack of water or other environmental factors generally occurs gradually and hence, the cause of those can be studied and accordingly it can be controlled by devising appropriate management strategies. Moreover, plants recover with appropriate control measures and continue to yield. In this review, we discuss a typical wilt which is sudden and occurs within a few hours. Hence, understanding the cause and devising a control measure are difficult. Its sporadic distribution and untimely occurrence further complicate the effort to find the cause of this wilt. Unlike the wilt mentioned above which occurs due to lack of water, sudden wilt occurs when the soil is suddenly saturated by a downpour of rain and the sun later shines bright and hot. Paradoxically, the physiological responses, i.e. wilt symptoms to those induced by either drought or flooding are similar. However, the causal mechanism is different. Here, we demonstrate that the imbalance in uptake and loss of water under flooding is the cause of sudden/parawilt of cotton. We also discuss how plants with rapid growth rate and climate factors like bright sunshine and high temperature accentuate the problem of parawilt in cotton.
  • Authors:
    • Jansirani, R.
  • Source: Journal of Cotton Research and Development
  • Volume: 25
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: The study was conducted at Kovilpatti block of Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu with the specific objective of studying extent of adoption of production technologies in Bt cotton by the growers. The area was selected based on the major cultivation of Bt areas and production of Bt cotton under irrigated condition. The selected respondents for this study were 90, who have adopted Bt cotton and non Bt cotton i.e 45 growers in each category by using simple random sampling method. The collected data were analyzed using percentage analysis. All the growers adopted Bt varieties and 95.55 per cent of the growers adopted appropriate time of planting. About 80.00 per cent of the growers adopted spacing. Three fourths (77.77%) of the growers adopted regular plucking intervals during harvest and 75.55 per cent of the growers adopted proper irrigation management followed by pest and diseases management (73.33%). More than fifty (66.66%) of the growers adopted preparation of fields to required tilth and formation of trenches followed by manures and fertilizers (62.22%) and number of split doses (57.77%). Out of ten technologies nine technologies were adopted more than fifty per cent by the growers due to the reasons that private firms have agreed to buy the produce from the farmers offering a minimum support prices. State Department of Agriculture has also introduced contract farming to assure remunerative prices to farmers.
  • Authors:
    • Chauhan, P. S.
    • Jitendra, S.
  • Source: The Indian Forester
  • Volume: 137
  • Issue: 7
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: An attempt was made to analyze the vivipary of Citrus sinensis with intent to highlight the utility of harvesting fruits at proper stage. The vivipary observed in sweet orange fruit may be due to increased humidity in garden atmosphere or might be due to coincidental rain, heavy irrigation, and sudden lowering of temperature.
  • Authors:
    • Janaki, D.
    • Haroon, A. R. M.
    • Maragatham, S.
  • Source: Advances in Plant Sciences
  • Volume: 24
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Irrigation water is one of the most critical resource for agricultural production. Under ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project functioning at Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tiruchirappalli, water samples were collected from Tiruchirappalli and other adjacent districts for ground water characterization. Of these water samples collected, high SAR saline waters are found in Udiyur block of Kankeyam area, Erode district. A laboratory study was conducted to study the effect of high SAR saline water on germination per cent and biomass yield in cotton plants. Different sources of water and amendments were used. Maximum biomass yield and high germination per cent were recorded when best available water was used as a source of irrigation followed by gypsum treated water. The germination per cent was 90.0 and 82.5 respectively. Among the amendments, soil application of vermin compost (5 t ha -1) and press mud (t ha -1) registered higher germination per cent.
  • Authors:
    • Chachar, Q. I.
    • Shahzadi, A. K.
    • Mari, J. M.
  • Source: Journal of Agricultural Technology
  • Volume: 7
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: The study on perception of the problems in farming community in District Hyderabad, Pakistan was conducted through a set of questioners during 2007. Three hundred respondents (growers) were personally interviewed, their responses were tabulated. Data were collected on the basic information about cotton growers such as their ages, education, tenancy statuses, sizes of farm, farming experiences, and living status was asked which would highly influence the use of communication media for the perception of the problems in farming community. The growers of the area stated that irregular supply of irrigation and lack of visit of extension personnel, nonavailability of inputs, and high cost of inputs were common problems of the area. It was also noted that these are the causes for low yield. It is recommended that government should ensure the better facilities for continue supply of irrigation water and pure inputs with minimum rates in the market.
  • Authors:
    • Mini, Goyal
  • Source: Agricultural Economics Research Review
  • Volume: 24
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: The present study has been conducted to know the general profile, educational status, activities performed and income of the migratory child labour vis-a-vis the natives engaged in agricultural activities in Punjab. The study is based on a sample of twelve villages randomly taken from three agro-climatic zones. In all the villages, 302 children working in agricultural sector were identified and all of them were the respondents of this study. It has been found that about one-fourth of the child labour working in agricultural and allied activities in the state of Punjab are migrants from other states, viz. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Most of the migrant child workers were in the age group of 12-14 years. The ratio of female child labour was higher in migrants than in natives. A very high number of child labour belonging to both migrant and native families were from scheduled caste families. All the migratory working children belonged to the landless families of labourers. The educational status of the migrant child labour portrayed a very grim picture. None of them was found going to the school and the reason behind their absenteeism was migration from other states. The child labour was belonging to the low income families. Children were engaged in various agricultural activities such as ploughing, sowing, irrigation, paddy transplantation, crop watching, cattle grazing, crop hartvesting wheatear picking stubble harvesting, pea plucking, cotton picking, potato digging, etc. Children were also employed in dairy farms and poultry farms. The wage earnings of working children were meagre. Special schools for migrants in the rural areas of the state can be opened where they may be taught through their mother tongue. Night schools or schools on the pattern of Charwaha Schools of Bihar may also be started to cater to the needs of working children. The study has also suggested that more employment avenues for adult labour, especially for the women in the villages of the state, should be generated through promoting agro-based industries and traditional handicrafts such as embroidery, pickle-papad making, etc.
  • Authors:
    • Patel, L. C.
    • Lakshman, S. S.
    • Mondal, C. K.
    • Bhaskar, Mukherjee
  • Source: Environment and Ecology
  • Volume: 29
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Agriculture faces three way problems in the Sundarban blocks of South 24 parganas district of West Bengal. These are soil salinity, late release of land for rabi crop due to poor drainage system along with low percolation rate, and poor irrigation facility as the ground water is saline. In this perspective, it was imperative to find out a crop which can tolerate salinity to some extent and can grow without irrigation. Sweet potato being a crop which can grow without irrigation, the present investigation was made to find out the threshold salinity level for growing sweet potato in the saline rice fallow of Sundarbans. It was observed that this crop could be grown successfully at a salinity level upto EC 2.37 dS/m. With gradual increase in salinity level, the initial herb growth was well but root development became poor. Although a satisfactory yield and a profitable return was obtained upto a medium soil salinity level.
  • Authors:
    • Murari, L.
  • Source: Regional Environmental Change
  • Volume: 11
  • Issue: Supplement 1
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: One of the targets of the United Nations 'Millennium Development Goals' adopted in 2000 is to cut in half the number of people who are suffering from hunger between 1990 and 2015. However, crop yield growth has slowed down in much of the world because of declining investments in agricultural research, irrigation, and rural infrastructure and increasing water scarcity. New challenges to food security are posed by accelerated climatic change. Considerable uncertainties remain as to when, where and how climate change will affect agricultural production. Even less is known about how climate change might influence other aspects that determine food security, such as accessibility of food for various societal groups and the stability of food supply. This paper presents the likely impacts of thermal and hydrological stresses as a consequence of projected climate change in the future potential agriculture productivity in South Asia based on the crop simulation studies with a view to identify critical climate thresholds for sustained food productivity in the region. The study suggests that, on an aggregate level, there might not be a significant impact of global warming on food production of South Asia in the short term (
  • Authors:
    • Raman, A.
    • Ladha, J. K.
    • Kumar, V.
    • Sharma, S.
    • Piepho, H. P.
  • Source: Field Crops Research
  • Volume: 121
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Normally, the data generated from farmer participatory trials (FPT) are highly unbalanced due to variation in the number of replicates of different treatments, the use of different varieties, farmers’ management of the trials, and their preferences for testing different treatments. The incomplete nature of the data makes mixed models the preferred class of models for the analysis. When assessing the relative performances of technologies, stability over a range of environments is an important attribute to consider. Most of the common models for stability may be fitted in a mixed-model framework where environments are a random factor and treatments are fixed. Data from on-farm trials conducted in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) of South Asia under the umbrella of Rice–Wheat Consortium (RWC) were analyzed for grain yield stability using different stability models. The objective was to compare improved resource management technologies with farmers’ practice. The variance components of an appropriate mixed model serve as measures of stability. Stability models were compared allowing for (i) heterogeneity of error variances and (ii) heterogeneity of variances between environments for farmers-within-environment effects. Mean comparisons of the treatments were made on the basis of the best fitting stability model. Reduced-till (non-puddled) transplanted rice (RT-TPR) and reduced-till drill-seeded wheat using a power tiller – operated seeder with integrated crop and resource management RTDSW(PTOS)ICRM ranked first in terms of both adjusted mean yield and stability.
  • Authors:
    • Brar, A. S.
    • Mahal, S. S.
    • Buttar, G. S.
    • Deol, J. S.
  • Source: Indian Journal of Agronomy
  • Volume: 56
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: A field experiment was conducted to work out the water productivity, economics and energetics of basmati rice ( Oryza sativa L.)-wheat [ Triticum aestivum (L.) emend. Fiori & Paol] sequence under different methods of crop establishment during 2005-06 and 2006-07. The treatments included combinations of two crop establishment methods of basmati rice (direct seeded and transplanted) and three seeding techniques of succeeding wheat (conventional, bed planting and zero tillage). Productivity of basmati rice-wheat sequence was significantly higher with transplanted basmati rice (TPBR) than direct seeded basmati rice (DSBR) irrespective of seeding technique of succeeding wheat. However, crop establishment methods of wheat did not show any significant impact on total productivity of basmati rice-wheat sequence during both the years. Total water use was 9.5 and 8.2 per cent higher in TPBR-wheat sequence than DSBR-wheat sequence during 2005-06 and 2006-07, respectively. In this sequence the highest net return was obtained from TPBR-zero till sown wheat sequence, which was closely followed by TPBR-conventionally sown wheat sequence but both gave more net returns than DSBR-zero till sown wheat sequence. The highest energy output was recorded in TPBR-conventionally sown wheat, while energy use efficiency was maximum in TPBR-zero till sown wheat, during both the years because of lowest energy input in zero till sown wheat than conventional and bed planting.