• Authors:
    • Raundal, P. U.
    • Kambale, A. B.
    • Chaudhari, P. M.
    • Chitodkar, S. S.
  • Source: International Journal of Agricultural Sciences
  • Volume: 2
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2006
  • Summary: A study was conducted in Maharashtra, India during 2002, 2003 and 2004 under rainfed conditions to evaluate the effect of intercropping with pigeon pea (cv. BSMR-78), sorghum (cv. CHS-14) and cotton (cv. Y-1) on the productivity of soyabean (cultivars JS-335 and MACS-124). The spacings were 30 * 10, 65 * 20, 45 * 15 and 45 * 22.5 cm for soyabean, pigeon pea, sorghum and cotton, respectively, under soyabean intercropping, at 3:1 row proportion. Soyabean + pigeon pea produced the highest soyabean equivalent yield (24.06 q/ha), gross monetary returns (Rs. 30 322/ha), net monetary returns (Rs. 20 010/ha), land equivalent ratio (1.38) and benefit:cost ratio (2.92).
  • Authors:
    • Rani, S. S.
    • Pradhan, A. C.
  • Source: Journal of Crop and Weed
  • Volume: 1
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2005
  • Summary: A field experiment was carried out during winter seasons of 2002-03 and 2003-04 in Nadia, West Bengal, India to study the effect of chemical methods of weed control in zero-till wheat. The results revealed that the crop was severely infested with sedges and grasses. The pooled analysis showed 50 percent reduction in grain yield due to weed-crop competition. All weed control methods effectively reduced weed density and markedly suppressed dry weight of weeds. Growth parameters of wheat like tiller density, leaf area indices, crop growth rates and yield components (spike density, number of filled grains per spike and test weight of grain) increased significantly by the application of chemicals over weedy control in comparison to others. Application of metribuzin at 175 g ha -1 before first irrigation effectively controlled all categories of weeds in zero-till wheat resulting in 78.2 percent increase in grain production which was comparable with weed free and two manual weedings. Among the chemical control measures, metribuzin 175 g ha -1 before first irrigation was most economical by paying highest net return (Rs. 18 598/-) and benefit-cost ratio (2:1).
  • Authors:
    • Parandiyal, A.
    • Singh, S.
    • Arjun, P.
    • Singh, K.
    • Ashok, K.
    • Shakir, A.
    • Prasad, S.
    • Singh, R.
  • Source: Indian Journal of Soil Conservation
  • Volume: 33
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2005
  • Summary: Bunding and field levelling are the most preferred activities in the community-driven watershed projects in the semiarid region. In a two-year study carried out during June 1999 to June 2001 on a farmer's field in a ravinous watershed located in south-eastern Rajasthan, India, the effect of bunding and levelling on in situ moisture conservation and corresponding increase in grain and stover yields of chickpea, mustard, sorghum and soyabean was compared. These land treatments considerably improved profile moisture and crop yields during normal as well as deficit monsoon year. Results indicated that conservation measures can potentially stabilize crop production under dryland cropping systems. The land treatments and choice of crops were significant factors influencing economic productivity of land uses. In response to bunding alone and bunding with levelling, crop production increased by 46 and 112%, respectively, over control. Mustard cultivation recovered 76% of the bunding cost and 64% of the bunding+levelling cost in the first year only after imposing land treatments. It is concluded that in semiarid regions, appropriate conservation measures coupled with suitable land use planning result in convincing tangible benefits on short-terms basis, apart from their protective and long-term intangible benefits.
  • Authors:
    • Dhyani, S. K.
    • Singh, R.
    • Sharma, A. R.
  • Source: Indian journal of soil conservation
  • Volume: 33
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2005
  • Summary: Maize and wheat are the most important crop grown in sequence largely under rainfed conditions, with low inputs and traditional practices in the outer western Himalayan region of India. Deficiency of moisture and nutrients is primarily responsible for low productivity of these crops. The conventional practices for alleviating these stresses such as summer ploughing, use of organics, intercropping with legumes, mulching, haloding (interculturing), earthing-up and ploughing immediately after harvesting of maize are gradually being discontinued by the farmers due to various emerging problems. This article reviews the effects of tillage and mulching on moisture conservation and nutrient use in the maize-wheat cropping system. Field studies at different locations of this region have shown the beneficial effects of resource conserving technologies for improving productivity of maize and following wheat. The results have suggested that the conventional repetitive tillage operations including deep ploughing can be dispensed with, and equally good or even higher yields can be obtained with minimum or zero tillage along with mulching or residue management practices over a period due to improved soil environment. Live mulching with weeds, annual legumes or pruned biomass of perennial legumes in alley cropping systems are beneficial for efficient conservation of soil, moisture and nutrients for higher productivity in maize-wheat cropping system. There is a need for adopting diversified farming systems approach for improving productivity of crops as well as other enterprises for greater livelihood security of the farming community in this region.
  • Authors:
    • Jayanthi, C.
    • Shekinah, D. E.
    • Sankaran, N.
  • Source: Journal of Sustainable Agriculture
  • Volume: 25
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2005
  • Summary: In a small-scale resource-poor farm, modest increments in productivity are no longer sufficient to justify the investment of scarce resources. Integrated farming systems with multiple enterprises pave the way for realizing increased productivity, profitability and sustainability in small farms of the developing countries. A study conducted at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India from July 2000 to March 2002 to optimize enterprise combination, increase employment and bring about maximum bioresource utilization and residue recycling for a 1-ha farm of the dryland tract of the western zone of Tamil Nadu compared four farming system combinations: FS 2 (crop+pigeon+goat+agroforestry+farm pond), FS 3 (crop+pigeon+buffalo+agroforestry+farm pond), and FS 4 (crop+pigeon+goat+buffalo+agroforestry+farm pond) with FS 1 (sorghum only) as the reference system. The results indicated the following: crop (0.80 ha) fertilized with buffalo manure produced on the farm, with pigeon (10 pairs on 0.01 ha), goat (5:1 female:male on 0.02 ha), buffalo (2 milking buffaloes+1 calf on 0.03 ha), agroforestry (0.10 ha) and farm pond (0.04 ha) was the profitable system enterprise that generated higher employment year-round. This system also facilitated the maximum recycling of resources and residues generated on the farm among the enterprises. The output and the waste of one enterprise served as input to another. The nutritive value of the system in terms of carbohydrate, protein and fat was also highest with this enterprise combination. Thus, FS 4 seems to be the best enterprise combination as revealed by the physical indicators. However, since the purchase and maintenance of buffalo enterprise involves higher costs, for farmers who have limited cash for investment, linkage of crop (0.80 ha) with pigeon (10 pairs on 0.01 ha), goat (5:1 female:male on 0.05 ha), agroforestry (0.10 ha) and farm pond (0.04 ha) is suggested as the alternative farming system for sustainability instead of conventional cropping alone.
  • Authors:
    • Mundra, M. C.
    • Singh, B. P.
    • Gupta, S. C.
  • Source: Research on Crops
  • Volume: 6
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2005
  • Summary: A field experiment was conducted at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India, for three consecutive years (2000/01-2002/03) to determine the efficient cropping system for irrigated conditions of southwest Haryana. Among the cropping systems evaluated, pearl millet (cv. HHB-67)-potato (cv. Kufri Bahar)-green gram (cv. MH 85-111) was identified as the most efficient system, showing the highest total equivalent yield (14344 kg/ha), gross return (Rs. 93 910/ha), net return (Rs. 47 965/ha), energy equivalent (50585 Kcal * 1000/ha) and system productivity (55.17). The highest land use efficiency (93.15) and risk factor (Rs. 7898/ha) were found in soyabean (cv. PK 472)-wheat (cv. PBW343)-cowpea fodder cropping system. The maximum benefit:cost ratio (2.48) and system index (0.85) were recorded in sorghum fodder (cv. HC-71)-wheat. Positive nutrient balance of 607.7 kg/ha was recorded only in the pearl millet-potato-green gram cropping system, and it was negative in all other systems though it was minimum in cotton-wheat and pearl millet-wheat. There was no change in the pH, electrical conductivity and organic carbon content in the soil. Available N decreased in soyabean-wheat-cowpea (F) and pearlmillet-fieldpea-maize (F). Available P also decreased in the pearl millet-fieldpea-maize (F) and pearl millet-potato-green gram. The decrease in K content was relatively higher in the pearl millet-wheat, soyabean-wheat-cowpea (F) and cotton-wheat cropping systems as compared to initial soil fertility status.
  • Authors:
    • Chattopadhyay, N.
    • Das, H. P.
  • Source: Advances in Indian entomology: productivity and health (a silver jubilee supplement)
  • Volume: 1
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2005
  • Summary: Every year crops (such as rice, cotton, pigeon pea, sorghum, soyabean, groundnut, sugarcane and vegetables) are being damaged by pests and diseases. Due to lack of proper operational forecasting system for the incidences of pests and diseases, it becomes difficult to adopt efficient plant protection measures at the right time. It has been established with fair degree of accuracy that climate/weather plays major role in the incidences of pests and diseases. Thus, there is a tremendous scope of utilizing meteorological parameters for the advance information of the occurrences of the pests and diseases and ultimately scheduling of prophylactive measures can be taken scientifically and judiciously. Quite a number of studies in this regards have been made in the Agricultural Meteorology Division, India Meteorological Department (Pune, Maharashtra, India). In the present paper, a comprehensive review of the work done in this division on the impact of weather on pests and diseases of crops is presented. This information will probably help the agricultural community of the country to save the crops from the infestation of pest and disease incidences.
  • Authors:
    • Dale, B. E.
    • Kim, S.
  • Source: Biomass and Bioenergy
  • Volume: 26
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: The global annual potential bioethanol production from the major crops, corn, barley, oat, rice, wheat, sorghum, and sugar cane, is estimated. To avoid conflicts between human food use and industrial use of crops, only the wasted crop, which is defined as crop lost in distribution, is considered as feedstock. Lignocellulosic biomass such as crop residues and sugar cane bagasse are included in feedstock for producing bioethanol as well. There are about 73:9 Tg of dry wasted crops in the world that could potentially produce 49:1 GL year-1 of bioethanol. About 1:5 Pg year-1 of dry lignocellulosic biomass from these seven crops is also available for conversion to bioethanol. Lignocellulosic biomass could produce up to 442 GL year-1 of bioethanol. Thus, the total potential bioethanol production from crop residues and wasted crops is 491 GL year-1, about 16 times higher than the current world ethanol production. The potential bioethanol production could replace 353 GL of gasoline (32% of the global gasoline consumption) when bioethanol is used in E85 fuel for a midsize passenger vehicle. Furthermore, lignin-rich fermentation residue, which is the coproduct of bioethanol made from crop residues and sugar cane bagasse, can potentially generate both 458 TWh of electricity (about 3.6% of world electricity production) and 2:6EJ of steam. Asia is the largest potential producer of bioethanol from crop residues and wasted crops, and could produce up to 291 GL year -1 of bioethanol. Rice straw, wheat straw, and corn stover are the most favorable bioethanol feedstocks in Asia. The next highest potential region is Europe (69:2 GL ofbioethanol), in which most bioethanol comes from wheat straw. Corn stover is the main feedstock in North America, from which about 38:4 GL year -1 of bioethanol can potentially be produced. Globally rice straw can produce 205 GL of bioethanol, which is the largest amount from single biomass feedstock. The next highest potential feedstock is wheat straw, which can produce 104 GL of bioethanol. This paper is intended to give some perspective on the size ofthe bioethanol feedstock resource, globally and by region, and to summarize relevant data that we believe others will 0nd useful, for example, those who are interested in producing biobased products such as lactic acid, rather than ethanol, from crops and wastes. The paper does not attempt to indicate how much, if any, of this waste material could actually be converted to bioethanol.
  • Authors:
    • Sathaye, J. A.
    • Makundi, W. R.
  • Source: Environment, Development and Sustainability
  • Volume: 6
  • Issue: 1-2
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: This paper summarizes studies of carbon mitigation potential (MP) and costs of forestry options in seven developing countries with a focus on the role of agroforestry. A common methodological approach known as comprehensive mitigation assessment process (COMAP) was used in each study to estimate the potential and costs between 2000 and 2030. The approach requires the projection of baseline and mitigation land-use scenarios derived from the demand for forest products and forestland for other uses such as agriculture and pasture. By using data on estimated carbon sequestration, emission avoidance, costs and benefits, the model enables one to estimate cost effectiveness indicators based on monetary benefit per tC, as well as estimates of total mitigation costs and potential when the activities are implemented at equilibrium level. The results show that about half the MP of 6.9 GtC (an average of 223 MtC per year) between 2000 and 2030 in the seven countries could be achieved at a negative cost, and the other half at costs not exceeding $100 per tC. Negative cost indicates that non-carbon revenue is sufficient to offset direct costs of about half of the options. The agroforestry options analyzed bear a significant proportion of the potential at medium to low cost per tC when compared to other options. The role of agroforestry in these countries varied between 6% and 21% of the MP, though the options are much more cost effective than most due to the low wage or opportunity cost of rural labor. Agroforestry options are attractive due to the large number of people and potential area currently engaged in agriculture, but they pose unique challenges for carbon and cost accounting due to the dispersed nature of agricultural activities in the tropics, as well as specific difficulties arising from requirements for monitoring, verification, leakage assessment and the establishment of credible baselines.
  • Authors:
    • Kumpawat, B. S.
  • Source: Indian Journal of Agronomy
  • Volume: 49
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: A field experiment was carried out under irrigated condition on fixed site during 1986-2001 at Dryland Farming Research Station, Arjia, Bhilwara, Rajasthan, to find out the effect of integrated nutrient supply system in maize ( Zea mays L.)-Indian mustard [ Brassica juncea (L.) Czernj. & Cosson] cropping system. The highest mustard-equivalent yield (24.88 q/ha) was recorded with the application of 100% recommended N in the rainy season through FYM and 100% recommended NP in the winter season through inorganic fertilizers. Maximum net monetary returns (Rs 15,537/ha), benefit:cost ratio (2.07) and agronomic efficiency (16.1) were obtained from the treatment consisting of 50 and 100% recommended NP through fertilizers to maize and mustard respectively. Amount of available phosphorus increased over initial value when organic manures and crop residues were incorporated. Organic carbon status declined in the control, while there was build up in organic source-incorporated plots.