Samba, thaladi transplantation in full swing
Farmers transplanting short term crop of Talathi paddy crop being
transplanting at Soorakottai in Thanjavur on Thursday. Photo: B.
Velankanni Raj
Widespread rains in Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts for the past three
days has brought cheers to farmers who have taken up samba and thaladi
cultivation.
Samba transplantation has been completed on 94,000 hectares in Thanjavur
district against the target of 1,18,000 hectares. Thaladi
transplantation is going on in full swing and the rain has accelerate
the transplantation in Thanjavur and Orathanadu areas. Thaladi is
cultivated in areas where Kuruvai harvest has been completed and
transplantation has been completed on 19,000 hectares against the target
of 25,000 hectares.
"This is a welcome rain. It is good as it is neither heavy nor mild.
There is no pest attack in samba and thaladi crops in Thanjavur
district," said agriculture department officials. In Tiruvarur district,
the rain has mitigated the pest attack in crops which was noticed at
many places. Mite and Mealy Bug attack was there at many places in
Tiruvarur district. "Pests have been washed out in the rain" said
agriculture department officials. "The rainfall is encouraging as we got
less than normal rainfall in October," said farmers.
In Tiruvarur district samba target has been achieved. Crop has been
raised on 1,28,000 hectares of which direct sowing has been carried out
on 70,000 hectares and the rest transplanted. Thaladi transplantation
has been completed on 13,000 hectares against the target of 18,000
hectares. The following is the rainfall recorded in the last 24-hours
ending at 8 a.m. in different parts of Thanjavur district (in mm): Grand
Anicut 16.2, Thanjavur 10.2, Thirukattupalli 16.4, Ayyampettai 21,
Kumbakonam 12.4, Eachanviduthi 16, Neyvasal Thenpanthi 7.8,
Adhirampattinam 7, Pattukottai 6, Budalur 4, Vallam 6 , Kurunkulam 6,
Thiruvaiyaru 8, Papanasam 8, Anaikarai 11, Thiruvidaimaruthur 12.4 and
Peravurani 3.4 mm. Tiruvarur 11.2 , Thiruthuraipoondi 8 , Kodavasal
16.4, Needamangalam 6.8, Korayar head 9.4, Mannargudi 4 , and
Muthupettai 1.4 mm.
Disease, pest menace in mulberry during winter
The cool and humid conditions in winter favour incidence of some
seasonal specific pest and diseases on mulberry and silkworms which
affect silk production.
Powdery mildew caused by the fungus, Phyllactinia corylea. It is a
common disease of mulberry during winter season. In initial stage of
infection, white powdery batches appears on lower surface of the leaf
and then spread to cover the entire leaf.
Colour change
Finally the leaf turns black in colour. Such leaves are not preferred by
the silkworms. Further, growth of this fungus results in loss of leaf
moisture and nutrients which reflect adversely on growth of silkworms
and cocoon yield.
The leaf webber, Diaphania pulverulentalis is a serious pest of
mulberry in winter. It attacks the apical shoot and defoliates the
tender leaves which lead to stunted growth of plants.
Farmers face shortage of tender leaves to rear young silkworms besides
reduction in volume of silkworm rearing due to poor leaf yield. The
silkworms also suffer from a fungal disease in winter called muscardine
caused by Beauveria bassiana. After contact of its conidia with
the integument of silkworm, mycelia penetrate into the body and grow
vigorously absorbing the body fluid and finally mummify the larvae. This
disease causes mortality of silkworms in mass during winter when the
temperature comes down to 20 degree celsius.
Control measure
Severity in powdery mildew is found more on plant maturity. Therefore,
timely harvest of leaves for silkworm rearing in winter helps to avoid
the disease.
Spray of 0.2 per cent carbendazim (2g/litre) is effective.
To control leaf webber, spraying of dichlorovos (1ml/litre) is recommended. The pupal parasitoid, Tetrasticus howardii at 20,000 per acre and egg parasitoid, Trichogramma chilonis at 4 cc /acre are also promising.
Muscardine in silkworms can easily be controlled by manipulating the
temperature and humidity inside the silkworm rearing house.
(Dr. N.Sakthivel, Scientist, Research Extension Center, Central Silk
Board, Srivilliputtur – 626 125, Tamil Nadu and Dr. Chikkanna,
Scientist, Regional Sericultural Research Station, Salem – 636003,
email: sakthivelcsb@hotmail.com, mobile: 098427 61789)
Coffee Board to launch new hybrid varieties
Chairman of the Coffee Board Jawaid Akhtar said on
Thursday that the board is planning to introduce “three or four new
hybrid varieties of coffee soon”.
“These new Arabica
varieties are in the pipeline,” he said, while addressing the 55th
Annual Conference of the Karnataka Planters’ Association.
Mr.
Akhtar said that the board is also making efforts to expand acreage
under coffee in the traditional coffee growing States of Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu and Kerala by 20,000 hectares. “We are also planning to
expand acreage in non-traditional States such as Orissa and Andhra
Pradesh,” Mr. Akhtar said. Referring to the demand by coffee growers
that the government support their efforts at increasing mechanisation in
the industry, Mr. Akhtar said that the government is preparing such
schemes for implementation during the 12th Plan period.
The
highlight of the conference was a presentation by Ramario Gava Ferrao, a
researcher in plant genetics and breeding from Brazil.
Dr.
Ferrao pointed out that unlike in India, in many parts of Brazil, the
coffee crop is on terrain that is more conducive for mechanisation.
Organic fair sees Rs. 26-crore business transactions
Over 7,500 people visited the three-day international fair which concluded on Saturday. Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash
The fifth edition of the three-day international organic trade fair,
‘BioFach India together with India Organic 2013’, which concluded here
on Saturday, witnessed business transactions of Rs. 26 crore.
The fair was jointly organised by Nuremberg Messe India Pvt. Ltd.,
International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (ICCOA) and the
Karnataka State Department of Agriculture.
ICCOA executive director Manoj Kumar Menon told The Hindu after
the conclusion of the fair that the buyer-seller meets registered Rs.
26-crore transactions. As many as 16 foreign companies and 45 firms from
different States participated. These business transactions were related
to purchase of organic produces, including different varieties of rice,
pulses, mango pulp, black pepper and nutmeg, he said.
In addition, stalls put up at the fair registered business enquiries of
Rs. 172 crore, he said. Over 7,500 people visited the fair in the three
days.
Traders from Europe, and countries including the U.S. took part in the
fair that had an international exhibition of organic products and an
international conference on various aspects related to organic farming
and policies.
At the valedictory programme, the former Vice-Chancellor of the
University of Agricultural Sciences – Bangalore G.K. Veeresh asked the
institutions dealing with organic farming to focus on organic
cultivation methods that also improve soil fertility.
Integrated farming
“Poverty among farmers is mainly due to soil infertility,” he said while
pointing out the relationship between soil fertility and yield levels.
The best method to improve soil fertility was to promote integrated
farming where animal husbandry was a component. Without cattle, it would
be difficult to promote organic farming, he said.
Nuremberg Messe India Pvt. Ltd. managing director Sonia Prashar and
Adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture A.K. Yadav also spoke.
Pepper coils up Alavi’s graft
Special Arrangement
Alavi, a marginal farmer in Kalpetta, with a bush pepper plant raised
using a grafting method to make the crop resistant to slow and quick
wilt diseases.
Kalpetta farmer finds solution to wilt diseases
Sometimes, intuitive farmers find solutions from the ground up to crop diseases faster than scientists.
Take the case of quick wilt and slow wilt of black pepper.
Agriculture
scientists are still at work to find a proper remedy to the two
diseases affecting the crop in the State. But a progressive farmer here
has hit on a solution.
Visit the pepper garden of
Mattil Alavi here. His pepper vines are healthy and strong. He has been
applying an innovative grafting technique on bush and vine pepper on his
40 cents of land for 11 years.
At a farmers’ meeting
in Bangalore recently, Mr. Alavi won right recognition. The Indian
Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore, selected him as one of
the best farmers in the country for standardising the innovative
technology and spreading the technique among other farmers in Wayanad.
When pepper vines withered in bulk in the district because of quick wilt, a friend of Mr. Alavi’s told him about the Piper colubrinum
plant (Kattu Thippally in Malayalam) that resists quick and slow wilt.
He then used the shrub as root stock to graft pepper vines, he says.
His success in grafting tomato and brinjal on the root stock of Solanum indicaum (Puthari chunda) helped him develop the technology.
During
a visit to a horticulture exhibition in Kozhikode in 2002, he met B.
Sasikumar, Principal Scientist, Indian Institute of Spices Research,
Kozhikode, who encouraged the farmer to standardise the technology.
The
grafted plant can come up in any type of soil, even if waterlogged, he
says. The crop is protected from soil-borne diseases such as quick wilt
and slow wilt and they have high vigour and give good yield, he adds.
The
bush pepper, suitable to cultivate in pots, produces black gold round
the year. A four-year-old plant can give a yield of 4 kg a year, Mr.
Alavi says.
“I have passed on the technology to
hundreds of farmers, students and agriculture scientists who have
visited my farm and gave saplings of Piper colubrinum to them free,” he says.
Grafting
is 100 per cent successful in the case of bush pepper plants, he says.
The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation here has selected Mr. Alavi to
multiply nearly 20 of its traditional pepper germplasm collection.
Farmers may call him on 9645 339156
Four blocks set to record good paddy yield
Govt opens 24 DPCs in four blocks
Paddy harvest, now under way in the four blocks of the
district, will result in good yield, according to officials in the
agriculture department. On an average, 7.5 tonne to 8.5 tonne per
hectare is expected, which is considered ‘good’ yield.
A
total of 10,687 hectares were covered in Madurai west, Madurai east,
Vadipatti and Alanganallur blocks in the district, which are double crop
areas. Initially, there were hiccups and apprehensions among small and
marginal farmers, but as days passed, the adequate water storage in
reservoirs led to brisk farming.
Though the farmers
expected more price for the yield, the government had fixed Rs.14.10 per
kilogram of paddy (fine grain variety) and Rs.13.60 per kg for the next
quality.
A few days ago, Minister for Cooperation
‘Sellur’ K. Raju opened a Direct Procurement Centre at Kulamangalam and
appealed to the agriculturalists to make use of the DPCs.
According
to officials, Collector L. Subramanian had given a blanket permission
to the officials to open DPCs wherever required.
“After examining the feasibility, they would be opened for the benefit of farmers,” they added.
Joint
Director (Agriculture) Jayasingh Gnandurai said as there was no farming
operation last season, the yield would be good now.
