ABSTRACT
Mechanization in agricultural sector is advancing in developing countries like India. Rice is a labour-intensive crop and requires about 80-90 labour days per acre. Timely availability of labour and water for various activities of rice is becoming a problem. The cost of the labor among the cultivation cost also increased from 15-18 % to 45-47% during the last decade. Water scarcity is also increasing due to climate variability in the country. Hence, to overcome labour shortage and sustain rice production with less water, the recent phenomenon observed in Andhra Pradesh state is the use of machine transplanters and harvesters. These are resulting in the process of mechanization and increasing their popularity during the recent years. The machinery transplantation was taken up in 21 farmers fields covering 0.4 ha each. The field observations from the farmers’ fields show that machinery transplantation reduces seed by 50 % and labour by 22%. The nursery cost for the machinery transplantation is higher compared to traditional transplantation method (by Rs 2330). The other major observations noticed during the validation of technology was, that number of hills per sq.m and tillers in a hill are higher compared to the manual transplantation, resist lodging during heavy floods. The effective tillers in a hill range from 12-15 and also increase the panicle grain number. The yield of rice was found to be higher by 6-7 q/ha compared to the manual transplanting. The total variable cost with the machine transplantation does not show any significant difference with the transplantation method. Government is also promoting machine transplanters through subsidized policy to the farming community. However, relevant capacity building programs on the mat nursery preparation for machine transplanting is lacking.
ABSTRACT
A survey was conducted in six villages in three mandals viz., Tadikonda, Medikonduru and Pedanandipadu in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. All the 150 chilli farmers participating in Crop Life India (CLI) sponsored safe use of pesticides and Integrated Pest Management project were taken as sample for the study. It was expressed all the respondent farmers purchasing pesticides from authorised dealers. It was observed from the responses that all the respondents used face/nose mask and about 80 per cent used head dress. No one used hand gloves and shoes. It is interesting to note that no one used recommended personal protection equipment. Recommended personal protection equipments (PPEs) were not used by the farmers but expressed strong desire to use them if available at affordable cost and fit to local environment. Regarding the disposal empty pesticide containers 50 per cent of them bury these in the field and rest are either buried or crushed and thrown in the field. Re-use of empty pesticide bottles was not in practice. About 80 per cent of the respondents used Taiwan sprayers. About 82 per cent of the respondents took bath and 74 per cent changed clothes after spraying pesticide and 82.67 per cent were aware of the colour triangle indication on the pesticide bottles. About 53.33 per cent expressed that they have knowledge on upkeep of the sprayers.
ABSTRACT
An Integrated Pest Management (IPM) project was implemented in Guntur district during the cropping season 2006-07 in six villages of Guntur district. Survey was conducted in six project villages and all the 150 participating chilli farmers in Crop Life India (CLI) sponsored IPM project were taken as sample for the study. In case of sucking pests, 56 per cent expressed mites as the important, in fruit bores, great majority (83.33%) expressed Spodoptera litura and in diseases, 56 per cent opined dieback as the major problem. More than two thirds of the respondents adopted all the components of IPM with exception of bio agents where in the adoption is only 46 per cent. With regard to diseases, 56 per cent felt dieback as the major problem while the rest felt leaf spot was the major disease. In case of border crops, trap crops, scouting techniques and mechanical control measures, more than 80 per cent adoption was observed. All the respondents are following 10-15 days pre-harvest interval of pesticide application as a measure for quality product and better price. The problems of post harvest pest and diseases was not observed in case of properly dried condition.
ABSTRACT
A field experiment was conducted during kharif season 2008 and 2009 at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, lam farm, Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad to develop a suitable non damaging method for inoculating Rhizoctonia. solani which causes banded leaf and sheath blight disease in maize. Results revealed that inoculation with paddy straw method is superior to other methods as well as reported techniques and can be adopted on a large scale for evaluating maize germplasm against banded leaf and sheath blight disease.