Mapping Rice Area in the Cauvery Delta Zone of Tamil Nadu Using Sentinel 1A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Data

Since remote sensing based crop inventory provides accurate and timely information as compared to the conventional survey methods of estimating area, Multi-temporal Sentinel 1A Synthetic Aperture Radar data was used for the estimation of rice area during Samba season 2022 in the Cauvery delta zone comprising Thanjavur, Thiruvaru, Mayiladuthurai, and Nagapatnam districts of Tamil Nadu. SAR data was preferred over optical satellite data due to excess cloud cover during cropping the major season in Tamil Nadu. Temporal back-scatter (dB) signature of rice crop was generated from the multi-temporal processed SAR data utilizing the modules of a fully automated MAPscape software aiding the discriminating of the crop from others. The signatures revealed that the dB levels to be the lowest during agronomic floods, reached the highest during maximum tillering stage and started declining thereafter. Multi-temporal feature extraction module of Mapscape was used to estimate rice area and validated for accuracy using ground truth data collected during survey. A total of 3.05 lakh ha of rice area was estimated with an overall accuracy of 90.8 % and 0.82 kappa coefficient. Largest area of 1.12 lakh ha was recorded in Thanjavur followed by Thiruvarur and Mayiladuthurai with 0.95 and 0.51 lakh ha respectively.

Source-Sink Alterations in Rice Fallow Adaptive Blackgram Variety ADT3 for Enhancement of Yield and Quality of Seed

Seed Production of rice fallow blackgram variety, ADT3 has limitations due to inherent issues of soil fertility, climate change and thermo sensitivity results in poor flowering, reduced pod setting and poor seed filling. Macro and micro nutrients application during critical stages of growth were tried to improve the seed yield and quality in rice fallow blackgram variety ADT3. The combined foliar spraying of 0.5% NPK (macro) and 0.2% chelated micro nutrients mixture (Fe 2.5%, Mn 1.0%, Zn 3.0%, Cu 1.0%, Mo 0.1% and B 0.5%), were sprayed on 15th (Vegetative phase), 30th (Reproductive phase), 45th ( Flowering and pod formation phase) days after germination improved the growth and seed parameters viz., plant height, number of branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, filled seed % which resulted in increased seed yield in rice fallow blackgram variety, ADT3.Response of macro and micro nutrients through foliar mode revealed the lack of soil fertility resulting in poor uptake of macro and micro nutrients. Foliar application induced uniform flowering and synchronous maturity of pods with least shattering which would facilitate mechanical harvesting. Foliar application of macro and micro nutrients phenotypically altered the source-sink which greatly influenced the yield of seed, germination and seedling quality parameters

Risk Behavior of Small and Marginal Farmers in Cauvery Delta Zone, Tamil Nadu

Farmers’ risk preferences play an important role in agricultural production decisions, risk takers means the farmers who are willing to take risky decisions in farming, risk aversion means an attitude of reluctance to take risky decisions in farming. Climatic change effects all regions across the globe and causes substantial agitations that can be expected to be natural systems that have foreseeable influences on the economic systems of upland regions through both direct and indirect means. Risk preferences reflect the farmers’ personal experiences and beliefs, these preferences explain how the decision-maker assesses and react to risks. This study characterizes risk behaviour among marginal and small farmers in Cauvery Delta Zone and determines how these risk preferences affects the farmers. The study was conducted in Cauvery Delta zone of Thanjavur, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts with a Sample size of 366 farmers which consists of 183 marginal and 183 small farmers was selected randomly based on proportionate random sampling method. The risk behavior was measured by the measure of risk attitude and two lottery methods viz., Eckel-Grossman and Holt-Laury based lottery method. Measure of risk attitude results shows that, 27.60 per cent of farmers were moderate risk taker followed by 24.30 per cent were risk averser and 15.00 per cent of farmers were risk taker. The Eckel and Grossman lottery method result shows CRRA (Constant Relative Risk Aversion) value was 0.38 to 0.67, which shows that marginal farmers were risk aversers and small farmers were moderate risk takers. The CRRA adapted from Holt and Laury [1] range for the maximum was 1.37 and minimum -1.71 for their choices. The majority of marginal farmers were risk aversers, the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers decides the risk preference. The risk-averse farmer this may imply risk-taking behavior that is reduced by risk aversion (resulting in on-farm risk management strategies) and a reduced demand of insurance.