Agriculture

To assess the impact of textile and dye industrial effluent on soil and crops, the pot culture experiment carried out with maize crop to determine the effect of dye and textile factory effluent in combination with amendments (poultry manure, green leaf manure, biocompost, vermicompost). This study revealed that application of CETP sludge @ 5 t ha-1 + poultry manure @ 5 t ha-1 + NPK increased the soil organic carbon, available N, P, K, Ca, Mg and micronutrients (Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn) in soil under treated effluent irrigation compared to river water irrigation. The sodium content and ESP of soil increased under effluent irrigation. However, it did not produce any toxic effects to the crops. This showed that the treated effluent could be safely used for irrigation along with poultry manure @ 5 t ha-1 and NPK.

The effluent and sludge generated from various industries are being dumped into the environment, causing various hazards on a long run. At the same time, these wastes contain essential nutrients. So utilization of such wastes for crop production can enhance the availability of nutrients and enrich soil organic matters that ultimately increase the growth of crops. Gypsum, pressmud, Farm yard manure, ETP sludge were tried to ameliorate the textile and dye effluent polluted soil habitat, using sunflower (CO4) as a test crop. The sludge along with effluent irrigation added considerable quantities of cations (calcium, magnesium and sodium) to the soil system. Addition of amendments had a strong influence in enhancing the soil quality parameters like exchangeable calcium. Application of pressmud @ 5 t ha-1 along with 100 per cent GR + NPK reduced the soil ESP by 44.96 per cent. The heavy metal content were also reduced due to addition of pressmud. Application of 100 per cent GR + pressmud @ 5 t ha-1 + NPK under effluent irrigation increased the crop growth, yield attributes (head diameter, head weight, seed test weight) and yield of sunflower in effluent polluted soil habitat. The yield under pressmud amended plots was 36 per cent higher over control. Reclamation and restoration of textile dye effluent polluted soil habitat is possible by leaching the soil with 100 per cent GR followed by application of pressmud @ 5 t ha-1 and recommended NPK.

An on farm trial (OFT) was conducted during the year 2013 and 2014 to identify a suitable variety in upland situation through direct seeding in bio-physical and socio-economic condition of Chatra district. Experiment was conducted in Mardanpur village of Chatra block of Chatra district of Jharkhand where NICRA Project is under operation. The trial was designed in randomized block design consisting of 20 replications with five technological options i.e. TO1 : Farmers variety (Motkagora) with farmer practice N30P20K0, TO2 : Vandana with improved practice N40P20K20, TO3 : Anjali with improved practice N40P20K20, TO4 : Virendra with improved practice N40P20K20 and TO5 : CR-40 with improved practice N40P20K20. Farmer’s preference was also measured through a 5 points rating scale. Results indicated that TO3 i.e. improved variety Anjali with N40P20K20 under direct seeded condition in rain-fed Tar-III was found most suitable followed by TO4- Virendra with improved practice N40P20K20 and TO2 Vandana with improved practice N40P20K20 .

Gypsum, pressmud, farm yard manure, ETP sludge were tried to ameliorate the textile and dye effluent polluted soil habitat, using sunflower (CO4) as a test crop. The sludge along with effluent irrigation added considerable quantities of cations (calcium, magnesium and sodium) to the soil system. Application of pressmud @ 5 t ha-1 along with 100 per cent GR + NPK reduced the soil ESP by 44.96 per cent. The heavy metal content were also reduced due to addition of pressmud. Higher microbial population was also observed under effluent irrigation than well water. Application of 100 per cent GR + pressmud @ 5 t ha-1 + NPK under effluent irrigation increased the crop growth, yield attributes (head diameter, head weight, seed test weight) and yield of sunflower in effluent polluted soil habitat. The yield under pressmud amended plots was 36 per cent higher over control. Reclamation and restoration of textile dye effluent polluted soil habitat is possible by leaching the soil with 100 per cent GR followed by application of pressmud @ 5 t ha-1 and recommended NPK.

After several promotional activities carried out by different stakeholders the improved rice production technologies have not reached the farmers field. A study was conducted to identify the constraints faced by farmers in adoption of the improved rice production technologies. The study was conducted in five purposively selected blocks of Chatra district. In five randomly selected, one each from the selected blocks, villages 40 rice growers were selected randomly as respondents for each village covering 200 respondents in the study. Constraints identified by the respondents were grouped into six categories i.e. ecological, technological extension – related, infrastructural, economic & socio- cultural constraints. Results indicated that undulated topography and gravelly soil (94.5%) high fertilizer requirement in HYVS (89%) fragmented and scattered holdings (94.5%) inadequate advice and guidance by the charge agents (41%), low price of produce (98%) and open grazing of cattle (92%) perceived to be important constraints which diminished the adoption of improved rice production technologies.

The present study was carried out at farmers fields in Simdega district of Jharkhand during Kharif 2013 and 2014 to evaluate the effects of different methods of transplanting/seeding on yield and economics of medium land rainfed rice. The experiment was conducted with four methods of transplanting/seeding {T1: Farmers practice (Transplanting of 25-30 day old seedlings, more than 5 seedlings/hill at uneven distance and two manual weedings.), T2 : Cultivation under modified SRI (10-12 days old seedling, 25x25 cm2 spacing, single seedling/hill, two weeding by cono weeder and regular ponding of rain water in field.), T3 : Sowing of sprouted seeds by drum seeder and weeding two by cono weeder., T4 :Conventional practice (Transplanting of 20-25 days old seeding, 2-3 seedling/hill at 20x20 cm2 and two mannual weedings.) in 10 replications at farmers filed under RBD. All growth, yield attributing characters, yield and net return was found significantly highest in modified SRI (T2) followed by conventional method. Conventional method and sowing by cono weeder were found at par. The lowest performance was found under farmers practice.

The purpose of conservation tillage is to reduce the intensity of tillage operations and increase the amount of crop residue on soil surface. One of the characteristics of soil in arid and semi-arid areas is the lack of organic matter. Crop residue management is one of the soil fertility and improvement methods that is achieved by conservation tillage. Compared to residue burning, maintaining crop residue on or near the soil surface under no-tillage and minimum tillage methods will improve the organic carbon, Soil structure and activity of micro-organisms. Soil organic matter in a temperate and humid area increased by 16% and in a temperate and dry area increased by 10% than conventional tillage systems.

Food security is a major global concern since food is the most basic human need and access to food is a fundamental human right. The right to food is contained in the universal declaration of human rights that was adopted in 1948 by the general assembly and reaffirmed by the World Food Summit and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN in 1996. To show their solidarity over poverty and hunger issues, nations under the umbrella of the United Nation (UN) targets to halve by the year 2015 the proportion of people who are hungry. Tackling food insecurity problem on a global level poses critical dynamic challenges. Every country has its own individual dimensions adding to the overall food crisis in farming areas. Due to unprecedented subsidies given to farmers in terms of seeds and fertilizers, they are easily enticed to use larger portion of their land for cultivation of food. Consequently, farmers have to either spend more on buying food or reduce their food consumption, which subject their families to malnourishment and starvation. In other words, low level of investment practiced by poor small scale farmers do not attract economies of scales but makes them remain in constant debts and this incapacitates households’ ability to afford adequate food. Farmers being trapped in a debt cycle provide them no option but to keep cultivating this crop irrespective of the long-term, veiled hazardous consequences and questionable economic gains. The power of technological solutions to solve poverty problems currently witnessed in Kenya is installed by the myriad of institutional and supply policies. Moreover, with a better policy environment, investment in rural infrastructure and transport network can bring down input costs considerably by reducing one of the major supply constraints to adoption. Considerable adaptive research, stronger and decentralized research-extension farmer linkage is required to increase the speed with which farmers apply the viable technologies. The best judges of agricultural technology are the end users-the farmers and involving them in technology use is critical to the success of research investment programs for increased sustainable production to alleviate the persistent food insecurity in Kenya.

Kandhamal district situated in central part of Orissa receives an annual rainfall of 1396mm and this region is highly prone to soil and runoff loss due to heavy rainfall during kharif. A trial was conducted during 2001-04 to study the effect of conservation trenches on plantation crop. This trial was conducted on farmers field of Sudreju village of Kandhamal district under National Agricultural Technology Project(NATP, RRPS-7) with the following objectives.1.To conserve moisture for establishment of plantation crop. 2.To reduce erosion from upstream area.3 To increase production of timber, fruit species, fuel wood and fodder .The following treatments were tried.1.No treatment.2.Continuous V-ditches at 10m horizontal interval.3 Continuous V-ditches at 20m horizontal interval.4.V-ditches staggered at 5m horizontal interval. 5 V-ditches staggered at 10m horizontal interval. Mango varieties Pusa Amrapalli was tried during kharif and during, rabi Black gram (PU-30) was tried in between mango rows. It is observed that in, cont. contour V-ditch at 10m interval rate of growth was 2.06 cm/month in case of Amrapalli , which is 46 %higher compared to control. The grain yield of niger, black gram & mustard are 33.4%, 23.5 % &26.6 % higher than control respectively. Though the cost of construction is little high it is recommended to practice contour V-ditch at 10m intervals, to conserve soil and moisture and to get more grain yield in degraded watershed of Kandhamal district

Vermicompost has been promoted as a viable alternative container media component for the horticulture industry. The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of vermicompost at different points in the production cycle of eucalyptus seedlings. The incorporation of vermicompost of city refuse origin into germination media up to 20% v/v enhanced shoot and root weight, leaf area, and shoot:root ratios of seedlings; however amendment with vermicompost had little influence on seed germination. Moreover there was no effect on the germination of seed of any species. When seedlings of eucalyptus were transplanted into 6-cell packs there was greater plant growth in media amended with vermicompost compared to the control media, and the greatest growth when vermicompost was amended into both the germination and transplant media. This effect was increased when seedlings in the transplant media were irrigated with water containing fertilizer.