Green Manures

Green manures are excellent source of nitrogen, even more micro nutrients. It is low cost manuring so it called as poor farmer's manure. It enhances the soil structure and organic matter in the soil. Excellent remedy for the alkaline and saline soils. It improves the soil fertility. It also prevents the nitrogen from soil erosion. It improves the soil aeration and organic matter content. It improves the soil structure. It stimulates the growth of beneficial microbes and other soil organisms. Green manures are playing effective tool in controlling weeds.

Other objectives of green manures:
It can be used as a catch crops, shade crops, forage, cover crops. So it has the multipurpose uses.

Types of green manuring:
1.Green leaf manuring crops
2.Green manuring in situ crops

Green leaf manuring crops:
It is raised in other location and collected the green biomass and added in to the soil. They have to be incorporated in the soil by fine ploughing. The crops should be cutted during the flowering stage. Some of the green leaf manure crops are ,

  1. Pongamia glabra (Pungam)
  2. Tephrosia perpuria
  3. Calotropis gigantia (Erukku)
  4. Gliricidia maculata
  5. Ipomea carnea
  6. Azadirachta indica (Neem)
  7. Leucaena leucocephala (Subabul)
  8. Cassia pistula
  9. Indigofera teysmannii

Calotropis gigantia (Erukku)

Tephrosia perpuria(Wild indigo)

Health Benefits of Brown Rice

Many of us thought Brown rice is nothing but the brown colored different variety rice. But brown rice is unpolished rice or unmilled rice or partially milled rice. Nothing but it is a whole grain. Every rice grain has an outer layer called husk. The husk is removed in both the white and brown rices. Apart from the husk, the thin brownish layer called bran is there. In white rice, the brown layer is removed during the polishing process. But in the brown rice it is not removed, only top stiff layer is removed. All the nutrients vanished in the polishing the grains. Only starch remaining in the white rice.

Paddy(Before milled )

Brown Rice

Nutritional values of Brown Rice:
Brown rice has a low Glycemic index compared to white rice. So it reduces the risks of  diabetics and also cardiovascular diseases. It controls the blood pressure levels and reduces the constipation. This is the good reason for medical experts stressed to eat the brown rice instead of white rice.

Parthenium Weed (Parthenium hysterophorus)

Parthenium is a invasive and hazardous weed which is spreading alarming rate in India.  Its germinating is faster and each plant can produce 25000 seeds. It spread by humans, animals and wind. It is affecting the crop production, livestock and humans. It contain the toxic material parthenin which cause dermatitis and respiratory problem in humans. It can grow in wide range of areas such as road side, forests, waste land, crop field etc. and also can grow in all climatic conditions.Even in metro cities also spread all over. It can grow very aggressively and spread in vast areas very quickly.

PartheniumWeed

Second National Conference - Antimicrobial Resistance : A Cause for Global Concern

2nd National Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance - A Cause for Global Concern.

Date: 6th to 8th February 2012. 

Venue: Allahabad,India.
       
        The  Conference is  Organized by 'The Department of Microbiology & Fermentation Technology, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences, Deemed-to-be-University', Allahabad .


For further details and registration:
NCAR

Mr.Narendra Modi's great idea on saving water

      The honorable chief minister of Gujarat Mr.Narendra Modi blogged about one good idea for saving water in long time ago. Again I shared the idea to all people because of the importance of that information. I will thank for the Chief minister for this information sharing.

     Today water scarcity is the major problem in many areas. Saving water is important compared to saving money for future generations. We have to make the green environment. For that this is the great solution in drought prone areas.

       

     

      Take a unglazed clay pot and kept it in underground, along with roots of a small plant. Don't put any holes in the pot, just place it in the soil. Then fill the pot with waste water collected from the kitchen. Need not watering for one week to that plant. It serve as the natural drip irrigation. Nowadays we are going a drip irrigation for saving water in the fields, this idea will help to utilize the waste

water to grow gardens.

For more details:
A Daughter,A Tree,A Teacher

Goat Farming

       Agriculture and allied activities support livelihoods of nearly 70 percent of India’s rural population. In recent years, land based livelihoods of small and marginal farmers are increasingly becoming unsustainable, since their land has not been able to support the family’s food requirements. As a result, rural households are forced to look at alternative means for supplementing their livelihoods.
Apart from farm activities, farm community needs extra income from other occupations. From this they can earn much more income compared to other sectors. They are engaged with these activities when they are in adverse conditions.i.e time not suitable for farming like more drought and flood conditions. That time, this income will save their family needs and savings.

There are many non farm occupations are there like goat farming, mushroom cultivation, emu farming, silkworm culture, poultry farming, vermi compost making etc..,

Goat farming:
          Goat is known as ‘Poor man’s cow’ in India and is a very important occupation in dry land farming system. Suitable for small and marginal  and landless laborers. It needs less grazing lands and initial investment is low.Risk of goat farming is less compared to other livestocks species. It is a economically viable sector to the rural people. They are resistant to diseases. In a short period we can get more revenue.

 

Semi intensive method

Amla Tree - Nellikai, Phyllanthus Embilca (Emblica offcinalis)

Amla(Aonla)  is a indian gooseberry native to India. Amla has a high medicinal and Ayuervedic properties. The fruits have the great source of vitamin C. A small fruit of amla is equal to 2 oranges in terms of vitamin C content. It is used as a good liver tonic in Ayurveda medicines. Apart from medicines the fruit juice extract is used in shampoo preparations and oil, hair dyes. It is also a very important ingredient in the famous Chyavanaprash, and a constituent of Triphala (three fruits) powder. It helps the digestion, prevent the dysentery, cleanses the liver. The dried fruit powder used in a cosmetic sectors as a removing age spots. It also reduces the blood sugar level. So over all it has the highly medicinal values. Obviously the plant have a greater demand nowadays.

Amla Fruit

Cultivation methods:
                              
Soil and climate:
           Good fertile and loamy soil is suitable for cultivation. Sandy soils also recommended. Water logged conditions not suitable .There are some good hybrid varieties such as Banarasi, Chakaiya, Kanchan, Krishna, NA6. Black and red soils also suitable for cultivation. The tree can grown in dry regions also.

Land preparation:
            Early period of monsoon is good time of planting. During May to june is best time for land preparations. First the field should be well ploughed and levelled. With the distance of  7-10m distance of pit digged with the depth of 1 cubic meter. Pit was exposed to sunlight for 20 days, then filled with 15 kg of FYM(farm yard manure) .

Gloriosa superpa(Glory lily, kanvazhi/kalappai kilangu)

Gloriosa superpa is one of the medicinal plant grown as a commercial crop and will give good returns. NABARD is providing the loans around 80-90% for cost of cultivation for it.Among the medicinal crops it gives more returns like cash crops.
Other names: Kalihari, Glory Lily, Flame lily.

Gloriosa

General information:
                    It is an annual climbing perennial herb with tuberous roots. Growing between 3.5 to 6 m in length. Tubers and seeds contain colchicine, isoperlolyrine and related tropolane alkaloids, sitosterol and its glucoside, 2-hydroxy 6-methoxy benzoic acid.Flower’s contain Luteolin, its Glucoside, N-Formyl-de-Me-colchicine, its Glucoside and 2-de-Me-colchicine. The colchicine content varies from 0.15 to 0.3% in the tubers and 0.7 % to 0.9% in the seeds.

National Conference - Changing Scenario of Food Science, Technology and Agricultural Products

National Conference on
“Changing Scenario of Food Science, Technology and Agricultural Products”

Date:    November 11-12, 2011

Venue: JHANSI, UTTAR PRADESH, India

For further details visit,
http://iftbu.org/seminar.htm

Cocoa Tree Plantation (Theobroma cacao)

Cocoa is one of the important cash crop which fetches good revenue for small farmers. Currently India is importing 40% of its need.  Its demand in India is increasing 15% annually. Cadbury India, Jindal Cocoa, Amul, Campco are encouraging cultivation in India. It is sensitive to direct sun light, so it is cultivated mainly inter-crop with coconut or arecanut trees and  make additional revenues. In India, mainly South India is cultivated with it. Also Gmelina Arborea ( Kumil, White teak, Gamar) can be used as shade.

Varieties:
Popular commercial varieties are Criollo and  Forestero.  Trinitario is hybrid of  Criollo and  Forestero.
Other varieties are Amelonado and Amazon.

Gmelina Arborea( Kumil , Sagwan) Pictures

9 month old - Gmelina Plantation

Karnataka Global Agribusiness And Food Processing Summit 2011

Karnataka - Global Agribusiness & Food Processing Summit 2011

Venue:
           Bangalore International Exhibition centre,
           10 th Mile, Tumkur road, Madavara Post,
           Dasansapura Hobli , Bangalore - 562123
         

Date: 1st and 2nd December 2011

Registration at: http://www.bounteouskarnataka.com/register-form.htm

Live natural and be healthy - II

1.Wrightia antidysentrica(Snow flake,Milky way, veppala maram): We afraid of fruits because of ripening methods. Especially banana, sappota, mango fruits. For making profit easily majority of the fruit vendors using calcium carbides for ripening the fruits. Even very raw fruits also ripened with in one night by using the calcium carbide. Government also taking necessary steps to prevent this. But they cant control fully because of more needs of fruits. But people should have think it off. It creates more health problems like vomiting, dysentery etc. If we use regularly means we can lead to heavy health problems also. For that we can the traditional ripening methods. It is very easy and no harmful effects also. Use snow lake leaves for ripening the fruits especially bananas. Bunches of banana kept in a sac and put snow flake leaves means it can ripe with in two days. It gives too good taste. It can be used all fruits ripening also. This plant also used in veterinary medicines particularly for cattle.

Live natural and be healthy

    Nowadays all people running behind the organic products for the name-sake and afraid of health hazards. But we are neglecting our local plants that can be raised in any adverse conditions and without using any in-organic materials. Those crops we would have seen very frequently but we are not aware of the benefits. Some of the useful plants are:

Monthan Banana

1. Monthan banana:
This varieties almost gone in cities. Rarely used in villages, but it has more medicinal values. It is mainly used for reducing heat in our body system. Monthan fruit is used for chicken-pox patients. It helps to reduce the fever and heat level. Taste also too good compared to other varieties.

Gold Euphoria

Gold is moving up higher and higher on euphoria. The rupee's depreciation against dollar and uncertainty in europe region pushing the gold higher in the indian market.

Why gold is rising when inflation is high? Because of the fear of losing the currency value and more defaults.



Gold Price(10 gram pure) has reached Rs.28000 in our market and corrected from there.
Is still gold has some value for investment? Gold price will soften once European crisis is resolved. There is lot of volatility  because of the that. So those who want to invest in gold phyical/etf , can wait some more time for correction to Rs.23000 levels.

Happy Investing.

Conservation of traditional crop varieties

Over the years, traditional crop varieties fully replaced by High Yielding Varieties(HYVs), Hybrids and genetically modified crops. In India, the first maize hybrid was released in 1961 for general cultivation, followed by hybrid varieties of sorghum, pearl millet, and non-hybrid, high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat. Since, traditional varieties are highly recommended because they have a relatively high nutritional value compared to the introduced varieties, their consumption gives diversity to daily food intake, adding  flavor, special aroma and taste to the diet. These are fully lacking in HYVs. Mainly traditional vegetable varieties are rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements, dietary fiber and proteins.
    According to rice scientists Richharia and Govindasamy states that in India more than 2 lakhs rice varieties had been identified with the evidence of Vedic and present day literature. But gradually all the local varieties are disappeared. The main reason is steady replacement with the high-yielding varieties (HYVs). And also ‘modern’ varieties continue to be aggressively promoted at the expense and exclusion of traditional varieties. For example, the success of HYVs in farms has often prompted state agricultural scientists and extension staff to promote these crops by exaggerating that their yields, claiming them to be higher than
those of indigenous varieties. But this was not true for many varieties.  Many local varieties yields more than HYVs.(Eg., Kurangu samba, Kitchili samba, etc.). Several native varieties are good resistant to pests and diseases. And those can be cultivated in any adverse conditions like drought, water logging etc.

Gmelina Arborea ( Kumil, White teak, Gamar)

Gmelina Arborea is one of the fast growing tree and has good timber value. It can grow in all type of soils (fertile or poor, water logging to be avoided). It can grow moderate to large height up to 30 m with girth of 1.2 to 4. It will give good returns in 8-10 years.

Other names are: sagwan teak, kashmir  teak, ummithekku, Shewan, Gamar tree, Gamhar tree

Method of planting (Cultivation / Plantation):
If irrigation facility is not available, start of the rainy season is good time for planting. Seedling is available from the nurseries (rs 10 -15 per sapling).
Pit size needed for planting is 2 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet.
Spacing needed between each sapling is 10-12 feet. Good spacing is needed for better growth of girth and height. Support pole is needed while planting (first 6 months) since sapling may easily break by wind or animals. If irrigation possible, you can irrigate in 2-3 weeks interval. Side branches growing is more in it, so proper pruning is needed in regular intervals. Inter crops such as black gram, groundnut, pepper etc can cultivated up to 3-4 years. No of trees can be planted per acre is 400-600 trees. It can be harvested in 8-10 years.

It can yield 500*8000 = rs 40,00000/acre  in 8-10 years.


Uses:
Gmelina arborea can be used as substitute to teak wood (Tectona grandis). Gmelina arborea is used in paneling, carriages, furniture, carpentry, boxes and also for plywood industries. Timber can be used for doors and window panels. It can be used in paper and match industries. The roots and fruits are used in Ayurveda medicine.
Some of the pictures are here:

Gmelina Arborea( Kumil , Sagwan) Pictures | Innovative farming solutions

Sizzling Castor ( Ricinus communis, Aamanakku, Disa)

Castor crop (Ricinus communis) is one of the high demand cash crops nowadays. And also cost of cultivation and maintenance is much lesser than other cash crops. Castor is suitable for all soil types but do best in fertile, well-drained soil (no water-log). In India, Gujarat(80% of the produce) and Andra Pradesh are major producers.
 Names used:
 Assam - Era-gach
 Bangla - Erando, Veranda
 Gujarat - Divel
 Hindi - Arandi
 Kannada - Haralenne
 Malayalam - Chittamankku or Avanakkanna
 Marathi - Errand
 Oriya - Jada
 Tamil - Aamanakku (ஆமணக்கு),
 Telugu - Aavadam, Aamudalu

Melia Dubia (Malai vembu)

One of the major problem in today's agriculture is reducing income year by year. The land values are increased and  income from agriculture is reduced due to increased cost for labors, increase in cost of cultivation and increase in transportation cost. Because of that farmers are selling land and looking for other business. So we need to think of good income from agriculture by reducing labors and increasing yield. In today's picture, the middle men are earning the good income from agriculture products, and the farmer who produces getting less from what he produced. Since the many short term crops need more labors, transportation and inventory cost, the final gain for the farmers are very less. To make good revenues as per acre, we need to cultivate medium to long term crops keeping the cost to minimal and also good revenue in future.

Melia Dubia is one of the fast growing tree and give good returns. It can be used in match or biomass or plywood industries. After 3 years, 30-40 tons of biomass/acre can be harvested upto 10 years. The price of wood per ton is rs 2000-4000. so one can get minimum revenue of 2000*30 = rs 60000/acre every year.
30% of the trees we leave without cutting for 8 years means it can be used in plywood industries which will fetch rs 6000-10000 per tree( 6000*300 = rs 18,00000). 

Profitable Fast Growing Trees - Gmelina arborea, Melia Dubia, Bamboo, Casuarina

With thousands of tree species growing worldwide, only a small number are considered valuable to the commercial timber industry.

Fast Growing Timber Trees:

1. Gmelina arborea (Kumil, Kumula maram in Tamil):

Gmelina arborea is a fast growing tree. It is used in constructions, furniture, carriages, sports, musical instruments and artificial limbs. It can grow moderate to large height up to 30 m with girth of 1.2 to 4. It can be harvested in 8-10 years.
Gmelina Arborea ( Kumil, White teak, Gamar)
Gmelina Arborea( Kumil , Sagwan) Pictures

2. Melia dubia - (Malai Vembu in Tamil):

Melia Dubia is fast growing tree and it can be cultivated in all types of soil and requiring a low supply of water. Melia dubia has the unique feature of growing to 40 feet within 2 years from planting and can be mechanically pruned and harvested. It is used in plywood, match industries. Melia dubia (Malai Vembu)

Change Our Minds

First we have to think agriculture is profitable sector. For that we have to adopt new methods, changing scenarios and also change our mindset. How to change? The main problem in agriculture is lack of labors. And also cost of cultivation vs. net gain is in negative. So we have to plan our strategy to overcome this like any other corporate sectors. First divide our land area according to all risks including labors, maintenance and financial situations. Then we will go according to that. If you can't manage and maintain the regular agriculture means you will choose the tree plantation fully. You can manage 1/4th of the land means you can follow remaining areas to regular agriculture. Tree plantation is not only good for environment and also good revenue business with less maintenance and cost of cultivation. It is like a fixed deposit for our children and it is like gold saving or good stocks portfolio. We are giving good Eco-friendly, pollution free environment and also good savings to our child. So why do hesitate to make this one?
Don't worry about soil type and irrigation facilities. We can choose the trees according to our needs.

Fast Growing Indian Trees:
Anthocephalus cadamba (Kadam)
Ficus religiosa (Peepal)
Ailanthus excelsa (Maharuk)
Aegle marmelos (Bel)
Albizzia falcataria (White Albizzia, Sengon)
Bauhinia variegata (Kachnar)
Gmelina Arborea(Kumil teak)
Melia Dubia(Malai Vembu)
Medicinal Trees:

Aegle marmelos (Bel)
Azadirachta indica (Neem)
Bauhinia variegata (Kachnar)
Butea monosperma (Palas)
Cassia fistula (Amaltas)
Cinnamomum camphora (Kapur)
Emblica officinalis (Amla)
Ficus glomerata (Gular)
Ficus religiosa (Peepal) Hardwickia binata (Anjan)
Madhuca indica (Mahua)
Michelia champaca (Champak)
Moringa oleifera (Drum stick)
Saraca indica (Ashoka)
Syzygium cumini (Jamun)
Terminalia arjuna (Arjun)
Terminalia bellerica (Bahera)
Terminalia chebula (Harada)

So go ahead with good one.., Make our earth like above... it is feelgood, looking good and all life going good...  Save Our Earth...

You can refer: Profitable Fast Growing Trees - Gmelina arborea, Melia Dubia, Bamboo, Casuarina

AGRICULTURAL LAND IN TO PLOTS

Gandhiji said agriculture is the backbone of India. Because of agriculture is the most predominant sector of the economy of India. But now this is steadily declining due to industrialization and real estate business. So our back bones are damaged due to Urbanization. Not exactly urbanization, it is full of money making business through damaging agricultural lands into plots. It is not going around the major cities, even in remote villages also all agricultural lands become plots. This is because of huge money making in a short span of time. One thing bad about this is not even single farmers get any benefits from this. Only mediators got all the gains. According to facts and figures in Tamilnadu this is going more comparatively all other states. See the picture below, where good fertile land fenced and changed in to plots.

What it says? Nobody wants to do agriculture or nothing benefit in agriculture.
Is it our farmers not capable of making money through agriculture? Young generation has to think it. Even many countries had succeeded in agriculture, but we can't. The reason is our farmers not following updated technologies in agriculture and also younger generation rapidly moves out of villages due to education and white-collar jobs and that is also worst hit this sector. We have to change it.

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