Impact of Organic Farming on Yield and Quality of BASMATI Rice and Soil Properties

The management of soil organic matter is critical to maintain a productive organic farming system. No one source of nutrient usually suffices to maintain productivity and quality control in organic system. In addition, the inputs to supplement nutrient avail-ability are often not uniform presenting additional challenges in meeting the nutrient requirement of crops in organic systems. With this concept, a field experiment was conducted at the research farm of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India during 2003-06 in rice-wheat-green gram cropping system. In this experiment, different treatments comprising organic amendments such as Blue Green Algae (BGA) 15kg/ha, Azolla 1.0 tonne/ha, Vermicompost and Farm Yard Manure (FYM) 5.0 tonne/ha each applied alone or in combination were tested in organic crop production. These treatments were compared with absolute control (N0P0K0) and recommended dose of chemical fertilizer (N80P40K40). In wheat crop Azotobacter replaced Azolla, but other treatments remained same. For rice, a scented variety ‘Pusa Basmati 1’ and for wheat and green gram HYVs were taken. Biomass of green gram was incorporated in soil after picking of pods and wheat was sown using zero tillage practice. The obser-vations on grain yield, contents of Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu in rice grains, insect pest inci-dence, soil nutrients and microbial activity were taken. Results revealed a significant enhancement in grain yield of rice over absolute control due to the application of different organic amendments applied alone or in combina-tions. Rice grain yield increased by 114 to 116.8% over absolute control when all the 4 organic amendments were applied altogether. The rice grain yield (4.0 t ha-1) obtained under combined application of four organic amendments was at par with the yield recorded under recommended dose of chemical fertilizer application. An interesting observation recorded was that there was no serious attack of any insect pest or dis-ease in organically grown crop. Soil microbial population (Actinomycetes, Bacteria, Fungi and BGA) enhanced due to the application of organic amendments in compari-son to absolute control as well as recommended fertilizer application that in turn re-sulted in a notable enhancement in soil dehydrogenase and phosphatase enzyme activity. Soil organic carbon and available phosphorus contents were also found to be significantly increased due to organic farming practice over control as well as chemical fertilizer application. Rice grain analysis for nutrients viz. Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu showed a significant increase in Fe and Mn content in the treatments having 2 or more organic amendments over control. Zn and Cu content also increased but the increment was significant with combined application of 3 or 4 organic amendments. The study revealed that addition of four organic amendments viz. BGA, Azolla, FYM and Vermicompost could give the optimum yield (4.05 t/ha) of organic Basmati rice and improve grain and soil quality

Economics of Sugarcane-based Farming System in Western Uttar Pradesh

Amongst 38 farming systems prevalent in the western Uttar Pradesh region, sugarcane–livestock– cereals–fodder has been found the major system being followed by a majority of the farmers. It has been found that sugarcane farmer keeps in general two dairy animals, largely for household milk consumption. The major income source of farmers in the area has been found sugarcane (58 per cent), followed by livestock and cereal crops. The study has revealed that marginal farmers take highest credit, while large farmers take minimum credit. It has also been observed that facility of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) is being availed by only 21 per cent farmers. Farming activity-wise analysis has revealed that sugarcane provides maximum employment, followed by livestock and wheat. In terms of income, the study has observed that a family worker earns Rs 41,270 per year in the study area, which is much lower than that in Punjab (Rs 74,080/year). The study has suggested that a combination of technology, policy and institutional innovations is needed for improvement in productivity and profitability of crops and livestock in the area.Crop Production/Industries,

Twin Telescope observations of the Sun at Kodaikanal Observatory

We report the design, fabrication and installation of a 'Twin Telescope' at Kodaikanal Observatory intended to augment the ongoing synoptic observations of the Sun that has been carried out since 1904. The telescope uses a 15 cm objective capable of taking Ca-K line filtergrams and photoheliograms in continuum of the full disk of the Sun simultaneously, at a frequency of 0.1 Hz using 2kx2k format CCD cameras. The telescope has been in operation since February 2008 and images are being obtained at a cadence of 5 min during normal observing periods. In case of solar activity, images of the active regions can be taken at a frequency of 1 Hz by restricting the field of view and spatial resolution. In this paper, we describe the telescope, instruments, image acquisition, data calibration and image processing. We also discussed a method of determining the network element and plage area index. The preliminary results show that while the network element covers about 30% of the disk, the percentage of the network element area index varies marginally with the seeing conditions during the day.Comment: 17 pages, 10 Figures, to appear in the 2012 March issue of the Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of Indi

Checking T and CPT violation with sterile neutrino

Post LSND results, sterile neutrinos have drawn attention and motivated the high energy physics, astronomy and cosmology to probe physics beyond the standard model considering minimal 3+1 (3 active and 1 sterile) to 3+N neutrino schemes. The analytical equations for neutrino conversion probabilities are developed in this work for 3+1 neutrino scheme. Here, we have tried to explore the possible signals of T and CPT violations with four flavor neutrino scheme at neutrino factory. Values of sterile parameters considered in this analysis are taken from two different types of neutrino experiments viz. long baseline experiments and reactor+atmospheric experiments. In this work golden and discovery channels are selected for the investigation of T violation. While observing T violation we stipulate that neutrino factory working at 50 GeV energy have the potential to observe the T violation signatures for the considered range of baselines(3000 km-7500 km). The ability of neutrino factory for constraining CPT violation is enhanced with increase in energy for normal neutrino mass hierarchy(NH). Neutrino factory with the exposure time of 500 kt-yr will be able to capture CPT violation with $\delta c_{31}\geq 3.6\times10^{-23}$ GeV at 3$\sigma$ level for NH and for IH with $\delta c_{31}\geq 4\times10^{-23}$ GeV at 3$\sigma$ level

Economics of Farming Systems in Uttar Pradesh

Farming systems of households in the western Uttar Pradesh have been analyzed based on the primary data collected through a sample of 197 farmers in 2004-05. The sugarcane- based farming system has been found predominant in the study area. Livestock, vegetables, cereals and sugarcane have been observed to be the main sources of farm income. The study has indicated that cross-bred breeding programme has not become popular due to low demand for milk of cross-bred cows. Credit has significant impact on farm income and credit requirement of about 86 per cent farmers is met by the institutional sources. Fragmentations and sub-divisions of landholdings, scarcity of labour, low yield of crops, less reliable markets, scarcity of owned-fund, depleting natural resources, non-availability of good quality seeds and sheds for poultry, etc. have been identified as the major constraints to promote integrated farming system in this area.Agricultural and Food Policy,