Being a sustainable medium duration cash crop with high return in irrigated lands, the Banana is widely been cultivated by the small and marginal landholders. Of late, there has been a noticeable increase in the area under G-9 banana in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. G-9 is the only variety that is being cultivated in the sub-tropical conditions. In June 2017, there was a sudden epidemic of the Fusarium wilt disease in the Sohawal block of Faizabad District. The disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense is a devastating disease of banana and particularly Tropical Race 4 (TR4) affects the Grand Naine (G-9) banana variety. The disease caused huge loss to the growers and spread rapidly in soil and water.   The villages - Katrauli, Magalsi and Muksoonganj of Ayodhya District witnessed severe incidence of the disease with about 30 to 45 percent mortality of bearing plants. About 95 % of the areas (more than 140 acres) under the banana in these villages were found to be...

The Gorgon Nut or Makhana, an aquatic plant seed is mainly grown in Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Odisha. In Bihar alone, it is grown in about 15,000 hectare water-body. About 5 lakh families are directly involved in Makhana cultivation, its harvesting, popping and produce selling. About 7,500 to 10,000 tonnes of popped Makhana are sold every year from Bihar.   The seeds are roasted and popped manually to obtain a nutritious dry fruit popular in India and across the world.  The commercial name of the popped kernel of Gorgon Nut is Makhana. Makhana is very popular among the Indian households for making vegetable curry, sweets and savories of various kinds and for religious rituals. The Popping of Makhana is a laborious, time intensive and cumbersome process. In a 3 stage manual process, the seeds are roasted in a traditional earthen pot or in cast iron pan at very high temperatures ranging from 250o C to 320o C, tempered for 2 to 3 days, roasted again and...

Successful implementation of agroforestry based natural resource management interventions following watershed approach by ICAR-CAFRI, Jhansi during the most acute drought years (2005-2016) in Garhkundar-Dabar watershed in Tikamgarh district of M.P. led to replicate the results for development of Parasai-Sindh watershed (2011-2016) in Babina block of Jhansi, U.P. by a consortia of ICAR-CAFRI, Jhansi and ICRISAT, Hyderabad along with local community. Creation of capacity of 125,000 m3/year through cost-effective (15-20% less cost) rainwater harvesting structures (checkdams, nallah plugs, rehabilitation of traditional rainwater harvesting system of  Haveli cultivation, field bunding) resulted in crop diversification with more than 115 ha brought under  agroforestry systems based on fruits and multipurpose trees. Increased groundwater level (2-5 meters) and base flow (2 to 3 times) and reduced storm flow made it drought resilient even in years with 25-30% deficit rainfall. About...

The Garlic, being the second most important underground bulb crop after the onion grown in an irrigated condition is used as a spice or a condiment throughout the country and the world. The crop is an important foreign exchange earner for the country.   In Rajasthan, the crop is largely grown in Baran, Jhalawar, Kota, Bundi (Haroti region), Chittorgarh, Jodhpur and Pratapgarh districts, especially along the irrigated tracts. Haroti region is considered as the garlic bowl of Rajasthan, producing 90% of the crop. During the Year - 2018-19, Garlic has been cultivated on 1.32 lakh ha area in Rajasthan and with average productivity of 5.4 metric tonnes per ha 7.18 lakh metric tonnes production is estimated. Since two decades, it is grown in the soybean-garlic based cropping system. The production made in these areas has its fragrance familiarity in many gulf countries too. The Garlic forms principal ingredients in spicy foods especially, the non-vegetarian cuisines. The Spicy...

Shri Udayan, a driver-turned-meliponiculturist, shows the way of enhancing the income by venturing into meliponiculture . Being a temporary driver with the KSRTC and earning a mere income of Rs. 7,000 per month, Shri Udayan found it to be very difficult to meet his expenditures.   Shri Udayan contacted the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kasaragod to learn about the Indian bees keeping and explore the possibilities of starting the meliponiculture as a micro-enterprise. He found the venture to be really helpful for him as the venture required no additional land. As, the land was one of the major constraint for Shri Udayan to take up the agri-enterprises involving the cultivation of crops. He owns around 60 cents of land that is densely packed with the diversified crops, such as, coconut palms (37 nos.), pepper (97 nos.), banana, betel leaf, different types of vegetables along with a cow. So, in such a situation, Shri Udayan found beekeeping to be the best option as it could be...