Situation Analysis Red and lateritic zone of West Bengal is characterized by sub-tropical climate with average annual precipitation of 1000-1200 mm (80% of rainfall received during June-September) and temperature range from 16-420C. Land being undulated in nature, tends to erosion of top soil leading to poor status of N, P, K and organic matter. Soil texture is sandy to sandy loam, rich in iron and aluminium but deficient in Ca, Mg, B and Mo. Water retention capacity of soil is poor and pH varies from 5 to 5.5. The area is dominated by cultivation of boro rice in rabi-summer and aman rice in kharif season. Area under boro rice cultivation is decreasing day by day as ground water level is going down every year due to erratic, uneven and scanty rainfall. Still the major cropping pattern of the zone is paddy-paddy-fallow. A large tract of West Midnapore district comes under such red and lateritic zone where the cropping system is gradually turning into paddy-fallow-fallow. The...

It was in the year 2009 when a group of farmers from Budhmour and Jodhpur villages of Patiala confronting sodicity-induced crop losses approached the scientists of ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal. They narrated in detail as how steady rise in groundwater alkalinity and the accompanying land degradation had brought their lives to a standstill. Repeated crop failures in rice and wheat, ascribed to heavy plant mortality, yellowing, reproductive sterility and poor grain setting had become quite common resulting in moderate (30-40%) yield losses.  A multidisciplinary team of scientists was constituted to visit the affected villages to understand the nature and extent of the problem. Subsequently, repeated visits were made to collect socio-economic profiles of the affected farmers as well as soil and irrigation water samples from affected lands so that appropriate remedial measures could be suggested and implemented. Diagnosis of soil and irrigation water samples...

DSH-185 is the first public sector CGMS-based safflower hybrid developed at ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research. It has been released and notified for all India cultivation. DSH-185 is a cross between A-133 (CGMS line) x 1705-p22 (a restorer line). Wild species, Carthamus oxyacantha is the source of cytoplasmic genetic male sterility in A-133. On an average, DSH-185 gives the seed yield of 14.3 q/ha under rainfed, 21 q/ha under irrigated conditions and 17.4 q/ha at national level. It gives the oil yield of 4.12 q/ha under rainfed, 5.7 q/ha under irrigated conditions and 4.89 q/ha at national level. On an average, DSH-185 exhibits 25-30% superiority in seed yield over the best check varieties, A1 and PNBS-12 and 15.2% superiority over the GMS-based national hybrid check, NARI-H-15. It has 28-29% oil content and recorded 25-28% superiority in oil yield over A1, PNBS-12 across test locations. The potential of DSH-185 vs. variety has been demonstrated in farmers’ fields under...

8th March 2018, New Delhi Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare inaugurated the Annual conference of Vice chancellors of Agricultural Universities and Directors of ICAR Institutes at A.P. Shinde Symposium Hall, NASC Complex, New Delhi. Addressing the gathering, Shri Singh said the Government’s policy initiatives in the last three years have led to record food grain production this year. The total foodgrain production in the country stood at 275.68 million tonnes in 2017-18, which is about 10.64 million tonnes (or 4 percent) more than what was produced in 2013-14. In fact, the production of food grain this year is 19 million tonnes more than the average production between 2011-12 and 2015-16. Horticulture, which contributes significantly to nutrition, also witnessed record production at 305 million tonnes in 2016-17, 4.8% more than last year. The production of fruits has crossed 93 million tonnes and vegetables 178 million tonnes...

A considerable acreage of community lands of both Haryana and Punjab are affected by either sodicity or salinity or both. Such lands are being given on lease to the farmers on yearly basis where rice-wheat cropping system predominates. Farmers of Haryana who take community lands on lease (Rs. 25,000 to 35,000 per acre salt affected, while Rs. 30,000 to 40,000 per acre normal lands) are although progressive and adopt scientific technologies of rice-wheat cultivation, the yield of rice and wheat from salt affected community lands are low. For example land with pH 9.0 to 9.8 and soil carbon 0.22 to 0.68 yields 3.3 to 4.0 t/ha rice in coarse variety while in Basmati rice it yields 2.2 to 3.0 t/ha. In case of wheat, yield in salt affected lands could vary between 3.5 to 4.5 t/ha. Looking to the stressors of such salt affected community lands, ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal together with village Panchayat, Begampur, Karnal came forward to have participatory...