The non-availability of genuine planting material of improved varieties, especially in plantation crops is considered as a major bottleneck in improving productivity. Very often, private nurseries take advantage of such a situation and they sell spurious planting materials without any quality assurance through proper labeling.   Considering the importance and need to provide quality planting materials, especially, in the perennial horticultural crops, the Government of India is implementing the programme of accreditation of nurseries through the National Horticulture Mission. However, there is no mechanism for ensuring the genuineness and quality of planting materials supplied even from such accredited nurseries. Many farmers suffer huge financial losses due to the purchase of low quality planting material sold by the private nurseries. The importance of Quick Response (QR) Coded planting materials helps in overcoming such drawbacks. The QR Codes are one of the easiest...

The Karan Vandana (DBW 187) is the latest wheat variety released for irrigated timely sown conditions of North Eastern Plains Zones comprising of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and West Bengal.   The variety had significant yield advantage over the existing cultivars, viz., HD 2967, K 0307, HD 2733, K 1006 and DBW 39 of the zone. It possesses better resistance against the important diseases of the region like leaf rust and leaf blight. The Karan Vandana variety flowers in 77 days and matures in 120 days after sowing. Its average height is 100 cm and has the potential of 64.70 q per ha. The variety has better Chapatti quality with 7.7/10 score and high iron content (43.1 ppm) in the grains. For popularizing and promoting the variety, ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal in collaboration with the Mahayogi Gorakhnath Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh organized the training programme on 16th November, 2018 for the wheat...

The ICAR-Central Institute on Post harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana has developed a system for transporting live fish to help the farmers to sell their produce in live condition and earn more income. The system - "Live Fish Carrier System (LFCS)" runs solely by DC power drawn from four lead acid batteries that is non-polluting. By one time charging, it can run about 80 km with a total carrying capacity of 500 kg. It has all facilities including aeration, filtration and ammonia removal to keep fish alive during transportation. The fish mortality is less than 1% per trip of 40 km with carps of 0.5-1.5 kg individual weight. The vehicle is useful for both freshwater and saltwater fishes. The capacity of the present system is 100 kg live fish per trip, however this capacity can be increased by enhancing the carrying capacity of the vehicle. LFCS can be utilized in live table fish transportation from culture pond to retail market, live fingerlings transportation for aquaculture...

The grading of fruits and vegetables is considered to be one of the most important operations among the producers as it adds value to the products and provides the better economic returns. Whereas, the manual grading is one of the expensive and time consuming process. The process gets affected due to the non-availability of labors during the peak seasons. Shri Madan Mohan Patidar, of Bhopal produces 250 tonnes of onion from his 15 acres of land. Manually, if a person grades 500 kg of onions per day, then 500 man-days would be required for grading 250 tonnes of onion at a total labor cost of Rs. 2 lakhs (Rs. 400/man-days). The ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal demonstrated its Fruit-cum-Vegetable Grader developed under the Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav Programme to Shri Patidar for the grading of onion, sweet lemon and guava. Up on being satisfied by the grader, Shri Patidar got the grader installed for grading of 250 tons of onions in the farm. The capacity...

Being found mainly in the coastal and backwater areas of Andhra Pradesh, especially in the East Godavari Districts, the leaf eating caterpillar known as Opisina arenosella is one of the serious pests of Coconut crop. The caterpillar feeds on the green matter from the lower leaf surface, remaining within the silk galleries made of chewed-up fibre, frassy material and presents a dried, grey colored leaflets on the lower crown presenting a sickly appearance. The severe damage leads to reduce the production rate of flower spikes, increase in the premature nut fall and retarded growth, in extreme cases, the whole plantation presents a scorched appearance. During the Year - 2018-19 (October to April), the incidence of black headed caterpillar was noticed in the range of 38.64 to 59.62 % on the coconut palms grown along the fish pond bund with the medium damage intensity (2-3 damaged fronds with clear drying) in an area approximating to 100 acres in S. Yanam village of...