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...

Apple, being an important fruit crop of the mid-hills of Himachal Pradesh is currently covering an area of approximately 38,000 ha with the production of 499422 MT in Shimla District only. Traditionally, being known for producing the “Delicious” cultivars of apple, however, less proportion of pollinizer was used in apple orchard that resulted into lower productivity despite the increase in the area. The alternate bearing, low spur formation, less fruit set are also some of the problems that have been encountered by the growers. Further, the poor coloration at lower elevation and delayed maturity at higher elevation aggravated the problems under the climate change scenario that resulted into low productivity and profitability. With an aim to address these problems, the need for promoting the various self-pollinated/self-fruitful, spur type and other coloured strains for higher fruit yield and enhancing income was felt. Plan, implementation and testing While keeping the decline in...