College of Agriculture / Agronomy/ Important Achievements
- Continuous incorporation/retention of rice straw improves soil health and rice yield. Whenever, the organic carbon content of soil comes under high category or after 8 years, reduces urea by 20 kg per acre in rice.
- Mat type nursery of 3-4 week age should be transplanted with paddy transplanter at spacing of 30 x12 cm in basmati rice.
- Reduce phosphorous dose by half (30 kg/ha) to the wheat crop, in fields where organic carbon content of soil comes under high category after continuous retention/incorporation of paddy straw.
- Surface seeding of wheat in a combine harvested paddy field- A low-cost and environment-friendly technique for paddy straw management, wheat sowing and weed management: In this technique, sow wheat using combine harvester fitted with seeding attachment, at the time of paddy harvest. It should be followed by single operation of cutter-cum spreader and irrigation. Alternatively, seed and basal fertilizer can be broadcast manually, after paddy harvest, followed by cutter cum spreader and irrigation. Use 112.5 kg seed/ha (fungicide and insecticide treated seed) and recommended dose of basal fertilizer. The new technique has many added benefits over the conventional methods of paddy residue management like 1) It costs three to four times lesser than conventional methods, for straw management and wheat sowing, 2) It makes paddy residue management and wheat sowing much easier, 3) It does not require costly machines and high HP tractor for residue management, 4) It encourages in-situ paddy residue management which is environment friendly and builds up soil health, 5) It provides complete mulching which save the crop from terminal heat stress, 6) It reduces herbicide use, as weed infestation is lesser in a mulched field, 7) It will halt paddy straw burning.
- PAU Surface Seeder: It consists of seed & fertilizer box attachment, with fluted roller metering system, mounted on improvised version of cutter-cum-spreader. It is a simple and low-cost machine which does uniform broadcast of wheat seed & basal fertilizer along with cutting & spreading of paddy straw in a single operation. It is followed by irrigation for initiating the germination of wheat seeds. This machine can be easily operated by the 40HP tractor or above. With this technology wheat can be sown along with in-situ paddy straw management in the form of mulch with cost of Rs. 736/acre. (296th REC, 17/5/2023 & 6/6/2023)
- Sub-surface drip irrigation in maize-peas-spring maize cropping system: Application of irrigation at 80% ETc and fertigation of 80% RDF through sub-surface drip irrigation resulted in 9.1% increase in maize equivalent yield of kharif maize-peas-spring maize cropping system while saving 48.5% irrigation water and 20% fertilizers as compared to conventional irrigation and soil application of recommended fertilizers.
- Nitrogen dose with respect to preceding Summer moong in DSR-wheat cropping system: Apply 50 kg N/acre to DSR after summer moong residue incorporation (after picking pods) in DSR-wheat cropping system.
- Nitrogen dose with respect to preceding sunnhemp green manure in DSR-wheat cropping system: Apply 40 kg N/acreto DSR after green manuring with sunnhemp in DSR-wheat cropping system.
- Nitrogen dose with respect to FYM application @ 15t ha-1 in DSR-wheat cropping system: Apply 40 kg N/acre after application of FYM @ 6t/acreto DSR in DSR-wheat cropping system.
- Summer moong-DSR-wheat cropping system: This cropping system gives higher productivity and economic returns than DSR-wheat system. Summer moong can be sown in second week of April followed by DSR in the first fortnight of June. Incorporation of summer moong residue after picking of pods helps to increase the rice yield and also saves nitrogen. This system also improves soil fertility and soil micro flora and fauna over DSR-wheat.
- Weed management and production technology for brinjal-pea cropping system under organic farming: In brinjal-paddy system, to brinjal, apply 12.5 t FYM/ha (1.0 % N on dry weight basis) at time of its transplanting and to pea, apply 5.0 t FYM/ha (1.0% N on dry weight basis) at sowing. For weed management, apply 12 t/ha paddy straw mulch in brinjal immediately after its transplanting, and10 t/ha paddy straw mulch in pea immediately after its sowing; the escaped weeds, if any, may be removed by hand weeding.
- Mechanical weed control in organic wheat sown on raised beds: Two mechanical weeding in furrow and on bed, at 30 & 45 days after sowing wheat on 67.5 cm raised bed, gave 92.4% weed control efficiency. This method gave 38.0 q/ha wheat grain yield in comparison to 45.4 and 20.1 q/ha in two hand weeding and weedy check, respectively. The proposal on organic wheat production on bed (67.5 cm) with two rows and managing the weeds by two mechanical weeding in furrows and on the bed after attaching one tyne in the middle of two sweep type furrow openers of existing ridger.
- Direct seeding of rice on raised-beds under tar-wattar condition: In this technique, rice is sown on beds/ridges with pre-sowing irrigation at tar-wattar condition. Bed planter fitted with bed compacter is used for reshaping beds/ ridges and simultaneous sowing of 2-rows of hydro-primed and treated seeds is done. First irrigation is applied at 21 days after sowing. Raised bed DSR recorded 1.6 q/ha higher paddy yield and 8.3% higher saving of irrigation water than flat bed/ flat sown DSR.
- Modified Lucky Seed Drill with press wheel attachment: Attachment of press wheels with Lucky Seed Drill enhances pre-emergence herbicide efficacy, enhance profile moisture retention and tackling hard crust (krand formation) in DSR.
