Best Agricultural Techniques For Successful Potato Production in India

Summary

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) belongs to family Solanaceae is the most important food crop in the world of wheat, rice, and maize. Out of total root and tuber crops potato alone shares about 50% production in the world. It is a rich source of carbohydrates, protein and vitamins B and C. It is a wholesome nutritious and versatile food which can come to the rescue of developing countries for alleviating hunger and malnutrition especially in virus of the shrinking land resources. Better agricultural practices increases the production manifolds.


CULTIVATION

Climate and soil:
It can be grown in all the states with varying climatic conditions. About 82% of the potatoes are grown in the plains during short winter days (Oct.- March), 10% in the hills during long days (April- Oct.) and 8% in the plateau regions of south eastern, central and peninsular India. Generally potato crop is raised in India when day temperature is below 35oC and night temperature is not above 20oC. Most potato genotype do not tuberize when night temperature is more than 23oC.

Potato can be grown in all type of soils having pH in the range of 5.5-8.0. Deep alluvial soils of Indo-Gangetic plains with neutral or alkaline soil reaction are most suitable. Well-drained coarse or sandy loam to loamy soils ensures sufficient oxygen for the growth of roots, stolons and tubers.

Field Preparation

The fields are ploughed to a depth of 20-35 cm. and clods are broken. Hot weather cultivation by deep ploughing checks the problem of soil borne pathogen. About 40-50t/ha FYM should be added at field preparation time prior to one month of planting.


Varieties

Varieties Duration Yield (q/ha)
Early Kufri Chandramukhi, K. Alankar, K. Lavkar, K. Ashoka, K.Navtej 75-90 200
Mid K. Jyoti, K. Sheetman, K. Badshah, K. Pukhraj, K. Bahar, K. Sutlej, K. Lalima, K. Chipsona 1 and 2 100-120 250
Late K. Chamatkar, K. Sindhuri, K. Deva 120-140 300
Processing , K. Chipsona 1 and 2 300-320


Planting
Potato crop is taken in autumn/winter/spring season in the plains and during summer/autumn in the hills. The planting time of main crop in different zones are given as


Region Crop season Planting time
North- Western plains (i) Autumn
(ii) Spring October (2nd week)
December (Last week)
North- Central plains Autumn October (2nd week)
North- Eastern plains Main November (1st and 2nd week)
Plateau region (i) Kharif
(ii) Rabi June (last week) -July (1st week)
November (1st and 2nd week)
North- Eastern Hills Main March (1st and 2nd week)
North- Western Hills (i) Higher Hills
(ii) Mid Hills April (1st and 2nd week)
January (last week) - February (1st week)
North- Central Hills

According to duration early maturing varieties should be planted on first week of October, medium maturing on 5th -15th October and cut tubers after 10th October. To plant one-hectare area bigger size 25-30q/ha, medium size 10-15q/ha and smaller size 6-8q/ha are sufficient. Medium size (35-40g) tubers are planted on at 60X20 cm while bigger sized (100g) are planted at 60x35 cm. Large sized tubers should be cut into four pieces and each piece having at least 3 eyes.
Prior to planting seed should be treated with 1% urea + 1% sodium bicarbonate solution for half an hour to break seed dormancy. Seed treatment with 0.5% Mencojeb or 0.1% Bavistin controls the tuber rot, then treat the tuber with Azotobactor and dried in shade for planting.


Manure and Fertilizers
To raise healthy crop of potato about 125-150 kg n, 100 kg P2O5 and K2O/ha is sufficient. Half doses of N and full doses of P2O5 and K2O should be applied at planting time as band placement. Remaining half dose of n should be applied in two split doses at the time of earthing up i.e. 30 and 45 DAP.
Irrigation
Irrigation depends upon the prevailing weather conditions. Crop should be irrigated when germination starts. Subsequent irrigations are given at 7-10 days in lighter soils and 10-15 days intervals in heavier soils. Ridges should not be submerged but irrigated up to 2/3 heights of ridges. Excessive irrigation causes development of cracks and lenticels.


Earthing up

After 30-35 days of planting plants should be earthed up and could be repeated if required. It reduces the percentage of green tubers in lighter soils.

Weed control

Manual weeding is a common practice, but weeds can be chemically controlled by applying Lasso @ 5-6 liter or Stomp @ 4-5 liter in 625 liter of water/hectare. Enough moisture availability is essential for effective weed control.

Plant protection measure


Insect- Pests

Potato is prone to insect pest and diseases. Important insects like Jassids (Amrasca biguttulla) suck the sap from undersurface of the tender leaves; Aphid (Myzus persicae) sucks the sap and transmits the viruses. These pests could be controlled by spraying of 0.1% Rogore 30EC or Metasystox 25 EC and repeat the spray as per need.

Diseases

Among the diseases in hilly regions late blight of potato (Phytopthora infestans) affects stem, leaves tubers and causes heavy loss in yield. It appears as black lesions, which extends and kills the foliage if moist weather prevails. Spraying 0.2% solution of Indofil M-45 and repeat the spray at 7 days intervals can control disease. The black scurf and common scab disease are prevalent in all potato growing areas. Black scurf (Rhizoctonia solani) causing rough incrustations on the surface and wilting of plant, while in common scab hard and round corky spots appear on tuber. These diseases can be controlled by using disease free seeds for planting or dipping the tubers in 0.25% Emisan for 15-20 minutes prior to cold storage.


Harvesting
Harvesting is done at full mature stage (leaves turn yellow and dried), irrigation must be stopped 20 days before harvesting.

Curing
After harvesting tubers are sorted out and kept in a heap for about 10-15 days so that their skin may become thick.

Karimnagar is the new rice bowl of State

Karimnagar is the new rice bowl of State
KARIMNAGAR: Karimnagar district is all set emerge as the ‘rice bowl' of Andhra Pradesh with an expected record paddy production of over 12.60 lakh metric tones during this rabi season.
Thanks to the bountiful rainfall from 2006, paddy production has been increasing considerably. During the 2006-07 rabi season, paddy was cultivated in 1.43 lakh hectares and the production was 9.01 lakh metric tones.
In 2007-08 rabi season, the production was 9.5 lakh tonnes in 1.7 lakh hectares.
In 2008-09, 1.95 lakh hectares were brought under cultivation and the yield was around 12.5 lakh tonnes. However, there was a fall in the yield during the 2010 rabi season due to drought.
The Agricultural Department are expecting a bumper harvest of over 12.60 lakh MT paddy during the current 2010-11 rabi season as the paddy was cultivated in 2.12 lakh hectares against the normal area of 1.38 lakh hectares during the rabi season. Thanks to the bountiful rainfall and increase in the ground water table, the area of paddy cultivation had increased considerably in the district making it the rice bowl of State.
About 50 per cent of area of paddy was cultivated in Sri Ram Sagar project command area and the remaining under 3.5 lakh agricultural pumpset connections in the district. The agricultural authorities attributed increase in paddy production due to good drainage system in the district fields compared to the East and West Godavari districts, where the water is logged for a longer time.
In Karimnagar, the paddy fields have good drainage system where water is aerated easily, thus yielding record harvest of around 35 to 40 bags of rice per acre, the authorities said.

With the onset of harvest season, the paddy harvesters are busy doing roaring business in the district. The harvesters are charging anywhere from Rs. 1500 to Rs. 2,000 per hour. Sensing possible threat due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms, the farmers are forced to shell out huge amount for harvesting their paddy produce.

Farm Innovation- Gladiolus as Intercrop with Sugarcane

Sh Dheer Singh, in his late fifties, has been farming for more than past 30 years. He is a graduate with land-holding of 2.5 hectares in village Noonikhera (District Muzaffarnagar, UP). He received 1st prize for sugar cultivation by the local KVK. His idea of taking gladiolus crop along with sugarcane proved highly remunerative and got him appreciation from fellow farmers.

Muzaffarnagar is the main sugarcane growing area and a very good one at that, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Cost of cultivation of sugarcane has been increasing day by day and net profit has been decreasing consistently. In order to address this problem, the farmer Shri Dheer Singn decided to grow intercrop of ‘sarson’ as advised by the extension specialist of the area. But Dheer wanted to grow something new that would give him not only income but income on a regular basis. He was near the high way to Delhi and used to seed many kinds of vegetables and flowers being transported to Delhi. He enquired from one of the truck owners about what can sell best in Delhi. The answer he received was “Gladiolus”. He immediately acquired the information on the variety and cultivation practices of Gladiolus. He decided to plant gladiolus bulbs in the fresh autumn plantation of sugarcane that he was planning.

While doing so, he also introduced gladiolus as intercrop on ridges as additional crop without disturbing the population of sugarcane already growing in furrows.

In both cases, ha found his new intercopping as highly profitable. Gladiolus is planted in the month of October on ridges as additional crop and the spikes (flower bearing twigs) are harvested from Christmas (X-mas), 25 December) upto February end. The bulbs are left in the field for one month for hardening and removed in the end of March. This intercropping gave a net profit of Rs. 3.08 lakhs per ha as compared to Rs. 0.93 lakh of sole crop. The average yield of intercropped sugarcane was 1000 q/h and with intercrop, Dheer Singh was able to get an additional Rs 1,50,000 for gladiolus spikes from the population in this one ha, In addition he was left with 75,000 bulbs and 5qunitals of bulblets of gladiolus from 1.0 ha land. The value of this was about Rs 60,000/- only.


Practical utility of innovation

Gladiolus as additional intercrop may be planted in the month of October with autumn sugarcane or even in standing sugarcane on bunds. It is a feasible option in the district because of marginal and small land holding. Gladiolus on ridges intercropped with sugarcane var. COS-8436


Sh Dheer Singh harvesting spikes of Gladiolus


Name - Shri Dheer Singh
Contact- 9759847691

Rice sown in 154.70 lakh hectares

India Infoline News Service / 19:53 , Jul 22, 2011

Compared to last year, higher area coverage has been reported from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

As per data received from States, rice has been sown in 154.70 lakh hectare as on today. Higher area coverage has been reported from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Bihar.

Coarse cereals have been sown in 125.20 lakh hectares. Compared to last year, higher area coverage has been reported from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Sugarcane has been planted in 51.61 lakh hectare so far. Higher area has been reported from Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab.


The cropped areas as on today are as follows:


lakh hectare

Crop


This year’s area [as on 22nd July]

Rice


154.70

Pulses


45.44

Coarse cereals


125.20

Sugarcane


51.61

Oil seeds


129.75

Jute+Mesta

(Raw Jute)


8.88

Cotton


93.45

India Lifts 2010-11 Cotton Output Estimate To 32.5 Million Bales

Capital Market / 09:51 , Jul 26, 2011

India increased its cotton output estimate for this crop year by 4.1% as farmers have started releasing held-over stocks, raising the prospects of more shipments from the world's second-largest producer and exporter.

The country's cotton output is likely to be 32.5 million bales, up from an earlier estimate of 31.2 million bales, Textile Commissioner A.B. Joshi told reporters after the review meeting of the government-run Cotton Advisory Board.

He said farmers had held back raw cotton stocks in anticipation of higher prices, but now want to offload them ahead of the new crop season.

The country produced 29.5 million bales of 170 kilograms each in the last crop year that ended Sept. 30, 2010. India has already allowed shipments of 6.5 million bales this marketing year through September.

The higher production estimate may further depress global prices. December cotton futures on the IntercontinentalExchange closed at 98.64c/lb Friday and are down more than 50% from the 2011 peak at $2.27/lb in early March.

Joshi said that in 2010-11, India's total cotton supply including imports and carryover stocks, is estimated at 37.05 million bales, while total demand is likely to fall to 31.8 million bales.

Pioneer Hi-Bred to expand hybrid rice and corn seed programs in Philippines

Source:mb.com.ph 2011-7-25
Tags:Pioneer Hi-Bred, rice, corn, seed, hybrid

The expansion program of hybrid rice and corn seeds producer American-owned Pioneer Hi-Bred Philippines Inc. to provide hybrid seeds requirements to Luzon farmers led the seven new projects worth over P3 billion approved by the Board of Investments (BoI) last week.

Board of Investments executive director Lucita P. Reyes told reporters that Pioneer Hi-Bred has proposed to expand in Tarlac with P960 million in new investments.

Pioneer Hi-Bred has an existing operation in Polomolok, South Cotabato since 1989 and been supplying hybrid rice and corn seeds for the Visayas and Mindanao farmers. Commercial operation is set to start in March 2012. This is the first project of the company that was registered with the BoI.

Part of the expansion is a seed processing in Hacienda Luisita Industrial Park in San Miguel, Tarlac, which will employ 435 people.

The company has already entered into contract growing agreement with a total of 6,912 contract growers in Tarlac including landowners and farmers for the seed production. The company requires a total of 4,147 hectares of land for the production of grand parent rice and corn seeds that would be supplied to local farmers.

The American firm plans to produce 2,563 metric tons of rice seeds and 4,147 MT of corn and 849 MT of by-products for a total of 7,559 MT total production. All revenues generated from the sale of by-products like discarded/non-viable rice seeds and corn seeds, may be eligible for income tax holiday. Under non-Pioneer status, an enterprise may be eligible for four year ITH.

Based on its assumptions, a contract grower can earn at least P20,000 per cropping cycle. There are two cropping cycles in a year for rice production.

The company said that its hybrid rice seeds would yield between 11 to 14 MT per hectare as against the ordinary rice seeds of 5 MT per hectare.

Yields of its hybrid white and yellow corn seeds are also projected at between 8 and 11 MT per hectare versus 2 MT per hectare for ordinary corn.

"This is a big boost to farmers,” Reyes said.

The BoI also said that the National Food Authority (NFA) has endorsed the expansion project, which was approved on a Pioneer status with non-Pioneer incentives.

Likewise, NFA did not oppose to the Pioneer project, notwithstanding that it is a primarily foreign-owned corporation. As such, the enterprise was required to submit proof of investments to maintain its Pioneer status and registration to the BoI on or before the last day of one-year period from registration, otherwise it should be automatically cancelled.

Executive Order 858 or the Eight Regular Foreign Investment Negative List provides that full foreign participation in the culture, production, milling, processing – of rice and corn – is allowed provided that within the 30-year period from start of operation, the foreign investor shall divest a minimum of 60 percent of their equity to Filipino investors.

Pioneer Hi-Bred is the second hybrid rice seeds producer registered with the BoI, the first being the wholly-owned Filipino SL Agrictech Corporation, which has a 40-hectare farm in Sta. Cruz, Laguna producing several hybrid rice parental lines.

Starting modestly with land provided by the provincial government of Laguna in October 1999, SLAC initiated the development of several hybrid rice parental lines which were later transferred to a 40-hectare farm in Sta. Cruz, Laguna that now houses the research and breeding complex of the company.

So far, the company has six hybrid rice varieties under its SL8 Series. Its Jasponica (brown rice) and Miponica (premium grade) are gaining popularity.

The SL8 variety has the potential of producing 14 tons a hectare of premium grade rice as against 3-4 tons of traditional rice.

Now, SLAC has an R & D facility in Sta. Cruz, Laguna. It has also a hybrid rice seed production base in a 187-hectare farm in Banay-Banay Davao Oriental, which has been expanded to 1,500 hectares.

The company has invested at least P500 million for this hybrid rice production,
Lim said.

90,000 litres of banned insecticide seized in Chhattisgarh, India

Source:daily.bhaskar.com 2011-6-14
Tags:India, ban, insecticide, endosulfan

Agriculture Department officers raided several godowns across the city on Saturday. The officers seized more than 90,000 litres of banned insecticide – endosulfan from the godowns.

Deputy Director of the department Kashyap, who led the raid, said the team conducted raids at around 62 godowns and retail shops of chemical fertilizers and insecticides. They seized 90,818 litres of endosulfan (35EC) from these godowns and shops.

Officers in the team said 82,165 litres of insecticide was seized from Krishna Care alone while 7 litres and 1,110 litres of insecticides were seized from Om Fertilisers and Bharat Insecticides, respectively.

They further said the manufacturing companies have been issued notices warning them against selling any banned insecticides.

It must be noted that Chhattisgarh government has banned the production, sale and use of endosulfan – the insecticide.