IS/ISO 9001 : 2008 Organization ISSN No.: 2394-3254 OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2017 From the DG’s Desk News in Brief Dear Readers, From the DG’s Desk 1 In Punjab and Haryana, about 23 million tonnes of paddy straw is burnt in the field as an easy and quick method of disposal. Workshops, Meetings, Seminars, Conferences... Burning straw causes phenomenal pollution problems and huge Olive Oil spreads in Srinagar 3 nutritional loss and physical health deterioration to the soil. Silver Jubilee of AERA at NAARM 3 Actually, the time available between the rice harvesting and Fighting Malnutrition 4 wheat sowing is very narrow, around 20-30 days. So, appropriate Vigilance Awareness Week 4 strategies for in situ crop residue management are planned for Regional Workshop on Farmers’ Rights and 5 effective implementation to enable zero burning. Besides, Exhibition on Agro-biodiversity reducing air pollution, and also enhancing quality of soil, it will Burhanpur organises Workshop of KVKs 5 lead to financial gain in the longer run owing to reduced nutrient ICAR-CMFRI holds meet on fishers’ perception 6 of vulnerability to climate change input. Initially investment in machines and cost of cultivation for sowing the next crop will be higher. At present, in Punjab, Success Stories 7 area under rice-wheat cultivation is 2.1 million ha and under Potential for Growth — Agro-Processing 7 rice-potato it is 0.9 Centre million ha. In Giriraja back yard poultry farming brings 8 Haryana, the area food under rice-wheat Rice value chain for increasing Farm income 9 cultivation is 1.0 Capacity Building 11 million ha and under rice-potato it PM dedicates “Nanaji Deshmukh Plant 11 is 0.35 million ha. Phenomics Centre to the Nation After harvesting CMFRI’s RAS facility dedicated to Nation 12 rice by combine, by DG ICAR the farmers sun-dry ATARI, Ludhiana organises strategy on 13 Residue Management the straw for a few days (4-5 days) and Celebrations 14 then burn them in the field before preparing the field for next Rice Field day and Farmers’ Meet 14 cropping by using disc harrow, cultivator and planker and sow Brackishwater aquaculture attracts visitors 15 the wheat/potato by seed drill/planter. This practice has Silver Jubilee Conference of AERA 16 aggravated the air quality issues vis-à-vis human and soil health. Agriculture Education Day for Students 16 It is estimated that from 23 million tonnes of rice residues in East Champaran celebrates Pashu Arogya 17 North West India about 3 million tonnes of C may be improved Mela 2017 per year and save about 1.4×105 t of N (equivalent to ` 200 ICAR celebrates Rashtriya Mahila Kisan 18 crores) annually. Benefits to soil includes, soil microbial biomass Diwas carbon, dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase activity, and Foundation Day 19 heterotrophic population will be increased about 2.5 to 3 fold in World Soil Day 21 incorporated field than burning of crop residue. From residue International Linkages 22 incorporation, farmers’ can save about 1600 kg C, 20-30kg N, 4- 7 kg P, 60-100 kg K, 4-6 kg S in addition to micronutrients, which Trainings 23 is equivalent to ` 1500-2000/ha for plant nutrients with yield advantage of 1 tonne/ha. Visit 24 An attempt was made by the Council to assess the requirement Personnel 24 of machines for straw management such as, super straw management system (super SMS) that is an towards achieving zero burning of crop residues in attachment to the combine, Happy seeder, paddy these two states, effective production, procurement straw chopper-cum-spreader, reversible Mould board and distribution plan for machines is required. For plough to enable effective in situ crop management instance, the machines could be fabricated and in the years to come. These machines are being supplied by already existing manufacturers in Punjab fabricated by local manufacturers in Punjab and and Haryana. To enable this production process, the Haryana. Keeping coverage area and days available Government (Centre/State) should evolve a for residue management between two croppings, it is mechanism to place indent and procure requisite estimated that a total of 6500 and 2800 super SMS numbers of the aforesaid machines. units would be required for the state of Punjab and Haryana, respectively. Incidentally, Punjab has After hastening the process to achieve the target of already 1000 SMS units, whereas Haryana state does zero burning of crop residues within a year or so, we not possess any. Similarly, happy seeder requirement can exercise other options. The first option is Mass for the state of Punjab is 15100 (2100 already awareness campaign for manufacturers, buyers and available) and for Haryana, it is 6550 (50 available). farmers regarding straw management and The number of paddy straw chopper-cum-spreader machineries to highlight various advantages units required for Punjab is 6150 (550 already (tangible/intangible) of crop residue management; available) and for Haryana it is 2500. Apart from (ii) ICAR Institutes, KVKs and State Agricultural this, 6150 (150 available) reversible Mould board Universities a key role of providing end-to-end plough units are required for Punjab state and 2800 facilitation, and (iii) Campaigns under the overall for Haryana. Over all, the initial cost for one set of supervision of DCs at Block levels to the policy, all four requisite machines would be Rs. 6.5 lakhs scheme and technology. The second option could be and to enable zero burning in the entire state of to roll out the proposed plan of action, the existing Punjab and Haryana, the estimated cost worked out combine owners may be encouraged to buy super SMS to be ` 71,390 lakhs only. It has been proposed to as a fitting attachment to combine, and the tractor utilize the machines for straw management in place owners be encouraged to buy Happy seeders, Paddy of burning in both rice-wheat and rice-potato straw chopper-cum-spreader and Reversible Mould systems. For rice-wheat system, it is advisable to board plough; however, this could be facilitated by attach super Straw Management Systems (SMS) in all giving back end subsidy to the purchasers by State/ existing combines for paddy harvesting and spreading Central Government. Option 3 shall be that the State of straw in situ for facilitating the subsequent Government could procure the machines and operation of Happy seeder for sowing wheat crop, distribute to farmers, Farmer Producer Organization that is operated through tractor. In case of rice- (FPOs) and CHCs by auction. Further, the State potato system, the paddy straw chopper-cum- Government making it compulsory that the existing spreader, again an attachment with tractor will be combines should have SMS and followed by happy operated in fields after harvest using combines (with seeder (75% subsidy could be recommended). The or without SMS units). Subsequently, the chopped existing CHCs should have all the four machines residue will be incorporated in to the field using suggested for in situ crop residue management. reversible Mould board plough, again operated Establishing new custom hiring centres could be the through tractor. After this process, the field can be 4th option, while the existing CHCs would also procure prepared with rotavator and then, potato can be happy seeder and other equipments to enable zero sown with a planter. straw burning. It has been estimated that one CHC can handle 4 happy seeders, 3 chopper-cum-spreader Capacity Building and mass awareness among all and 3 reversible mould board plough units.While stakeholders is a must. General awareness on ill exploiting the benefits of all these options, a vigilant effect of residue burning and laying out field monitoring mechanism should also be put in place in demonstration on machinery options in particular is all districts of the Punjab and Haryana under the a powerful way to convince the farmers about the chairmanship of District Collector with other successful management of residue. The members (District Agriculture Officer; Block implementation of proposed model will also depend Development Officer; KVK Scientist; Agriculture on the capacity development of farmers, machine cooperative society; FPO) who will monitor the operators, custom hiring centres etc. Involvement of implementation process on war footing. Along with, KVKs in the capacity development: 35 KVKs (22 in a strategy for redistributing the combines and Punjab and 13 in Haryana) in association with tractors across the state for better coverage. Over Agriculture Department, and other line departments, all, at policy level, a mechanism is being worked out Farmers’ Clubs, Cooperative societies etc. will be quickly to roll out this plan of action as a centrally conducting various capacity development programmes sponsored scheme providing 100% subsidy in national to reach out at grass root level. Several programmes interest. have also been planned to strengthen the capacity development of all stakeholders for 2 consecutive years as well. (T. Mohapatra) In order to effectively implement this program e mail: [email protected] 2 ICAR REPORTER October – December 2017 WORKSHOPS, MEETINGS, SEMINARS, CONFERENCES, Symposia Olive Oil spreads in Srinagar Silver Jubilee of AERA at NAARM Srinagar, 24 October, 2017. Two-day workshop on Hyderabad, 7 November, 2017. The Agricultural Olive Research and Development in India, jointly Economics Research Association (AERA) based at New organized by Oilseeds Division, Department of Delhi with a membership of over 1000 agricultural Agriculture and Corporation and Farmers