agriculture tips

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series,  we are going to see Egg Lime Formulation (Muttai Rasam) . Required Ingredients S.No. Ingredient Name Qty in Litres/Kgs/Nos 1 Lime 20-25 Nos 2 Jaggery 250 Grams 3 Egg (Chicken or Duck) 10-15 Nos Method of Preparation Cut the Lime and extract the juice into a bucket. Dissolve the Jaggery and mix it with the Lime Juice to form a solution. Place the eggs as it is into the bottom of the bucket and ensure that the eggs are not floating. Close the bucket with an air tight lid and place it in a shaded place for 10 days. On the 10th day, the eggs along with the shells inside the solution would have become rubbery, like a rubber ball. Mix the eggs along with the shell well in the lime and jaggery solution. Now find out the number of litres of solution arrived at. Add equal amount of Jaggery solution alone to this. Again, close the bucket with an air tight lid and place it in a shaded place for 10 days. The solution is ready to...

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see the way to collect Local or Native or Indigenous Earthworms. Identify worm-inhabited soils marked by visible earthworm castings on the soil surface The identified place should be of 1.0 m X 0.5 m or 1.0 m X 1.0 m size Take 20 Litres of Water + 500 Grams of Jaggery (Native Sugar or Unrefined Sugar or Brown Sugar or Karrupatti) + 500 Grams of Fresh Cow Dung Dissolve the Jaggery in the Water along with the Fresh Cow Dung and mix them well Once dissolved properly, sprinkle the concoction on the previously identified place Cover the place first with straw (Rice or Wheat or similar) and small lumps of cattle dung and on top of it cover the place with Jute Bag or Gunny Bag.  Mainly the Jute Bag is to ensure that birds do not eat the earthworms Sprinkle water for 20-30 days daily in the morning and evening time on the covered bag to keep the place moist You should be able to get earthworms after this....

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see Bijamrita  which is used to control seed borne diseases and this is popularised by Subhash Palekar. Required Ingredients S.No. Ingredient Name Qty in Litres/Kgs 1 Water 21 Ltrs 2 Cow Dung 5 Kgs 3 Cow Urine 5 Ltrs 4 Lime 50 Gms 5 Soil from bund Handful Note: Cow's Urine should be from Local Cows and not from cross-bred or foreign breeds. Method of Preparation Take a cotton cloth and place the Cow Dung and secure it at the top by tying it well. Immerse the contents of the cloth in the 20 Litres of Water for 12 hours. Similarly, take the lime and add the lime to 1 Litre of Water and let it be for a whole night. Squeeze the contents of the cloth thrice to ensure all the essence is captured in the 20 Litres of  Water. Add the handful of Soil collected from the bund to the essence and stir it well. Add the Cow Urine, Lime Water to the contents of the 20 Litre of essence and stir it well. Bijamrita...

Seed Dormancy Treatment - Biogas Slurry Soak the seeds in Biogas Slurry for 30 minutes before sowing. Sow the seeds immediately. Seed Dormancy - Cow Dung Take 500 Grams Cow Dung and 1 Litre Water. Mix both the Cow Dung and the Water well. Soak the seeds in this concoction for 24 hours and keep it in a cool dry place. Sow the seeds immediately on the next day. Expect germination to improve by 90% for vegetables like Bitter Gourd, Ribbed Gourd, Snake Gourd, Bottle Gourd and Pumpkin. Seed Dormancy - Cow Urine Soak the seeds in cow urine for 12 hours and keep it in a cool and shaded place.  This will improve germination. Sow the seeds immediately on the next day. Seed Dormancy Treatment - Dasagavya Soak the seeds or dipping the roots of seedlings in 3% solution for 20 minutes.  This enhances seed germination and root development. Seed Dormancy Treatment - Panchakavya Take 980 ml of water. Add 20 ml of Panchakavya to it. Mix them well. Soak the seeds in this concoction ...

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see the different Fodder Trees which can be grown for feeding our Livestock. S.No. Botanical Name Common Name / Tamil Name 1 A. leucophloea Velvel, White babul 2 A. nilotica Karuvel, Black babul 3 Acacia   planifrons Umbrella tree / Kudaivel 4 Acacia catechu Karungali 5 Ailanthes excelsa Match wood tree 6 Albizzia lebbek Vagai Vagai 7 Azadirachta indica Vembu 8 Dalbergia sisoo Sisoo 9 Delonix regia Gulmohar 10 Enterolobium saman Rain tree 11 Erythrina indica Mulmurungai / Kalyana murungai 12 Ficus   religiosa Peepal tree / Arasamaram 13 Ficus bengalensis Banyan tree   / Alamaram 14 Glyciridia maculata Glyricidia 15 Hardwickia binata Acha 16 Leucaena leucocephala Subabul / Soundal 17 Madhca indica Illuppai ...

As part of our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see how to Select the Crops (Groupwise) based on Shelf Life. We have already seen several options of choosing the crops.  One more addition to that can be the following. Generally, most of the crops we produce have short shelf life.  In this scenario, the farmer is forced to sell the produce immediately as the produce gets rotten easily.  It would be prudent on the part of the farmer to allocate a small portion of the land to produce crops which have longer shelf life. In this way, the farmer can save the produce and sell it at the right price. The following are some of the examples of both Shorter Shelf Life Crops and Longer Shelf Life Crops. Shorter Shelf Life Crops Sugarcrops like Sugarcane Vegetables like Tomato, Ladies Finger etc Flowers Fruits like Mango, Guava, Jamun etc Longer Shelf Life Crops Cereals like Paddy, Wheat Millets like Maize, Millet, Ragi , Cumbu etc Pulses Oil Seeds like...