agriculture tips

In our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see how to improve/sustain the soil. Continuing with where we left in the last blog, we will discuss more ways to improve as well as sustain the soil. As a rule of thumb, please remember "The Soil need not be exposed to direct sunlight and the sunlight is required only for the plants and that too by the leaves of the plants" Don't expose the soil to direct sunlight Most of the land is occupied by Trees, Crops etc and only the minimal area is not occupied by any crop.  In this situation, we can go for Live (or) Green Mulch, Dead Mulch. In case of traditional crops like Paddy, Sugarcane etc, the unwanted roots or branches should not be burnt and left as is to decompose in the very soil. Live Mulch can be even weeds as well as any legume crops or grasses as well. Dead Mulch can be plantains, dead leaves, twigs, broken branches etc.  The Dead Mulch need to be spread in those areas where the soil is exposed to the ...

In our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see the ways to improve the soil. As we all know, the Soil is the base for any agricultural activity.  In this blog, we will discuss ways and means to improve the soil. The details given below are for both "unused barren land" and "land in use" as well as for land which needs to be moved from chemical farming to organic farming. Land Improvement - Method 1 The following 5 types of Seeds are required and their quantities are mentioned as well for 1 Acre.  Overall, you require 4+4+4+4.25+1.75 = 22 Kgs of seeds per acre.   Pasunthaal (Green Manure Seeds) - 4 Kgs Sanappu (Sunhemp) - 1Kg Thakkaipoondu (Daincha) - 1 Kg Avuri (Indigo) - 1 Kg Sesbania (Sesbania) - 1 Kg Siruthaaniam (Millet Seeds) - 4 Kgs Cholam (Cholam) - 1 Kg Cumbu (Spiked Millet) - 1 Kg Kelvaragu (Ragi) - 1 Kg Samai (Samai) - 1 Kg Payaru (Cereal Seeds) - 4 Kgs Ulundu (Blackgram) - 1 Kg Pacchapayaru (Greengram) - 1 Kg Karamani (Cowpea) - 1 ...

In our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series,  we will understand the difference between Monoculture and Polyculture and what they mean and what benefits each entails. Monoculture - A single species of plants (I am using the word plants generically and it will also refer to animals as well) A classical example is Paddy cultivation Another example is Coconut Groove One more example is Mango Orchard In Monoculture, there are some advantages as well as disadvantages.  But mostly, the disadvantages overweigh the advantages. Advantages Any person involved in Monoculture will have to gain knowledge only for that particular plants Marketing will be easy Disadvantages May result in complete crop failure due to homogenous plants and hence pests may have a field day Results in over production (Over Production can be from your own field or because of similar farms) Results in profit hit (Those who are in the know how will know how much is the cost per coconut) Polyculture - At le...

In our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see how to choose the Right Variety within a Crop. Once we have decided on the Crop, the next step will be to decide on a variety in that particular crop. The following are some of the factors to decide on the variety:- End Usage Diversity in Varieties Time Diversity End Usage  - The meaning of End Usage is different for different crops.  I am giving an example of 2 crops here. Coconut Tree Coconuts are directly consumed which we call as Tender Coconut Coconuts are used in Cooking for Chutney Paste etc Coconuts are used as Oil for Cooking as well as for Hair Mango Tree Mangoes are used in Cooking Mangoes can be directly consumed ( Table Top ) Mangoes are made as Juice ( Pulp ) and sold by big companies So, the ideas is to decide which segment are we focusing.  Do we want to focus on a single segment or do we want to focus on multiple segments? Diversity in Varieties - The fact of the matter is differ...

In our Agriculture for Everybody  blog series, we are going to see how to choose the Right Crop. The following are some of the important parameters to consider for identifying or narrowing down to the right crop. It does not mean these factors alone will be be sufficient but can give you a headstart in finalzing the crop. Please note that the mention of crops includes everything (Plants, Animals etc). The basic parameters are:- Land Bank Soil Type Water Availability Gestation Period Net Profit Land Bank means the available land on hand.  This is a very important parameter as this will decide the scale of operations. Soil Type will help to decide the Crops that can be grown in that land. Water Availability - Helps you to identify the Crops based on the water resources available. Gestation Period - How much time you will have to wait before you can start your harvest? Net Profit - When there are multiple choices available considering the first four parameters, this...

What I propose to do in this blog is very simple?  I am going to present information/data for everybody (hence the title) and also collect information/data from everybody. What is the need to do this? I want the newcomer to Agriculture to get a head start rather than spending his/her time looking for information/data. (As I mentioned earlier, I have been looking for information/data for quite a long time and still not able to get the data for analysis in a organized manner.  Hence, I felt the need to do the same.) As I am from Tamilnadu (India), the information/data presented here is related to TN state and hence people from other states can use the template (I will update later on) and fill the data according to their respective states. (Please give credit to the author) Anybody who wishes to come into the agriculture fold should be getting a basic knowledge of agriculture before deciding the future course of action.  My suggestion would be as follows:- Books of In...

Tamilnadu government is going Recruit Assistant Professor (Engineering / Non Engineering) for Government Engineering Colleges  by april 2012. Total vacancies is 154 . More details can be found at http://trb.tn.nic.in/ENGG12/11022012/msg.htm Last date of application: 5/3/2012 Written test : 8/4/2012 The recruitment is purely based on written test . The syllabus for TRB exam can be found at http://trb.tn.nic.in/ENGG12/11022012/Syllabus.pdf The vacancies at Government Engineering colleges are for following departments and vacancies in ( ) Department of Civil Engineering ( 12) Mechanical Engineering ( 24) EEE  (13 ) ECE  ( 25) EIE  ( 8) Computer Science and Engineering  ( 28) Production Engineering ( 6) Metallurgy ( 5) Information Technology  ( 8) Industrial Bio-Technology ( 15) Non-Engineering Departments English  (2 ) Mathematics  (2 ) Physics  ( 2) Chemistry (4 ) All the very best.