Crop Production Improvement

Priya Darshine

Crop

Production

Management

In India, as in many other agriculture-based countries, farming ranges from small to very large farms. Different farmers thus have more or less land, money and access to information and technologies. In short, it is the money or financial conditions that allow farmers to take up different farming practicesand agricultural technologies.

Nutrients are supplied to plants by air, water and soil. There are sixteen nutrients which are essential for plants. Air supplies carbon and oxygen, hydrogen comes from water, and soil supplies the other thirteen nutrients to plants. Amongst these thirteen nutrients, six are needed in large quantities and are therefore called macro-nutrients. The other seven nutrients are used by plants in small quantities and are therefore called micro- nutrients.

MANURE&

FERTILIZERS

Manure Manure contains large quantities of organic matter and also supplies small quantities of nutrients to the soil. Manure helps in enriching soil with nutrients and organic matter and increasing soil fertility. The bulk of organic matter in manure helps in improving the soil structure. This involves increasing the water holding capacity in sandy soils. In clayey soil, the large quantities of organic matter helps in drainage.

Based on the kind of biological material used, manure can be classified as :

• Compost and vermi-compost• Green manure

• The process in which farm waste material like livestock excreta, vegetable waste, animal refuse, domestic waste, sewage waste, straw, eradicated weeds etc. is decompose in pits is known as composting. The compost is also prepared by earthworms to hasten the process of decomposition of plant and animal refuse. This is called vermi-compost.

• Prior to the sowing of the crop seeds, some plants like sun hemp or guar are grown and then mulched by ploughing them into the soil. These green plants thus turn into green manure which helps in enriching the soil in nitrogen and phosphorus. This is called green manure.

FERTILIZERSHumans consume crop and animal products for nourishment while crops get most of their nutrient requirements from the soil. However, many soils do not provide all the nutrients in quantities needed by the crops. Soil nutrients removed by continuous cropping must be replaced through the addition of nutrient sources, such as fertilizers.Fertilizers are any solid, liquid or gaseous substances containing one or more plant nutrients in known amount, that is applied to the soil, directly on the plant (foliage) or added to aqueous solutions (as in fustigation) to maintain soil fertility, improve crop development, yield and/or crop quality.

IRRIGATION

IrrigationIrrigation is the artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. Additionally, irrigation also has a few other uses in crop production, which include protecting plants against frost, suppressing weed growth in grain fields and preventing soil consolidation. In contrast, agriculture that relies only on direct rainfall is referred to as rain-fed or dry land farming. Irrigation systems are also used for dust suppression, disposal of sewage, and in mining. Irrigation is often studied together with drainage, which is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given area.

CROPPING PATTERN

It is the pattern of crops for a given piece of land or cropping pattern means the proportion of area under various crops at a point of time in a unit area or it indicated the yearly sequence and spatial arrangements of crops and follows in an area.Land resources being limited emphasis have to be placed for increasing production from unit area of land in a year. Cropping systems based on climate soil and water availability have to be evolved for realizing the potential production levels through efficient use of availability use of available resources. The cropping system should provide enough food for the family, fodder for cattle and generate sufficient cash income for domestic and cultivation expenses. This objective could be achieved by adopting intensive cropping. Methods of intensive cropping include multiple cropping and intercropping. Intensive cropping may pose some practical difficulties such as shorter turn- around time lapse for land preparation before the succeeding crop and labour shortage at peak agricultural activities. These problems can be overcome by making modification in the cropping techniques. Alteration in crop geometry may help to accommodate intercrops without losing the base crop production.

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