HORTICULTURAL CROPS

India has made a good place for itself on the Horticulture Map of the World with a total annual production of horticultural crops touching over 1490 million tones during 1999-00. The horticultural crops cover about 9 per cent of the total area contributing about 24.5 per cent of the gross agricultural output in the country. However, the productivity of fruits and vegetables grown in the country is low as compared to developed countries. The information with regard to cropping pattern in horticultural crops particularly vegetables and tuber crops is not compiled and readily available. However, the constraints in production in these crops and zones/states of cultivation of these crops is given briefly.
Vegetable Crops

Vegetable crops in India are grown from the sea level to the snowline. The entire country can broadly be divided into six vegetable growing zones:-

1. Temperate Zone : Jammu & Kashmir,Himachal Pradesh, upperUttranchal and Punjab,Darjeeling hill area of WestBengal, Nilgiri hills areas of Tamil Nadu, ArunachalPradesh and Sikkim.

2. Northwestern subtropical zone : Haryana, parts of Punjab,Uttar Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh and Bihar.

3. Northeastern subtropical zone : Most parts of Bihar,northern parts of WestBengal, Meghalaya, Assam and Nagaland.

4. Central tropical zone : Gujarat, most parts of Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Western part of West Bengal, Tripura,Manipur and part of Mizoram.

5. Southern tropical zone : Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and part of Kerala.

6. Coastal humid tropical zone : Coastal areas of Kerala,Andhra Pradesh, WestBengal and Orissa.

Constraints in vegetables production:-

1. Lack of planning in Production.
2. Non-availability of seeds of improved varieties.
3. High cost of basic production elements.
4. Inadequate plant protection measures and nonavailability of resistant varieties.
5. Weak marketing facilities.
6. Transportation limits.
7. Post harvest losses.
8. Abiotic stresses.

Nutrition Percentage

Percentage (%) of Nutrition in Organic manure

(N) (P) (K)

1. Cow dung 0.4 0.2 0.3
2. Goat manure 0.7 0.6 1.0
3. Human waste 1.6 1.2 0.6
4. Cow Urine 1.2 - 1.0
5. Goat urine 1.7 - 2.0
6. Ash / Fire wood ash 0.7 0.5 0.5
7. Poultry manure 1.8 1.8 0.9
8. Groundnut waste 1.8 0.5 0.7
9. Cow pea waste 1.1 0.6 1.3
10. Black gram waste 0.9 0.2 0.5
11. Paddy husk 0.5 0.5 0.5
12. Banana leaf litter 0.6 0.1 0.7
13. Pongam leaf (GM) 3.7 2.4 2.4
14. Vadamaram leaf (GM) 1.7 0.5 2.0
15. Sun hemp (GM) 0.8 0.1 0.5
16. Neam cake 5.6 1.1 1.5
17. Groundnut cake 7.5 1.3 1.5
18. Coconut cake 3.4 1.5 2.0
19. Cotton seed kernel cake 6.9 3.1 1.6
20. Bone meal 4.0 25.0 -
21. Fish meal 8.0 6.0 -

Panchakavya

What is Panchakavya?

Introduction:

Indian Knowledge systems have the answer to many problems of humanity.
But humanity was lured by chemical technology and it abandoned the ancient wisdom generated during the past.
Vrikshayurveda is a treasure of information on agriculture.
Panchakavya act as growth-promoting hormones and immunity boosters for plants.
Panchakavya consist of five products from the cow:

v Dung
v Urine
v Milk
v Curd
v Ghee

Ingredients for making Panchakavya (20 liters)

Fresh cow dung 1 kg
Cow’s ghee 1 kg
Cow dung slurry 4kg
Sugar cane juice 3 (liters)
Banana 12 numbers
Cow’s curd 2 liters
Cow’s milk 2 liters
Cow urine 3 liters
Tender coconut water 3 liters
Toddy( if available) 2 liters

All the above items can be added to a wide mouthed mud- pot, or plastic cans.
Follow the integration order as above. Specially to mix well the cow dung and the ghee together. The container should be kept in the shade, but open, covered by a mosquito net, tight with elastic for an easy daily opening.
The mix has to be stirred twice a day, morning and evening.
ThePanchakavia stock solution will be ready after the 7th day.
When stirred twice daily the Panchakavya solution can be kept for 6 months without any deterioration in its quality. When the solution becomes thick due to evaporation of water, add suitable quantity of water to keep it in a liquid state.





Alternative methods

No cow dung slurry: Add 7 kg of fresh cow dung to 5 liters of cow urine and 5 liters of water. Keep the container open, in the shade; stir twice daily for 15 days.

No sugar cane juice: add 500 grams of jaggeri.

Recommended Dosages: 3%
3 liters of Panchakavya to 100 liters of water.
300 ml of Panchakavya in power sprayer of 10 liters capacity.

Panchakavya is to be filtered when spray with power- sprayer.

To Apply 5 times on a crop:
After 3 weeks of growth; 2 times up to the flowers set, 2 times during the flowering period, one time at fruit maturation stage.