Soil Remediation

Soil is a vital natural resource whose importance is often not realized. Like water and air, soil too is subject to contamination, largely by various human activities. With human population increasing exponentially we are increasingly encroaching into agriculture land for residential and commercial real estate and forest area is encroached for agriculture purpose.  It is therefore important for us to understand the importance of reusing contaminated land by soil remediation and thereby ensuring that there is no pressure on the environment on the whole. The various options available for the remediation of soil and its feasibility will be discussed in this article.

Soil Contamination

Soil contamination refers to the presence of un-natural (human-made) chemicals or other substances in the soil. The pollutant can be a solid or liquid. These chemicals include hydrocarbons such as gasoline and petroleum leaks seeping into the soil, derivatives of petroleum, heavy metals, dumping of solid and liquid waste, excessive use of pesticide and herbicides.  In case of contamination by petroleum the challenges of removing contamination becomes harder as they are not soluble in water and can adhere to the soil particles. Heavy metals and oils are also known to seep into the ground water which spread the contamination to a larger area.

Cleaning of contaminated soil can involve removal of soil from the contaminated area or on-site treatment. They are called Ex-situ remediation and In-situ remediation respectively.

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Integrated Farming System

Farming and agriculture are respectively defined as the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock and the production of agricultural goods through the growing of plants and the raising of domesticated animals. In the developing countries frantic efforts have been made through research and enlightenment campaigns to encourage farming and thus ensure significant increases in agricultural production in order to feed and sustain the population that is increasing at geometric proportion. At present, the farmers concentrate mainly on crop production which is subjected to a high degree of uncertainty in income and employment to the farmers. In this context, it is imperative to evolve suitable strategy for augmenting the income of a farm.

Integrated farming (or integrated agriculture) is a commonly and broadly used word to explain a more integrated approach to farming as compared to existing monoculture approaches. It refers to agricultural systems that integrate livestock and crop production. Integrated farming system has revolutionized conventional farming of livestock, aquaculture, horticulture, agro-industry and allied activities. It could be crop-fish integration, livestock-fish integration, crop-fish-livestock integration or combinations of crop, livestock, fish and other enterprises.

The integrated farming system approach introduces a change in the farming techniques for maximum production in the cropping pattern and takes care of optimal utilization of resources. The farm wastes are better recycled for productive purposes in the integrated system. A judicious mix of agricultural enterprises like dairy, poultry, piggery, fishery, sericulture etc. suited to the given agro-climatic conditions and socio-economic status of the farmers would bring prosperity in the farming. An integrated farming system allows us to use some of the advantages of nature, and ecology, as opposed to relying on chemistry to solve all our production issues.

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Lettuce Seeds – Diseases

Seeds can spread plant diseases from one farm to another, from one State to another, and from a distant country to the other. Some disease pests may survive for years, safely lodged on or in a seed or on bits of stem or leaf mixed with the seeds. Many seed borne diseases cannot be recognized when seeds are examined, and cannot be detected during incubation. Only by inspecting the growing crop can one be sure that the seeds are free of viruses, bacteria, and fungi, organisms that cause disease and are called pathogens. Most seed borne parasites do not affect germination immediately. They do not harm the seeds but multiply on emerging seedlings, which may then succumb to the disease. Some seed lots that show high germination in tests are nearly destroyed when they are planted under conditions that favor development of the organisms they carry. Below is a short brief of diseases that are present in lettuce leaf, and their control measures. Lettuce leaf is probably the most common and popular salad leaf among all other salad leaf, Therefore one must be aware of the diseases it gets affected with.

Downy Mildew

Lettuce Leaf symptoms of downy mildew first show as angular, pale yellow patches which are delineated by leaf veins. The underside of the leaf opposite the yellow patch will show white masses of spores from 7 to 14 days after infection. Downy mildew damaged leaf tissue can be an entry site for secondary rot producing organisms. These rot organisms may compound crop losses in the field, and can also cause losses later when the lettuce is in transit.

Control: There are downy mildew resistant varieties of iceberg lettuce, but no cultivar is sufficiently resistant to all the races of downy mildew to allow culture without fungicides. Both systemic and contact fungicides are necessary in a spray program to combat downy mildew. Control of the disease depends upon good coverage with the fungicide material, timely first applications, and repeated applications as weather and disease development dictate. Currently maneb, fosetyl-A1, and at times, copper compounds are the primary fungicides used for disease suppression.

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Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

Soil is one of the most important constituent of Agriculture. Plants derive almost all nutrients from soil and so its purpose serves beyond the fact that it’s the substrate on which the plant grows.The soil types vary from region to region and so do the type of plants that grow on them. All types of soil are made up of two basic components which are biotic and abiotic.  It’s the continuous nutrient cycle that takes place at the biotic-abiotic interface that plays a crucial role in plant growth and sustainable agriculture. There are tremendous amounts of biochemical reactions occurring in what seems like a lifeless soil. Increased use of fertilizer has increased the cost of production and decreased the soil quality. In order to better understand basic needs of the plants, it is important to go to the root cause, literally. In this article we will have an insight into the underworld nutrient cycle that occurs in the soil and better understand the need to focus on the need to take care of soil.

The soil health is without doubt vital for good yield of plant. The right balance of biotic and abiotic constituents in the soil can lead a way to sustainable and optimal agriculture. The following conclusions can be drawn from the studies reflected in this article.

Presence of good amount of organic and inorganic matter is essential to support nutrient cycle.

Soil biota help plant growth by supporting nutrient uptake, providing disease resistance and holding up soil structure

The presence of a healthy population of soil biota reduces the need for external inputs for soil growth.

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Benefits of Automation in Drip Irrigation System

Micro-irrigation technology is now widely accepted by most of the farmers in the world. Drip irrigation was named in Israel in 1959. Drip irrigation also called as micro irrigation or trickle irrigation is a remarkable water saving technology developed decades ago. It is commonly used all over the world in nurseries, greenhouses, landscapes, kitchen gardens and variety of industrial applications. The major amount of fresh water is utilized by the agriculture for irrigation purpose. By using a drip irrigation the water will be maintained at a constant level that is the water will reach the roots drop by drop. Because of increasing demand for freshwater, optimal usage of water resources should be practiced with great extent of automation technology such as solar power, micro controller, sensors, remote control, embedded system etc. 

There are lots of benefits of automation in drip irrigation- the real time useful controlling system for monitoring and controlling all activities of drip irrigation more efficiently. Drip irrigation by automation helps the farmers to apply the right amount of water at right time, regardless of availability of labour. This reduces the wastage of water and improves the crop performance and help saving time in all aspects.

In a study conducted by M. Guerbaoui, Y. El Afou, A. Ed-Dahhak, A. Lachhab and B. Bouchikhi of Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco the efficacy of automated drip irrigation on water waste management in growing tomato crops were observed. Tomato crops are found to be sensitive to both water deficit and excess water. The average density of greenhouse tomato crops is 18000 plants/ha and the water requirements of tomato by drip irrigation attain 7000 m3/ha [El Attir (2005)]. It was found that computer based drip irrigation control could reduce water consumption by 20% to 30%.

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Climate Change and its Impact on Agriculture

Climate change is probably the most important cliché in the world. To understand what climate change is, it is important to define climate as it is often an ambiguous term. Climate may be defined as a composite or general weather conditions that prevails over a long period of time in a particular geographical area. In simpler terms it is the average of everyday weather over a long period of time. Climate change refers to a lasting and significant change in the weather pattern and its distribution across the globe. Climate change is caused due to various factors such as accumulation of greenhouse gases like Carbon dioxide, water vapor, Methane, Nitrous oxide and Chlorofluorocarbons caused due to increase in the output of solar irradiance, volcanic eruptions and many human activities.

 

To substantially understand the effect climate change will have on agriculture we can begin with listing the possible changes in the environment that are likely to occur. Change in climate can be associated with change in temperature, precipitation, Carbon dioxide concentration, wind pattern and other climatic variables.

Temperature is critical variant in any biochemical process as it determines the rate of the reaction. The physiology of plants is ultimately a biochemical reaction and hence it is bound to effect the growth of the plants. An increase in temperature will lead to increase in the rate of respiration of the plant. An increase in the temperature is seen to decrease the grain-filling period which can lead to decreased yield. The effects of high temperature can be more significant around anthesis as the various stages of reproduction that the leads to the formation of seeds such as pollen grain synthesis, transfer of pollen grains to the stigma, generations of pollen tube, fertilization and development of zygote are all temperature sensitive. This could explain the decrease in yield. Also a higher mean temperature is shown to affect the root biomass of the crops which in turn affects the quality of crop as it reduces the ability to absorb nutrients from the soil. Though these effects may not be universal and many crops may be able to adapt to the changes in temperature, it cannot be neglected that some crops might be adversely affected even by the slight increase in the mean temperature. Studies conducted by enlarge show that the effect of increase in mean temperature leads to lower yield of crops.

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Mangolicious

 India ranks first among world’s mango producing countries accounting for about 50% of the world’s mango production.  Other major mango producing countries include China, Thailand, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria and Egypt. India’s share is around 52% of world production i.e. 12 million tonnes as against world’s production of 23 million tonnes (2002-03). An increasing trend has been observed in world mango production averaging 22 million metric tonnes per year. Worldwide production is mostly concentrated in Asia, accounting for 75% followed by South and Northern America with about 10% share.

  

Economic Importance of Mango-

 The fruit is very popular with the masses due to its wide range of adaptability, high nutritive value, richness in variety, delicious taste and excellent flavour.  It is a rich source of vitamin A and C. The fruit is consumed raw or ripe. Good mango varieties contain 20% of total soluble sugars. The acid content of ripe desert fruit varies from 0.2 to 0.5 % and protein content is about 1 %.

Raw fruits of local varieties of mango trees are used for preparing various traditional products like raw slices in brine, amchur, pickle, murabba, chutney, panhe (sharabat) etc. Presently, the raw fruit of local varieties of mango are used for preparing pickle and raw slices in brine on commercial scale while fruits of Alphonso variety are used for squash in coastal western zone.

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