AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

MANURES

Generally, every cultivator is aware of the benefits accruing from the application of organic manures. The amount of farm-yard manure or compost to be applied depends upon the nature of the crop and the fertility or quality of the soil. If irrigation facilities are available, as in the case of garden lands, liberal doses of manure are applied. Lands in which cotton, bananas, citrus fruits, chillis, etc., are produced require heavy manurial replacement to provide adequate nutrition to the plants. Hence they require careful and liberal manuring. In Morshi taluka, around Warud and Jarud, lands are suited to garden crops such as citrus fruits, plantains, etc. The farmers at these places are so much in the habit of using farmyard manure on a significant scale that they find it difficult to obtain sufficient manure to meet their requirements. Many needy farmers do not hesitate to import the farmyard manure in trucks, from Nagpur and are prepared to pay higher prices for it rather than allow their orchards to go without manure.

Sugarcane, oranges, plantains and chillis require manuring every year. Orange trees are manured by applying about 45.36 kg. (100 lbs.) of farmyard manure per tree per annum. Other garden crops and vegetables are given a heavy dose of farmyard manure up to 50 cart-loads per hectare (20 cart-loads per acre). Generally, kharif jowar is not manured as it is taken as a rotation crop after cotton and benefits from the residual effects of manure applied to cotton. However, a marginal dose of five to ten cart-loads of farmyard manure is applied to jowar. Groundnut crop is given a nominal dose of five cartloads of farmyard manure. Cotton, generally rotated with groundnut crop, is usually manured once in three years. It is manured at the rate of about 50 cart-loads of farmyard manure per hectare. However, in Daryapur and Achalpur talukas, where the soils are deep and heavy, the cotton crop is grown and manured year after year.

Green Manuring.

Another important way of enriching the soils is green manuring. The Department of Agriculture has introduced the scheme for distribution of sann seed for green manuring from 1958-59. It helps to improve the fertility and the texture of the soils. Sann seed is broadcast on the onset of the monsoon. When it attains maximum vegetative growth in about two to two and a half months, it is ploughed and allowed to rot. An acre of land so manured with sann seed is supposed to have received organic manure, sufficient for a period of two or three years.

Sheep Folding.

The excreta of sheep and goats also serves as a very valuable manure. There are shepherds in the district who wander from village to village with their flocks of sheep, each numbering over a thousand heads. The farmers enter into contracts with the shepherds for quartering their sheep in the night on farms. It is estimated that during a night one thousand sheep and goats give five or six cart-loads of manure. The flocks of sheep and goats are moved from place to place in the same farm during the night so as to ensure even distribution of urine and their droppings over the field.

Town Compost.

Of late, the conversion of town and farm refuse into compost manure is becoming more common. The Agriculture Department has induced municipalities and big grampanchayats in the district to produce compost manure from the town refuse, cow-dung, stable litter, etc., collected and disposed of by them. With a view to stepping up the production and distribution of compost manure the Government gives a subsidy to compost preparing centres. This has given impetus to the 12 municipalities in the district which are engaged in the preparation and distribution of town compost. In 1958-59, their compost preparing activities covered an area of 555.8625 hectares (1,372.5 acres). The details of their activities are given in the following statement: -

Compost Preparation and Distribution by Municipalities in Amravati District, 1958-59

*Figures in brackets are in cubic feet.

Rural Compost.

The Agriculture Department is making every effort to popularise compost preparation in rural areas. It has asked grampanchayats and the cultivators to prepare compost from the available rural waste and rubbish with a view to ensuring increased supply of organic manures which are in short supply. Shirasgaon Kasba and Talegaon Dasasar were the gram- panchayats who stole the lead. It is interesting to note that the use of compost manure enabled the cultivators to produce 1452.880 m. tons (1,430 tons) of additional yield. The following statement shows the number of villages participating in the rural compost programme in 1958-59.

Rural Compost in Amravati District, 1958-59

The Department of Agriculture gives expert advice in adopting a method of preparation of farmyard manure which aims at avoiding loss of nitrogen. It improves the manurial value and results in the production of rich manure. The progress recorded by villages in the preparation of farmyard manure till March 1959 is shown in the following statement.

Preparation of Farmyard Manure by villages in Amravati District, 1959

Chemical Fertilisers.

The Department of Agriculture arranges for distribution of nitrogenous fertilisers such as Ammonium Sulphate, Ammonium Phosphate, Nitrate, Urea and Phosphate, through marketing societies and sale and purchase societies. The cultivators have realised the value of fertilisers as they have obtained higher yields through the application of chemical fertilisers. They are being gradually used in large proportions and becoming popular. They are used for food crops, non-food crops and commercial crops. Heavy doses of fertilisers are applied to the fruit crops and other garden crops wherever irrigation facilities are available. The following statement shows the crop-wise distribution of fertilisers.

Distribution of Chemical Fertilisers in Amravati District, 1958-59.

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