AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

MANURES

Farmers in Bhandara district, particularly those growing paddy, wheat, jowar, chillis, oil-seeds, etc., seem to be well aware of the utility and importance of manuring their fields. They apply manures on large scale even though they are costly. The most usual practice obtaining in the district is to manure the fields with dung of cattle, sheep and goats, farm refuse and stable litter. Sheep folding is also practised on a large scale. Cultivators are also found to use chemical fertilizers and manure mixtures distributed by the Department of Agriculture.

Indigenous manures are carefully stocked and used throughout the district. However, there is a dirth of cattle-dung for manurial purposes, as nearly 40 per cent of its total supply is commonly used as fuel. Owners of flocks of sheep and goats are paid in cash for quartering their stock overnight in the fields. It is estimated that about a thousand sheep and goats together give manure equal to five to six cart-loads. Town refuse and night soil are utilized for making compost manure by some municipalities in the district. The manure is auctioned to cultivators who use it on a large scale. Compost manure is obtained by digging the pits which are filled with farm refuse, cow-dung, stable litter, etc. The material is allowed to decompose in the pits. The manure so obtained ordinarily contains nitrogen varying between 0.6 per cent and 0.8 per cent. Oil-seed cakes, manure mixtures and chemical fertilizers made available at concessional rates by the Department of Agriculture have become quite popular among the cultivators. The application of oil-seed cakes, manure mixtures and chemical fertilizers to food crops has brought about an increase of about 30 per cent in their yield. The Department of Agriculture has been arranging demonstrations of the application of different manures to various crops with a view to educating and convincing the farmers about the utility of scientific manuring. The quantity of manure to be applied varies from field to field and from crop to crop. Top dressing with ammonium sulphate and super-phosphate is also practised. Many of the cultivators apply only sulphate of ammonia at the rate of one bag per acre under wheat crop. Pulses are not generally manured. Rice, the staple food crop, also receives fertilizers. The crops are always manured with farm-yard manure and chemical fertilizers.

The use of fertilizers and production of local manures and distribution of the same including green manuring is practised on large areas by the cultivators. The details about the achievements under various schemes relating to these programmes in 1964-65 in Bhandara district are as detailed below: —

Distribution of Sann-Seed at Subsidised rate for Green Manuring.

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