AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

MANURE

The farmers in the district have long realised the utility of manuring their fields by organic and inorganic manures for improving soil fertility. The use of artificial manures is, however, largely restricted to commercial crops. Indigenous manures like the dung of cattle, sheep and goats, stable litter and village refuse are ordinarily used for manuring the fields. It is customary to manure the fields with a basic dose of five cart-loads of farm yard manure in the case of dry crops and ten cart-loads in the case of irrigated crops. After this dose, chemical fertilizers are applied according to the requirements of individual crops, though their application is largely confined to commercial crops. Cow-dung is usually tised by those who possess stall-fed cattle or bv those who are in a position to purchase cow-dung. As cow-dung is, however, very commonly used as fuel in rural areas, there is usually a dearth of it for manurial purposes. The dung and the urine of sheep and goats are also valuable manures and the owners of flocks of sheep and goats are employed to graze their sheep in the fields continuously for two or three nights.

Compost Manure.

Of late, the conversion of farm refuse into compost manure is becoming more common. Pits are dug and filled with farm refuse, cow-dung, stable litter, etc., and the contents are allowed to decompose. The pits are opened after about a year. The farmyard manure thus produced contains about 0.7 per cent of nitrogen. The Department of Agriculture has been propagating better methods of manure-composing not only to increase total outturn but also the nitrogen content up to 1.4 per cent. Till 1952-53, the Department of Agriculture used to give subsidy of two rupees for digging and of a rupee for filling a pit of size 10' x 6' x 3' to induce growers to adopt improved methods of compost-making. Town refuse is utilized by the municipalities for compost-making by Bangalore process. This is sold to cultivators of surrounding areas.

Oil-cakes and Fertilizers.

Application of groundnut cakes, manure mixtures and fertilizers has sometime resulted in considerable increase in outturn. Their supplies are made available to the cultivators through co-operative societies. The district agricultural staff also arranges for their distribution, if stocks are available. The following manure schedule (cropwise) gives an idea of the existing system of manuring observed by the local farmers:—

Following progress was made during the period of the First Five-Year Plan in popularising the use of organic manures and fertilizers among the cultivators of the district:—

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