AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

PULSES

Wardha district grows a variety of pulses both as kharif and rabi crops, the important ones being tur, mug and math.

Tur.

Tur or arhar furnishes the chief pulse food of the district and is a popular crop. In 1965-66 it occupied 31,397 acres. It is almost wholly grown as a mixed crop with cotton and jowar and seldom as a pure crop. If sown pure, it is generally sown in lighter type of soils. It is pointed out that the mixture of tur is of doubtful advantage to cotton as the former plants grow quickly thus overshadowing their companions. As yet it is not separately grown on a wide scale in Wardha, though a considerable quantity is raised in this manner in Nagpur.

Tur requires, in general, the same tillage as the principal crop does. It can be grown on medium moist soil and lightest as well as heaviest soils. When taken with cotton, two lines of tur are sown for every 12th of cotton and 9th of jowar. The process of preparing the land is the same as that for jowar and cotton. About 5 to 6 lbs. of seed are required per acre when taken as a mixed crop. The seeds are dropped into furrows with the help of one furrowed seed-drill. It is sown in the months of June-July and harvested by January-February. The crop is cut close to the ground. After drying up, the plants are beaten with long sticks to break open the pods. The green pods are eaten raw or boiled. The yellow split pulse is made into porridge as also mixed with other vegetables. Turati or the stalks are soaked and dried in the sun and utilised in building grain receptacles, or plaited into matting for protecting the mud walls of the cultivators' houses. The stalks are also useful as fuel, the charcoal obtained from them being prized for the manufactures of fireworks.

Generally no particular varieties are grown but the agriculturists are increasingly taking to the improved varieties like C-II, E-B-38, Hydera-bad-48, etc., which give greater yields. These are gaining popularity amongst the progressive agriculturists.

Despite the hardiness of the crop, it is liable to be attacked by blight when in the flowering stage, though this disease seldom affects more than a proportion of the plants. Close cloudy days in the early cold weather will produce caterpillars.

Mug.

Mug or green gram is essentially a kharif crop and covered an area of 23,972 acres in 1965-66, Wardha tahsil claiming the highest acreage and Arvi standing next in importance. Hinganghat tahsil accounted for only 1,814 acres which shows a decline of a little less than 8,000 acres over that of 1963-64, the decline being attributed mainly to the steady increase in the cotton growing area which is the major produce of this tahsil. Like tur, mug also is seldom taken as a single crop but always mixed with jowar in the proportion of 1 to 8. It is sown in July and harvested in November-December. In some parts the early maturing Kopargaon Mug is also grown with good results. This variety, besides giving a higher yield, serves as an excellent green manure and matures within 60 days. If taken single in the kharif season, a second crop of wheat can be taken on the same land.

Gram.

Gram is important as a rabi crop although it occupied only 7,629 acres in 1965-66 throughout the district. In gram growing, Hinganghat tahsil was in the forefront with 3,396 acres immediately followed by Arvi, with 2,700 acres. Gram requires well drained medium to heavy type of soil and cold and dry climate. The process of preparing the land is little different from that of the wheat crop. No manure is generally applied to this crop. It is sown in the last week of September or the first week of October with tifan and requires no interculturings. An acre of land requires about 30 to 40 lbs. of seed. Prior to flowering, in the early stage, the tops of the tender shoots are plucked which give rise to offshoots and thus help increase the yield. The crop is harvested in February. Both the foliage and the grains are used as vegetables. The grain may be eaten green, boiled or parched. Many kinds of dishes are prepared of its split pulse. Improved strains like AD-8 have been recently introduced.

Other Pulses.

Other pulses grown in the district are math, horse-gram, udid, val, chavli, watana, masur and lakh. Of these the most important are horse-gram and math occupying 6,808 and 4,659 acres (1965-66) respectively. Masur, val, chavli and watana or peas are grown on a small scale. Peas have yellow and blue flowers, tiura or lakh has flowers of reddish blue colour and masur or lentil small white flowers. These are sown with the tifan before wheat and just after linseed. Tiura or lakh supplies a very useful food for cattle. The large variety called lakh which is generally grown in the open wheat-fields is not fit for human consumption as it is said to produce paralysis of the lower limbs when eaten alone. The small variety called lak bori which is grown as an after-crop in the rice fields is supposed to be harmless. The difference in the properties of both the grains is all the more remarkable as botanically the plants are indistinguishable from each other. These pulses often thrive both in the dry and wet years when linseed and wheat suffer, but very dry, cold and cloudy weather, inducing attacks from insects, often proves fatal to them.

Tables No. 9 and 10 give tahsil-wise area and out-turn of pulses in Wardha district.

TABLE No. 9

TAHSIL-WISE AREA [Area in acres.] UNDER PULSES IN WARDHA DISTRICT, 1957-58 TO 1965-66

TABLE No. 9 - contd.

TABLE No. 10

TAHSIL-WISE OUT-TURN [Out-turn in tons.] OF PULSES IN WARDHA DISTRICT 1957-58 TO 1965-66

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