| Zero tillage technology making farming more profitable |
The time and fuel saved by using zero tillage is a major benefit for Sahab Singh, a progressive farmer of Ramba village in Karnal district of Haryana. He got guidance from scientists of Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal and Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar and making this technology more profitable for him.
He grows cereal crops like wheat and paddy twice in a season, fodder crops i.e. trifolium alexandrinum, shorgum, maize, etc in an area of 42 ha, which is mainly sandy loam soil having 600 mm rainfall.
Zero tillage has saved a lot of labour. Drudgery of women is reduced as they had to cook food for labour. He uses clodinafop once in three years so that there is no build up of seed bank of Phalaris minor, whereas, the other farmers have to use it every year due to which it has developed resistance against some molecules. Finally, a minimum saving of Rs 2.5 lakh is simply due to adoption zero tillage technology.
The average wheat yield at his farm was 6.0 ton per ha using zero tillage which is at par with conventional during 2007-08. Wheat was sold as seed @ Rs 11200 per ton to seed growing company. The operational expenditure was Rs 10000 per ha. Therefore his net profit was Rs 57200 per ha. Without compromising on wheat yield, he saves at least Rs 2500 to 2900 on account of ploughing. A minimum saving of Rs 2,50,000 is simply due to adoption zero tillage technology.
He observed that sowing wheat in full paddy residue is somewhat problematic, therefore, he tried rotary disc drill too. With slight modifications, it can be a fancy machine for the farmers. At times, he had to use reaper to remove residues in fields but he found that crops under residue is better than removal with high moisture content.
He adopted the zero tillage technology in the year of 1999 on seeing it in Pehowa area in Haryana. Later on, he got guidance from scientists of Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal and Haryana Agricultural University. He purchased two zero tillage machines, each costing Rs 16000 in year 2000 and 2001.
The machine is fitted with two boxes, one each for fertilizer and seed. Fertilizer is placed below the seed. The tines are fixed at 21 cm with knife points. Before adopting zero tillage, he could hardly take rest during sowing period. Always busy in maintenance of machines. He had to plough the field 8-10 times which consumed 75-88 litre diesel per ha area. There was lot of pollution due to more fuel burning.
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| RPG built technology for orthodox tea |
RPG group company Harrisons Malayalam Ltd (HML) has built up capacity to convert more than half of its annual tea production into orthodox tea with the commissioning of the new orthodox tea manufacturing facility at Walladie tea factory in Vandiperiyar. HML is south India's largest cultivator of tea and a prominent exporter. HML had inaugurated a similar facility in its Chundale factory outlet in Wayanad a few months ago.
India mainly produces and exports CTC tea, while Sri Lanka is the biggest producer and exporter of orthodox tea. Wallardie factory orthodox facility is second in line as part of HML's plan to be versatile in its ability to do CTC and orthodox tea manufacture to exploit higher prices in favour as per market conditions. Cost reduction from the functioning of the new factories and the ability to convert more tea into orthodox should help the company increase its revenues.
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