Nitrogen (N) is the most critical externally added input for any crop production system. The half of the global population directly or indirectly depends on nitrogenous fertilizers for food supply. Today, Rice, wheat, and maize are consuming more than 90% of total nitrogenous fertilizer used in cereals. Underuse of nitrogen is associated with lower crop production while overuse leads to several soil and environmental related consequences. Therefore, response to applied nitrogen and its use efficiency have to be monitored properly for obtaining the maximum potential and sustainable yield. Efficiency of applied nitrogenous fertilizers is very low due to its various losses i.e. volatilization, leaching, surface runoff and denitrification from soil-plant system. Therefore, the proper understanding of advanced soil and plant management practices which helps in enhancement of nitrogen recovery efficiency is one of the key factors to enhance crop output, decreasing cost of cultivation, and to maintain environmental quality which ultimately adds towards the goal of achieving long term sustainable production system. In this review, an attempt has been made summarize the locally as well as scientific soil and crop management technologies used for improving use efficiency of applied N. This paper also discusses nitrogen cycling in soil-plant systems, various N losses pathways, present status and most possible management options at the farm level for enhancing nitrogen use in crop production system.
The study was conducted to evaluate long-term effect of legume intensified maize based crop rotations and contrasting tillage practices and a experiment was laid out in split plot design with three tillage practices i.e. zero tillage (ZT), permanent bed (PB) and conventional tillage (CT) as main plot treatments and four legume intensified crop rotations (MWMbmaize-wheat-mungbean, MCS -maize-chickpea-Sesbania, MMuMb -maize-mustard-mungbean and MMS -maize-maizeSesbania) as sub-plot treatments. Adoption of CA based tillage practices (ZT/PB) significantly improved maize protein yield (MPY). ZT/PB gave 7.7-14.2% higher MPY(Maize protein yield and 7.4-13.0% higher MPYA (maize protein yield for adults) over CT. Similarly, the MPY and MPYA under legume intensified cereal based rotations were invariably higher in MCS and MWMb systems compared to MMuMb and MMS rotations.The total soil nitrogen (TSN) content increased by 15.4-17.4 and 20.32-20.91% with ZT and PB over CT in 0-15 and 15-30 cm soil depths, respectively. However, among the legume intensified rotations the maize planted under MCS and MWMb rotations registered 11.3-18.0% (0-15cm) and 8.4-11.0% (15-30cm) higher TSN over MMuMb and MMS rotation. Similarly, adoption of the CA practices (ZT/PB) resulted into significant improvement in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks compared to CT. ZT and PB among the tillage practices and MCS crop rotations among the sub-plot treatments registered higher Leaf area index (LAI) and net assimilation rate (NAR) compared to other management practices. Interaction effect of tillage practices and crop rotations were significant for MPY, MPYA, TSN and SOC stocks and all these parameters were reported maximum with ZT-MCS. Thus, our study suggests that CA based crop management with legume diversified maize based rotations (MCS and MWMb) can be advocated as sustainable intensification strategy in north-western India and other similar agro-ecologies of South Asia.
For a sustainable livelihood model of farming under Indian conditions, dairying becomes an inevitable part along with crop production. Dairy farming has been a continuous source of income to the farmers which help them in their socioeconomic development. Increased quantity and quality of milk always fetches good returns to the farmers. Hence, it becomes the priority of almost all the farmers to extract more and more milk from the animals which may sometimes pushes them into faulty husbandry practices which ultimately lead to loss of income and loss of health of animals. Nonetheless, dairy production in India has boosted many folds as shown by increased livestock population and production scenario in the country. However, under Indian conditions, for enhancing the income from dairy farming certain constraints have to be layout and correspondingly firm solutions have to be made. Constraints such as poor availability of high producing Germplasm, rapidly decreasing availability of feed and fodder resources, poor husbandry practices, reproductive and other health problems among several other problems hinder the income obtained from dairy farming to the farmers. In addition to the much needed solutions of such constraints, there needs for the reforming government policies for overall development of dairying in India. This article discusses on such probable constraints and their solutions in concise yet informative way so that wholesome development of income through dairy industry may be achieved.
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Entrepreneurship in agriculture and allied activities provide better income generating and employment opportunities among the rural households. With changes like globalization, deregulation, open competition and technological change taking place, our society is becoming an entrepreneurial society. However, in an entrepreneurial society, individuals face a tremendous challenge in running an enterprise. In this context, the study was purposively conducted in Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Farm Science Center) operating under ICAR-NDRI which imparts regular training to farmers, youth and women on major areas of agriculture such as crop production, dairy farming, dairy processing, vermiculture, beekeeping, fish farming and home science. A total of twenty respondents/entrepreneurs; who had previously attended entrepreneurship training programme were finally selected based on random sampling. Therefore, entrepreneurs from various sectors i.e. four in seed production (4), beekeeping (4), vermi-composting (3), dairy processing (4), fish farming (3) and home science (2) were finally selected. The constraints were operationalised as certain irresistible forces which are creating obstacles in establishment and running of entrepreneurial unit like constraints related to establishment of farm enterprise, production, marketing and government rules and regulation were identified. The major constraints in establishment of farm enterprise was lack of new idea for starting new entrepreneurial ventures, high-cost and non-availability of input was the major production related constraints. In case of marketing, operation of unorganized agricultural market was the major perceived constraints whereas lack of digital literacy such as digital mode of payment was the major constraint highlighting the inefficiency of government rules and regulations.
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