ICAR Nagaland Centre
As per India Meteorological Department the district rainfall departure of our region for the month of March 2022, was deficient for Peren, Kiphire and Mon and large deficient for the remaining district.
Total monthly rainfall received in Dimapur district during March month was 2.3mm, 95% below normal. From January to March 2022, rainfall received was 25% more than the normal. The number of rainy days for the month of March was 0. Keeping in view of threat of COVID-19 spread farmers are advised to follow the government guidelines, personal hygiene, use mask, ensure hand washing with soap at reasonable interval, social distancing during picking of vegetables and other agricultural operation in all crops.
Plant Breeding & Genetics –Harendra Verma
1. Best sowing window for maize is 15th March to 15th April, and if not possible within this time period then please complete the sowing of April, within April month for realizing higher yield.
2. Farmers are advocated to cultivate maize along with French bean as intercrop for balancing soil fertility level.
3. Farmers can go for cultivation of sesame. Suitable varieties of sesame crops suitable for our region are Amrit, Prachi and CUMS-17.
4. Farmers can go for cultivation of green gram too. Suitable variety of green gram suitable for our region is Pratap.
5. Farmers are advised to go for deep plough during summer season to reduce the insect, pest and disease inoculum in soil.
6. Procure seed from authentic source (Govt. agencies or reliable source) and check the label properly.
Soil Science – Christy BK Sangma
1. Maize is sensitive to water logging. Avoid low lying areas or fields with poor drainage. Farm yard manure (FYM) or compost @ 25-30kg/ha can be incorporated in soil while ploughing.
2. For upland rice/jhum fields, soil conservation can be practised using bamboos, logs or boulders as mechanical barriers.
3. Soybean seeds can be treated with biofertilizers rhizobium @ 10g/kg of seed. Treated seed should be shade dried before sowing.
4. Field of soybean crop should also be kept weed free, especially for the initial 30-40 days after sowing.
5. At the time of sowing ginger, apply 25g powdered neem cake and mix well with the soil. Another important practice is earthing up to prevent rhizomes exposure.
6. Tapioca should be planted in a well-drained soil, plough 2 to 3 times to get deep porous condition.
Agroforestry – Pempa Lamu Bhutia
1. Heap soil around and over the base of the bamboo clump (mounding) to prevent damage due to excessive heat and sunlight before the commencement of hot summer.
2. Mulching of bamboo clumps with bamboo leaves, rice straw, litter of other plants should be done. It improves the aeration, fertility status and preserves moisture in the ground thus promoting healthy culm production by nourishing and protecting the mother rhizome.
3. Remove cut debris around the bamboo clump to avoid fire hazards and pest attacks.
4. Offset collection should be done if needed, for raising new plantations. Usually, one season old and never more than two seasons old culms are cut through with a slanting cut, and rhizomes to which they are attached are dug up with roots intact and cut off to a length sufficient to include a well-developed bud. (Offset is a vegetative propagation material consisting portion of old culm with its roots, cut off above a node at about 30-60 cm above the ground).
Plant protection (Pathology) – E Lireni Kikon
Areca nut fungal diseases can be managed by -
1. Field sanitation/removal of diseased plants and burn.
2. Dig trenches to avoid root contact from diseased to healthy plants.
3. Maintain optimal plant population without overcrowding.
4. Provide good drainage facility, fertilizers and manures.
5. White washing of stem with 10% (1:1:10) Bordeaux mixture.
6. Spray Bordeaux mixture 1 % (1:1:100).
7. Soil drenching with 1% COC (Copper Oxy Chloride) around the root zone of the plant 2 to 3 times at 15 days interval.
Plant protection (Entomology) – Moanaro Lemtur
1. Install yellow sticky traps in the vegetable nursery and field to monitor the pest population.
2. Before transplanting seedlings of tomato, chilli, brinjal, etc. to the field, dip the roots for 5 minutes in Imidacloprid 17.8 SL @ 0.3 ml/L of water solution as preventive measures for sucking pests.
3. Apply neem cake to furrows @ 250 kg/ha while planting vegetable seedlings and repeat after 25 days after planting to prevent from leaf miner and sucking pests.
4. If leaf miner is observed, first remove all the mined leaves in the initial stage and spray Imidacloprid 17.8 SL @ 0.3 ml/L or novaluron 10 EC @ 1 ml/L Fipronil 2.92 % EC @ 0.3 ml/L of water.
5. If downward curling or crinkling of leaves with elongated petioles are observed in chilli plants, spray wettable sulphur 80 WP @ 3g/L or propargite 57% EC @ 1 ml/L of water directing the spray on the ventral surface of the leaves.
6. In Mango plants spray Thiomethoxam 25% WG @ 0.5g/L or Spiromesifen 240 SC or Imidacloprid 17.8 SL @ 0.5 ml/L of water if flower thrips, hoppers and shoot gall psylla are observed.
Poultry –Mahak Singh & Talimoa
1. Since it’s the onset of summer, the birds should be kept well hydrated. Add some electrolytes (ORS) in the drinking water atleast once a day on very hot days. Some vitamins may also be added for 8-10 days.
2. Avoid overcrowding and keep the litter material dry.
3. Adjust the bulbs kept for heating by adjusting the height above the floor if the birds show signs of heat stress such as degluttation and sprawling on the litter material.
4. Broilers should be given adlibitum feed and water. Do not overfeed the laying birds, however water should be provided adlibitum.
5. Lights in the brooder houses are not turned off in general. However from the age of 20-25 days lights may be turned off for 1-2 hours to accustom the birds to sudden power cuts and avoid panic.
6. Deworming of birds may be started from the age of 35-45 days and repeat every 3 month.
7. Vaccinate on schedule with all necessary vaccines. In Nagaland context Newcastle, fowl pox and IBD vaccines are must especially for layers.
8. Regularly disinfect the feeders and drinkers.
Piggery – Mahak Singh & Talimoa
1. To mitigate the heat stresses in summer add ORS/ electrolytes in drinking water on hot day’s atleast once daily. Additionally some liquid vitamins may also be offered.
2. Deworm and vaccinate the animals on schedule.
3. Give sufficient feed and water.
4. Check the animal bodies’ atleast twice daily for signs of maggot infestation which is very common in the warmer months.
5. Never allow visitors or stray animals, cats/ dogs/ cows or even chicken near your pig shed.
6. It is good to castrate piglets between the ages of 2 days – 2 weeks.
7. Cut off the needle teeth of piglets soon after birth.
8. Iron injection should be given to piglets at the age of 3 days and 15 days.
9. Provide proper shade to the pigs.
10. Disinfect the sheds atleast once a week.
11. Sty floor should be kept dry.
12. Always clean out the feeding troughs before giving fresh feed and water.
13. Use of drinking nipples reduce water loss and prevent water logging.
14. Serve the sows on heat 24 hours after standing heat. Repeat the serve after 12 hours.
Fishery- Jyotish Barman
1. Renovation works like pond excavation, strengthening of embankment and side slopes, etc. should be completed.
2. For dry pond bottom, apply powdered agricultural lime @ 130 kg/ha. In case of water-filled pond, should be first dissolved in water in a container and then spray over the water surface.
3. For water filled pond, manuring and fertilization should be done after 10 days of lime application. Apply cowdung@1 ton/ha after 10 days of lime application. The cow dung should be placed at one corner of the pond so that it dissolves slowly. After 7-10 days, apply urea @ 25 kg/ha and SSP @ 20 kg/ha. Urea and SSP can be mixed together with pond mud and the mixture should be placed at different spots of the pond bottom.
4. In case the above management practice is already completed, then stocking of fingerlings should not be delayed.
5. Quality and disease-free fish seed should be procured from certified hatchery or from known source.
6. As far as possible, fingerling of 10 cm size should be stocked to ensure faster growth and less mortality. Carried over seeds (i.e., one year old fish seed), if available should be stocked as they grow faster.
7. The pond should be stocked with the six species composition of Rohu (Labeo rohita), Catla (Catla catla), Mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala), Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), Silver carp (Hypopthalmichthys molitrix) and Common carp (Cyprinus carpio).
8. The species composition includes Rohu – 20 %, Catla – 25 %, Mrigal – 20 %, Silver carp – 15 %, Grass carp – 10 % and Common carp – 10%.
9. The pond should be stocked with 10000 fingerlings per hectare.
10. The fingerling should be stocked preferably in the morning hours or when the temperature is cool. Stocking should not be done at mid-day or when the temperature is high. Optimum temperature for better fish growth is 28-32 °C.
11. Before releasing the fish seed into the pond, it should be acclimatized to the pond condition. Acclimatization is necessary to ensure lesser mortality. Acclimatization can be done by keeping the oxygen packed bag floating on the water for about 30 minutes and then slowly releasing the fish. Alternatively, if fish seed are brought in open vessel, then pond water should be mixed slowly in the container and release the seed.
12. Since natural food is not enough to meet the feed requirement of the growing fish, the fish should be fed with supplementary diet which can be either prepared at home or procured from market (commercial feed). Supplementary feed can be prepared by mixing Rice polish/Rice bran and mustard oil cake (1 : 1 ratio) and provide the diet in dough form @ 4 kg /day/ha.
