Technologies Developed
- A new cropping pattern cotton – pulse – paddy was found to be highly economic compared to cotton – rice sequence.
- 60:30:30 kg NPK/ha applied as 50% of N and the entire P and K as basal and the remaining half applied on 45th day followed by earthing up, gave maximum yield in summer irrigated cotton.
- Clipping of apical buds from 15th node e., on 75-80 day of sowing arrests excessive vegetative growth and promotes boll development.
- Sowing of rice fallow cotton in seed row tillage after the harvest of paddy gives higher seed cotton yield.
- Cotton sown on ridges followed by earthing up on 40th day reduced the incidence of stem weevil.
- Neem oil (3%) spray, soil application of neem cake 250 kg/ha coupled with spraying of NSKE (5%) reduced the jassid population.
- Soil application of neem cake @ 150 kg/ha plus seed treatment with Trichoderma viride @ 4 g/kg of seed reduced the incidence of seedling blight as well as dry root rot of cotton
- Basal application of Neem cake 150 kg/ha followed by drenching with 1% Neem oil suspension and earthing up on 25 DAS reduced the stem weevil damage.
ASIPM (Adoptable Srivilliputtur IPM module) – 2005
Seed treatment with imidacloprid 70 WS @ 5g/kg of seed with an array of intercrops (green gram), trap crops (castor and sunflower), catch crops (bhendi and red gram) and eco-feast crops (maize and cowpea) played a significant role in reducing the pest load in cotton by acting as reservoir of natural enemy population and their augmentation. Timely use of yellow sticky traps, pheromone traps and bio-control agents also helped in minimizing pest incidence. The above ASIPM (Adoptable Srivilliputtur IPM module) resulted in a cost benefit ratio of 1:2.94 as against 1:1.42 in farmer’s practice.
