AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

MANURES

FARMERS IN KOLHAPUR DISTRICT, particularly those growing sugarcane, are well aware of the utility and importance of manuring their fields. They apply manures on a large scale, notwithstanding even their high prices. The common practice in this district is to manure the fields with cow dung, dung of sheep and goats, farm refuse and stable litter. Sheep folding is practised on a large scale. Cultivators also use on a large scale chemical fertilizers and manure mixtures distributed by the Department of Agriculture.

Indigenous manures are carefully hoarded and used throughout the district. In the eastern zone, where the rainfall is low and kharif jowar and groundnut are grown, about five cart loads of farm yard manure per acre are generally applied. Jowar, following the tobacco crop, hardly receives any manure. In rural areas, dung of cattle, sheep and goats, stable litter and village refuse are used for the purpose of manuring the fields. However, as about 30 to 40 per cent. of cow dung is commonly used as fuel, there is a dearth of it for manurial purposes. The dung and urine of sheep and goats are valuable manures. Owners of flocks of sheep and goats, usually dhangars who move from place to place, are paid in cash or kind for keeping the flocks overnight on the fields. It is estimated that about a thousand sheep and goats together give manure equal to five to six cart loads.

Compost Manures.

As a result of intensive propaganda carried on under the Grow More Food scheme, nowadays conversion of town and farm refuse into compost manure has become common. The following table shows the progress of work done in the district between 1951-52 and 1955-56:-

TABLE No. 39.

COMPOST MAKING IN KOLHAPUR DISTRICT.

Town refuse and night soil are utilised for making compost manure by some municipalities in the district. Their annual production is about 13,500 tons. This manure is sold by auction to cultivators and is used by them on a large scale.

Pits are dug and filled with farm refuse, cowdung, stable litter etc. in compartments and in a lot, depending upon the quantity available for composting and the contents are allowed to decompose. The manure so obtained ordinarily contains about 0:6 per cent. to 0.8 per cent. nitrogen.

Oil Cakes and Fertilisers.

The Agricultural Department of former Kolhapur State and later on, the Department of Agriculture for a few years, actually supplied groundnut cakes, manure mixtures and chemical fertilizers at concessional rates to farmers. They have now become quite popular and are easily available. The application of groundnut cakes and manure mixture to food crops has resulted in about 30 per cent. more yield over non-manured food crops. The district staff of the Department arrange for demonstrations on the plots manured with different manures and thus educate and convince the farmers about utility of scientific manuring. The district annually consumes about 15,000 tons of cake, 10,000 tons of sulphate of ammonia, 2,000 tons of manure mixtures, and about 1,000 tons of superphosphates.

The quantity of manure to be applied varies from field to field and from crop to crop. Farm yard manure at the rate of 20 tons per acre is applied to irrigated crops like sugarcane, turmeric etc., and at the rate of 3 tons to non-irrigated crops. Rabi crops like wheat, gram and other pulses ordinarily receive no farm yard manure.

Groundnut, an important oilseed and cash crop of the district, is manured at the rate of 2.5 tons to 5 tons of farm yard manure per acre. Rice, the staple food crop of the district, is also manured, at the above rate whenever possible. Top dressing of the manure mixture supplied by the Department of Agriculture containing oil cake, sulphate of ammonia and superphosphates in the ratio 4:1:2 and also that prepared locally in the same ratio, is applied to rice at the rate of 450 lbs. per acre. This mixture has become popular with cultivators. Many of them however apply only sulphate of ammonia at the rate of one bag (of 224 lbs.) per acre instead of manure mixture. Wheat crop is manured with sulphate of ammonia at the rate of one bag of 224 lbs. per acre. Pulses are generally not manured.

Sugarcane, the principal money crop of the district, is heavily manured. In Radhanagari, Karvir. and Panhala talukas and round about Kagal and Murgud in Kagal taluka, the usual practice is to apply 40 cart loads of farm yard manure or an equal quantity of town compost per acre as basal manure before planting the cane. Later on, two to three doses of groundnut cake and sulphate of ammonia are given. The first dose consists of one to two bags of only sulphate of ammonia which is applied two months after planting; second, about two months after the first one, consisting of sulphate of ammonia one bag and groundnut cake about five cwt.; and the third one at the time of earthing up, in May-June, and consisting of one or two bags of sulphate of ammonia and about 5 cwt. or more of groundnut cake. Thus, in all about 5 to 10 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia and half to one ton of groundnut cake are applied to the crops, depending upon the requirements of soil and availability of water for irrigating the crop. In the rest of the district, manuring by about 5 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia and half ton of cake is usually followed, though the method and quantity applied vary from place to place. The garden crops are always manured with farm yard manure and chemical fertilizers. Fruit crops like banana and guava are generally given 100 lbs. of farm yard manure and about 10-15 lbs. of groundnut cake per tree twice a year. All vegetable crops, and brinjals and onions in particular, are given good doses of farm yard manure and chemical fertilizers, as and when required.

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