Green gram success
GREEN has once again proved its superiority, though in an unusual field this time - pulses. Experiments conducted in recent years to find a suitable alternative to the less remunerative horse gram have indicated that green gram is more farmer-friendly than horse gram (Farmer and Parliament, Vol 30, No 9).
The results of a series of experiments, conducted by a research team led by K L Rao at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, have established that growing green gram during the rabi season (September-October) is a sure way to reap higher monetary returns. Farmer trials conducted in research stations and on farmer holdings revealed that out of the short duration pulse crops like green gram and black gram, growing green gram during rabi season gives the farmer a higher monetary return of Rs 8,275 per ha than that of horse gram which results in a net return of only Rs 1,825 per ha. Thus for every rupee spent, the farmer got Rs 2.22 with the cultivation of green gram, while it was only Rs 0.88 with horse gram.
The research results further indicate that sowing from the second fortnight of September till the first fortnight of October is the best time for realising higher yields of green gram. If delayed beyond the first fortnight of October, the crop is subjected to terminal drought before harvest, besides sure incidence of pest-caused diseases.
In recent times, high yielding, short duration and disease and drought resistant varieties for commercial cultivation of green gram have been released. Among them, Ps- 16, Mr-267, Pusa- 105, LGG-407, LGG-410 and m-2 are reported to be best suited for rabi season with a duration of 60-65 days.
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