Don’t own bullocks and can’t afford to hire a tractor for tilling to grow cotton? A farmer’s dozen-year experience in sowing cotton in the zero tillage method suggests that it is best suited for the cash crop and yields good results.
Chole Laxman, a farmer from Dhanora (B) village in Adilabad district, has been cultivating the cash crop using no tillage and has been obtaining excellent yields.
Labour intensive
“It involves deployment of extra labourers for sowing in place of a bullock drawn plough. This will be slightly costly but it gets compensated as seed germination percentage is quite high and the crop stays healthy,” Mr. Laxman said.
At the current rates, hiring a pair of bullocks for a day’s tilling costs around ₹ 1,000 while hiring about 10 female and two male labourers costs ₹ 2,500. The output in no tillage, however, is double. Here’s how. Seeds can be sown in four acres of land in one day while ploughing by bullocks or tractor leaves scope for sowing in only about two acres.
Zero tillage involves sowing of seeds along the markers on the string which is held by two male labourers on either end of the land. Women labourers just pull out a small quantity of soil as per the mark on the string and the seed.
The seeds sown in this fashion do not encounter the crust in the soil the way it happens in the tilling method. Also, the seeds encounter least resistance to take roots unlike the hardened crust.
No booster needed
While sowing seeds in furrows made by a plough requires administration of fertilisers at that stage, there is no need for Diammonium Phosphate to be administered to the seeds which are directly sown through zero tillage. “The germination and health of the plant is as good as those seeds which had a fertiliser booster,” the farmer pointed out.
“Yes, sowing without tilling can yield good results,” agreed retired agriculture officer C. Narsingu. “The government had promoted this method of sowing for maize but it can also be encouraged in case of cotton,” he added.
Pointing out some of the advantages of the zero tillage sowing, Mr. Narsingu said the soil retains moisture which is quite beneficial for cotton plant growth. “It retains organic matter and improves soil biological fertility,” he opined. But, “every tenth row should be the red gram intercrop,” he advised.
Published - June 15, 2018 12:13 am IST
