Castor Field Day

27th September 2018, Shamshabad

ICAR- Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad organized  a  "Castor Field Day'' today at IIOR Research Farm, Narkhoda (village), Shamshabad (Mandal) where demonstrations in large plots consisting of promising and new hybrids viz., ICH-66, ICH-538 and DCH-519, DCH-177, intercropping systems viz., castor + pigeon pea (1:1) and castor + green gram (1:1) with  papaya as border crop (Taiwan Red lady) and demonstration of  best management practices are being showcased for the benefit of castor growing farmers of Telangana.

Dr K  Sammi Reddy, Director, ICAR-CRIDA emphasized the importance of rain water harvesting for protective irrigation  in prolonged dry spells, Water conservations techniques ( zero or reduced tillage, conservation furrows,  square planting), Soil test based fertiliser application along with best cultivars would increase yields by 15-20%.

Dr Y G Prasad, Director , ATARI   opined that castor is the best remunerative crop  keeping in view of present change in climate and type of soils that exists in the region. He urged that large scale Castor seed production can be taken up by Farmers producers’ organisation, which will give good profit to the farmers.

Dr. A. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad, said the purpose of organising castor field day is to make the farmers aware of newly released hybrids for rainfed conditions, ICH-66 and experimental hybrid   ICH-538 with botrytis tolerance. He also   assured the supply of quality seed from ICAR-IIOR. Apart from castor, he also briefed about the new safflower variety ISF-764 and hybrid DSH-185 and urged the farmers to grow safflower as there are combined harvesters available. Sesame can also be sown as summer crop as it is having good export market, he added. He urged the farmers to produce their own seeds and become entrepreneurs and help fellow farmers to get quality seeds.

Smt. Madhavi, DDA, Department of Agriculture, Telangana explained about various subsidy schemes offered by Telangana government.

About 300 castor farmers from various castor growing districts of Telangana participated in the programme.

Farmers shared their experiences about castor cultivation and concern about botrytis disease. Farmers expressed that wide spacing, seed treatment, frequent intercultural operations under rainfed conditions gave higher yields.  Rabi castor with minimal irrigations also showed encouraging yields.  Farmers also expressed that castor is profitable compared to  cotton, maize and ground nut  crops as they involve labour intensive crop management, high input cost, wild boar problem.  They also opined that due to castor field days organised by IIOR at various villages/districts farmers got awareness about   latest castor hybrids and showed interest towards castor cultivation.

(Source: ICAR- Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad)