Cultivation practices of Lentil

Introduction
• Scientific Name: Lens culinaris
• Family: Leguminosae
• Common Name: Masuro
• It is an ancient and one of the
first cultivated food plants.
Origin and Distribution

• It was first grown about 2200 B.C.

• lentil is widely distributed in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world.

• The important lentil-growing countries of the world are India, Canada, Turkey, Bangladesh, Iran, China,
Nepal and Syria.

• In Nepal, this crop is well adapted to dry and humid sub-tropics.

• In Nepal, Cultivated area: 198454 ha

• Production: 287344 mt ( Krishi diary 2080)

Importance and uses

• Lentil is one of the most important and nutritious pulses.

• The whole grain is also used in some of the dishes.

• It is also rich in calcium, Iron, and niacin.

• It has high protein content (upto 30%) and higher digestibility as compared to other legume.

• It is used to make soup (daal), dalmoth etc

• Lentil is main pulse in Terai and inner-terai of Nepal.

• It helps in biological nitrogen fixation.

• Lentil is also used as livestock feed and fodder.

Soil requirements

• Best soil for growth and development is light sandy loam.

• For good yield, crop should be grown in well drained, neutral loam soils.

• This crop is susceptible to acidic soils.

Climatic requirements

• This is cool weather crop.

• The optimum temperature regime for better germination and emergence is 10-15°C, for growth and
development is 17-19° C and during maturity required 19-20°C.

• It is a long day plant.

• Small seeded types are relatively resistant to atmospheric drought.

• Moisture requirement is more pronounced from germination to flowering.

Cropping patterns

In Nepal, the most widely practiced cropping patterns including lentils are as follows:
Rice-mustard+ lentil
Rice- wheat+ lentil
Rice- lentil+ linseed + barley
Maize+ soya bean- lentil+ wheat

Varieties

• For Mid and Low hills: Maheshwor Bharati, Sagun, etc.

• For Whole Terai and Mid-hills: Shital, etc.
• For Terai of Mid and Far-western: Khajura Musuro-2, Khajura Musuro-1, etc.
• For Terai, Inner Terai and Mid Hill: Shikhar, Simal, Shishir, etc.
• For Terai and Mid Hill: Simrik, Sindur, etc.
Botany

Lens culinaris is an erect, pale green annual herb up to 75 cm tall.

• Leaves: The pinnately compound leaves are arranged alternately along the stem.

• Fruit: The fruit is a 6-20 mm long, 3- 12 mm wide pod containing up to 3 seeds.

• Seed: The seeds 2- 9 mm long, 2-3 mm wide and can be grey, green, brownish green, pale red speckled with
black or pure black in colour.

• Flower: Lentil is self-pollinating crop with less than 1% cross pollination. Pollination normally occurs just
before the flower opens.

• The flowers are pale blue, white or pink. The flower consists of 10 stamens . The pistil consists of the stigma,
the style and the ovary, usually with two ovules.
Manure and Fertilizer Management
• More than 80% nitrogen requirement fulfills from Nitrogen Fixation.
• FYM/Compost @4-6 MT/ha at least 2 weeks prior to land preparation should be applied along with N:P:K @
20:20-40:20 kg/ha.

Land Preparation
• This crop is not very sensitive to the quality of tilth.
• Primary tillage operation should be done at the depth of 20-30cm followed by subsequent plowing at the depth
of 10-15cm.

Seed Treatment
• Fungicide: Thiram @ 3 gm or Carbendazim @ 2.5 g per Kg. of seed
• Rhizobium one packet each for 10 kg seed

Seed Rate
• 20-80 kg/ha
Sowing Time
• For Hills and Valleys: 15th Oct to First Nov

• For Terai and Inner Terai: 1st-15th Nov

Sowing Methods
• Broadcasting is common but line sowing method is better.

Spacing
• (13-15×13-15) cm

Water Management
• It is rainfed crop.

• If possible, first irrigation should be given at 40 - 45 DAS and second at pod filling stage.

• Most critical stage for moisture stress is pod formation followed by flower initiation.
Weed Management
• Two manual weeding, one at 25-30 DAS and another at 45-50 DAS should be done.
• Weedicide like Pendimethalin 30 EC @ 0.75 - 1 kg per hectare may be used as a pre-emergence treatment.
• A weed-free period of early 45 - 60 days is important.

Harvesting
• Harvest when 85-90% of pods ripe.
• Harvest in optimum time and short period (within 1-2 days), there may be shattering of lower pods.
• The crop is harvested by uprooting of plant.
• Harvested product should be dried in threshing floor and threshed by using sticks/thresher/trampling bullocks.
• After threshing, grains should be cleaned and dried.

Yield
600-1200kg/ha

Storage
• Stored at moisture proof bins/bhakari in air tight condition, placed in cool and dry place by maintaining 8-10%
moisture.
Insects – pests:

• Not many insects-pests damage lentil crop. However, polyphagous insect like hairy caterpillar, semi-looper do
same damage.
• Some damage is done by pod borer too.

Control:

• Hairy caterpillar and semi-looper can be controlled by spraying Endosulfan 35 @ of 1.25 liters in 800 litres of
water per hectare.
• Pod borer can be controlled by spraying Monocrotophos (Nuvacron) 35 EC @0f 1ml mixed in litre of water.
Diseases
❖ Wilting
Control:
• Use diseases resistant varieties: simal,sikhar and khajra-1, 2, etc.
• Use crop rotation with rice.
• Seed treatment with Thiram or carbendazim @ 3 grams per kg of seed.

❖ Root rot
Control:
• Use crop rotation.
• Seed treatment with carbandazim @2 gram per kg of seed.

❖ Rust
Control:
• Destroy the crop residues.
• Use disease resistance varieties.
• Spray with Mancozeb @2 kg per hectare 2-3 times.

❖ Leaf blight
Control:
• Use mancozeb @2-3 gm per liter of water 2-3 times at the interval of 7 days
Cultivation practices of Soyabean
Introduction
• Botanical name: Glycine max
• Family: Fabaceae
• Chromosome No: 2n = 40
• Common Name: Bhatmas
• It is commonly referred as Poor Man’s Meat.

Origin and distribution

• Soybean is one of the important crops of the world.
• Soybean is native of China and spread to India and Nepal in 16th century.
• USA, Brazil, China, Argentina are the important soybean producing countries.
• In Nepal, it is distributed from Terai to mid-hills regions.
Importance and uses

• It is used as feed for poultry and livestock food.

• It can be used as fodder, forage can be made into hay, silage etc.

• It is also used for bakery ingredients and noodles Industrial uses.

• It is used for oil purpose as cooking oils.

• It is most popularly used in china in the name of soy foods such as tofu.

• The plant serves as good source of nitrogen by fixing about 50kg per hectare
Soil requirements

• Sandy loam and sandy clay loam soil with well drained condition is favorable for Soyabean production.
• Suitable pH for soyabean is 6-7.5.

Climatic requirements

• Basically, it is a tropical crop but extends to subtropics and temperate climates.

• Soybean is short day plant, but response to day length varies with variety and temperature.
• A temperature of 26.5 to 30°C appears to be optimum for most of the varieties.
• Optimum temperature for germination is 30-35°C.
• Maximum flowering occurs at 30°C.
• At temperature of 18°C or less, there is no pod setting.
• Temperature below 24°C delays flowering by 2-3 days.
• Most of the varieties will flower and mature quickly if grown under condition where the day length is less than
14 hours provided that temperatures are also favorable.
• Critical photoperiod for bud initiation is 14 hrs.
Cropping patterns

The most common cropping patterns including soya bean are as follows:
Maize + soya bean- wheat or barley
Maize + soya bean- mustard
Rice + soya bean- wheat

Varieties

For Terai and Inner Terai: Hardy, Cobb, Puja, etc.

For Mid-Hill: Tarkari bhatmas-1, Lumle bhatmas-1, Seti, etc
Botany

Cultivated soybean is generally an erect, sparsely branched bush type.

➢ Root
• Consists of a taproot that may go deep into the soil
• Nodules may be visible 10 days after planting if the appropriate rhizobia are present in the soil.

➢ Stem
• Well-developed main stem and may have 0-6 lateral branches and grow to a height of 20 cm to over 100cm
depending on variety and cultural/environmental conditions

➢ Leaves
• Oval shaped

➢ Seeds
• Matured soybean seed may be spherical in shape or may be flattened and elongated to various
degrees depending on variety
Manure and Fertilizer Management

• For obtaining good yields, farmer should apply 10-12 tons of FYM or Compost per ha.
• Recommended dose of NPK is 20:40:20 NPK kg/ha.

Land Preparation

• One deep ploughing followed by 2-3shallow ploughing and planking is necessary to obtain good tilth.
• FYM is incorporated during the land preparation.

Seed Treatment

Fungicide treatment
• Treat the healthy seed with Thiram @ 4-4.5g per kg seed .

Seed Inoculation
Soyabean seed should be inoculated with suitable strains of Rhizobium culture for better
nodulation, fixation of nitrogen, growth and development of crop.
Seed Rate

• For sole crop: 50-60kg/ha

• For mixed crop: 30-40kg/ha

Sowing Time

• For Mid hill: Chaitra – Baishak (pod purpose)

• For Terai and Inner Terai: Baisakh last week to end of Jestha (seed purpose)

Sowing Methods

• Broadcasting, sowing using seed drills and sowing in ridges are common in soyabean.

Spacing

• (10-15×50) cm
Irrigation Management

• The soybean crop generally does not require any irrigation during Kharif season.
• However, if there were a long spell of drought at the time of pod filling, only one irrigation would be desirable.
• During excessive rains, proper drainage is also equally important.
• Flowering and pod development stages are sensitive stages for moisture stress.

Weed Management

• Hand weeding and earthing up is needed.

• 1st weeding and earthing up at 20-25 DAS, 2nd at 40-45 DAS.
• For wide range of weeds in soybean, foliage herbicides provide excellent weed control:
✓ Pre plant herbicides (PPI): Fluchloralin 1.0-1.5 kg ai/ha.
✓ Pre emergence herbicides: Alachlor (1.5-2.0), Acetachlor (1-1.5), Metachlor (1- 1.5), oxyfluorfen (0.5-1.0)
✓ Post emergence herbicides: Quizol fop ethyl (Turgasuper) @400 ml/acre
Harvesting

• The crop is harvested when plant turn yellow and start leaf drop or pod changes to brown color.
• Harvesting can be done by hand; Plants are uprooted, or cut with sickle above ground level.
• After cutting, plants are heaped and sun dried for a day or two.
• Threshing is usually done by beating with sticks or using mechanical threshers.
• Threshed produce is winnowed to separate seeds from chaff.
• Cleaned seed is dried for 1- 2 days.

Yield

• The yield potential of soybean in the mid hills of Nepal is 4.5 t/ha, (ton per hectare), while average national
yield is only 0.82 t/ha.

Storage

• Seed is stored in seed bins.

• Seed moisture of about 8-10% is suitable for storage.
Pests

❑ Soya bean Hairy Caterpillar

Control:
• Spray malathion @ 1.5 ml per liter of water.
• Spray carbaryl @ 25-30 kg per hectare.

❑ Green semilooper
Control:
• Spray malathion @ 1 ml per liter of water.

❑ Leaf folder
Control:
• Spray malathion @ 1 ml or caunalphos 1.25 ml per liter of water.
• Dusting with carbaryl @15 kg per hectare.

❑ Soya bean stem fly

Control:
• Dusting with carbofuran @ 66kg per hectare at seed sowing time
Diseases
➢ Rust
Control:
• Use certified seed.
• Spray with mancozeb @ 2-3 gram per liter of water 2-3 times at the interval of 10-10 days interval.
• Spray with carbendazim @ 2 gram per liter of water with interval of 15 days.

➢ Downey mildew
Control:
• Use crop rotation.
• Used healthy seed.
• Use disease resistance varieties.
• Spray with mancozeb @2-3 gram per liter of water with interval of 10/10 days.

➢ Seed and seedling rot

Control:
• Seed treatment with Thiram or Captan @ 2.5 gram per kg seed
Cultivation practices of pigeon pea:
Introduction

Scientific name - Cajanus Cajan

Common Names – Arhar, Red Gram

Family: Fabaceae

Chromosome No: 2n=22

Origin and distribution
• The cultivation of the pigeon pea dates
back to at least 3,500 years and is
assumed that , India is the center of
origin.
• It is distributed all over the tropical
countries, Africa, Australia, West Indies
etc.
• In Nepal, it is an annual crop cultivated
for seed.
• Pigeon pea is a major legume in Nepal.
 Importance and uses

➢ Pigeon pea is the economical source of protein, carbohydrate, minerals and vitamins such as
Bcomplex particularly in the vegetarian diet.

➢ Along with the cereals, pigeon pea provides well balanced diet and can be comparable to other
dense protein sources like whey and soy.

➢ In India, red gram is mostly consumed in the form of ‘dal’ and immature green seeds are used as
vegetable.
Soil requirements

• It can be grown on a wide range of soil from Sandy loams to clay loams.
• The crop performs well on fertile well drained loamy soils.
• Saline, Alkaline and waterlogged are not suitable.
• pH range between 6-7 is optimum.

Climatic requirements

• This crop grows well in warm tropical and sub-tropical regions.

• Optimum temperature for proper growth and development is 18-40°C
• Cold temperature and heavy rainfall at flowering is not favorable.
• It is a short day plant i.e.; the onset of flowering is hastened as day length shortens.
• It tolerates heat and drought.
• It prefers moist and warm climate during vegetative period and cool and dry period during reproductive stage.
• It is susceptible to frost.
 For Terai, Inner-
Terai, and Mid
Hills:
Varieties
Bageshwari,
Rampur Arahar,
etc.
Botany

• It is an erect shrub.

• The plant shows considerable variations in height, ranging from 1-4 meters.

• In most of the types branching begins from the sixth to the tenth node, i.e., from 15-20 centimeters above the
ground.

• Root system: Root system of pigeon pea consists of a central tap root with numerous branches.

• Leaves: Leaves are trifoliate compound; central leaflet longer than lateral ones.

• Pods: The fruit of pigeon pea is a pod. These vary in length, width and nature. The length varies from 5 to 10-
centimeter, width from 0.6 to 0.9 centimeter. The pods vary in color from green to dark brown.

• Seeds: Seeds are differing in size, shape and color.

Manure and Fertilizer Management
• Manures: 5 tons/ha of FYM should be applied.
• Recommended dose of NPK is 20:40:20 kg/ha.

Land Preparation
• Pigeon pea responds well to properly tilled and well drained field.
• 2-3 plough with proper planking is ideal.
• Crop is planted after 1st shower of rain.
• FYM is incorporated during the preparation of field.

Seed Treatment
• Seed treatment with fungicides like Bavistin 1g/kg seed captan or Thiram @ 2.5 g/kg before sowing
effectively controls fungi and reduces incidence of both seed and soil borne fungi.
• Seed treatment with Rhizobium culture can increase the yield upto 20-30%.

Seed Rate
• For Small seeded variety (bageshori):12-15kg/ha.
• For Bold seeded, rampur arhar-1: 20-25 kg/ha.
Sowing Time

• Suitable sowing time is last week of jestha to mid ashad.

Sowing Methods

• Seeds are sown behind the plough or with the use of seed drills.

Spacing

• For Taller and late variety: (75×20) cm.

• For Dwarf and early variety: (50×20) cm.

Water Management

• The critical periods for Irrigation are flower-initiation and pod-filling stages.
• Therefore, apply irrigation at these stages.
• Red gram grown in Kharif does not require any irrigation
Weed Management
• The herbicides recommended are pre -emergence application of Alachlor (Lasso) @ 1.5 kg/ha, Fluchloralin
(Basalin) @ 1.5kg /ha.

Harvesting
• Pigeon pea is harvested when 80-90% pods turn brown.
• Cut to ground level, harvested pods or branches are turn dried and threshed by heating with stick.

Yield
• The national average yield of pigeon pea in Nepal is 917 kg/ha however with proper scientific cultivation
technique, farmers can produce upto 1500-2000 kg/ha.

Storage
It is recommended to store @ 10-12% seed moisture at air tight condition at cool and dry places.
Pests

Plume moth
Control:
• Do not cultivate pigeon pea every season in the same place.
• Spray with Malathion @ 2ml per liter of water.

Leaf hopper
Control:
• Dusting with carbofuran @ 10-15 kg per hectare at seed sowing time.
• Spray dimethioate @ 1.5 ml per liter of water.

Pod fly
Control:
• In flowering time, spray dimethioate 1ml or malathion 1.5 ml per liter of water.