सब्‍जी फसलों का जैविक उत्पादन

It is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic farming combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved. 

As a component of organic agriculture, organic vegetable farming promotes and enhances natural diversity and biological cycles on the farmrather than relying on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, organic farming is based on making the farm self-sufficient and sustainable.

Organic movement began in the 1930s and 1940s as a reaction to agriculture's growing reliance on synthetic fertilizers.Sir Albert Howard, “An Agriculture Testament” (1943) is widely considered to be the “father of organic farming”. Basic principles of organic farming are:

• It should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal, human and planet.
• It should be based on living ecology system and cycles, work with them, emulate them and sustain them.
• It should build on relationship that ensures fairness with regard to the common environment and life opportunities.
• It should be equipped in a precautionary and responsible manner to protect the health and well being of current and future generation and environment.

Why organic vegetable cultivation?

Because it is Healthy, good for Sustainable agriculture development, Maintenance of soil biological activity, Reducing residual effect of chemical, fertilizers and pesticide and Improvement of food quality which Care human life, wildlife and environment. 

Objectives of Organic Farming in Vegetable crops

1. To produce food of high nutritional quality in sufficient quantity.
2. To use renewable resources in locally organized production systems.
3. To maintain and increase the long term fertility of soil and biodiversity.
4. To avoid all forms of pollution that may results from Agricultural techniques.
5. To work with a close system with regard to organic matter and nutrient elements.
6. To encourage biological cycles within farming systems by involving the use of micro-organisms, soil flora & fauna, plants and animals.

Components of Organic Farming

Green manure:

Green, undecomposed plant material when used as manure is called green manure. Green manure crops usually belong to leguminous family. On an average 1 tonne of well grown green manure is equivalent to 2.8 to 3.0 tones of FYM or 4.5 to 4.7 kg of nitrogen which is equivalent to 10 kg of urea. eg Sunnhemp, Dhaincha, Greengram and Sesbenia rostrata.

Nutrient content of some green manure crops and green leaf manure

Animal manures

Animal manures are an excellent source of organic matter and nutrients for the soil. List of nutrients and organic maters in animal dung.

Vermicompost:

Compost that is prepared with the help of earthworms is called vermicompost.Earthworms are either earthmovers or composters. The earthworms may be of local species or more vigorous exotic ones. The casts of the earthworm have several enzymes and are rich in plants nutrients, beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizae.On an average, vermicompost contains 3% N, 1% P₂O₅ and 1.5% K₂O. Presence of earthworms helps in aerating the soil.

Compost:

Composting is microbiological decomposition of organic residues, collected either from rural area or the urban area. Good quality of compost have no more then 30 % water as no farmer wants to carry excess water to the field. Urban Compost contains 1% N, 0.5% P₂O₅ and 1% K₂O while Rural Compost contains 0.5% N, 0.5% P₂O₅ and 1% K₂O.

Mulching:

Mulch is any material, usually organic, which is placed on the soil surface around the plants. Organic materials most commonly used for mulching are leaves, grass clippings, pine straw, sawdust, and wood shavings.

Synthetic materials, mostly plastic sheet, have been used in recent years.  Mulching help in Conserving soil moisture and nutrients, Reduce soil erosion, improve the soil texture, increase the quality of the produce, reduces weed growth, provides barrier between fruit and soil, thus reducing soil rot on fruit and moderates the soil temperature.

Farm Yard Manure (FYM):

Farm yard manure is most readily available to the farmers. It is a decomposed mixture of Cattle dung and urine with straw and litter used as bedding material and residues from the fodder fed to the cattle. Well rotten farm yard manure contains 0.5% N, 0.25% P₂O₅ and 0.5% K₂O. 

Nutrient content of selected organic fertilizers

Vegetable varieties tolerance or resistance to disease & pests

Weed Management in organic crop

Preventive method:

• Avoid using crop seeds that are infested with weed seeds, for sowing
•  Avoid adding weeds to the manure pits
• Clean the farm machinery thoroughly before moving one to another field
• Keep irrigation channels, fence-lines and un-cropped area clean
• Seed certification
• Weed laws and quarantine laws 

Eradication:

It is the complete elimination of all live plant parts and seeds of a weed infestation from an area.Destroy weeds before they produce any propagulesanddegenerating the buried dormant viable seed by fumigation, flooding, heating etc.

Physical/ mechanical method

• Hand Weeding
• Tillage
• Hoeing
• Mowing
• Flooding
• Burning
• Stale seed bed
• Mulching
• Soil solarization

Biological method:

First attempt to control weed by insect is 1902 Lantana camara a prickly shrub in Hawaiian Islands.eg.

•  Lantana camara – Crocidosema lantana (Insect)
•  Opuntia dillenii – Dactylopius tomentosus (Insect)
•  Parthenium – Zygogramma bicolorata (Insect)
•  Eichhornia crassipes – Rhizoctonia blight (Fungi)

Insect Pest Management

Habitat for beneficial insects: Plant the borders of the field in native flowers or plants such as clover or alfalfa to attract beneficial insects such as lady beetles

Trap crops: Plant a less desirable plant close to the field to attract insects away from the important vegetables in the garden. Destroy the trap crop after it becomes infested with insects. Planting of marigold as trap crop. For cutworms, place a cardboard of tinfoil collar around plant stems at ground level.

Row covers: Row covers protect vegetables from pest invasion. Row covers are particularly effective in reducing damage by flea beetles and cucumber beetles. Applying row cover to parthenocarpic cucumbers or other vegetables that do not need pollination to fruit can greatly reduce insect damage.

Mulches: Blue color mulches for ThirpsandYellow color mulches for White flies

Organic insecticides:

Several organic insecticides are available for use by vegetable gardeners, including Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), pyrethrums, rotenone, insecticidal soaps, diatomaceous earth, neem and horticultural oils.

Effective bioagents

Natural or Botanical pesticides

Organic Disease Management:

The key to successful organic disease management is prevention. while disease free transplants, site selection, crop rotation, plant spacing & training, Rouging of infected plants, sanitation and protected crop cultivation are major strategies can be used to prevent diseases on vegetable crops.

Crop rotation: Crop rotation with sugar beat and fodder maize after every 5-6 years intervals helps in wilt management on pea. The crop rotation of Pigeon pea – fallow – capsicum, Pigeon pea – capsicum was found effective in minimizing Fusarium wilt of pigeon pea. Long rotation with graminaceous crops between potatoes are a major recommendation against bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum

Management of Date of Sowing: Late planting of potato, reduces the late blight severity.Okra yellow vein mosaic virus is not common in crops planted during February-March because the vector population is very low or absent.

Intercropping: Pea intercropping with mustard, linseed, wheat, chickpea and barley delays the appearance and buildup of powdery mildew.

Products approved for powdery mildew management in organic production 

Actinovate SP- 0.0371%  Streptomyces lydicus, Eco E-rase -  97.50% jojoba oil, MildewCure - 30% cottonseed oil,30% corn oil, 23% garlic extract, JMS Stylet-oil - 97.1% paraffinic oil, Kaligreen - 82% potassium bicarbonate, MilStop - 85% potassium bicarbonate, Organocide - 5% sesame oil, Regalia - 5% extract of Reynoutria sachalinensis (giant knotweed), SeaCide - 3% cottonseed oil, Serenade - 14.6% Bacillus subtilis strain QST 713, Sonata - 1.38% Bacillus pumilus strain QST 2808, Sporatec and Sporan - 18% rosemary oil, 10% clove oil, and 10% thyme oil, and Trilogy - 70% extract of neem oil.

Biocontrol agents for the management of diseases of vegetable crops in India

Constraints in doption of organic vegetable Farming in India:

• Highly knowledge intensive farming.
• The organic produce may not find an early market.
• Biological pest control is very knowledge intensive.
• Reduction of yield in initial few years of conversion.
• Organic inputs may be difficult to generate on the farm.
• Cattle dung, urine and farm wastes are to handle manually.
• Number of cattle households decreased gradually day by day.
• Collection and processing handling from wastes are most complicated.
• Lacking of adequate research & development backup as well as training.
• Shifting to pure organic farming is a very time consuming and laborious   methods.
• There is no organized extension machinery to disseminate the proven technologies.
• Lack of farmer’s adoption because of chances of yield loss in initial years of adoption.
• The consumer needs protection, so the Certification and Inspection programme have to be Nationwide.
• There is problem in availability, transportation, and application of biological materials to meet the nutrient demand of the crops.
• Green manuring has also become uncommon as the farmers are more interested to grow as many crops of economic importance as possible.
• Green manure crops in the crop sequences. Green leaf manuring also has become limit due to over exploitation of shrubs and trees.
• Lack of package of practices involving Organic-farming practices along with cost benefit ratio of different crops.
• Exporting of organic produce calls for adhering to predetermined organic standards, which should be confirmed to International Market demand also.

Future prospects:

Around 600-700 MT of agricultural waste is available in the country every year but most of it not use properly.Investigation and Quality Assessment of available bio-organic resources having potential for organic farming.Development of bio-control measures for various Plant Diseases and Pests.Documentation of existing Indigenous Technology Knowledge (ITK) on organic farming.Eastern States where average fertilizer consumption is very normal so here bright future for organic gardening.Focused attention on area having minimal use of chemical.

Authors:

Lalu Prasad Yadav, Aniket c., Praveen sharma, & Dr. Avtar Singh*

Ph.D Scholar, *Senior scientist

Department of vegetable science, College of Agriculture

CCS, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (Haryana) 125004

Email: yadavlaluprasad682gmail.com