By: Dr. Parveen Kumar, Dr. Kunzang Lamo, Dr. D. Namgyal
The Ladakh region of the country lies in the cold arid zone. About 90 percent of the country’s cold arid area lies in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. Spread over an area of 80,000 square kilometers, agriculture in this cold arid zone is confined to five to six months in a year. More than 80 per cent of the peoples in this region live in rural areas.
Ladakh comprises of two districts of Leh and Kargil. The district Leh of the union territory of Ladakh situated between 32-36° N latitude and 75-80° E longitude is the largest district in the country with an area of 45,100 square kilometer. Agriculture is the main occupation of the rural people of the district. Barley and Wheat constitute the two main cereal and staple crops cultivated in this region.
Wheat is also one of the important cereals grown in the ‘rabi’ season in India. The crop has the distinction of being grown in the tropical and subtropical, temperate and cold zones even beyond 67°N. Generally sown in autumn, it can stand the cold of the severe winter months and resumes growth with the advent of warm spring and summer. In high altitude also, wheat is remarkably adaptable and its cultivation may be done up to 3,000 m above the sea level. It requires around an average temperature of around 20°C at the time of sowing which is also conducive for its germination. In the cold arid zone of Ladakh it is sown as a ‘kharif’ crop. Sowing generally takes place in month of April to May and depending upon the climatic conditions is completed within May month in various belts of district Leh. The scientific cultivation of wheat involves:
LAND PREPARATION:
Its cultivation involves ploughing the field several times to break all the clods, removal of all weeds and stubbles. If possible, manuring of the field should also be done. Well decomposed Farm Yard Manure (FYM) at the rate of 20-25t/ha gives very good results in terms of yield and soil health. The soil is than ploughed and rolled several times to obtain a fine tilth and a firm seed-bed. Seed is sown generally in shallow furrows drawn about 22 cm apart, the seed and fertilizers being dropped through seed cum ferti-drill and seed should be placed 5 to 7 cm deep to ensure proper germination. This distance and depth should also be maintained with other modes of sowing.
VARIETIES:
Different wheat varieties like Singchen, Sonam, Mansarover, Kailash, SWL-19, SWL-23, SWL30 and some other local varieties like Tukchumin, Sermotokok and Tokarmo are found in this region. However, Singchen, Kailash and Mansarover are recommended for the cold arid region of Ladakh. Kailash has medium maturity, is moderately resistant to yellow rust, loose smut and ear cockle, resistant to lodging, non shattering, fertilizer responsive, tolerant to intermittent stresses of high temperature, intense solar radiation and moisture. Singchen variety has also medium maturity, is tolerant to intermittent stresses of high temperature, intense solar radiation and moisture, resistant to yellow rust and ear cockle and moderately resistant to Loose smut. The variety Mansarover is an early maturity, moderately resistant to yellow rust and insect and pest attack, tolerant to intermittent stresses of high temperature, intense solar radiation and moisture.
SOWING TIME:
The sowing time depends upon the altitude and the favorable climatic conditions. In places at lower altitudes like Khaltsi early sowing is done whereas places which are at higher altitude within Leh and Kharu late sowing i. e from second week of May to fourth week of May are preferable.
IRRIGATION:
Wheat sown under irrigated conditions requires 4 to 6 irrigations depending on the soil and weather conditions.
WEED MANAGEMENT:
Weed management in wheat involves three broad practices. These are: Cultural or preventive, Physical or mechanical and chemical weed control. The cultural practices include use of clean seeds, better varieties, early sowing, Proper placement of seed and basal dose of fertilizers 2-3 cm below seed, closer row spacing (18 cm), removing weeds before sowing, Keeping bunds and irrigation channels free from weeds, crop rotation with fodder such as Barseem or Oat once in 3 years. The Mechanical control includes removal of weeds manually or by implements. Mechanical control however is difficult where the seed is broadcasted and not feasible where weeds resemble morphologically to the crop. There is also risk of mechanical damage to crop during mechanical weeding. Hence cultural control is the best. Ensuring cultural control enables us not to use chemical control methods.
INSECT PEST MANAGEMENT:
Wheat is also susceptible to many insect pests and diseases. The termites damage the crop soon after the sowing as well as at maturity. To control these seed as well as soil treatment should be done. Seed treatment with 450 ml Chloropyriphos 20 EC or Imidachloropid 500 ml in 5 litres of water for about one quintal of wheat seed gives good results. The soil can be treated with insecticides after the last ploughing and before planking in the areas where termite attack is recurrent and seed treatment could not be done. For minor insect pests like Aphids, Jassids, Brown mites which suck sap from leaves and ear heads spraying crop with Neem Oil and other organic based insecticides is effective.
DISEASE MANAGEMENT IN WHEAT CROP:
In a study done to document the Trans Himalayan region of the Ladakh, Yellow rust, powdery mildew, foliar blight, loose smut, foot/root rot, ear cockle, Molya and Tundu /spike blight/yellow ear rot diseases were encountered on wheat. However, yellow rust, ear cockle, Tundu, Molya and root rot were recognized as the most destructive diseases of wheat. Yellow rust is seen in the form of yellow/black rusty spots on the leaves, aseptically when the crop is well grown, which extend and eventually dry up the crop. For control of Yellow rust, Propoconizole @15 ml per 15 litres of water for one Kanal of land is very useful. If disease still prevails, the application of Propoconizole can be repeated twice or thrice after a0-12 days interval.
The Union territory of Ladakh is on the way to become totally organic under its Mission Organic Development Initiative (MODI) by 2025. Hence it is advised to the farming community of this region to go for cultural control methods that are devoid of any chemicals. For controlling Yellow rust, rust resistant varieties should be used. For insect pest like aphids/thrips management organic products such as neem and other type of oils are very effective. Hot water treatment (50 0C) of seed for half an hour after initial soaking of seed in water for four hours and then drying the seeds in shade is effective in controlling loose smut of wheat. Wheat is also subject to ‘Smut’ and ‘Bunt’ in the same way as other cere¬als, the affected grain reduces to a mass of black powder. The treatment involves chopping of the affected tiller gently so that the spores do not fall on the ground. The chopped tiller is put in polythene and then buried underground.
The authors are from KVK-Leh; can be reached at [email protected]