Advisory to farmers

 

Safflower

  • Late sown (Nov-Dec) safflower in Karnataka, Maharashtra are ready for harvesting. Farmers may resort to combiners for harvesting to the extent possible. Please follow all the guidelines of the Government regarding social distancing, and use of sanitizers if manual harvesting is necessary
  • Harvested seed of safflower should be collected and properly covered. Store threshed crops at safe places.

Summer Sesame

  • Sesame in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states are in harvesting stage .Go for manual harvesting and drying in heaps.
  • The best time of harvesting is when the leaves turn yellow and start drooping while the bottom capsules are lemon yellow. Do not wait until the crop is dried completely in the filed which leads to shattering and yield loss.
  • Protect the harvested seed from unexpected rains, hailstorms.
  • The harvested produce should be dried properly before storage, at 8% moisture in the seed.
  • High moisture may induce post-harvest insects and diseases.
  • Late sown sesame is at capsule formation stage, resort to foliar nutrient spray with soluble fertilizer (19:19:19) or multi K @ 2.5 kg/ha


Storage pests of sesame and their management

 

  • The major insect pests of stored sesame are rice moth (Corcyra cephalonica) and red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum).
  • Inadequate drying of sesame seeds before storage causes serious losses due to insects, fungi, moisture, overheating, discolouration etc.
  • Clean storage bags / containers thoroughly and expose them to sunlight for couple of days before storing the seeds.
  • Careful sanitation, maintenance of optimum seed moisture content (< 10%), sorting out and disposal of any broken/damaged seeds, storing in clean gunny bags lined with polythene or metal drums are important.
  • Storing seeds with dried neem leaves in any sealed container can be effective in reducing the incidence of insect pests under storage.
  • Routine inspection for insects and also hot and moist spots; aeration to bring the seed temperature (< 10%) will prevent insect activity.
  • Seeds stored for seed purpose can be dusted with an inert substance such as attapulgitebased clay dust (ABCD) or botanicals viz., dry neem leaf powder (25 g/kg seed) or neem seed kernel powder (5g/kg seed) found to be effective against storage pests.

Rabi castor

  • In parts of Telangana, A.P and TamilNadu late order spikes of rabi castor are ready to harvest.
  • Resort to manual harvesting with secateurs; after proper drying of capsules go for threshing with mechanical threshers.