Ravikant Avasthe

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Govt. of India National Rainfed Area Authority

Inadequate availability of quality organic nutrient sources is the major hurdle in adopting organic farming. Hence, a study was conducted during 2019–21 at Sikkim state of the Indian Himalayas to investigate the effect of integrated organic manuring on energy dynamics, profitability, and soil health of maize (Zea mays L.) crops grown in acidic soil...

The non-availability of efficient buckwheat genotypes is a challenge to achieve higher productivity under organic farming. Hence, this study was undertaken during three consecutive rabi seasons (2016–19) in the Sikkim state of the Indian Himalayas to evaluate the agronomic performance of different buckwheat genotypes under organic farming. Twelve b...

Numerous problems exist in the twenty-first century, many of them are related to agriculture. Weed management is still a major challenge to feed an ever-increasing population with safe and nutritious food from inadequate available resources. This poses a major challenge to even maintaining food grain production and leaving only the alternative of b...

A field experiment was conducted to phenotype the root traits and screen 35 local maize landraces of Eastern Himalayan region for waterlogging tolerance at seedling and flowering stage. Microcosm screening was done at seedling stage (6-8 leaf stage) with pots maintained with flooded water to a level of 4-5 cm above the soil surface for 15 days cont...

Rice cultivation in hills is challenged by sub-optimum weather conditions, low soil fertility, low temperature and moisture stress which impedes in attaining high productivity. To address this, four studies were carried out at ICAR Sikkim Centre, Gangtok, India to evaluate relative performance of local organic cultivars and conventionally bred vari...

Over the last half-century, global attention has focused on climate change, particularly changes in air temperature. Concerns about the sustainability of the Earth’s ecosystems and other human life on the land are increasing along with population growth, rising surface temperature, and higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Agriculture is responsib...

To explore trait variation, assess relative performance and establish association among yield and its associated traits in maize under organic system, 373 maize genotypes that consisted of landraces, open-pollinated varieties and single-cross hybrids were tested under organic management in Sikkim midhills. Data of 8 years (2009–2015 and 2019) for 1...

French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivation faces multipronged challenges of low farm productivity, poor economic returns, and soil health deterioration in the hilly ecosystem of India. Hence, the development of a cost-effective and soil-supportive French bean cultivation technology is highly warranted. Thus, a field experiment was conducted fo...

Low productivity and profitability are the major constraints of organic growers due to continuous rice (Oryza sativa L.) -fallow practice in Sikkim Himalayas. No-till garden pea (Pisum sativum L.) cultivation in rice fallow may be an option for enhancing the productivity and profitability of the farmers in this region. Hence, to test the feasibilit...

Environmental pollution, resource dwindling, and soil degradation questioned the sustainability of contemporary agricultural production systems. Organic farming is advocated as a sustainable solution for ensuring food security without compromising environmental sustainability. However, poor farm productivity quizzed the sustainability of organic pr...

A field experiment was conducted during pre-rainy (kharif) seasons of 2019 and 2020 at Research Farm of ICAR-Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region, Sikkim Centre, Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim to evaluate the performance of maize (Zea mays L.) cultivars under organic management condition. Twelve cultivars of maize like ‘Seti Makkai’, ‘Pahenlo Ma...

Ecological indicators are herculean contrivance for assessing management practices’ impacts on environmental changes. Soil organic carbon (SOC) potentially regulates the agricultural sustainability. Unfortunately, the SOC has been widely degraded through unsustainable land uses and agricultural practices. Hence, the efficacy of conservation tilling...

Sheath blight is the most important diseases in rice. In the study, various eco-friendly treatments were attempted to manage sheath blight in rice both in-vitro and in-vivo conditions. Among the various Trichoderma isolates tested, the isolate T2 collected from Pangthang (27.73° N, 88.63° E) was very effective in inhibiting the growth of sheath bli...

Experiment was conducted to assess the effect of combined application of biochar and organic manure amendment in an acidic hilly soil on grain quality, nutrient contents, biomolecular composition and biochemical response, and energy budgeting as well as soil quality under maize-black gram cropping system. Our results suggested that biochar applicat...

Till date there is not much concrete data available linking valorization of biomass-derived engineered biochar for soil, plant, water system, and microbial dynamics under changing climatic conditions. This review article deals with the abovementioned burning topic by collection of world literature. It summarizes the conversion of biomass into bioch...

Fall army worm (FAW) Spodoptera frugiperda (J E Smith) has been observed invading the north eastern region of India during April 2019 in Mizoram and on maize crop of Namphing GPU, South Sikkim, during May 2019. The detailed survey in the maize growing areas of state revealed the presence of early to fourth instar larvae feeding on the leaves and wh...

Global food security, environmental preservation as well as farmer’s level increased livelihood should be the main goals of a sustainable farming system in today’s world plagued by degraded soils as a result of unsustainable crop management practices (Kumar et al., 2018). Under conservation agriculture (CA), a special attention has been given to cr...

Soil carbon (C) loss is the prime sign of land degradation, and C pools have a great impact on soil quality and climate change mitigation. Hence, a field experiment was conducted for three consecutive years to assess the impact of crop intensification and conservation tillage practices on changes in the C pool at different soil depths of marginal l...

Antagonistic microorganisms play a very important role in the management of plant diseases. They use diverse array of mechanisms like competition, antibiosis, parasitism and metabolite production for the suppression of plant pathogens. Numerous fungi (Trichoderma spp. and Gliocladium spp.) and bacteria (Bacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp. and actinomyc...

‘Sikkim Primitive’ (SP) maize locally known as ‘ murali makkai ’ in Sikkim is a unique genetic resource exhibiting prolificacy and excellent popping capacity. Status of SP has reached extinction level due to its very small population size and neglected conservation efforts in-situ . In an initial effort to conserve and revive this landrace, charact...

Sikkim has been facing the effect of climate change with rise in diurnal temperatures and changes in the rainfall pattern and also variation and/or decrease in the total annual rainfall. The winter rainfall has almost ceased in the State while the number of rainy days have also reduced. All these adversely affect the crop production and productivit...

Organic farming practiced in Sikkim is perhaps the most suitable option under the backdrop of low use of external inputs by the farmers of Sikkim. All the technological options for sustainable organic farming vis-à-vis crop varieties, crop nutrition, crop protection and efficient utilization of scarce water during the Rabi season are available with...

The ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Sikkim Centre (ICAR-National Organic Farming Research Institute), Tadong, Gangtok worked on the development of a gamut of technologies for the mitigation of climate change, increasing the cropping intensity and the improvement of livelihood of farmers in Sikkim which was demonstrated through the team of Kri...

Prevalence of gastrointestinal (GI) parasites in native Tibetan sheep (Ovis aries), a critically endangered small ruminant of North district of Sikkim, India was studied during July 2014 to June 2015. Of the 213 animals examined, 71 (33.33%) were found positive for different GI parasites. The overall prevalence of different parasites recorded was s...

Sikkim's farming practices are predominantly valley/foothills and terraced slopes. Several crops are grown in the region depending on the farming style, eating patterns, and weather circumstances. Rice is the most common and staple food crop among cereals, accounting for 64.9 % of net planted area. The next most important crops are maize and tiny m...

A field experiment was conducted at Research Farm of ICAR RC for NEH Region, Sikkim Centre, Tadong during 2019-20 and 2020-21. The treatments comprised of ten sesame cultivars viz., VRI-3, TMV-7, VRI-1, VRI-2, Prachi, Amrit, Swetha, DS-5, DS-9, GT-10 and laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The results showed...

Western blotting is an important analytical technique used in cell and molecular biology for last four decades. It involves separation of proteins in SDS-PAGE and then transfer of proteins to a membrane followed by detection. By using a western blot, one can identify specific protein from a complex mixture of proteins. Along with its use as a diagn...

Weeds are a huge serious challenge in organic farming all over the world. Weeds create higher agricultural production losses (30-40%) than other agricultural pests around the world. Sikkim is India's first totally organic state. Weeds are cited by farmers as the most serious production issue they face, and entire crop losses from weeds can occur in...

Rice bean is an important underutilised pulse crop of Sikkim and Himalayan region and mostly it is grown organically on the terraces with locally available organic nutrient sources. The aim of the study was to understand the effect of locally available organic manuresand land configuration on growth and yield of the rice bean crop. Among the organi...

Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers in the agricultural production systems to keep pace with the food and nutritional demand of the galloping population had an adverse impact on ecosystem services and environmental quality. Hence, an alternative mechanism is to be developed to enhance farm production and environmental sustainability. A nanoh...

The North Eastern Region (NER) of India has tremendous potential for promotion of organic farming. Despite inherent nutrient deficits and supplementing these to harness higher land, water and crop productivity, low use of synthetic fertilizers (< 12.0 kg/ha) and chemicals are common in the north eastern hill ecosystems. The existing exhaustive agri...

North- Eastern parts of India fall under the Eastern Himalayan region and it is a diversity hotspot of many crops, including maize. Maize is an important traditional cereal crop grown in hill ecology of the region mainly for food, fodder and feed. To tap the potentiality of maize genetic resources in crop improvement programmes, assessment of genet...

The North Eastern Region (NER) of India has tremendous potential for promotion of organic farming. Despite inherent nutrient deficits and supplementing these to harness higher land, water and crop productivity, low use of synthetic fertilizers (< 12.0 kg/ha) and chemicals are common in the north eastern hill ecosystems. The existing exhaustive agri...

Agriculture and ecosystem services are interconnected in different ways. Payments for ecological services (PES) and novel methods of agricultural management, including regenerative agriculture, organic farming, conservation agriculture and the management of biological diversity provide opportunities for augmenting ecosystem services in agroecosyste...

Fall army worm (FAW) Spodoptera frugiperda (J E Smith) has been observed invading the north eastern region of India during April 2019 in Mizoram and on maize crop of Namphing GPU, South Sikkim, during May 2019. The detailed survey in the maize growing areas of state revealed the presence of early to fourth instar larvae feeding on the leaves and wh...

Jeevamrut is a liquid organic manure which is an excellent source of natural carbon and biomass that contains macro and micro nutrients required by crops. In comparison to other forms of manures, Jeevamrut has proven to be more effective and can be used along with other manures.The product of organic liquid fertilizer is meant for the fermentation...

Soil quality restoration and sustainable crop production in the rainfed ecosystem of the Indian Himalayas can be achieved through effective conservation tillage and organic management. Hence, a six-year (2013 to 2019) study was conducted to quantify the effect of tillage and organic nutrient management on soil properties, productivity, and profitab...

North- Eastern parts of India fall under Eastern Himalayan region and it is a diversity hotspot of many crops including maize. Evaluation of genetic diversity is required to tape the potentiality of genetic resources in any crop improvement programmes. In the present study, genetic diversity at fifty two microsatellite markers were conducted in 30...

Based on the findings of present investigation, it can be inferred that physico-chemical properties and microbial population in soil was also varied with land use whereas the physico-chemical properties and microbial population were generally improved in Kharif as compared to rabi. Plantation land use was the best land-use system followed by...

The common split-gilled mushroom, Schizophyllum commune Fr., is an edible medicinal mushroom found growing on wood under natural conditions across the globe. The present study was carried out to investigate the morphological and anatomical features of the basidiocarp and the cultural characteristics of S. commune along with identification of loc...

Large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.) is one of the important cash crops of Sikkim and Darjeeling areas of West Bengal. In this study, a fixed plot survey on insect pests of large cardamom was conducted and found that stem borer (Glyphipterix spp., Lepidoptera: Glyphiperidae), shoot fly (Merochlotops dimorphus Cherian, Diptera: Chlororpidae), lea...

Frontline demonstration on potato (Kufri Sindhuri) was conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, East Sikkim, India. A total 158 nos. of demonstration were conducted in rice-fallow (farmers’ practice) at farmer’s field in nine numbers of villages during the year 2019-20. Results revealed that average yield of rice and potato recorded was 2.09 t/ha and 14....

Since studies on biochar stability in agricultural soils are very limited, the microbial biomass carbon and soil enzyme activity influenced by biochar addition to field condition remains uncertain. Results of this study revealed that microbial biomass carbon and different soil enzyme activity were significantly influenced by both manure alone and c...

The collective utilization of biochar and organic manure represents the profit to plants and nutrient cycling. In this experiment, the maize (stalk and cob) biomass was pyrolyzed at 600 °C and morpho-mineralogically characterized. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) image represented cross-linked pores and feathery plate–like layer construction...

This compendium is compilation of experiences, innovation and expectation shared by progressive farmers from north east India during FFCSWR-2017 held at Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat. Small scale water harvesting and integrated farming systems were most common interventions. The information is worthy enough to be emulated by other farmers o...

Organic agriculture and agroforestry are the holistic production management systems, which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. Agroforestry has the potential to improve livelihood as it offers multiple alternatives and opportunities to farmers to improve farm producti...

Organic farming is holistic food production system, which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health including quality and healthy food. There are generally two types of organic farming depending on the purpose. One is aimed at increasing efficiency of the large scale production of crops and focuses on broader based market, which also includes for...

Organic farming has proved to be effective technology for socio-economic empowerment of Indian farmers as it imposes positive changes in social factors in the local communities. There is tremendous scope of export, entrepreneurship and employment opportunities in organic farming in India. Local, regional, national and global markets are developing...

Arunachal Pradesh is the largest biodiversity hotspot in the North Eastern India. Agriculture is practiced in only 2.65% of the total geographic area of the state but there is huge potential for expansion. The consumption of fertilizers and plant protection chemicals is the lowest in the region. Various cereal, pulse, oilseed, spices, fruit and veg...

Effect of weather on abundance of mustard aphid and sawfly and their eco-friendly management was studied during 2011-13. Mustard aphid, Lipaphis erysimi appeared first in 49 th and 50 th standard week and reached maximum in 2 nd standard week (49.07 and 63.48 aphids 10 cm-1 central inflorescence during 2011-12 and 2012-13, respectively). Sawfly app...

Buckwheat to contribute Rhizosphere Phosphorus in acidic soil

An insight in to the Wetlands in Sikkim spread across the tiny state of India in the Eastern Himalayas along with the phytodiversity.

Biological diversity of an important wetland of West Sikkim which revered as a wish-fulfilling lake.

Sustainable Land Utilization for Ecological Balance in the Sikkim Hills which are a constituent of the fragile Himalayan ecosystem.

The lake Khechupalri located in West Sikkim is an important water body for the migratory birds in the winters and is also religiously significant where prayers are regularly offered. It has significant tourism value. However the lake is facing serious degradation problems also which is discussed in this article.

PRESENT STATUS OF MAIZE CULTIVATION IN SIKKIM AND FUTURE STRATEGIES

Yak is a unique bovine species available in the Asian mountains that has been domesticated under hostile climates of high altitudes at Tibetan plateau and adjoining regions of Himalayas. The yak is multipurpose domesticated animal of high altitude mountains. In India the yak is an important animal of Ladakh region, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunach...

Mushroom, a unique non-traditional cash-crop, is an excellent source of proteins, vitamins, minerals, folic acid and also of iron for anaemics. It is popularly called as “Cheaoe” in Nepali. Sikkim, being the distinctive hotspot of rich mushroom biodiversity, also serves as the habitat for a wide variety of mushrooms. A good number of potential mush...

The Tibetan sheep is one of the key sources of livelihood for the Dokpas; the high altitude tribal community, designated as the poorest of poor and remotest of the remote in India. Tibetan sheep is very hardy and thrives well in very harsh climatic conditions of Tibetan plateau. At higher altitude, sheep is reared under transhumance system (seasona...

Providing a suitable microclimate for vegetative growth, flowering, initial fruit-set and fruit development. Compared with plants grown under unprotected conditions, kiwifruit-vines with partial protection grew more rapidly, had better fruit-set, and produced larger fruits, and fruits also matured early. Hand pollination as well as natural pollinat...

Three-year (2012–13, 2013–14 and 2014–15) fixed plot field experiment was conducted at Research Farm, ICAR Sikkim Centre, Tadong with five maize (Zea mays L.) – based crop sequences, viz. maize–fallow, maize–rajmash, maize–toria, maize–buckwheat and maize (green cob)–urdbean–buckwheat to identify the resource efficient cropping systems under resour...

Five sunflower hybrids and a variety were evaluated in four different centres of North Eastern Hill (NEH) regionsto study their suitability in terms of growth, yield and oil content to tap the potential rice fallow areas in NEHregions (Jharnapani, Medziphema, Tadong, and Lembucherra). Uniform layout was adopted at four locations to conduct field tr...

Biological Soil Disinfestation and Biofumigation: Alternatives for Chemical Fumigation in Organic Farming

Traditional agroforestry systems of Sikkim with special reference to large cardamom-Alder relationship

Yield and nitrogen uptake be rice in relation to nitrogen release from modified urea materials in a submerged soil

Assessment of Economic Viability of Different Agroforestry Systems in Giri Catchment, Himachal Pradesh