Vegetable Farming : Farmers are Advised to Sow Summer Vegetables by IMD

According to the latest National Agromet Advisory Services bulletin by India Meteorological Department (IMD), the farmers have been advised to harvest rabi crops as early as possible and sow summer vegetables such as bottle gourd, ridge gourd, bitter gourd, cucumber, water melon and musk melon and prepare the field for the forthcoming kharif crops.

The IMD advisory is considering satellite images from Normalised Difference Vegetation Index has noted that ‘agricultural vigour is good over Punjab, Haryana and patches in east Uttar Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, coastal Odisha and patches in Gujarat, Assam and Tamil Nadu’.

The IMD has said that in the parts of Maharashtra, where deficient monsoon last year has resulted in low water availability in the reservoirs, the farmers should apply mulch of sugarcane trash, dried grasses or black plastic film to summer crops and orchards to avoid loss of water due to evaporation.

According to the advisory farmers have to apply irrigation to summer groundnut by sprinkler method and make arrangement for shade for vegetable crops to protect them from bright sunshine.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com