Textbook Of Field Crops Production  (Paperback, DR RAJENDRA PRASAD)

Preface to the Second Edition The first edition of Texthook of Field Crops Production was pullished in 2002 and released at the Indian Science Congress theld at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. I am indeed very grateful to the faculty and the students of various state agricultural universities and 1ARI for wel accepting this book. There has been a heavy demand for the hook There have been a number of major changes in the crop production technology in India during the last 10 years (2002-2012) and this necessitated a revision of the book. The most important has been the development of export oriented quality varieties of Basmati rice at IARI, that has brought in a lot of revenue. The next is the introduction of Bt cotton, which now covers more than 90% area under cotton. This has completely changed the agronomy of coton. production, specially an increase in the rate of fertilizer application and a marked decrease in the application of pesticides. The third major change is the development of new agronomy for both rice and wheat in the rice-wheat belt of the north 1India. More and more wheat is being sown soon after the rice harvest without preparatory tillage by using Zero-till machines. This saves a lot of water and energy. This also changes the nutrient demands and requires a modified weed control package. For an effective control of Phalaris minor in wheat a number of new herbicides and their tank mixtures have become available, and the student has to know these developments. On the rice front, the depleting water-table is the rice-wheat belt in pressing for growing acrobic rice. System of rice intensification (SRI) method of rice cultivation is also gaining the attention of agronomists. Many of these subjects are still under experimentation and specific arca-wise recommendations are yet not available to be included in a texibook: nevertheless, the students need to be apprised of these changes. In revising this book in a short time, help has been taken from a number of young faculty members and alumni of the Division of Agronomy, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, although some senior agronomists from ICAR Institutes and SAUS, who contributed to the first edition, were again requested for their help. I wish to thank them all for their kind response to my I am specially grateful to Dr H S Gupta, Director, IARI and Dr. Arvind Kumar, Deputy Director General (Education), ICAR for kind advice and help in contributing the revised chapters on small millets and rapeseed-mustard respectively. My special thanks are due to Dr S Ayyappan, Secretary (DARE) and Director General (ICAR) for the kind encouragement and for writing Foreword to this book. I am really indebted to Dr C Devakumar (Assistant Director General (EP&D), ICAR) for his efforts and help in speeding the publication of this book. At the end I will like to thank my colleagues Dr Dinesh Kumar and Dr Y S Shivay of the Division of Agronomy, IARI, New Delhi for their help in handling the correspondence with the contributors and for maintaining a systematic record. I am grateful to the English Editorial staff of Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture, ICAR for the excellent editorial work that they have done in bringing out this publication.