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Anand Agricultural University, Anand
Anand Agricultural University (AAU) was established in 2004 at Anand with the support of the Government of Gujarat, Act No.(Guj 5 of 2004) dated April 29, 2004. Caved out of the erstwhile Gujarat Agricultural University (GAU), the dream institution of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Dr. K. M. Munshi, the AAU was set up to provide support to the farming community in three facets namely education, research and extension activities in Agriculture, Horticulture Engineering, product Processing and Home Science. At present there seven Colleges, seventeen Research Centers and six Extension Education Institute working in nine districts of Gujarat namely Ahmedabad, Anand, Dahod, Kheda, Panchmahal, Vadodara, Mahisagar, Botad and Chhotaudepur
AAU's activities have expanded to span newer commodity sectors such as soil health card, bio-diesel, medicinal plants apart from the mandatory ones like rice, maize, tobacco, vegetable crops, fruit crops, forage crops, animal breeding, nutrition and dairy products etc. the core of AAU's operating philosophy however, continues to create the partnership between the rural people and committed academic as the basic for sustainable rural development. In pursuing its various programmes AAU's overall mission is to promote sustainable growth and economic independence in rural society. AAU aims to do this through education, research and extension education. Thus, AAU works towards the empowerment of the farmers.
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ThesisItem Open Access ASSESSMENT OF IRRIGATION REQUIREMENT OF NARMADA COMMAND USING SOIL-CROP-CLIMATE DATA(AAU, Anand, 1997) GIRI, JAYANT DATTATRAYA; PATEL, G. R.The assessment of irrigation requirement of Narmada Command covering an area of 18 lakh hectares (1.8m ha) has been carried out using data on soil available water capacity and evapotranspiration data on crops viz., pearl millet, groundnut, pigeonpea, cotton, castor, mustard and wheat. The crop evapotranspiration (ETc) is computed using crop coefficient values (Kc). While ETc has been found to be mainly dependent on the climatic component, the Net Irrigation Requirement (NIR) has been found to depend on climate mainly effective rainfall and the soil available water capacity (AWC). Differences between the Crop Water Requirement (CWR) and NIR were wide for the monsoon season, but narrowed down considerably in the winter and summer seasons. The AWC and the length of growing period of crop have also contributed to the NIR values. Soils with higher AWC had lower NIR while crops with longer growing season showed higher NIR. The AWC of soils has been found to be mainly governed by the soil texture more so by the clay + silt or clay contents. In general, medium textured soils had higher AWC than either coarse or fine textured soils. The 60 per cent level of depletion of AWC has been used to initiate irrigation. The number of irrigations required and the quantity of water applied depends on the overall evaporative demand of climate, the length of growing season of the crop and the AWC of soils. Seasonal evaluation of the scheme water supply efficiency revealed that in general the values were below 1.0 and tended to be around 0.5. The values were around 0.5 during the months of high evaporative demand and considerably less during the monsoon and cooler months when the evaporative demand is lower. However, these values are expected to be higher once all the crops grown will be considered. Scheme efficiency (relation between supply required and actual supply) can be improved by growing perennial crops like sugarcane and banana and such other crops having a high requirement for water. Such crops are recommended to be grown on as soils with no root zone limitations or other limitations imposed by the physical and chemical properties of soils. During months of low water requirement use of exploitable ground water is also recommended. Such conjunctive use will help in saving water which otherwise will go as wasteful flow and also help to keep the ground water level well below problematic levels. Use of data on soil-crop-climate to achedule irrigations for the various crops revealed it to have substantially leas NIR values as compared to the IW/CPE ratio for monsoon season crops and compared well for the winter crops. In the summer, it predicted a less NIR than IW/CPE for groundnut but gave higher values than IW/CPE for pearl millet. The redeeming feature of the model is that it takes into consideration the effective rainfall (Total rainfall less that lost through run-off or deep percolation). The soil-crop-climate model compared well with the other methods of irrigation tried, for the yield of grain in all the crops studied. It gave less WUE than the critical stages approach for all the crops except wheat, where Ife gave higher WUE values. In case of pearl millet and mustard it gave less WUE than the IW/CPE ratio. This may be attributed to the fact that these crops have basically less requirement for water and hence, gave no significant response to any increase in water supplies beyond a certain level. Studies on the behaviour of the model as compared to the other schedules for the nutrient depletion pattern Indicate that no definite pattern with respect to nutrient uptake has emerged and the results had a fair measure of inconsistency. The inherent variability of the crops studied for their capacity of derive nutrition, the natural relationships among the nutrients and the inherent difference in the soil's capacity to supply nutrients can be attributed to the observed inconsistency. Since the model gives moderate dry matter production, it causes moderate depletion of nutrient and hence with proper management and monitoring of the soil fertility, it is expected to give sustained agricultural production. Study on evolving alternative irrigation management practices in areas suffering from problems of rising water table were carried out. Results revealed that for groundnut use of sprinkler system of irrigation with an application depth corresponding to 2.5 cm per irrigation at two stages of crop growth viz. pegging (55 DAS) and pod development (85 DAS) with two irrigation of 5 cm each as pre-sowing and pre-harvest proved to the most beneficial (5.7 t/ha kernel yield). Growing groundnuts without Irrigation (4.6 t/ha) except a pre-sowing irrigation was the next best alternative. Irrigating groundnut at pre-sowing, 55 DAS, 85 DAS and pre-harvest stages with 5 cm depth of application each time had serious negative effects on yield (2.6 t/ha). Under such situations use of sprinklers appears to be a promising alternative as besides giving higher yield it may also help in keeping the ground water level within manageable limits. Growing groundnut without irrigation appear to be the next best alternative. From the study conducted It can be concluded that the soil-crop-climate model, can be used as an effective tool for predicting regional estimates of irrigation requirement inspite of the wide diversity of climate, soil and crops grown In any region, because it takes into consideration these very variables. It is also easy to compute the requirement and has the added advantage of using minimum data sets. The data collected once can be applied without the need for recurrent data collection for a reasonably long time. However, before final conclusions can be drawn, the model needs to be validated for larger number of crops, wider variety of soils and different climatic situations. Because of its requirement of minimum data sets, however it appears to be an attractive alternative tool for making regional estimates of water requirement and merits scientific attention.ThesisItem Open Access PERSISTENCE OF PENDIMETHALIN, FLUCHLORALIN AND OXADIAZON IN SOIL AND THEIR RESIDUES IN ONION (Allluin cepa L. )(AAU, Anand, 1997) Raj, Mahendrasinh Fulabhai; Patel, B. K.Pendimethalin, fluchloralin and oxadiazon were applied @ 1.0, 1.0 and 0.5 kg ha-1, respectively as preemergence herbicides in an experiment conducted at College Agronomy Farm on onion in rabi 1995 to study their persistence in sandy loam soil and residues in onion. Adsorption-desorption of the herbicides and their downward movement in the soil columns were also carried out in the laboratory to work out the risk of groundwater pollution. The herbicides were mainly retained within 0-15 cm soil layer. Pendimethalin, fluchloralin and oxadiazon showed first-order dissipation with half-life values of 21.9, 19.1 and 32.4 days, respectively. FYM application(0, 10 and 20 t ha-1) reduced the degradation of all the herbicides. The dinitroaniline herbicides showed biphasic mode of dissipation, whereas it was monophasic in case of oxadiazon. The herbicides did not show marked effect on the soil microbial biomass carbon as well as nitrate nitrogen. The levels of pendimethalin, fluchloralin and oxadiazon residues in onion ranged from 0.003 to 0,021, 0.004 to 0.036 and 0.080 to 0.104 µg g-1, respectively. The residues in onion were marginally higher on the 60th day than at harvest. Adsorption-desorption of pendimethalin, fluchloralin and oxadiazon was studied on sandy loam and clayey soils. Pendimethalin showed maximum adsorption on both the soils, however, oxadiazon was the least adsorbed. Organic matter content of the soil was predominantly responsible for adsorption of the herbicides which was evident by low Koc values of the herbicides for clayey soil. In sandy loam soil, fluchloralin recorded maximum desorption followed by oxadiazon and pendimethalin. Soil column study carried out for one month period revealed little movement of pendimethalin and fluchloralin beyond 12 cm depth, however, oxadiazon reached upto 30 cm soil depth. With increase in soil depth, the soil microbial biomass carbon increased in case of fluchloralin and oxadiazon, while, the increase was marginal for pendimethalin. Among the three herbicides, oxadiazon showed better negative correlation(r=-0.81) between the residues and biomass carbon. None of the herbicides were detected in the leachates.ThesisItem Open Access HEAVY METALS STATUS OF EFFLUENTS AND SOILS: EFFECT OF Cu AND SOIL AMENDMENTS ON SWEET CORN GROWN IN HIGH Cu CONTAINING SOIL(AAU, Anand, 1997) Pandya, Rajeshkumar Rameshchandra; PATEL, K. P.In the present investigation, a preliminary survey was carried out to monitor the status of heavy metals and pollutants in the effluents of the major industrial belt of the state. Besides, soils and plant samples were also analysed for heavy metals contamination. Based on the information available from the survey, a pothouse experiment was conducted during rabi, 1995 by growing sweet com in the Cu contaminated soil which was given treatments of high Cu levels (i.e. 50, 100 and 200 µg g-1) in the presence and absence of organic (FYM @ 5 t ha-1) and inorganic (gypsum @ 50 % GR) amendments to study their effects on the crop growth, uptake of heavy metals as well as soil properties. The effluents, water, soil and plant samples taken in the survey and pothouse experiment were analysed to determine the various contents and other parameters to assess their pollution status by using standard analytical procedures. The results of preliminary survey work indicated that amongst different effluents, the Khari river effluent was highly acidic and found to be the most toxic one. Besides, TSS, COD and BOD, this effluent contained very high levels of different harmful elements viz., Fe, Cu, Mn, Cd, Ni, Co and Cr above the standard permissible limits for irrigation purpose. Similarly, the effluents from Ankleshwar industrial area were also more toxic than those in Vadodara and Bharuch industrial belts. It was found that the practice of irrigating soils with sewage and industrial effluents for a long time has definitely resulted in accumulation of different polluting elements; but their levels were within the permissible limits except Cu which was nearer to toxic level in industrial effluent mixed sewage water irrigated soil for a long time in Pirana sewage farm at Behrampura near Ahmedabad. The contamination level in other soil was not alarming. However, the accumulation might rise to toxic level if the effluents are used continuously over the years without proper management practice in future. The study also revealed that inspite of their low levels in soils, the contents of certain polluting elements viz., Mn, Ni and Cu were found above toxic levels in brinjal, maize and jowar, respectively. Moreover, in general, the bioavailability of the elements cautioned for regular monitoring for their soil contents in case of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd and Mn. Amongst the different soil properties soil organic carbon significantly affected the availability of the elements positively. Besides the soil OC, pH and EC were other important properties to affect the availability of these elements in the soil. In a pothouse experiment the reduction in maize dry matter yield was significant due to DTPA extractable Cu, Cd and Mn but the prediction level was just 55 per cent. Among the soil properties, pH showed significant positive correlation with dry matter yield and except organically bound Cu all other soil Cu fractions depressed dry matter yield. Among the different DTPA extractable trace elements, copper showed the highest predictability by 93 per cent with the inclusion of various soil properties. In general, the effect of FYM application was found to be beneficial in reducing the harmful effect. The antagonistic effect of high Cu contents was observed to cause Fe chlorosis in maize. The treatment was found to alter the availability of heavy metals and thereby their removal also. The predictability of Ni removal was the highest by 89 per cent followed by Cd. The application of Cu resulted in enrichment of all Cu fractions whereas, FYM enriched organically bound Cu at the cost of decrease in exchangeable Cu and other Cu fractions; and almost reverse trend was observed in case of gypsum application.