Horticultural crops:
- A sunny location with well-drained friable light soil rich in the organic matter should be used for rabi vegetable nursery growth. The nursery bed should be 1 m wide and a suitable length. The bed should be elevated to a height of 10-15 cm above the ground.
- Straw berry types of note include ‘Sweet Charlie,’ ‘Festival,’ and ‘Chandler.’ Strawberries are reproduced by runners, and the optimum time to plant is in November.
Livestock:
- Before winter, the cattle and poultry sheds must be fixed so that they may be protected from adverse weather (cold wind).
- To block the passage of wind, the shed’s sides can be covered with polythene sheeting or gunny cloth. Trees that provide shade surrounding the shed should be pruned.
- To maintain milk production throughout the rabi (cold) season, animals must be given silage, hay, edible tree fodders, and chopped paddy straw (3-5 kg) on a daily basis.
- Farmers are advised to offer an artificial heat source to their newborn piglets and poultry chicks if necessary during the rabi season.
- A network for disease surveillance and monitoring will be built.
- List the endemic bird illnesses (species by species) in the district and have vaccines on hand.
- Vaccination against all endemic diseases should be done as soon as possible.
- Ensure that animals (cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs) are dewormed soon following the wet season.
- Livestock farmers are advised to feed adult cows with a mineral combination at 50-60 g/day and nursing cows with calcium at 60-80 ml/day/cow on a regular basis.
- On the puccaa (concrete) floor, suitable bedding (paddy straw, dried grass, wheat bhusa, sawdust, rice husk, etc.) should be given to a depth of 4-6 inches in large animals and 2 inches in smaller animals.
- Animals should not be bathed in cold water during the winter.
- During the winter, animals’ hair should not be cut.
- Pond building, pond preparation, and fish culture pre-stocking management must be accomplished by the rabi season. A pond should not be dug out in the upland during construction.
- Soil testing may be done at Krishi Vigyan Kendra prior to construction. Location in conjunction with Ponds is best built on silt loam soil, which is less sandy and has a larger water holding capacity.
Fish Farming:
- The ideal soil for pond building has 30-50 per cent nitrogen, 6-16 per cent phosphorus, 1-2 per cent organic carbon, 5% calcium carbonate, and a pH of 6.5-7.5.
- In the event of an ancient pond, removing pond muck is critical as a pre-stocking management step during this season.
- The pond bottom must be de-silted every three years for greater nutrient delivery and increased fish development.
- Liming is used to adjust the pond soil pH by applying an initial dosage/basal dose based on the soil pH’s current value.
- Fish health and behaviour, as well as feeding intensity, must be monitored on a frequent basis.
- Because most infections occur during the winter season, the water quality parameter must be examined on a regular basis.
- Farmers are encouraged to use a low protein diet as the rate of feeding and metabolic activities drops during the winter and to minimise the amount of organic manure added to the pond, such as cow dung, chicken droppings, and pig dung since the rate of decomposition lowers during the winter.
- When the tubers are 2.5 cm in diameter (approximately 25 g) and planted with an intra row spacing of 15 cm, the seed need is 22.5-25 q/ha. With larger tubers, the Intra row space is increased.
- Tubers that have sprouted should be sown in furrows with the sprouts facing upward. When handling the tubers, take care not to injure the sprouts.
- The furrow irrigation method must be used. Three irrigations should be provided following sprout emergence: the first at 25 days (stolon formation stage), the second at 60 days (tuber formation stage), and the third at 80 days (tuber development stage). Only two irrigations are required following the application of mulching materials in furrows, at 25 and 60 days after emergence.