A. M. C. Amarakoon, R. M. S. D. Rathnayake, W. A. J. P. Wijesinghe, H. M. S. K. Herath
{"title":"Assessing the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural and food systems in Badulla District, Sri Lanka","authors":"A. M. C. Amarakoon, R. M. S. D. Rathnayake, W. A. J. P. Wijesinghe, H. M. S. K. Herath","doi":"10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.118","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.118","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the health condition, the global pandemic COVID-19 resulted in various negative impacts such as threats to the sustainability of agricultural and food systems on a global scale. It is therefore necessary to analyse and comprehend the immediate consequences of current pandemic on agricultural and food systems in order to develop necessary actions. This study was carried out to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural and food systems in Badulla district, Sri Lanka where the study was conducted in four Agriculture Instructor (AI) regions namely Badulla, Bandarawela, Welimada and Mahiyangana, from September 2020 to March 2021. AI regions were selected using cluster sampling technique and data were collected from randomly selected 209 farmers by administering a structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using quantitative techniques and text analysis. Results revealed that the key issue faced by the farmers was marketing and distribution. Other main problems were associated with labor, quality raw-material, finance, prices of the raw-material and quality degradation at postharvest stage including storage. Importantly, farmers have received enough farming consultancy during the pandemic. The majority of the farmers had not attempted any innovative approach to mitigate these issues but some farmers had adopted temporary solutions. In conclusion, innovative approaches in making farmers more engaged in risk management similar to COVID-19 pandemic are needed in future.","PeriodicalId":489861,"journal":{"name":"Agrieast (Chenkalady)","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135697152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
K. Pakeeratharan, A. N. P. E. Dayananda, R. Viharnaa
{"title":"Formulation and efficacy testing of vermi-tea based liquid organic fertilizers on green-amaranth (<em>Amaranthus viridis</em> L.) for home gardens","authors":"K. Pakeeratharan, A. N. P. E. Dayananda, R. Viharnaa","doi":"10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.120","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.120","url":null,"abstract":"Sudden food shortage due to strict green agriculture policy, economic crisis, COVID pandemic situation instruct the importance of home level organic production of good quality fruits and vegetables. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the efficacy of organic liquid fertilizers formulated from fish, livestock’s and plant wastes on leafy vegetable green Amaranth to promote home gardening. The liquid fertilizer was tested on Amaranth grown separately in vemicompost and garden compost. The 7 kg capacity pots were filled with two media (medium 1: vemicompost; medium 2: garden compost) and arranged in CRD with four replicates with each medium. Five plants of green-amaranth per pot were planted and treated with fish emulsion + vermi-tea (1:4=T1), cow urine + vermi-tea (1:4=T2), three leaves [Neem+ Giliricidia+ Candle bush] solution + vermi tea (3:1=T3), vermi tea (T4) and control (T5) at the rate of 50 mL/pot on 2nd, 4th and 6th week after planting. Agronomic and yield data were collected and subjected to ANOVA using SAS. Tukey's HSD multiple comparison test and PROC CORR was used to determine the best treatment combination at P <0.05. The results revealed that there was significant difference in N, P and K content of the treatments tested. The plant height, leaf area, number of leaves, root shoot ratio was significantly higher in fish emulsion + vermi-tea (1:4) [T1] and cow urine + vermi-tea [T2] at 8th weeks after planting in vermi-compost medium. There was strong and positive correlation (R2 > 0.8) among yield parameters, and root: shoot ratio with N, P K content of the liquid fertilizers tested in vermi-compost medium. Therefore, this investigation concludes that the fish emulsion + vermi-tea (1:4) and cow urine + vermi-tea (1:4) are good combination to use as liquid fertilizer at the rate of 50mL/Pot to get best yield in vermi-compost medium.","PeriodicalId":489861,"journal":{"name":"Agrieast (Chenkalady)","volume":"96 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135697044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. C. Sewwandi, W. G. R. S. Somarathna, A. N. M. Mubarak, M. N. F. Nashath, A. D. N. T. Kumara
{"title":"Evaluating the Growth and Yield Performances of Selected Rice (<em>Oryza sativa</em> L.) Varieties Grown in Organic Fertilizer","authors":"M. C. Sewwandi, W. G. R. S. Somarathna, A. N. M. Mubarak, M. N. F. Nashath, A. D. N. T. Kumara","doi":"10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.121","url":null,"abstract":"Organic rice cultivation has been receiving a lot of attention in Sri Lanka. Hence, this evaluated the growth and yield performances of 20 rice varieties including four traditional and 16 improved varieties under organic fertilization. The results indicated the significant differences for most of the tested parameters including plant height, flag leaf length and width, root length, tillers and panicle characters and dry weights between rice varieties. The traditional rice variety Madathawalu performed well in terms of plant height, panicle and above ground biomass traits compared to the improved varieties. The highest flag leaf length (42.6cm) was recorded in Madathawalu and the number of leaves per plant was in Bg360 (33.44) followed by Pokkari (28.55). However, tillering characteristics were superior in improved varieties (Bg360, Ld365 and Bg357). The highest root length was obtained in Sulai (15.87cm), while the lowest was in Bg372 (9.53cm). Bg369 had the highest 100 grain weight (3.29g) followed by Pokkari (2.95g), Suduheenaty (2.95g) and Bg 94-1 (2.9g), while the lowest was recorded in Ld365 (1.58g). Overall, the highest total panicle dry weight was observed in Madathawalu (24.29g) followed by Aeron 9-3 (22.7g) and Bg360 (20.16g) suggesting that these three rice varieties can be cultivated with the application of organic fertilize","PeriodicalId":489861,"journal":{"name":"Agrieast (Chenkalady)","volume":"50 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135697036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Growth and yield of shallot (<em>Allium ascalonicum</em> L.) as influenced by soil application of liquid urea and cow urine","authors":"Kanakanayagam Archana, Thayamini H. Seran","doi":"10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.117","url":null,"abstract":"This experiment was carried to evaluate the effect of liquid urea and cow urine with cow dung on the economic yield of shallot (Allium ascalonicum L.) in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. The experiment was arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with eight replicates and six treatments namely, T1: 20 g cow dung, T2: 20 g cow dung + 3% urea, T3: 20 g cow dung + 3% cow urine, T4: 30 g cow dung, T5: 30 g cow dung + 3% urea, and T6: 30 g cow dung + 3% cow urine. The soil applications of liquid urea and cow urine were done as top dressing at two weeks interval from 3rd week after planting (WAP). Data were collected at 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th WAP and at harvesting stage. The results revealed that there were significant (P<0.001) variations in plant height, number of bulbs, bulb diameter, fresh weight of single bulb, number of roots, root length, dry weight of leaves, dry weight of bulbs per plant and bulb yield per unit land among the treatments. Relatively higher yield (37.5 t/ha) was obtained from the plants treated with 30 g cow dung and 3% urea (T5) than other treatments whereas 20 g cow dung alone (T1) produced the lowest yield (8.4 t/ha). T6 (30 g cow dung and 3% cow urine) gave 32.6 t/ha bulb yield. It was also noted that there was no remarkable (P>0.05) difference in the bulb yields between T2 and T3. However, significant variation was observed between T5 and T6. The combined effect of cow dung and liquid urea fertilizer increased the onion yield. From this study, it could be stated that 30 g cow dung with 3% urea or 3% cow urine could give high bulb yield in the shallot cultivation at rural areas in Sri Lanka where farmers could easily collect the locally available materials for crop production in ecofriendly manner.","PeriodicalId":489861,"journal":{"name":"Agrieast (Chenkalady)","volume":"84 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135697046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impact of organic liquid fertilizers on growth and yield performance of Green Bean (<em>Phaseolus vulgaris</em> L.) in non-circulating hydroponic system","authors":"G. H. K. Madushani, Brintha Karunarathna","doi":"10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/agrieast.v17i1.119","url":null,"abstract":"Non-circulating hydroponic systems are a type of soilless production system that has been found to be extremely productive, low-cost, water, land efficient, and well-suited to avoid fertilizer leaching and groundwater contamination. The experiment was conducted to study the effect of liquid organic nutrient solutions on Green Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivation in non-circulating hydroponic system. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with seven treatments having fifteen replicates. The treatments were recommended inorganic fertilizer application (T1), ½ doses of Albert’s solution with 0.5% vermiwash (T2), 1% vermiwash (T3), 1.5% vermiwash (T4), 0.5% vegetable waste solution (T5), 1% vegetable waste solution (T6), 1.5% vegetable waste solution (T7) was used as media. The results revealed that plant height, number of leaves and branches per plant, leaf area, dry weight of leaves and length of pods were significantly (P<0.05) varied at 6th week after planting and it was high in T5. However, number of pods per plant, girth of pods, fresh and dry weight of pods and yield were high in T2 at 3rd picking while yield at 1st and 2nd picking were high in T5. This result suggests that ½ doses of Albert’s solution with 0.5% vegetable waste solution (T5) and ½ doses of Albert’s solution with 0.5% vermiwash (T2) would be the potential source of plant nutrients for sustainable crop production of bean in Non-circulating Hydroponic system.","PeriodicalId":489861,"journal":{"name":"Agrieast (Chenkalady)","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135739215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}