appm midterm

• Agro-ecosystem analysis (AESA)


  An approach which can be gainfully employed by extension functionaries and farmers to analyse field situations with regard to pests, defenders, soil conditions, plant health, the influence of climatic factors and their interrelationship for growing healthy crop

  
• Purpose of AESA


  • Help in taking appropriate decision on management practices
• Basic components of AESA


  • Plants health at different stages
  • Monitor symptoms of diseases and nematodes
  • Built-in-compensation abilities of the plants
  • Pest and defender population dynamics
  • Soil conditions
  • Climatic factors
  • Farmers past experience

  
• Methodology of AESA


  1. Plant health monitoring

  2. Pest monitoring

  3. Soil sampling

  4. Weather data collection

  5. Group discussion

  6. Strategy for decision making

  7. AESA by extension functionaries

  8. AESA by farmers

  9. Pest monitoring through pheromones/light traps

  10. Economic Threshold Level (ETL)

  
• All crops cannot be grown in all types of agro climatic zones. Some crops can be possible to grow in all zones and some crops will be grown in some zones
• Every plant has its own agro-ecosystem
• Sampling and thresholds are important parts of ecosystem analysis
• Some parts of the ecosystems interact
• Steps in AESA


  1. Soil testing

  2. Recommending organic and inorganic fertilizer dose

  3. Selecting suitable seed variety

  4. Testing seed viability

  5. Suggesting suitable seed treatment

  6. Raised nursery bed

  7. Preparation of compost

  8. Vermicompost preparation
• Reliable information on agro ecological regions homogeneity in soil site conditions is the basic to maximize agricultural production on sustainable basis

  
• This kind of systematic approach may help the country in planning and optimizing land use and preserving soils, environment
• The object of present study is to delianate such regions as uniform as possible introspect of physiographic, climate, length of growing period (LPG) and soils for macro level and land use planning and effective transfer of agro - technology
• Agro climatic zone


  A land unit of major climate and growing period which is climate mentally suitable for a certain image of crops and cultivars