Soybean is a native of China. The cultivated soybean (Glycine max) originated from its wild ancestor Glycine ussuriensis, which is presently known as Glycine soja. The crop is known for its high food value from centuries. Soybean was migrated from China to neighboring countries with the development of sea and land trades during 7th century.
The cultivation and use of brinjal (eggplant/aubergine) is of great antiquity. It is from India, as philological studies indicate, that brinjal moved to West Asia and Europe. The different regions of India offer a diversity of accounts, documented as part of history, of the availability of brinjal and ancient food preparations of brinjal during medieval times.
This article examines the traditional water resources in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, which is blessed with varied and bountiful natural water resources such as khads, nalas, baudis, nawns, chhrudus, khatris, wells etc. However a recent study has revealed that 20% of the traditional water resources are in disuse, many of them dying a natural death due to poor maintenance, disrepair and the availability of modern facilities such as hand pumps and taps.
An experiment was carried out at Maud Tea Estate, Chabua, Assam following the ancient techniques of controlling pests based on information given in Surapala's Vrikshayurveda and Chakrapani Mishra's Vishvavallabha.
Deckiajuli Tea Estate in Assam, India has been grappling with the issue of what should be considered as a ideal crop management system for tea plantation. The planters felt that the use of chemicals was not giving satisfactory results and they decided to grow tea organically. To achieve these objectives, the ancient classics published by the Asian Agri-History Foundation (AAHF), Secunderabad, India were used for obtaining useful and practical information.
Tea (Camellia sinensis) is an important commercial crop extensively cultivated in Assam. Being grown as a monocrop, many insect and mite pests are prevalent in the tea plantations causing considerable crop loss. Use of traditional plant protection measures for pest management in tea has not been considered feasible considering the vastness of the tea plantation. However, Ayangarya (2006) reported that many tea pests could be controlled successfully by adopting such traditional practices based on Vrikshayurveda.
Khana, a woman seer and a composer of nature verses lived between 800 and 1200 AD. Her contribution to traditional agriculture of Bengal, India is amazing. Her verses were the most important guidelines for traditional agriculture and in villages, farmers are still following several verses along with present-day modern agricultural practices.
Publication of annual almanac Vijayeshwar Panchang by Vijayeshwar Jyotish Karyalaya (Regd.) since three centuries in Kashmir has been constantly devoting a few pages that predict the local climatic conditions based on the astrological calculations for the year and their effect on important crops, productivity and quality. Agricultural operations in Kashmir are carefully timed so as to fall within a certain period before or after Navroj (spring) and Mezan (autumn). If the period exceeds it is sure to lead to crop failure.
Khasi tribe is an ancient hill tribe of East and West Khasi Hill districts of Meghalaya in Northeast India. Potato is the most important crop for the tribal farmers. Traditional potato storage structures and methods accords high significance among this tribe owing to the semi-perishable nature of the potatoes, the need of the farmers to store potatoes for seed as well as table purpose, and non-existence of cold storage facilities in these districts.
Dinajpur district in West Bengal, India is traditionally famous for its indigenous rice biodiversity. However, this highly valuable biodiversity is under threat. The indigenous rice biodiversity of old alluvial region of North and South Dinajpur has been highlighted in this paper.
