3 Important Cereals Cultivated in India

The following points highlight the three important cereals cultivated in India. The cereals are: 1. The Rice 2. The Wheat 3. The Maize.

Cereal # 1. The Rice (Oryza Sativa Linn- Poaceae):

Rice is an annual grass; culms up to 1.5 mtr. tall, or more in deep water varieties, rooting at the nodes below, smooth and glabrous.

Leaves with flat linear acuminate blades, more or less scab rid below and on the margins, 30-60 cm. long, 0.6-0.8 cm. broad, sheathed at the base; sheaths smooth with ciliate auricles: ligules long, lanceolate, scarious, finally splitting. Inflorescence a lax erect panicle, 15-30 cm. long; rachis more or less robust, angled and channelled, scaberulous.

Spikelet’s 3 – flowered, ovate – oblong or ovoid, erect, 0.8 – 1.2 cm. long, awned or not; the terminal floret fertile, the lower 2 sterile; the glumes are represented by obscure scales at the apex of the peduncle; pedicels angular, short, swollen at the top; fertile lemma strongly laterally compressed, as long as the spikelet, coriaceous, finely granulate, folded and keeled, acute with a short awn, strongly 3 – 5 – nerved; the lateral nerves forming a thickened margin, hispid-ciliate; lower empty lemmas oblong-lanceolate, acute or subulate, entire or toothed at-the top, about 2 mm. long; palea of the same texture as the lemma and as long, linear, 3-nerved, keeled, with membranous margin; lodecules 2, entire or 2-lobed; stamens 6, with slender filaments; anthers linear; ovary superior, 1-celled with one anatropous ovule; styles 2; stigmas 2, laterally exserted, plumose. Fruit a caryopsis, oblong, angular, lightly enclosed in the lemma and palea, more or less 1 cm. long.

Rice is the staple food of a large number of people in Asia. It is widely cultivated in India, China, Japan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and countries of south eastern Asia and adjacent islands of the Pacific. It is also cultivated in East Africa, some parts of S. Europe and S. America.

In ancient period rice used to be cultivated in India, Malaya, Java, Sri Lanka and S. Africa. Use of rice in India as food dates back to about 2300 B.C. It is considered that rice originated in the south and south eastern Asia and S. India might have been its original home.

Rice is a crop of wide physiological adaptability and is grown in both tropical and temperate countries from sea level to an altitude of over 2000 m. above sea-level and from semiarid tracts to very wet areas. A large number of varieties are under cultivation in India which differ in their season of growth, maturity, adaptability to different conditions of soil, rainfall, temperature, etc.

The method of cultivation of the crop varies with the adaptability of the varieties. The crop grows best on clayey loams but it can be cultivated on various types of soils, viz. — damp alluvial soil, high sandy soil, gravelly or stony soil, boggy soil, or terraces, hill- slopes, high lands or low lands subject to flooding.

It can grow even on lands on which 2-6 m. of water is standing for several weeks. High temperature and high humidity are very good for the crop but there are certain varieties which can grow under very low rainfall. Under tropical and subtropical conditions, as in S. India rice can be grown practically throughout the year. In temperate region and high altitude-areas the crop is grown only in the warm part of the year.

The varieties grown in the plains fall into 3 categories, viz.:

The crop is grown under dry or puddle system. Under the former the field is ploughed repeatedly after the harvest of previous crop to bring it to good tilth, while under the other system, the land is ploughed in standing water. Under the dry system of cultivation the seeds are sown in rows or by broadcasting.

In the puddle system the seeds may be sown after sprouting or un-sprouted. For transplanted crop, seedlings are raised in nurseries or seed beds. Seedlings are transplanted when they are of 4-6 weeks old. Usually transplanting is done in rows to facilitate weed control operation and easy harvesting.

Rice responds well to nitrogen application and the optimum dose being 20 kg. of nitrogen per acre in organic or inorganic form or as a mixture. Farm yard manure, compost, oilcakes, tank-silt, fish manure, leaves of Gliricidia maculata, Indigofera, Tephrosia, etc. and green manure in situ with sunn hemp are commonly used in different rice growing areas in our country.

When organic manures are not available and green manuring not practicable 10-15 kg. of nitrogen in the form of ammonium sulphate should be applied immediately before sowing or transplanting and an equal quantity as top dressing when plants are about one month old would be necessary. Super phosphate at 10-20 kg of P2O5 per acre and oil-cake giving 10 kg. of nitrogen may also be added during puddling.

After transplanting water is allowed to stand in the field to a depth of 2-3 cm. until the seedlings are well established. About 6 cm. of water is always maintained in the field by frequent draining and re-irrigating the field and the water is drained off the field about a week or two before harvesting unless the water dries up in natural course.

The right stage of harvesting is when the ears are nearly ripe and the straw is slightly green. In the case of plants about a metre tall or more these are cut with a sickle and left in the field for drying for 3-4 days and afterwards carried and stacked in the threshing yard.

Threshing is done by beating the sheaves against a wooden log or with sticks or trampling the crop under the feet of bullocks. A pedal thresher machine is also used for the purpose for quick work.

Varieties of rice plant grown in India easily run to about three thousands, majority of them are suitable for cultivation in the plains. The yield of paddy varies from 400 to 2000 kg per acre depending on the soil, season of cultivation, manuring and the variety grown. The total area under rice in India is about 83 million acres and the annual production is -about 33 million tons.

Rice plant is susceptible to Blast disease, Brown-spot or Sesame Leaf-spot, and Bakanae disease caused by fungal infection. Blast disease is caused by Piriculana oryzac Cav. This can be controlled by spraying Bordeaux mixture repeatedly.

Growing resistant types, avoiding excessive nitrogenous manure, adjusting planting date, spraying the crop 3-4 times with copper fungicides are also recommended. The 2nd disease is caused by Helminthosporium oryzae Br.de Haun.

To get rid of this disease 4 seed treatment before sowing gives good result. In this case the germinating seeds are soaked in cold water extract of this fungus and this treatment makes the plants immune to this disease. The 3rd or the Bakanae disease or Foot Rot is caused by Gibberella fujikuroi(Saw) Wollenw.

This can be controlled by applying Ceresan and Agrosan G.N. A seed treatment with organomercurial drips is also recommended. Insect pests are controlled by dusting BHC or DDT powder or spraying a solution of the same.

Cereal # 2. The Wheat (Triticum Aestivum Linn – Poaceae):

Wheat is an annual grass with fibrous roots; culms 80-150 cm. tall, smooth. Leaves flat, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, ligulate; sheaths smooth, ligules short, truncate.

Inflorescence an erect terminal spike, irregularly 4-sided, more or less compact: rachis continuous, excavated opposite the spikelet’s, hairy on the margins; spikelet’s solitary, distichous, tumid, few-flowered, imbricate, on the opposite sides of the rachis, laterally compressed, ovoid, glabrous or hairy.

Flowers bisexual, the uppermost flower sterile, glumes 2 persistent, about 1 cm. long, rigid, sub-equal, broadly ovate oblong, unequal sided, obtuse or shortly awned. Lemmas oblong or ventricose, rounded or keeled on the back, muticous or 1-3-awned.

Paleas as long as lemmas, 2, entire, ciliate. Stamens 3. Ovary superior, 1-celled, with 1 anatropous ovule; styles 2, very short, stigmas pulmose. Caryopsis oblong, ventrally grooved, about 1 cm. long, free within the lemma and palea or adhering to the latter.

Besides T. aestivum a few other species of the genus also give us the wheat, viz.:

1. T.monococcum Linn — Diploid.

2. T.dicoccum Schrenk-Tetraploid.

3. T.durum Desf-Tetraploid.

4. T.polonicum Linn-Tetraploid.

5. T.turgidum Linn-Tetraploid.

6. T.spelta Linn-Hexaploid.

7. T.sphaerococcum Perc — Hexaploid.

T.aestivum is also hexaploid and is cultivated in the major part of this country, e.g. in the Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and northern Rajasthan. T. durum is next in importance and is widely grown on the black soils of central and Peninsular India.

T. dicoccum is grown in small areas in the Nilgiri Hills, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. T.sphaerococcum is the Shot or Indian Dwarf wheat often cultivated in a smaller scale. Wheat is the staple food of the people of all European and W. Asiatic countries, and of Africa, America and Australia. It is also consumed in a number of other countries in good quantities although rice forms there the staple food.

The use of wheat as staple food by man started in prehistoric times. The Babylonians, early Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians and the people of Crete left records of their dependence on wheat. Archeological findings from Iraq date the use of wheat in 6700 B.C.

The excavations of Mohenjo-Daro reveal that the grains of T. sphaerococcum were in use by the people 5000 years ago. It is also known that in China wheat used to be consumed as early as 2700 B.C. Wheat grows very well in the Indo-Gangetic plain, where the winter is cool and dry and the crop can grow for a period of 5 to 6 months.

The crop can also be cultivated up to an elevation of 2700 m. Prolonged drought in the irrigated tracts reduces production considerably.

Rainfall in wheat areas ranges from 12.5 to 100 cm, irrigation being necessary for good yield in areas where rainfall is scanty. About 30 to 50% of the crop in the Indo-Gangetic tract is irrigated while in Peninsular India it is rain-fed.

Well drained loams and clay loams are very much suitable for wheat cultivation. It further requires well pulverized but compact seed bed for germination. Sowing usually starts in the second half of October and continued till the middle of next month.

In Punjab, Delhi and adjacent parts of U.P. the sowing starts in November and may go up to December. Seed is sown by broadcasting, drilling or dibbling. Generally speaking, deeper sowing is advisable in rough, dry and light soils while comparatively shallow sowing is desirable in moist or heavy soils.

Where sowing is delayed on account of water logging, transplanting seedlings of about a month old in December can give a normal crop. Usually 90 kg. of seeds per hectare is sown but the rate may vary in different areas. For dibbling 13 to 15 kg. per ha. is adequate and for the transplanted crop 25 kg of seed in the nursery should provide sufficient seedlings to cover one hectare.

The first irrigation should normally be given one month after sowing, 3-4 irrigations especially at tillering, heading and grain filling stages, should be enough while in Rajasthan 5-6 irrigations may be necessary. Excessive irrigation is however harmful.

For manuring it is advisable to apply about 180 to 275 q. per ha. of well-rotted farmyard manure or compost, or an equivalent quantity of oilcake six weeks before sowing. If sufficient rain is received in August and September application of 15 to 25 kg. of nitrogen and 10 to 15 kg. of phosphorous per ha. at sowing time produces good result.

For irrigated wheat a split application at sowing time and 35 to 45 kg of nitrogen together with 25 to 35 kg. of phosphoric acid per ha after 30 – 45 days is recommended. These may be increased to 75 kg. nitrogen, 50 kg. phosphorous and 50 kg. potash per ha. under intensive cultivation. Green manuring of irrigated crop with guar, cowpeas or sun hemp is also practiced.

Wheat is susceptible to diseases such as Rust, Smut and Bunt. Rust-disease is caused by Puccinia gram in is Pers. var tritici Eriks & Henn. P. recondita Rob.ex Desm. and P. glumarum Eriks. & Henn. Smut-disease is caused by Urocystis triticyiKoen and Ustilago tritici Rotr., while Bunt is caused by infection of Neovassia indica (Mitra) Mundkur.

These can be controlled to some extent by spraying solutions of Agrosan — G.N., Ceresan, Tritisan, Panogen or Vivatex. Seed dressing with copper sulphate also gives good results. There are a few resistant varieties and selection of such varieties for cultivation gives effective control. Termite of the soil causes much harm and to cope with this Aldrin dust is mixed with the soil during preparation before sowing.

The crop is harvested when the grain is dead ripe and the straw is golden yellow and brittle. Plants are either uprooted or cut with a sickle. Harvesting begins in mid-January in Karnataka, in February in some areas of Maharashtra, in March-April in Bihar, U.P., Delhi and Punjab and in May-June in the hills of the north.

The grain is generally threshed out by treading under the feet of cattle. Simple mechanical threshers are also used for the purpose. The yield of grain of rain-fed crop varies from 450 kg. to 775 kg per hect. depending on the condition of the soil.

In irrigated areas the yield ranges from 1000 kg. to 1400 kg. per ha. Under favourable conditions the crop may produce over 1.2 tonnes of grains per acre. Wheat is grown in India on an area of about 13.3 million ha. producing nearly 11.5 million tonnes of grain.

Wheat is obtained from 8 species of Triticum. Numerous cultivated varieties of each species are known. The Russian scientists have developed a new perrenial hybrid variety of wheat that flowers and fruits for several consecutive years.

After the first harvest the stumps that remain in the soil start tillering in the next sowing season and flower and fruit in proper time. This saves much of the cost. The yield however is less than the other varieties and gradually decreases every year.

Cereal # 3. The Maize (Zea Mays Linn — Poaceae):

Maize is a tall annual herb with a stout stem which is solid and jointed at the nodes.

It has a fibrous root system with 3 types of roots, viz.:

(1) Seminal roots developing from the radicle and forming the primary root system which may later perish or persist;

(2) Adventitious roots produced from the nodes at the basal portion and penetrating the soil;

(3) Prop roots, which come out in whorls from one or two nodes above the basal part.

The prop roots are much thicker than the other roots and on entering the soil help the plant to stand erect, and also function as ordinary absorbing roots. Leaves alternate and distichous, simple, linear – lanceolate, acuminate, with an entire ciliate margin, multicostate with a firm midrib, with a sheathing leaf-base; sheath split on the side opposite the blade, villous at the margin; leaf blade 30-45 cm long, 3.5-12 cm. broad.

Maize plant is monoecious, but has 2 types of inflorescences: the male is a terminal panicle and the pistillate an axillary spadix. The panicle consists of a central axis with several rows of paired spikelets and a few lateral branches with only 2 rows of paired spikelets.

One of each pair of the spikelets is pedicellate while the other sessile. Each spikelet consists of 2 flowers subtended at the base by a pair of glumes. The glumes are at most equal in size, densely covered with minute stiff hairs and the outer or lower one more or less overlapping the other so that the 2 flowers are completely enclosed when young.

Each flower has 2 opposite bracts: the outer one is called the lemma and the inner one the palea. At the base of the lemma are found 2 fleshy scales representing the perianth and are called lodicules.

Androecium consists of 3 stamens, 2 opposite the lemma and one opposite the palea; filaments long with 2-lobed versatile anthers. In the centre of each staminate flower lies a rudimentary gynoecium. Of the 2 flowers in a spikelet the upper one matures first.

The spadices are borne in the axils of the lower leaves. A spadix, commonly called a cob, is enclosed by a number of large bracts or spathes. The axis of the cob on which the spikelets are arranged in vertical rows is thick and spongy and represents the fused axis of several spikes.

The stalk of the axis is called the shank and is in reality a condensed shoot having compressed internodes. The spathes or the husks are the leaves coming out form the nodes of the shank. There are rows of female spikelets all round the axis.

Each female spikelet is 2-flowered and has 2 glumes at the base. The lower flower is barren and the upper is fertile. Like the male, the female flower has a lemma and a palea. The sterile one has 2 lodecules, 3 rudimentary stamens and a rudimentary carpel: the fertile flower on the other hand has the carpel very well developed but the lodecules and staminodes are not recognizable.

Ovary is 1-celled with 1 campylotropous ovule; style filiform with long hairy stigma. The apparently monocarpellary ovary is in reality tricarpellary of which only one carpel bears the ovule and the other 2 extend and form the style. The palea and lemma of a female floret are persistent and form the chaff of the grain on maturity. Caryopsis subglobose, hard and shining.

The maize is not indigenous to India or to any part of the Old World. It originated in the low lands of Central America and most probably in Southern Mexico.

The antiquity of its domestication is shrowded in mystery but it is known that the Mayas and the Incas depended on maize as a cereal. It is now grown in almost all countries of the world even upto an elevation of 3600 mtrs. in the hills. In India it is widely cultivated and a total area of about 6 million hectares is under maize cultivation.

Maize is a warm weather crop. It prefers a well-drained loamy soil, moist but not water­logged. In India sowing starts on the onset of monsoon or earlier in irrigated areas. Seeds are dibbled by hand or sown by broadcasting.

The field is prepared before sowing by ploughing several times and spraying the soil by 2,4D solution or by triazine weedicide to make it free from insects or spores of fungi.

Compost and farmyard manure are usually applied and potassium chloride and superphosphate are also used. To control viral, fungal and bacterial infection a mixture of Aureofungin and coppersulphate or Bordeaux mixture is sprayed over the plants.

Caterpillars do a lot of damage to the crop and to kill them dusting with 5% DDT or spraying with 0.25% DDT gives the desired result. The crop is ready for harvesting in 80 -100 days from the time of sowing. Cobs are collected and the grains are separated by beating with sticks or by other mechanical means.