This document discusses the components of organic farming and manure application. It outlines various organic manures like farm yard manure, compost, and green manuring that supply nutrients and organic matter to soils. It also discusses crop rotation, biopesticides, biofertilizers, and weed management techniques in organic farming. For manure application, it describes broadcasting, banding, and injection methods for placing manure in fields in ways that reduce weeds and pathogens.

1. Components of organic farm & manure
application
Sankrita Gaonkar
Assistant Professor in Botany
sankrita002@gmail.com

2. Contents
• Components of organic farm
• Manure application
• References

3. Components of organic farm
1) Organic manure:
A) Bulky organic manure:
1. Farm yard manure - well decomposed mixture of dung (like cattle/cow dung),
urine, farm litter & left over materials from fodder fed to the cattle/animals.
2. Compost – Large quantities of waste material are available as vegetable, farm
litter. This may include weeds, sugarcane trash, this excreta can be converted
into useful compost manures. Vermicompost: Vermicompost is produced by
earthworms by eating biomass and excreting it in digested form.
Vermicompost is one of best organic manure which is very much essential to
provide nutrients to crop in organic agriculture

4. 3. Green Manuring: It is a practice of ploughing or turning green plant tissues
into the soil to improve physical structure as well as soil fertility.
• Supplies organic matter as well as additional nitrogen. The most commonly
used green manuring crops are; Cowpea, Cluster bean.
B) Concentrated Organic Manure:
• Materials that are organic in nature and contain higher % of essential plant
nutrients such as nitrogen ‘N’, phosphorous ‘P’ and potash ‘K’.
• Made from raw materials obtained from animal or plants.
• E.g., fishmeal, oil-cakes, blood meal, meat meal and hoof meal.

5. 2) Crop rotation
• Growing different types of crops in a regular sequence on the same field
covering a period of 2 years or more.
• Important for soil fertility, weed control , insect pests and disease control.
• Legume crops are essential in any rotation
3) Bio-pesticide
• Are natural plant products that belong to alkaloids, terpenoids, phenolics.
• Their biological activity is beneficial against insects, nematodes, fungi and
other organisms.
• Among the botanical pesticides Neem is best.
• All parts of Neem tree possess insecticidal property but seed kernel is most
active.
• Commonly used botanical Insecticides are Nicotine, Rotenone, Pyrethrum.

6. 4) Bio-fertilizers
• living microbes.
• Microorganism’s culture capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen when suitable
crops are grown with them.
• Nitrogen fixation – Rhizobium, BGA, Azolla, Azotobacter
• Mycorrhizae – enhanced nutrient uptake
5) Weed management
• Organic farmers cannot use herbicides or weedicides to control or prevent the
weeds
• Other ways of weed management - such as mulching; tillage may be used to
control weeds
• Cover crops can be cultivated to suppress weeds and increased soil fertility.
• Drip irrigation is another best method of controlling weeds in the crop as it can
restrict the water distribution to only main plants.

7. Manure application
• Broadcast - spreading fertilizer uniformly all over the field. Broadcasting can
be used for the application of solid, slurry and liquid manure. Application
techniques include box spreaders, tank wagons, and irrigation systems.
Broadcasting requires the least amount of energy and time, and results in a
uniform application pattern. Weed growth
• Band spread - Band spreading is the placement of fertilizer in a concentrated
layer or location (band) in the soil, commonly 8-15 cm below the surface.
Fertilizer bands can be placed with the seed, below the seed, or both. Placing
manure on the soil surface where it is exposed to sun and air may also reduce
pathogens.

8. • Injection of manure - Injection methods are beneficial as they place liquid
manure below the soil surface, It also reduces odour. Injection equipment
can be added to liquid and slurry spreaders. The following types of injection
can be distinguished:
• shallow injection: the application of liquid manure by placement in
shallow, vertical slots, typically about 50mm deep and 25-30 cm apart,
cut into the soil by a tine or disc; they are more commonly used on
grassland
• deep injection: the application of slurry or liquid manure by placement
in deep, vertical slots, typically about 150mm deep, cut into the soil by
specially designed tines; the tines are fitted with lateral wings which aid
the dispersion in the soil; typically these are used on arable land as they
have an increased risk of physically damaging the grass swards

10. References
• https://www.agri-
bsc.kkwagh.edu.in/uploads/department_course/organic_farming.pdf
• https://eos.com/blog/organic-farming/
• https://www.farmerjunction.com/components-of-organic-farming/
• https://www.hcms.org.in/images/kisan-
gyan/2_Components%20of%20Organic%20Farming.pdf