Editorial Desk
Guides are compiled by the Technical Kisan editorial desk from ICAR and state agricultural university recommendations, and from central and state government scheme notifications. Every figure is labelled with the season it applies to. Always confirm against the official notification before acting on it.
63 guides
Central Government SchemesA clean sale deed is not proof of a clean title. Before any advance changes hands, these are the record checks, physical checks and legal restrictions that decide whether an agricultural land purchase is actually safe.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
Central Government SchemesFarm loans are easier to get than most personal credit for one structural reason — priority sector lending. Here is what that means in practice, and what a bank actually needs from you before it lends.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
CropsWaterlogged roots suffocate within a day or two, not weeks — and the fungal disease that follows a wet spell moves almost as fast. What you do in the first 48 hours after a heavy downpour decides how much of the crop survives it.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Central Government SchemesBoundary disputes rarely start with bad intentions — they start with a decades-old map, a missing stone marker, and two neighbours each certain they are right. Here is how official demarcation actually works.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
CropsMost farm cash-flow trouble is not a bad season — it is a good season with no budget, where borrowing decisions get made crop by crop instead of against a full-season plan.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
CropsA land record proves you own the field. A farm record proves what actually happened on it — and it is the one document a bank, an insurer or your own memory a year from now will all eventually ask for.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
FertilizersNitrogen leaches, phosphorus does not move at all, and potassium sits somewhere between the two — which is why one fertiliser-timing rule can never cover all three, let alone the micronutrients.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Central Government SchemesA season budget answers whether this crop will make money. Financial planning answers a bigger question — what happens to the family if it does not, and what the farm looks like in ten years rather than one.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Central Government SchemesKCC covers the crop season. For everything else — a solar pump, a cold store, a dairy processing unit — a separate set of government-backed loan schemes exists, each with its own subsidy and interest structure.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
CropsHarvest too early and grain never finishes filling; harvest too late and shattering or lodging takes it before you do. The window between those two mistakes is where the whole season either pays off or leaks away.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Central Government SchemesA bigha in Uttar Pradesh is not a bigha in Rajasthan, and a rough pace-count is not a survey. Here is what your land record actually measures in, how it gets measured, and how to convert it to a unit you can compare.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingSell certified organic produce through a regular mandi and it gets priced as if it were conventional — because nobody there can tell the difference. The premium only exists in channels built to recognise it.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Central Government SchemesThe gap between when input costs go out and when harvest revenue comes in is where most farm financial stress actually lives. Selling in tranches, pledging stored grain, and staggering crops all shrink that gap.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
CropsTwo wheat farmers with identical land, identical rain and an identical MSP can still end the season with very different profit — because profit is decided weeks before harvest, by sowing date, nitrogen timing and one irrigation round.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
CropsThe monsoon does not just water the kharif crop — it rewrites the rules on sowing timing, weed pressure, disease risk and fertiliser loss all at once. Here is what to plan for before the first heavy spell.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingOrganic farming genuinely rebuilds soil and genuinely commands a premium — and it genuinely costs yield during conversion and demands more labour than most farmers are told upfront. Both halves are true at once.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
CropsGrain that goes into storage too damp, uncleaned or on bare ground is grain that is already partway to spoiled. Most storage loss is decided in the first week after harvest, not months later.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
IrrigationMost farms already receive enough rain across the year to cut their irrigation bill sharply — the water is simply not captured. A farm pond, contour bunding and mulching keep monsoon water working long after the rain stops.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
CropsThe biggest savings in Indian farming rarely come from buying less. They come from not wasting what you already bought — on fertiliser applied without a soil test, seed re-sown after poor germination, and diesel burnt on operations timed too late.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
CropsThe pesticide label is not a suggestion — it is the legally binding instruction for dose, timing and protective gear. Most spraying injuries and most wasted sprays trace back to skipping something the label already specified.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
CropsWeighment, quality assay, open auction, a signed sale receipt — every APMC transaction follows the same basic sequence, and every step it skips is a step where a farmer gets underpaid.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Central Government SchemesAgricultural or non-agricultural, irrigated or unirrigated, cultivable or fallow — the classification sitting quietly in your Khasra decides your tax treatment, your scheme eligibility, and what you are legally allowed to build.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
Central Government SchemesEvery scheme payment, loan and land sale in India traces back to one document — the Record of Rights. It goes by a different name in every state. Here is what each record actually is, and where to check yours online.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
CropsMSP is announced for 23 crops every season, but effective procurement is concentrated in wheat and paddy, and mostly in a handful of states. Here is how the price is actually calculated, and what it takes to sell at it.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
LivestockBiofloc packs three to five times the fish into the same footprint as an earthen pond, by turning the tank's own waste into feed — but only for species that tolerate high density and thrive in that constant biological churn. Here is what actually works in a biofloc tank.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
LivestockBroiler is a 5–6 week cash cycle bet on feed conversion; layer is a year-long bet on sustained daily egg output. Picking the wrong one for your cash-flow horizon is the single most common poultry mistake — here is how to actually choose.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
LivestockLow capital, low land, and a doe that kids roughly every 8 months — goat farming compounds faster than almost any other livestock business. Here is what a first unit actually costs, which breed to start with, and the one risk that sinks more goat units than any other.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
LivestockFMD twice a year, HS and BQ once before the monsoon, Brucellosis once as a heifer calf — the four vaccinations that actually matter for a dairy cow, and why skipping one costs far more than the injection itself.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
LivestockHF crossbred gives the most milk on paper, but the breed that actually pays is the one your feed, water and vet access can support. A working comparison of HF, Jersey, Sahiwal and Gir on yield, hardiness and what each one actually costs to keep.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
LivestockFeed is 65–70% of the cost of producing milk — which means the fastest way to raise margin is rarely a better breed, it is a better ration. Six practical levers that cut feed cost without cutting the milk that pays for it.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingBeejamrit is the seed-treatment step of natural farming — a microbial coat of cow dung, urine and lime that shields germinating seed from soil- and seed-borne disease. Here is the recipe, the method, and what it does and does not do.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingBone meal is crushed, steamed animal bone — a slow-release organic source of phosphorus and calcium that suits fruit, flowering and root crops. Here is what it supplies, why it works best in slightly acidic soils, and how to apply it at planting.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingDiluted cow urine is a low-cost foliar spray used in organic and natural farming as a mild pest repellent, a light nutrient tonic, and the base for stronger botanical brews. Here is how to dilute and use it — and why it is a supporting act, not a pesticide.
Technical Kisan Editorial1 min read
Organic FarmingA garlic and chilli extract is the classic kitchen-garden repellent — cheap, quick to make, and effective against aphids, small caterpillars and other soft-bodied pests. Here is a working recipe, how to dilute and spray it, and why to test a patch first.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingMustard cake is the residue left after mustard oil is pressed — a fast-acting organic nitrogen source vegetable growers reach for when a crop needs a push. Here is how to apply it dry, how to ferment it into a foliar feed, and what it costs you.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingThe NADEP method makes a large volume of good compost from crop residue and very little dung, in an above-ground brick tank with air holes. Here is how the tank is built, how it is layered and filled, and why it needs so little cow dung.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingNeem cake is what is left after neem oil is pressed from the kernel — an oilseed cake that feeds the crop slowly and suppresses root-knot nematodes at the same time. Here is how much to use, when, and why it doubles as a nitrification inhibitor.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingA pheromone trap uses a species-specific scent lure to draw in male moths — either to tell you when a pest is building, or to mass-trap enough males to cut the next generation. Here is how many to use for each job, how to place them, and their limits.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingTrichoderma is a beneficial fungus that colonises roots and out-competes soil-borne disease — used as a seed treatment, a soil application with FYM, or a seedling root dip. Here is how to use each, and the one mistake that wastes your money.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingWood ash from a clean fire is a free source of potash and calcium, a leaf dust against soft-bodied pests, and a grain-storage protectant. But it raises soil pH, so it helps acid soils and harms alkaline ones. Here is how to use it — and where not to.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingA yellow sticky trap is a coloured card coated in glue that draws in whitefly, aphids and leaf miner — both to monitor a rising population and to trap it down. Here is why yellow works, why thrips need blue, and how to place and maintain them.
Technical Kisan Editorial2 min read
Organic FarmingBiofertilisers are living cultures of beneficial microbes that fix nitrogen and unlock phosphorus for a few rupees a packet. They work — but only if you match the culture to the crop and keep the packet alive. Here is how.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingA green manure crop grown and ploughed back into the soil is the cheapest nitrogen an organic farm can get. Here is how dhaincha and sunhemp work, when to sow and incorporate them, and how much nitrogen they are really worth.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingJeevamrit is a fermented microbial culture of cow dung, cow urine, jaggery and gram flour — a cheap way to inoculate soil with beneficial microbes. Here is the standard recipe, the fermentation, and how to apply it without wasting the batch.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingNeem oil is the workhorse of organic pest control — but most failed sprays fail for the same three reasons: no emulsifier, wrong concentration, and spraying in the midday sun. Here is how to mix and time a neem spray that works.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingGoing organic means giving up the bag of urea — but not the nitrogen. Here is what replaces synthetic fertiliser on an Indian farm: FYM, compost, vermicompost, oil cakes, biofertilisers and green manure, and how to combine them so the crop is actually fed.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
Organic FarmingPotato is a demanding crop to grow organically — it is a heavy feeder and late blight can take it in ten days. The whole game is prevention: healthy seed, resistant varieties, wide airflow and early copper-based defence. Here is the approach.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingOrganic rice and the System of Rice Intensification fit together naturally — SRI’s wide spacing, young seedlings and intermittent wetting cut water and inputs, while organic fertility feeds the soil biology SRI relies on. Here is how to run the two together.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingTomato is high-value and heavily attacked — fruit borer, whitefly-borne leaf curl and early blight all target it. Grown organically, it leans on staking, traps, neem and biological agents rather than a spray schedule. Here is the working system.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingNo herbicide is allowed in organic farming, so weeds have to be beaten by method, not chemistry. Mulch, stale seedbeds, timely inter-culture, cover crops and spacing — the practical stack that keeps an organic field clean.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingWheat is one of the easier crops to grow organically because it is a light feeder with few serious pests. The key is front-loading fertility with FYM and a green-manure rotation, and holding the November sowing window. Here is how.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
Organic FarmingPanchagavya is a fermented tonic of five cow products used as a foliar growth promoter in organic farming. Here is the classic recipe, the three-week fermentation, the dilution that works, and honest limits on what it does.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
CropsSowing date is the single biggest lever on wheat yield in North India — bigger than variety, bigger than fertiliser. Here is what late sowing actually costs you, and how to adjust seed rate when you cannot sow on time.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
Central Government SchemesAlmost every failed PM-KISAN payment comes down to one of four fixable problems — e-KYC, land seeding, an Aadhaar-name mismatch, or an ineligibility flag. Here is how to identify which one is yours and fix it.
Technical Kisan Editorial5 min read
IrrigationDrip cuts water use by 40–60% and lifts yield by 20–50% on row crops. With PMKSY subsidy at 55% for small farmers, the real question is not whether it works — it is which crops pay it back fast enough.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
Farming TechniquesA zero-till drill saves ₹3,000 per hectare, 50 litres of diesel and a full irrigation — and it lets you sow 7–10 days earlier, which is worth 2–3 quintals on its own. The one thing it demands is that you stop ploughing.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
FertilizersBroadcast urea onto a dry field and 30–40% of the nitrogen is in the air or the groundwater within days. Splitting the dose and applying to moist soil is the cheapest yield gain available on an Indian farm.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
CropsOnion margins are not made in the field, they are made in the shed. Curing properly and storing in a ventilated chawl is the difference between selling at harvest-time lows and selling three months later into a thin market.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
A spray drone covers an acre in eight minutes with a tenth of the water and keeps the operator out of the chemical entirely. At ₹6–10 lakh, though, the maths only closes above about 50 acres.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
Central Government SchemesThe KCC is the cheapest money a farmer can borrow — but only if you repay within the year. Miss that date and the interest subvention vanishes, and the rate you actually pay nearly doubles.
Technical Kisan Editorial3 min read
CropsThere is no cure for tomato leaf curl once a plant has it. Everything that works is prevention — whitefly control, barrier crops, resistant varieties and ruthless roguing in the first three weeks.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
SeedsForty rupees of fungicide protects an acre of seed against the soil-borne diseases that no amount of later spraying will fix. It is the highest return on investment available anywhere on an Indian farm — and the order you mix in matters.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read
Organic FarmingA six-bed vermicompost unit costs about ₹34,000 after subsidy and turns farm waste you were burning into a saleable product. Here is the full cost sheet, the realistic revenue, and the three things that decide whether it works for you.
Technical Kisan Editorial4 min read