agro technologies stevia
Stevia is cultivation in many ways by farmers in India. The best method is cultivating them on mounds with drip irrigation. Some farmers also use sprinklers. This is also good practice if there is enough water available as sprinklers are 30% less efficient to drip in water conservation. The advantage they have is reducing the temperature in micro environment by 5-7%. The second advantage is washing away the white flys that some times infest Stevia leaves. They are commonly found in pegion pea fields. They merely migrate to Stevia farms. Washing them would give good result.
The mounds are made at 1ft interval and plants could be planted on the outer edges of the mounds in rows. Farm should have a pump and filteration unit when sprinkler or drip is used. Farmers could also flood the water in furrows. But this leads to over growth of weeds which adds to cost of cultivation. Keep the farm clean and go for cutting of leaves at every 2 months interval.
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