Black gram is a highly nutritious pulse. It is rich in protein, potassium, calcium, iron, niacin, thiamine and riboflavin. These slides illustrate organic way of cultivating the black gram.

1. Traditional Technology Solutions
Presents
Organic Farming Methods – Part 5
Organic pulses cultivation (Black gram)
Presented by,
N. S. Santhana Krishnan,
Traditional Technology Solutions,
E-mail: sankrish@tts.org.in,
Website: www.tts.org.in .

2. Organic pulses cultivation
 In this presentation we are going to discuss about cultivation of
Black gram.
 Black gram and few other pulses have tendency to fix atmospheric
nitrogen in roots which will be used for the next crop
 We started the cultivation at the end of rainy season since the
crop could not with stand heavy rains.
 This cultivation took place in our lands situated in the Village
named “Thiru-Magaral”.
 We chose one acre for black gram cultivation.
 We also cultivated black gram in our ancestral residential plots in
Neyyadupakkam village.
 We didn’t irrigate the lands but used the monsoon rain itself for
cultivation.

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We initially ploughed the land using tractor with tine attachment.

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Soil after ploughed with tine attachment in tractor

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We used TN state government certified black gram seeds

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Seeds got dispersed evenly on ploughed field

7. Land was ploughed after seeding using tractor with rotary plough
attachment which converts and covers the seeds with soft powdered soil

8. Black gram seeds got germinated after ten days from seeding

9. Plants after twenty days

10. Plants after thirty days

11. Plants after forty days

12. Black gram pods started to appear after seventy days

13. Plants got plucked and kept as bunches for collection

14. Plant bunches were collected and kept covered for three days for
the pulses to get matured.

15. The plants were allowed to dry after three days of maturing
to separate the pods

16. We got 40 kg of black gram from 60 cents of land without
adding fertilizers and pesticides. We didn’t even irrigate the land
Plants got grown using little drizzle of rain and morning dew
water
Simultaneously we cultivated black gram in our residential
land at neyyadupakkam village with an area of 59 cents.
 We did this cultivation to reduce weeds and increase soil fertility.
In this land we used only around 40 cents of free land for
cultivation since rest of the land was occupied by trees &
construction materials.
In this land the soil was sandy loam type hence we distributed
the black gram seeds and ploughed over it with tractor.

17. Ten days after germination of seeds.

18. Other side of land

19. After forty days of seeding

20. Fifty days after germination of seeds

21. After sixty days of seeding

22. Seventy days after seeding

23. Eighty days after seeding

24. Other side of the land

25. Plants got matured by ninety days and the leaves turned yellow

26. Plants got plucked after 95 days of seeding

27. Harvested plants got collected , covered with plastic sheet for
three days and allowed to dry

28. We got around 15 kg of black gram from this small place

29. We husked the external black cover of black gram and
it was packed to avoid moisture leakage

30. Conclusion:
We got very good quality of black
gram. It was practically tested in our home by making idly
and vadas. The taste of the food products were good and also
it gave three to four times volume of wet grinded flour for
unit quantity of dry pulses.
Since we have cultivated in small area
we have limited amount of stock for sale. We are getting good
feedback from the customers who used it. This time we have
started to cultivate black and green gram in an area of around
7 acres. Hence we expect to provide sufficient amount of
pulses to every customer in another three to four months.

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Thank You