Introduction

Horse gram or gahat is one of the oldest pulse crops cultivated and consumed in India for centuries whose botanical name is ‘Macrotyloma uniflorum’. Horse gram is mostly grown in drylands. It is one of the varieties of daal (lentil) mainly consumed in the Terai and hilly regions of Nepal. Horse gram is full of Protein, Iron, and Calcium and it also helps in losing weight. Gahat has been found to have many medicinal benefits such as diarrhea, stomach ache, hemorrhoids, and menstrual disorder. It has also been found useful for kidney stones, weak liver, gall stone, hypertension, and excessive perspiration.

Climate and soil Requirement

Both tropical and subtropical climatic conditions are suitable for horse gram cultivation. This grain crop is drought resistant, so mainly this crop is cultivated in low rainfall areas. The crop is cultivated in low rainfall areas. The crop requires low to moderate annual rainfall of 500mm to 700mm. The optimum temperature for its growth is (20-34) degree Celsius soils, deep red loam, and clay loam paddy soil are the best for its cultivation. Highly acidic or alkaline soils are not suitable for its cultivation. Soil with neutral PH and adding organic matter in the soils lead to the production of vigorous seed.

Land Preparation

Land should be prepared to the fine tilth by giving 3 to 4 ploughs. Weed and previously grown crops’ leaves and stems should be cleared in the field. Based on the cultivation practices, the field should be made with 1 foot wide ranges and furrows or make beds and channels of 4 feet- 6 feet. Application of well rotted farmyard manure (FYM) will result in vigorous growth of the seeds. The seed should be shown @1.5cm to 2cm depth with the plant to plant distances of 10cm to 30cm between rows. Seed should be treated with fungicide to reduce any seed-borne disease and before sowing the seed, make sure to remove the damaged or seeds that are not having good quality seed.

To cultivate a better Horse gram plant, 5 to 6 tones of well rotted farmyard manure or compost should be added along with a basal application of 20 to 22 kg urea and 60 to 65 kg superphosphate per acre land. Horse gram fields must be monitored regularly for any water stress drought conditions. Frequent irrigation should be given to keep the soil moisture. Different weed, pests, and disease problems occur to cultivate the horse gram field or plant. To control the weed in Horse gram crop, manual weeding and chemical weeding can be used. Within 3 days of sowing and irrigation, the weedicide of baseline should be sprayed by dissolving 2ml per liter of water to control the early growing weed.

Following pest and diseases and to measure control are;

  • Stem fly- To control this pest, 2 sprayings of quinalphos@2ml per liter of water.
  • Aphid, leafhopper and whitefly- To control these pests, methlydematon, dimethoate or phosphomidan @2ml per liter of water should be sprayed
  • Mosaic, leaf crinkled, and leaf curl- To control these, affected plants should be roughed out when they appear.
  • Root rot wilt- To control this disease, drench the affected area with 0.1% Bavistin solution.
  • Cercospora and Powdery mildew- Spraying 1% Bavistin solution.

Harvesting of Horse gram

Horse gram is harvested by cutting the matured whole plant at the base with sickles, threshing the pods, and then extracting the seeds. When the pods in the plants change from green to straw color, the horse gram seed is ready to harvest. Harvesting should be avoided on cloudy or rainy days, and it should be done when the sky is almost clear.

The yield of horse gram

It is very difficult to predict the yield since it is dependent on the variety as well as several other variables. However, it can expect between 700 and 1000 kg per hectare on average.