Winter Research Programme
The rabi season — wheat, lentil, mustard, chickpea and potato, from November sowing to the March harvest.
The season that runs on stored moisture.
Winter is the Terai's second main season, and its constraints are different from the monsoon's. There is little rain, so the crop lives on residual moisture and whatever irrigation reaches it; the window between rice harvest and wheat sowing is narrow, and every day of delay costs yield. The winter programme is built around those two facts.
Trials in this season cover wheat varieties and sowing dates, lentil and chickpea in the rice fallows, mustard and other oilseeds, potato, and the zero-till and residue practices that let a farmer sow earlier without waiting for a full land preparation.
Wheat
Variety evaluation, sowing date trials and terminal heat tolerance.
Pulses & oilseeds
Lentil, chickpea and mustard in rice fallow land.
Potato & vegetables
Seed quality, spacing and storage for the winter vegetable crop.
Establishment practice
Zero-till, residue retention and early sowing after rice.