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Pongal (பொங்கல்) (festival)
Pongal (பொங்கல்), the Tamil harvest festival, runs four days from the first of the month Thai (about January 14): Bhogi, Surya, Mattu, and Kaanum Pongal, with rice boiled over a pot and jallikattu.
Pot experiment
A pot experiment is a laboratory method in which plants are grown in pots of soil, sand, or other substrate to test fertilizers, drought, salinity, and other treatments under defined conditions.
Precision agriculture
Precision agriculture, also known as smart farming, is a farm management strategy that uses GPS, sensors, and data to adjust inputs to variable field conditions.
Pruning
Pruning: selective removal of plant branches, buds, or roots for health, size, and fruiting; also forest thinning and neural-network pruning. Key rules: dormant-season timing, branch-collar cuts, 25 percent limit, tool disinfection.
Quince
Quince (Cydonia oblonga, membrillo fruit) is a Rosaceae small tree from Trans-Caucasia and north Iran, domesticated in Mesopotamia by 5000-4000 BC; fragrant golden pome fruit cooked into paste, jelly, and jam, also a pear rootstock; Türkiye leads 2022 production.
Quinoa
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), Andean pseudocereal of the amaranth family, gluten-free high-protein seed crop; salt- and drought-tolerant, domesticated in the Andes, 2013 International Year of Quinoa, grown in over 125 countries.
Rabi crop
Rabi crop: crops sown in India's winter season (October–March), from Arabic for spring; main crops wheat, barley, gram, mustard. Irrigation-dependent; 2025-26 sowing reached 67.7 million hectares, up 2.4% year on year.
Rake (tool)
Rake (tool): hand or machine implement with tines on a crosspiece fixed to a handle, from Old English raca; used to gather hay, grass, and leaves and to loosen or level soil, in garden, hay, and specialized forms.
Ratooning
Ratooning is an agronomic practice of growing a new crop from the stubble and roots of a harvested crop without replanting, used mainly on sugarcane.
Reaper
Reaper, or mechanical reaper, a farm machine that cuts grain with a reciprocating cutter bar, replacing the sickle. Pioneered by Patrick Bell (1827-28), Obed Hussey (1833 patent), and Cyrus McCormick (1834); predecessor of the reaper-binder and combine harvester.
Reforestation
Reforestation: re-establishing forest on forest-classified land by planting or seeding, distinct from afforestation and natural regeneration. Key facts: 31.4 GtCO2 30-year abatement below $50/tCO2; Bonn Challenge 350 Mha goal; natural regeneration vs plantation trade-offs.
Reiman Gardens
Reiman Gardens is a 17-acre botanical garden at the southern entrance to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, dedicated in 1995 and named for benefactors Roy and Bobbi Reiman.
Reserved forests and protected forests of India
Reserved forests and protected forests are the two main legal categories of government-owned forest in India, constituted by state governments under the Indian Forest Act, 1927.
Rice blast
Rice blast is a serious fungal disease of rice caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, which destroys an estimated 5% of annual global rice production.
Rice Krispies
Rice Krispies (Rice Bubbles) is Kellogg's toasted puffed-rice breakfast cereal, launched 1928, famous for Snap, Crackle, Pop mascots (1933) and Rice Krispies Treats; now under WK Kellogg Co, being acquired by Ferrero in 2025.
Rice production in India
Rice production in India: the world's largest rice producer (26.52% of global output, FAO 2024) and largest exporter since 2012. Record 150.18 Mt in 2024-25; kharif 83%, rabi 10%; leading states Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Punjab.
Rice production in the United States
Rice production in the United States is concentrated in six states led by Arkansas, which grows about half the crop, mostly long grain on irrigated, flooded fields.
Root inoculation
Root inoculation is the application of beneficial microorganisms, most commonly rhizobia, to legume seed or soil so young roots form symbioses that improve nutrient uptake, growth, and yield.
Root pruning
Root pruning is the deliberate cutting or restriction of plant roots to slow shoot growth, build a fibrous root system, or shift a tree's balance toward fruit.
Royal Horticultural Society
Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), UK gardening charity founded 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London; runs five gardens, Chelsea Flower Show since 1913, plant trials, Award of Garden Merit, and the State of Gardening Report.
Rubberwood
Rubberwood, also known as parawood or Malaysian oak, is the timber of the rubber tree, felled after 25 to 30 years of latex tapping and used for furniture.
Saturnalia
Saturnalia (Latin Saturnalia), the ancient Roman festival of the god Saturn held December 17-23, with feasting, gift-giving, gambling, and role reversal between masters and slaves; a predecessor often compared to Christmas.
Scarecrow
A scarecrow, also known as a tattie bogle or mawkin, is a clothed, straw-filled human figure erected in fields to resemble a farmer and frighten birds from crops.
Scythe
Scythe: two-handed mowing tool with a long, slightly curved blade on a snath, invented about 500 BC; cuts grain three to four times faster than a sickle but needs more skill; Grim Reaper's tool.
Seed pelleting
Seed pelleting is an agronomic seed-coating method that coats seeds layer by layer into round, uniform pellets for precision machine sowing, developed for sugar beet in the 1940s.
Selective thinning
Selective thinning is a forestry practice in which trees are removed or retained on their individual merits, providing more space, light, water, and nutrients for the best remaining trees.
Shennong (神农)
Shennong (神农, 神農), the Divine Farmer, legendary Chinese ruler credited with inventing agriculture, the plough and medicine; identified with Yandi, attributed the 365-herb bencao jing, worshipped as God of Five Grains in China and Vietnam.
Shifting cultivation
Shifting cultivation, also called swidden or slash-and-burn agriculture, is a tropical farming system with short cultivation periods followed by long fallows; FAO estimates once covered about 400 million ha and 500 million people.
Silage
Silage: anaerobically fermented, acid-preserved high-moisture forage (corn, sorghum, grass, legume) fed to ruminants; pH drops to 3.8–5 via lactic acid; distinct from hay; additives include LAB inoculants like Lactobacillus buchneri.
Silvicultural system
A silvicultural system is a planned, rotation-long series of treatments for tending, harvesting, and regenerating a forest stand, combining a regeneration method with intermediate treatments.