Geostatistical and fuzzy clustering approach for delineation of site-specific management zones and yield-limiting factors in irrigated hot arid environment of India

Precision Agriculture - Delineation of management zones (MZs) are needed to manage fields in order to maximize economic return, minimize environmental impact, and improve soil and crop management....     

Harnessing Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria Beyond Nature: A Review

Root-associated plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) interact with the plant roots and influence plant health and soil fertility. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria play an important role in plant growth by exerting various mechanisms such as biological nitrogen fixation, growth hormone production, phosphate solubilization, siderophore production, hydrolytic enzyme production, antagonistic activity against fungal pathogens etc. Hence, these are employed as inoculants for biofertilizer and biocontrol activities. This review summarizes various mechanisms of PGPR and their potential for use as inoculants. It shows that their use is a worthwhile approach for exploring disease management in conjunction with other strategies.     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Dyeing Performance of Thiadiazole Derivatives

N⁴-(5-methyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)thiazole-2,4-diamine derivatives have been synthesized by the reaction of 2-amino-5-methyl-1,3,4-thiadiazole and chloroaecetylchloride with suitable solvent, then cyclized with thiourea at reflux temperature in methanol to yield N⁴-(5-methyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)thiazole-2,4-diamine which was diazotized and coupled with various naphthalene acid couplers to give new series of acid dyes (AD₁-AD₁₃). All the compounds were characterized by their percentage yield, melting point, elemental analysis, UV spectra, IR spectra, and NMR spectra and dyeing performance on nylon fabric has been assessed.     

Effect of long-term cropping systems on soil organic carbon pools and soil quality in western plain of hot arid India

Maintaining soil organic carbon (SOC) in arid ecosystem is important for soil productivity and restoration of deserted sandy soil in western plain of India. There is a need to understand how the cropping systems changes may alter SOC pools including total organic carbon (TOC), particulate organic C (POC), water soluble carbon (WSC), very labile C (VLC), labile C (LC), less labile C (LLC) and non-labile C (NLC) in arid climate. We selected seven major agricultural systems for this study viz., barren, fallow, barley–fallow, mustard–moth bean, chickpea–groundnut, wheat–green gram and wheat–pearl millet. Result revealed that conversion of sandy barren lands to agricultural systems significantly increased available nutrients and SOC pools. Among all studied cropping systems, the highest values of TOC (6.12 g kg^?1), POC (1.53 g kg^?1) and WSC (0.19 g kg^?1) were maintained in pearl millet–wheat system, while the lowest values of carbon pools observed in fallow and barren land. Strong relationships (P < 0.05) were exhibited between VLC and LC with available nutrients. The highest carbon management index (299) indicates that wheat–pearl millet system has greater soil quality for enhancing crop productivity, nutrient availability and carbon sequestration of arid soil.