Hydraulic-hydrological simulations of canal-command for irrigation water management

A modelling system that combines the hydraulic simulations of the canal and hydrological simulations of the irrigated command is introduced. It uses MIKE 11 and MIKE SHE, two well-established modelling systems, for the hydraulic and hydrological simulations respectively. In addition, it also has an irrigation scheduling module and a crop growth module. The modelling system is applied to the Mahanadi Reservoir Irrigation Scheme, a large irrigation project in Central India. The results show that presently a significant amount of water is wasted in the command during the monsoon season. It is demonstrated that the minimization of this wastage could lead to a substantial crop production in the subsequent dry season. Furthermore, the simulations illustrate the versatility of the modelling system for planning and analysing the various aspects of an irrigation project.     

Past, present and future criteria to breed crops for water-limited environments in West Africa

Asia's Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s has largely bypassed West Africa, and “modern” (high-yielding, input responsive) germplasm for staple crops has found comparatively little adoption, except for systems that are have good access to markets and sufficient water resources. It is unlikely, however, that breeding objectives conserving traditional crop characteristics as found in extensive systems would have been more successful. The authors identify systems caught in the agricultural transition from subsistence to intensified, market-oriented production as the most important target for crop improvement, and provide examples of new breeding objectives for cowpea, sorghum and upland rice. In each of these cases, breeders, with the help of physiologists, have developed innovative plant-type concepts that combine improved yield potential and input responsiveness with specific traditional crop characteristics that remain essential during the agricultural transition. In the case of cowpea, dual-purpose varieties were developed that produce a good grain yield due to an erect plant habit, then produce new leaves enabling a second harvest of green foliage. For upland rice systems that are limited by labour (mainly needed to control weeds that abound due to shortened fallow periods), a weed competitive plant type was developed from Oryza sativa × Oryza glaberrima crosses. Lastly, sorghum breeders who had previously deselected photoperiod sensitivity are now re-inserting sensitivity into plants having “modern” architecture, in order to allow for flexible sowing dates while maintaining an agro-ecologically optimal time of flowering near the end of the wet season. The ecophysiological basis of these plant types, their place in current and future cropping systems, as well as the problem of under-funding for their realisation, are discussed.     

Predicting effects of drainage water management in Iowa's subsurface drained landscapes

Long-term hydrologic simulations are presented predicting the effects of drainage water management on subsurface drainage, surface runoff and crop production in Iowa's subsurface drained landscapes. The deterministic hydrologic model, DRAINMOD was used to simulate Webster (fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic) soil in a Continuous Corn rotation (WEBS_CC) with different drain depths from 0.75 to 1.20 m and drain spacing from 10 to 50 m in a combination of free and controlled drainage over a weather record of 60 (1945-2004) years. Shallow drainage is defined as drains installed at a drain depth of 0.75 m, and controlled drainage with a drain depth of 1.20 m restricts flow at the drain outlet to maintain a water table at 0.60 m below surface level during the winter (November-March) and summer (June-August) months. These drainage design and management modifications were evaluated against conventional drainage system installed at a drain depth of 1.20 m with free drainage at the drain outlet. The simulation results indicate the potential of a tradeoff between subsurface drainage and surface runoff as a pathway to remove excess water from the system. While a reduction of subsurface drainage may occur through the use of shallow and controlled drainage, these practices may increase surface runoff in Iowa's subsurface drained landscapes. The simulations also indicate that shallow and controlled drainage might increase the excess water stress on crop production, and thereby result in slightly lower relative yields. Field experiments are needed to examine the pathways of water movement, total water balance, and crop production under shallow and controlled drainage in Iowa's subsurface drained landscapes.     

Hydrus-1D model for simulating water flow through paddy soils under alternate wetting and drying irrigation practice

Paddy and Water Environment - Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation practice in paddy cultivation requires a safe soil moisture stress level in the root zone for which irrigation water...     

Genome-wide association study for spot blotch resistance in Afghan wheat germplasm

Spot blotch (SB), caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana, is a devastating disease of wheat globally, especially in South Asia and South America. Understanding the genetics of resistance to SB is important for developing breeding strategies to improve resistance. A panel of 301 genotypes from Afghanistan was phenotyped over two crop seasons using a mixture of virulent B. sorokiniana isolates and genotyped using DArTSeq to obtain genome-wide markers. Fifty genotypes (16.6%) showed disease scores less than the resistant control. Principal component analysis using the genotypic data clustered the genotypes into five different groups. Among models used for genome-wide association mapping, the multilocus mixed model, and fixed and random model circulating probability unification algorithms were most effective in identifying significant marker-trait associations (MTA). Twenty-five MTAs at p ≤ .001 were identified on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 1D, 2B, 2D, 3A, 3B, 4A, 5A, 5B, 6A, 7A, and 7D, indicating the quantitative nature of resistance to SB. Phenotypic variation explained by these markers ranged from 2.0% to 17.7%, and genomic regions on the chromosomes 1D, 2D, 3A, 3B, 4A, 5A, and 5B coincided with loci identified in previous studies. Three single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers on chromosomes 1B (SNP 1113207) and 5A (SNPs 5411867 and 998276) were significant in both crop seasons as well as in the combined analysis across seasons. Marker 5411867 is close to Vrn-A1, shown to be associated with SB in previous studies. Furthermore, among known SB resistance genes, Sb2 on chromosome 5B was predicted to be significant in this panel.     

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....     

Agroforestry techniques for the rehabilitation of degraded salt-affected lands in India

The development of appropriate technologies for the judicious use of India's 8.11 million ha of salt-affected lands would give increased food, fodder and fuelwood production. A sizeable portion of the salt-affected lands of the Indo-Gangetic plain have been reclaimed through chemical amendments and are being commercially used for arable farming. However, large areas of salt-affected common lands, village and government lands and waste lands near cities, along railway tracks and roads do not have any productive use. Owing to their sparse vegetative cover such lands are vulnerable to further degradation and can be a source of runoff causing floods, especially where cows congregate. Research at the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal has generated agroforestry techniques which could enable the economic exploitation of such marginal lands. This paper deals with various aspects of these techniques, which have been applied to over 50 000 ha by 1994. Based on eight to ten years of growth and biomass figures, the most salt-tolerant woody species identified were: Prosopis juliflora, Acacia nilotica, Casuarina equisetifolia, Tamarix articulata, Leptochloa fusca (a palatable forage grass which was found to be a promising primary colonizer of salt lands). Agronomic practices for the successful establishment of trees such as planting methods, amendment use, irrigation, spacing and lopping schedules are discussed. A Prosopis juliflora-leptochloa fusca silvipastoral model was found to be excellent for fuelwood and forage production and for the amelioration of high pH soils. This system, when followed for little more than four years, reclaims alkali soils to such an extent that normal agriculture crops such as Trifolium alexandrinum and T. resupinatum can be grown successfully. A ridge-trench system of tree planting was found to be helpful in alkali soils, the in situ rainwater conservation it led to assisting biomass production. Eucalyptus tereticornis, Populus deltoides and Tectona grandis based agroforestry were promising for reclaimed salt-affected lands. The short- and long-term effects of various tree plantations on the physicochemical properties of the soil and on soil-water relations are also discussed. Agroforestry options for the development of salt-affected lands found in various agroclimatic zones of India are explored.     

Food consumption and digestive enzyme activity of Clarias batrachus exposed to various temperatures

The effect of temperature on the food consumption rate and the digestive enzyme activities of Clarias batrachus (80.60 ± 5.34 g) were evaluated. Fish were exposed to six different temperatures of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 °C following an acclimation temperature of 25 °C. The rate of temperature change was 2 °C day^?1. Highest food consumption was recorded at 25 °C. It gradually reduced with decreasing water temperature. Food consumption rate was significantly (P < 0.05) lower at 10 °C compared with other treatments. Hence, 46.67, 8.20–23.58 and 1.02–6.15% reduced food consumptions were recorded in groups exposed at 10, 15 and 20 °C temperatures, respectively, compared with the 25 °C. The consumption rate was not affected in fish exposed at 30 and 35 °C. Total protease, trypsin and chymotrypsin activities were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in fish exposed at 25 °C compared with others. Lipase activity was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in fish exposed at 30 °C compared with others. Lowest enzyme activities were recorded at 10 °C. Water temperature below 25 °C affected the food consumption and digestive enzyme activities in fish that served as indicators of stress in fish.     

Assessment of clonal fidelity of micropropagated gerbera plants by ISSR markers

True-to-type clonal fidelity is one of the most important pre-requisites in micropropagation of crop species. Genetic fidelity of in vitro raised 45 plants of gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii Bolus) derived from three different explants, viz., capitulum, leaf and shoot tips, was assessed by 32 ISSR markers, for their genetic stability. Out of 32 ISSR markers, 15 markers produced clear, distinct and scorable bands with an average of 5.47 bands per marker. The markers designed from AG motif amplified more number of bands. The markers anchored at 3′ ends produced high number of consistent bands than unanchored markers. Fifteen ISSR markers generated a total of 3773 bands, out of which 3770 were monomorphic among all the clones. The Jaccard's similarity coefficient revealed that out of 45 clones derived from different explants, 44 were grouped into a single large cluster alongwith the mother plant with a similarity coefficient value of 1.00, whereas one clone (C38) remained ungrouped. The clones derived from capitulum and shoot tip explants did not show any genetic variation, whereas, one of the leaf-derived clones exhibited some degree of variation.     

Chitosan as a wall material for a microencapsulated delivery system for Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man) larvae

Chitosan has been widely accepted as a wall material for preparing microcapsules of various purposes in human medicine. The possibility of using chitosan as a wall material for microencapsulating nutrients and drugs for aquaculture purposes, specifically to Macrobrachium rosenbergii larvae was evaluated in this study. Two types of chitosan-coated microcapsules were prepared using either acetone (MEC-A) or NaOH (MEC-N) as the cross-linking agents. They were compared with a microbound diet relative to total leaching of nutrients and free amino acids (FAA). Among the microcapsules, MEC-N showed the lowest level of total leaching of nutrients (23.3%) during 5 h of immersion in seawater and released 65% FAA after 60 min. During laboratory trials, 75% larvae had accepted the MEC-N capsule. The results of the study suggest that chitosan can be used as a wall material for preparing microcapsules to deliver drugs and nutrients to M. rosenbergii larvae.