Carbon and water footprints of major crop production in India

Scarcity of water and emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the two key environmental issues affecting crop production in India.Reducing the carbon footprint (CF) and water footprint (WF) of crop production can help to mitigate the environmental hazards that stem from GHG emissions and water scarcity.The CFs and WFs of three major cereal crops,rice,wheat,and maize,were estimated for the year 2014 under the environmental conditions in India,based on national statistics and other data sources.To...     

Effect of molybdenum,phosphorus, and lime application to acid soils on dry matter yield and molybdenum nutrition of lentil

Deficiency of molybdenum (Mo) in acid soils causes poor growth of pulses. An experiment was, therefore, conducted in greenhouse to study the effect of Mo, phosphorus (P), and lime application on the dry matter yield and plant Mo concentration of lentil (Lens esculenta L.) in two Mo‐deficient acid alluvial soils. The experiment was conducted using a factorial design with three levels of lime (no lime, half, and full lime requirement), three levels of P (0, 25, and 50 mg kg^‐1), and two levels of Mo (0 and 1.0 mg kg^‐1). Plants were grown for 60 days and at harvest their dry matter yield and Mo concentration were recorded. The three treatments significantly increased dry matter yield, Mo concentration and Mo uptake, the increase being most pronounced with Mo application followed by lime and P. Increases due to applied Mo were greater in presence than in absence of added P; while the reverse was true with the liming treatments. Liming and P application at their lower levels also interacted positively for better Mo nutrition of plants. Results thus indicated that the severity of Mo deficiency in the lentil plants may be reduced by lime and P application in Mo‐deficient acid alluvial soils.     

Balanced and integrated nutrient management for enhancedand economic food production: case study from rainfed semi-arid tropics in India

Soil degradation in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) is mainly responsible for low crop and water productivity. In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states in India, the soil analyses of farmers’ fields revealed widespread deficiencies of S (9–96%), B (17–100%) and Zn (22–97%) along with that of P (25–92%). Soil organic C was deficient in 7–84% fields indicating specifically N deficiencies and poor soil health in general. During on-farm evaluations in rainy seasons 2010 and 2011, the soil test based addition of deficient nutrient fertilizers as balanced nutrition (BN) increased crop yields by 6–40% (benefit to cost ratios of 0.81–4.28) through enhanced rainwater use efficiency. The integrated nutrient management (INM), however, decreased the use of chemical fertilizers in BN by up to 50% through on-farm produced vermicompost and recorded yields at par or more than BN with far better benefit to cost ratios (2.26–10.2). Soybean grain S and Zn contents improved with INM. Applied S, B, Zn and vermicompost showed residual benefits as increased crop yields for succeeding three seasons. Hence, results showed INM/BN was economically beneficial for producing more food, while leading to resilience building of SAT production systems.     

Seasonal Changes in Nitrate Reductase Activity and Nitrogen Contents of Upland Rice at Low and Optimum N Fertility

A field experiment was conducted at the Livestock Research Centre of G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India during the wet season (June—October) of 1980 with the objectives of characterizing the seasonal changes in in vivo nitrate reductase activity (NRA) and N contents of upland rice cultivars grown under rainfed condition at low (0 kg N/ha) and optimum (80 kg N/ha) N fertility.
In vivo NRA increased initially up to panicle initiation stage (50 days after sowing) and declined, thereafter, until 90 days. Leaf NO₃-N content paralleled with in vivo NRA throughout crop season. Total N content of leaves and stem declined with advance in crop age, whereas panicle N content increased with the crop development. Optimum N fertility (80 kg N/ha) always resulted in higher NRA, NO⁻₃ and total N contents of rice plants.     

Effect of Component Densities on the Productivity of Soybean/Maize and Soybean/Sorghum Intercrop

Field experiments were conducted during the wet seasons of 1986 and 1987 at the Yandev Agricultural Experiment Station to investigate the effects of component density on the yield of sorghum or maize intercropped with soybean. Seed yield of the monocrops of sorghum, maize and soybean were higher than the individual components in the intercrops. Yields of component crops in the intercrop varied significantly with the components population density. The sorghum/soybean intercrops which had LER (Land Equivalent Ratio) up to 1.40 in 1986 and 1.35 in 1987 were more productive than soybean/maize intercrop with maximum LER of 1.28 and 1.34 respectively during 1986 and 1987. Similarly the ATER (Area X Time Equivalent Ratio) of sorghum/soybean was greater than in soybean/maize. However, for maximum productivity of sorghum or maize intercropped with soybean, optimum population of one component crop plus 1/2 optimum population of the companion crop is recommended depending on which of the crop is regarded as main or minor crop.     

Canopy and Seasonal Profiles of Nitrate Reductase Activity in Field Grown Grain Sorghum

Field experiments were conducted at the Livestock Research Centre of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnager, India during wet season (June-September) of 1978 with the objectives of characterizing canopy and seasonal profiles of in vivo nitrate reductase activity (NRA) of grain sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) cultivars.
Canopy profile of NRA was studied on hybrid CSH 5 at 45, 55, 70, 80 and 95 days after sowing, whereas seasonal profile of NRA was studied in six sorghum cultivars — hybrid CSH 5 and pure line varieties CSV 4, SPV 100, SPV 101, SPV 103 and SPV 106 beginning at 30 days until 95 days after sowing.
Canopy profile studies indicated that fully expanded recently matured leaves possessed higher levels of in vivo NRA than unexpanded immature as well as older leaves. Seasonal profiles of in vivo NRA showed different trends in different cultivars. Cultivars SPV 100, SPV 101, SPV 103 and SPV 106 demonstrated two peaks of in vivo NRA/plant/day at 44 and 95 days. On the other hand, hybrid CSH-5 had only one peak at 51 days and cultivar CSV 4 had none.     

Residues of cypermethrin,fenvalerate and deltamethrin on cauliflower

Following the application of Cypermethrin, fenvalerate and deltamethrin to a cauliflower crop at rates of 50, 50 and 12 g a.i. ha^-1, the maximum initial deposits of these insecticides on heads and leaves were 1.10 and 0.75, 1.14 and 0.60, and 0.32 and 0.12 mg kg^-1, respectively. These residue values for fenvalerate were less than the maximum residue limit (MRL) of 2 mg kg^-1 for this crop. While the maximum initial deposits of Cypermethrin and deltamethrin on cauliflower leaves were less than their respective MRL values of 1 and 0.2 mg kg^-1 for brassica leafy vegetables, it took one day for their residues on cauliflower heads to decline below this level.     

Antifungal activity of the stem bark of Ailanthus excelsa

The methanol extract of stem barks of Alianthus excelsa was partitioned with chloroform. The chloroform extract showed fungistatic and fungicidal activity against Aspergillus niger, A. fumigatus, Penicillium frequentence, P. notatum and Botrytis cinerea.     

In vitro activities of Maesa lanceolata extracts against fungal plant pathogens

In vitro tests were carried out using extracts of Maesa lanceolata var. goulungensis weir against a broad range of fungal plant pathogens such as Phytophthora cryptogea, Trichoderma virens, Aspergillus niger, Phoma sp., Fusarium oxysporium, Pythium ultimum, Cochliobolus heterostrophus, Rhizoctonia solani, Sclerotium rolfsii and Pyrenophora teres. M. lanceolata extracts were very active against all the pathogens tested except P. ultimum and R. solani.     

REP-PCR Analysis of Pasteurella multocida Isolates from Wild and Domestic Animals in India

Repetitive extragenic palindromic sequence-based PCR (REP-PCR) was used to characterize 67 field isolates of Pasteurella multocida originating from different animal species and geographical regions of India. REP-PCR was found to be rapid and reproducible (three repeats were done). These isolates yielded different 23 profiles which were clustered into eight groups. The discrimination index was moderate (D value 0.83). Somatic and antigenic typing of the isolates did not reveal any correlation with REP-PCR profiles. There was no host-specific, type-specific, region-specific or pathenogenicity-specific pattern. The REP profiles of isolates obtained from wild animals were similar to those obtained from domestic animals. Two common bands were present in all the isolates irrespective of somatic or antigenic types. The results were not comparable with earlier findings, which had shown high discrimination index and correlation with disease presentation. Saxena, M.K., Singh, V.P., Kumar, A.A., Chaudhuri, P., Singh, V.P., Shivachandra, S.B., Biswas, A. and Sharma, B., 2006. REP–PCR analysis of Pasteurella multocida isolates from wild and domestic animals in India. Veterinary Research Communications, 30(8), 851–861