Horizon e-Publishing Group (HePG): E-Journals
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Unravelling nitric oxide–hydrogen sulfide interplay in NaCl-mediated salinity resistance of moth bean [Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Marechal]
Get PDFSoil salinity causes oxidative stress, ion imbalance, osmotic anomaly, nutrient imbalance, and changes in plant growth regulators. The study aims to investigate the salinity tolerance limit, involvement of nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and effects of different concentrations of exogenously supplied sodium chloride (NaCl) (50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 mM) on growth, physiological and biochemical parameters of the Moth bean [Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Marechal] seedlings. Moth bean, a neglected and underutilised legume crop in India. The experimental results showed that salinity led to decrease in the plant growth [64.8% shoot length (SL), 58.6% root length (RL), 97.5% secondary roots], 19.3% fresh weight (FW), 16.01% dry weight (DW), (25.6%) water content, photosynthetic pigments (58.2% chl a, 20% chl b, 47.7% total chl, and 63.9% carotenoids), 27.3% antioxidant contents, and 23.7% increased malondialdehyde (MDA) content. The endogenous generation of NO (4.9%) and H2S (58%) were reported under salinity stress compared to the control treatment. The osmolyte proline (184.2%) and enhanced activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as catalase (CAT) (25.22%), peroxidase (POD) (22.25%), superoxide dismutase (SOD) (17.63%), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) (24.80%), up to 150 mM NaCl treatment, marking the tolerance limit of the moth bean. Principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation analysis revealed the antagonistic generation pattern of NO and H2S, as well as their relationships with antioxidant enzymes under stress conditions. This is the first report on NO and H2S generation and involvement in Moth bean grown under salinity stress. The information obtained can be applied to augment salinity stress and enhance crop productivity
A case study on three cultivars and optimization of LD50 dose of gamma irradiation for inducing variability in pomegranate for horticultural traits and bacterial blight resistance
Get PDFEffective induced mutation breeding entails determining the ideal radiation dosage by examining how it influences the growth attributes of the crop. For evaluating the impact of different doses of gamma radiation on pomegranate (Punica granatum), three cultivars viz., Kandhari Kabuli, Bhagwa and Daru were treated with physical mutagen (gamma rays) at doses of 0, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24 kR to induce variability. The observations were recorded at different time intervals after sowing in the polyhouse and after transplanting in field conditions (20, 30 and 40 days after sowing and 70 days after transplanting, subsequently). The germination percentage, survival percentage and LD50 doses were calculated for all three cultivars. Mutant seedlings from different concentrations of gamma rays were evaluated for chlorophyll content of leaves and molecular characteristics. The LD50 doses for CVS. Kandhari Kabuli, Bhagwa and Daru were 15.26 kR, 15.08 kR and 13.74 kR, respectively. Statistical analysis revealed significant dose-dependent reductions in germination and survival rates (p < 0.05), with LD₅₀ values determined to be 15.26 kR for Kandhari Kabuli, 15.08 kR for Bhagwa and 13.74 kR for Daru. These results demonstrate scientifically important variability among cultivars in their sensitivity to gamma radiation, providing critical reference points for optimizing mutagenic doses in pomegranate breeding programs
Occurrence of soil borne diseases of garlic in Himachal Pradesh
Get PDFBasal rot, white rot and blue mould rot were identified as the major soil-borne diseases affecting garlic fields in Solan, Sirmour and Kullu districts of Himachal Pradesh during the 2019-21 cropping seasons. Diseased samples were collected from the fields and analyzed at the Plant Pathology Laboratory of the university. Data were calculated based on disease incidence. The results of the study revealed that among all the districts namely, Solan, Sirmour and Kullu, the maximum disease incidence was recorded at Lanacheta village of Sirmour district (29.96 %) and minimum was observed in Nauni village of Solan district (2.11 %). Moreover, the highest overall disease incidence (14.71 %) was recorded in 2019 and the lowest (3.38 %) in 2020. Among the three soil-borne diseases, basal rot exhibited the highest incidence, followed by white rot and blue mould rot. Furthermore, it was observed that Sirmour district was significantly more affected by these diseases, in terms of incidence, than the other two districts. These soil-borne diseases pose a serious threat to garlic production and farmer income, underscoring the need for effective management strategies
A study on trade performance of Indian black tea: An artificial neural network and Markov chain approach
Get PDFThis study explores the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Markov Chain models to forecast India’s black tea exports to major international markets. While the Markov Chain approach provided a simplified, state-based view of export behaviour, the ANN models were designed to capture continuous patterns and subtle market dynamics. Forecasts were generated for the next five years across ten key importing countries. Model performance was assessed using standard evaluation metrics- Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and R-squared (R²). The results clearly favoured the ANN model, which consistently delivered more accurate and reliable forecasts. Notably, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) emerged as the top growth market, with predicted export values from India reaching ₹1.23 lakhs by the fifth year. Russia and the USA also showed strong forecasted demand, with expected values of ₹64767 lakhs and ₹45238 lakhs, respectively. These insights offer practical value for exporters, traders and policymakers by highlighting priority markets and supporting more informed decision-making. Overall, this research reinforces the importance of intelligent forecasting systems in managing the complexity of international tea trade
Response of growth, yield and quality indicators of three zucchini hybrids to bentonite amendment under irrigation regimes
No full textA field experiment was performed during the 2024 growing season at the University of Kufa to investigate the effects of bentonite clay and irrigation regimes on zucchini hybrids. Major challenges lie in enhancing crop resilience under water-scarce environments while maintaining soil health and sustainable productivity in arid and semi-arid regions. Three water requirements (50, 75 and 100) of the actual water needs were applied as main plots on three zucchini hybrids as subplots (Amjad, Kavili and Wisam). Bentonite clay was incorporated into the soil at three levels (0, 75, 150 g.plant-1) and set up as sub-subplots. A split-split-plot system was adopted based on a completely randomized block design. The full water requirement significantly improved growth and yield, including plant height 94.18 cm, fruit length 13.76 cm, early yield 12.56 kg plant-1 and total yield 50.25 t ha-1. The irrigation level at 75 achieved a remarkable enhancement compared to the level at 50, resulting in reasonable plant growth and production, which proves to be a suitable approach under water scarcity while reducing yield losses. Kavili hybrid recorded the highest significant averages for the number of branches, leaf area and total yield of 1.86 branches plant-1, 1.45 m2.plant-1 and 10.651 t.ha-1, consecutively. Amjad hybrid recorded the highest average fruit length 13.66 cm, whereas Wissam hybrid had the highest average fruit weight 136.13 g. Bentonite amendments at 150 g.plant-1 had significant improvements in the plant yield 1.157 kg.plant-1, early yield 11.629 t.ha-1 and total yield 46.26 t.ha-1. The triple interaction represented by W3H2B2 realized significant improvements in the plant height, leaf area, dry weight, plant yield and total yield, 101.00 cm, 1.72 m2. plant-1, 363.00 g.plant-1, 1.37 kg.plant-1 and 54.54 t.ha-1, in the same sequence
Enhancing yield and quality of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) using sprayer and drone-assisted nano-NPK application with improved crop establishment techniques
Get PDFThis study evaluated different crop establishment methods (CEM) and nutrient management (NM) strategies involving foliar application of nano-NPK through drone and knapsack sprayer in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The experiment was conducted at Lovely Professional University, Punjab, in collaboration with D2F Services Private Limited. The experiment was laid out in a factorial randomized block design (FRBD) using two factors, CEM and NM during the Rabi seasons of 2023 and 2024. Crop establishment methods included furrow irrigated raised bed (FIRB) and the drilling method, while nutrient management comprised eight possible combinations of recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF; ranging from 50 %-100 %), farmyard manure (FYM) and foliar application of nano nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK). The result indicated that among the crop establishment methods, FIRB had a statistically significant (p <0.05) impact on yield attributes, yield and quality parameters as compared to the drilling method. On the other hand, among the nutrient management, treatment N6, which comprises 75 % RDF + one spray of drone-based nano NPK, was observed as the most effective and statistically significant at (p <0.05) compared to the rest of the treatments for plant height (cm), total number of tillers m-2, productive tillers m-2, spike length (cm), number of spikes plant-1, number of spikelet spikes-1, number of grains spike-1, test weight (g) and grain yield (q ha-1), protein content and gluten content (%). The correlation analysis of grain yield (q ha-1) vs. effective tillers m-2 (r2 = 0.981), number of spikes plant-1, test weight (g) and gluten content (%) shows a positive relationship among them. These findings suggest that drone-assisted nano-NPK application and improved crop establishment techniques can effectively enhance the yield and quality of wheat
Legume leaf disease classification via attention-enhanced Swin transformer with feature pyramid fusion (AE-SwinFPF)
Get PDFLegume crops are vital to global agriculture due to their high nutritional value, ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen and role in promoting sustainable farming practices. However, these crops are susceptible to various foliar diseases that adversely impact productivity and crop quality. Accurate and early disease identification is essential for effective disease control and yield protection. This study proposed an Attention-Enhanced Swin Transformer integrated with Feature Pyramid Fusion (AE-SwinFPF) to effectively capture multi-scale spatial and semantic features for legume leaf disease classification. For enhanced interpretability, Grad-CAM visualizes the model’s focus on disease-relevant regions in the output, providing insights into the decision-making process. The proposed model was evaluated on publicly available legume crop leaf image datasets comprising peas, beans and black gram, achieving classification accuracies of 97.16 %, 98.50 % and 99.99 % respectively. It also consistently yielded high precision, recall and F1-score, demonstrating its reliable and effective performance across all three legume types. Comparative analysis against several baseline Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models and previously published methods revealed consistent improvements in classification performance. The integration of hierarchical attention with interpretable feature fusion highlights the model\u27s effectiveness and reliability for real-world deployment. However, further validation across diverse crop types and field conditions is recommended to ensure broader applicability
Molecular characterization for identifying the evolutionary lineage of Indonesia strawberry (Fragaria spp.) using DNA barcode markers: A review and current research on breeding strategies
Get PDFFragaria spp. (Strawberry) is one of the most popular plant species, with a high economic and nutritional value. It also plays a key role in evolutionary biology, particularly due to its widespread cultivation in Indonesia, where diverse cultivars are imported from abroad. Understanding the evolutionary paths of these cultivars is essential for grasping their genetic diversity. This review aims to explore the evolutionary dynamics of strawberry species found in Indonesia using a DNA barcoding approach. DNA barcoding is a powerful tool for uncovering the complex evolutionary histories of species and revealing their phylogenetic relationships. In this comprehensive review, we discuss various cultivated strawberry species present in Indonesia and examine the evolutionary forces that have driven their diversification. By analyzing genetic evidence, we seek a deeper understanding of the evolutionary processes behind these cultivars. However, challenges remain, particularly for Fragaria species, which face increasingly threats from the introduction and spread of “alien species”. Addressing these challenges requires a holistic approach, that combines evolutionary biology principles with conservation strategies to protect native biodiversity while maximizing agricultural productivity. By enhancing our understanding of the evolutionary patterns and genetic evidence associated with cultivated strawberries in Indonesia, this review not only advances scientific knowledge but also provides a comparative phylogenetic tree of strawberry species in Indonesia. This serves as a foundation for informed conservation and breeding efforts in the constantly changing agricultural landscape
The attitude of agricultural graduates towards agrientrepreneurship in Odisha
Get PDFAgricultural graduates\u27 mindsets have shifted due to the Hon\u27ble Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modis’ assertion that youths should not be job seekers but employment providers. With the increasing number of agricultural colleges in Odisha, agricultural graduates are also rising. An examination of Odisha agriculture graduates\u27 socio-personal and socioeconomic features was conducted in this context. The project falls under the "ex post facto" survey research category. A total of 80 people were interviewed from three distinct colleges at three separate institutions. This study included a pilot study, preparation and pre-testing of interview schedules, farmer interviews and data processing. Frequency calculation and percentage were utilized as statistical methods in the investigation. After careful consideration, it was concluded that the respondents\u27 fathers were more educated than their moms. Most agriculture graduates in Odisha displayed negative to moderately positive attitudes towards agrientrepreneurship, particularly regarding their readiness to engage in agribusiness. The most common occupation of the respondents\u27 parents was government service, followed by business. As a result, family members and professors should encourage children interested in agriculture to pursue agripreneurship. During undergraduate studies, students should receive skillbased training and participate in exposure visits to agri-allied sectors, with financial support offered to those who show interest
Effect of enriched compost on palak (Beta vulgaris var. bengalensis) productivity, profitability and soil health in India’s northern plains
Get PDFThe present study explores the synergistic effect of enriched compost on palak (Beta vulgaris var. Bengalensis) productivity, profitability and soil health. By investigating the potential of these composts’ combinations, the study contributes to enhancing agricultural sustainability through more efficient use of organic resources, reducing the reliance on synthetic fertilizers and improving economic outcomes for farmers. The investigation was carried out over two consecutive cropping seasons of 2022 and 2023 at the Vegetable Farm, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab to improve ordinary composts for higher productivity and profitability of leafy vegetables. The variety “Harit Shobha” was used in this experiment. This research was organized using a three-replication, randomized completely block design having 10 treatment (T) combinations of organic and inorganics. The treatment combination having 50 % mineral enriched compost at 2.5 t/ha + microbial enriched compost at 2.5 t/ha (T7) recorded the highest yield (109.12 and 102.31 q/ha), with annual net returns of ₹1.59 and ₹1.64 lacs/ha and the corresponding B:C ratio of 2.72 and 2.73 per hectare, respectively. The treatment combination T7 (50 % MEC1 at 2.5 t/ha + 50 % MEC2 at 2.5 t/ha) also improved soil health as envisaged through post-harvest availability of N, P and K through 6.69, 36.59 and 3.06 % increase, over the initial content. Therefore, it can be concluded that treatment T7 resulted in saving 100 % of fertilizers, improving growth, yield, net returns and enhanced soil health thus, can be a cost-effective combination for getting higher yield with better quality on a sustainable basis