Journal of Applied and Natural Science
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Development of technology for modified starch incorporated grains and pulse blended bakery and pasta products
Get PDFThe study aimed to investigate the appropriate technology for the development of modified starch and standardize the millet-based bakery and pasta products incorporated with modified starch and measure the glycemic index of the standardized therapeutic baked and pasta products. The physical modification and chemical modification techniques were performed to optimize the technology for modified starch. Refined wheat flour was substituted with millet flour, modified starch and pulse flour at various percentages to optimize the flour blend for pasta and bakery products. The products were subjected to in vitro study to measure the glycemic index. Physical modification technique, i.e. autoclave-cooling, was found to be optimum for the development of modified starch. The optimum flour blend for pasta products was whole wheat flour(50%), millet flour (25 and 50%), cassava modified starch (15 and 25%) and green ram flour (10%) and it was found to be acceptable without affecting its sensory attributes. The optimum blend for bread was whole wheat flour (50%), kodo / barnyard millet flour (50%) with cassava modified starch (10%) and for low-fat cookies, it was millet flour (20%) and modified starch (15 %). Among the three pasta products, noodles and macaroni were found to be highly acceptable with minimum cooking loss. The in vitro study showed that the pasta products have a hypoglycemic effect suitable for lifestyle disorder patients and do not involve high production costs and earn good returns to the entrepreneurs
A case study of organic protected cultivation at Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, India
Get PDFAgripreneur is defined as an “entrepreneur whose main business is agriculture or agriculture-related”. The case study was conducted in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. A discussion was made with the engineer cum Organic farming who was successful in organic farming for five years. He was practicing vertical gardening, terrace garden, aquaponics, hydroponics and aquaculture in an organic manner under protected cultivation in his farm at Tirunelveli. The need for research was to identify the extraordinary and unique farmer who was leading success in the field of organic farming. The objective of this case study was to bring out and narrate the facts which had been adopted to run the successful model for modern agriculture. The case study approach was made by preparing a semi-structured interview schedule, followed by the field visit, for collecting the data about the profile, skills, work experience, knowledge of the Agripreneur in agriculture and its allied sectors were identified and noted down. Thus, the study had been given a solution to efficiently utilize space and water by means of adopting terrace garden, hydroponics and aquaponics. The focus of the study was to highlight the effectiveness, adaptability and cost for other small farmers
Pedogenic characteristics of soil in Melur block, Madurai district, Tamil Nadu in India: A case study
Get PDFSoil is an important source of human life and agricultural production. Studying on the pedon and its site characteristics pave the way for understanding the nature of soils and its utility. A study on pedological characterization of soils in Melur block, Madurai District (Tamil Nadu), was carried out during 2019-2020 using grid sampling with village map/cadastral maps. Soil mapping unit-based soil samples were collected in Chunampoor, Thuvarangulam, Poonjuthi and Veppapadupu and pedons were characterized as per the standard procedure. The results showed that soils were moderately deep to very deep in nature, ranging from 2.5 YR 3/6 to 10YR 4/6. The soil texture varied from sandy clay loam to sandy clay with weak to moderate sub-angular blocky structure. The consistency of soil varied from slightly hard to very hard when dry, very friable to firm when moist, slightly sticky to very sticky and slightly plastic to very plastic in wet condition. The crops viz., paddy, sugarcane, banana, groundnut and vegetables were very suitable for such type of soil of the Madurai district
Aquaporins and their implications on seeds: A brief review
Get PDFAquaporins (AQPs) are water channel proteins. They play a key role in maintaining water balance and homeostasis in cells under stress conditions in living organisms. AQPs are pore forming transmembrane proteins that facilitate water movement and various small neutral solutes across cellular membranes. Aquaporin expression and transport functions are modulated by various phytohormones mediated signalling in plants. Transcriptome analysis revealed the role of aquaporins in regulating hydraulic conductance in plant roots and leaves. Different AQPs found in the seed system have individual functions that are more time and tissue specific, ultimately helping in the seed imbibition process to complete seed germination. Seed specific TIP3s aquaporin helps to maintain seed longevity under expressional control of ABI3 during seed maturation and heat shock proteins and late embryogenic abundant proteins. Under stress circumstances, the major significance of aquaporin expression in seeds is to maintain water influx and efflux rates, as well as protein modification, post translational alterations, nutritional acquisition and allocation, subcellular trafficking and CO2 transport. The present review mainly focused on aquaporin structure, classification, role and functional activity during solute transport, reproductive organs development, plant growth development, abiotic stress response and also various roles in seeds such as seed biology, seed development and maturation, seed dormancy, seed germination and longevity
Microbial succession and changes in carbon and nitrogen during decomposition of leaf litters of Tephrosia candida (Roxb.) DC. and Oryza sativa L. under shifting cultivation in Mizoram, northeast India
Get PDFThe present study aims to understand microbial succession and dynamics of dry matter, carbon and nitrogen during the decomposition of leaf litters of Tephrosia candida (Roxb.) DC. and Oryza sativa L. in two fallow lands (FL) of 3 years (FL-3) and 8 years (FL-8) following shifting cultivation in Mizoram. A total of 64 microorganisms were isolated from two leaf litters by serial dilution method, out of which 13 microbes were identified as decomposers as they exhibited a positive response towards the enzyme activity. Among these 13 microorganisms, 4 (SKT 02, SKT 05, SKT 09 and SKT 020) were bacteria (Streptobacillus sp. and Bacillus sp.), 5 (SKT 033, SKT 034, SKT 035, SKT 040 and SKT045) were fungi (Microsporum sp., Rhizopus sp. and Aspergillus sp.) and 4 (SKT 030, SKT 052, SKT 053 and SKT 060) were actinomycetes (Streptomycetes sp.). T. candida leaf litter possessed low initial Carbon/Nitrogen (8.77) and Lignin/Nitrogen ratio (2.29) and considered a high-quality resource exhibiting higher decomposition rate. Mass loss of carbon and nitrogen (~ 40-80%) was maximum during the initial two months, which slowed down in the later period of decomposition. It was concluded that the number of bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes regulate organic matter and nutrient dynamics in the soil through various enzymatic actions on high- and low-quality litters. The combination of O. sativa and T. candida litter is recommended to manage soil fertility in shifting cultivation of Mizoram,Northeast India
Physiological and biochemical responses of seedlings of six contrasting barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars grown under salt-stressed conditions
Get PDFSalinity stress affects plant growth and development and underlying metabolisms. To mitigate the effects of the stress, plants responded by changing their physiological and biochemical activities and withstand the stress. The present study aimed to determine barley\u27s (Hordeum vulgare L.) physiological and biochemical response to salinity stress conditions for 7 days and 14 days. Six barley cultivars (Alfa93, DWRB73, DL88, NB1, NB3, NDB1173) were grown under controlled conditions, and different level of salinity stress was applied. In addition, seedling growth, physiological and biochemical parameters, plant leaves RWC, and electrolyte leakage were analyzed. The overall seedling growth, RWC, and electrolyte leakage in salt susceptible lines Alfa93 and DWRB73 were low than the salt-tolerant barley lines (DL88, NB1, NB3, and NDB1173). Electrolyte leakage was 26.0 and 20.6% in Alfa93 and DWRB73, whereas it was 17.6, 14.6, 15.3, and 10.4% in DL88, NB1, NB3, and NDB1173, respectively at 300 mM salinity stress. The loss of photosynthetic pigments under salt stress was high in susceptible lines, salinity treated (300 mM NaCl) Alfa93 plants exhibit 49.5% and 59.5% of Chl-a than control plants after 7 and 14 days of treatment, respectively. However, at 300 mM stress level, NB1 (ST) showed less Chl-a loss after 7 days, whereas NDB1173 showed less reduction in Chl-a after 14 days. Antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, POX, CAT, and APX activities in susceptible line Alfa93 and DWRB73 were lower than tolerant lines. PCA analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between antioxidant enzyme activities and genotypes under salinity stress. PCA analysis described DL88 as the most tolerant, and DWRB73 was the most salt susceptible genotype among the studied barley genotypes. The present findings suggest that barley cultivars\u27 physiological and biochemical activities under salinity stress conditions may be used to screen salt-tolerant crops
Performance of imputation-based models in predicting breeding population trend of a near-threatened bird in changing water regime: A 36-year long-term case study of Painted Stork, Mycteria leucocephala
Get PDFThe breeding population of birds are dynamic and are affected by multiple factors including climate and local environmental conditions. However, often to understand such relations requires long-term data modelling. Such long-term population data is either lacking or has data gaps. This study demonstrates the use of Multiple Imputation Chained Equation (MICE) to overcome the problem of missing data population census. This is also the first comprehensive study, modelling the 36-year (1980-2015) long-term breeding population data of a near-threatened bird, Painted Stork, from Keoladeo National Park, India. It tests the effect of local water availability, i.e., water released to the park, and regional rainfall, i.e, climatic condition, on the breeding population using Generalised Additive Model (GAM). Both imputation and observed data series-based GAM models identified the local water availability as the most important factor influencing the breeding population of Painted Stork. More than 80% population decline was observed, despite a slight increase in the rainfall at regional scale, suggesting local hydrological conditions are limiting to the breeding population and not the climate. According to the visual assessment of partial plot of GAM, minimum 200-300 million cubic feet of water is needed each nesting season to ensure sustenance of breeding population. Post-1989, the breeding population was unable to match the long-term mean (~726) except in 1992, 1995, and 1996. The maximum decline was observed between 2000-2009, a decade of frequent droughts. The breeding population was stable until the end of this study, but it was far below the long term mean
Deep Convolutional neural network (CNN) in tea leaf chlorophyll estimation: A new direction of modern tea farming in Assam, India
Get PDFThis study presents the uprising of leaf chlorophyll estimation from traditional mechanical method to machine learning-based method. Earlier chlorophyll estimation techniques such as Spectrophotometer and Soil Plant Analysis Development (SPAD) meter demand cost, time, labour, skill, and expertise. A small-scale tea farmer may not afford these devices. The present study reports a low-cost digital method to predict the tea leaf chlorophyll using 1-D Convolutional Neural Network (1-D CNN). After capturing the tea leaf images using a digital camera in a natural light condition, a total of 12 different colour features were extracted from tea leaf images. A SPAD was used to estimate the original chlorophyll value of the tea leaves. The paper shows the correlation of original tea leaf chlorophyll with the extracted colour features of the tea leaf images. Apart from 1-D CNN, the Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) were also applied to predict the tea leaf chlorophyll and compared their results with the 1-D CNN. The 1-D CNN model outperformed with an accuracy of 81.1%, Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 3.01, and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 4.18. The investigation system is very simple and cost-effective. It can be used in tea farming as a digital SPAD for faster and accurate leaf chlorophyll estimation in an easy way
Effect of biochar composite and organic sources on soil properties and yield of bhendi (Abelmoschus esculentus L.)
Get PDFBiochar is considered as a possible and potential tool for soil fertility improvement, climate change mitigation and long term sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide. Soil application of biochar enhances the soil properties indirectly. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of organic manures viz., Farm Yard Manure (FYM), Vermicompost, Biochar, Biochar composite on soil properties, growth and yield of bhendi, Abelmoschus esculentus in Somayyanur soil series of Madurai district, Tamil Nadu. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with eleven treatments and three replications during the summer season (March – June) 2021 with the inclusion of inorganic fertilizers based on soil test crop response (STCR) based recommendation. Application of biochar composite (5 t ha-1) along with STCR based NPK (75% STCR) increased the total carbon content in soil by 0.538 %. This, in turn, increased the available nitrogen status to 295 and 244 Kg ha-1 at 40 and 70 DAS, respectively. Similarly, the available phosphorous (22.4, 19.3 Kg ha-1) and potassium (344.70, 323.70 Kg ha-1) status also showed a considerable increase with the same treatment. The yield attributes of bhendi viz., fruit length, girth, weight, dry matter production and yield recorded maximum values of 15.23 cm, 6.93 cm, 21.56 g, 11.9 t ha-1 and 25.20 t ha-1 with the combined application of biochar composite and NPK. The findings revealed that 25 % STCR based NPK could be reduced with the application of 5 t ha-1 of biochar composite, which is economically an option besides promoting soil health
Effect of chemical and bio-fertilizers on the life table attributes of Eisenia fetida
Get PDFEarthworms are important soil invertebrates and play an important role in improving soil quality. Indiscrete use of chemical fertilizers poses a threat to soil quality. Alteration in the soil chemistry is known to negatively impact the macrofauna of soil, especially, epigeic earthworms. The study aimed to understand the effect of chemical and biological fertilizers on the life table attributes of earthworm, Eisenia fetida. Laboratory adapted E. fetida were reared on artificial soil supplemented with chemical fertilizers, Urea and DAP, and biofertilizers, vermicompost and Rutoz®.It was observed that the presence of urea in soil proved to be detrimental to the biomass accumulation, life span, as well as reproductive potential of the earthworms. Application of urea to the soil harbouring earthworms reduced the weight of individual earthworms from 286±14.24 mg in the control group to 242±12.047 mg as soon as 15 days of the application, while the DAP diminished the earthworm weight to 272±13.54 mg. The effect was more pronounced on the total biomass of the culture owing to the high toxicity of urea. The total mass diminished to one-third,i.e., 1.02±0.05 g on Day 60 as compared to the corresponding control (3.46±0.172 g). The urea and DAP treatment decreased the percent survival of the earthworms by 70% and 40%, respectively.On the other hand, the bio-fertilizers had a positive effect on the earthworms and the biology is comparable to that of the control group. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to understand the effect of chemical fertilizers on the survival and reproductive fitness of the worms.