Journal of Applied and Natural Science
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Technology mapping and adoption behaviour for sugarcane protection technologies by Dharmapuri District Sugarcane growers
Get PDFSugarcane is the second most important industrial crop in the country occupying about 5 million hectares of area with the production of 376.9 mt. Although more than 40% of the cane area in the country is in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu ranks first in productivity of sugarcane. Even though Tamil Nadu is in higher productivity zone, the average farm level potential yield was very less which leads lot of scope for increasing production in Tamil Nadu. Sugarcane farmers from Tamil Nadu ranged from small to large. All the farmers not following all the recommended practices. Hence, a study is required to analyses the predominant technologies in the particular area and adoption behavior of the farmers to bridge the technological gap. With that idea in mind, a study has been taken up with the objectives that to document the technological mapping and to study the adoption behavior of sugarcane farmers at Subaramani Siva Co-operative Sugar Mill area in Dharmapui district of Tamil Nadu state. From Dharmapuri districts seven blocks were selected. From each block ten respondents were selected; thus 70 respondents were constituted for the study. The Study revealed that all the blocks are not similar in case of technologies, the predominant technologies are differing block to block. Adoption pattern for protection technologies reveled that integrated weed management was adopted by majority of the respondent. The technologies ‘pheromone trap’ and ‘soil trenching of recommended termiticides’ are not at all adopted by the respondents in the study area
A study on livelihood activities followed by the male rural youths in flood affected Dhemaji district of Assam state of India
Get PDFThe study was conducted at flood affected Dhemaji district of Assam where the flood is a major concern for the livelihood of rural male youth. The paper focused on existing livelihood activities opted by of rural male youths, their reason for choosing the activities and problems encountered in doing it. To date, no study has looked specifically at all the three aspects. The present study together investigated all the three elements. The study selected 200 rural male youths from the district as respondents following multistage random sampling. The survey found the mean age of the respondents as 28.83 years. The study found that the respondents opted 17 types of livelihood activities. Most (25.50%) of the interviewees chose sali rice cultivation, and they (100.00%) cited the availability of suitable land as a reason. Under vegetable cultivation, 96.07% respondents mentioned scope for round the year production and income generation as reasons. The respondents opted piggery(100.00%), poultry (100.00%), weaving (100.00%), dairy (92.85%), goatery (91.66%) and fishery (90.00%) mentioned high market demand as a reason. Regarding the problem, all respondents (100.00%) opting sali rice cultivation and vegetable cultivation reported flood, flood-induced sand and insufficient irrigation as problems. The high price of improved livestock breed was an issue for respondents (100.00%) opting dairy, poultry, and piggery. In fishery, 80.00% respondents mentioned nonavailability of quality fingerlings as a problem. The paper urges the policy makers, researchers and development organisations for utilising the findings to select appropriate interventions for providing livelihood security to male rural youths of Dhemaji district of Assam State, India
Impact of drip irrigation and fertigation scheduling on tomato crop - An overview
Get PDFThe primary objective of this review study was to determine the best irrigation and fertilizer scheduling practice in order to achieve maximum yield with maximum water and fertilizer use efficiency and highest nutrient uptake. It is found nutrient use efficiency could be as high as 90 per cent in fertigation as compared to 40 to 60 per cent in conventional methods. The amount of fertilizer lost through leaching can be as low as 10 per cent in fertigation whereas it is 50 per cent in the traditional system. It is observed that irrigation and fertigation scheduled at 75% ET and at 75% RDF, respectively could be a good alternate for saving water and nutrients with enhanced nutrient uptake, growth, yield and quality of crops. In this paper, the literature pertaining to the different aspects of fertigation and irrigation scheduling are reviewed
Calf rennet production and its performance optimization
Get PDFMilk clotting enzymes are one of the most significant cheese making raw materials impacting and regulating milk coagulation activity. Calf rennet is one of the enzymes which extracted from suckling calf abomasum. The rennet extracted was optimized for its clotting time t (s) by varying three levels of temperature (30, 35 and 40oC), pH (4, 5 and 6) and CaCl2 concentration (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 gm/500 ml of milk) using response surface method (RSM) and also its milk clotting activity (MCA) was determined. Based on the optimized result, temperature 39.13oC, pH 4 and CaCl2 concentration of 0.21 gm/500ml had resulted minimum clotting time of 91.27 s. Using this minimum clotting time, the strength was found to be 1: 13148, establishing the fact that the calf rennet is the best natural coagulant of milk
Career development of women in the hotel industry: An Overview
Get PDFThis paper focuses on factors affecting career progression of women in the hotel industry as discussed by researchers in different geographical locations in the world and to investigate whether women are indeed blocked in the process of advancing in their career. It is also focused to explore the mechanism adopted by the hospitality companies to mitigate the issue related to women’s career progression. An in-depth study was carried to by reviewing twenty-two articles related to the hotel industry and twenty-eight articles related to hospitality industry. It was revealed that specific factors are common to the industry irrespective of the geographical locations such as networking, gender discrimination, segregation, long and irregular working hours and work and family balance. However, factors like cultural barriers, taking risks on non-linear assignments and significance of finding a sponsor were limited to individual countries. Irrespective of the economic and social developments of the countries concerned covering America, Europe, Australia, Africa, Middle Eastern countries, Far East Asia and South Asian regions, the issue of lack of women leaders in the hotel industry has been a significant issue. The Glass ceiling effect on career development for women was widely discussed and confirmed the existence in many countries irrespective of legal frameworks of equal opportunities. Few uncommon issues were also publicised in the study in the USA commenting few challenges and barriers such as the importance of having a sponsor, making lateral moves with new opportunities and being a ‘”token” in a male-dominated executive table
Evaluation of the ecological state of the major streams located in Doon valley using diatoms as indicators
Get PDFBiological communities reflect overall ecological integrity (i.e. chemical, physical and biological integrity). Since the diatom species exhibit variation in tolerances to physical and chemical change in water, they are excellent indicators changes in their environment. Based on the dominant categories for each characteristic, the ecological state of the stream can be determined. This study evaluates the ecological state of the streams in Doon Valley. The diatom samples collected at regular monthly intervals from the twelve streams located in the eastern and western Doon were treated with acid-peroxide and mounted in Naphrax for species count at x1500. About 250-300 valves of diatom species were counted and Van Dam ecologic values were computed by OMNIDIA ver. 5.3. pH was alkaliphilous (4), salinity - fresh brackish (2) and oxygenation - continuously high (1) for most of the streams. Saprobity and trophic status was largely ?-mesosaprobous (2) and eutraphentic (5), respectively. The Leclercq index also shows non-existent (<10%) to low (10-20%) organic pollution, degradation (IDSE=3.5-3.0) and moderate anthropogenic eutrophication (20.1-45%) in most of the streams attributed to urbanization stress (62 MLD sewage). The water quality based on indices; IBD (Indice biologique diatomèes), IPS (Indice de polluo-sensibilite) and TDI (Trophic Diatom Index) showed the moderate water quality in the streams of the Valley. Like EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) India should also have the objective to ensure ecosystem integrity through bio-assessment and not just mere pollution control
Quantitative analysis, distributional pattern and species diversity of woody plant species of Lamberi Forest Range, Rajouri, J&K, India
Get PDFQuantitative analysis, distributional pattern and species diversity of woody plant species of Lamberi Range of Rajouri Forest division, J&K, has been carried out by laying 50 quadrats (10m X 10m size) for trees and 100 quadrats (5m X 5m size) for shrubs. Various phytosociological parameters like frequency, density, abundance, importance value index IVI and diversity indices for trees and shrubs has been used to reveal the plant community structure of the area. The abundance to frequency ratio (A/F) for different species was determined to assess the distribution pattern of the species (regular <0.025, random 0.025-0.05 and contagious >0.05) which indicated the contagious distribution for all the species. Survey of the area revealed presence of 63 woody plant species from the study area comprising of 43 trees and 20 shrubs. Pinus roxburghii (IVI 49.7, Abundance 81.1) and Carissa opaca (IVI 81.12 abundance 7.05) have been recorded as the dominant tree and shrub, respectively, of the area. The computation of diversity indices showed that species richness and evenness i.e Shannon- Weiner’s, Margalef’s and Menhinick’s remained high for trees and low for shrubs. Simpson’s index of dominance was also high for trees. Species which needs priorities for conservation and protection and also required to be monitored have also been highlighted
Phytochemicals derived from Piper longum in insect and mite pests management: A review
Get PDFThe need for the development of alternative types of selective control methods for crop protection with reduced use of chemical pesticides was the main objective of this present review article. This review is based on earlier works performed by many investigators on insecticidal and acaricidal property of bioactive components derived from Piper longum. The summarization of all recent works on application of phytochemicals associated with P. longum in insect pests control may be an alternative to currently used chemical pesticides for development of target specific, biodegradable into nontoxic products, safer and potentially suitable to use in integrated pests management programmes
Effect of packaging on the shelf life of tender palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) fruit endosperm
Get PDFTender palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) fruit endosperm, also known as ice apple is consumed during the summer months especially in Southern and Eastern India. The endosperm is manually removed from the tender palmyra fruit using a heavy knife or sickle by the road side vendors before it is consumed. An investigation on retail film packaging was conducted to study the shelf life of tender palmyra endosperm in sealed packages. The research was carried out to study the effect of packaging films of different thickness on the physio-sensory properties of the endosperm under ambient (32±2°C) and refrigerated (5 ±1°C) conditions. The endosperm was packed in polypropylene bags of 40 and 80 micron thickness and low density polyethylene bags of 150 and 450 micron thickness and High Molecular density (HM) polyethylene bags of 40 micron thickness. The packed samples were kept for storage under ambient and refrigerated conditions. They were evaluated for the changes in weight loss, TSS and also firmness, colour and odour by subjective evaluation at periodic interval during storage. The weight loss was minimum for the sample packed in 450 micron Low Density Polyethylene bag under refrigerated storage. Sensory scores revealed that the overall acceptability(5.0) of palmyra endosperm packed in 450 micron thickness Low Density Poly Ethylene was highest at the end of storage under ambient condition. Similarly, highest overall acceptability (4.0) was observed in High Molecular density polyethylene bag of 40 micron thickness at refrigerated storage. Under normal conditions, palmyra endosperm is prone to spoilage within few hours due to oxidation and fermentation. The results of the study revealed that the shelf life of palmyra endosperm could be extended up to two days under ambient condition, when packed in Low Density Poly Ethylene bag of 450 micron thickness, whereas under refrigerated condition, shelf life could be up to eight days, when packed in high molecular density polyethylene bags of 40 micron thickness
Effect of mulching practices on growth and yield of forage crops under rainfed ecosystem
Get PDFThere had been very less systemic study of forage crops in this part of the world. The information is scanty and not well documented. With these backgrounds, a field experiment was conducted during winter and summer season of 2012-13 and 2013-14 with three forage crops [Brachiaria brizantha, Panicum maximum and Setaria anceps] and three mulching managements [no mulching, soil dust mulching and live mulching]. Experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. Forage crop was assigned to the main plots and mulching to the subplots. The results revealed that superior growth attributes as well as highest green fodder yield (91.14 q ha-1 in winter and 307.20 q ha-1 in summer) and dry matter yield (26.27 q ha-1 in winter and 66.99 q ha-1 in summer) were obtained with forage crop Setaria anceps. Mulching influenced all growth parameters (plant height, leaf area index and crop growth rate) significantly and recorded highest with live mulching followed by soil dust and no mulching. Adoption of live mulching resulted in highest green fodder yield (94.17 q ha-1 in winter and 309.58 q ha-1 in summer) as well as highest dry matter yield (26.28 q ha-1 in winter and 71.93 q ha-1 in summer). The present experimental findings signify the importance of live mulching in improving growth attributes and yield of forage crops