Journal of Applied and Natural Science
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Waterlogged wasteland treatment through agro-forestry: A review
India covers 147.75 mha degraded area, whereas 6.41 mha area confined to waterlogging problem in Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Rajasthan and few other states. The transpiration principle of plants is used in bio-drainage treatment to reclaim such problematic areas sustainably. Evergreen broad leaved species recorded high transpiration rate and contribute highly in reclamation of waterlogged saline soils. Short rotation fast growing tree species like Salix, Eucalypt, Acacia, Albizia, Terminalia, Prosopis, Populuswere the suitable species for such areas. Agri-silviculture, agri-horti- silviculture, silvi-pasture, multipurpose woodlots, strip plantation and boundary plantations were widely used for reclamation of saline-waterlogged conditions of India. In agri-silviculture system, Eucalypt based agroforestry systems are widely used for reclamation of waterlogged areas as compared to other woody plant based systems. 0.84–0.86 m total drawdown of ground water in 3 years Eucalypt tree species. The vertical and horizontal root spreading of tree species is one important character for capturing and transpiration of excess water from waterlogged area. From the present investigation, longest root system was recorded from Prosopis cineraria (20-60 m) species
Effect of different treatments of ethrel on ripening behaviour and post- harvest quality of mango (Mangiferaindica L.) during storage
An experiment was done to assess the effect of various post -harvest treatments of ethrel on ripening behaviour and post -harvest quality of mango cv. Amrapali (Mangiferaindica L.) during storage at Punjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Gurdaspur during the years 2013-14 and 2014-15. The experiment was planned under completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. The treatment units was six fruits per replication. Total five treatments and control were applied. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of various concentrations of ethrel (500 ppm, 750 ppm, 1000 ppm,1250 ppm, 1500 ppm and control ) on shelf life of mango fruits when stored under ambient conditions. The treated fruits were assessed for physiological changes fruit colour, flavour/aroma, organoleptic taste, marketability, ripening, specific gravity, moisture loss, decay, physiological loss in weight (PLW), total soluble solids (TSS), acidity and sugars. The observations were recorded at 5, 8 and 11 days after storage. At 11th day of storage these mangoes exhibited deep yellow fruit colour with excellent flavour, organoleptic taste and highly acceptable marketability at 1000 ppm ethrel treatment as compared to other ethrel doses. Fruit ripening (100%), specific gravity (0.84), TSS(23°Brix) and sugars(20.65%) were highest in the fruits treated with 1000ppm ethrel as compared to rest of treatments at 11th day of storage. Lowest moisture loss (8.5%), decay (1%), PLW(12.50%) and acidity(0.12%) were observed in the fruits treated with 1000ppm of ethrel as compared to rest of treatments at 11th day of storage. The beneficial effect of the present study is to overcome the problem of uneven and late ripening of Amrapali mango by postharvest treatment of ethrel at 1000 ppm at their mature green stage to develop typical fruit flavour with excellent fruit quality
Effect of different dates of sowing on yield attributes, yield and quality of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars
A study was conducted during rabi2013-14 at Barley Research Area of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar with the objective to study the effect of different date of sowing on growth, yield and quality characters of barley cultivars. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with five date of sowing (30th October, 10th, 20th, 30th November and 10th December) in main plots and four cultivars (BH 902, RD 2552, DWRUB 52 and RD 2668) kept in sub plots replicated thrice. Crop sown on 30th October produced significantly higher values of growth parameters, yield attributes (115 productive tillers per meter row length, no. of grains per spike- 37 and test weight -46.90) and yield (grain yield- 4733 kg ha-1 and straw yield- 8368 kg ha-1). But it was statistically at par with 10th November sowing date. Grain protein content, hectoliter weight and bold grains percentage decreased significantly with delay in sowing while malt content percentage was recorded significantly higher (89.53%) in 10th December date of sowing. Among the cultivars DWRUB 52 produced significantly higher grain yield (4516 kg ha-1) and quality attributes like malt content (86.25%) than other cultivars
Studies of alternaria black spot disease of pomegranate caused by Alternaria alternata in Punjab
Alternaria black spot of pomegranate caused by Alternaria alternata pose significant economic losses in India as it reduce the crop yield. Farm survey was undertaken at Punjab Agricultural University, Pomegranate Research Block, Fruit Research Station, Jallowal- Lesriwal Jalandhar during 2015. Among all the five cultivars highest disease incidence (70%) and severity (30%) was registered in cultivar Bhagwa. Twenty two isolates of A. alternata were recovered from infected fruits and clustered using UPGMA (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages) on the basis of disease score produced in five cultivars (Ganesh, Ruby, Bhagwa, Jyoti and Mridula). It was revealed that five isolates namely AL14, AL15, AL20, AL21 and AL22 were highly virulent on almost all the pomegranate cultivars. Two cultivars viz. Bhagwa and Mridula were found to be most susceptible as 45.45 % isolates were found to be highly virulent on them.Thein vitro antifungal effects of the six fungicides on mycelial growth were investigated. Based on the inhibition of mycelial growth, all the fungicides showed most toxic reaction with 50% effective concentrations (EC50) of < 1 ppm. However, they varied in EC90 values. 10 ppm cocentration of Tilt (azole group) showed 90% effective concentration (EC90). Folicur also showed approximately same results as Tilt while EC90 value of Natio and SAAF was <25 ppm and > 20 ppm. However, two fungicides namely Dithane Z-78 and Bavistin showed less toxicity against Alternaria alternata as compared to other with EC90 value at concentrations <50 ppm and > 25 ppm. Azole group fungicides (Tilt and Folicur) were found most effective to inhibit the pathogen growth
Management of red rust thrips, Chaetanophothripssignipennis (Bagnall) in banana
The commercial value of banana is mainly affected by red rust thrips, Chaetanophothripssignipennis(Bagnall) during fruiting phase at maturity. In this context, the trial was framed at F.R.S., N.A.U., Gandevi under ICAR-AICRP (Fruits) programme. The three years data on efficacy of bio-rational pesticides for management of red rust thrips revealed that bud injection of imidacloprid (0.3 ml/ 500 ml water) @ 1 ml/bud exhibited lowest unblemished fruits up to 8.37% over conventional spraying (20.72%) and bunch sleeving method (42.83%). The comparable results on fruit damage (14.83%) was observed with bud injection of azadirachtin (1%) (5 ml/l water) @ 2 ml/bud over conventional spray. The merit of technology furnished higher no. of unblemished fruits (<10%) and original peel superficial appearance remains impassive under bud injection technique with higher benefit cost ratio with very low dose of pesticide provide financial profit to growers and traders. Besides, imidacloprid residue was not detected in harvested fruits and there is no other technology available to remove this malady of banan
Development of promiscous rhizobia for diverse rabi legumes (Chickpea, Pea and Lentil)
Conjugation between microsymbiont was used to create genetic variations in rhizobia for diverse rabi legumes (chickpea, pea and lentil) with better characteristics in nodulation and nitrogen fixation process. Ten antibiotics were used as selectable markers for the screening of twenty four bacterial strains to be used in mating experiments for obtaining transconjugants. All bacterial strains were sensitive to gentamycin and resistant to streptomycin, kanamycin and sulphanilamide. Total five fusants were obtained from each rhizobial cross combination with the help of electro-poration. Modified transconjugants, rhizobial strains had promiscuous infection with 50-122% more nodules showed significant increase in shoot fresh weight, dry weight and total nitrogen content in chickpea, pea and lentil plants. Electrofusantsrhizobial strains improved shoot nitrogen content up to 67% in lentil and 54% in pea and chickpea plants. The amount of nitrogen fixed in chickpea was highest (3.71gm) by transconjugants DP-C6- HLN followed by DP-C6-HP14 (3.56gm). Transconjugants DP-HP14-HLN fixed the highest amount of nitrogen (3.92gm) in pea and 4.06gm in lentil plants. Plasmids were also analyzed in order to characterize their role in the evolution of rhizobial symbionts and their involvement in symbiotic behaviour. The developed Rhizobium strains with improved symbiotic association and ability to infect across strict specificity for host legumes would be of great help for the farming community at large
Genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for various quantitative and qualitative traits in Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.)
Genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for different quantitative and qualitative characters were studied in 64 genotypes of chilli. The study indicated the existence of considerable amount of genetic variability for all the traits under study. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among genotypes for almost all the traits studied. The maximum range was recorded for fruit yield per plant (150-900 g) followed by vitamin-C content at red ripe stage (35.50 -207.17 mg/100g), vitamin-C content at green stage (24.93-195.83 mg/100g), capsanthin content (39.58-180.35ASTA units, number of fruits per plant (21.32-100.27) and plant height (50.20-105.00cm). The highest phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variability were observed for average fruit weight followed by seed yield per plant, average seed weight per fruit, number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant and fruit diameter. In general the phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) were slight higher than genotypic coefficients of variation GCV), which indicates the minor role of environment in the expression of traits under observation. The estimates of heritability in broad sense was high for all the characters. The present investigation indicates a great scope of in the improvement of these traits as these characters in general possessed high estimates of heritability coupled with high genetic advancement except for days to first fruit set, days to first green fruit harvest, days to first ripe fruit harvest and dry matter content (high heritability but moderate genetic gain) indicating the preponderance of additive gene action for control of these traits
Combining ability studies in restorer lines of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)
The restorer lines are used to get fertile hybrids in hybrid seed production system of sunflower. Improve-ment of R-lines for fertility and oil content of sunflower is required to get desirable hybrids upon crossing. In the pre-sent study, 6 restorer lines were crossed in full diallele and both direct and reciprocal crosses along with parents were evaluated for their combining ability. The analysis of variance revealed higher magnitude of SCA variance than GCA variance for all the characters studied except for days to 50 per cent flowering. Among six parents, GMU -520 and R-GM-41 were best general combiner for plant height, head diameter, test weight and leaf size in the desired direction. However, GMU-520 has advantage of yield per plant and oil content. From 15 direct crosses R-GM-41 x R -GM-49 exhibited significant specific combining ability for viz., days to 50 per cent flowering (-1.08), plant height (13.69), head diameter (4.79), leaf size (0.74), yield per plant (17.14), volume weight (2.54), test weight (1.75) and oil content (0.34) followed by RCR-630 x GMU-520, R-GM-41 x EC-602060, R-GM-49 x GMU-520 and EC-602060 x GMU-520 each exhibiting good specific combining ability for majority of characters. Among reciprocal crosses R-GM -41 x RCR-8 exhibited a high reciprocal effects for head diameter (4.57), yield per plant (15.16), test weight (2.02) and leaf size (0.75)
Melanosis and quality attributes of chill stored farm raised whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)
Loss of market value of shrimp is mainly due to the formation of black spot called melanosis. A study was conducted for 14 days to determine the extent of melanosis and quality changes during that period of freshly har-vested whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) under chilled storage (2?). Among quality parameters, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBAR-S), were varied from 13.17 mg % to 44.50 mg % and 0.04to 2.57 mg malondehaldehyde/kg of fat respectively whereas melanosis score and metric chroma (C) exhibited significant increases during chilled storage (P<0.05). There was a slight increase in moisture, crude fat and pH from 73.96 % to 74.57 %, 1.05 % to 1.14 % and 6.52 to 7.60 respectively at 14th day of storage. Loss of protein from 22.51 % to 21.28 % may be due to decrease in available amino acids during chilled storage and total plate count (TPC) showed gradual increase of bacterial load up to 1.73*107 log CFU/g at the end of chilled storage. The sensory analysis by panellists indicated, the acceptability of white leg shrimp was up to 6 days in chilled condition and formation of black spot is one of the major parameter for rejection by the panellists
Trends in marine fish production in Tamil Nadu using regression and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model
Tamil Nadu is situated in the south eastern coast of the Indian peninsula with a coastal line of 1076 km (13% of the country’s coast line), 0.19 million sq.km of EEZ (9.4 % of total national EEZ) and a continental shelf of about 41,412 sq. km. This is one of the country’s leading state in marine fish production and ranks third in marine fish production. In Tamil Nadu, Ramanathapuram district is a leading maritime district followed by Nagapattinam and Thoothukudi. The objective of this study was to investigate the trends in marine fish production in Tamil Nadu. Yearly fish production data for the period of 1988-1989 to 2012-2013 were analyzed using time-series method called Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model and Regression analysis (curve estimation). In our study, the developed best ARIMA model for Tamil Nadu marine fish production was found to be ARIMA (1, 1, 1) which have the minimum BIC (Bayesian Information Criterion). ARIMA model had got a slightly higher forecasting accuracy rate for forecasting marine fish production of Tamil Nadu than Regression trend analysis. The independent sample test showed there was no significant difference between the two models. The limitations of ARIMA model include its requirement of a long time series data for better forecast. It is basically linear model assuming that data are stationary and have a limited ability to capture non-stationarities and nonlinearities in series data. Both the models indicated that Tamil Nadu marine fish production has plateaued and fishermen should be encouraged to adopt sustainable fishing practices