Journal of Applied and Natural Science
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Soil carbon stock in different land-use systems in the hilly terrain of Mizoram, Northeast India
Get PDFSoil carbon is one of the most affected variables to land-use change in tropics. The soil carbon flux plays a major role in regulating microbial activities and nutrient distribution in soil. This study aimed to evaluate the soil carbon stock in various land uses at different depths in the hilly terrain of Mizoram, Northeast India. Soil samples at 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm and 20-30 cm soil depths were collected from Rubber plantation (RP), Oil palm plantation (OPP), Teak plantation (TP), Bamboo Forest (BF), 5 years fallow (5YF), 10 years fallow (10YF), Tephrosia candida plantation (TCP), Horticulture garden (HORT), Homegarden (HG) and Natural forest (NF). Soil carbon stock varied significantly (p <0.05) across the land uses and depths. The soil under Tephrosia candida stand had significantly (p <0.05) higher values of C stock (73.66 Mg ha-1) which may be due to high biomass, dense vegetative cover and high C in root exudates. The minimum C stock estimated in Horticulture garden (43.28 Mg ha-1) is probably due to reduced soil organic matter. Soil carbon stock in Homegarden, Teak plantation, Bamboo forest and Rubber plantation ranged from 46.82 Mg ha-1 to 59.34 Mg ha-1 whereas 5 years and 10 years fallow land, Natural forest and Oil palm plantation ranged from 61.35 Mg ha-1 to 73.35 Mg ha-1. The study indicated that the land use change in the mountainous region significantly affected the carbon stock in the soil. A proper land use management strategies to increase the soil organic matter is recommended to enhance the carbon stock in this region
Forecast and error analysis of vegetable production in Haryana by various modeling techniques
Get PDFCrop forecasting is a formidable challenge for every nation. The Government of India has developed a number of forecasting systems. The national and state governments need such pre-harvest forecasts for various policy decisions on storage, distribution, pricing, marketing, import-export and many more. In this paper, univariate forecasting models such as random walk, random walk with drift, moving average, simple exponential smoothing and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models are considered and analyzed for their efficiency for forecasting vegetable production in the Haryana state. The State annual data on vegetable production were divided into the training data set from 1966-67 to 2013-14 and the test data set from 2014-15 to 2018-19. Suitable models were selected on the basis of error analysis on the training data and a percent error deviation test on the test data. Model diagnostic checking was carried out on ACF and PACF in residual terms through runs above and below the median, runs up and down and Ljung-Box tests. It is inferred that ARIMA (2,1,1) was found to be optimal and that the forecast values for the years 2019-20 to 2023-24 were estimated on the basis of this model, which were 7.82,8.23,8.72,9.2 and 9.72 million tonnes for the year 2019-20 to 2023-24, respectively. The significance of the mode is that we can forecast the values using this best fit model and forecast values are very important for the policymakers and other government agencies for proper policy decision regarding food security
Physicochemical and antibacterial activities of Apis honey types derived from Coorg, Karnataka, India
Get PDFNatural honey has various ingredients in it that contribute to its incredible properties. The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the physicochemical and antibacterial activity of various Apis honey from Coorg, Karnataka. Four samples of Apis honey viz., A. florea, A. mellifera, A. cerana and A. dorsata were collected from various regions of Coorg, Karnataka. The honey samples\u27 physicochemical properties and antibacterial activities against Streptococcus sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus sp were determined in vitro. The moisture and ash content varied from 13.6 - 17.2% and 0.32 – 0.49%, respectively. Hydroxy methyl furfurals) content of A. dorsata honey samples was highest with 9.2±0.5 mg/Kg and least was recorded with 6.8±0.4 mg/Kg for A. florae honey. The reducing sugar content of A. florea honey sample was highest with 87.5±3.2 (%) and the peroxide levels were in the range of 10.2 – 14.9 µg/g/h at 20°C. The antibacterial assay revealed that S. aureus, Enterococcus sp and Streptococcus sp were most susceptible against the honey varieties tested and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values between 25-6.5 (%v/v) were determined. In conclusion, honey varieties from Coorg could be used in specific antibacterial prophylaxis as the activity depends on the honey bee species, their metabolism and floral sources in specific geographical regions
Woodlot farming by smallholder farmers in Ganderbal district of Kashmir, India
Get PDFForest degradation and deforestation are serious threats to resource conservation, subsistence livelihoods and rural income diversification. Woodlot farming on farms has been established as a potential option to increase forest resources from agricultural landscapes and remove human pressure from forests. The study investigated the land-use and landholding pattern, woodlots types and species preference and extent of spatial distribution, land allocation and growing stock of woodlots in the Ganderbal district of Kashmir. Multistage random sampling technique was employed to select 349 farm woodlots from 12 sample villages. Secondary sources were used to collect village-level data on land-use and landholding pattern. Primary data concerning the trees were collected through farm woodlot inventories. The data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Results revealed that the total land area in the sample villages is 888.60 ha; 521.60 ha (58.70%) is cultivated land, which is mostly (80.78%) occupied by 1244 marginal farmers. The prevalent woodlots established were plantations of Populus, Salix, Robinia or mixed species. The farm woodlots (61.59 ha) contributed 11.81% of cultivated land and 6.93% of the total geographical area. The average growing stocks of woodlots were estimated to be 204.05 m3/ha for Populus, 191.77 m3/ha for Salix, 109.51 m3/ha for Robinia and 62.31 m3/ha for Mixed. The findings suggested that woodlot farming is the key alternative for forest resource production, livelihood resilience and socioeconomic improvement; hence, the policy must be implicated towards the promotion of woodlot farming by re-orienting the land use through farmer’s motivation and technical, financial and farming input assistance
A review on the important phytochemicals and their role in psoriasis
Get PDFPsoriasis may emerge at any stage of life irrespective of age, sex or geographic location. It is identified as a chronic immune-linked inflammatory skin disease that affects all human races. Psoriasis is often more Caucasian than non-Caucasian groups of human races and in geographic areas, like higher latitudes and Western countries. Therefore, attention should be paid to both genetic and environmental causes of psoriasis. Natural products have significantly contributed and encouraged the advances in skin disease treatment like psoriasis. The maximum number of phytochemicals is now being used worldwide, including various plants, herbs, and formulations. In addition, some phytochemicals like psoralen, aloe-emodin, curcumin etc. have also been isolated in pure form and have also shown their efficacy in the management of psoriasis. The presence of such phytochemicals confirms the effectiveness of few herbal therapies. This paper reviews some of the promising phytochemicals and their potential molecular target sites and mechanism of action, which may aid in designing and producing more precise and selective antipsoriatic agents. Exploring and recognizing phytochemicals as to how they function will facilitate more site-specific delivery methods for psoriasis care
Standardization of seed ball media for fodder sorghum to increase green cover and fodder availability in degraded lands
Get PDFFodder sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) is a tall, erect annual grass. It is a drought resistant crop due to its effective root system. A seed ball is one of the low-cost technologies which was prepared with locally available materials on the farm. In seed balls, the seeds are protected from external factors. At the same time, vigorous seedling was established through seed ball. In order to improve the degraded lands with green cover, the following experiment was framed and carried out. Seed balls were prepared with a combination of red soil and vermicompost at different ratios with 230-250ml of water per kg of medium to get an optimum size and quality. After the preparation, seed balls were shade dried for 24-36 hrs. Among the different ratio of media combinations, 2:1 and 4:2 ratio was found to be the best media for seed balls preparation with good physical and physiological qualities. The maximum seedling quality parameters speed of germination (7.6), germination (98%), root length (10.6 cm), shoot length (19.4 cm) and vigour index (2900) obtained in the present study were due to vermicompost, which contained an optimum concentration of nutrients that helped improve the seedling vigour. This experiment confirmed that using seed balls with best media combinations for the regeneration of degraded lands was very effective
Development of a picking and dropping mechanism for protray grown vegetable seedlings
Get PDFIn India, manual transplanting of vegetable seedlings was the commonly adopted method for raising vegetable crops, but it is laborious, time-consuming and costly. Therefore, mechanical transplanters are developed to overcome the problems in manual transplanting. The present work was to develop multiple seedlings picking and transferring mechanism for protray grown vegetable seedlings. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), chilli (Capsicum annuum) and brinjal (Solanum melongena) seedlings were raised in portrays with coir pith as a growth media and used for transplanting operation. The mechanism was to pick seven numbers of seedlings in one row at a time and transfer them into lateral conveying system, which could deliver the seedlings one by one on to the ground at regular interval. Programmable Logic Controller was used to controlling entire operations of seedlings picking and dropping. At the time of evaluation, a totally 196 number of seedlings were used with 98 cell protray. From the test results, the success rate of 89.28 per cent, missing seedling of 3.57 per cent, damaged seedling of 4.08 per cent, seedling delivering failure of 3.06 per cent were recorded for tomato seedlings.
Similarly, in chilli and brinjal the success rate of 95.40 and 91.83 per cent, the missing seedling of 2.04 and 2.55 per cent, damaged seedling of 1.53 and 3.06 per cent and seedling delivering failure of 1.02 and 2.55 per cent respectively were observed. Transplanting frequency of developed mechanism was 2520 seedlings h-1. As a whole, this work was able to develop a working model of vegetable seedling transplanting mechanism, which can eject seven seedlings at a time from portray cell and transfer them into the slotted conveyor.
Enhancement of agronomic traits and yield of rice var. ADT 43 grown in typic ustifluvent soil through silicon fertilization
Get PDFRice is a rich accumulator of silicon and its supply is essential for the growth and economic yield of rice. Hence, a field experiment was conducted in sandy clay loam soil belonging to Padugai series (Typic ustifluvent) at farmers holding in Kuttalam block, Mayiladuthurai district, Tamil Nadu to assess the role of silicon in improving agronomic characters and yield of rice ADT 43, Oryza sativa. The treatments included T1 - Recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), T2 - RDF + Potassium silicate (FS) - 0.25%, T3- RDF + FS - 0.50%, T4 - RDF +FS - 1.00%, T5 -RDF + FS - 0.25%, T6 - RDF + FS - 0.50%, T7 - RDF + FS - 1.00%, T8 - RDF + SA - 50 kg ha-1, T9 - RDF + SA - 100 kg ha-1 and T10 - RDF + SA- 150 kg ha-1. From T2 to T4, the foliar spray was done at tillering stage and from T5 to T7, the foliar spray was done at tillering and panicle initiation stage. The silicon was applied through FS with the rice crop. The soil application of silicon relatively recorded higher growth and yield compared to foliar application. Besides improving different agronomic characters of the rice, the soil application of 50 kg Si ha-1 registered the highest grain yield (6183.3 kg ha-1) and straw yield (6740 kg ha-1) and was comparable with a single foliar spray of 1% Si. Growth and rice yield increased with Si concentration of 0.25% to 1%. Thus, the soil application of silicon @50 kg ha-1 through potassium silicate is advocated to realize maximum rice yield
Assessment of tree species diversity and above-ground biomass in two disturbed tropical dry evergreen forests of Coromandel coast of India
Get PDFThe tree diversity and carbon stock of all woody plants were investigated in two-hectare square plots (100 m x 100 m) were established in Suryanpet (SP) and Velleripet (VP) which is tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEF) sites on the Coromandel Coast of peninsular India. All trees ? 10 cm girth at breast height measured at 1.3 m from the rooting point were enumerated. A total of 35 tree species (? 10 cm gbh) belonging to 34 genera and 23 families were recorded in tropical dry evergreen forests. Tree species richness in 27 (dominant species Dimorphocalyx glabellus Thw.) and 18 (dominant species Strychnos nux-vomica L.) in SP and VP respectively. A total density of woody plants 671 and 1154 individuals in SP and VP respectively. The basal area of trees in the two study sites SP (40.70 m2 ha-1) and VP (45.46 m2 ha-1). Most abundant families are Loganiaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Rutaceae and its family index value (FIV) is 56.14, 39.12 and 21.40 respectively. The aboveground biomass (AGB) of trees totaled in site SP (405.3 Mg ha-1) and VP (721.3 Mg ha-1). The extent of tree species diversity and estimated carbon stock of the TDEF sites, which provides the baseline data on the floristic structure and diversity of this forest for better management and conservation
A study on ectoparasites in Indian Mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1817) of Thiruvananthapuram coast, South India
Get PDFParasitic infestation in marine fish requires urgent attention, especially those that infect economically important fishes, which affect their aesthetic quality and palatability. Ectoparasites in Indian Mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier, 1817), have not been studied well. Morphological and seasonal study of ectoparasites in R. kanagurta from the Thiruvananthapuram coast was conducted during March-August 2018. The study investigated three parasitic groups: Trichodinids, Digenean cysts (Centrocestus Looss, 1899), and Cymothoids (Norileca indica Milne Edwards, 1840 and Nerocila phaiopleura Bleeker, 1857) from R. kanagurta during the present study. Of the 240 fishes examined, the Trichodinids and digeneans showed 100% prevalence on the gill samples. Seasons had no significant effect on trichodinids and digeneans prevalence. However, parasitic Cmothoids fluctuated significantly according to the season. They showed greater prevalence during the pre-monsoon (45%) and least in monsoon (25%) due to environmental parameters like rainfall, salinity, and temperature. Trichodinids parasitized gills of R. kanagurta showed increased mucus production, paleness in the gills, and multifocal whitish areas. The Cymothoid infested fish showed lesions with the erosion of the epidermis and underlying dermis at the site of attachment. The noticeable changes were observed in the gill epithelium due to the encystment of digeneans. The Trichodinid ciliates and Heterophyid digenean cysts (Centrocestus Looss, 1899) are reported for the first time in R. kanagurta