The residues of crop and weeds in rainfed upland rice ecosystem need rapid, viable utilization before establishment of the succeeding crop. Enhanced decomposition reducing the volume and C:N ratio of the biomass may be a good proposition towards efficient residue management facilitating tillage and decomposition. Cellulose degrading microbe (CDM) or commercial yogurt was evaluated with glyphosate for in situ decomposition of rice stubbles after harvest. A field experiment was conducted by spraying glyphosate, and CDM or yogurt with or without sugar on rice stubbles after harvest of the crop. Glyphosate and, CDM or yogurt significantly reduced the dry weight, carbon and nitrogen content of stubbles at 25, 50 and 75 days after spray compared to untreated plot or spraying glyphosate and bacterial cultures separately, and the corresponding organic carbon content and C:N ratio of the stubble reduced significantly. The effect of adding sugar with the spray solution was not significant. The species diversity of the weeds for grass and sedge was unaffected by the treatments, but number of broadleaved weed species significantly increased due to spraying of glyphosate and, CDM or yogurt.

The paucity of research on the development of high yielding quality hybrids suitable for protected cultivation of capsicum compels to undertake this study. Therefore, present study was carried out to estimate the extent of genetic divergence in 25 genotypes of capsicum collected from different indigenous and exotic sources. Genetic divergence studies following Mahalanobis D2 statistics revealed considerable genetic diversity among 25 genotypes of capsicum for all the traits under study. Appreciable diversity within and between the clusters was observed. Four clusters were fanned from the D2 analysis using Tocher’s method. Cluster I (11) topped with highest number of genotypes among the cluster fanned, while maximum inter-cluster distance (7.11) was recorded between the cluster II and III. Therefore, hybridization between the genotypes of cluster II and III can be very effective for high yielding quality hybrid development for protected cultivation of capsicum.

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Vyara, Dist.Tapi has carried out women empowerment work in adopted villages of Tapi district. KVK, NAU, Vyara as well as many GOs / NGOs and Co-operatives formed many SHGs in the district. Tapi district is a tribal dominated district with poor economic condition of farmers. Farm women of this area are mostly engaged with daily wages work in farm, which is available in particular season. Therefore, to generate the additional income and empowerment of tribal women it has been decided to organize different activities related to Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Home Science. Hence, keeping all these factors in mind the research study, “Impact of Self Help Groups on Socio-economic status of tribal women in adopted villages of KVK, Tapi” was undertaken with following specific objectives. To know the socio-economic status of the SHG members, SES scale developed by Pandya and Pandya (2010) was used. The research findings showed that there was increase in all the independent variables after joining SHG. Nearly half of the respondents had taken internal lending from SHG for agriculture. 49 SHG members had taken bank loan for income generating activities and agriculture. Socio-economic status was also increased after joining SHG. Higher level of education, house holding, occupation, land holding, income, socio-political participation, material possession, herd size and personal achievement would be responsible for increase in SES.

Yellow mosaic virus (YMV) is a major disease of soybean, which can cause up to 80 % yield loss in severe cases. Chemical or cultural control of YMV is neither economical nor environment-friendly. Deployment of genetic resistance is considered to be the effective way to control it. Therefore, present study was conducted to identify stable sources of resistance for YMV disease, A 72 soybean germplasm lines, collected from different parts of the India were screened for YMV disease reaction at YMV hotspot in 2014. No genotypes were exhibited absolute resistant reaction; however 40 genotypes viz., CAT 87, JS 98-79, JS 20-05, JS 20-24, JS 20-29, JS 20-74, JS 20-76, JS 20-82, JS 20-69, JS 20-90, JS 20-98, JS (IS) 90-5-12-1, PK 885, PK 1225, PS 1466, PS 1539, PS 1540, SPC 175, SL 96, SL 517, SL 710, SL 744, SL 799, SL 900, SL 955, UPSM 534, PK 515, PS 1225, PS 1584, GSDL 7, GSDL 49, GSDL 57, GSDL 82, PK 416, PS 564, PS 19, PS 1573, SL 958, SL 983 and PSB 13-15 exhibited highly resistance. Similarly, 16 genotypes viz., B 327 B1664 CAT 783 DS 2410 HIMSO 1681 JS 99-72 JS 20-21 JS 20-30 JS 20-73 JS 20-77 NRC 56 PK 768 PS 1518 RVS 2002-4 SL 738 and PSB 13-16 etc. were showed moderately resistant reaction. The rest genotypes showed moderately susceptible (02) susceptible (08) and highly susceptible (06) reactions

In this study, harvesting of rice and wheat using crop cutter was evaluated. Results showed that the field capacity of crop cutter was 2.44 times higher than the manual operation. The labour requirement was 32.74 and 149.25 man-hr/ha for crop cutter and manual operation, respectively. In case of wheat, the field capacity of crop cutter was 2.23 times greater than manual harvesting and labour involvement was 23.20 and 115.74 man-hr/ha for crop cutter and manual operation, respectively. The cost of wheat harvesting operation for one hectare was Rs. 2,340.40/ in case of crop cutter and Rs. 3,750/- for manual operation. Whereas in rice harvesting the cost was Rs. 2,464.28/- for crop cutter and Rs. 5,596.87/- for manual operation, respectively.