Stalk rot disease of maize is a serious problem in all major maize growing regions but the exact disease incidence and estimated loss in Karnataka is not known. Therefore, in the present study, field survey was conducted in major maize growing districts of Karnataka during the three Kharif seasons from 2013-15. Rowing field survey was conducted to determine the incidence of stalk rot. A total of 10 maize growing districts were surveyed and the data were collected on the incidence of stalk rot. The study also reported the prevalence of stalk rot in all maize producing regions. The highest percent prevalence of stalk rot disease was recorded in Bellary region (66.66%). The maximum mean incidence was observed in Bellary and Koppal districts (>24% mean incidence) and least was in Dharwad and Haveri (<5% mean incidence). Similarly, maximum disease incidence was recorded in Shankarbande regions of Bellary followed by Halagere (Koppala) with maximum incidence of >40%. The isolation frequency of Fusarium species associated with stalk rot diseases ranged from 45 -57%. Study also indicated that, several other fungal pathogens were also associated with the stalk rot. However, incidence of Fusarium was dominant in all the study areas. Fusarium species isolated from infected stalks were identified based on colony characteristics and morphological features. In conclusion, the present study determined the actual disease incidence and prevalence of stalk rot disease in major maize growing districts of Karnataka.

Economic motivation plays an important role in soaring the level of knowledge of banana growers about integrated pest management. Economically motivated farmers are more oriented towards profit maximization from farming as they give comparatively more value on economic ends. Keeping this in view, an attempt has been made to study economic motivation and its relationship with the level of knowledge of banana growers about integrated pest management. The result of study revealed that slightly more than four-fifth (84.00 percent) of the banana growers was found with high to very high level of economic motivation. It is also revealed that economic motivation of the banana growers had positive and highly significant (r = 0.305**) relationship with their level of knowledge about IPM.

Field investigation was conducted during the late Samba (September-January) season of 2018-19 at Wetland farms, TNAU, Coimbatore to study the effect of high density planting on light interception, growth and yield of rice (Oryza sativa L.) under modified system of rice intensification. The treatments comprised of T1 - 25 × 25cm with 100% Recommended Dose of Fertilizer (RDF) (SRI), T2 - 25 × 20cm with 100% RDF, T3 - 25 × 15cm with 100% RDF, T4 - 25 × 15cm with 125% RDF, T5 - 20 × 20cm with 100% RDF, T6 - 20 × 15cm with 100% RDF, T7 - 20 × 15cm with 125% RDF and T8 - Conventional cultivation with 100% RDF. The experiment was arranged in Randomised Complete Block Design with three replications. The result revealed that plant height was significantly higher in T4 and was statistically similar with all other treatment except T8 in all the stages, but not at maturity stage. The LAI was significantly higher in conventional method of planting compared to all other treatments. Higher light interception were recorded with T5 over others but was statistically comparable with T6, T7 and T8, respectively. Grain yield was higher with T5, T4, T2 and T3 compared to other treatments.

The cane yield was the highest under paired row planting (M2), which was comparable with normal row planting (M1). Wide row planting (M3) produced the lowest cane yield. Sole crop of sugarcane (C6) produced the highest cane yield, which was on par with coriander (C2) or greengram (C3) intercropped with sugarcane. Intercropping of maize (C1) resulted in the lowest cane yield. The highest sugar yield was realized with paired row planting (M2). The highest cane equivalent yield of the cropping system was noticed with paired row planting (M2), which was comparable with normal planting (M1). Wide row planting (M3) resulted in the lowest cane equivalent yield. Intercropping of coriander followed by ginger (C5) resulted in the highest cane equivalent yield, whereas, it was found the lowest with intercropping of coriander (C2).

The water soluble fertilizer is solid form of mixed fertilizer composition. It includes urea, phosphoric acid and one potassium salt. It increased the fertilizer use efficiency up to 90 per cent. The present study conducted in Lalgudi, Thottiyam and Manapparai blocks of Trichy district in Tamil Nadu state. The multi stage purposive sampling technique has been adopted to select the sample farmers for the study. The data collected from 120 banana growers by personal interview method and analysis has done by Binary Logistic Regression to find out the factors which influence the farmers to adopt water soluble fertilizers in their banana field. The study revealed that three factors namely promotional activities, irrigation facility and efficacy level of product influencing the adoption of water soluble fertilizers.

A replicated field experiment was conducted in BCKV university instructional farm to quantify the weed management effect on vertical distribution of weedseed bank in aerobic crop ecosystem in the year 2012-13 and 2013-14. The experiment was framed with five weed management treatments in boro and kharif season. The number of total wed seed bank was highly influenced by weed management treatments. With the beginning of the experiment, around 141.05 numbers of weed seed were present in 0-10 cm soil depth and 56.40 numbers of weed seed in 10-20 cm soil depth. At the end of the experiment, the number of weed seeds was maximum in the control plots as compare to the initial count. The hand weeding treatments recorded minimum numbers of weed seeds of 61.00 and 22.50 in 0 – 10 and 10 – 20 cm soil depth. And the weed seed bank was enriched in boro season as compared to the kharif season.

A machine was designed and developed for coconut milk extraction and its performance was evaluated at IIFPT, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The milk extraction efficiency was found to be 78.27%. The milk yield was tested with three different nozzle clearance of 2, 3, 4 mm and rotational speeds of 40, 50 and 60 rpm. Finding saying that, the percentage of coconut milk yield was higher at the point of combination of the nozzle clearance of 2 mm with the rotational speed of 40 rpm which yielded about 49.03% of coconut milk. The lowest coconut milk yield of 33.38% was analyzed during the point of combination of the nozzle clearance of 4 mm with the rotational speed of 60 rpm. Both lower and higher percentage of coconut milk yield were having a significant difference (p<0.05) with other results. The experiment shows that the increase in rotational speed of the motor resulted in decrease in the milk yield. It was also showing that the average milk yield started to decrease while increasing the nozzle clearance (mm). Thus, our major research finding saying that, lower rotational speed and nozzle clearance result to the higher amount of coconut milk yield. The performance evaluation indicates the values of 30.52 kg/h and 0.041kWh/kg-grated coconut for average feed rate (FR) and Specific energy consumption (SEC) for the designed coconut milk extractor.

In India, dairy farming is highly gender sensitive because most of the dairy activities are generally performed by female workers with less or no contributions from the male counterpart. Women constitute seventy one percent of labour force in livestock sector. In present study, an attempt has been made to find out association between personal and socio-economic profile of male and female dairy workers and their involvement in milking operation. Descriptive research design was adopted for conducting field survey. Total 120 respondents (60males and60 females) of three villages namely Hirdaypur, Ishwariganj and Dharmpur From Kalyanpur block of District Kanpur (U.P.) were selected for data collection. Multistage random sampling was used to select the study area and respondents. X2 test was used to find out association between personal and socio-economics profile of respondents and their involvement in milking operation. Results showed significant association between personal and socio-economics profile of respondents and their involvement in milking operation.

Most of the increase in agricultural output over the years has taken place under irrigated conditions. As bringing more area under irrigated cultivation is constrained by availability of cultivable land and investment, it is the need of the hour for policy makers to plan in such a way that improved production for meeting future food grain demand should come from rainfed cultivation. The present study was aimed to estimate the resource use efficiency and technical efficiency of the irrigated and rainfed farms cultivating paddy. The efficiency ratio of human labour, fertilizers Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potash was more than one as all these inputs were underutilized and for seed it was less than one which indicated that the resources were over utilized. The study indicated that both irrigated and rainfed farms were technically efficient. There will be opportunity for increasing the yield or income of the farms only by using the resources optimally and going for location specific technologies and varieties.

CERES-Rice model was used to simulate phenophases and yield of rice varieties. Field experiments were conducted during the period from May to November 2016 at Mannuthy, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur. Two rice varieties (Jyothi and Kanchana) and five dates of planting (1st week of June to 1st week of August) at fortnight intervals. Calibration of genetic coefficients was done with maximum number of iterations and then the model was validated. The model could simulate the phenology of both the rice varieties with D- stat value ranging between 0.5 to 0.7 for physiological maturity and 0.6 to 0.7 for Anthesis. It shows the credible performance of the model in simulating phenophases. The model overestimated the grain yields of rice varieties Jyothi and Khanchana which needs further refinement.

An investigation was carried out for physico-chemical status of Katahal Nullah water and nearby Nullah bank soil. The soil and water of four villages (Sanichari Mandir, Bedua, Nihora nagar and Chhorahar) pH and EC was appeared in alkaline and normal range. Organic carbon content varied low to high (0.18 to 0.90 %) and CaCO3 moderately calcareous (2.12 % to 4.60 %). Available N, P, K and S were varied respectively (180.0 to 190.6 kg ha-1), (13.63-14.80 kg ha-1), (212.8-257.6 kg ha-1) and (22.50 to 23.75 kg ha-1) in increasing range. Micronutrients Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn were varied (1.13-3.20 mg kg-1), (8.26 - 23.70 mg kg-1), (0.16-1.94 mg kg-1) and (6.16-19.33 mg kg-1) in considerable range respectively. Similarly in water sample exchangeable Ca++ was varied from 5.0 to 10.0 cmol (p+) kg-1 and magnesium content of the samples was ranged from 3.0 to 6.0 [cmol (p+) kg-1]. The content of CO3= and HCO3- were not detectable in samples except Chhorahar village (10.0 meL-1, 8.0 meL-1). Micronutrients Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn in water sample were varied (0.16–0.49 ppm), (0.05-0.14 ppm), (0.05-0.06 ppm) and (0.09-0.22 ppm) respectively.

Groundnut is an important source of oil and protein and is considered as king of vegetable oilseed crop. Oil seeds occupy an important position in the agriculture economic of the country and occupy an area of 27.20 million hectares with the production of 32.80 million tones and productivity of 1108 kg ha-1. The largest production of oil seeds India has been recorded in Madhya Pradesh with production of 9.3 Mt of oil seeds in 2012-13. India is also the largest producer of oil seeds in the world and contributes 7% of the global vegetable oils production, with a 14% share in the global oil seeds area. Phosphorus is an important primary nutrient and enhances the root growth thereby facilitating absorption of water and nutrients from deeper layers. Phosphorus stimulates not only the root growth but also hastens the maturity of oilseed crops. The groundnut crop requires judicious supply of phosphorus for its normal growth and development. Being a day neutral crop, ample irrigations are required by groundnut in summer and missing any irrigation at any one of the critical growth stages results into considerable reduction in pod yield. High soil moisture results in pod rot, low yield and poor seed quality and also water stress reduces photosynthesis mainly due to reduction in photosynthetic area. A study has been conducted during summer season of 2018 at Bagusala Farm (18.80 N latitude and 84.18 E longitude) of M.S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture, CUTM, Parlakhemundi, Odisha under typical humid and sub-tropical climatic conditions to know the best irrigation scheduling and optimum phosphorus level for summer groundnut. The treatment combinations include three irrigation levels (I1, I2 and I3 at 30, 60 and 90 CPE respectively) and four phosphorus levels (P1, P2, P3 and P4 at 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg ha-1, respectively). The treatments were laid out using Factorial Randomised Block Design and replicated thrice with 12 treatment combinations. The variety taken for the experiment was K-6 and sown on the spacing of 60cm×45cm. Irrespective of phosphorus levels, highest plant height (88.41cm), pod yield (23.92 q ha-1), kernel yield (16.99 qha-1), shelling (70.93%) foundinI1treatment. Where P4 produces highest number of pods plant-1 (17.16) and pod yield (23.15q ha-1) obtained from P4. Net return and B:C ratio (1.99) obtained highest in irrigation 30CPE and phosphorus applied @30kg ha-1 treatment plot.

Farmer Producer Company is farmers enterprise, an effective pathway to address the challenges in farming and to support farmers in profitable farm business. There are 19 FPCs in Madurai district which are registered under the MCA, GoI. The study was taken up to know the performance of FPCs in Madurai district based on the parameters like activities, support etc., and interviewed. From which, performance of three FPCs are discussed in this paper. MM- FPC Limited (Coconut & other crops producing FPC in Madurai district) is having 1080 shareholders and it procurements of coconut and copra, arrange cattle loan to members and in the process of establishing the oil extraction unit and paddy seed processing unit under development schemes. K-FPC (Kadambavanam Farmer Producer Company) is established through the NGO known as Association for Rural Development. It is involved in linking farmers with the banks and supplying inputs. It also arranges the education loans for the children of the members. SV-FPC (Sirumalai Vegetables Farmer Producer Company) works for the people living in Sirumalai hills and focusing on transport of larger quantity of vegetable from the production centre to different markets. With the support of 1000 shareholders, SV-FPC is planning to establish input shop for the benefit of farmers and sale of premium grade honey.

The field experiment was conducted at Agronomy farm of Dr B.S.K.K.V., Dapoli to study the effect of age of seedlings at transplanting, spacing and levels of fertilizer on yield, nutrient content and uptake of the hybrid rice during kharif seasons of year 2015 and 2016. Transplanting of 15 days old seedlings recorded significantly higher grain and straw yield, as well as N, P and K content and their uptake. Significantly higher grain and straw yield obtained by 15 cm×15 cm spacing. The N, P and K content both in the grain and straw were not influenced significantly due to different levels of spacing. However, significantly higher uptake of N, P and K in the grain and straw of the hybrid rice recorded with 15 cm×15 cm. Application of 125% RDF recorded significantly higher grain and straw yield as well as N, P and K content and their uptake.

The study was conducted in Krishna delta region of Andhra Pradesh during 2018-2019 to find out the opinion of the functionaries towards water users associations. The Ex-post-facto research design was used for the present investigation. A total of 240 respondents were selected proportionately from both Krishna eastern delta and Krishna western delta regions for the study. The study revealed that majority (46.67%) of the respondents was highly favourable followed by favourable (43.33%) and less favourable (10.00%) towards water users associations.

Redgram is one of the major pulse crops of the tropics and sub-tropics region, grown in approximately 50 countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas. In India, redgram mainly grown in many states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and it occupies 3.89 million hectares of area with the about 3.30 million tonnes of production, having yield of 849 kg per hectare on an average. In Karnataka, redgram accounts an area of 0.82 million hectares with the 0.61 million tonnes of production, having an average productivity of 733 kg per ha. The research study conducted mainly in 3 districts viz, Bidar, Kalaburgi and Yadgir districts of North Eastern region of Karnataka during the year 2016-18 to know the effectiveness of extension services received by redgram growers. The data were collected from the randomly selected 180 redgram growers through personal interview method using structured pre-tested interview schedule. The results of the study reveal that 43.89 percent of the redgram growers were having medium level of effectiveness i.e., moderately effective followed by high effectiveness (33.89 %) and 22.22 percent were having less effectiveness of extension services which is provided by the extension agency to redgram growers.