Azotobacter plays an important role in increasing the development and physical conditions of plants. It improves seed germination and has beneficial response on Crop Growth Rate (CGR) and helps to increase nutrient uptake and ultimately boost up BNF. In this study 16 rhizosphere soil samples were collected from Cuddalore and Madurai districts of Tamil Nadu. The soil physico chemical properties were analysed and totally 16 isolates were obtained. The isolates were characterized for fermentation of carbohydrates, starch hydrolysis, catalase and citrate utilization. They were screened for plant growth promoting traits such as IAA, PO4 solubilization, gibberlic acid production and siderophore production. Among the isolates, MAZO 13 produced higher amount of IAA (6.1±0.08µg/ml);higher degree of PO4 solubilization (8.12±0.10g/l) and gibberlic acid production (19.11±0.39µg/ml). All the isolates showed positive for siderophore production. The isolate MAZO13 significantly increased the seed germination, plant growth and vigour of the rice seedlings (with 65.8% increase) over uninoculated control. Hence this can be considered for inoculation to enhance the germination and early vigour of the rice seedlings, which will improve the survival and establishment in the main field.

Essential oils isolated from Artemisia maritima L. and Zanthoxylum armatum DC were analyzed by mass spectroscopy (MS) and their main constituents were identified. Fumigant activity, repellent activity, progeny deterrency and antifeedant activity of essential oils and two constituents viz., alpha pinene and linalool were examined against the major stored product insect pest, Plodia interpunctella (Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). 100% mortality was achieved by alpha pinene, linalool, A. maritima and Z. armatum oils at all concentrations within 120 hrs against P. interpunctella. Alpha pinene showed the highest repellent activity of 80.18±1.9, 88.36±1.4, 93.15±4.1% after 1, 3 and 5 hrs respectively followed by linalool and Z. armatum and showed remarkable activity at 6 µl/cm2 against P. interpunctella with 76.24±1.1 and 66.42±2.8% repellence after 3 hrs followed by 80.46±1.8 and 72.26±1.4% after an interval of 5 hrs. In progeny deterrence tests alpha pinene and linalool were more potent than others producing 10.25±1.2 and 13.45±2.2 F1 progeny of P. interpunctella with 74.66 and 66.74% deterrent activity even at a lowest concentration of 10 µl/ml, whereas 40.45±4.8 adults emerged successfully in control. Similarly, highest antifeedant activity was revealed for alpha pinene followed by linalool while both the essential oils showed less FDI against the given pest. Responses varied with respect to doses of compounds and exposure time. Further, alpha pinene showed higher toxicity than linalool and it may be attributed to its chemical structure.

Indigenous technologies are the techniques or method of cultivation practices followed by farmers from generation to generation and also it gets some modification based on the environmental situations. Pulses are cultivated both in irrigated and rainfed conditions in Tamil Nadu. Farmers are adopting number of local indigenous techniques in pulse cultivation. The study was conducted among 300 pulse farmers in major pulse growing districts of Tamil Nadu. Sixty six indigenous technologies were documented in pulse cultivation and the scientific reason for each indigenous technology was collected. This study concluded that among the 66 indigenous technologies identified, 55 technologies are found to be rational and 11 indigenous technologies are found to be irrational.

The aim of the study was to find out the effect of plant spacing on flower quality and yield of four different varieties of tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa) during 2018-2019. The experiment was conducted in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The results revealed that wider spacing 30cm × 30cm recorded maximum in plant spread (with Arka nirantara), number of leaves (with Arka shringar), floret diameter and spike yield (with Arka prajwal). Medium spacing 30cm × 20cm recorded maximum in days to basal floret opening (with Arka shringar) and spike length (with Arka prajwal). However, low spacing 25cm × 25cm recorded maximum in days to first spike emergence (with Arka prajwal), floret length (with Arka nirantara) and shelf life (with Arka prajwal).

Shoot tip explants were used to standardize the protocol for plantlet regeneration of Naga King Chilli (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) at the Department of Horticulture, Nagaland University. Shoot tips (1-2 cm) were cultured on MS medium supplemented with either BAP or KIN @ 0-8 mg L-1 respectively for shoot proliferation, alone and in combination with 0.5 mg L-1 IAA. The medium containing 8 mg L-1 BAP + 0.5 mg L-1 IAA recorded the maximum response (83.33%) for shoot proliferation. After six weeks of culture, maximum shoots (3.39) and shoot length (1.3cm) was recorded in the same medium which was further taken up for further sub culturing upto third cycle. MS basal medium was used for further elongation of the regenerated shoot buds. MS medium supplemented with auxins viz. IBA and IAA @ 0 - 1.5 mg L-1 alone was used for root formation. 1mg L-1 IBA enriched media recorded highest number of functional roots (11.36 per explant) and the rooted plantlets were acclimatized in pre-sterilized moist cocopeat, sand and farmyard Manure @ 1:1:1 ratio and were maintained under shade condition.

Rice is one of the world’s most important cereal crops. It belongs to grass family Poaceae (2n = 24). There are 25 species of genus Oryza, and only two species, namely Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima are cultivated. Aromatic rice constitutes a small but an important sub-group of rice. The genetic diversity study was done using 24 SSR markers out of which 11 were polymorphic. The dendrogram generated by using Darwin 6.0.15 software identified three major clusters (I, II, and III). Cluster I is the largest cluster with 15 genotypes, Cluster II is the second largest cluster with 13 genotypes and Cluster III consisted of 4 genotypes. Among the polymorphic markers, number of alleles ranged from 2 (RM11, RM25 and RM 552), 3 (RM125), 4 (RM44, RM316, RM215 and RM271) and 6 (RM447). Highest PIC value was recorded for RM447 (0.750) and lowest for RM125 (0.236). Heterozygosity (He) value ranged from 0.127 (RM484) to 0.782 (RM447). Maximum diversity was observed between IC-137401 and IC-342368 (0.98), followed by IC-342368 and IC-326284 (0.97). The genetic diversity studies conducted will help in further crop improvement programmes in identification and germplasm preservation.

Annual income refers to the total annual earning of respondent through all the sources. It becomes an important factor which determines the attitude and knowledge of an individual towards agricultural practices. Keeping this in view, an attempt has been made to study annual income and its relationship with the level of knowledge of banana growers about integrated pest management. The result of study revealed that slightly more than three-fifth (66.00 percent) of the banana growers had more than 3 lakhs of annual income. It is also revealed that the correlation (r = 0.285**) between annual income and their level of knowledge of banana growers about IPM was positive and highly significant.

Investigations were carried out in rice field on the influence of sequential planting of rice crop on the incidence of stem borer and interaction with weather parameters. Monthly planting of two susceptible rice varieties viz., Pusa basmati-1 and TN-1 was taken out in Paddy Breeding Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India during the period January 2015 to December 2015. The results revealed at 30 days after planting (DAP) more dead heart damage was observed in January (15.80%) and February (10.08%) planted crops of Pusa basmati-1. Maximum dead heart damage was noticed in 45 days after planting (DAP) with 24.00 percent dead heart in the January planted crop. The stem borer damage declined in the middle of the year and again the incidence shoot up more than 10 percent during October (10.50%), November (12.70%) and December (21.30%) months. In var. TN-1 the incidence of stem borer was comparatively lower but the temporal pattern of damage was similar to var. Pusa basmati-1. The stepwise correlation analysis of stem borer damage with weather data during the period revealed that there was significant impact of various weather parameters. The minimum temperature and minimum relative humidity had significant negative correlation with stem borer damage. Wind speed also had significant negative correlation with stem borer damage in both varieties.

The excessive application of irrigation water combined with high rainfall led to rapid rise of water table, resulting into development of waterlogging and salinity in Krishna western delta farmer’s fields. To test and demonstrate the need for control of soil salinity and waterlogging, pre drainage investigations were carried out at one of the farmer’s field near Bapatla, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. The results of physical and chemical analysis of soil samples showed that the type of soil is alkali in nature with high content of ESP. The N, P, K values were found to be 130, 18, 760 kg ha-1 respectively. The texture of the soil is clay loam with hydraulic conductivity value of 0.709 m/day and drainable porosity of 2.98%. Rainfall data of ten years (2008-2017) was analyzed to determine expected rainfall of different durations for one to ten years recurrence interval (RI). The drainage coefficient (dc) was estimated as 2.96 mm/day for the design of drainage system in the study location.

A field experiment was conducted at Agronomy Instructional Farm, Chimanbhai Patel College of Agriculture, S.D.Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar during kharif season of 2017 on loamy sand soil to study the effect of integrated weed management and crop geometry for getting maximum yield from kharif groundnut can be secured by growing crop with pair row sowing of 30-60-30 cm spacing. Interculturing followed by hand weeding at 25 and 40 DAS in kharif groundnut effectively controlled weeds and produced higher yield. Maximum yield and net profit from kharif groundnut can be secured by growing crop with pair row sowing of 30-60-30 cm spacing along with interculturing followed by hand weeding at 25 and 40 DAS. Under scarcity of labour, groundnut crop can be kept weed free by spraying of pendimethalin 1.0 kg/ha PE + interculturing followed by one HW at 30 DAS.

In Northern India, particularly in Haryana, the pressure on groundwater has mounted many folds resulting decline in groundwater level. The objective of the study was to analyze variability in groundwater table during two decades i.e. 1993-2013. For this purpose, groundwater depth data of 123 monitoring wells was obtained from Groundwater Cell, Rohtak. Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) interpolation method using Arc GIS software version 10.1was applied to obtain predicted values. A decline in average groundwater depth from 6.62 meters in 1993 to 7.89 meters in 2013 was noticed. Average seasonal fluctuation in groundwater table is varied from 0.7 meters to 1.5 meters during 1993 to 2013. The maximum area of Sonipat district i.e., about 1724.44 sq. km was recorded under seasonal fluctuation of 1 to 3 meters rise during June 1993 October 1993 but the maximum area of Sonipat district i.e., 1209.26 sq. km area under seasonal fluctuation of 0 to 1 meters during June 2013 to October 2013. Long term fluctuation trends in groundwater table during 1993 to 2013 revealed that there was a decline in groundwater table in four blocks out of seven blocks of the study area. The maximum fall in groundwater table was observed in Ganaur block Ganaur block expand near the bank of Yamuna River so that land of Ganaur block is a store house of fresh water. Due to fresh water withdrawal of groundwater in Ganaur block is high. There was 0.06 meter per annum decline in groundwater table in the entire Sonipat district during 1993 to 2013 in all seven blocks of the Sonipat district.

The study was conducted to evaluate the socio-economic status of Red Kandhari cattle rearing farmers during the year 2015-16 in Kandhar block of Nanded district in Maharashtra. Data on family background, land holding, animal management practices were collected from the farmers through interview and specially designed questionnaire. The majority of livestock farmers (64.56 percent) lived in nuclear family; small family size (64.56 percent) and 79.64 percent farmers were literate. Majority of Red Kandhari animals (61.61 percent) were owned by farmers having small family size. Animal husbandry was the main source of livelihood. Livestock farming was the main source of livelihood of majority of the farmers (88.07 percent) had small land holding below 5 acres, 53.14 percent farmers had medium herd size (6-10 animals). The animal breeding was undertaken by Natural service (66.31 percent). The animal housing was low cost kaccha type (85.32 percent). The 79.72 percent farmers grazed their animals and remaining animals were stallfed, 72.02 percent farmers followed deworming and 83.21 percent vaccinated animals. About 48.95 percent farmers were rearing Red Kandhari animals for milk and draught purpose. All farmers followed clean milk production practices.

The present investigation was carried out on correlation and path analysis for 13 characters of Blackgram on 29 genotypes including one check (T-9) and evaluated during kharif, 2018 in Randomized Block Design. The correlation studies exhibited highly significant and positive association for the quantitative characters with that of harvest index , biological yield, days to 50% pod setting and number of primary branches per plant. Path Coefficient analysis revealed that biological yield, harvest index, number of pods per plant. is the most important yield component character at both genotypic and phenotypic levels that can be used as selection indices for the yield improvement in black gram.

The present investigation was carried out during rabi season-2015-16 at Horticulture Instructional Farm, CP College of Agriculture, SD Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat to find out the effect of different plant spacing on performance of different varieties with respect to growth of broccoli (Brassica oleracea var.italica. L). Three different plant spacing viz., D1: 1st December, D2: 15th December and D3: 30th December.Four varieties viz., V1: Palam Samridhi,V2: Palam Vichitra,V3: Pusa Broccoli KTS-1 and V4: Palam Haritika. was analyzed statistically on growth, growth attributes parameters of broccoli and are summarized below. The results revealed that the treatment attained significantly maximum plant height at 45 DAT (32.90 cm) and at the stage of head harvest (64.23 cm) was found with treatment d2 (15th December).while significantly maximum number of leaves per plant at 45 DAT (10.62) and at the stage of head harvest (22.11) was observed with treatment v2 (Palam Vichitra) and significantly maximum plant spread (E-W and N-S) with (37.47 cm and 39.04 cm, respectively) was observed with treatment d2 (15th December).The significantly maximum plant spread (E-W and N-S) with (65.75 cm and 66.63 cm, respectively) was observed with treatment v2 (Palam Vichitra).

The aim of this experiment was to determine the energy efficiency indices in the rice-blackgram cropping system under various conservation tillage and crop management practices for hilly zone of Karnataka during 2014-15 and 2015-16. Minimum tillage with BBF or no tillage with flat bed with crop residues retained on the surface combined with RPP (Recommended package of practices) + brown manuring of sunnhemp significantly improved crop growth and yield of rice and blackgram and increased system productivity to the tone of 36.25 and 30.94 percent compared to conventional tillage with inorganic nutrients and pest management. The higher energy output (1,52,364 and 1,43,838 MJ ha-1), energy use efficiency (10.03 and 9.72), energy productivity (0.689 and 0.667) and net energy (1,37,039 and 1,28,945 MJ ha-1) were recorded in minimum tillage with BBF or no tillage with residue retention on the surface as compared to rest of the tillage practices. Among the crop management practices, recommended package of practices + brown manuring of sunnhemp (CM1), integrated nutrient and pest management + brown manuring of sunnhemp (CM2) and organics (FYM 50 % +VC 50 %) equivalent 100 % RDN and biological pest management + green leaf manuring (Gliricidia) @ 5 t ha-1 (CM3) noticed higher output energy (9.60 to 17.91 %), energy use efficiency (11.09 to 20.74 %), energy productivity (9.46 to 20.83 %) and net energy (12.55 to 19.27 %) as compared to inorganic nutrient and pest management.