The experiment on population dynamics against sucking pest complex of castor,a field experiment was conducted during 2012-13 on castor (Ricinus communis) at Main Castor and Mustard research station, Sadarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar. The studies on population dynamics of leafhopper, Empoasca flavescens revealed that the pest remained active during second week of September to third week of April. The population attained three peak periods of activity i.e., the first peak (5.44 nymphs/three leaves/plant) during fourth week of October, second (6.08 nymphs/three leaves /plant) in third week of November and third peak (3.88 leafhoppers/three leaves/plant) in second week of March. Leafhopper population had non-significant and positive correlation with morning relative humidity as well as mean bright sunshine (r = 0.11 and r = 0.13, respectively), whereas it had significant and negative correlation with minimum temperature, evening relative humidity as well as wind velocity (r = - 0.58, - 0.53 and -0.41, respectively). Thrips, Scirtothrips dorsalis first appeared in second week of September and continued throughout the crop season. The population reached peak level of activity twice, the first (3.44 thrips/three leaves/plant) during first week of November and second (3.68 thrips/spikes/ plant) during fourth week of March. Thrips population had negative and significant correlation with minimum as well as morning and evening relative humidity (r = -0.45, -0.38 and -0.55, respectively). Population study of whitefly, T. ricini revealed that the pest remained active from second week of September to third week of April. Three peaks were observed for whitefly, the first (1.64 whiteflies/three leaves/plant) during second week of October, second (2.44 whiteflies/three leaves/plant) during fourth week of November and third (3.08 whiteflies/three leaves/plant) during second week of March. Whitefly population exhibited significant negative correlation (r = -0.59) with morning relative humidity.

Climate change is an important issue affecting the agriculture, forestry, industry etc. The assessment of impact of climate change on crop production is bit difficult, because of the complex process going on in the plants system, which responds differently to change in individual factor of climate. The crops phenology is expected to be advanced due to rise in temperature, and will shorten the period of the crop growth. On the other hand increase in the concentration of the carbon dioxide may increase the crop yield due to fertilization effect of CO2. With the rise in temperature, insect pest population and occurrence of plant disease may be another threat to the crop productivity.Improved soil/crop management practices withpotential of soil organic carbon sequestration including conservation tillage, judicious use offertilizers, manures and diverse crop rotations may be followed to mitigate the effects of climate change on crop productivity.

An investigation was carried out in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai with 13 parents and 40 hybrids of rice which were effected through Line x Tester mating design. Seven high yielding released varieties of Tamil Nadu viz., MDU 5, ADT 36, ADT 43, ADT 45, TPS 4, ASD 16 and one IRRI variety IR 72 were used as lines. Five medicinal landraces of rice collected from different areas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu viz., Navara, Chennellu, Kavuni, Veeradangan and Kathanellu were used as testers. Based on per se performance of single plant yield and number of productive tillers per plant, 12 hybrids were selected and analysed for six biochemical parameters viz., carbohydrate, protein, iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium contents along with their parents. The GCV and PCV (genotypic coefficient of variance and phenotypic coefficient of variance) were high for all the traits except for carbohydrate content. High heritability with high genetic advance was exhibited by all the nutritive traits while moderate genetic advance was exhibited by protein content.

Fifty five genotypes (parents and F1’s) of pearl millet were evaluated in three environments. The genotypic expression was influenced by the environments significantly for twelve morphological characters and grain yield per plant. Simple correlations have indicated that harvest index, biological yield per plant, panicle length,dry fodder yield per plant, panicle girth and productive tillers per plant as the main yield component. Stability analysis indicated that high yielders in general had high ‘b’ values indicating their adaptability to normal environment and vice versa. Crosses 41-50 x RIB-20 followed by 31-40 x 101-105, 26-30 x 101-105, 26-30 x 71-75, RIB-20 x 71-75 and 71-75 x RIB-135-144 showed absolute stability for grain yield per plant. AMMI analysis and GGE bi-plot revealed good correspondence between the spread of genotypes and environments for biological yield per plant, panicle length and grain yield per plant. The bi-plot of mean grain yield per plant over the environments and the AMMI 1 scores support this view. Crosses involving parents 41-50, 76-80 and 101-105 were generally stable performers having AMMI 1 scores close to zero. Genotypes (either parents or the crosses) which have AMMI 1 values closer to zero are expected to be stable, thus a genotype which has AMMI 1 values close to zero and has mean higher than the average of the entries is a desirable one. 41-50 x RIB-20 is the stable cross as it fits the above assumption. Some of the other crosses which follow this assumption are 31-40 x 101-105, 26-30 x 71-75, RIB-20 x 71-75 and 71-75 x RIB-135-144 and 26-30 x 101-105.

Sorghum is a staple food in the arid and semi-arid tropics of Africa and Asia with nutritionally superior grains compared to fine cereals. Nutritional studies in sorghum are mostly confined to major entities like carbohydrate, protein and fat, and very limited reports are available on anti-nutritional factors and antioxidant capacity. With growing interest on better health of the population through diet based interventions for both rich and poor, like functional foods, sorghum will gain prominence in the diets because of its nutritional benefits. Contents of total phenolic compounds, phytates and fibre, and antioxidant capacity (TEAC) were estimated in grains of 200 sorghum genotypes including adapted cultivars and parental lines.Significant variability was observed for all the factors studied. The total polyphenols ranged from 44 to 1272 mg gallic acid eq./100 g, and the highest polyphenols were present in SSG 59-3 followed by Urja (1135-1272mg gallic acid eq./100 g). Phytatecontent varied between 720 and 3909 mg/100g. The maximum phytate was found in the germplasm accession IS 8525 (3909 mg/100g) followed by IS 14131 (3903 mg/100g). Fibre content also exhibited wide range (5.2-20.9%). The highest antioxidant capacity was shown by SSG 59-3 followed by IS 8525 and Urja. Results were confirmed with high repeatability and very high correlation (r = 0.6-0.9, p < 0.01). The information generated will aid in identifying suitable donor sources for development of trait-specific sorghum genotypes suitable for end-products that can act as functional foods.

For sustainable intensification of agriculture, food production capacity necessitates quantification for policy planning, research & development besides on ground action by extension functionaries. Crop production capacity can be evaluated by estimatingpotential yield or experimental yield, Frontline Demonstration (FLD) yield, On-farm testing yield and constraint-limited yield levels as benchmarks for given farming situation. The differences between these theoretical yield levels and actual farmers’yields define the yield gaps, and precise knowledge about these yield gaps is essential toguide sustainable agriculture for meeting increasing demands of food to ever-increasing population under limited land and water resources besides biotic and abiotic stresses. But in north-western temperate region of India hardly any research has been undertaken in this direction.Therefore, this research effort has been made to analyze production potentials, yield gaps and constraints limiting yields of important field crops in this region.

The nature of gene action was studied for grain yield and its related eleven component traits in pearl millet. The preponderance of non-additive gene action was observed. However, the magnitude of dominant gene action (H1 and H2) was greater than their corresponding additive gene effects (D). This suggested that the dominant genes played a significant role in the control of all the characters. The average degree of dominance (H1/D)1/2 was more than 1 indicates over dominance for all the characters during inheritance. The distribution of genes with positive and negative effects was found asymmetrical for all the traits. The ratio of KD/KR revealed that the dominance genes were more frequent than recessive ones.High estimates of heritability in narrow sense was observed for test weight and harvest index suggesting that selection based on these attributes would lead to rapid genetic improvement. The preponderance of non-additive gene effects of grain yield and its component traits in parents indicated that, heterosis breeding would be practically feasible in pearl millet.

Measurement of productivity growth is very essential to take appropriate policy decisions for the development of the agriculture sector. Present study measures trend in production, total factor Productivity growth of cotton crop in Maharashtra State. The Tornquist-Theil chained Divisia index approach was applied for the measurement of total factor productivity using input and output data of Cotton. Farm-level data on yield, inputs use level and their prices for the period from 1989-90 to 2008-09 were taken from the State funded Cost of Cultivation Scheme. The multi-variable model was estimated to know the determinants of total factor productivity growth taking total factor productivity as dependent variable. Beside double sown area, other explanatory variables included total amount of loan disbursed, net cropped area, area under irrigation, area under high yielding variety, annual rainfall, villages electrified, number of tractors, number of pump sets and road density. The results indicated that highest total factor productivity figures was recorded 163.89 in the year 2008-09 whereas lowest 80.51 in the year 1993-94. The agriculture year 2008-09 was best year for Cotton production in the region whereas 1993-94 was the worst agriculture year for Cotton production. The results also reported that, out of 20 agriculture year, 11 agriculture years were favorable for Cotton production in the region in which growth in total factor productivity of Cotton was recorded in Maharashtra. Area under irrigation, area under high yielding varieties, rainfall, and road density has positive and significant impact on total factor productivity of cotton crop in Maharashtra.

India is a major supplier of coir products to the world. Export performance of coir products during pre liberalisation and post liberalisation period have been examined using secondary data for a period from 1970-71 to 2011-12. The exponential form of growth function has been used for the analysis. The results showed that the growth in export of coir products both in quantity and total value was higher in the post- liberalisation period than the pre-liberalisation period. The growth rate of export in terms of both quantity and values were positive in the case of all major importing countries expect Germany during 2006-12. This trend showed that India gained the share of international market during the period. Instability was observed to be higher in the export quantity of coir products during pre-liberalisation period (13.99) than the post-liberalisation period (10.07). For the assessment of change in direction of trade, Markov chain model was used. The data regarding country-wise export of coir products had shown that China was the most stable importer of Indian coir, which retained 94 per cent of its original share for the study period and lost only 6 per cent to South Korea followed by USA and The Netherland. New export promotion strategies have to be developed for the export of coir products to all the countries and to avoid over dependence on few countries. Modernisation of technology leads to higher production with least possible cost and further value addition leads to better competitiveness in the global market.

A research was carried out to study storage of custard apple pulp. The custard apple fruits were split into two halves and pulp with seed were scooped out manually. The seed from the pulp was separated by machine and compared with pulp separated by manual. The pulp was treated with ascorbic acid (0.25 %) and potassium metabisulphite (0.1 %)to check the browning of pulp during storage. Treated pulp (50 gm) was packed in HDPE bags and stored in deep freeze at -20° C for 6 month. The stored pulp wereanalyzed every month for physiochemical qualities and microbial load. The pH, TSS, Total sugar, water activity, acidity and colour(L-Value)of the stored custard apple pulp was found to be in the range of 5.52 to 5.28, 23° to 27°brix, 13.28 to 20.61,0.857 to 0.940,0.44 to 0.20 and 69.98 to59.03, respectively.The microbial load and fungal count of stored custard apple pulp was found to be less than 1000 cfu/g and 100 cfu/g, respectively. The microbial load was less in potassium metabisulphite and ascorbic acid treated sample than that of control sample. Pulp separated by any method scould be stored at -20°C with 0.1%KMS for 180 days without spoilage.