This study was carried out involving twenty genotypes of gladiolus at the Horticultural Farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, India during 2011-2013 to investigate the genotypes performance in a particular region regarding their growth, flowering and yield attributes ability. Among 20 genotypes studied, five genotypes were found to be promising and they are ACC-11, ACC-14, ACC-04 ‘ACC-15’ and ACC-13, thus can be recommended for commercial cut flower production as well as for breeding purposes under terai region of West Bengal. However, ACC-14, ACC-01 and ACC-09 could be taken up for maximum corms and cormels production.

Correlations and path coefficient were studied in 38 tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) genotypes for thirteen yield-contributing characters. The correlation coefficients were determined to find out the inter relationship among the characters studied. Yield plant-1 was found highly significant and positively with average fruit weight, fruits plant-1, locule number fruit-1, pericarp thickness, fruits cluster-1 and number of clusters plant-1. Strong association of these traits revealed that the selection based on these traits would ultimately improve the fruit yield. In order to obtain a clear picture of the inter relationship between yield plant-1 and its components, direct and indirect effects were measured using path coefficient analysis. Analysis revealed that a highest positive direct effect on fruit yield plant-1 was exhibited by average fruit weight followed by fruits plant-1, clusters plant-1, fruits cluster-1 and pericarp thickness. It would be rewarding to lay stress on traits like average fruit weight and fruits plant-1 in selection programmes for increasing the yield because they showed positive and significant association with fruit yield plant-1 in both the analyses of correlation and path-coefficient. Residual effect was low which indicated that characters included in this study explained almost all variability towards yield.

Coccinia indica Wight and Arn. is the emerging commercial vegetable crop in Madurai and Theni districts of Tamil Nadu and very well-known vine for their medicinal properties. The melon fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae Coquillett (Diptera: Tephritidae) is prominent insect pest in C. indica. Melon fly females oviposit their eggs inside the fruit, after emerging of maggots instantly begins to excavate and feed the fruit. Due to the voracious feeding of maggots, fruits starts to decay and emits bad odour. Oviposition punctures of female flies also damage the fruit quality in market. Thus melon fly biology on C. indica meticulously studied under laboratory condition in Biological Control Laboratory, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai during June to October at 2015. Different stages of life period and morphometric measurements were assiduously assessed on four different cultivars of C. indica.

The present study was conducted with the aim of isolating causative agent and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of isolates from the raw milk samples of cattle. Isolation and biochemical testing of mastitis causing organism was carried out in suitable media and following morphological identification and biochemical testing, colony characteristics showed the presence of Klebsiella organism in thirty milk samples. After confirmation of Klebsiella, organisms were subjected to antibiogram studies using nine different antimicrobial agents. Isolates were sensitive to amikacin (75%), gentamicin (75%), ciprofloxacin (50%), and streptomycin (50%), intermediate sensitive to enrofloxacin (75%), ceftrioxone (75%), azithromycin (75%), resistant to tylosin (75%), and cephalexin (75%). Since culture of milk showed Klebsiella organism which can be potential hazard for the health of humans, antimicrobial testing may be helpful in find out most effective antibiotic. Amikacin and gentamicin were found to be the most effective antibiotics. Reaching to the conclusion that antibiogram and microbiological testing is necessary for the control and treatment of the disease according to study.

Field experiment was carried out during 2014 – 2015 at DARS, Chettinad, Sivagangai district to find out cost-effective groundnut based inter-cropping system for the management of key pests. Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea Linnaeus; Variety: VRI II) when intercropped with bajra (Pennisetum glaucum L.; Variety: Co 7), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.; Variety: Co 30) and maize (Zea mays L.; Variety; Co 6) 4:1 ratio harboured significantly less mean population of Aproaerema modicella Deventer, recording 8.58, 9.67 and 10.00 larvae / 10 plants respectively, whereas intercropping with redgram (Cajanus cajan L.; Variety: VBN (Rg) 3), marigold (Tagetes erecta L.; Variety: MDU 1) and onion (Allium cepa L.; Variety: Co 1) recorded mean population of 11.25, 11.46 and 11.50 larvae / 10 plants. Groundnut + sesame (Sesamum indicum L.; Variety: Co 1) intercropping system recorded high mean population of 12.12 larvae / 10 plants as compared to other cropping systems while groundnut as pure crop recorded the highest mean population of 13.75 larvae/10 plants. Same trend could be noticed in turns leaflet damage by A. modicella.

The present work deals with the comparison of the level of information provided by RAPD and SSR marker systems for estimating genetic similarities in pearl millet and wheat genomes. For the present investigation sixteen pearl millet and fourteen wheat genotypes were used. The RAPD analysis of pearl millet and wheat genotypes produced 894 and 564 scorable bands respectively. The RAPD primer 22ES10G33 and OPN-7 revealed the highest PIC values of 0.96 and 0.97 for pearl millet and wheat respectively. As in the case of SSR primers CTM25, CTM27 and Xpsmp 2273 gave the highest PIC value of 0.84 for pearl millet and 0.88 for wheat genotypes by Xgwm153. In both the cases i.e, RAPD and SSR, the respective dendrograms developed revealed that the local varieties tend to group together, showing the efficiency of these marker systems in diversity analysis. However, although during the investigation, it was observed that RAPD markers are more efficient than SSR for revealing the latent diversity underlying these crop genotypes, it cannot be generalized in all instances.