The present investigation was conducted in Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Udaipur district comprises eleven tehsils. The NAIS and WBCIS had been operated in around 200 villages in Salumber and Vallabhnager tehsils. 150 insured loanee farmers were selected from ten villages (5 from Salumber and 5 from Vallabhnager) for study. Out of the total, 72 (48.00 per cent) of insured loanee farmers (ILFs) were from moderate awareness, 40 (26.70 per cent) under low and remaining 38 (25.30 per cent) expressed high awareness of NAIS and WBCIS. 39 (52.00 per cent) of Vallabhnagar and 33 (44.00 per cent) of Salumber ILFs expressed moderate awareness. 24 (32.00 per cent) of the Vallabhnagar and 16 (21.33 per cent) of Salumber farmers possessed a low level of awareness. However, 26 (34.67 per cent) of Salumber ILFs fell under high level of awareness than those of Vallabhnagar 12 (16.00 per cent) about NAIS and WBCIS.

The current investigation was piloted to evaluate yield and economics in sunflower seed production of different insecticidal treatment schedules in New Alluvial Zone of West Bengal. The experiment was conducted for two consecutive seasons of 2012-13 and 2013-14 at the Instructional farm at Jaguli, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV), Nadia, West Bengal, India.The results revealed that yield and Benefit: Cost ratio of sunflower seed production was recorded highest in T4 followed by T3, T2, T1, T5, T6 and T7 respectively. It was observed that highest cost of production for seed yield (Rs. 17119.6 and Rs. 17460.6 respectively) were observed in the treatment T4, T1 and T2. Maximum gross income (Rs. 35875 and Rs. 32875 respectively) were recorded in the treatment T4 and T3. However, maximum net returns for sunflower seed production (Rs. 18755 and Rs. 15644 respectively) and benefit: cost ratio (2.10:1 and 1.91:1 respectively) were found in treatment T4 and T3. Thus, it can be advised that T4 (seed treatment imidacloprid @ 5 g/kg of seed followed by lambda cyhalothrin 10 EC @ 1 ml/lit on 30 DAS followed by chlorpyriphos 20 EC @ 2.5 ml/lit 60 DAS) was found most lucrative and economically feasible in New alluvial Zone of West Bengal.

Alternaria belonging to ascomycota subdivision of fungi causes most common and devastating disease in different crops. The maximum growth was observed potato dextrose agar as well as Oat meal agar media in-vitro. The maximum growth and sporulation of Alternaria spp., was obtained on potato dextrose agar media followed by Oat meal agar media in vitro. Seven media were used for testing the fungus growth and sporulation and compared. The growth characteristics such as colony color and substrate with the sporulation of the test fungus were observed. Maximum growth of mycelium was observed on PDA media at pH 6.0 and followed by 7.0 while maximum sporulation was observed at 7.0 followed by 6.0. Maximum growth of the fungus was observed at 8 days after inoculation with continuous increasing growth in the potato dextrose Agar medium, although the growth rate was decreased after the 2 days of inoculation. This study will be helpful for further investigations on the physiology of the fungus and management of the disease. This investigation may be useful for taxonomic study of the fungus.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in agriculture have the potential to facilitate greater access to information; it can provide access to vital information and can connect the rural poor with well established markets. In this context the present study was conducted in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand state to know the use of ICTs for obtaining market information by the farmers. Analytical research design was used for the present study. A sample of 120 respondents was selected from the study area. One member was selected from ten per cent households from each village. Regarding the extent of use of ICTs, majority i.e. 71.67 per cent of farmers fell in very low level category, and followed by 22.50 per cent of the farmers fell in low level category and none of the respondents was having high level of extent of use of ICTs in order to get the information related to market. Mobile was the most used ICT tool.

A field experiment was conducted on ratoon crop of sugarcane to develop suitable weed management practices during spring seasons of 2005 to 2009 at Central Sugarcane Research Station, Padegaon, Tal. Phaltan, Dist. Satara, Maharashtra, India. A total of ten treatments including weedy check were tested in randomized block design with three replication. Trash mulching between all rows with recommended practice applied in the ratoon recorded significantly the highest cane (98.00 t/ha) and CCS yield (15.50 t/ha). However, it was found at par with application of trash mulching in alternate rows + hoeings at 1st and 6th week after ratoon initiation, (95.28 t/ha) and in treatment of three hoeings (1st week, 4th week and 7th week after ratoon initiation), (93.99 t/ha) with respect to cane yield. Significantly higher net monetary returns ( 69719 /ha) were obtained in application of trash mulching between all rows with recommended practice which was followed by trash mulching in alternate rows + hoeings at 1st and 6th week after ratoon initiation ( 65841 /ha ) and three hoeings ( 1st week. 4th week and 7th week after ratoon initiation ) ( 63614 /ha).