Freshly harvested, fully mature green guava fruits of cv. Khaza (Local) were subjected to different post harvest treatments viz., 6N- Benzyl adenine (BA) 50 ppm (T1), Gibberellic acid (GA3) 50 ppm (T2), Carnauba wax (CW) 1% (T3), BA 50 ppm + CW1% (T4), GA3 50 ppm + CW1% (T5) and Control (T6) with 4 replications in Factorial CRD design and stored in ambient condition (Temp: minimum 180C, maximum 240C, and RH: 57-84%). Observations were recorded on physiological loss of weight (PLW %), fruit firmness (Kg/cm2), TSS (°Brix), titratable acidity (%), ascorbic acid (mg/100g), organoleptic quality and physical characters at three days interval. The results indicated that PLW in carnauba wax treatments with or without growth substances remained low throughout the period of storage. Treatment of fruits with benzyl adenine and carnauba wax (BA+CW) i.e., T4 exhibited least PLW and retained higher firmness, TSS, acidity, ascorbic acid and organoleptic quality during storage compared to other treatment, this was followed by T5 (GA3+CW) and T3 (CW). In general, firmness and ascorbic acid continuously decreased during storage while TSS, acidity and organoleptic quality increased up to 3rd day of storage; there after it steadily decreased during subsequent period of storage. Organoleptic rating revealed superiority of T4 and T5 over other treatments while the control fruits were undesirable on 9th day.

An in vitro study was conducted to know the optimum level of replacement of concentrate mixture and incorporation of pigeon pea straw in total mixed ration. The TMR control was prepared by mixing concentrate mixture and wheat straw while in other respective TMRs concentrate was replaced by pigeon pea straw at the rate of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%. The concentrate and roughage ratio was kept at different level as 45:55, 40:60, 35:65, 30:70, 25:75 and 20:80 under TMR P0 (control), P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5, respectively. The average values of in vitro dry matter digestibility 66.47, 66.58, 66.61, 65.55, 65.78 and 62.11%, respectively. The statistical analysis of data revealed significant (P<0.05) decrease in IVDMD under P5 treatment group. However, the treatment differences for in-vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) in P0, P1, P2, P3 and P4 group were non-significant. The in-vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) at 24 h incubation for P0, P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5 treatment groups were observed as 65.84, 66.03, 65.95, 66.11, 65.39 and 60.64% and the statistical analysis of data revealed significant (P<0.05) decrease in IVOMD in P5 treatment group as compared to other groups while all other groups was having non-significant difference for IVOMD. The values for TGP were 87.75, 81.75, 82.00, 82.75, 82.25 and 83.00 ml/500 mg TMR for P0 (control), P1, P2, P3, P4 and P5, respectively showing that P0 having highest (P<0.05) gas production. Result showed that there was no effect on IVDMD and IVOMD from P0 to P4 TMRs but by 25 % replacement of concentrate by pigeon pea in P5 TMR there was significant decrease in IVDMD and IVOMD. However, there was significant decrease in gas production was observed in TMR incorporated with pigeon pea straw by replacement of concentrate from control TMR comprised of only wheat straw as roughage source.

Cotton is grown chiefly for its fiber use in the manufacture of clothes and for the purpose like making threads for mixing in other fiber and extraction of oils from the cotton seeds. The present study was conducted in the purposely selected Bhilwara district of Rajasthan. There are total twelve tehsils in Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, out of which, two tehsil namely Mandalgarh and Asind have been selected on the basis of maximum area under cultivation of Bt cotton. Four villages selected from each tehsil were taken on the basis of maximum area under Bt cotton cultivation. The list so prepared, 5 marginal, 5 small and 5 large Bt growers were selected randomly from each identified village. Thus, in all 120 farmers (40 marginal, 40 small and 40 large farmers) were included in the sample of the study. The Study indicated that 43.33 per cent of the total respondents were in the medium level of adoption group, whereas 37.50 per cent respondents were in high adoption group and remaining 19.17 per cent Bt cotton growers were observed in the category of low level of adoption about Bt cotton production technology and there was significant difference among marginal, small and large farmers with respect to adoption of improved cotton production technology.

In the present study, three samples of vermicompost obtained from different types of wastes were analyzed for antibiotic producing fungi. The entire mycoflora in broth media of all the three samples and the dominant fungi isolated from them were tested for their antibacterial property against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Bacillus licheniformis, Paenibacillus polymyxa and Klebsiella oxytoca. Two of the fungal isolates (Vag002 and Vic003) showed strong antibacterial activity and were selected to undergo further characterization by Morphological examination and Lactophenol cotton blue method. The morphological characteristics of the fungal isolates matched with the description for Trichoderma spp. and Aspergillus spp. Further confirmation by Lactophenol Cotton Blue Test of isolates revealed their identity as Trichoderma viride and Aspergillus niger. The present findings conclude that these microorganisms could be promising source of bioactive compounds and warrant further study.

The present study was carried out at Seonimalwa block of Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, which was selected purposively for the study on the basis of large area and low productivity. The total sample size was 120 Soybean growing farmers selected from 12 villages. Characteristics of soybean growers like age, education, caste, land holding, annual income, farm power and other implements, social participation, economic motivation, marketing orientation, mass media exposure and adoption behaviour. It was observed that majority of soybean growers had low adoption behavior.

The experiment was conducted at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during summer and kharif 2015 to study the effect of integrated crop management on seed yield of mungbean. The sixteen treatment combinations including control were laid out in randomized block design with three replications. Among the seasons, the kharif crop showed the highest seed yield and its components. Among different treatment applications RDF + RWM + RPM had higher plant height (53.33), number of branches (5.67), pods per plant (24.00), seeds per pod (10.00) and seed yield per plot (1.440 Kg) followed by RDF + Biomix in both the season. However, the number of days to 50% emergence (4.00) and days to 50% flowering (34.33) were recorded lesser in this treatment in both the seasons. Minimum days to maturity (60.33) were observed in control (T16) during summer season. These treatments (T11 and T2) could be used under integrated crop management to get high seed yield for mungbean.

A field experiment was carried at Centre of Excellence for Research on Pulses, Sardar krushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University (S.D.A.U.), Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat during kharif 2013 to study the morpho-physiological indices for drought tolerance of different pigeon pea genotypes under rainfed and irrigated conditions. Significant differences exhibited amongst the genotypes for initial and final plant stand, days to flowering, days to maturity, 100 seed weight, harvest index. The genotypes SKNP 1004, SKNP 1005 and SKNP 0805 recorded minimum percent reduction in yield due to moisture stress. Relative water content (RWC), Drought Tolerance Efficiency (DTE) were found to be the most useful parameters while selecting genotypes for drought tolerance. The genotypes SKNP 1004, SKNP 1005, SKNP 0805 and BANAS were promising for yield and yield contributing characters in both rainfed and irrigated conditions.

The present investigation was undertaken to study the effect of foliar application of nutrients on yield and yield contributing characters of custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) cv. Balanagar during year 2014-15 at Horticultural Research Station, Konda Mallepally, Nalgonda. The experiment was laid out in Randomized block design comprising of ten treatments replicated thrice. The treatments consist of urea, KNO3 and ZnSO4 with each of three different concentrations. The treatments were viz., foliar application of urea @ 0.5 % (T1), urea @ 1 % (T2), urea @ 1.5 % (T3), KNO3 @ 0.5 % (T4), KNO3 @ 1 % (T5), KNO3 @ 1.5 % (T6), ZnSO4 @ 0.2 % (T7), ZnSO4 @ 0.4 % (T8), ZnSO4 @ 0.6 % (T9) and control treatment with only water spray (T10). The treatments were imposed two times during the crop period viz., 1 month before flowering and at the time of fruit set. From the study, the results enunciated that the yield and yield contributing characters were significantly influenced by foliar application of different concentrations of nutrients. Number of fruits per plant (29.83), fruit length (10.45 cm), fruit breadth (12.35 cm), average fruit weight (264.72 g), fruit yield per plant (7.9 kg) and pulp per cent per fruit (40.1%) were reported highest with the foliar application of KNO3 @ 1.5 %. This treatment was also results in better values for rind per cent per fruit (52.67%), seed per cent per fruit (5.47%) and seed number per fruit (15). Stone fruits per tree were found to be non- significant.

The present investigation was carried out in kharif 2009 under All India Coordinated Research Project for Dry land Agriculture, College of Agriculture, Indore. The experiment was aimed to evaluate the effect of inorganic fertilizers with or without organic manure on soil and crop quality, growth and productivity and to workout the economic viability soybean utilizing a permanent manurial trial on soybean in rainfed Vertisols. The results revealed that the highest soybean seed yield (2600kg ha-1 during 2009 and 2205 kg ha-1 on the basis of 18 years average) was recorded due to half of the recommended dose of N and P + 6 t FYM per ha. The highest gross and net returns were also obtained due to this treatment comprising of 50% of RDF + 6t FYM ha-1 followed by recommended dose of fertilizers, pure organic and lowest in case of control. The highest sustainability yield index (SYI) of 0.46 was obtained due to the treatment of FYM @ 6 t per ha + N20P13,FYM and crop residue added treatments gave higher mean weight diameter (MWD) in comparison to chemical fertilizer added treatments. Addition of organics along with chemical fertilizers reduced the bulk density. The porosity ranged from 46.97 per cent to 55.60 per cent in different treatments and was highest in the treatment of FYM @ 6 t per ha + N20P13.

Arecanut or Betelnut is the kernel obtained from the fruit of arecanut palm. It has some beneficial parts, such as husk, leaves and sheath, which can be used for different purpose. Among those parts arecanut sheath is extensively used for commercial plate making purpose and alternative animal fodder for cattle. But there was no study found which indicates physical properties of arecanut sheath. Hence, made an attempt to find out its physical properties such as size (L × W × T), shape, bulk density, sphericity, surface area, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter and moisture content of dry and wet arecanut sheath and their mean values obtained were (812.24 × 280.21 × 3.92) mm, oblong, 0.76 g cc-1, 0.0124, 148795 mm2, 365.46 mm, 10.03 mm and moisture content of dry and wet sheath were 11.5 and 55.61 per cent respectively.

The India occupies top position among mango growing countries of world and produces 46 per cent of the total world mango production. India is having number of export destinations i.e. more than 50 countries but exported quantity is very low, production to export ratio is less than 1. This study is an attempt to understand change of direction of trade of Indian mangoes overseas and drawing their projections to major importing countries. Data for analysis was taken for a period of 15 years from 2000 to 2015. The Markov chain analysis was attempted to assess the transition probabilities for the major mango markets. Major mango markets were categorized as stable markets (Bangladesh, UAE, Nepal) and unstable markets (USA, UK, Saudi Arabia). There is need for improving the efficiency of production and quality in order to stabilize the markets specially the ones, which are conscious towards quality and ready to pay higher prices.

The present study was conducted to study the effect of suckling traits on growth rate of calves in Gir cattle. Growth rate due to duration from placing the calf nearby cow to holding of teat by the calf, number of attempts to teat seeking, number of strokes made during suckling for letting down and let down time. A total of 13 observations of growth rate, each at 15, 30 and 45 days from four different Gir cattle farm were recorded in calves due effect of various suckling traits in Gir cattle. Average growth rate (Kg) at 15, 30 and 45 days due to effect of duration from placing the calf nearby cow to holding of teat by the calf was significantly (P<0.05) higher at 45 days than at 15 and 30 days. Effect of number of attempts to teat seeking on growth rate was significantly (P<0.05) higher at 15 days than at 30 and 45 days. The average growth rate due to number of strokes made during suckling for letting down was significantly (P<0.05) higher at 15 days as compared to 30 and 45 days. The mean growth rate due to let down time was significantly (P<0.05) higher at 15 days than at 30 and 45 days. Highest growth rate was due to number of strokes made during suckling for letting down and lowest growth rate was due to effect of duration from placing the calf nearby cow to holding of teat by the calf, at 15, 30 and 45 days. No significant correlations were observed among duration from placing the calf nearby cow to holding of teat by the calf, number of attempts to teat seeking, number of strokes made during suckling for letting down and let down time, at 15 and 30 days. However, a significant positive correlation (P<0.05; r = 0.65) was recorded between effect of duration from placing the calf nearby cow to holding of teat by the calf and number of strokes made during suckling for letting down at 45 days. It is concluded that suckling traits affect the growth rate of calves in Gir cattle at various days of age. Number of strokes made during suckling for letting down lead to highest growth rate in calves.

The present study was conducted in Mainpath block of Surguja District of Chhattisgarh. The study revealed that, majority of respondents (89.16%) were having full level of knowledge about land preparation, 70.83 per cent were having full level of knowledge about method of sowing, 50.84 per cent of the respondents had full level of knowledge about popular varieties, 44.16 per cent had full level of knowledge about seed treatment, 52.50 per cent had full level of knowledge about manure & fertilizer, 51.66 per cent had full level of knowledge about irrigation, 88.34 per cent had full level of knowledge about intercultural operation, 69.16 per cent had partial level of knowledge about plant protection measures, 47.50 per cent had partial level of knowledge about harvesting of potato, and 69.16 per cent had partial level of knowledge about post harvest management. Majority of the respondents (49.16%) had medium level of overall knowledge. As regards to extent of knowledge and knowledge gap, the data revealed that majority of the respondents (94.58%) had extent of knowledge about land preparation and highest knowledge gap (46.66%) was reported for intercultural operation and overall extent of knowledge was noted to be 76.80 per cent and knowledge gap was 23.19 per cent.

The heterosis study for seed yield and its attributes was carried out in pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.] through line × tester mating design in four different seasons. Highly significant mean squares differences among all the four environments for all the characters were exhibited by the pooled analysis of variance. The variance due to hybrids, lines, testers and line × tester interactions were also significant for most of the characters studied demonstrating the presence of significant variability among the material used in the study and presence of overall heterosis for all the characters. The magnitude of heterobeltiosis and standard heterosis altered for all the crosses and for all the characters studied. In general, it is inferred that magnitudes of heterotic effects were high for seed yield per plant, pod clusters per plant, pods per plant, 100-seed weight and protein content. Expressing moderate heterotic effects for days to flowering, days to maturity, seeds per pod and pod length and low for plant height. The hybrids GT 610 A× GTR 84, GT 603 A × GTR 81 and GT 610 A × GTR 82 exhibited the highest, significant and positive heterotic effect and mean performance for seed yield per plant and some of its important component traits. This could be exploited commercially for heterosis breeding in pigeonpea.

The accurate prediction of groundwater level is quite essential for ecological and sustainable development and management of groundwater resources. In this study artificial neural networks, namely multilayer perceptron (MLP) was used for predicting water tables in a selected aquifer system. The inputs for the ANN models consisted of rainfall, temperature and river stage and water table data. The ANN model was trained using gradient descent with momentum (GDM) algorithm. The predictive ability of ANN model was developed for each of the seven sites was evaluated using four statistical indicators (bias, RMSE, NSE and MSE) as well as visual examinations. Based on the results of this study, the neural network model was found to be efficient in predicting monthly water tables at almost all the sites. The study concluded that the neural network techniques can be efficiently used for predicting water table fluctuations, particularly in data-scarce conditions