A survey study was conducted to acquire the first hand information on traditional breeding practices adopted by professional breeders of Kankrej cattle in Banaskantha district of North Gujarat State. For the present investigation, five (5) talukas (Amirgadh, Bhabhar, Deesa, Deodar and Vav) of the District were selected purposively on the basis of density of population of the professional breeders. Six (6) villages were randomly selected from each taluka and accordingly five (5) respondents were randomly selected from each village. Therefore, the study sample consisted of 150 (N=150) professional breeders of Kankrej cattle. The data were collected by personal interview technique through a structural schedule. After measuring the level of constraints, the data was tabulated and interferences were drawn. It was observed that majority of professional breeders used bull for heat detection and natural services due to grazing practices. Half of the respondents did not have true type bull. Majority of professional breeders diagnosed pregnancy after 4 months by visually. Higher number of respondents detected heat by bellowing and vaginal discharge. Nonetheless, they had certain prejudice against artificial insemination. Conversely, they had good knowledge about indigenous techniques for anoestrus and repeat breeder cows and heifers.

In the present study, the effect of Pyraclostrobin treatment on induction of pathogenesis related proteins in a susceptible brinjal cultivar (cv. PPL) was studied upon challenge inoculation with Phomopsis vexans_MK2 isolate. Seeds treated with sterile distilled water served as controls. Seeds treated with 0.2% Pyraclostrobin along with respective control seeds (cv. PPL) were raised under nursery bed. Thirty days old seedlings were challenge inoculated with conidial suspension of P. vexans (1 x106 conidia/ml). Seedlings were harvested at regular intervals of 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 & 96 hours of post inoculation and analyzed for activity of pathogenesis related proteins (PRP’s) namely β -1,3-glucanase, chitinase and lipoxygenase, colorimetrically. The results revealed that Pyraclostrobin treatment enhanced the activity of pathogenesis related proteins when compared to control seedlings (water inoculated, challenge inoculated with P. vexans) Significant differences (P - 0.001) in activity of β -1,3-glucanase was observed at 48hpi upon Pyraclostrobin treatment followed by challenge inoculation with P. vexans. An increased chitinase(P-0.03) activity was also recorded at 48-96 hpi upon Pyraclostrobin treatment and lipoxygenase activity was found maximum at 48 hpi. The results indicated thatPyraclostrobinhave a positive effect on the induction and activity of defense related proteins like β -1,3-glucanase, chitinase and lipoxygenase.

Field experiments were conducted during kharif season of 2009 and 2010 at SASRD, NU, Medziphema Campus, Nagaland, to study the response of direct-seeded rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars towards different sowing and weed management methods. The dominant weed species were Digitaria setigera Roth ex Roem. & Schult, Cynadon dactylon (L.) Pers., Cyperus rotundus L., Borreria articularis (L. f.) F. N. Will. and Ipomoea triloba L. Line sowing was found superior over broadcasting in reducing weed growth and exhibited better crop growth attributes and yield attributes and also recorded higher grain yield (2.85 t/ha during 2009 & 3.00 t/ha during 2010). The cultivar ‘Kezie’ was found to effectively suppress weed growth and recorded significantly higher tillers/m2, panicles/m2 and filled grains/panicle and grain yield (2.50 t/ha during 2009 & 2.61 t/ha during 2010) over ‘Leikhumo’. Weed management treatment hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS (Days after sowing) effectively minimized weed population and dry weight and recorded the highest the weed control efficiency (92.57% during 2009 & 94.64% during 2010) as well as grain yield (3.42 t/ha during 2009 & 3.57 t/ha during 2010). The highest gross return/ha and net return/ha (Rs.22265/ha during 2009 & Rs.24360/ha during 2010) and also the highest BCR (benefit cost ratio) (2.26 during 2009 & 2.38 during 2010) was recorded by the cultivar ‘Kezie’ in combination with line sowing and hand weeding at 20 & 40 DAS.

An experiment was conducted during Kharif season of 2012-2013 at experimental farm of Directorate of Weed Science Research, Jabalpur. The treatments included application of various herbicides applied to paddy crop @ pretilachlor 750 g a.i. ha -1, penoxsulam 25 g a.i. ha-1, and pyrazosulfuron 25 g a.i. ha-1 and weedy and hand weeding. The study was aimed to evaluate the pattern of dissipation, persistence and residue in soil at harvest. As regarded to the observation on persistence residue and dissipation study reveals that higher content of residue was found in sample taken at initially as well as during growth period with an interval of 5 days exhibited successive depletion of herbicidal residue with progressive growth of the crop till harvest. HPLC method for detection for persistence residue and dissipation indicated that a first order kinetics was followed and the average half life values ranged for pretilachlor (750 g a.i. ha-1), penoxsulam (25 g a.i. ha-1), and pyrazosulfuron (25 g a.i. ha-1) were 15.06, 26.65 and 24.75 days respectively.

The present study was carried out to determined the trends for investment, feeding and milk supply pattern on all sample Dairy farms obtained and five dairy farms having herd size of more than 20 milch animals was obtained were selected randomly in Bikaner district of Rajasthan- IC zone (a hyper AIW Plain Partially Area) during the year 2010-11. The results shows that including total cost of maintenance feed and fodder accounted for the major share (59.52 %) followed by labour cost (33.95 %), fixed cost (25.31 %) and miscellaneous expenses (1.15 %) on sample dairy farms. The C cost was 1867599.61 per dairy farm and 333449.99 per milch animal and the net income was 1053011.60 per dairy farm and 18803.77 per animal. The annual consumption of fodder and feed per dairy farm was 238.27 q. concentrates 740.41 q green fodder, 1189.17 q dry fodder and 5.03 q salt. Whereas the annual consumption of fed per animal was 7.74 q concentrates 24.76 q green fodder 39.69 q dry fodder and 0.18 q salt. The average milk production per lactation was ` 129374 liters per dairy farm and 4173 liters per animals. The average cost of production and net return and net return per liter of milk was ` 14.27 and ` 8.28, respectively.