Maize (Zea mays L.) is the third most important cereal crop in world and the India. It can be grown throughout the year, but to achieve productivity of Maize, the growers have to know about the development rates of each stage in maize crop with respect to their locality. The phenological development of maize is classified into pre-anthesis and post-anthesis stages and is highly affected by genetic, climatic and environmental conditions. Kumulur in Trichy district of Tamil Nadu, India is selected as the study area. The average daily air temperature of 20 years (1992-2011) is used for estimating the development rates of each stage of crop and also the number of days between each stage is calculated. Development rates of maize for different stages of the crop were calculated for sowing of crop on1st and 15th of each month. The result is presented for Kharif, Rabi and summer season. The development rate of the crop helps the growers in optimal planting of crop to get maximum profitability and increases the viability.

The Front-Line Demonstration (FLD) of groundnut were conducted in paddy fallows during rabi season at 40 farmers’ fields in 40 acres to demonstrate production potential and conomic benefit of improved technologies consisting suitable variety (GPBD-4), Recommended dose of Fertilizer (25:50:25 kg NPK/ha), Rhizobium (4 g/kg of seed as seed treatment), Zinc (10 kg/ha) and Boron (4.5 kg/ha) at Udupi district of coastal Karnataka during rabi season from 2010 to 2013 (4 years). The improved technologies recorded mean yield of 25.80 q/ha, which was 8.76 per cent higher than that obtained with farmers practices of 23.72 q/ha. Improved technologies gave higher mean net return of Rs. 70,839/ha with a benefit cost ratio of 4.03 as compared to farmers’ practices (Rs. 49,822, benefit cost ratio of 3.40).

Eighty-four genotypes of chickpea were studied to know the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence using Mahalanobis’s D2 Statistics. The data were recorded on ten important traits from the genotypes grown in Randomized Block Design having three replication. All the 84 genotypes were classified into 8 clusters. The inter-cluster distances were greater than intra-cluster distances this indicates that a considerable amount of genetic variability was present in the study material. Inter cluster D2 values ranged from 22.935 to 6.589. Maximum inter cluster distance was between cluster V & cluster VIII (22.935) while minimum inter cluster distance (6.589) was observed between cluster II & cluster IV indicating presence of diversity in these clusters. The cluster V showed maximum intra cluster D2 value (5.645). Cluster VIII which consists of 8 genotypes showed maximum mean value for number of pods per plant and seed yield per plant may be of importance for yield characters. Diverse clusters namely, V and VIII consists of diverse parents hold good promise for potential hybrids for desirable characters and thereby creating greater possibilities of obtaining early type high yielders.

Bamboo is the backbone of North East India. It is well known that bamboo is attacked by various groups of decay causing fungi. In the present study, resistance of Bambusa tulda and Dendrocalamus hamiltonii against Fusarium proliferatum (Soft rot fungi) and Schizophyllum commune (White rot fungi) were studied at varying stages of bamboo maturity. Three age groups of bamboo (1, 3 and 5 years) were used to test the resistance against the decay fungi. The results revealed that weight loss caused due to fungal degradation decreased significantly with age in both the test fungi. However, Schizophyllum commune caused greater weight loss compared to the Fusarium proliferatum in both the species of bamboo.

Total 24 ejaculates, 8 each from 3 mature Kankrej bulls were divided into 3 equal aliquots, the first aliquot was added with TFYG diluent with Taurine (50mM) second with Trehalose (100mM) as semen additives and third serve as a control (without additive) and each aliquot was evaluated at post diluted, post equilibrated and post thawed stages for oxidative parameter viz. Lipid peroxidation (LPO) and Glutathione reductase (GSH). The level of LPO was significantly lower (P <0.05) and GSH were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in presence of Taurine as compared to Trehaloseand control at post thaw stage of semen cryopreservation. It can be concluded that Taurine seems to control the oxidative stress more efficiently as indicated by significant increase in glutathione reductase and decline in malondialdehyde level at post thawed stage of cryopreservation in Kankrej bull semen.