CONTENTS - Agrobios Online

AGROBIOS NEWSLETTER Publishing Date || 01 February 2020

VOL. NO. XVIII, ISSUE NO. 09 3

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CONTENTSAGRonoMY1. How to Increase the Herbicide Use

Efficiency? 7Akash D. Lewade and Ajit U. Masurkar

2. Millets: An Enriched Food to the Modern World 8Dr. S. Sanbagavalli

3. Threats of different Diseases of Maize in India 9Mousumi Malo and Pradip Sarkar

4. Microgreens: A Miracle Food 11Dr. Manju.K.P Anu.V , Stephy Das

5. Hydrogel: Water to Thirst Soil 12Haramohan Rath, Jagadish Jena and Ipsita Pattanaik

6. Bulgur Wheat: Energy Boosting Cereal 13M. Yasodha and K. Sharmili

7. Conservation Agriculture: A Way towards Sustainability of Farming 14Puja Singh and Biawabara Sahu

8. Modern Tools and Techniques for Resource Conservation 15Neetiraj Karotiya

BIoFUeL CRoPs9. Second-Generation Biofuel Production from

Lignocellulosic Waste: An Approach to Green Technology 17Nisha Sharma and Nivedita Sharma

AGRoMeteoRoLoGY, ReMote sensInG & GIs10. Meghdoot Mobile App: A Real-Time

Weather-Based Advisories 18Arul Prasad. S and Vengateshwari. M

11. Influence of Rainfall Variability on Rice Production over Ramanathapuram District in Tamil Nadu 19Vengateswari M and S. Arul prasad

12. Role of Remote Sensing and GIS in Water Resources Management 21Karra Preethika Reddy and Bojja Harish Babu

13. Application of Remote Sensing Techniques for Drought Characterization 23G. Sashikala

14. Crop Mapping through SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Remote Sensing 24A. Karthikkumar and G. Srinivasan

WeeD sCIenCe15. Herbicide Residue Management 26

Dr. Tulasi Lakshmi Thentu

FEBRUARY, 2020 / VoLUMe

XVIII / IssUe no. 09CHIeF eDItoRDr. S. S. Purohit

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Dr. Tanuja Singh (Patna) Dr. Ashok Agrawal (Mathura)

Dr. H. P. Sharma (Ranchi) Dr. N. Kachhawha (Jaipur)Dr. Smita Purohit (Jaipur)

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Publishing Date || 01 February 2020 AGROBIOS NEWSLETTER

4 VOL. NO. XVIII, ISSUE NO. 09

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16. Weeds and Conservation Agriculture 27Sahely Kanthal, Aniket Baishya and Ananya Ghosh

CLIMAte CHAnGe17. Carbon Sequestration for Mitigating Climate

Change 28Ruby Patel and Sonam Singh

WAteR MAnAGeMent18. Smart Water Management: A Boon for

Irrigation 30Neha Singhal

19. Drip Irrigation 32Neha Chauhan*

oRGAnIC FARMInG20. Organic Agriculture and the Environment 32

Periyasamy Dhevagi, Ramya Ambikapathi and Sengottiyan Priyatharshini

21. Land Management in Organic Farming 34Sai Leela K and Sowmya B

WAste MAnAGeMent22. Waste to Wealth Management: Need of the

Hour 36Smriti Singh and Pooja Bhatt

DRYLAnD AGRICULtURe23. Dry Land Agriculture: Characteristics,

Problems and Reduce Strategy 38Sushma Tamta and Annu Rani

CRoP PHYsIoLoGY24. Humic Acid: Effect on Plant and Soil 39

Arpita Nalia, Ananya Ghosh, and Md. Hasim Reja

25. Molecular Engineering of C4 Photosynthesis

in C3 Plants 40

Rajashree, B. Savita, S. K. and Mamata. K26. 14.3.3: A Class of Proteins with Multifaceted

Action in Plants 41Md. Mahtab Rashid, Zafar Imam and Surabhi Sinha

27. PGR’s: An Option to Alleviate Abiotic Stress in Cotton 42N. Varsha and N. Lavanya

28. Photosynthetic Efficiency and Crop Yield 43Y.M.Yadav and S.D.Surbhaiyya

29. Gene Networks involved in Drought Stress Tolerance in Rice 44Selukash Parida, Soumya Kumar Sahoo and Akankhya Guru

30. Vernalization: An Approach to Increase Plant Productivity 46Soumya Kumar Sahoo, Selukash Parida, and Akankhya Guru

31. Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs)- Dynamic Biomolecules in Plants 48Akankhya Guru, Soumya Kumar Sahoo and Selukash Parida

32. Biochemical Changes Occurring during Heat Stress in Plant 50Arti Kumari

soIL sCIenCe33. Calcareous Soil and their Management 51

Prof. V. S. Kadam, Dr. P. B. Singare and Dr. A. S. Jondhale

34. Nothing Boring about Boron 53Sri Laxmi

35. Nutrient Movement in Soils to the Plant Roots 54Varsha Pandey

36. Soil Fertility Maintenance in Organic Farming 55Prithwiraj Dey

37. Evaluating Fertility Status of Soils: The Adoptable Techniques 57Parijat Bhattacharya and Sudip Sengupta

HoRtICULtURe38. Macropropagation of Banana 59

P. Sivakumar and M. Selvamurugan39. Use of Mango Leaf: Cultural and Medicinal

Perspective 60Shuvadeep Halder and Arju Ali Khan

40. Fruit Drop: A Reason for Farmers to Worry 61Dr. Madhumita Mallick

41. Strawberry Plugs: A New Propagation Method for Higher Strawberry Production 63Arju Ali Khan

42. Role of Different Plant Growth Hormones in Cultivation of Loose Flowers 65Kommu Pavan Kumar

43. Exploring and Utilising the Hidden Potential of Fruit Wastes 66Khushboo Azam, Shashi Prakash and Hidayatullah Mir

44. Kokum: Wonder Fruit of Western Ghats 68Preeti Singh and Dr Hidayatullah Mir

45. Mineral and Nutrition-Rich Leafy Green: Chekkurmanis 69Praveen Kumar Maurya and Nidhi Tyagi

46. Ethylene Detection in Fruit Crops 70Shivendu Pratap Singh Solanki and Gosangi Avinash



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PLAnt BReeDInG AnD GenetICs47. Genetic Basis of Meiotic Crossovers in

Crops 71Rahul Kumar, Deepak Bisht and Suresh Yadav

48. Applications of Biometrical Techniques in Plant Breeding 72Prasanta K. Majhi and Amrutlal R. Khaire

49. Radiation Hybrid Mapping 74Kiranmayee Bangaru and Rachana Bagudam

50. Organellar Heterosis and Complementation 76Rachana Bagudam and Kiranmayee Bangaru

51. Pre-Breeding: A New Genetic Resource for Crop Improvement 77Zafar Imam, MD. Mahtab Rashid and Surabhi Sinha

52. Somaclonal Variation: A Biotechnological Tool for Crop Improvement 80Mainak Barman

53. High Throughput Phenotyping (HTP): Tools to Accelerate Crop Breeding 81Versha and Neha Rohilla

BIoteCHnoLoGY54. The Role of Biotechnology in the

Development of Ecologically Safer Techniques to Cater to the need of the Escalating Population 82Shri Hari Prasad, Amit Ahuja and Dr. Sandhya

BIoCHeMIstRY55. Therapeutic Proteins 84

Amrita Giri

MICRoBIoLoGY56. An Accident between Replication and

Transcription in Bacteria 85Vikram, K. V., Waghmare, V. V., Shriniketan Puranik and Sruthy, K. S.

57. Preservation of Microorganisms for Long Times 87Lalita Lakhran, Meera Choudhary Bimla and Garima Vaishnav

58. Quorum Sensing in Bacteria 88K. Greeshma, Huma Nazneen and A. Jawahar Reddy

59. Mitochondria Microbial Cross-Talk, a Vital Interaction? 89Sruthy K. S., Vikram K. V., Shriniketan Puranik and Waghmare V. V.

PLAnt PAtHoLoGY60. Protein – Nucleic Acid Interaction

Techniques to Identify Molecular Host-Pathogen Interaction 90Darshan K and M. Gurivi Reddy

61. Current Status of Rice Blast Management: Present and Past 92Asharani Patel, Sahil Mehta, Kuleshwar Prasad Sahu and Mukesh Kumar

62. Epidemiology and Management of Wheat Rust in India 93Meera Choudhary, Lalita Lakhran and Bimla

63. Evolutionary Trends in Fungal Effector Genes 95Asharani Patel, Sahil Mehta, Kuleshwar Prasad Sahu and Mukesh Kumar

64. Importance and Formation of Plant Associated Bacterial Biofilm 96N. Olivia Devi

65. Plants, Defense System and Phytopathogens 98Mukesh Kumar, Sahil Mehta, Kuleshwar Prasad Sahu, Tushar Goyal and Asharani Patel

66. Plant Disease Forecasting: An Overview 100Subhash Chandra, Ajay Kumar and Ramesh Chand

67. Diseases of Coconut 101Shikha Pathak, Tushnima Chaudhuri, Desh Raj Shri Bharati

68. Plant Parasitic Nematodes and their Management 102Manoj Kumar Chitara, Sadhna Chauhan and Prince Kumar Gupta

69. Co-Immunoprecipitation Technique to Investigate Protein-Protein Interaction in Phytopathogens 104Darshan K, Amrutha Lakshmi M and M. Gurivi Reddy

seeD sCIenCe AnD teCHnoLoGY70. Rice Seed-Borne Diseases: An Update 105

Mushineni Ashajyothi, Jyotsana Tilgam and Gopi Kishan

71. Hybrid-Enabled Line Profiling (HELP) 106Thota Joseph Raju and Gazala Parveen S

72. Varietal Identification for Maintenance of Genetic Purity 107Sridevi Ramamurthy

73. Insights into the Seed Priming 108Kuleshwar Prasad Sahu, Sahil Mehta, Tushar Goyal, Mukesh Kumar and Asharani Patel

entoMoLoGY74. Behavioural Attributes of Stingless Bees 110

Saraswati Mahato75. Insects as Biological Weapons 112

M. Sreedhar, A. Vasudha and Sushil Kumar76. RNAi Technology in Insect Pest

Management 114K. Ashok and M. Muthukumar



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77. Crop Losses by Insect-Pests and its Estimation Methods 115Lokesh Kumar Meena

78. Insects as Pets 116J. Kousika and M. Thiyagarajan

Pest MAnAGeMent79. Biofumigation for Pest Management 118

E. Sankarganesh and C. Sowmiya80. Role of Tritrophic Interactions in Pest

Management 119Monica Jat

eXtensIon eDUCAtIon & RURAL DeVeLoPMent81. Indigenous Communication Channels:

The Obliterated Splendour of Extension Communication 120Samrat Sikdar

82. Strategic Initiatives to Attract Youth towards Agriculture in India 122Alok K Sahoo and Tarak C Panda

83. Role of Extension in Development of Fisheries Sector 123Kusumlata Goswami

eConoMICs84. Food Security in India: An Issue of Major

Concern 124Shailza

85. Agri-Tourism: Alternative to Double Farmer’s Income 126Miss Nikita Inaniya and Deepali Chadha

enGIneeRInG AnD teCHnoLoGY86. Application of Robotics in Agricultural

Operations 127Jyoti Anant Darekar, Vinayaka and Lubna Sadaf Anchal

87. Benefits of Drones 129Tushar Goyal, Sahil Mehta, Kuleshwar Prasad Sahu, Mukesh Kumar and Asharani Patel

88. Role of Agricultural Engineers in Sustainable Rural Development 130Pooja M. R. and Revanth K.

89. Key Aspects of Conservation Agriculture 131Aniket Baishya, Sahely Kanthal

FooD teCHnoLoGY90. Food Fingerprinting: Let’s Test before

Taste 132Anirban Sil

91. Mushroom and Nutritional Security 134Jagmohan Singh, Sahil Mehta, Tushar Goyal, Kuleshwar Prasad Sahu, Mukesh Kumar and Asharani Patel

92. Value Addition: A Strategical Tool for Doubling Farmers Income 136Stephy Das, Anu. V, and Dr. Manju K.P.

93. Better Household Waste Management 137Divya Martolia

enVIRonMentAL sCIenCe94. Removal of Dyes from Textile Effluents: Why

and How? 138Indu Chopra and Neeraj Patanjali

95. Nanotechnology: Tool for Detection and Remediation of Environmental Pollutants 140Indu Chopra and Neeraj Patanjali



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AGRONOMY

19459

1. How to Increase the Herbicide Use efficiency?1AKASH D. LEWADE AND 2AJIT U. MASURKAR1Assistant Professor, Section of Agronomy, R.B.C.A. Pipri, Wardha2B.Sc. Agriculture (4rth Year) R.B.C.A. Pipri, Wardha

Weeds play a significant role in crop production as they are directly or indirectly involved in the competition for nutrients, moisture, sunlight, space and CO

2. It is estimated that globally on an

average near about 34% of losses in crop yield are accounted only because of interference of weeds with crops. So it is very much clear that, for an effective crop production one must have complete control over the weeds. And for achieving this use of herbicides is the irreplaceable task. But nowadays it has been experienced that majority of commonly used herbicides aren’t showing expected results, so there is scope to say that there is something wrong regarding use of herbicides; It might be in terms of method of application, time of application, period of application, selectivity, chemical composition or precautionary measures or something like that. Some precautionary measures that should be undertook prior to or while applying the herbicides are discussed below;

Precautions to be taken before Application of Herbicides

1. While using two or more herbicides with each other, one of them must be quickly degradable.

2. Avoid excessive use of herbicides than the recommended dose.

3. Read all the directions regarding use of herbicide provided in the booklet carefully prior to use.

4. Check the pump and nozzle carefully before use and make sure that they are working properly.

5. Make use of wooden stick to stir the herbicidal solution.

6. Wear full clothing, goggle, shoes, gloves and cap while applying herbicides.

7. Generally avoid spraying when alone in field.8. Strictly avoid smoking, chewing tobacco,

drinking water or eating other foodstuff while spraying operation.

9. Before pouring the herbicidal solution, rinse the pump twice or thrice with clean water.

10. While filling the pump, make sure that it should be firstly fill the tank up to half level and then add the herbicide solution into it.

11. Always make use of flat fan type of nozzle for pump while applying herbicide.

12. Always carry out the spraying operation along the direction of wind.

Care taken while applying the Herbicide

1. Calculate the quantity of herbicide required per unit area in the formulated product by considering the active ingredient in the commercial product and rate of application

2. Firstly add the herbicide in small quantity of water and later on divide the solution in equal parts for filling into the pump.

3. Delay the spraying operation if it is cloudy weather.

4. If possible try to avoid spraying during the noontime.

5. Do not make use of two or more than two herbicides with each other that are cross-compatible.

6. Only spray the herbicides when there is sufficient moisture present in the soil.

7. Selective post-emergence herbicides should be applied on weeds when they are at 2-4 leaf stage.

8. Halt the irrigation at least up to 5-6 days after herbicide application.

9. There should not be weeding or hoeing up to 4-6 days in the herbicide applied field.

10. Always make use of clean water for herbicide application.

11. Do not try clean clogged nozzle with mouth.12. At least 450-600 litres of water should be used

per hectare.13. It should not rain till 6-8 hours after herbicide

application.14. While applying the contact herbicide care

should be taken that. the applied herbicide must wet the entire foliage above the ground.

15. Avoid repeatedly use of herbicides belonging to same chemical group.

16. Store the chemicals at well-aerated, cool and dry place away from contact with direct sunlight.

17. Always purchase the herbicide from the



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authorized dealer and avoid use of containers with broken seal.

18. Always purchase specified quantity of herbicide as per the requirement and don’t use the leftover chemical for next time.

19. Herbicides stored in direct sunlight or non-ventilated environment should not be used.

20. Strictly avoid use of non-recommended (incompatible) insecticides, fungicides, pesticides or other agrochemicals with herbicides.

21. Make use of adjutants of pure quality in order to increase the efficiency of the chemicals.

19533

2. Millets: An enriched Food to the Modern WorldDR. S. SANBAGAVALLI

Associate Professor, Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Introduction

Nutrition plays a major role in the growth and development of the human population and their deficiency and excess consumption may lead to malnutrition to the human population. According to the food and agricultural organization report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world, about 190 million people in India were undernourished. On the other hand, India is the leading producer of millets 16.1 m tonnes of which 10.9 m tonnes is Nutri cereals. In India, eight millet species (Sorghum, Pearl millet, Finger millet, Foxtail millet, Kodo millet, Proso millet, Barnyard millet and Little millet) are commonly cultivated under rainfed conditions. Millets are nutritionally comparable to major cereals and serve as a good source of protein, micronutrients, vitamins and minerals. Millets have the nature of slower digestibility which was more suitable to modern dietary people.

Nutrient Composition of Millets

Millets can meet out 90 % of the daily protein requirement of the human population, considering millet as a staple food. The protein and fat content of the millets are higher than the cereals. Millets are rich in digestible proteins, starch and poor source of calcium, phosphorus, and iron. But the finger millet contains fairy good amount of calcium among all the cereals and millets (344 mg/100g). Millets contain good amount of leucine and methionine. Millet holds 65% carbohydrate in the form of dietary fibre and non-starchy polysaccharide which is lower than the cereals and involves the prevention of constipation and blood cholesterol in the modern dietary world. Millet grains are also rich in important vitamins viz., Thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid, and niacin. Millets contribute to antioxidant activity and play an important role in aging and metabolic diseases.

Nutritional value of millets (per 100g)

Protein (g) Carbohydrates (g) Dietary fibre (%) energy (KJ)Sorghum 9.9 67 11.4 1456Pearl millet 10.9 61 10.2 1398Finger Millet 10.8 66 11.1 1342Little millet 14.2 65 6.3 1449Kodo millet 14.2 66 6.3 1388Foxtail millet - 60 - 331Barnyard millet - 65 - 307Prosomillet - 70 - 341

Nutritional facts about Millets

� Beneficial in Treating Stomach Ulcers: Pearl millet is recommended for curing stomach ulcers. The most common cause of stomach ulcer is excess acidity in the stomach after food intake. Pearl millet is one of the very few foods

that turn the stomach alkaline and prevents the formation of stomach ulcers or reduces the effect of ulcers

� Beneficial for Heart Health: The lignin and nutrients in millet act as strong antioxidants thus preventing heart-related diseases. High



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amounts of magnesium present in pearl millet have been shown to control blood pressure and relieve heart stress.

� Beneficial Due to High Amount of Magnesium: Pearl millet contains a high concentration of

magnesium which helps to reduce the severity of respiratory problems for asthma patients and is also effective in reducing migraine attacks.

� Helps in Bone Growth Development and Repair: Pearl millet has a large amount of phosphorus. Phosphorus is very essential for bone growth and development as well as for the development of ATP which is the energy currency of our body.

� Finger Millet/ Ragi for Losing Weight: Tryptophan in ragi lowers appetite and helps in keeping weight in control. Ragi gets digested at a slower rate thus keeps one away from the intake of excessive calories. Also, fibres present in ragi give a feeling of fullness thus controls excessive food consumption

� Beneficial for Diabetes: Pearl millet is very effective for controlling diabetes. Because of its high fibre content, it digests slowly and releases glucose into the blood at a slower rate as compared to other foods. This effectively

helps in maintaining the blood sugar level. � Reduces Cholesterol: Pearl millet contains a

type of phytochemical called phytic acid which is believed to increase cholesterol metabolism and stabilize the levels of cholesterol in the body.

� Finger millet/ Ragi for Anemia: Ragi is a very good source of natural Iron. Ragi consumption control of anemia.

Conclusion

Malnutrition is the major problem of a growing nation; government is implementing various programs to overcome the malnutrition in the country. But it is the responsibility of an individual to overcome malnutrition by them, which may be achieved by including millets as a staple food in their dietary intake.

19571

3. threats of different Diseases of Maize in IndiaMOUSUMI MALO1* AND PRADIP SARKAR2

1Research Scholar, Department of Agronomy; 2Research Scholar, Department of Plant Pathology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur-741252, West Bengal, India

Introduction

Maize is emerging as an important cereal crop in the world agricultural economy as food, feed and industrial raw material, which is considered as “Queen of Cereals”, due to its high productiveness, easy to process, low cost than other cereals [Jaliya et al., 2008], provides nutrients for humans and animals, serves as basic raw materials for

production of starch, oil, alcoholic beverages, and more recently fuel. It occupies fifth position in area after rice, wheat, sorghum and pearl millet and third in production in India as it is grown in more than 9.43 mha area, having a production of 24.35 mt and average productivity of 2557 kg ha-1. The ubiquitous incidence of diseases at different stages has been an important bottleneck in increasing production. Annual loss of grain due



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to the diseases in maize has been estimated to the tune of 13.2 per cent. Diseases are one of the major biotic constraints to reduce crop yield and also deteriorate the quality of product that ultimately

reduce the market price. The main objective of this article is to provide best knowledge about the diseases of maize and their management practices so that maize production in India can be improved.

Diseases of Maize and Approaches to their Management

sl. no. Disease and causal organism Management/ remediesCategory : Fungal

AnthracnoseColletotrichum graminicola

Resistant varieties. Crop rotation and ploughing crop debris into soil. Application of fungicides like Chlorothalonil, Bordeaux mixture, Propiconazole etc.

2. Cercospora leaf spotCercospora zeae-maydis

Resistant varieties. Crop rotation and ploughing debris into soil. Foliar fungicides may be economically viable. Use of Carbendazim, Difenoconazole.

3. Charcoal rotMacrophomina phaseolina

Regular irrigations particularly during flowering time. Resistant varieties like DHM 103, Ganga Safed – 2. Seed treatment with Carbendazim or Thiram 3g/kg seed. Field sanitation. Crop rotation.

4. Common rustPuccinia sorghi

Resistant hybrids like Deccan, Ganga-5, Deccan Hybrid Makka-103 and DHM – 1. Spray Mancozeb 2.5g/lit or Dithane M-45 (0.4%).

Common smutUstilago zeae

Grow resistant hybrids. Crop rotation. Avoid mechanical injury to plants and higher doses of nitrogen. Seed treatment with Thiram or Captan 3g/kg seed.

Downy Mildew diseasePeronosclerospora sorghi

Use of resistant varieties like DMR 1, DMR 5 and Ganga 11. Follow crop rotation and destruction of plant debris by deep ploughing. Seed treatment with Metalaxyl at 4 g/kg and foliar spray of Mancozeb 2.5 g/l or Metalaxyl MZ at 2g/l is recommended.

Pythium root rotPythium aphanidermatum

Avoid waterlogging and close planting. Apply Captan (150 g/100 litres of water) as a soil drench, when the crop is 5-7 weeks old. Use of hybrids like Ganga Safed-2, Hi-starch and DMH-103.

Category : Bacterial1. Bacterial leaf blight/stripe

Acidvorax avenae subsp. avenaeCultivation of resistant hybrids. Ploughing crop debris into soil and rotating crop may not be effective at controlling the disease due to its extensive host range.

2. Bacterial leaf streak diseaseXanthomonas vasicola pv. vasculorum

Use healthy and disease-free seeds. Remove the infected plant debris and burn them. Follow crop rotation.

3. Bacterial stalk rot/soft rotErwinia carotovora

Use of disease-resistant hybrids like Ganga Safed-2, DHM 103. Avoid waterlogging and poor drainage. Plough all crop debris into soil. Dip in Copper oxychloride and Streptocycline.

4. Goss’s bacterial blightClavibacter michiganensis

Plant resistant sweet corn hybrids. Rotation of crops. Plough crop debris into soil immediately after harvest.

5. Holcus spotPseudomonas syringae

Disease is usually not severe but if it does become a problem, crops should be rotated and any debris should be ploughed into the soil after harvest.

6. Stewart’s wiltErwinia stewartii syn Pantoea stewartii

Grow available resistant varieties. Use certified healthy seeds. Remove the crop debris and burn them. Use suitable insecticide to control flea beetle.

Category : Viral1. Maize dwarf mosaic

Maize dwarf mosaic virus (MDMV)

Many commercial corn hybrids are highly tolerant of the disease and no control is needed. Control aphid populations on plants and remove Johnson grass growing in the vicinity as it can act as a reservoir for the virus.



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sl. no. Disease and causal organism Management/ remedies2. Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease

(MLND)Maize Chlorotic Mottle Virus (MCMoV) + Sugarcane Mosaic Virus (SCMV)/ Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus (WSMV)/Maize Dwarf Mosaic Virus (MDMV)

Use healthy, disease-free certified seeds. Keep the fields free from weeds. Remove the infected plants and burn them. Control vectors by treating seed and/ foliar spray with suitable insecticide. Follow crop rotation with non-cereals at least for two seasons. Plant maize only in main rainy season instead of short rainy season. Grow available resistant varieties.

Conclusion

All the above-mentioned diseases are destructive to the maize production in India or worldwide due to the fact that they occur widespread in maize producing areas. It has been noted that maize diseases reviewed above results in severe economic losses and serves as a potential risk for humans and animals. Therefore, this article can provide sufficient information which will lead to development of management practices, and therefore improve maize production in the affected areas. Also, exploration and proper disease identification will be important to help to understand more about the diseases prior the intervention. An integrated approach using agronomic, nutritive, or chemical

controls should be adopted for an effective disease management. Development of resistant varieties using conventional as well as biotechnological methods will help in controlling these menacing diseases which are still challenges even after several years of their discovery. This article would be helpful in future for maize pathological research works in India.

References

Jaliya, M.M., Falaki, A.M., Mahmud, M., Abubakar, I.U. and Sani, Y.A. (2008). Response of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) (Zea Mays L.) to sowing date and NPK fertilizer rate on yield & yield components of Quality Protein Maize. Savannah Journal of Agriculture. (3), pp. 24-35.

19607

4. Microgreens: A Miracle FoodDR. MANJU.K.P1 ANU.V 2, STEPHY DAS 3

1Assistant Professor, Division of Crop Protection, KVK, Kannur, KAU, Thrissur, Kerala2Assistant Professor, Division of Agronomy, KVK, Kannur, KAU, Thrissur, Kerala3Assistant Professor, Division of Home Science, KVK, Kannur, KAU, Thrissur, Kerala

Microgreens have gained popularity as a new culinary trend over the past few years. Microgreens are edible seedlings that are usually harvested 7–14 days after germination when they have two fully developed cotyledon leaves. Although small in size, microgreens can provide surprisingly intense flavours, vivid colours, and crisp textures and can be served as an edible garnish or a new salad ingredient.

A wide variety of herbs (e.g., basil, cilantro), vegetables (e.g., radish, broccoli), and even flowers (e.g., sunflowers) are grown as microgreens (Xiao et al., 2012). Microgreens have received a substantial amount of exposure over the last few years because of their potential profitability, relatively short production cycle, low input costs and lesser space and resource requirement.

Microgreens can also be grown from many different types of seeds. The most popular varieties are produced using seeds of plants such as chickpeas, beans and lentils, rice, oats, wheat, corn and barley, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, radish, Amaranth, spinach, Garlic, onion, leek, Dill, carrot,

fennel and celery, Melon, cucumber and squash.Microgreens are rich in nutrients such as

Ascorbic Acid, Phylloquinone, Tocopherols, Carotenoids: β‐Carotene, Lutein/zeaxanthin, and violaxanthin, potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium and copper. Microgreens are also a great source of beneficial plant compounds such as antioxidants. They are often more nutritious than their mature counterparts. As their nutritional content is concentrated, they often contain a higher percentage of vitamin, mineral and antioxidant levels than in mature greens.

Microgreens also may help to reduce the risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s and diabetes. Microgreens are a rich source of polyphenols, a class of antioxidants linked to a lower risk of heart disease. Studies conducted on animals show that microgreens may lower triglyceride and “bad” LDL cholesterol levels. Antioxidant-rich foods, including those containing high amounts of polyphenols, are linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Antioxidants help reduce the type of stress that can prevent sugar from properly entering cells. In



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lab studies, fenugreek microgreens appeared to enhance cellular sugar uptake by 25–44% and help to control diabetes. Hence, altogether consumption of microgreens could be a health-promoting strategy to meet dietary requirements for essential elements beneficial to human health.

References

Xiao Z, Lester GE, Luo Y, Wang Q. Assessment of vitamin and carotenoid concentrations of emerging food products: edible microgreens. J Agric Food Chem. 2012 Aug 8; 60 (31):7644-51

19613

5. Hydrogel: Water to thirst soilHARAMOHAN RATH1*, JAGADISH JENA1 AND IPSITA PATTANAIK2

1Department of Agronomy, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur– 492012 (C.G.), India2Department of Soil Science, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur– 492012 (C.G.), India*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

The rising demands for food and uncertainties about climate change call for a paradigm shift from vertical expansion towards horizontal expansion by bringing rainfed areas under cultivation. Around 55% of India’s gross cropped area is rainfed on which about 61% of farmers is dependent for their livelihood. In India, rainfed areas under rice is 40% and that of pulses and oilseed are 88% and 69% respectively. The major concern in these areas is the limitation of available soil moisture. Major part of rainfed areas are characterised by growing of single crop since the soil moisture is not adequate to quench thirst of second crop. Various methods like zero tillage, residue retention and mulching are employed to conserve moisture. However these methods are crop and site-specific and are reported to decrease root activity, viz. root growth and nodule activity and encourage growing of perennial weeds. Hydrogel application has emerged as a substitute to the above moisture conservation practices.

Hydrogel

Hydrogel (Super absorbent polymer) is a water-retaining, cross-linked hydrophilic, biodegradable amorphous polymer which can absorb and retain water at least 400 times of its original weight of which 95 per cent of stored water is made available for crop absorption (Johnson and Veltkamp, 1985).

Mechanism of Hydrogel in Soil

When polymer is mixed with the soil, it forms an amorphous gelatinous mass on hydration and is capable of absorption and desorption over long period of time, hence acts as a slow-release source of water in soil.

Fig 1. Working of Hydrogel

The hydrogel particles may be taken as “miniature water reservoir” in the soil and water will be removed from these reservoirs upon the root demand through osmotic pressure difference Due to the considerable volume reduction of the hydrogel as water is released to the crop, hydrogel creates within the soil, free pore volume offering additional space for air and water infiltration, storage and root growth. The improvement of the physical soil properties like soil porosity, soil



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permeability and water infiltration will significantly reduce surface runoff and soil erosion, especially when soil forms semi hydrophobic crusts under compacted soil condition.

Exploitation of the existing water potential by reducing the losses of water and ensuring better living conditions for vegetation are essential for vegetation. The possibilities of application of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) in agricultural field have become increasingly important and have been investigated to alleviate certain agricultural problems like water stress condition.

Dose and method of hydrogel application

Hydrogel application rate varies based on the value of crop, type of soil and severity of moisture stress. Most of the crop respond to hydrogel application ranges from 2.5 kg ha-1 to 5 kg ha-1. Hydrogel can be applied in the seed zone itself in the seeding row.

Effect of:

Hydrogel application to the soil helped in retaining more moisture in the soil by increasing water holding capacity of soil. It is also reported to reduce number of irrigation and increases water use efficiency (Dabhi et al., 2013). Application of

hydrogel is beneficial to growth attributes of crops in terms of germination, stand establishment, plant height, root and shoot weight resulting in higher seed/grain yield. Hydrogel influence optimum fertilizer use and increase nutrient content viz. nitrogen in seed and enhances the profitability of crop cultivation.

Conclusion

Hydrogel in one of the promising technology to bring more area under cultivation and increasing the productivity of rainfed areas. No issue of bulk handing make it a better option for future intervention. Measures like further research and bulk production can decrease its price and make it accessible for farmers’ use.

Reference

Johnson, M.S. and C.J. Veltkamp, 1985. Structure and functioning of water-storage agriculture polyacrylamides. J. Sci. Food Agric., 36: 789-793.

Dabhi, R., N. Bhatt and B. Pandit, 2013. Super absorbent polymers – An Innovative water-saving technique for optimizing crop yield. International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology. 2(10):5333-5340

19625

6. Bulgur Wheat: energy Boosting CerealM. YASODHA AND K. SHARMILI

Assistant Professors (Agronomy), Vanavarayar Institute of Agriculture, Pollachi

If you are looking for low-cost ways to add fibre and protein to your diet and lose weight, this grain is a staple in the Mediterranean diet and you should include it in yours. Bulgur is a common ingredient in Armenian, Syriac, Turkish, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean dishes.

Bulgur Wheat

It is typically made with durum wheat that has been coarsely milled. Since only the husk is removed during the milling process, contains all the same nutrients and vitamins as whole wheat.

It’s available in Three Grinds: Coarse, Medium and Fine

� Coarse bulgur can be used in pilafs, soups, bakery goods or as stuffing. In breads, it adds a whole grain component.

� Medium grind bulgur is used in cereals. In Indian cuisine, bulgur or daliya is also used as a cereal with milk and sugar.

� The finest grind of bulgur is suited to the popular cold Middle Eastern salad called tabbouleh. In South American carnival food,

it is often prepared with flower pollen and tapioca syrup and fried in patties.

Characteristics of Bulgur Wheat

Because the husk has been removed, it requires less soaking than whole wheat and can be easier to cook with. It is a nutrient-dense complex carbohydrate



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that is high in fibre and low-fat protein. It has more fibre than oats, buckwheat or corn. Plus, its quick cooking time and mild flavour make it ideal for those new to whole grain cooking. Its ability to fill you up with few calories is great for weight-loss dieters.

One cup of bulgur has fewer calories, less fat and more than twice the fibre of brown rice. It has a light, nutty flavour. It also offers protection against breast cancer. Moreover, it is packed with

magnesium that affects the production of insulin, thereby is effective in lowering diabetes.

Other Health Benefits of Bulgur include:

� Helps those with diabetes. � Improvement of mental health � Helps prevents gallstones in women � Helps prevent heart disease and cancer � Helpful in treating constipation � Another health benefit of bulgur wheat is that

it has one of the highest mineral contents of any food. It is rich in iron, phosphorus, zinc, manganese, selenium and magnesium.

19627

7. Conservation Agriculture: A Way towards sustainability of FarmingPUJA SINGH AND BIAWABARA SAHU

Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction: History of agriculture starts with subsistence type of farming where domestication of crops and animals where being done on the basis of farmer’s need. Herewith limited resources or inputs we could produce only scanty food to meet the requirements of farmers’ family. Looking at the history of population growth over the world, we can see a rapid increase in population after World War II. During this period entire world was suffering from acute food shortages especially the developing countries due to inhabiting arable land and we were to import food grains. To combat this, “ship to mouth situation” we adopted a new technology popularly known as “Green Revolution”.

Intensive Farming and Associated Consequences: The technique of Green Revolution which was initiated in Mexico during 1940s was an intensive one and tripled the global food production. This unexpected increase in

food production was favoured by exploitation of fertile agricultural land, intensive use of irrigation water and modern inputs such as HYVs and agrochemicals. Such intensive agricultural practices though increased food production but over the years started to show its bad face and depleted soil health and environmental quality to a greater extent. The situation was further accelerated as farming was leftover resource-poor farmers with scanty knowledge regarding handling agricultural land and newly introduced inputs particularly HYVs and fertilizers. Which ultimately resulted to loss of crop diversity, extinction of local crop varieties, disappearance of biodiversity (beneficial insects and other micro-organisms), waterlogging, salinization of irrigated land, contamination of groundwater and emergence of GHGs from agriculture field.

One the most faulty practice in conventional



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agriculture is tilling of soil which was began in Mesopotamia era in order to soften soil, prepare seedbed to ensure uniform seed germination and mobilizing nutrients for plant uptake, managing weed (as multiple tillage operations are required to control perennial weeds). In 19th century industrial revolution made availability of range of tilling equipment and mechanized conventional farming. Other faulty practices that come to this list are burning of crop residues, monocropping, keeping soil uncovered. To overcome these shortcomings a set of resource-saving crop management practices emerged and popularized as “conservation agriculture”. This ensures acceptable profit along with conserving natural resources (soil, air, water and environment). CA is set of agriculture technologies that include minimum soil disturbance, permanent crop cover and diversification of crops along with weed management. Hence capable of reverting ill effects of conventional farming such as decline in soil organic matter, water loss, physical degradation of soil, reducing fuel use, runoff and water loss, CO

2

and GHGs emission.Principles of Conservation Agriculture:

(a) Minimum soil disturbance: making soil a suitable habitat for soil microbes, slow down organic matter decomposition, stop degradation of soil aggregates, and keep physical properties intact. (b) Permanent soil cover or mulching: provide food to microbes for their growth and metabolism, improves water infiltration and soil aeration, supplies energy, provide glue to bind soil particles, provide barriers against wind, falling rain-drop and temperature effects. (c) Diversification of crop and cropping pattern: can mitigate the demerits associated with monoculture

e.g. exhaustion of same nutrient from a particular site, making the site suitable for crop associated weeds and pathogens, increasing reliance on agro-chemicals such as herbicides, fungicides and other pesticides as diversification change environment of that place each time, making the habitat unsuitable for crop bound weeds and pathogens. This adds environmental safety against pollution besides promoting biodiversity.

Conclusion: Hence on seeing packages of conservation agriculture practices and its implications we can definitely say that conservation agriculture is better way of farming over conventional method as it offers better management of natural resources and ensures environmental safety. Still its adoption rate is slow all over the India. There may be several constraints behind slow adoption of CA such as lack of appropriate equipment such as laser leveller, seeders (e.g. Happy Seeder), cost of equipment, competition of crop residues use as mulch and livestock feed, burning of crop residues as it helps in timely performing agricultural operations from sowing to harvesting, lack of skilled manpower and poor extension work to disseminate its concept and working principles to make it possible at field level. Due to such shortcomings in South-America it took more than 20 years to reach significant level of adoption. Still it is being practised in several countries such as USA, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Finland, Kenya, Morocco, Uganda, Zambia (Friedrich et al. 2012) on millions hectares of land. In India efforts to develop, refine and disseminate CA is under-way for nearly two decades and has made significant progress particularly in IGP under Rice-Wheat cropping system.

19628

8. Modern tools and techniques for Resource ConservationNEETIRAJ KAROTIYA*

Technical Officer, RCIPMC, Nagpur

Introduction

Resource use efficiency is affected by all factors which directly or indirectly affect the agricultural production. Therefore technologies means which promote the output production per unit input. Recently in agriculture tools and techniques are having promising effect on resources saving and efficiency-enhancing.

Conservation Agriculture

Over the past 2-3 decades was globally, conservation agriculture has emerged as a tool for transition to the sustainability or intensive production system. The conservation agriculture refers to the system of raising crops without tilling the soil with the crop residue retaining on the soil surface. Conservation agriculture permits of soil management for agriculture production without excessively disturbing the soil, while protecting



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it from to degradation, e.g. erosion, aggregate breakdown, compaction, loss in organic matter and nutrients losses.

The Key Features of Conservation Agriculture are:

� Minimum soil disturbance by adopting zero-tillage and reduce tillage for agriculture operations.

� Leave and manage the crop residues on the soil surface.

� Adopt spatial and temporal crop sequence /crop rotation to maximize the benefit from inputs and minimize adverse environmental impacts.Advantages of conservation agriculture:

Rapid adoption of conservation technologies are attributed to multiplicity of benefits. Some of the proven benefits of conservation agriculture are as below:

� Reduction in cost of cultivation: Results of several studies find out that the cost of cultivation under conservation agriculture is reduced by Rs2000-3000/ha. Cost reduction attributed is savings on account of fossil fuel, labour-power, field cleaning and weedicides.

� Reduced incidence of weeds: Number of several studies indicates reduced the incidence of major weeds in related respective crops that resulted in less use of weedicides.

� Savings of water and nutrients: Many experimental research result and farmers experience indicate that considerable saving in water up to 20-30% and nutrients are achieved through crop residue management like; zero-tillage planting, laser-levelled and bed/broad-bed planting.

� Increased yield: In properly managed under conservation agriculture yields are invariably higher by 6-10% as compared to traditionally prepared field.

� Environmental benefits: Conservation agriculture involving surface managed crop residue systems are an excellent opportunity to eliminate burning of crop residue (Presently happen burning problem in Haryana & Punjab) which contribute to large amount of harmful gases (Green-house gases) like; CO2, CO, NO2, SO2 and particular matter. Due to burning residues also contribute to considerable loss of plant nutrients, which could be recycled when properly managed.

� Crop diversification opportunities: With the adopting conservation agriculture system offers opportunity for crop diversification. Crop rotations, cropping sequence and system of cropping with forestry when adopted in appropriate spatial and temporal pattern can enhance the natural ecological processes and also skip single crop failure incidence.

� Improvement in resource-use efficiency:

Combined action like; No-till/zero-till with surface managed crop residues sets in the process in the whereby slow decomposition of residues results in soil structural improvement and increased recycling and availability of plant nutrients. A surface residue acting as mulch, moderate soil temperatures, reduce water losses (evaporation), improves microbial activity and provide better environmental for root/plant growth.Variant of conservation agriculture:

With the advancement of technology, a number of conservation agriculture machineries having wide potential suited for many kinds of production system have emerged out. The prominent conservation agriculture technologies being popularized among the farmers are.

� Zero-tillage: This is the most common conservation agriculture technology in which seeds are placed into the soil by a zero-till drill without prior land preparation. During seeding a narrow slot made by the inverted-T soil opener. This type of drill is most useful where small amount of crop residue remained on the soil surface (4t/ha.) after previous crop harvesting.

Zero-Tillage

Bed Planter

� Reduce tillage: In this system, all primary field preparation operations are avoided and soil is disturbed only to the crop can be sown with proper till conditions. For this, strip and rotary till drill have been developed which consist shallow rotovator and pulverize the soil in narrow strip and sowing the seeds in 1 operation.



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Paddy Transplanter

Laser-Land Levelar

� Bed planting: In this system seeds are planted on raised beds varies from 65 to 90 cm in width (centre to centre) and 10 to 15 cm in height. Bed planting requires lower seed rate

and water with better plant stand. � Paddy transplanter: The self-propelled and

tractor-operated paddy transplanter ensures uniform transplanting. These machines require special type of nursery raising (Mat type) seedlings. The seedlings tray of the transplanter for efficient performance of the transplanter, it is desired that field are well levelled and seedlings mat are of proper age approximate density and thickness.

� Laser-land leveller: It is involves the use of laser transmitter that emits a rapidly rotating-beam parallel to the required field plan, which is picked up by a sensor (receiving unit) fitted to a tractor toward the scrapper unit. Level adjustment and the corresponding changes in the scrapper level are carried out automatically by a hydraulic control system. It is brings 3-5% more cultivable area saves over the other conventional land levelling methods.Summary: The country needs appropriate

and scientific users of natural resources. The extreme stress on these resources leading production fatigue, poor resource use efficiency and countries rich is showing sigh of stress. An integration of modern tools and techniques have shown promise to enhance resource-use efficiency on the one hand and to conserve valuable resources on the other.

References

Gangwar, B. and Singh, A.K. 2011, Efficient Alternative Cropping System, pp, 339, Project Directorate for Farming System Research, Modipuram, Meerut, India.

Kuriakose, F. and Iyer, D.K. 2013. Land use and agrarian relations. Kurukshetra. 61(5): 3-8.

BIOFUEL CROPS

19537

9. second-Generation Biofuel Production from Lignocellulosic Waste: An Approach to Green technologyNISHA SHARMA* AND NIVEDITA SHARMA

Microbiology Section, Department of Basic Sciences, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Nauni-Solan (Himachal Pradesh)-India*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction: Second-generation biofuel technologies have been developed to enable the use of lignocellulosic wastes i.e. non-food feedstocks.

There is continuous depletion of global fossil fuels resources, like petroleum, natural gas, or charcoal, while energy requirements are continuously



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growing up. Fossil fuels should be replaced, partially by biofuels once the current fuel supply is suspected to be unsustainable in the foreseen future. Bioethanol is one of the products that can be obtained by using bio-based resources. It is one of the most attractive biofuel and considered as a “green” fuel. Bioethanol is an oxygenated fuel and can be widely used for transportation purpose across the world. The use of biofuels can significantly lower the emission of exhaust gases thereby resulting in a clean and eco-friendly environment. The biological materials obtained from forest, agricultural residues and other wastes from food and agro-industries are usually referred as biomass. Bioethanol is produced by the action of microorganisms on the fermentable sugars present in the biomass. Basically there are three types of fermentation processes which are commonly used.

� Separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) � Simultaneous Saccharification and

Fermentation (SSF) � Simultaneous Saccharification and Co-

Fermentation (SSCF)

A Methodical Technique for Bioethanol Production

1. Carbon source (substrate) used: Populus deltoides wood

2. Pretreatment: 2% NaOH + H2O

2 (9:1)

3. Ethanologens used as co-culture combination:a) Saccharomyces cerevisiae-IIb) Pichia stipitis

4. Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SHF): 5 g of untreated P. deltoides wood was taken in each of 250 ml flask. To this flasks 100 ml of 2% NaOH + H2O2 (9:1) was added and kept at 65oC in water bath for 3 h. The pH was maintained 6.0, to this 0.5% yeast extract and 0.5% peptone was added, autoclaved at 121oC, 15 lbs or 20 min. To the cooled autoclaved slurry of flask, hydrolytic enzymes @ 5mg/5mg was added, simultaneously inoculated with co-culture combination of fermenting microorganisms (24 h old, 1.0 O.D.) i.e. S. cerevisiae-II + P. stipitis and kept for fermentation at 32oC for 72 h. Bioethanol was estimated in terms of g/l of fermented liquor and g/g of biomass on dry weight basis. Fermentation efficiency was calculated using the following formula:

Fermentation efficiency =ethanol produced (g/g)

× 100theoretical yield of ethanol

Theoretical yield was referred as standard value of 0.511 g/g of sugars.

Conclusion: In the present study, we have modified Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SHF) technique and developed a technology for the effective conversion of alkaline

hydrogen peroxide pretreated lignocellulosic biomass to simple sugars by potential inhouse enzymes produced from microorganisms and intern fermenting them to appreciable concentration of ethanol thus envisaging sustainable energy production.

AGROMETEOROLOGY, REMOTE SENSING & GIS

19526

10. Meghdoot Mobile App: A Real-time Weather-Based AdvisoriesARUL PRASAD. S1 AND VENGATESHWARI. M2

1SMS (Agricultural Meteorology) Krishi Vigyan Kendra – Thiruvallur district, TNAU, TN2SMS (Agricultural Meteorology) Krishi Vigyan Kendra – Ramanathapuram District, TNAU, TN*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Smart Phone has quickly become one of the most widely using technology among people for sending data, voice and some other useful facilities are provided. It consists of numerous apps for various purposes like business, social media, banking,

healthcare, and educational purposes, etc., and now in the field of agriculture, the farmers start to march towards using mobile app for an agricultural purpose like the retailing, daily market price of the product, buyers and sellers details and gathering



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other agricultural-related information, this makes the farmers to move over enhance farming.

In effort to continue the Digital India initiative, and bring technology to farmers, the ministries of Earth Sciences and Agriculture have launched

a mobile app called Meghdoot developed by the Meteorological Department, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and Indian Council of Agricultural Research for better management of the crop and livestock-based on weather information.

� App include forecast information like Maximum and minimum temperature, Rainfall, Relative humidity, wind direction, wind speed, cloud details.

� It also provides past and future weather information.

� Weather-based advisories are updated for every Tuesday and Friday in local language.

� Provide location-based crop and livestock-specific weather-based agro advisories to farmers.

� Download Meghdoot app freely from Android play store and iOS

� Register with name, phone number, preferred language, state and district.

� Get an area-based real-time weather-based advisories on your mobile phone.

19540

11. Influence of Rainfall Variability on Rice Production over Ramanathapuram District in tamil naduVENGATESWARI M1 AND S. ARUL PRASAD2

1Subject Matter Specialist, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, India.2Subject Matter Specialist, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Tirur, Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu, India.

Introduction

Weather takes almost 60 per cent shares over the vulnerable Indian agriculture, predominantly rainfall during South-West monsoon being a game-changer in India and Northeast monsoon for Tamil Nadu [1]. Ramanathapuram district belongs to southern zone of Tamilnadu and lies between 9°.05’ to 9°.50’ North latitudes and 78°.10’ to 79°.27’ East longitudes. Average annual rainfall is 827.0 mm, in that 60 per cent (501.6mm) of the rainfall received during North-East Monsoon. Rice is one of the dominant crop of the country and principal food crop being a tropical plant, it flourishes comfortably in hot and humid climate. [2]. Rice is mainly grown in rain-fed areas that receive heavy seasonal rainfall [3]. Rice is main food crop cultivated in more than 63% of the net area sown in Ramanathapuram and production is directly affected by drought and excess moisture during the North-East monsoon season.

Materials and Methods

The district-level annual rainfall data obtained

from India Meteorological Department was used for rainfall deviation. Rice production data was obtained from Department of Economics and statistics

Rainfall Deviation

Deviation percentage of actual rainfall from the long term mean rainfall was computed using 15 years (2000-2015). The years were classified as Excess (above 19% value), Normal (+19% to -19% range) and Deficit (below - 19% value) based on IMD classification and correlated with the rice production over Ramanathapuram district.

Results and Discussion

The results on rice production and rainfall deviation are presented in Table 1. It could be found that out of 15 dry years 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014 have resulted in yield drop which is evident from Fig 1. It could be noted that deficit years have affected the yield negatively. 2004 and 2014 years also had reduced the production in spite of being the normal rainfall year. The distribution



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of rainfall could be one of the important reason to be consideration when normal rainfall years had behaved in the negative terms. It is interesting to observe that excess rainfall by 27.4 per cent in 2015 resulted in increased production 423.2 ton and rainfall deviation by 91.24 per cent in 2010 resulted in 234.9 ton of rice production. It indicated that

rainfall had a positive effect on yield to a certain extent. The present study clearly indicates that rainfall deviation is influence the rice production over Ramanathapuram district. Positive deviation would be beneficial to rice production up to certain extent and negative deviation of rainfall influenced the negative side effects the rice production.

Table. 1. Rainfall deviation and rice production for Ramanathapuram district (2001-2015)

Year Annual rainfall (mm)

Rice Production (ton)

Rainfall Deviation (%)

Rainfall classification

2001 878.3 237.1 -0.4 Normal2002 982.5 169.9 12.4 Normal2003 844 159.8 -3.4 Normal2004 1035.9 20.8 18.5 Normal2005 911.8 254.7 4.3 Normal2006 939.3 247.1 7.4 Normal2007 842.8 223.2 -3.5 Normal2008 1181.9 29.9 35.2 Excess2009 800.3 203.0 -8.4 Normal2010 1671.7 234.9 91.2 Excess2011 756.6 254.0 -13.4 Normal2012 598.5 38.2 -31.5 Deficit2013 617.9 68.6 -29.3 Deficit2014 946.5 33.9 8.28 Normal2015 1113.9 423.2 27.4 Excess

Figure. 1. Influence of rainfall variability on Rice production in Ramanathapuram District

Conclusion

It could be concluded from the above study that the annual rainfall variability proves to be an influential factor in the production of rice over Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu. Moreover the yield drop during normal years and good yield in Dry years indicate that further exploration is necessary in the rainfall distribution pattern and several other factors to be influence the rice production.

References

Challinor, A. J., Slingo, J. M., Wheeler, T. R., Craufurd, P. Q., & Grimes, D. I. F. (2003). Toward a combined seasonal weather and crop productivity forecasting system: determination of the working spatial scale. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 42(2), 175-192.

Solanki, J. S. (2012). A Critical Study on Quality Traits in Rice. Education, 3(6).

Das, A., Ghosh, P. K., Choudhury, B. U., Patel, D.



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P., Munda, G. C., Ngachan, S. V., & Chowdhury, P. (2009, December). Climate change in North East India: recent facts and events–worry for

agricultural management. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture (pp. 32-37).

19548

12. Role of Remote sensing and GIs in Water Resources ManagementKARRA PREETHIKA REDDY1 AND BOJJA HARISH BABU2

Research Scholar1, PJTSAU, Hyderabad. Research Scholar2, CCSHAU, Hisar.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Availability of per capita freshwater is major concern in India as the population continue to increase although the average annual rainfall including snowfall in India is 4000 Billion Cubic Meters (Kumar et al. 2005, Mall et al. 2006). Measurement and knowledge of availability of water resources in different parts of the country helps in management of water.

Hydrological observations and modelling using satellite data is important for sustainable management of water resources over large region. Remote sensing of water resources involves generating information ranging from regular inventory of surface water bodies to assessment of rainfall, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, groundwater and snowmelt runoff (Singh and Gupta 2016). Satellite provides an important platform from where measurements can be done in any part of electromagnetic spectrum suitable to detect different phases of water i.e. solid, liquid and gas over a large region.

Why Only Remote Sensing???

� Systematic data collection � Information about three dimensions of real

objects � Repeatability � The process of data acquisition and analysis is

faster. � Global coverage � The only solution sometimes for the otherwise

inaccessible areas � Multipurpose information

Hydrological Remote Sensing

� SARAL-Altika Mission (Inland Water level), � RISAT-1 SAR Mission (Surface water spread,

Soil Moisture), � Resourcesat-1/2 Missions (Snow cover,

Wetlands, Land use Land cover, Water quality),

� Cartosat Missions (DEM),

� Kalpana, Megha Tropiques, � Scatsat-1 and INSAT-3D Missions (Rainfall,

Solar Radiation etc.).

Space-Borne Spectral Measurements have been used for:

� Rainfall Estimation, � Snow and Glacier Studies Leading to Snow

Melt Runoff Forecasting. � Irrigation Water Management and

Identification of Potential Irrigable Lands. � Reservoir Sedimentation � Watershed Management � Disaster Management (drought, flood) � Water Quality Assessment � Ground Water Assessment and Prospecting � Soil Moisture Estimation

Scientific Basis of Detection

� Satellite-based sensors employ active as well passive sensing system. Active systems have their own source of illumination (Radar Scatterometer, Altimeter) whereas passive systems sense natural radiations, either reflected or emitted from the earth.

� Microwave remote sensing provides the observations of earth‘s hydrological cycle regardless of day/night and atmospheric conditions. Water being a polar molecule has very high sensitivity in microwave wavelengths due to orientation polarization property.

� The microwave signature of the object is governed by sensor parameters (frequency, polarization, incidence angle) and physical (surface roughness, feature orientation) and electrical (dielectric constant) property of the target.

Satellite Measurements for Possible Applications

� Hydrology- Evapotranspiration, soil moisture, Snow cover, rainfall

� Agriculture- Irrigation performance, Irrigated areas, crop identification, rain-fed areas,



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biomass growth, crop yield � Environment- water quality, salinization,

wetlands, Forest area, waterlogging,

rangelands

RS Based Hydrological Variables

Hydrologic parameters sensor technology Resolution Repeativity

Rainfall TRMM, INSAT, NOAA Precip. Radar (JAXA), HRR

30m Daily 3 hourly

Groundwater GRACE gravity 1,00,000 km2 30 daysEvapotranspiration MODIS, INSAT Visible/NIR 1 km to 8 km 1-2 daysLeaf area index INSAT, MODIS Visible/NIR 1 km 8 dayTopography CARTOSAT-1, SRTM Optical,

microwave10 m to 1 km -

Insolation INSAT, MODIS VHRR 1 km to 8 km dailyLand use/cover RESOURCESAT-2, MODIS, SPOT Optical 56 m to 1 km yearlyLakes/Wetland extents

RESOURCESAT-2, MODIS Optical 23 m to 250 m yearly

Snow-covered area RESOURCESAT-2, MODIS Optical 56 m 8 dayAlbedo INSAT, MODIS Optical 1 km 16 dayNDVI INSAT, MODIS, SPOT Optical 1 km 16 day

Hydro Geomorphological Map of a Basin in Punjab

IRS LISS III AND PAN MERGED SATELLITE DATA- Spatial- 23.5m Temporal -24 days- Singh et al, (2014)

Spatial Resolution- 23.5m, Temporal Resolution- 24 days

Conclusion

� Satellite remote sensing is now able to resolve various hydrological processes like rainfall, groundwater, land cover types, water level estimation, drought, floods etc..

� Presently available Indian satellites are Kalpana, INSAT3A/3D, Resourcesat, RISAT-1, SARAL Altika etc.

� The electromagnetic information obtained by spectral sensors has always to be transformed into other information, which is relevant in the field of hydrology. This transformed information can be used for water management purposes.

� The activities of the space agencies (e.g. NASA, NASDA, ESA) are geared towards providing better remote sensing systems in the future. These future systems will have more spectral channels, higher resolution in time and space and provide better multi-temporal information.

Future Direction

� Remote sensing has made considerable



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progress in assessing the water resources of country and provide important inputs in modelling the water balance.

� Remote sensing started with photo-interpretation of images for site-specific and regional areas and developed into operational system where satellite-based hydro-meteorological product are available regularly

and modelling is being carried out at national scale.

� Present trend in remote sensing of hydrology is to develop improved methodologies for retrieval of various hydro-meteorological parameters from satellite data and assimilate the information in physically-based distributed hydrological models.

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13. Application of Remote sensing techniques for Drought CharacterizationG. SASHIKALA

S.V Agricultural College, Tirupati -517502, Andhra Pradesh (ANGRAU)

Remote sensing is a Science/art/ technique of acquiring information about the object in the form of pictures / images digitally or photographically made at a distance without any physical contact. Remote sensing uses electromagnetic spectrum (Fig.1). The amount of radiation from an object is influenced by both the nature and properties of the object and the type of radiation hitting the object. Vegetation represents reflected solar radiation in the visible and the near-infrared regions of electromagnetic spectrum.

Drought is a phenomenon of long-term moisture deficiency. It may be meteorological, agricultural or hydrological drought. Meteorological drought means deficiency in precipitation than normal precipitation, agricultural drought indicates scarcity in plant water availability leading to a reduction in crop yield. Hydrological drought is defined using a combination of factors such as streamflow, groundwater availability and reservoir storage. Different remote sensing methods have been used for estimating both agricultural and meteorological drought.

Drought monitoring methods are classified as follows (i) in-situ based methods, (ii) optical remote sensing methods, (iii) thermal remote sensing methods, (iv) microwave remote sensing methods, (v) combined remote sensing methods. Normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), Temperature Condition Index (TCI), Vegetation Health Index (VHI), Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI), Drought Deficiency Index (DDI), Precipitation Drought Index (PDI) are some of the drought monitoring indices. NDVI, TCI and VCI have been accepted globally for identifying agricultural drought in different regions with varying ecological conditions (Nicholson and Farrar. 1994). The agricultural drought indices derived through remote sensing primarily depend on the characteristics of reflected/emitted energy

of the object from the earth surface, thus the results can be relatively more or less accurate in comparison to the in-situ derived outcomes.

Amalo et al. (2017) reported that drought monitoring indices such as TCI, VCI and VHI are useful, quick, sufficient and inexpensive tool for drought monitoring. TCI detects drought sensitively in dry season or months when high temperature occurred. VCI detects drought more sensitive in wet season than TCI and VHI. NDVI is not an appropriate index for vegetation assessment in the arid regions while PDI is suitable for meteorological drought monitoring. Meteorological data along with remote sensing data are both essential for an accurate estimation of drought. (Ebrahimi et al. 2010)

Hammouri and Naqa (2007) concluded that combination of remote sensed drought indices such as NDVI and in-situ drought monitoring index such as Standardisation Precipitation Index (SPI) offer better understanding and better monitoring of drought conditions for semi-arid regions like Amman – Zarqa basin.

National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS), was initiated in 1986 with the participation of National Remote Sensing Agency, Dept. Of Space, Government of India, as a nodal agency for execution, with the support of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) provides near real-time information on prevalence, severity level and persistence of agricultural drought at state/ district/sub-district level. It operates in 14 states of India, which are predominantly agriculture-based and prone to drought situation.

Drought monitoring through remote sensing methods helps in getting spatial and temporal data of large areas which is not possible with conventional drought monitoring methods. It helps in drought preparedness, drought risk assessment, drought vulnerability, contingency planning



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etc. thereby reducing socio-economic impacts of drought.

Fig.1 Principle of remote sensing

Advantages of Remote Sensing for Drought monitoring

1. Spatial continuous measurements across large geographic areas

2. Frequent revisit time for image acquisition3. Historical record of observations4. Delineation of boundaries is made easier when

compared to conventional methods

Constraints of using Remote Sensing in Drought Assessment

� Atmospheric noise, satellite orbital drift, satellite change and sensor degradation

� Skilled person is required in data acquisition and interpretation

� Remote sensing images are costly on small scale basis

References

Amalo, L. F., Hidayat, R and Haris. 2017. IOP Conf. Series : Earth and Environmental Science.54.

Ebrahimi, M., Matkan, A.A and Darvishzadeh, R. 2010. Remote Sensing for drought assessment in Arid regions (A case Study of central part of Iran, Shirkooh - Yazd). In : Wagner W., Szekely, B. (eds.): ISPRS TC VII Symposium – 100 years ISPRS Vienna, Austria, July 5 -7 IAPRS, 37/7B.

Hammouri, N and Naqa, A.E. 2007. Drought assessment using GIS and Remote Sensing in Amman – Zarqa basin Jordan. Jordan Journal of Civil Engineering. 1(2) : 142 – 152.

Nicholson, S.E and Farrar, T.J. 1994. The influence of soil type on the relationships between NDVI, rainfall, and soil moisture in semiarid Botswana. I. NDVI response to rainfall. Remote Sensing and Environment. 50, 107-120.

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14. Crop Mapping through sAR (synthetic Aperture Radar) Remote sensingA. KARTHIKKUMAR AND G. SRINIVASAN1SRF, RS&GIS, Agricultural College and Research Institute, TNAU, Coimbatore- 6410032Ph.D Scholar (Agronomy), Agricultural College and Research Institute, TNAU, Coimbatore- 641003

Remote Sensing in Agriculture

Remote sensing is largely used to generate timely, accurate and spatial information on crop inventory viz., crop acreage, condition and yield estimation. When the advantages of various remote sensing platforms were compared, it was clear that the repetitive coverage was very unique to the orbiting spacecraft, since it was comparatively much more expensive to acquire the same coverage with aircraft. With the availability of satellite sensors which can monitor the crops at fortnightly intervals, a wide scope for regular monitoring is offered by these satellite sensors

Introduction

Agriculture is one of the important position in our Indian Economy. A crop information system is one way that remote sensing can provide valuable

information to decision-makers. Remote sensing is presently the only technology that can provide timely and accurate crop inventory information. Traditional ground survey method are highly expensive, more labour and time consuming, continuous monitoring of crops is also highly difficult. For overcoming this situation, the use of remote sensing technology can be incorporated that provides timely and accurate information along with high revisit frequency and spatial resolution. Remote sensing instruments are of two primary types namely,

� Active sensors (Microwave Remote sensing) � Passive sensors (Optical Remote sensing)

Passive Sensor (Optical Remote sensing), on other hand. Detect natural energy (radiation) that is emitted or reflected by the object or scene being observed reflected sunlight is most common



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source of radiation measured by passive sensorActive Sensors emit radiation in the

direction of the target to be investigated, provide their own source of energy to illuminate the objects The sensor will detect and measures the radiation which is reflected or backscattered from the target. Active sensors include the ability to obtain measurements any time, regardless of the time of day or season are the advantages. It can be used for examining wavelengths that are not sufficiently provided by the sun or to control target is illuminated. However, this system require the generation of a huge amount of energy to effectively illuminate targets. Some examples of these sensors are laser fluorosensor and synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

Remote sensing is one of the most effective technologies to map the extent of crops in a given area. Various researches have utilized the single date or time series optical and synthetic aperture radar data in rice area mapping at local, regional and national Scale using different approaches (Qin et al., 2015).

In the past, information on crop type and crop area has often been compiled by conducting ground-level interactions with farmers or by ground surveys. It is incorrect and late. Conventional method of data collection, compilation and publication are reliable but fails to serve the information in real-time for overcoming this situation, the use of remote sensing technology proved extensively can be incorporated that providing timely and accurate information along with high revisit frequency and spatial resolution. The remote sensing technology and wide use of optical sensors, to measure the surface reflectance of an object or an area under the visible and infrared regions of electromagnetic spectrum, where the properties of surface reflectance is a function of biophysical characteristics such as canopy moisture, leaf area, vegetation greenness, vegetation browning etc. of the reflecting target. The use of optical remote sensing in crop mapping studies has been carried out on the fact that different crops at different vegetation stages exhibits dissimilar bio-physical characteristics. However, utilizing the information’s provided by the optical sensors and the optical remote sensing technology has its own limitation in image acquisition during cloudy or rainy conditions

The microwave remote sensing is an indispensable earth observation technology that receives and analyses signatures backscattered from features with wavelength primarily ranging from 1mm to 100cm. Microwave remote sensing system has the ability to collect data any time during a day and any season during the year

Synthetic Aperture Radar

The potential of radar remote sensing plays a major role in agricultural crop area mapping and

monitoring. Radar allows high-resolution data acquisition at optimal time intervals during the crop growing cycle, regardless of any atmospheric or solar illumination conditions. This resulted in high degree of timeliness or synchronization between the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data collection and the crop calendar. Thus, growing conditions of different crops can be monitored during crucial periods of their growth cycles. Subsequently, crop classification can be improved by selecting data acquisition dates to coincide with times when the variation in radar backscatter responsive of dominant crops was at a maximum (Werle et al., 1995).

Crop Identification and Area Mapping

Crop identification one of the critical steps in the agricultural monitoring system using remote sensing data was crop identification. Due to less economic efficiency and influence of agricultural production features viz., large coverage, seasonal variations and spatial heterogeneity the traditional ground survey methods becomes incapable and less influential in acquiring annual crop information’s. In this aspect, the remote sensing technology offers a solution for feasible and effective way for data acquisition and monitoring. Remote sensing technologies for crop discrimination has been in constant development phase, leading to remarkable increase in application and scope. While the process of crop discrimination requires input data’s that are related to plant and soil condition information, these data’s must not only be accurate and consistent but also must be available at appropriate spatial and temporal scales.

Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery is able to observe the Earth’s surface independently of such conditions as cloud cover and guarantees a temporal frequency of images throughout the growing period (Boerner et al., 1987). The capabilities of SAR for discriminating crop type have been previously explored (Haldar et al., 2012). Many studies have shown that SAR classifications were significantly improved based on a per-field approach due to the presence of speckle at the pixel level which was filtered out at the parcel level. Therefore, the greater the number of pixels that are averaged, i.e. the larger the field, the better the signal estimate. For example, a classification of seven different crop types based on ERS imagery using a field-based methodology was superior to the per-pixel approach (Tso and Mather, 1999).

Conclusion

Remote sensing technology is feasible and effectively used for Crop sown area estimation is one of the major sections in agriculture. Remotely sensed images are very useful to acquire geospatial information about earth surface for the evaluation of land resources and environment monitoring.



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Reference

Boerner, W.M., B.Y. Foo and H.J. Eom. 1987. Interpretation of the polarimetric co-polarization phase term in radar images obtained with JPL airborne L-band SAR system. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 25 (1), pp. 77-82.

Haldar, D., Patnaik, C., Mohan, S., & Chakraborty, M. (2012). Jute and tea discrimination through fusion of SAR and optical data. Progress In Electromagnetics Research, 39, 337-354.

Qin, X., Zou, H., Zhou, S., & Ji, K. 2015. Region-

based classification of SAR images using Kullback–Leibler distance between generalized gamma distributions. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 12(8), 1655-1659.

Tso, B. C., & Mather, P. M. 1999. Classification of multisource remote sensing imagery using a genetic algorithm and Markov random fields. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 37(3), 1255-1260.

Werle, B. O. 1995.Sea backscatter, spikes and wave group observations at low grazing angles. In Proceedings International Radar Conference (pp. 187-195). IEEE.

WEED SCIENCE

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15. Herbicide Residue ManagementDR. TULASI LAKSHMI THENTU*

SMS (Crop Production), Krishi Vigyan Kendra- Nellore, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, AP-524004*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Presence of herbicide residues in the environment led to serious problems like contamination of water, air and soil. When applied at recommended rates most herbicides breakdown within few days or week after application and impose no restriction on cropping options to the next year. Some herbicides however, do not degrade quickly and can persist in the soil for weeks, months or years following application. The use of residual herbicides can be beneficial as the residues prevent growth of sensitive weed species throughout the season. These residues however, can restrict the crops that can be grown in rotation. Various management techniques were developed which can be adopted to minimize the residues hazards in soil.

Cultural and mechanical management practices: integrated weed management practices involved different practices to control weeds. When the level of weeds in field crosses a threshold value then herbicides are used. Research show that early removal when the weeds were small reduces competition and improves crop yield. Early season application also assists in reducing the carry over potential to succeeding crops. The longer the herbicide is exposed to breakdown factors such as, moisture and temperature the lower the risk of carryover. practices like crop rotation, competitive hybrids, rotary hoeing and altered planting dates are done under non chemical weed control. The herbicide toxicity can be reduced by ploughing with disc plough or inter-cultivators because the applied herbicides is mixed to a large volume of soil and

get diluted. To reduce runoff loss, herbicide can be placed below the mixing zone i.e. mechanical incorporation. Mulch and crop residue from previous year can help in reducing sedimentation concentration and losses to some extent.

Deactivation of herbicides: herbicides are inactivated by plant residues or organic matter incorporated into soil. Farmyard manure application is an effective method to mitigate the residual toxicity of herbicides. Application of farmyard manure absorb the herbicide molecules in their colloidal fraction and make them unavailable for crops and weeds and after a lag phase microbial population thriving on organic matter starts decomposing the herbicide resides at a faster rate due to moisture-holding capacity of high organic matter soils. Higher quantity of atrazine, sulfosulfuron and dinitroaniline herbicides residues applied to wheat and mustard crop affect the subsequent field crop. The farmyard manure application at 10t/ha or green manuring with sesbania to the soil found to mitigate the residual toxicity of atrazine, sulfosulfuron, dinitroaniline, pendimethalin, trifluralin, fluchloralin and in sandy loam soil. Organic matter absorbs the herbicide practices making then unavailable for the crop and weeds. After a lag period, herbicide practices are decomposed faster by micro-organisms as organic has moisture content. The farmyard manure application at 12.5 t/ha reduced the atrazine residue significantly followed by compost and phosphoric acid (50 PPM) application.



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Use of non-phytotoxic oil, adjuvants and surfactants also decrease the residual hazards. Atrazine residual hazard could be reduced by mixing in non-phytotoxic oil which would also enhance the weed-killing potency. The use of non-phytotoxic oil with atraxine in maize crop reduced the weed dry matter and enhanced the yield of maize and subsequent wheat with considerable reduction in the area affected in wheat. Adsorption, protectants and antidotes are applied to protect the plant from injury caused by herbicide. Addition of biochar allows the crop to escape from toxicity by immobilizing the herbicide residues in soil. Safeners are synthetic chemicals which helps in preventing herbicide injuries.

Reducing the availability of herbicides in soil: one of the main reason for increasing herbicide residues in the environment is that herbicides are used above the threshold level. Excess use leads to processes like accumulation, leaching, drifts etc. so, application of herbicides in least dosages can help managing the herbicide residue problem. Herbicides when applied in combinations reduce application rate of persistent molecules and ultimately leading to their reduction. When herbicides with same mode of action are used time and again, the soil and the crop may become resistant to such herbicides.

Use of alternate herbicides can prove a way out to reduce herbicide residue. Herbicides such as carbamates, thiocarbamates and dinitroaniline are lost in the environment by surface volatilization. Tillage operations help in bringing deep present herbicide residues to soil surface which would aid in decontamination by volatilization. Ploughing with disc plough or inter-cultivations reduce the herbicide toxicity, as the applied herbicide is mixed to a large volume of soil and get diluted. In deep ploughing the herbicide layer is inverted and buried in deeper layers and thereby the residual toxicity reduced.

Enhancing the herbicide degradation: nutrient addition helps in increasing the herbicide degradation e.g. carban, nitrogen and phosphorus enhances the enzyme production by microbes. Introduction of specific microorganisms to fasten the degradation process i.e. bioaugumentation can also be used. Some soil microbes such as bacteria and fungi play an important role in deactivating residues. Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus terricole rapidly degraded metalachlor applied @ 10 kg/ha up to 92% and 87% after 20 days in sterile and non-sterile soils, respectively. Penicillium chrysogenum and Aspergillus spp. were found as potent pyrazosulfuron-ethyl and penoxsulam degrading fungi.

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16. Weeds and Conservation AgricultureSAHELY KANTHAL1, ANIKET BAISHYA2 AND ANANYA GHOSH1

1PhD Research Scholar, Department of Agronomy, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur2PhD Research Scholar, Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur

Conservation agriculture is a set of soil management practices that minimize the disruption of the soil’s structure, adapted to the requirements of crops and local conditions of each region, whose farming and soil management techniques to protect the soil from erosion and degradation, improve its quality and biodiversity, and contribute to the conservation of the natural resources, water and air, while optimizing yields. This system comprises three principles, minimum soil disturbances, permanent soil cover crop and crop rotation.

Conservation agriculture reduces soil erosion and improve soil quality. Extensive tillage practices hastened mineralization process which increases loss of lots of nutrients. CA improves soil physical structure reduce soil erosion, leaching and stimulate biological process of the soil. CA also increase carbon sequestration and reduces emission of greenhouse gases. Conservation agriculture maintain soil cover, crop residues and

mulching which protects soil against exposure of soil and air and provide food to the micro-flora and fauna of the soil.

It is well known to us that one of the major objective of tillage is weed control. But in CA weed control became a real hazard especially in the initial year as soil disturbance are minimized. Herbicides play a major role in conservation agriculture. A non-selective herbicide is used before 7-10 days of sowing to clean the field. After sowing a pre-emergence of herbicide and a post-emergence herbicide is used. In CA hand weeding or uprooting of weeds is restricted as it can disturb the surface soil. Herbicide-tolerant crops can be used in CA where some broad-spectrum non-selective herbicides like Gluphosinate Ammonium and Glyphosate can be applied after emergence of weeds.



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Difficulties in Short-Term Conservation Agriculture

Farmers willing to adopt conservation agriculture initially face shifts in weed population dynamics. In the initial year of CA practice, yield loss may occur due to weeds. In conservation agriculture lessen the operational flexibility and choice of weed control methods are delimited. Limited tillage amount failed to kill the weeds present in the field. Presence of residue effects the microenvironment. Plant residue or mulching shade soil that reduce evaporation loss of water, leaving soil moist and humid. This moist and cooler micro-climate can provide ideal condition for the germination of small-seeded weeds. Crop residue can also interfere with the amount of herbicide sprayed. Cover crop or plant residue can also limit the soil-active herbicide to reach the soil surface. Therefore, in the initial year CA practice, there may be greater weed density. It is also observed that CA practice shifts the weed population towards the perennial weeds. But perennial weeds are difficult to control with available post-emergent herbicide options. Use of lots of herbicides can harm the beneficial microbes present in the soil and also can create environmental pollution to some extent. The major problem with the repeated use of a single herbicide is the possibility of some weed species to evolve resistance.

Benefits in Long-term Conservation Agriculture

Furthermore, long term CA practice reduce the weed pressure by preventing the new weed germination. Undisturbed soil surface can have

indirect effect on weed control. Limited tillage practices do not expose the weed seeds present in the deeper layer of the soil to sunlight.

Cover crops and plant residue also can influence weed population because of the proximity of residue to the site of the seed germination on the soil surface. Germination and growth of annual weeds suffer from restricted light availability, physical growth barriers and allelopathic effects from crop residues.

Most of the weeds are crop-specific. Crop-rotation change the micro-environment with the changing crop. So, weeds specific to the crop suppress due to change in crop. Crop rotation affects weed population due to allelopathic, altered timing of crop management and unavailability of alternate host. Rotation should include crops sown in varied seasons, annuals and perennials, different herbicides.

Conclusion

The crop yield losses in CA due to weeds may vary, depending on weed community and intensity. Weed species shifts and losses in crop yield as a result of increased weed density have been cited as the major hurdles to the widespread adoption of CA. But CA principles like no-tillage do prevent weed seed exposure, crop rotation is useful to break the life cycle of weeds adapted to a particular crop while residue covers create environment congenial to inhibit weed seed germination either by preventing sunlight to the seeds or through the exudation of allelopathic substances. Although conservation agriculture weed management become difficult in the initial year but CA is ultimately gain in the long-term.

CLIMATE CHANGE

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17. Carbon sequestration for Mitigating Climate ChangeRUBY PATEL* AND SONAM SINGH

Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Global surface temperatures have increased by 0.880C and earth’s mean temperature is increased by 1.5–5.880C during the twenty-first century (IPCC 2001). In atmosphere, carbon dioxide (CO

2) levels and other ‘‘greenhouse’’ gases such

as methane (CH4), chlorofluorocarbons, nitrous

oxide (N2O), and tropospheric ozone (O

3) are

increasing continuously by harmful anthropogenic activities. This results in increase in atmospheric temperatures by the trapping of certain wavelengths of radiation in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a dominant greenhouse gas and atmospheric CO

2



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is increased mostly due to fossil fuel combustion (about 80–85%) and deforestation. The process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide in soils and/or CO

2 fixation by plants as a result of

photosynthesis is known as Carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration reduced the amount of

carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to reduce global climate change. Trees act as a sink for CO

2 and

storing excess carbon as biomass. Anthropogenic activities affect CO

2 source/sink dynamics of

forests through such factors as fossil fuel emissions and harvesting/utilization of biomass.

Fig.1: Processes affecting soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics.

Carbon Sequestration in Soils

1. Nutrients

One of the elemental constituents of humus is carbon. It is estimated that 80 million tons (Mt) of N, 20 Mt of P and 15 Mt of K would require to sequester 1 Gt of C in world soils. Several sources of nutrients, such as biological nitrogen fixation, recycling from the subsoil, aerial deposition, use of biosolids and crop residues are used for C sequestration. Crop residue has dual purpose use such as it can be either sequester C in soils or improve soil quality or used for biofuel production.

2. Soil Erosion and Deposition

The SOC is mostly removed by wind erosion and water erosion processes. Some of the SOC-enriched sediments are lost into the aquatic ecosystems, others are buried in depressional sites, and some are redistributed over the landscape (Fig. 1). Although a part of the C is emitted into the atmosphere either as CO

2 by mineralization or

as CH4 gas emission. Erosion-induced deposition

of soil organic carbon maybe 0.4 to 0.6 Gt C/

year compared with the carbon emitted into the atmosphere that is 0.8 to1.2 Gt C/year (Fig. 1). An effective soil erosion control is required to store the carbon into the soil for a long time and improving environmental quality.

2. Extractive Farming Practices

The depletion of nutrients is caused by low-input/ subsistence farming. Mining SOC from the soil for nutrients through organic-matter decomposition increased the atmospheric CO

2 concentration.

Therefore, soil fertility should increase rather than maintain or decrease crop yield per unit use of fertilizer and other inputs, and improve the soil quality.

Conclusions

Soil C sequestration is a strategy to maintain the sustainability of the environment and achieve food security through improvement in soil quality. Soil C sequestration has the potential to offset fossil-fuel emissions that are the major contributor to global warming.



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WATER MANAGEMENT

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18. smart Water Management: A Boon for IrrigationNEHA SINGHAL

Ph.D. Scholar, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.

Introduction

Increasing water demand is a challenge before the world particularly in most arid and semi-arid regions where water scarcity and water stress are the vital issues. As per a report of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, over 25% of the global population will wound up living in the water-scarce regions by 2025. The situation of water scarcity occurs at a place when the water availability falls below 1000 cubic metres per capita per day. India is expected to become a water-stressed country by 2025 as a result of that we will have less than 1700 cubic metres of water per capita per day. In India, agriculture is the major consumer of water (80%) and while using water for agricultural production, the amount of losses associated is very large. Water is lost during irrigation system operation, scheduling and management. These losses reduce the water use efficiency and furthermore create problems with water stress. A large portion of the farmers in our nation is unaware of the solution to these consequences due to lack of information. Also, they are facing the problem of crop damage, less productivity due to unfavourable weather conditions and less knowledge of precautionary measures to deal with climate change.

Smart Water Management (SWM)

To deal with this issue Smart Water Management (SWM) is the best emerging solution which incorporates quantification of water, efficient irrigation, management and mitigation of floods and droughts, real-time monitoring of water availability, identification of leaks in distribution systems and monitoring and maintaining water quality. Information Communication Technology (ICT) has significant importance for smart water management by converting supply oriented system to a system which is oriented to demand at the end-user point. Information and Communications Technology is a collection of technologies that assist in storing, processing, dissemination and communication of data or information or both. It includes hardware and software which are connected to the internet with the intention of fulfilling the function of communication and

information processing.

Procedure for water management using ICT

In the process of SWM, the evapotranspiration demand of the crop is acquired from the satellite data using remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS) is used for providing the location and images of the field. Various sensors are installed within the field for collecting the real-time information of soil moisture, temperature, and nutrient status. All these data are stored and transferred to the irrigation management authority with a wireless sensor network. The authority manages the supply system using a mobile phone or computer according to the demand received through the information system for water and nutrients.

Significance of ICT for irrigation water management

The major role of ICT in Agriculture is its potentiality to aid wide access to information that will support knowledge sharing and decision making. Exact and timely application of water can be accomplished using SWM. This technology also provides a quick and simple solution to the problems of farmers. SWM provides economic benefits to the farmers and also inspires them to save water. Researchers have found that ICT based monitoring system is helpful for water and labour-saving. Scientists distinguished the positive contribution of ICT to support strategic decisions on land and water allocation at the state level through Water Authority (WA). The WA has potentialities to save water and to implement adaptation strategies to climate change. Higher benefits from ICTs are feasible in areas with limited water availability. Technology has been used by water authorities to track water usage, forecast river level. ICT can help tackle environmental challenges through more environmentally sustainable models of economic development and environmentally friendly technologies and applications.

The Government of India has launched some mobile-based services as mKisan, Pusa Krishi and Kisan Suvidha for farmers for sharing or



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advising knowledge regarding weather, seeds, farm machinery, fertilizer, market prices for crops, the

package of practices and programmes and schemes in their own language.

Fig. Smart Water Management System Challenges and path forward

There is a lack of awareness among farmers to use technology in an appropriate manner. ICT based decision support system for water application and conservation should be developed to achieve higher efficiency. Proper ICT governance is required for successful implementation of SWM. Moreover, huge capital investment is required for developing a smart water network which is a challenge for a developing country like India. Public, private and soil conservation association should work as partners. Governments should develop guidelines, strategies and best practices in SWM and also promote the use of ICT in rural development.

Summary

SWM is a viable option for sustainable water resource management in the face of water scarcity, climate change as well the other constraints endured in the water sector. SWM provide economic benefits to the farmer and also motivates them to save water. These advantages which can be gained by ICT incorporation in water management could possibly see the attainment of the UN Millennium development goals for water and sanitation, if properly implemented. However, focus needs to be placed on this subject to allow for stakeholder buy-in and proper collaboration by the relevant sectors especially those that have a direct impact as they set the pace for implementation. Guidelines, strategies and best practices in SWM must be developed. This can prove as an important step towards making India Digital and for doubling farmers’ income.

References

Cavazza F., Galioto F., Raggi M. and Viaggi D. (2018) The Role of ICT in proving Sequential Decisions for Water Management in Agriculture: Water, 10, 1141.

FAO (2017) ICTs and management of water resources in agriculture. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/e-agriculture/blog/icts-and-management-water-resources-agriculture on 13/2/2019.

Houghton John W. (2010) ICT and the Environment in Developing Countries: A Review of Opportunities and Developments: IFIP International Federation for Information Processing AICT 328: 236–247, 2010.

Scarlett L. (2012) Managing Water: Governance Innovations to Enhance Coordination. Resources for the Future. Retrieved from: http://www.rff.org/RFF/Documents/RFF-IB-12-04.pdf

Sheikh, S. (2011), Information and Communication Technology for Water Utility Management. ACWUA’s 4th Best Practices Conference. Retrieved from http://www.acwua.org/sites/default/files/nabil_chemaly.pdf

UN (2013) Water for Life Decade: Water scarcity. [Online] Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/scarcity.shtml

Yoshida K., Tanaka K., Hariya R., Azechi I., Iida T., Maeda S., and Kuroda H. (2016) Contribution of ICT Monitoring System in Agricultural Water Management and Environmental Conservation :Serviceology for Designing the Future, Springer Japan.



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19. Drip IrrigationNEHA CHAUHAN*

Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Soil Science, CSKHPKV Palampur, H.P., 176062*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Water is one of the most valuable natural resource on the earth for supporting life. With the explosion of population, the demand for water is also increasing at speedy rate. India receives about 4000 km3 of annual precipitation, but due to spatial and temporal variations, the availability of water varies throughout the country. Only 1123 km3 of water is in the utilizable form, thus water is becoming scarce in the coming decades due to indiscriminate withdrawal of groundwater. In India, the agriculture sector consumes about 83% of available water. Due to adoption of traditional methods of irrigations such as flood irrigation, water is lost through conveyance and application losses. These losses can be minimized by adopting micro-irrigation methods such as drip and sprinkler irrigation methods. Among all the micro-irrigation methods, drip irrigation is most efficient. Drip irrigation is also known as trickle, precise or localized irrigation. In drip irrigation, water is applied to each plant in controlled precise amount with the help of emitters, thus have the highest

application efficiency. Soil moisture is maintained at optimum level with frequent irrigations. This method of irrigation is suited mostly for the widely spaced crops such as horticulture crops. It is water-saving irrigation technique in the areas where water is scarce. The main aim of drip irrigation is to minimize wastage of water and increase its efficiency.

Problems and Constraints of adoption of drip irrigation

1. One of the major drawback of drip irrigation is the clogging of drippers which reduces its efficiency and durability

2. High initial cost of installing drip irrigation system makes it difficult for poor farmers to adopt this practice.

3. It is suitable for widely spaced crops only and not economical in closely planted crops.

4. For setting and maintaining drip irrigation, technical and management skills are required.

5. The drip system is liable for mechanical damage by birds, animals etc.

ORGANIC FARMING

19554

20. organic Agriculture and the environmentPERIYASAMY DHEVAGI1, RAMYA AMBIKAPATHI2 AND SENGOTTIYAN PRIYATHARSHINI2

1Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu2Research Scholars, Department of Environmental Sciences, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Introduction

Increasing awareness about safe and hazard-free food and conservation of environment as well as health hazards associated with agrochemicals are the major factors that lead to the growing interest in organic agriculture in the world. Organic agriculture is one of the fastest-growing sectors of agricultural production and also supportive of the environment. The organic food demand is steadily

increasing both in the developed and developing countries. The demand rate is increasing with an annual average of 20-25%. Furthermore, the global market for organic food is expected to touch US $ 29 to 31 billion by 2005 Worldwide over 130 countries produce certified organic products in commercial quantities.

Organic Agriculture

The organic agriculture promotes and enhances



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agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It emphasizes a holistic food production management system in preference to the use of off-farm inputs taking into account that regional conditions require locally adapted systems. This is achieved by using agronomic, biological and mechanical methods, against to using synthetic materials to fulfil agroecosystem’s function.

Organic versus Conventional Agriculture

In recent years, there is a lot of debate between the proponents of organic farming and a section of the community who questioned the scientific validity and feasibility of organic farming.

Can organic farming produce enough food for everybody?

Is it possible to meet the nutrient requirements of crops entirely from organic sources?Are there any, significant environmental

benefits of organic farming?Is the food produced by organic

farming superior in quality?Is organic agriculture communicably feasible?

Is it possible to manage pests and diseases in organic farming?

Is it possible to manage pests and diseases in organic farming?Can organic farming produce enough food of everybody?

Fig.1. The most often debated issues on organic agriculture

Organic Agriculture and Yield

An oversimplification of the impact of conversion to organic agriculture on yield indicates that: In intensive farming systems, organic agriculture decreases yield, the range depends on the intensity of external input use before conversion. In irrigated lands, conversion to organic agriculture usually leads to almost identical yields. In traditional rainfed agriculture (with low external inputs), organic agriculture has the potential to increase yields. Previous studies have shown that under drought conditions, crops in organic agriculture method produce significantly higher yields than conventional agriculture method, often out yielding conventional crops by 7 to 90%. A survey of 208 projects in developing tropical countries in which contemporary organic practices were introduced, showed average yield increases of 5-10% in irrigated crops and 50-100% in rainfed crops. Trials conducted at Nagpur on organic cotton indicated that after the third year, the organic plot produced as much cotton than conventional system. In Punjab, organic farming gave higher or equal yields of different cropping systems compared to chemical farming after an initial period of three years.

Nutrient Management in Organic Farming

Crop residues, animal dung, green manure,

biofertilizer and biosolids from agro-industries are some of the potential sources of nutrients for organic farming. A compost production technologies like vermicomposting, phosphocomposting, N-enriched phosphocomposting, etc improves the quality of composts through enrichment with nutrient bearing minerals and other additives. According to a conservative estimate, agricultural waste of about 600 to 700 million tones (mt) is available in the country every year which is equivalent to 290 mt N, 2.75 mt P

2O

5 and 1.89 mt

K2O. Organic farm and food production systems

are quite distinct from conventional farms in terms of nutrient management and strategies (Tal, 2018).

Pests and Disease Management in Organic Farming

Management in both time and space of planting prevents pests also increases population of natural predators. It can contribute to the control of insects, diseases and weeds. Crop rotation improves soil health and promote plant growth which also controls disease, insects and weeds. Using physical barriers for protection from birds and animals; modifying habitat to encourage pollinators and natural enemies of pests using pheromone attractants helps in protection of crops. Organic crops have been shown to be more tolerant as well as resistant to attack. The presence of beneficial root colonizing bacteria and increased levels of vesicular-arbuscular by control colourization of roots have all been identified as contributing factors on the control of root disease.

Economics of Organic Farming

There are valuable evidences for equal and often more profitable than conventional farms due to combination of lower input cost, premium process which helped to offset the reduced yield. Gross margins, the difference between farm output and variable costs are generally similar or there are favourable price premiums, higher in organic agriculture. The cost of cultivation of organic cotton for the past six years indicated that there is a considerable reduction in the cultivation cost and increased returns compared to traditional cotton cultivation in India.

Environmental Benefits

Organic agriculture favours interactions within and between agro-ecosystem that are vital for both agricultural production and conservation of natural resources. Soil farming, soil stabilization, waste recycling, carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, predation, pollination and habitats are some of the practices helps in conservation and also provides ecosystem services. A review of over 300 published reports showed that out of 18environmental impact indicators (floral diversity, faunal diversity, habitat diversity, landscape, soil organic matter, soil biological activity, soil structure, soil erosion,



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nitrate leaching, pesticide residues, CO2, N

2O,

CH4, NH

3 nutrient use, water use and energy use)

organic farming systems performed significantly better in 12 and performed worse in others. It is estimated that 25 million agricultural workers in developing countries are poisoned each year by pesticides (Lorenz and Lal, 2016).

Conclusion

Organic agricultural systems are having less deleterious effects on environment than the conventional systems. Scientific validations of organic agriculture practices are minimum, which is not sufficient to provide scientific evidences for environmental advantages and its infant stage i.e. less than a century old may also be one of the reasons. There are evidences for less emission

of CO2, N

2O and CH

4 but direct measurements

are scanty.Considering the challenges ahead for meeting the needs of growing populations, a responsible perspective should focus on a chemical-free world in which one might want to live, and world of highly productive and low impact agriculture. For the present, it offers the most promising strategy for feeding future generations.

Reference

Tal, A. (2018). Making conventional agriculture environmentally friendly: moving beyond the glorification of organic agriculture and the demonization of conventional agriculture. Sustainability, 10(4), 1078.

Lorenz, K., & Lal, R. (2016). Environmental impact of organic agriculture. In Advances in Agronomy (Vol. 139, pp. 99-152). Academic Press.

19574

21. Land Management in organic FarmingSAI LEELA K1 AND SOWMYA B2

1Ph.D. (Agronomy) College of Agriculture Rajendranagar, PJTSAU, Hyderabad-5000302Asst Professor (Agronomy), College of Veterinary Science, PVNRTVU.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper focuses on land management which defined as the process of managing the use and development of land resources in a sustainable way. Therefore, it is necessary to manage and plan the resources in an integrated manner. This paper first presents the physical problems in conventional practices and how these regular practices responsible for natural resource and soil degradation. Erosion is an important contributor to land degradation and is a major threat to agricultural sustainability. To address these problems sustainable farming practices are required to address the persistent problems of land degradation and declining crop productivity. In the present study, we describe different approaches such as reducing tillage, zero tillage and stubble mulch tillage which are potential entry points for smallholder farmers to move towards sustainability. In the future, to meet the growing population demands, agriculture will have to produce sustainably more food from less land with the conservation of natural resources with minimal impact. So the paper concluded that attaining sustainable land management practices can help in resolving the problem by enhancing the crop yields through stimulating biological diversity, by elevating soil carbon sinks and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Further which helps in improving water retention by decreasing

soil erosion and runoff. Adaptation and promoting land management practices can help in meeting multiple goals.

Physical Problems in Intensive Cultivation

Soil Crust and Low Permeability

A lack of ground cover (e.g. stubble retention) to protect the soil surface can result in soil crusts forming following a rainfall event. Cultivation and trafficking can severely disturb the soil surface and make them especially susceptible to separation, repacking and compaction by raindrop & cultivation can bring sodic material to the soil surface. This can cause or increase soil crusting & crusts block soil pores and increase soil strength decrease permeability of the soil surface to water and air.

Remedial Measures in Organic Farming

Vegetative cover or residue plays a key role in protecting or increasing the soil structure and organic matter. The Organic matter added by the residue, stabilizes soil aggregates and eliminate soil crust and increases water movement through the soil. In addition, vegetative cover avoids the direct impact of raindrop by improving soil aggregation which decreases bulk density and improves infiltration with enhanced pore space.



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Soil Compaction and Soil Hardening

Operation of heavy vehicles on agricultural land can cause soil compaction results in low porosity or high bulk density and soil compaction results in mechanical impedance to plant root growth, poor aeration, and restrictions to water infiltration. While the hardening result of intensive cultivation out turn in destroying of soil organic matter and soil stable aggregates. Long term use of chemical fertilizer will severely damage soil aggregate structure leads to soil compaction and hardening of soil.


� Soil compaction and hardening of soil reduce by conservation tillage which doesn’t involve repeated use of heavy vehicles.

� Organic fertilizer can release soil nutrients and activate soil bacteria, earthworms and other beneficial microorganisms which plays an important role in the gradual softening of soil structure.

� Harding of soil can be prevented by the addition of various organic materials and organic fertilizers, chicken manure, which can increase the soil organic matter and accelerate the disintegration of humus.

Low Water Retention

The ability of soil to retain water depends on particle size. Retention of water molecules is greater with fine particles of clay soils as compared to sandy soils with coarser particles. Transmission of water through soil profile was easier with sandy soil while clay retains more water. coarse or medium- to coarse-textured soils characterized by low water holding capacity. Water retention of soil also influenced by organic content, type of clay and soil structure.

Intensive Tillage

Tillage adds oxygen to the soil, which leads in the microbial population and results in quick decomposition of soil organic matter in addition, tillage breaks up soil aggregates, exposing more organic matter to microbial decomposition


Role of Reduced Tillage in Organic Farming

Reduced tillage practices in organic farming comprise several practices such as the reduction of ploughing depth but also noninverting, less-invasive soil loosening, e.g. by the chisel plough (Peigné et al., 2007). Soil organic carbon, microbial activity, and soil structure are often improved in the upper soil layer under reduced tillage compared with ploughed soils. (Paul Mäder and Alfred Berner, 2012). In reduced tillage, the earthworm community not being interrupted by either heavy machinery or deep tillage which results

in soil compaction. earthworms affect many soil properties in agricultural land including nutrient availability, soil structure, and organic matter dynamics (Edwards, 2004). Earthworms, in turn, are influenced by soil moisture, organic matter, texture, pH, and soil management (Curry, 2004). In organic farming, reduced tillage without ploughing can reduce erosion, enhance macroporosity, and promote microbial activity and carbon storage (Peigné et al., 2007). It is also associated with less run-off and leaching of nutrients, reduced fuel use, and faster tillage (Peigné et al., 2007).

Zero Tillage

Role of Zero Tillage in Organic Farming

Zero tillage involves low-disturbance seeding techniques for the application of seeds and fertilizers directly into the stubble of the previous crop. As a result, organic matter of the surface layers of zero tilled land increases gradually due to reduced erosion and increased yields. Organic mulch developed on the soil surface is eventually converted to stable soil organic matter because of reduced biological oxidation compared to conventionally tilled soils. Zero tillage plays an important role in mitigating many of the negative on-farm and off-site effects of tillage, principally erosion, organic matter loss, reduced biodiversity and reduced runoff (Dumanski et al., 2006). These conditions are replaced with permanent soil cover, improvements in soil structure, improved organic matter status, improved water use efficiency, and improved soil biology and nutrient cycling. Stability of the soil organic matter under zero tillage, due to enhanced soil aggregation and reduced erosion, enhances sequestration of carbon and contributes to mitigation of climate change (Dumanski et al., 2006) Soil carbon sinks are increased by increased biomass due to increased yields, as well as by reducing organic carbon losses from soil erosion. (Dumanski et al., 2006)

Stubble Mulch Tillage

Stubble mulch farming is a year-round system and a new approach, with growing of a crop or leaving crop residues on the surface during a fallow period in order to protect the soil at all the time. It also implicate the maintenance of crop residue with agricultural implements for loosening of soil, undercut residue and kill weeds.

Two methods are adopted for sowing crops in stubble mulch farming:

1. Similar to zero tillage, a wide sweep and trash-bars are used to clear a strip and a narrow planter-shoe opens a narrow furrow into which seeds are placed.

2. A narrow chisel of 5 to 10 cm width is worked through the soil at a depth of 15 to 30 cm leaving all plant residues on the surface. The chisel shatters tillage pans and surface crusts.



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Planting is done through residues with special planters.

Conclusions

Land degradation can be reduced by adopting properly integrated land management approaches like reduced tillage and zero tillage. These are essential in mitigating many of the negative on-farm and off-site effects of tillage, principally erosion, organic matter loss, reduced biodiversity, and reduced runoff. Enhanced yields are increased by increased soil carbon sinks by reducing organic carbon losses from soil erosion. Minimum soil disturbance, residue retention as part of conservation agriculture emerged as an important management strategy to fight climate change while maintaining crop productivity in the current context of growing environmental concerns.

References

Curry, J.P., 2004. Factors affecting the abundance of earthworms in soils. In: Edwards, C. (Ed.),

Earthworm Ecology., 2nd edition. CRC Press, Boca Raton.

Dumanski, J., R. Peiretti, J. Benetis, D. McGarry, and C. Pieri. 2006. The paradigm of conservation tillage. Proc. World Assoc. Soil and Water Conservation. P1: 58-64.

Edwards, C.A., 2004. The importance of earthworms as key representatives of the soil fauna. In: Edwards, C. (Ed.), Earthworm Ecology. 2nd ed. CRC Press, Boca Raton.

Jan Hendrik Moosa, Stefan Schraderb, Hans Marten Paulsena, Gerold Rahmanna. 2016. Occasional reduced tillage in organic farming can promote earthworm performance and resource efficiency. Applied soil ecology.103:22-30.

Paul Mäder and Alfred Berner.2012. Development of reduced tillage systems in organic farming in Europe. 27(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170511000470

Peigné, J, Ball, BC, Roger-Estrade, J and David, C. 2007. Is conservation tillage suitable for organic farming? A review. Soil Use and Management 23:129–144

WASTE MANAGEMENT

19630

22. Waste to Wealth Management: need of the HourSMRITI SINGH AND POOJA BHATT

Ph.D Scholars, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, 263145

A report of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) estimated that around 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of municipal solid waste are generated per day by Indian urban population. The amount of waste generated increased drastically with the exploding population. India will drown in the garbage it is generating. Sooner or later there will be no extra space in the landfills to accommodate fresh wastes.

Waste Management: A Serious Concern

Presently, out of 62 million tonnes of waste the nation produces every year around 45 million tonnes of waste remains untreated. According to the Central Pollution Control Board, less than 15 per cent of the municipal solid waste generated is either processed or treated. In the face of rapid urbanization and industrialization, almost every type of waste is mismanaged and has become a gigantic problem. There are various issues plaguing efficient waste management in India, ranging from lack of proper guidelines, administrative planning and poor awareness among citizens about waste

collection or treatment or waste segregation. These alarming statistics are enough to understand that we have a grave garbage issues to deal with. To tackle further environmental pollution we should start taking action to reduce our waste generation and do our bit.

Types of Solid Wastes

The most common types of solid waste are: domestic waste (garbage and rubbish produced by individuals and households), commercial waste (solid waste coming from business places such as stores, markets, office buildings, restaurants, shops, bars, etc.), and industrial waste (produced by factories and processing plants) Other forms of waste are agricultural waste, hazardous waste, health care waste and electronic waste.

Fate of Agricultural Waste at Present

Agricultural waste is also known as Biomass waste. Agricultural wastes are those that are left in the farm after harvesting of crops. These



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include harvest trashes, weeds, wastes obtained from livestock, poultry and agro-industrial wastes. Recently improper disposal of agricultural wastes have been reported from different places. Traditional agriculture was based on using the locally available farm-based resources like harvest trashes, weeds, cow dung etc as input in the field for the next crop. Post green revolution farmers are entirely dependent on extensive use fertilizers for meeting the requirements of the crops. Though it helps to obtain higher yield but it has a dark side too. Due to its continuous usage for a long period of time in the same land, crop becomes susceptible to the existing environmental condition, there is deterioration in soil health due to decrease in number of beneficial microorganisms in the soil, yield reduction and thus economic losses have been reported.

Stubble Burning: A Serious Environmental Issue

The most common practice followed in agriculture these days is the burning of agricultural residue which is commonly known as stubble burning. Such practices help in clearing the land for cultivation for the next crop easily. Even though there are many technological interventions available for converting agricultural waste into useful resource, farmers are still reluctant to implement it as it requires huge investment such as buying/hiring equipment’s and tractors, fuel, labour cost and transportation charges. The major environmental problem of stubble burning is the emission of particulate matter which leads to air pollution. Secondly, barrening of land and reduction in soil fertility are other problems related to stubble burning. Instead of depending on locally available and cost-effective farm resource, farmers depend on costly hazardous fertilizers; which ultimately brings up the cost of cultivation.

Ways and Means to make Wealth out of Waste

In order to tackle drastically increasing waste woes and handling it appropriately, the first and foremost step is to collect household waste as organic and inorganic components separately at the source only. There are many ways to make better use of these wastes and obtain other useful resources:1. Mulching: The first option is to opt for

incorporation of the residue as mulch. Mulching enhances soil quality and crop yield.

2. Composting: Organic wastes such as leaves, stalks, poultry wastes, livestock wastes, slaughterhouse wastes can be easily composted. It can be done in the proximity of farm and can be used as manure for crops and soil conditioner. The compost is rich in both primary nutrients – Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (N P K) content and in micronutrients such as Mn, Cu, Fe, Zn etc thus

will be helpful for retaining the soil fertility and reducing the dependence on fertilizers.

3. Pelleting of organic wastes: It is generally preferred by progressive farmers. 4 to 5 per cent of water content in pellets is ideal for better results.

4. Biogas production: Production of biogas from organic wastes such as animal dung, poultry and plant wastes is the oldest and most practised method in India. The slurry obtained after obtaining biogas is used as a soil conditioner.

Benefits of Waste Management

Being a sustainable solution, the benefits of waste management practices in term of socio-economic perspective are manifold. These measures are eco-friendly as it maintains soil fertility, promotes higher resource efficiency, reduces air pollution and provides resistance to crops. It reduces the crop failure and can save farmers from financial crisis are its economic benefits. Increased harvest and assured harvest in long term will substantially improve farmers’ standard of living are advantages according to social perspective.

Conclusion

Just 30 per cent waste is recycled in India. However, over 75 per cent of the waste we generate is recyclable. It is time for wakeup call and starts taking waste management seriously. Thus the need of the minute is to extend the reach and accessibility of startups like GPS Renewables, Bangalore so that more people become aware of how to deal with waste in a more sustainable manner. Government should create guidelines or laws regarding waste management in collaboration with the private sector to deal with it on a wider scale. Though various methods are available, awareness among farmers is poor about the usage of these scientific techniques for efficient resource utilization so awareness campaign should be organized time to time. Subsidies to convert farm waste to wealth are a viable option. Besides these, research should focus on low cost, high efficient methods and tools for wide-scale adaptation.

References

http://imotforum.com/2018/11/sustainable-farming-turning-agricultural-waste-to-wealth/

http://imotforum.com/2017/11/when-crops-become-fireworks-stubble-burning-delhi-pollution-solution/

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/how-to-make-waste-to-wealth-a-reality/articleshow/62490388.cms?from=mdr

https://swachhindia.ndtv.com/waste-wealth-5-startups-showing-india-manage-waste-effectively-6965/



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DRYLAND AGRICULTURE

19626

23. Dry Land Agriculture: Characteristics, Problems and Reduce strategySUSHMA TAMTA1 AND ANNU RANI2

1Research Scholars, Department of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering2Research Scholars, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar

Drought is a climatic phenomenon defined by less supply of moisture. In this rainfall is occurred at very small amount over a large basin. It is occurred when the evaporation and transpiration are more comparing to the rainfall. Efforts have been made to control it by seeding clouds to induce rainfall, but these experiments have had only limited success.

Drought is a situation when the actual seasonal rainfall is deficient by more than twice the mean deviation. (Ramdas, 1960)

There are three type of drought- (i) Meteorological drought (ii) Agricultural drought (iii) Hydrological drought. Drought is characterized into moderate drought if the seasonable deficiency is between 26 to 50% and when deficiency is above 50% then it is characterized as severe drought.

Impact of Drought

� Hydrological imbalance � Depletion in soil moisture � Stream flow reduction � Immediate impact on agriculture � Increased intensity and duration reduces food

production � Affects national economy and overall food

severity as well � Non-availability of quality seed � Deficit groundwater � Land degradation � Fall in investment capacity of farmer on

agriculture

Characteristics of Dry Land Agriculture

� Undulating soil surface � Extensive holding � Extensive climatic hazards � Uncertain and limited annual rainfall � Extensive agriculture � Relative large plot size � Similar type of crop � Lower crop yield � Poor market of the produce � Poor farmer economy � Diseases in human

� Poor health of cattleProblems of dryland agriculture- Main

problems are scarcity of water due to low, erratic behaviour of rainfall, high evaporation and low moisture-holding capacity of soil.

� Inadequate and uncertainty of rainfall and its erratic distribution

� Late-onset and early of monsoon � Prolong dry spell during crop period � Low moisture holding capacity � Poor soil fertility status � Socio-economic constraints � Technical and development constraints � Selection of limited crop � Quality of the produce � Effect of moisture stress

Strategies For Dry Land Agriculture – Natural resource development and their utilization are two main aspects to get good and stable yield under dryland condition. Any strategy for dry land able to reduce the adverse effect of unfavourable season or maximize the benefit of a good season. If the climatic conditions are normal then it should be used effectively. When climatic conditions are not normal and aberrant weather conditions are occurred then following programs are followed-

� Maximizing production through alternate cropping pattern

� Mid-season correction to standing crops � Water-saving irrigation � Thinning the plants � Removal of the more sensitive crop in

intercropping system � Ratooning on receipt of rain if damage is not

beyond recovery � Sowing of new crop according to the remaining

part of the season � Urea spray � Soil moisture conservation measure � Economic use of water in irrigation such as

drip irrigation & sprinkler � Reduction of evaporation from soil and water

surfaces.



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� Inter-basin transfer of surface water from surplus water area to drought-prone areasSo by using these strategies we can control and

reduce the problems of drought and able to achieve high production.

References

https://www.britannica.com/science/droughth t t p s : / / s h o d h g a n g a . i n f l i b n e t . a c . i n /

bitstream/10603/74559/10/10_chapter%202.pdf

Wilhite, D.A. and Glantz, M.H., 1985. Understanding: the drought phenomenon: the role of definitions. Water international, 10(3), pp.111-120.

CROP PHYSIOLOGY

19457

24. Humic Acid: effect on Plant and soilARPITA NALIA, ANANYA GHOSH, AND MD. HASIM REJA

Ph.D Research Scholar, Department of Agronomy, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia-741252, West Bengal

Humic acid is the major component of humus and the most active components of soil and compost organic matter. These are complex molecules formed naturally from chemical and biological humification of plant and animal matter and through the biological activities of microorganisms (Sani, 2014). Use of humic acid in agriculture is increasing day by day due to its synergistic effects on plant growth as well as improving soil health. The commercially available products of humic acids are applied both as soil application as well as foliar feeding of plant. It was observed that humic acid as foliar sprays enhanced growth nutrient uptake and yield and improved the quality of the production of some crops (Khan et al. 2010) this may decrease the quantity of N, P, K applied as soil application which on the other hand reduce pollution and cost of production.

Impact on Soil Physical, Chemical and Biological Health

• Make soils more friable or crumbly and improves soil tilth.

• Increases water holding capacity (up to 7 times) and aeration of the soil.

• Breaks down crop residues and builds organic matter.

• Stabilizes soil temperature.• Reduces soil erosion.• Increases CEC and soil buffering capacity.• Improves soil fertility by coating soil particles

and retaining Fe, Cu, Zn, Mg, Mn and Ca.• Humates react with Fe, Cu, Zn, Mg, Mn and

Ca to form chelated substances and its charges help to bond trace elements

• It helps to immobilize aluminium in acidic soils

• Underwater stress, foliar fertilization with

humic molecules increases leaf water retention and photosynthetic and antioxidant metabolism.

• Prevent the leaching of nutrients due to its electrostatic attraction with the nutrients and promote better nutrient uptake.

• Helps in carbon sequestration• It promotes microbial growth that causes rapid

remediation of soils and waste management, also helps in reducing metal poisoning

• Humates feed microorganisms which recycle nutrients and produce antibiotic

Impact on Plant Growth

� Auxin like effect improving cell division and elongation and increases chlorophyll content of leaf.

� Fulvic acid has smaller molecular weight and can penetrate leaves, roots and stems while carrying different nutrients.

� Plants can easily obtain chelated nutrients because they are loosely bound to the chelate.

� Root growth is improved and consequently uptake of nutrients and water is more efficient.

� Humates can increase seed germination rate if they enter inside the seeds

� Involves in plant metabolism � Regulate plant growth hormones � Provide free radicals for plant cell � Applying them to new leaves, shoots and roots

gives better result

Conclusion

Role of humic substances and the way they influence plant growth and development and nutrient uptake is crucial for developing sustainable cropping systems that improve overall soil quality. Stimulation of root growth due to application



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of humic acids may improve resistance to water stress during drought. More research is required in diverse plant environments to determine economically feasible application level of humic acids while comparing it with other manures and fertilizer sources.

Reference

Khan, R. U., Rashid, A., Khan, M.S. and Ozturk,

E. (2010). Impact of Humic Acid and Chemical Fertilizer Application on Growth and Grain Yield of Rainfed Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Research, 23: 113-121.

Sani, B. (2014). Foliar application of humic acid on plant height in canola. APCBEE Procedia, 8: 82-86.

19493

25. Molecular engineering of C4

Photosynthesis in C3 Plants

RAJASHREE, B1. SAVITA, S. K2. AND MAMATA. K2

1Dept. Crop Physiology, UAS Dharwad; 2Dept. Genetics and Plant Breeding, GKVK, UAS, Bengaluru.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]. [email protected], [email protected],

“Second green revolution” is needed for crop yields to meet demands for food. Rice yield have to be increased by over 60 % to meet the demand by 2050 because 3/

4th of world population consumes

rice as stable food. At present situation climatic change is not supporting to crop production. Rice is a C

3 plant, its photosynthetic efficiency is low under

changing climatic condition (high temperature, high light intensity and low water). C

4 plants have

capacity to yield more in such condition because they have different photosynthetic mechanism, C

4 plants have high photosynthetic efficiency,

high WUE and high nitrogen use efficiency. So conversion of C

3 plants into C

4 plants is one of the

approach to increases crop yield to meet world food requirement

Study of evolution of C4 plants is important to

know about development of kranz anatomy and genes associated with kranz anatomy in C

4 plants

(Slewinski, 2013). Some C4 enzymes carbonic

anhydrase, PEP Carboxylase, pyruvate phosphate dikinase and NADP-ME are present in C

3 plants

buthave low activity and different tissue specificity, this is because of lack of cis-regulatory element in C

3 plants. These cis-regulatory elements essential

for mesophyll specific gene expression (Gowik et al., 2004).

Price et al., (2011) reported that the addition of the high-affinity SbtA and BicA transporter from cyanobacteria is more effective at reducing the CO

2

concentrating mechanism (CCM), because of its lower K

m and introduction of both transporter is

more effective to increase rate of photosynthesis. These transporters transports dissolve inorganic carbon (DIC), this DIC less permeable through plasma membrane. DIC get convert into CO

2 in

carboxysome (A microcompartment in chloroplast)

and available to Rubisco. CA enzyme activity is only present in carboxysome and absent in cytoplasm so escape of CO

2 from cell (photorespiration)

is prevented. CO2

leaked from carboxysome is recycled by CO

2 pump mechanism in chloroplast.

The addition of cyanobacterial model in the chloroplast of a C

3 plant could provide a significant

boost to the photosynthetic performance.Ishikawa et al., (2011) studied that introduction

of the small subunit (RbcS) of high kcat

Rubisco from the C

4 plant sorghum significantly enhances

kcat

of Rubisco in transgenic rice. The expression of high k

cat Rubisco did not stimulate the rate

of photosynthesis because electron transport is not sufficient to support the capacity of RuBP carboxylation by Rubisco enhanced by sorghum RbcS. To improve the photosynthetic rate, the enhancement of electron transport capacity should also be required in transgenic rice.

Demao et al., (2003) observed that transferring maize PEPC gene into rice to increases the yield up to 14-22%. The photosynthetic rate and carboxylation efficiencies were increased by 55% and 50% respectively and the CO

2 compensation

point decreased by 27%.The aim to boost yields by creating rice that

uses highly efficient C4

photosynthesis. About 60 mutants have been identified with increased vein density. This increase in vein density because of reduction in mesophyll cells between vein. C

4 rice

could increase rice yield by 30% -50%, double WUE and use much less fertilizer. C

4 rice perform efficient

photosynthesis under high temperature and reduced water content. Improving photosynthesis is the key to solve many burning problems in our society (Rizal et al., 2012).



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References

Demao, J., Tingyun, K., Xia, L., Qiaoying, G., Xueqing, H., Naibin, H and Kezhi, B., 2003, Physiological characteristics of the primitive CO

2

concentrating mechanism in PEPC transgenic rice. Science in China, 46: 438- 446.

Gowik, U., Burscheidt, J., Akyildiz, M., Schlue, U., Koczor, M., Streubel, M and Westhoff., 2004, Cis regulatory elements for the C

4 plant

Flaveria trinervia, the promoter of the C4

phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase gene. Plant Cell, 16: 1077-1090.

Ishikawa, C., Hatanaka, T., Misoo, S., Miyaka, C and Fukayama, H., 2011, Functional incorporation

of sorghum small subunit increases the catalytic turnover rate of Rubisco in transgenic rice. Plant Physiology, 156: 1603-1611.

Price, G. D., Badger, M. R and Caemmerer, S. V., 2011, The Prospect of using cyanobacterial bicarbonate transporters to improve leaf photosynthesis in C

3

crop plants. Plant Physiology, 155: 20–26.Rizal, G., Karti, S., Thakur, V., Chatterjee, J., Coe,

R. A., Whanchana, S and Quick, W. P., 2012, Towards a C

4 rice. Asian Journal of Cell Biology,

ISSN: 1-13.Slewinski, T. L., 2013, Using evolution as a guide

to engineer kranz type C4

photosynthesis. Plant Science, Vol. 4:1-13.

19515

26. 14.3.3: A Class of Proteins with Multifaceted Action in PlantsMD. MAHTAB RASHID1*, ZAFAR IMAM2 AND SURABHI SINHA2

1PhD Research Scholar, Department of Mycology and Plant Pathology, I. Ag. Sc., Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.2M.Sc (Agriculture) Genetics and Plant Breeding.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Proteins are the stakeholders for the regulation of all the physiological and biochemical processes in eukaryotes. They are final translated products of genes encoding them. Protein(s) in an organism has a single specific role or multiple roles as per the domains possessed by them, and hence they are the final molecules which are responsible for all the life processes. One such protein of prime importance in plants is 14.3.3. It is a class of protein which are dimeric and are present widespread in eukaryotic organisms in a highly conserved manner. They have various isoforms can be in the form of homo-dimer and hetero-dimer. Since they are characteristically conserved, they have redundancy of functions in organisms. However, there is an increase in evidence which suggest that 14.3.3 proteins bind to their target in different magnitude, thus, making it clearer of their role in regulating specific processes. In addition to these pieces of evidence, the high number of isomeric forms gives a possibility of them fine-tuning a cellular function through various combinations.

14.3.3 proteins and FHA domain-containing proteins are the only proteins identified so far in plant system that are phospho-binding regulators. The common feature of 14.3.3 proteins is to bind to their target proteins by recognizing the phosphorylated consensus motifs. Till now, three modes of consensus motifs have been proposed viz: mode I (R/K)XX(pS/pT)XP, mode II (R/K)XXX(pS/pT)XP, and mode III (pS/pT)X1-2-COOH), where X stands for any of the amino

acids and pS/pT stands for phosphoserine or phosphothreonine. 14.3.3 dimer is cup-shaped in its structure and it has an internal surface which is highly conserved and an external surface which is variable. Each of the monomers has a conserved amphipathic groove where the interaction with phosphorylated target takes place, so, it is implied that 14.3.3 dimer has a potential of binding to two targets at a time.

14.3.3 proteins were identified originally in plants as a component of DNA-protein complex and as co-receptors of fusicoccin, a fungal toxin. Later on, they were identified to regulate the H+-ATPase present on the plasma membrane of plant cell and enzymes involved in carbon and nitrogen metabolism. Presently, a wide range of target proteins of 14.3.3 has been reported which play a key role in various physiological processes in plants that include growth, development, and response to abiotic and biotic stresses. There are mainly two ways in which environmental stimuli affect the activity of 14.3.3 or be affected by 14.3.3. First of them is where the environmental stimulus causes phosphorylation of target proteins which is them recognized and bound by 14.3.3. The second way is when the environmental stimulus affects the 14.3.3 itself through transcriptional regulation of a specific 14.3.3 or by affecting the level of signalling molecules.

The abiotic and biotic stresses have a direct impact on 14.3.3 by altering the expression of their specific isoform. These stresses have different



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types of effects on the different isoforms in form of expression level and alteration of transcription. There are many pieces of evidence which have suggested a possible linkage between 14.3.3 phosphorylation and stress responses in plants. In Arabidopsis, SnRK2.8, which plays a role drought tolerance is reported to phosphorylate 14.3.3 isoform in vivo. The expression and modification studies conducted on 14.3.3 proteins point toward the facts of them playing a major part in stress signalling pathways. A recent example of this fact is over-expression of Arabidopsis 14.3.3λ in cotton in response to abiotic stress. These cotton transgenic plants are more tolerant to drought which is determinable from less wilting and damage to the leaves. During cold and osmotic stress in sugar beet plants, 14.3.3 proteins accumulated on the plasma membrane of cells and regulated different ion channels such as K+ ion channel, thus regulating the flow of ions and stomatal opening.

The 14.3.3 class of proteins are also known to exert their effects through interactions with components of hormone signalling pathways. They are involved with the transcription factors that are necessary for abscisic acid (ABA) signal transduction. ABA signalling pathway is activated by various abiotic stresses and they are known to enhance the expression of genes which are important to combat or tolerate these stresses. The plants which showed downregulated expression of 14.3.3 also showed an altered expression of ABA-regulated genes. In addition to the abiotic stresses, 14.3.3 are also known to be involved in defence mechanisms against the pathogens. There is a growing literature which suggests the action of 14.3.3 in R-gene mediated resistance in plants against the phytopathogens. Different isoforms of 14.3.3 are reported to interact with N-protein of tobacco plants which are involved in imparting resistance to tobacco mosaic virus. The resistance in Arabidopsis plants was impaired

when the expression level of 14.3.3λ reduced against the powdery mildew fungus. However just opposite to this, increased expression of 14.3.3λ led to hypersensitive responses and embellished resistance in plants too that particular pathogen. 14.3.3 also have been proved to be involved in Pto-mediated programmed cell death (PCD) in tomato against the effector-triggered virulence of Pseudomonas syringae pv tomato.

The other processes and molecules to which 14.3.3 proteins are known to interact and bring regulated physiological responses in plants are many. MAPK pathway is defined as the key pathway in signal transmission. 14.3.3 are known to interact with this pathway by stabilizing the MAPKKKα protein. They also are involved in another plant defence mechanism i.e. production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The cells which have antisense for 14.3.3 proteins showed to produce lower levels of ROS in response to fungal elicitors. These proteins are also found in the extracellular environment in the secretome of pea root, suggesting their role in resistance to pathogens. Additionally, 14.3.3 brings regulated responses in plants to light, thus manipulating flowering and other key physiological responses that are affected by light. They also are involved in the primary metabolism pathways which are means they also regulate the metabolism of plants thus ultimately the growth. They are mainly associated with sugar and nitrogen metabolism. Various other processes in which they are involved are hormone production and signalling, cell growth and division, secondary metabolites production etc.

Thus, it can be concluded that 14.3.3 proteins have multiple role in plants and their highly diverse actions make them a very important protein which needs to be further studied and investigated in order to find how we can make use of them for combating the abiotic and biotic stresses in plants to increase the yield and production.

19543

27. PGR’s: An option to Alleviate Abiotic stress in CottonN. VARSHA1 AND N. LAVANYA2

1PhD Scholar, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, JAU, Junagadh-362001, JAU.2PhD Scholar, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar-50030, PJTSAU

Cotton is the most important fibre crop and is the basic input to the textile industry. In India, cotton is grown in about 122.38 lakh ha (2018-19) of which more than 70 per cent area is rainfed. Cotton physiology has indeterminate growth habit with

longer crop duration which make cotton vulnerable to abiotic stress influences from emergence to senescence. The adverse effects on the physiological processes may affect yield and requires attention.

Abiotic stresses such as low water availability,



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high salinity, high or low temperatures, hypoxia/anoxia, and nutrient deficiency are among the major causes of crop failure which originate due to weather and soil constraints. Their occurrence may be erratic or specific and the intensity may be varying in their adversity. The impact of stress can be seen in the altered plant growth habits which are influenced by the magnitude and severity of the stress. Crop yield and quality are the result of the interaction between a genotype’s potential expression and the environment, which is modified by agronomic management in order to meet the objectives of the farmer. The ability to adapt and degree of tolerance to abiotic stresses varies among species and varieties. Crops exposed to abiotic stresses respond by activating defense mechanisms. We can also use various hormones and substances which can be useful in reducing or alleviating the effect of stress in cotton plant and here we discuss few of them.

PGR-IV is a plant growth regulator containing 0.0028 % (w/v), gibberellic acid (GA), 0030% indolebutyric acid (IBA) and a proprietary fermentation broth improved the growth and yield of cotton under non-stressed conditions. PGR-IV can partially alleviate the detrimental effects of water stress on leaf photosynthesis and dry matter accumulation of cotton plants. PGR-IV increases stomatal conductance, uptake of P, Zn, Cu, Mn and Fe and results in increased dry weights of roots and floral buds. Because PGR-IV contains GA and IBA,

both of which can antagonize the actions of ABA and ethylene, it is speculated that foliar application of PGR-IV before shade may partially alleviate the detrimental effect of ABA and ethylene on fruit abscission. 1-Methylcyclopropene is a plant growth regulator that works by occupying the ethylene receptors of plants and thereby inhibiting ethylene from binding and initiating a response such as abscission or senescence. The affinity of 1-MCP for the ethylene receptor sites is 10 times greater than that of ethylene. yield. Firstly, 1-MCP treated plants grow taller and bear more nodes suggesting that plants can produce more branches to set more bolls. Secondly, 1-MCP treated plants exhibit higher photosynthetic efficiency and less membrane damage reflecting delayed senescence and a longer photosynthetically active period to produce more assimilates for boll development. Thirdly, 1-MCP treatment produce more number of open fruit and open fruit weight per plant. Thus, MCP can counteract the effect of water stress and high-temperature stress by competing with ethephon. Under waterlogged conditions, pouring the cotton roots with brassins and DA-6 and then top dressing for many times proves to be advantageous. Effect of topdressing used after the plants undergoing a growth recovery for 7-8 days is better than that done immediately after waterlogging elimination. It is so that because cotton roots are severely injured under the waterlogged stress, nutrients added can not be absorbed.

19557

28. Photosynthetic efficiency and Crop YieldY.M.YADAV1 AND S.D.SURBHAIYYA2

1Ph.D Scholar, Department of Agril. Botany (Plant Physiology) and 2Ph.D Scholar Department of Agril. Botany (Agril. Biotechnology), Dr. Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Maharashtra (MH)-444104

Photosynthesis is the most important biochemical process on the earth, it is of such vital importance that no plant, animal, or human can live without it because they all depend on the energy, organic matter, and oxygen provided by it. It is anabolism process. Photosynthesis means formation of food material with the help of chlorophyll, CO

2 and

water in presence of light. This process carried out during day time. It consist of PS-I (Photosystem I) and PS-II (Photosystem II). Photosystem II (PSII) is called as the engine of life.

Photosynthetic Efficiency

� The photosynthetic efficiency means conversion of light energy into chemical energy during photosynthesis in plants.

� It is the capacity of plant that how much

plant can photosynthesize or the rate of photosynthesis.

Photosynthetic Rate

� Photosynthetic rate in strong light is an important parameter showing the photosynthetic capacity of the photosynthetic apparatus.

� Photosynthetic rate is a number of molecules of CO2 fixed or O2 evolved per unit leaf area per unit time (for example µmol co2 m-2 s-1) while quantum yield is means number of molecules of CO2 fixed or O2 evolved per photon absorbed.

� Photon is a unit of measuring light in photosynthesis.

� It express the rate of carbon dioxide fixation



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and oxygen evolved.

Factors Limiting Photosynthetic Rate

� Many external environmental factors like low or high temperature, scarcity of water or nutrient supply, low CO2 or high O2 concentration, and lower light intensity may limits photosynthesis, which leading to a decreased rate of photosynthesis. For example water stress reduced the rate of photosynthesis or light between 400-700 nm which is increased the rate of photosynthesis.

� Many plant internal factors including development, hormones, higher rate of respiration decreases the rate of photosynthesis, etc. may have also significant effect on net photosynthetic rate.

Relationship between Leaf Photosynthetic Rate and Crop Yield

� Except for the mineral nutrient elements, accounting for about 5% of the total, all of the dry matter of crop plants is derived from photosynthetic CO2 assimilation.

� It is naturally expected that a high photosynthetic rate will have high yield or that means there is a positive correlation between rate of photosynthesis and crop yield.

Quantum Yield

� Quantum yield means it is the measure of the efficiency of emission of photon.

� For a high yield of crop canopy, not only a high photosynthetic rate in strong light but also a high quantum yield in weak light is important

because in a canopy not all leaves are present in strong light.

� It was observed that high photosynthetic rate (Pn) and high productivity in low light would require an increase in apparent quantum yield.

Factors Affecting Quantum Yield

� At 21% concentration of O2 and a temperature range of 15–35°C the quantum yield decreased gradually with temperature increase in C3 plants but not in C4 plants because for those plants require high temperature than C3 plants.

� Water deficiency and excessive water or flooding could lead to a decline in quantum yield.

� After several rainy days, the photosynthetic quantum efficiency became lower in spinach leaves because of low light present in rainy days.

Plant Factors

Photorespiration means the respiration carried out in presence of light which has negative effect on crop productivity or yield.

� Among all internal factors, photorespiration has the most significant effect on quantum yield.

� In normal air and at 20–25°C, the quantum yields of C3 and C4 plants were similar. However, when the air temperature was over 30°C, the quantum yield in C4 plants were slightly higher than that in C3 plants because the optimum temperature requirement of C4 plants is higher than C3 plants.

19578

29. Gene networks involved in Drought stress tolerance in RiceSELUKASH PARIDA1*, SOUMYA KUMAR SAHOO2 AND AKANKHYA GURU3

1Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Plant Physiology, COA, OUAT, Bhubaneswar,2Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Plant Physiology, COA, IGKV, Raipur3Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Plant Physiology, IAS, BHU, Varanasi*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Any environmental factor that affects plant growth and development called stress (Levitt, 1972).The stress may be abiotic and biotic. Drought is a meteorological term and one of the most important abiotic stresses. Recent genomics tools and genetic techniques coupled with advances in breeding methodologies and precise phenotyping will likely reveal candidate genes and involve in

metabolic pathways underlying drought tolerance in crops. In different biological processes the WRKY transcription factors are involved. This is zinc (Zn) finger protein family exclusively found in plants that mediate stress responses. Up to date total of 97 WRKY genes in O. nivara and 89 WRKY genes in japonica (OnWRKY) have been identified and mapped onto individual chromosomes. To enhance the drought tolerance of rice (Oryza



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sativaL.), research programs targeted on the multidisciplinary strategy, including the multiple stresses, the combination of drought tolerance characters and interaction of plant phenology with different genomics approaches, such as quantitative trait loci (QTLs), microarrays and some responsible genes like WRKY gene family members with roles in drought tolerance. Looking forward analyzing drought tolerance in rice conglomerating physiological/morphological and molecular mechanisms found in resistant parent lines, a strategy to identify a tolerant genotypes.

Genes under Abiotic Stress

A number of candidate genes are noticed for drought tolerance in plants and carry out certain functions during stress. Molecular physiology and genomic function studies have been conducted in crops to identify candidate genes involved in drought tolerance. Under stress candidate genes are a large family of genes and play significant roles in (i) structural adaptation, osmotic adjustment (ii) positive interactions with proteins such as protein MYB and DREB, kinases and bZIP. Candidate genes should be validated via QTL maps, linkage mapping, TILLING, qRT-PCR (Varshney et al., 2005).

Table 1(Some drought stress genes of rice and their biological functions)

sl.no Genes Biological Function References1 COX1 Scavenging agent for reactive oxygen species and

is involved in processing of mRNA and proteinsYan et al., 2005

2 PKDP Protein kinases Scheeff and Bourne, 20053 bZIP1 Abscisic acid (ABA) dependent signalling pathway. Vleesschauwer et al (2008)4 AP2-EREBP Signal transduction pathways including ABA,

ethylene, cytokinin and jasmonates.(Riechmann and Meyerowitz, 1998). Chen et al (2016)

5 Hsp20 Abscisic acid (ABA) dependent signalling pathway Vleesschauwer et al (2008)6 COC1 Abscisic acid (ABA) dependent signalling pathway. Vleesschauwer et al (2008)7 AP37 AP2 domain TF Oh et al., 20098 CDPK7 Calcium-dependent protein kinase Saijo et al., 20019 CIPK03 Calcineurin B-like protein-interacting protein

kinaseXiang et al., 2007

10 CIPK12 Calcineurin B-like protein-interacting protein kinase

Xiang et al., 2007

11 CIPK15 Calcineurin B-like protein-interacting protein kinase

Xiang et al., 2007

12 COIN RING-finger protein Liu et al., 200713 DSM2 Beta-carotene hydroxylase, ABA biosynthesis Du et al., 201014 MYB4 MYB TF Mattana et al., 200515 OsbZIP23 bZIP transcription factor Xiang et al., 200816 OsbZIP71 bZIP transcription factor Liu et al., 201417 OsbZIP72 bZIP transcription factor Lu et al., 200918 OsDERF1 Drought-responsive ethylene response factor

(ERF)Wan et al., 2011

19 OsDREB1A Transcription factor (dehydration responsive element binding)

Ito et al., 2006

20 OsPIP1-1 Aquaporin Guo et al., 200621 OsPIP2-2 Aquaporin Guo et al., 200622 OsWRKY45 WRKY type TF Qiu et al., 200923 SNAC1 Stress-responsive NAC1 Hu et al., 200624 WR1 Wax synthesis regulatory gene 1, homology to AT

SHN1/WIN1Wang et al., 2012

25 OsLEA3-1 LEA protein Xiao et al., 200726 OsiSAP8 Stress-associated protein Kanneganti et al., 200827 AP37 AP2/ERF Oh et al., 200928 DSM1 Mitogen-activated protein kinase Ning et al., 201029 OsNAC10 Root specific promoter Jeong et al., 201030 OsOAT Ornithine δ-aminotransferase You et al., 201231 DRO1 Deep rooting Uga et al., 2013



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sl.no Genes Biological Function References32 APX2 Ascorbate peroxidases Zhang et al., 201333 OsDIL Lipid transfer protein Guo et al., 201334 GUDK Receptor-like kinase Ramegowda et al., 201435 OsGRAS23 GRAS transcription facto Xu et al., 201536 OsEREBP1 AP2/ERF Jisha et al., 201537 phyB regulation of stomatal density Liu et al., 201238 OsbZIP52 bZIP transcription factor Liu et al., 201239 OsETOL1 Ethylene producer Du et al., 201440 OsTPS1 Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase Li et al., 201141 OsTZF1 Arginine-rich tandem zinc-finger proteins Jan et al., 201342 sHSP17.7 Small heat-shock protein Sato and Yokoya, 2008 43 OsRab7 Rab family proteins El-Esawi & Alayafi, 2019

Conclusion

Under biotic and abiotic stresses the WRKY genes play important roles in plant development. To conquer the dispute of increasing crop production, crop yields, functional genomics and systems biology at the crop level should be integrated, and crop physiology will play an important role in achieving this objective. The abundant genetic analyses of rice especially emphasis on responsible genes, offer the opportunity to greatly improved field phenotyping abilities. New advances in marker development, Gene silencing, gene sequencing, and genomic analysis have provided the chance to reconsider the method of creating populations suitable for analysis and development of tolerant lines and crop traits. Among this identified genes, each may have a special role in tolerating drought, which is highly expressed and mostly concerned in ABA-dependent pathway. COX1 gene is involved in regulation of nitrogen, carbohydrate, energy metabolism and this gene acts as a scavenging agent in the cell.

References

El-Esawi M A and Alayafi A A.2019. Overexpression of Rice Rab7 Gene Improves Drought and Heat Tolerance and Increases Grain Yield in Rice (Oryza sativa L.). Genes (Basel). 17;10(1)

Sato Y, Yokoya S.2008.Enhanced tolerance to drought stress in transgenic rice plants overexpressing a small heat-shock protein, sHSP17.7.Plant Cell Rep. 27(2):329-34.

Jan A, Maruyama K, Todaka D, Kidokoro S, Abo M, Yoshimura E, Shinozaki K, Nakashima K, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K.2013.OsTZF1, a CCCH-tandem zinc finger protein, confers delayed senescence and stress tolerance in rice by regulating stress-related genes.Plant Physiol. 161(3):1202-16.

Li HW, Zang BS, Deng XW, Wang XP.2011. Overexpression of the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase gene OsTPS1 enhances abiotic stress tolerance in rice.Planta. 234(5):1007-18.

Du H, Wu N, Cui F, You L, Li X, Xiong L. 2014, A homolog of ETHYLENE OVERPRODUCER, OsETOL1, differentially modulates drought and submergence tolerance in rice. Plant J. Jun; 78(5):834-49.

19579

30. Vernalization: An Approach to Increase Plant ProductivitySOUMYA KUMAR SAHOO1*, SELUKASH PARIDA 2, AND AKANKHYA GURU3

1Department of Plant Physiology, COA, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur2Department of Plant Physiology, COA, Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar 3Department of Plant Physiology, IAS, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction: The process of prolonged exposure to low temperatures that can promote early flowering in a broad range of plant species

is termed as ‘vernalization.’ It is considered as a major determinant for the switch from vegetative to reproductive phase of development. It is the



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promotion of the competence for flowering by long periods of low temperatures in winters. Vernalization occurs during the cold, but flowering only occurs many weeks or even months later when other specific conditions, including specific photoperiods and ambient temperatures, are also met. The process of vernalization is likely to involve a range of sensors, including chromatin-based mechanisms. It is one of the best examples of epigenetic memory in plants. Many plants require vernalization treatment for flowering in order to produce seeds with the favourable environmental conditions of spring.

Phases of Vernalization Process

The process of vernalization is completed in the described three phases:1. Setting the FLC expression level before

exposure to cold: The FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) expression level is set during sexual reproduction and embryogenesis. A number of regulators are involved in the set of initial level of FLC expression. The upregulation transcription of FLC expression occurs through the conserved RNA polymerase-associated factor 1 complex (Paf1C). FRI strongly upregulate FLC transcription; it consists of coiled-coil domains but shows less homology to other known proteins. The full activation of FLC requires the function of both Set1-type (Arabidopsis TRITHORAXRELATED7, ATXR7) and Trithorax-type (Arabidopsis ATX1 and ATX2) H3K4 methylases (Tamada et al., 2009). The Set2 methyltransferase EARLY FLOWERING IN SHORT DAYS [EFS, also known as SET domain group 8 (SDG8)] is required for di- and trimethylation of H3K36. SWINGER [SWN, an E(z) histone methyltransferase homologue], and CURLY

LEAF, another E(z) homologue in the regulation of FLC.

2. Cold-induced FLC silencing: In the cold, the transcription of FLC decreases rapidly and becomes saturated within the first 2–3 weeks of cold exposure. A cold-induced non-coding antisense transcripts, COOLAIR enhances the cold-induced down-regulation of FLC expression. Cold temperatures can also induce quantitative accumulation of the Polycomb-based epigenetic-silencing complexes and histone modifications at the FLC locus. The quantitative nature of vernalization is reflected in the progressive accumulation of trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3) at the nucleation region with increasing lengths of cold exposure.

3. Epigenetic silencing after the return to warm temperatures: When plants return to warm conditions after a long term exposure to cold temperatures, a prominent and relatively rapid change occurs at the FLC locus, as a result of which the gene becomes epigenetically silenced. Defects in epigenetic silencing of FLC also occur in the absence of VRN1. VRN1 codes two plant-specific B3 DNA binding domains and is related with chromatin independently of vernalization and even during mitosis.

Some important Points on Vernalization

� It is an aerobic process. � Typical vernalization temperature from 5-10

0C. � Vernalin is the hormone which brings about

vernalization. � Vernalin is transported through phloem. � Vernalin can be transferred from vernalized

plant to unvernalized plant by grafting.

Fig. 1.Vernalization process in Arabidopsis and Grasses (Fig. adopted from article FLC or not FLC: the other side of vernalization, Alexandre et al., 2007)



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Fig.2. Quantitative expression of flowering with time (Fig. adopted from Article Vernalization – a cold-induced epigenetic switch, Song et al,2012).

Practical Applications of Vernalization

� Vernalization shortens the vegetative growth period of the plants.

� It increases the cold resistance in plants. � It increases the resistance of plants to fungal

diseases. � It has role in crop improvement by reducing

flowering duration in cereals and pulses, which ultimately increases yield.

� Vernalization induces early flowering and early fruit setting in biannual plants.

� Flowering can be induced by grafting vernalized shoot apex of horticultural plants.

Conclusion

Vernalization accelerates flowering by prolonged exposure to cold, which is used by many plants. In the model plant, Arabidopsis, the level of

FLC expression is modulated by multiple and antagonistic pathways before vernalization. During vernalization, a quantitative epigenetic memory in the form of repression of the floral repressor gene FLC is generated through silencing mechanism. Thus, vernalization treatment is ultimately used to increase the plant productivity.

References

1. Song, J., Angel, A., Howard, M., and Dean, C. (2012). Vernalization - a cold-induced epigenetic switch. Journal of Cell Science 125, 3723–3731.

2. Alexandre, C.M., and Hennig, L. (2008). FLC or not FLC: The other side of vernalization. Journal of Experimental Botany 59, 1127–1135.

3. Amasino, R. (2004). Vernalization, competence, and the epigenetic memory of winter. Plant Cell 16, 2553–2559.

19580

31. Heat shock Proteins (HsPs)- Dynamic Biomolecules in PlantsAKANKHYA GURU 1*, SOUMYA KUMAR SAHOO 2 AND SELUKASH PARIDA 3

1Department of Plant Physiology, IAS, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 2Department of Plant Physiology, COA, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur3Department of Plant Physiology, COA, Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

A unique set of low molecular mass proteins is

produced in plants in response to sudden, rise in 5-10°c temperature, referred to as “heat shock



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proteins”. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) belong to a class of functionally related proteins that shows an increased expression on exposure of cells to abnormally high temperatures or other stress. Most of heat shock proteins function to help cells endure heat stress by acting as molecular chaperones protecting essential enzymes and nucleic acids from heat denaturation and misfolding.

Heat shock proteins were originally discovered in fruit fly but they are also found in variety of animals including human beings, plants, fungi

and micro-organisms. Heat shock proteins are synthesised in cells very rapidly in response to heat shock. The soybean seedlings, when suddenly exposed from 25°c to 40°c, new m-RNA transcripts can be detected within 3-5 minutes and bulk of newly synthesised HSPs within 30 minutes is one of the suitable example. While switching to normal temperature, there is no production of HSPs and the pattern of protein synthesis also becomes normal.

Table 1: The molecular mass of HSPs ranges from 15-114 KDa. Based on their size, five major classes of HSPs are found in plants:

HsP CLAss sIZe (KDa) PRoBABLe FUnCtIon CeLLULAR LoCALIsAtIonHSP 100 100-114 Not known Cytosol, mitochondria, chloroplastHSP 90 80-94 Protection of protein Receptors Cytosol, endoplasmic reticulumHSP 70 69-71 As molecular chaperone, Preventing

proteins from Denaturation or aggregation.

Cytosol, mitochondria, chloroplast, Nucleus

HSP 60 57-60 As molecular chaperone, directing the protein assembly of multi-subunit proteins.

Mitochondria and chloroplast

Small HSPs 15-30 Reversibly form aggregates called heat shock granules.

Cytosol, mitochondria, chloroplast, Endoplasmic reticulum.

Major Functions of Heat Shock Proteins

HSP 70

� It helps to stabilise newly developing proteins released from ribosomes, preventing newly synthesised polypeptide chains from any possible misfolding and aggregation before the expression of protein is completed.

� It is also involved in modulation of signal transducers such as protein kinase A, protein kinase C and protein phosphatase.

HSP 90

� It acts as a part of a multi-chaperone machine. � It mediates plant abiotic stress signal

pathways. � It improves heat tolerance in Arabidopsis.

HSP 60

� It is called as chaperonin. � It is important in assisting plastid proteins

such as rubisco. � It is also involved in folding and aggregation

of many proteins that were transported to organelles such as chloroplast and mitochondria.

� It facilitates post-transcriptional binding of different types of proteins prior to folding to prevent their aggregation.

HSP 100

� It plays a major role in protein accumulation, disaggregation of proteins.

� It helps in reactivation of aggregated protein aggregates and also helps to degrade irreversibly damaged polypeptides.

Small Heat Shock Proteins

� They play a major role in quality membrane control and has potential contribution in the membrane integrity maintenance especially under stress condition.

� Plants synthesize significant amounts of small heat shock proteins when exposed to high temperatures, drought stress, oxidative stress, cold acclimation, salts and ABA treatment.

� The small heat shock proteins cannot refold non-native proteins, but they can bind to partially folded or denatured substrate proteins, preventing irreversible unfolding or wrong protein aggregation.

A transcription factor mediates HSP accumulation in response to heat shock

When cells are subjected to a stressful, but non-lethal heat episode, the synthesis of heat shock proteins dramatically increases while the continuing translation of other proteins is dramatically lowered. A specific transcription factor (HSF) acting on the transcription of HSP mRNAs mediates this heat shock response. In the absence of heat stress, HSF (Heat shock factor) exists as monomers that are incapable of binding to DNA and directing transcription. Stress converts HSF monomers to associate into trimers that are then able to bind to specific sequence elements in DNA referred to as heat shock elements (HSE).



CR

oP

PH

YsI

oLo

GY

Once bound to the HSE, the trimeric HSF is phosphorylated and promotes transcription of HSP mRNAs. HSP 70 binds to HSF, leading to dissociation of the HSF/HSE complex, and HSF is subsequently recycled to monomeric HSF form. Thus, by the action of HSF, HSPs accumulate until they become abundant enough to bind to HSF

HSF form. Thus, by the action of HSF, HSPs accumulate until they become abundant enough to bind to HSF, leading to cessation of HSP mRNA production.

Table 2: Expression of heat shock proteins major families in some crops responding to heat stress:

HsP CRoPs FUnCtIonHSP 100

Wheat, tomato, Arabidopsis, rice

Facilitates reactivation of proteins denatured by heat.

Small HSP

Rice, wheat, maize

Binds to partially folded or denatured Substrate proteins.

HsP CRoPs FUnCtIonHSP 90 Maize, tomato,

wheatActs as part of a multi-chaperone machine together with HSP 70 and cooperates with co-chaperones.

HSP 70 Wheat, tomato, soybean

Chaperone function under heat stress.

HSP 60 Maize, wheat, barley, rye

Participates in folding and aggregation of many proteins.

References

Usman, M. G., Rafii, M.Y., Ismail, M.R., Malek, M. A., Latif, M. A. and Oladosu, Y. (2014). Heat shock proteins: functions and response against heat stress in plants. Int. J. Sci. Technol. Res, 3(11): 204-218.

Jain, V.K.(2017). Fundamentals of Plant Physiology (Nineteenth Edition). S.Chand & Company Ltd., New Delhi.

19612

32. Biochemical Changes occurring during Heat stress in PlantARTI KUMARI

Division of Biochemistry, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi 110012, India

Introduction

Heat stress is one of the major problems in most cereal crops. Heat stress is defined as the temperature above than the optimum growth temperature for a particular period of time which can cause irreversible damage to plant function and development. Yield of crop is adversely affected by heat stress in arid, semi-arid, tropical, and subtropical areas. Heat stress leads to many physiological and biochemical changes in plant. Some of the major biochemical changes occurring during heat stress are listed below:

Hsp (Heat Shock Protein) Accumulation

Under heat stress increased expression of “heat shock genes” (HSGs) observed. These (HSGs) encode for heat shock proteins (HSPs). HSPs play a key role in thermo-tolerance reaction by preventing denaturation or aggregation of target proteins and thus facilitating protein refolding. The HSPs are classified into five major classes based on their molecular weight: the Hsp100 family; the Hsp90 family; the Hsp70 family; the chaperonins (GroEL and Hsp60); and the small Hsp (sHsp) family.

Antioxidant Defence System

Antioxidant defence system have role in elimination of ROS. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are highly reactive molecules containing oxygen also called oxygen radical. Examples include H

2O

2, O

2--, OH-,

singlet oxygen and alpha oxygen. ROS produced as natural byproduct of biological metabolism but its production gets increased under stress condition which causes significant damage to cell structures. Cumulatively, this is known as oxidative stress. Therefore a balance between production and elimination of ROS at the intracellular level must be tightly regulated. For this purpose enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants plays a major role. The enzymatic antioxidants include enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), guaiacol peroxidase (POX) ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione reductase (GR). Nonenzymatic antioxidants include ascorbate and glutathione as well as tocopherol, carotenoids and phenolic compounds. Under heat stress condition antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, and GPX) production triggered.



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Signalling Molecule and their Role in Heat Stress

Multiple signalling pathways get activated upon heat stress. To generate response to specific stimuli particular type of signalling molecules need to be produced. Coordinated and integrated effort of these signalling molecules are required for the activation of stress-responsive genes. Various signal transduction molecule activated upon different type of stress are Ca-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK/MPKs), NO, sugar (as signalling molecule), phytohormones which are responsible to modulate the tolerance potential of the plants under stress. Plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) has positive role in regulation of heat tolerance. Another example of signalling molecule is Nitric oxide (NO) is an important in diverse physiological and biochemical processes under adverse conditions. NO is involved in modulation of various processes such as photosynthesis, oxidative defence, osmolyte accumulation, gene expression, and protein modifications under heat stress. There is report that NO along with other phytohormones such as abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonate help in activating proteins associated with stress tolerance in diverse plant species.

Heat Responsive miRNAs

Most of the region of genome do not code for any protein generally termed non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) such as microRNAs, siRNAs, piRNAs, snoRNAs, snRNAs etc. These non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), play crucial role in transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. ncRNAs, especially microRNAs (miRNAs) and long ncRNAs (lncRNAs) have key role in plant stress responses. The mechanism behind is explained as higher expression of miRNA can promote the expression of heat stress‐responsive genes, which

improves the acquired thermos‐tolerance under heat stress conditions.

Heat Responsive Transcription Factors

Heat shock factors (HSF) are transcription factors regulating the expression of heat shock proteins. HSF has specificity for binding to HSE (heat shock element), a conserved region consist of the palindromic nucleotide sequence (5-AGAANNTTCT-3) in promoter of heat shock genes.

Effect of Heat Stress on Starch Granule Biosynthesis

Heat stress affects the yield as well as quality of starch grain. The activities of enzymes associated with starch biosynthesis pathway (such as AGPase, Soluble starch synthase) get altered which results in improper, defragmented and small starch granule synthesis with lots of empty pockets which is responsible for decreases seed weight and total yield. Increased activities of α/β amylases in developing grains involved in degrading the starch quality.

Figure – Impact of heat stress

References

Kumar, R. R., Goswami, S., Sharma, S. K., Singh, K., Gadpayle, K. A., Singh, S. D., and Rai, R. D. (2013). Differential expression of heat shock protein and alteration in osmolyte accumulation under heat stress in wheat. Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 22(1), 16-26.

Hasanuzzaman, M., Nahar, K., Alam, M., Roychowdhury, R., and Fujita, M. (2013). Physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms of heat stress tolerance in plants. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 14(5), 9643-9684.

SOIL SCIENCE

19525

33. Calcareous soil and their ManagementPROF. V. S. KADAM, DR. P. B. SINGARE AND DR. A. S. JONDHALE

Rajiv Gandhi College of Agriculture, Parbhani (MS)

Calcareous soil: Calcareous soils are those which contains enough free calcium carbonate and which gives or produces effervesce on reaction with (0.1N) dilute HCL.

Characteristics

� Usually have alkaline soil reaction (PH >7.0) � High buffering capacity � Soils are dominated by carbonates of calcium

and magnesium mainly soil contain CaCO3 in free form, it may occur in different forms



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(powder/nodules) � Reduced availability of N, P, K, S, Fe, Zn, and B � Iron deficiency due to high CaCO3 leads

to chlorosis also called lime induced iron chlorosis

� Affect root development and plant establishment and reduces rate of seed germination

� Decreased WHC due to alteration in soil structure, formation of hardpan

� Activity of rhizosphere microorganisms is reduced under less moisture conditions

Formation

� These soils are formed from weathering of carbonate-rich parent material like limestone, Basalt, dolomite

� Often found in drier areas, where precipitation is lower to leach out soluble salts, results in accumulation of salts throughout soil profile

� Soils may become calcareous when irrigated over long term with water containing small amount of dissolved caco3 over period of time

� Long term irrigation with water containing small amount of dissolved caco3 also results in formation of calcareous soil

Rating

Content Class0.5-1 Barely Calcareous1-2 Slightly2-5 Moderately5-10 Calcareous>10 Very Calcareous

Management of Calcareous Soil

� Deep ploughing � Green manuring once in two to three years � Application of organic matter / manure every

year in recommended quantity for different crop

� Application of press mud compost 5 tons./ha once in three years before ploughing

� Avoiding plantation of citrus crop � Soil analysis /testing for CaCO3 content in

different layers of soil profile is necessary before planning of horticultural crop

� Application of micronutrients along with organic manure is helpful in increasing their availability

Nutrient Management in Calcareous Soil

Nitrogen

Availability of plant nutrients is generally found decreased in calcareous soil due to its alkaline nature/reaction/pH. Most of plant nutrients are available when soil pH ranges between 6.5 to 7.5 under high pH of availability N to plant decreases due to reduced rate of nitrification and loss of N

through denitrification processIn soil ammonia converts first to nitrate and

then to nitrate and becomes available to plant. Ammonium N fertilizers like ammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphate are useful when pH of soil is less than 7.5 as during nitrification process H+ ions are released which neutralize the CaCO

3

and helps to reduce soil pH, but when these ammonical fertilizers are used in calcareous soil, nitrogen is lossed in the form of NH

3 as ammonical

compounds turn into ammonia after reacting with CaCO

3 in soil

� Hence, use of ammonium sulphate, ammonium phosphate should be avoided in calcareous soil. Instead of these ammonium nitrate and ammonium chloride are found useful as the loss of N is less when these sources of N are utilized. Overall care needs to be taken for management of N fertilizers in calcareous soil.

� To avoid loss of N in the form of NH3, added fertilizers should get mixed well within soil

� After ensuring proper moisture, fertilizers should be added. If moisture is less, then soon after fertilizers application supplemental irrigation is need to be given

� To avoid loss of N in NH3, urea should be added along with MOP or triple superphosphate

� Use of sulphur coated or neem coated urea also found beneficial and it improves efficiency of N fertilizers

Phosphorus

In general efficiency of phosphorus nutrient ranges between 15-20 % and in calcareous soil its efficiency and availability is found very low. At pH 6 to 7.5 phosphorus is usually available. Due to higher pH, availability of P is reduced in calcareous soil and P often turns into tricalcium phosphate, magnesium phosphates which are less soluble in water. As these insoluble compounds are formed after addition of P fertilizers in calcareous soil, its availability is decreased this is called as P fixation. These insoluble compounds are formed and retained within soil. As soil pH increases, rate of formation of these insoluble compounds increases and availability P decreases

Hence,

� To increase its availability P fertilizers are need to be added with organic matter

� Use of PSB is also helpful to increase solubility of P in soil

� Easily soluble sources like SSP, DAP should be used

� Band placement of P fertilizers near to roots and in granular form helps in increasing availability of P

� Time of application of fertilizer is very important regarding plant growth. Plant must get P at right time for development of roots

� Addition of SSP along with FYM/compost to



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crops helps in increasing P availability and development of roots

Potassium

Calcareous soil contains enough amount of potassium but due to higher concentration of

calcium uptake of potassium ion is affected. Hence, deficiency of potassium is observed in plants, e.g. a grape becomes too acidic in calcareous soil due to less uptake of potassium. Therefore, potassium should be added in quantity more than its recommended dose under high calcium content in soil.

19534

34. nothing Boring about BoronSRI LAXMI

Department of Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

The trace mineral boron is a micronutrient with diverse and vitally important roles in metabolism that render it necessary for plant, animal as well as for soil. It is non-metallic electron-deficient and possess a vacant p-orbital. It has various forms, the most common of which is amorphous boron, a dark powder, non-reactive to oxygen, water, acids and alkalis. Elemental form of boron is not usually found in nature. It is found in combined form such as borax, boric acid, kernite, ulexite, colemanite and borates. At standard temperatures boron is a poor electrical conductor but is a good at high temperatures.

Soil Boron Status

The principle B species found in soil are H3BO

3 and

partly B(OH)¯4. The molecular form i.e. H

3BO

3

is predominantly found in soil solution. It is only above pH 9.2, H

2BO

3¯ becomes predominant.

Boron concentrations in soil vary from 2 to 200 mg B kg-1, but less than 5-10% is in a form available to plants and its available concentrations also vary greatly from soil to soil. Several soil factors and other conditions render soils deficient in B. For example, low organic matter content of soil, coarse/sandy texture, high pH, liming, drought, intensive cultivation, more nutrient uptake than application, and the use of fertilizers poor in micronutrients are considered to be the major factors associated with the occurrence of B deficiency.

Role of Boron in Plants

Boron is not required by plants in large quantity, but can cause serious growth problems if it is not supplied at appropriate concentration. Boron is different from other micronutrients in a way that there is no chlorosis associated with its deficiency; however, it shows toxicity symptoms similar to other micronutrients. Some of the important roles of boron in plants are:1. Sugar transport and carbohydrate

metabolism: boron utilizes polyols (complex

sugar) as primary photosynthetic metabolites in plants to form polyol-B-polyol complex thus enhance transport of carbohydrates and sugar translocation as well.

2. Water relations: boron regulates the intake of water into cells. It has been found that boron deficient plant showed decreased moisture percentage, less succulent, have low metabolic activity and a lower growth rate, in comparison to boron-sufficient plants.

3. Phenol metabolism: boron complexes the phenolic compounds present in plant cell thus reduces its potential toxicity.

4. Cell wall stability: Boron along with Calcium is able to form complexes with cell wall components such as pectins, polyhydroxyl polymers and polyols. B is implicated in synthesis and stability of cell wall by forming esters with cis diol groups present in cell wall which provides rigidity, strength and shape to the cell.

5. Nitrogen fixation: Heterocysts are capable of nitrogen fixation because they maintain a reducing (low O

2) environment. The low O

2

status in heterocysts is maintained because of a thick envelope comprised of an inner layer of specific glycolipids. Boron stabilizes the inner glycolipid layer of heterocyst envelopes and retards O

2 diffusion thus keeping nitrogenase

from inactivation by oxygen under nitrogen fixation.

Role of Boron in Humans

Not only in plants boron plays a very important role in human health as well. It is essential for the growth and maintenance of bone, improves wound healing, beneficially impacts the body’s use of estrogen, testosterone, and vitamin D raises levels of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and glutathione peroxidase, improves short-term memory for elders, help alleviate arthritis. Several boronated



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compounds are now being used in the treatment of several types of cancer.

Deficiency of Boron

Boron deficiency is commonly found under following soil condition:1. Soils with very how pH.2. light-textured soils developed under very high

annual rainfall.3. Alkaline and calcareous soils.4. Irrigated soils having low B concentration in

irrigation water.5. Soils low in OM.

Boron is immobile in plants, so its deficiency symptoms develop first on young leaves with chlorosis at the tip of young leaves. Because B plays an important role in the elongation of stems and leaves, stems of B deficient plants are short and stout. Boron deficiency also causes reduced root elongation, poorly developed stamens, failure of flowers to set seeds and fruit abortion, inadequate fruit set, corking in the fruit and cracking of fruit.

Toxicity of Boron

There is very narrow range of supply between deficiency and toxicity of boron in plants. When boron occurs in excess in soil due to rainfall, intensive fertilization and use of irrigation water with high concentration of boron, it becomes toxic to sensitive and moderately sensitive plants. Boron toxicity causes inhibition of cell division, cell wall disruption, inhibition of root elongation, minimizes chlorophyll contents and rates of photosynthesis,

reduced lignin content, and disturbance in metabolism of plant.

Sources and methods of boron application

s.no. name Boron content (%)

1. Borax (Na2B

4O

7.10H

2O) 11

2. Solubor (Na2B

8O

13.4H

2O) 20

3. sodium borate (Na

2B

4O

7.5H2O)

20

4. sodium tetraborate (Na

2B

4O

2.5H2O)

14

5. boric acid (H3BO

3) 17

6. Colemanite (Ca

2B

6O

11.5H

2O)

10

7. B frits 2-6

Among these boron sources, borax is the most commonly used to prevent and/or correct B deficiencies in crops. Rate of application of boron ranges from 0.25 to 3.0 kg B ha-1, depending on crop requirement and the method of application. Higher rates are required for broadcast applications than for banded soil applications or foliar application. Because B is immobile in plants, its deficiency in crops grown in soils with marginal B levels can occur during peak growing periods (vegetative, flowering, and seed development stages), so a continuous supply of B throughout the growing season is essential for optimum growth and seed yield. Foliar application is also an effective way especially when root activity is restricted and B deficiency in crop appears under dry soil conditions in the growing season.

19542

35. nutrient Movement in soils to the Plant RootsVARSHA PANDEY

Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Soil Science, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar

For a nutrient to be absorbed by the plant roots, it must be present in soil solution. Nutrients in the soil solution are in equilibrium with the ions on the clay complex.

The nutrients move by three distinct processes viz. mass flow, diffusion and root interception.

1. Root Interception or Contact Exchange

It was proposed by Jenny and Overstreet in 1928. According to this theory the ions adsorbed on the surface of roots cells and clay particles are not held tightly but oscillate within small volume of space. If the roots and clay particles are in close contact with

each other, the oscillation volume of ions adsorbed on root surface may overlap by the oscillation volume of ions adsorbed on clay particles, and the ions adsorbed on clay particle may be exchanged with the ions adsorbed on root surface directly without first being dissolved in soil solution.

Since very small proportion of roots is in contact with the clay therefore, very less absorption by root interception occurs. At most 3 per cent of the soil volume is exploited by the root mass. Therefore, contribution by root interception is very low.



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2. Mass Flow

Movement of the nutrients through the soil to the roots with the flow of water as a result of water uptake (transpiration) by the plant is known as mass flow. The rate of nutrient transfer by mass flow (J) is given by-

J = v x Ci

v = rate of water flux into the roots and Ci = concentration of ions in the solution.

Provides >80 % of total nutrients needed to plants.

Factors affecting Mass Flow

1. Soil water content- the drier the soil, lesser is the mass flow induced nutrient movement.

2. Temperature- low temperature reduces transpiration and evaporation and as a result, mass flow is reduced drastically.

3. Size of the root system – Both amount of water and the volume of soil it comes from get affected by the size of the root system. This affects water uptake and therefore nutrients moving with this water.

3. Diffusion

Movement of nutrients from an area of high to low concentration. It follows Fick’s law of diffusion.

dC/dt = - De A dC/dx

wheredC/dt = rate of diffusion (change in amount of

nutrient per unit time)dC/dX = Concentration gradient (change in

concentration over distance)De = effective diffusion coefficient (cm2s-1)A= Cross-section area through which the ion

diffuse (cm2)

De = Dw q/ Tb

whereDw = diffusion coefficient in waterq = volumetric moisture contentT= tortuosity factor or impedance factorb= buffering capacity of soil (buffering capacity

is defined as the number of units of nutrient ion associated with solid-phase ready to replenish its

unit loss in soil solution). Clayey soils have higher buffering capacity.

Phosphorus and potassium are mainly transported by diffusion.

Roots do not absorb all the nutrients at the same rate, causing certain ions to accumulate at the root surface. This sometimes results in back diffusion i.e. movement from root surface to the bulk soil solution.

Factors Affecting Diffusion

1. Soil water – for diffusion to occur, continuity of water film is a must. As soil water content increases to saturation, the De tends to be maximum.

2. Temperature – at very low temperature, diffusion is very less because ions need some minimum activation energy for enabling them to participate in the reaction. With the increase in temperature, thermal motion of the nutrients increases, as a result diffusion also increases.

3. The reason for less phosphorus availability during winters is less temperature, which leads to less diffusion.

4. Size of the ions or molecules – as size of ion increases, rate of diffusion decreases.

5. Tortuosity factor – as moisture content decreases, path for nutrient ion becomes tortuous. As a result of more path length, less rate of diffusion.After the nutrient ion is transported either

by root interception, mass flow or diffusion to the plant roots, its uptake by the root occurs which is further followed by influx into the apoplasm and passage into the cytoplasm and vacuole of the plants.

The exchange properties of roots are attributable mainly to carboxylic groups (COOH) from which positively charged particles (H+) dissociates leaving macromolecules with negative charge. Plant roots exhibit a CEC ranging from 10 to 30 meq/100 g soil in monocots and 40 to 100 meq/100g soil in dicots. Legumes and other plant species with high root CEC tend to absorb divalent cations preferentially over monovalent cations whereas the reverse occurs with grasses.

19582

36. soil Fertility Maintenance in organic FarmingPRITHWIRAJ DEY

Department of Agronomy, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Efficient nutrient management is of major determinants of the sustainability of organic

production systems. As the organic system largely avoids or devoids use of any synthetic fertilizers,



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nutrient supply to the crop plants is generally met out through nutrient recycling, the management of biological processes such as biological nitrogen fixation for N and the restricted use of unrefined, partially soluble off-farm materials that decompose in the same way as soil minerals or organic matter such as Rock Phosphate. The objective is to achieve as far as possible, a closed nutrient cycle on-farm and to reduce environmental impact. Management and recycling of waste materials from agricultural systems in an efficient way, is central to the nutrient management on organic production systems. However, every organic farm doesn’t have proper access to required manures and recycling is also limited by the prohibition of the use of sewage-sludge due to of growing concerns over the disease inoculums, presence of toxic elements and organic pollutants. The current global market, long-distance transports of food and agricultural produce have become very common, which results in a significant export of nutrients from one place to another. Nutrients removed by such way must be replenished to avoid negative nutrient balance in soils. The concept of nutrient budgeting suggests causes for concern about the sustainability of organic production systems due to its dependence on materials that have alternative economic uses as feedstuffs and bedding materials for inputs of especially phosphorus and potassium, and on the very dynamic nature of biological nitrogen fixation by legumes or imports of manure or compost for the nitrogen. More than 95% of the soil N is present in the organic form and mineralization from soil organic reserves supply a large part of the N supply on organic farms. However, the losses of N from organic farms sometimes can also be considerably high being dependent on cultivation practices and the weather, these systems are even more difficult to manage for the reduction of losses than those from fertilizers applied to the conventional farms due to more dynamic and interdependent relations between all the inputs. Organic systems may be sustainable and have the potential to deliver significant environmental benefits, but these depend on specific cropping and management practices on each farm.

Organic Residues

Several positive impacts on soil quality viz. soil fertility, physical characters as well as biological quality parameters, have already established with the application of compost, biogas residues and sewage sludge which effects on crop productivity, quality of produce. Organic residues work as a slow-release fertilizer, which will provide nutrients not only for the current season but also for the following seasons in a slow rate due to slow mineralization. If crop growth is fast and nutrient requirement are high, it is desirable to combine organic residue with quickly available organic nutrient sources viz. vermicomposts, biogas slurry, oilcake etc. for the

first few years. Compost should mainly be used as a soil conditioner and supplier of organic matter, since the content of mineral N is too small to serve as a fast source of plant nutrients. Biogas slurry contains sufficient amounts of mineral N to serve as a readily available organic source for agricultural crops. It promotes biological activity in the soil and it increased both crop yield and grain quality. Sewage-sludge contains large amounts of P and thus can be viewed as a quickly available P-source.

Various organic compounds undergo microbial decomposition, when plant residues are added to soil, (Juma, 1998). The continuous addition of plant and animal residues to the soil contributes to the biological activity within the soil and the cycling of carbon between soil and atmosphere. Carbon cycling is the continuous back and forth transformation between organic and inorganic forms of C by plants and micro- and macro-organisms within the soil, plants and atmosphere.

Being a microbial process, speed of decomposition is affected by several factors like activity of soil organisms, pH, temperature, soil moisture and also the quality of the organic matter (Brussaard, 1994). In the decomposition process, different products viz. carbon dioxide (CO

2),

energy, water, plant nutrients and resynthesized organic carbon compounds, are released. Successive decomposition of dead material by several groups of microbes results in the formation of more and more complex forms of stable organic matter called humus (Juma, 1998).

Organic Manures

Manures are mainly decomposed animal and plant residues that can be used as plant nutrient sources. Manures releases nutrients after decomposition through biological processes. It can also be classified into bulky organic manures and concentrated organic manures based on nutrient content present and the bulkiness of the manures. Bulky organic manures contain very small amount of nutrients per unit dry weight of manures and they are generally applied in large quantities to meet out the nutrient demands. Farm composts, farmyard manure (FYM) and green-manures are the most important and widely used bulky organic manures. On the contrary, concentrated organic manures have higher nutrient content than bulky organic manure. The examples of important concentrated organic manures are bone meal, blood meal, oilcake etc.

Green Manuring

Fresh green biomass eg. leaves, twigs, plant parts used as manure is termed as green manure. Green manuring crops may be leguminous or non-leguminous. However, leguminous green manuring crops are preferred as these are rich in nitrogen content. Green manuring crops may be grown on the land itself where it would be incorporated (in



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situ) or by collecting green leaf and twigs (ex-situ) from plants grown at other places. Popular and widely used green manuring crops are sesbania, sunn hemp, cowpea, guar etc. Application of green leaves and twigs of trees, shrubs and herbs collected from elsewhere is known as green leaf manuring. Plants growing in bunds of fields and wastelands are the sources of green leaf manures. Examples of ex-situ green manuring crops are karanjia, subabul, glyricidia, calotropis, mahua, wild indigo, neem etc.

Earthworms and Vermicomposting

Earthworms are used to convert plant residues and animal waste materials into a well-decomposed homogeneous material is known as vermicompost. Vermicomposts are generally superior to the conventionally produced farm composts several ways. Vermicomposting and vermiculture offer economic upliftment to organic farmers as the source of supplementary farm income besides being the nutrient source for the organic farm. Vermicomposts differ in the nutrient compositions based on the type of organic residues used for the vermicomposting. Vermicompost is enriched with plant growth-promoting substances and inoculums of microbial consortia which includes nitrogen fixers, phosphate solubilizers etc. Besides providing macro and micro-nutrients to the plants, it improves soil physical quality, provides good aeration to soil and thereby improving plant root growth and proliferation of beneficial soil microorganisms. Vermicompost is also known to enhance the quality of grains/fruits due to increased sugar content and balanced supply of all the micro and macronutrients and growth promoters.

Biofertilizer

Biofertilizers contain living microorganisms or biomass of algae, fern etc. which, on application to seeds, plant surfaces or soil, promotes growth by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant. Biofertilizers may supply plant nutrients through the natural processes

like biological nitrogen fixation or increase the availability of several nutrients to plants through solubilizing phosphorus, or enhancing the absorbing surface of roots; stimulates plant growth through the synthesis of growth-promoting substances etc. The microorganisms can restore the soil’s inherent nutrient cycling and also help to maintain preferable soil organic matter dynamics. Biofertilizers such as Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirilium and blue-green algae (BGA) have been used for a long time for the supply of nitrogen to the soil or plant. Rhizobium is symbiotic in nature and is used only for leguminous crops with some minor exceptions. Whereas Azotobacter is asymbiotic nitrogen fixer and can be used with cereal crops like wheat, maize, and other crops like mustard, cotton, potato, vegetable crops etc.. Azospirillum inoculations are associative nitrogen fixer and are recommended mainly for sorghum, millets, maize and sugarcane. Blue-green algae belonging to a general cyanobacteria genus, Nostoc, Tolypothrix, Aulosira and Anabaena fix atmospheric nitrogen and are used as inoculations for paddy crop grown both under upland and lowland conditions. Anabaena in association with water fern Azolla contributes nitrogen up to 60 kg per ha per season and also supplies organic matter to soil. In this regards, phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) have been long seen as efficient means for P nutrition of crop. Several bacteria (Pseudomonas sp. and Bacillus sp.) and fungal strains (Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp.) have been identified as PSM. Potassium solubilizing bacteria (KSB) can solubilize K-bearing minerals and convert the insoluble K to soluble forms of K available to plant uptake. Many genus of bacteria such as Bacillus mucilaginosus, Bacillus edaphicus, Bacillus circulans, Paenibacillus, Acidothiobacillus ferrooxidans, have been identified to have the capacity to solubilize K minerals (eg. illite, muscovite, biotite, feldspar, and orthoclase) so far. KSB are usually present in all soils, although its number, diversity and ability for K solubilization vary depending upon the prevalent soil and climatic conditions.

19585

37. evaluating Fertility status of soils: the Adoptable techniquesPARIJAT BHATTACHARYA* AND SUDIP SENGUPTA

Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science,Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur-741252, Nadia, West Bengal.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction: In the era of ever-increasing world population, enhancing crop productivity

by optimizing the application of inputs is the primary concern. Injudicious application of



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heavily subsidized fertilizers led to stagnation of productivity and degradation of soil health. To mitigate this, robust, scientific soil fertility evaluation techniques can be effectively utilized. Different techniques are commonly employed to determine soil fertility i.e. (1) Nutrient deficiency symptoms (2) Plant analysis and tissue testing (3) Growing of plants and microorganism and (4) Soil Chemical analysis.1. Nutrient deficiency symptoms: Plants

show specific deficiency symptoms for different nutrient elements. NDS based fertility evaluation requires extensive careful experienced observation and can be restricted by “Hidden hunger” (Yield loss without deficiency symptoms), multi-nutrient deficiency, pest and disease infestation (hopper-burn) and nutrient toxicity.

2. Plant analysis and tissue testing: Higher concentration of a particular nutrient in the plant implies higher availability in the soil. Conceptually, two different methods are employed. (a) Tissue testing where only unassimilated portion of nutrients are measured using various chemicals. (b) Plant analysis where both assimilated and unassimilated elements are measured. Tissue testing mimics nutrient uptake situations of the soil. It can be interpreted using (i) Critical nutrient concentration (CNC) (ii) DRIS (Diagnostic & Recommendation Integrated System) and (iii) Crop logging. (i) CNC is the concentration that is just adequate for maximum growth or below which crop responses to application of fertilizer. (ii) DRIS (Diagnostic & Recommendation Integrated System) is a novel approach for interpreting leaf or plant analysis. It is a holistic system which identifies all the nutritional factors limiting crop production and thereby increases the chances of obtaining high crop yields by improving fertilizer recommendations. (iii) Crop logging is a graphical depiction of the advancement of the crop (primarily done on sugarcane) having a set of physicochemical measurements (N, sugar, moisture, wt. of young sheath tissue, secondary and micronutrient concentration).

3. Growing of plants and microorganisms (i) Plants: (a) Mitscherlich’s Pot culture method (b) Neubauer Seedling method (ii) Microorganisms: (a) Azotobacter plaque method (b) Mehlich’s Aspergillus niger method (c) Mehlich’s Cunninghamella–Plaque method for P.a) Plants: (a) Mitscherlich’s Pot culture

method: Oat plants are raised in pots and analyzed for P

2O

5 and K

2O content.

(b) Neubauer Seedling method takes into account the exhaustive depletion of nutrient elements by raising a huge no. of

seedlings (Rye) on a very limited quantity of soil. The total P

2O

5 and K

2O uptake is

calculated, and blank value is subtracted to calculate the root soluble P

2O

5 and

K2O in mg/100 g of air-dry soil termed as

“Neubauer numbers”.b) Azotobacter plaque method (Sackett and

Stewart technique) involves incubation of soil with Azotobacter culture. Colony vigour is estimated for rating the soil as very deficient to not deficient in the respective elements. (b) Mehlich’s Aspergillus niger method involves incubating the soil using Aspergillus niger and estimating the wt. of the mycelial pad or the amount of adsorbed K to measure critical value of available K (c) Mehlich’s Cunninghamella–Plaque method involves incubating soil using Cunninghamella (a phosphorus sensitive organism) and measuring the colony diameter (mm) to interpret the soil available P status.

4. Soil Chemical analysis: Different reagents are used to extract plant-available N, P, K secondary and micronutrients (i.e. alkaline KMnO

4 for N, neutral normal ammonium

acetate for K etc.). Then the extracted nutrients are correlated with plant uptake for calibration and interpretation. The methods widely applied for the purpose are (i) Soil analysis-correlation approach using Bray per cent yield concept (ii) Critical soil test level approach of Cate and Nelson to establish the level below which crops show response to external application of nutrient. (iii) Nutrient index method by Parker, Nelson and Winters (iv) Integrated soil test level approach by Colwell (v) Fertility gradient approach by Ramamoorthy, Narasimham and Dinesh.

Conclusion

With the emerging concern of worldwide food and nutritional security, management and conservation of soil fertility is becoming crucial. The primary requisite for a constructive manoeuvre is to precisely assess the prevailing fertility status of soil. Each technique has its own set of pros and cons. An insightful understanding of the nutrient dynamics, transformation and nutrient uptake can lead to development of latest techniques as well as uplift the efficacy of the existing technological intervention. Effective soil fertility evaluation techniques assist to determine specific nutrient requirement and deficiency as well as toxicity situations to snowball judicious, scientific, economic and ecologically sound fertilizer application guidelines for augmenting crop production and quality.



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HORTICULTURE

19516

38. Macropropagation of BananaP. SIVAKUMAR AND M. SELVAMURUGAN

Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,Eachangkottai, Thanjavur-614 902, Tamilnadu, India

Introduction

Banana plants are commonly propagated through vegetative propagation via sword suckers. Banana plants are propagated aseptically in the laboratory through tissue culture techniques. Banana plants produced via micropropagation is normally healthy and free from known pest and diseases. But, tissue culture plants are relatively expensive and not readily accessed by small, marginal and resource-poor farmers, who actually involved the banana cultivation. The overcome this problem, Macropropagation has been introduced an alternate propagation and cost-effective seedling production technology for Banana. Macropropagtion technology is highly helpful to develops healthy banana plants with cheaper inputs.

Macropropagation Techniques in Banana

Macroprogation of Banana includes decapitation (false decapitation and total decapitation) and Corm techniques (whole corm, split corm and excised buds). Macropropgation of banana is needed for clean and healthy corm and or sword suckers.

Decapitation Techniques (False and Total Decapitation)

Decapitation technique are involves two methods like false decapitation and total decapitation. These techniques involved stimulating lateral bud production by destroying the active growing point of apical meristem in the pseudostem (Tenkouano et al. 2006). Both methods increase sprouting and sucker multiplication in the field.

In false decapitation, a small hole of 5 cm diameter is made on the pseudostem of six-month-old plants to destroy the actively growing point of meristem. In complete decapitation technique, the pseudostem of a 6-month-old plant is completely cut down at ground level. The emerging suckers should not be cut. The meristem is destroyed by using a metal knife and removing the 5 cm diameter growing part in the middle of the pseudostem. Both methods, the plant allowed inducing sprout for one month. After sprouting of the suckers, the plants reaches 25 to 35 cm height with three to four-leaf stages is ideal for field transfer. Macropropagation

chamber is not required for multiplication of Banana plants.

Corm Techniques (Whole Corm, Split Corm and Excised Buds).

In this technique, Sword sucker as well as corms from pre-flowering and harvested plants could be used (Faturoti et al., 2002).

Whole corm technique is applied to corms that are about to flower or that are already harvested. The buds are present while meristem is absent. The roots and leaf sheets are carefully removed until getting the bud. In this technique, the apical meristems of the pared corms are scarified, either by making two cross-wise incisions (X form) on the buds or by mechanical removal by screwing with sharp knife (Baiyeri and Aba, 2005; Tenkouano et al., 2006). The entire corm is planted in the propagator. Corms are planted at 30 cm intervals and covered fully with sawdust and or any other materials easily available for farmers. After sprouting, the plantlets removed and transferred directly to the field.

Split corm technique, the exposed buds on top are scarified. Leaf sheets do not need to be removed. In this technique, the corm is split into two to several fragments (bits) and the separated fragments are planted with the interval spacing of 10 to 20 cm in well-composted organic nursery substrate or choice of any materials (propagator) for sprout induction. The chamber is well watered immediately after planting.

Excised bud technique, the buds are cut out from the corm in pieces of 50-100 g and planted in the propagator to sprout. Buds are planted at 10 cm intervals and covered with 2 cm of sawdust. The chamber is well watered immediately after planting.

These techniques are very simple, easy and spend minimal amount to establish propagators and weaning facilities. Propagators are commonly used for sprouting of new seedlings and hardening of the subsequent sprouts. Simple propagators can be designed and or constructed using fairly cheap materials, such as bamboo and polythene sheets.



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Advantages

Macropropagation is a minimal skill and low-cost technology for producing and supplying a healthy banana plants. These macropropgation nursery facilities also made with locally and cheaply available material. It is also one of the additional advantages compare to the facilities needed for micropropgation of banana.

Disadvantages

This macropropagation producing plantlets having lower survival rate since, it is producing without roots. It will affect the plantlets during acclimatization and stabilization stages in the nursery. Moreover external environmental factors viz., the nursery site, intense wind, excessive tropical heat and the relative humidity of the

nursery environment are also responsible for production of good quality planting materials.

References

Baiyeri, K.P and Aba, S.C. 2005. Response of Musa species to macro-propagation. I: Genetic and initiation media effects on number, quality and survival of plantlets at pre-nursery and early nursery stages. African Journal of Biotechnology 4, 223-228.

Faturoti, B., Tenkouano, A., Lemchi, J and Nnaji, N. 2002. Rapid multiplication of plantain and banana: Macropropagation techniques. A pictorial guide, IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, p. 12.

Tenkouano, A., Hauser, S, Coyne, D and Coulibaly, O. 2006. Clean planting materials and management practices for sustained production of banana and plantain in Africa. Chronica Horticulturae 46, 14-18.

19527

39. Use of Mango Leaf: Cultural and Medicinal PerspectiveSHUVADEEP HALDER*AND ARJU ALI KHAN

Department of Fruit Science, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, 741252, W.B.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Mango is a prevalent fruit crop in our county, primarily cultivated for its aroma, taste, nutritional value and suitability among people irrespective of age, caste, religion and sex. Whenever it comes to mangoes, we never consider beyond the fruit. Not only mango, but its leaves also possess importance in religious ceremony and medicinal properties. We are not fully aware of the benefits of mango leaves, but it has a plethora of health benefits that we can overlook. Mango leaves are generally shiny, oblong to elliptical in shape with a sharp tip. Young leaves are brick-red to coppery brown and it turns to dark green towards maturity.Besides fruits mango leaves contain a significant amount of mangiferin (Figure 1), ranges from about 2-15% depending on the variety and geographic region. The ‘mangiferin’, chemically known as‘2C-β-D-glucopyranosyl-1,3,6,7-tetrahydroxyxanthone’ is potent as antioxidant, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, radioprotective, and anti-cancer properties, as well as for disease management and health benefits.

Several phytochemical analysis done by Okwuet al. (2008), Dzamicet al. (2010) and Shah et al. (2010) reported that mango leaves contain alkaloid (0.84 mg), phenols (0.90 mg), flavonoids (11.24 mg), saponins (3.22 mg) and tannins (0.45 mg) per 100 g of fresh leaf weight. Mineral element

such as 3.82 mg calcium, 0.91 mg magnesium, 0.83 mg potassium, 0.38 mg sodium, 7.88 mg zinc, 1.50 mg cadmium, 8.68 mg copper and 0.78 mg phosphorus is found in 100g of leaf weight. Vitamins such as ascorbic acid (30 mg), riboflavin (0.9 mg), niacin (0.75 mg) and thiamine (0.45 mg) are also found in 100g of mango leaves.

Figure 1: Structure of Mangiferin

Mango leaves are best known to have the properties to regulate diabetes and reduce blood pressure. It is used for treating dysentery, respiratory problems, as well as a good remedy of earaches and, can also heal burns. Mango leaves can effectively fight restlessness and exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective, anti-tumour, wound healing, anti-pyretic, anti-bacterial, anti-spasmodic, anti-carcinogenic,



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anti-viral and anti-microbial benefits, as well as hepatoprotective, gastroprotective, immunomodulatory and hypolipidemic effects.

Apart from being useful in ayurvedic and medicinal purpose, it can also be used in the culinary purpose. In fact, mango leaves are cooked and eaten in South East Asia. Many people use raw leaves to brush their teeth. Besides, mango leaf is considered holy and sacred and used as an integral part of all Hindu rituals from the Vedic ages.

It has a lot of religious and scientific significance and is believed to grant a lot of wishes. They are placed on the water pot (kalask) before rituals to complete a Hindu ceremony called Purnakumba.

In the water pot, a single coconut is placed along with the mango leaves, where the leaves symbolise the limbs of god, and the coconut represent the head. This also said to have significance with goddess-like Lakhsmi, God of fertility and Govardhana. During any significant Hindu festive season, the doors are decorated with a garland made out of mango leaves and marigold. This is known as ‘Torana’, which means ‘gateway’ in Sanskrit. It is believed that toranas prevents any negative energy from entering into the household. Besides, religious believe they are also used during large gathering and festivities, because of their

unique capacity to absorb excess carbon dioxide.

Reference

Dzamic AM, Marin PD, Gbolade AA, Ristic MS (2010) Chemical Composition of Mangifera indica Essential Oil From Nigeria. J Essen Oil Res 22: 123-5.

Mustapha AA, Enemali MO, Olose M, Owuna G, Ogaji JO, Idris MM, Aboh VO. Phytoconstituents and Antibacterial efficacy of Mango (Mangifera indica) leave extracts. Journal of Medicinal Plants Studies. 2014 Sep 11;2(5):19-23.

Nikhal S, Mahajan SD. Evaluation of antibacterial and antioxidant activity of Mangifera indica (leaves). Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research. 2010;2(1):45.

Okwu DE, Ezenagu V (2008) Evaluation of the Phytochemical Composition of Mango (Mangifera Indica Linn) Stem Bark and Leaves. Int J Chem Sci 6: 705-16.

Shah KA, Patel MB, Patel RJ, Parmar PK (2010) Mangifera Indica (Mango). Pharmacogn Rev 4: 42-8

Stohs SJ, Swaroop A, Moriyama H, Bagchi M, Ahmad T. A Review on Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory and Gastroprotective Abilities of Mango (Magnifera indica) Leaf Extract and Mangiferin. J Nutr Health Sci. 2018;5(3):303.

19530

40. Fruit Drop: A Reason for Farmers to WorryDR. MADHUMITA MALLICK

Ph.D., ICARI-IARI, New Delhi, 110012*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Fruit drop can be defined as fruits falling from trees at any time after fruit set but before harvest, eventually reducing yield and causing severe loss to the grower. Though, to some extent it is desirable as it prevents excessive depletion of food reserves from the mother tree i.e., promotes regular bearing, but over dropping is undesirable. Sufficient knowledge regarding the type and factors responsible for fruit drop along with adoption of suitable control measures can solve this problem.

Types of Fruit Drop

Post blossom drop

This is the first fruit drop occurs during and within a few weeks of full bloom, consisting of mainly abscission of flowers and tiny fruits. This may account for 80-90% reduction in total flower number. Improper pollination is the primary cause.

June drop

This is the second fruit drop, more often during late May or June when the fruits are about marble size (1-3 cm in size). Higher temperature (> 40°C) during fruit growth is the main cause for drop.

Pre-harvest drop

It is the last kind of fruit drop that brings maximum economic loss to the growers as it involves shedding of fully matured fruits just prior to harvest. This is mainly due to increase in ethylene synthesis during ripening which accelerates natural ageing and abscission of matured fruits.

Factors Causing Fruit Drop

Internal factors

Improper pollination

Pollination is the primary requisite for fruit development. Any disturbance during pollination



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leads to dropping of flowers and young fruits.

Gametic sterility

Sterile pollen grains in polyploids because of uneven set of basic chromosomes fail to germinate inside pollen tube resulting in no fertilization.

Gametic incompatibility

Sometimes, ovary may not be fertilized in presence of functional pollen grains due to various biochemical reactions which may cause failure in pollen tube germination or formation of endosperm leading to abortion of embryo at early stage.

Seed content of the fruit

Seeds are the active sites of auxin synthesis, which prevents fruit drop. Hence, fruits with more number of seeds are less susceptible to abscission than those with less number of seeds.

Balance between vegetative and reproductive organs

In plants, leaves are the major source of photosynthates, while fruits are the major sink. Hence, a balanced ratio between these organs is to be maintained to promote fruit set and prevent fruit drop. Vigorous shoots and excessive leaves may compete with fruits for photosynthates causing low fruit retention.

Competition between the reproductive organs

Flowering and fruiting in excess may cause severe competition for food among themselves leading to their small size and poor retention.

External factors

It can be both abiotic and biotic

Abiotic factors

Unfavourable environmental factors such as high or low temperature, frost, drought, heavy rainfall during flowering as well as fruit growth and development will promote fruit abscission.

Biotic factors

Attack of several pests and pathogens may also enhance fruit drop e.g. fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) and fruit sucking moth (Eudocima spp) are major pests causing fruit drop in citrus. In apple, scab (Venturia inequalis) and fruit rot (Monilinila fruiticola) are major diseases behind fruit drop.

Control Measures

Timely picking

As soon as the fruits attain physiological maturity and before over-ripening starts, maximum fruits should be picked.

Thinning

Artificial thinning in trees overloaded with fruits

would not only reduce competition between fruits but also will increase fruit size and quality. It can be manual, mechanical or chemical. In rambutan, a thinning to 8 fruits/panicle using lower concentration of growth regulators (ethephon, paclobutrazol) gave the largest and heaviest fruits (Sangudom et al., 2015).

Pollinators

A good population of various pollinators (honey bees, ant, wasp etc). in an orchard will encourage fruit set. In an apple orchard, rearing 6-8 beehives/ha will facilitate adequate pollination.

Pollenizers

These are the cultivars providing sufficient viable pollen grains to the main crop during blooming period. To increase fruit set, at least 33% pollenizer trees should be planted along with the main crop.

Nutrient management

Adequate amount of nutrient supply is necessary for proper growth and development of plants. Deficiency of micronutrients severely affects fruit set and growth.

Water management

After fruit set, during fruit growth and development water deficiency must be avoided, otherwise this may restrict optimum fruit growth and enhance early drop.

Temperature

Both higher and lower temperature can increase premature flower and fruit drop. Frost injury can be prevented by providing an overhead irrigation, supplying heat, increasing air circulation, wrapping the trunk with straw or foam.

Pest and disease management

Suitable control measures should be adopted to check pests and pathogen level below economically threshold level. Integrated management will not only reduce their population but also at the same time ecologically safe.

Use of PGRS

Growth regulators like NAA, 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, AVG etc. can effectively control fruit drop. In Kinnow, preharvest spraying of 2,4-D @10-20 ppm resulted in the lowest fruit drop (12-15%) (Nawaz et al., 2008).

References

Nawaz, M. A., Ahmad, W., Ahmad, S., & Khan, M. M. (2008). Role of growth regulators on preharvest fruit drop, yield and quality in Kinnow mandarin. Pak. J. Bot, 40(5), 1971-1981.

Sangudom, T., Markumrai, W., Sukhvibul, N., Sukkhet, S., Nimkingrat, T., & Chrangpasert, S. (2015, June). Effects of plant growth regulators on flowering and fruit thinning and quality



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of rambutan. In International Symposium on Durian and Other Humid Tropical Fruits 1186

(pp. 127-134).

19539

41. strawberry Plugs: A new Propagation Method for Higher strawberry ProductionARJU ALI KHAN*

Department of Fruit Science, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, India, Pin-741252*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Strawberry plants are propagated vegetatively using freshly dug meristematic plants or cold-stored ‘Frigo’ plants. In the last ten years, the production scenario of strawberry has changed considerably. Nowadays, strawberry plants are raised using ‘Strawberry plug’ technology where, new plantlets are being produced using strawberry ‘runner tips’ in a suitable media (Durner et al., 2002). Plugs have advantages such as lower mortality rate, lower water requirement and limited use of pesticides (Durner et al., 2002; Lareau & Lamarre, 1992; Poling & Maas, 1998)it was not possible to establish plug plants before mid-July. Field losses of dormant bare root plants were high for the July planting. The use of a perforated polyethylene rowcover from October to May increased yield and fruit size.”,”author”:[{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Lareau”,”given”:”M.J.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””},{“dropping-particle”:””,”family”:”Lamarre”,”given”:”M.”,”non-dropping-particle”:””,”parse-names”:false,”suffix”:””}],”container-title”:”HortScience”,”id”:”ITEM-2”,”issue”:”11”,”issued”:{“date-parts”:[[“1992”,”11”]]},”page”:”1159a-1159”,”publisher”:”ISHS”,”title”:”Late planting of strawberries in the hill system using plug or dormant bare root plants”,”type”:”article-journal”,”volume”:”27”},”uris”:[“http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=4d1d54d0-a5d9-379c-810c-18ff6f573d22”]},{“id”:”ITEM-3 ” , ” i t e m D a t a ” : { “ D O I ” : ” 1 0 . 2 1 2 7 3 /H O R T T E C H . 1 2 . 4 . 5 4 5 ” , ” I S S N ” : ” 1 0 6 3 -0198”,”abstract”:”Plugs are rapidly replacing fresh-dug bare-root and cold-stored frigo plants as transplants for strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa . Thus, strawberry plugs are replacing those methods of propagation very fast.

Advantages of Plug Production

Commonly, strawberry plants are infected with verticillium wilt (Verticillium spp.) and phytophthora root rot (Phytophthora spp.) during their nursery stage. The meristematic region behind the root cap is the primary site for infection, but stem tissues such as stolons are not

avenues for infection. Therefore, runner tips are ideal propagules for avoiding transmission of soil-borne diseases. Methyl bromide and chloropicrin are used worldwide as a pre-plant soil fumigant to control soil-borne diseases, nematode population and weeds. These chemicals also kill beneficial microbes and insects in the soil ecosystem. So, plugs are a great alternative because they do not dependent on soil propagation.

Plug transplants are produced within five weeks, and in a warmer growing region, this process may be shortened to 3.5 weeks. This short cycle makes it less likely to face problems of insect-vectored diseases. Strawberry planting is labour intensive. In the case of strawberry, planting depth is crucial for successful field establishment. Mechanical transplanting is possible at proper planting depth. Fresh dug or bare rooted strawberry transplants require intensive overhead sprinkling irrigation for 1-2 weeks, immediately after planting. This not only increases water use but also invades leaf spot diseases. Plugs require little water, and that can be done using a drip system. It is observed that nearly 100% of the plug transplants survive, while other types of transplants show a high rate of mortality.

Plug Plant Production

In India, farmers mostly rely on expensive micro-propagated or traditionally propagated transplants. Strawberry plugs can be produced in a greenhouse or small closed structure. High temperature and long days favour runner production. It is necessary to take care of runners so that they do not come in contact with the soil surface. Thus, mulching using polythene sheet is necessary. It is advised to establish plants 3-4 months before the date of runner harvesting. Greenhouse with temperature and light control can be used for runner production in unfavourable places. For irrigation, ideally drip system should be adopted as standard practice. During peak, runner producing period irrigation should be operated at every 3-4 hours, with each irrigation event lasting for about 3-4 minutes.



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Fertigation is very important during this phase. A runner is a form of vegetative growth, and they are encouraged by the application of fertilisers high in nitrogen (N) content. A 100 ppm concentration of a water-soluble fertiliser mix of 20-10-20 or

similar mix is adequate for these plants. Along with proper fertilisation, it is essential to remove flowers/ reproductive growth in order to maintain vegetative growth.

Figure: Strawberry plug production (a: root initiation in runner tip; b: runner tip; c: planting in plug trays; d: strawberry plug); Source: Rowley et al., (2010)

Runner Tip Harvesting and Propagation

Runner tips should be harvested when there are small root initials/ white or brown pegs on the runner tip. Root initials should not be longer than a half-inch. Additionally, two trifoliate leaves (the first leaf that emerges from runner tip) and length of 2½ to 4 inch in length are needed for selection. Depending on the needs uniform-sized runner tips are harvested every 10-14 days. Then those runner tips are planted using a commercial growing media in a fifty cell plug tray having seven cubic centimetre cell. After planting the tips properly, they should be placed inside a shade or mist chamber. Misting the plants intermittently for 7-10 days is sufficient for successful establishment. After misting scheduling is complete they are transferred to shade net house for hardening for 1-2 weeks before field establishment. Generally, runner tips produce well-rooted plugs in 4 weeks.

Storage of Runner Tip

Runner tips can be stored after they are graded in the field and immediately moved to cool storage of 0-1°C with 95% relative humidity. It is essential to remove the field heat within 45 minutes or less. The temperature of the tips should not be allowed to rise above 2-3°C in transit. Well-handled tips

have a shelf life of seven days.

Shipping of Runner Tips

Runner tips can be shipped anywhere in the world by air freight. Because they are compact and 1,000 tips in a box will weigh about 5 kg. Care should be taken during transit. Local shipment can be easily accomplished by truck.

Pest and Disease Management

Sanitation should be adequately maintained to reduce the risk of disease and pest occurrence. Greenhouse and shade structures should be kept clear from unhealthy plants, and workers should be cautious about other potential sources of inoculum. Runners should be prevented to come in contact with the soil. Powdery mildew in mother plant might cause a problem inside the greenhouses. High humidity also causes root in the tip; thus, care should be taken during misting operation in a mist chamber. Periodic fungicide application is needed to control a disease outbreak. Aphids and thrips can be controlled using systemic insecticide.

Thus, Strawberry plugs are an excellent method for establishing winter strawberry planting either an open field or in the polytunnels. Plugs provide an appropriate level of vegetative vigour



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for successful spring harvest. (Rowley et al., 2010).

References

Durner, E. F., Poling, E. B. & Maas, J. L. (2002) Recent Advances in Strawberry Plug Transplant Technology. HortTechnology 513(513), 545–550.

Lareau, M. J. & Lamarre, M. (1992) Late planting of strawberries in the hill system using plug or

dormant bare-root plants. HortScience 27(11), 1159a – 1159. ISHS.

Poling, E. B. & Maas, J. L. (1998) Strawberry plug transplant technology. Acta Horticulturae (513), 393–402.

Rowley, D., Black, B. & Drost, D. (2010). Strawberry Plug Plant Production. Horticulture, Utah State University Cooperative Extention.

19569

42. Role of Different Plant Growth Hormones in Cultivation of Loose FlowersKOMMU PAVAN KUMAR

Ph. D Research Scholar, Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, West Bengal.

An organic substance produced naturally in plants controlling growth & other physiological functions at a site of action by moving from site of production, active in minute amount.

Auxins (IAA, IBA, NAA), Gibberellins (GA1,

GA2, GA

3 …GA

60), Cytokinins (Kinetin, Zeatin),

Ethylene (Ethylene), Abscisic Acid (Phaseic Acid, Dormins), Retardants (Cycocel, MH-40, PP

333)

General Functions Growth Hormones

� Auxins (cell elongation) � Gibberellins (cell elongation + cell division -

translated into growth) � Cytokinins (cell division + inhibit senescence) � Abscisic acid (abscission of leaves and fruits +

dormancy induction of buds and seeds). � Ethylene (promotes senescence, epinasty, and

Ageing of flowers).

Growth Promotors in Rose

� GA: Increase the length of shoots by extending the internodal length & by increasing the number of nodes.

� Increase the number of shoots per plant & induced earlier flowering.

� BA: BA + adenine (each at 0.5 %) in lanoline paste induced bud break & shoot development in buds on both pruned & unpruned plants.

� IAA, IBA, NAA are employed for rooting of cuttings in rose.

� Cuttings root better if a growth hormone such as “Seradix” is used.

Growth Inhibitors in Rose

� CCC: Treatment with 3 % CCC solution in soil of potted rose plant cause dwarfing & improves flowering.

� ABA: Rose seeds are known as “achene”, mostly remain dormant when mature and

require after ripening. The presence of abscisic acid (ABA) in both pericarp and testa, of the achene play a vital role in dormancy.

Growth Promotors in Chrysanthemum

� Application of MH at 750 mg/l proved to be best in improving the flower yield and quality of chrysanthemum cv. ‘IIHR-6’.

� GA3 cause elongation of stem & pedicel, early flowering (200 ppm) & maximum flower diameter.

� Ethephon treatment (800-1000 ppm) increase axillary bud set, number of buds & ethylene evolution. Seradix – 1 powder or 25 ppm NAA treated cuttings show better rooting.

� BA (Benzyl adenine) at 45 ppm increases branching & ethephon delays flowering.

Growth Retardants

� SADH (2000 – 4000) ppm after disbudding reduce stem length & induces longest flower life.

� PP333 (Paclobutrazol) application reduces shoot length & delay flowering.

Jasmine

� Ethrel 1000 ppm application results in maximum growth retardation delay flowering.

� CCC 1000 ppm induces early flowering. � SADH produce greater number of laterals.

SADH inhibits shoot growth in J. sambac. � GA3 (25- 75 ppm) increases the length of

primary & secondary shoots in J. grandiflorum. � Ethrel at higher concentrations can be used as

an alternative to manual pruning. � MH increases the number of internodes & GA3

increases their length.



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Tuberose

� Soaking of sprouting bulbs for 1 hour in solution of 100 ppm GA3 or 400 ppm CCC advanced the flowering by 17& 15 days respectively. Soaking in thiourea improves the growth & flowering of tuberose.

� GA3 (200 mg / L) causes early flowering, maximize yield of spikes & flowers.

� Ethephon at highest concentration reduce spike length & flower number.

� Dormancy of the bulbs can be successfully broken by dipping in 4 % thiourea solution.

Marigold

� Spraying African marigold with cycocel (chlormequat) (750ppm) resulted in highest flower weight (10.8 g/ flower) & number

(10.84 / plant) & reduced the number of days to flowering.

� SADH at 250-2000 ppm at 4 weeks from planting delays flowering.

� GA3 at 200 ppm recorded highest flower & seed yield.

� MH suppressed vegetative growth & yield of flowers & seeds.

Crossandra

Rooted cuttings of C. infundibuliformis cv. Delhi treated with gibberellic acid or IBA (100- 200 ppm) with or without 1 % urea one month after planting & subsequently at bimonthly intervals resulted in maximum leaf area & number of branches yield / ha, number of spikes / month & spike length with 200 ppm BA + 1% urea, & total floret / spike as highest with 200 ppm GA

3.

19599

43. exploring and Utilising the Hidden Potential of Fruit WastesKHUSHBOO AZAM, SHASHI PRAKASH AND HIDAYATULLAH MIR

Department of Horticulture (Fruit and Fruit Technology), Bihar Agricultural University, Bhagalpur 813210, Bihar

With the growing population the demand for fruits is increasing at a rapid rate because of the increasing health consciousness. According to the World Health Organisation, an epidemiological study indicates that the consumption of fruits frequently helps to lower risk of chronic diseases. Apart from “primary” metabolites the plants synthesizes various “secondary” metabolites, which have fundamental roles in plant protection against both biotic and abiotic stresses along with their role in, mediating different types of interactions with environment and with other organisms. Fruits which are rich in dietary fibres and secondary metabolites also have strong antioxidant activity. Among the flavonoids, catechins, epicatechins and procyanidins, are important and are principally, present in apples and grapes. Flavanones, are the dominant flavonoid of citrus fruits with anthocyanidins mostly present in berries, cherries and red grapes, reported to increase the antioxidant defences and enhance brain functions. In addition to fruits, there wastes also contains fairly good amount of phytochemicals and nutrients. Fruit waste is generated in large quantities from the industrial processing of fruits like citrus, banana, apple, and pear. Besides, high consumption and huge industrial processing of the edible parts of fruit, fruit wastes such as citrus fruit skins, banana peel, pineapple residues and other fruit residues

(principally peels and seeds) are generated in large quantities in big cities. Coffee and macadamia are some examples that generate by-products with very rich biomolecules. Processing of mangoes produces about 11% of peels, 13.5% of seeds, 18% of inoperable pulp, and 58% of finished product (Ayala-Zavala et al., 2010).

Bioactive Compounds from Fruit Waste

Natural bioactive compounds used for the treatment and prevention of human diseases are being searched. These interact with proteins, DNA, and other biological molecules and may be used for development of natural curative agents. Horticulture wastes especially fruit wastes is a potential sources of phytochemicals and have been used for the extraction of phenolic compounds, dietary fibres, and other bioactive compounds. Currently, the research is concentrated more on the search of phytochemicals with anti-cancerous properties. Several studies have revealed that seeds, peels and other components of fruits have significant amounts of phytochemicals and essential nutrients. It was found that the peels of lemons, grapes, and oranges, and the seeds of avocados, jackfruits, longans and mangoes consists of more than 15% higher phenolic concentrations than that found in the fruit pulp. Mango pulp is mostly consumed by the people while kernel and



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peel being thrown away. The bioactive compounds present in mango peel are phenolic compounds, carotenoids, vitamin C and dietary fibre contributing to lower the risk of cancer, cataracts, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Phenolic Compounds and Dietary Fibres

Phenolic compounds, a major natural antioxidant, are present in many fruit wastes. Fruits containing polyphenols and carotenoids have antioxidant activity and reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer. Most of the phenolic compounds in fruits are present in the rind, peel, and seeds of fruits. Date seeds are excellent source of phenolic compounds and antioxidants and the oil extracted from seeds has higher phenolic content than most edible oils except the olives. Citrus peel contains a higher quantity of polyphenols in comparison to the edible part of the fruit. Double amounts of total phenolics were found in the peels of apples, peaches, and pears compared to peeled fruits. Catecholamines, dopamine, and l-dopa were found in banana peels. Fruit wastes are also rich source of dietary fibres. For example, apple peel is considered to have higher dietary fibre content (0.91% fruit weight) than the pulp. Similarly, grapes pomace have good amount of dietary fibres, namely, hemicelluloses, cellulose, and small proportions of pectin. Dietary fibres in lemon peels were reported higher than for peeled lemon.

Application of Fruit Peel Waste based Bioactives

Bioactive substances are extra nutritional constituents and occur typically in small quantities in foods. Studies on fruit wastes compositions suggests presence of a wide range of bioactive compounds (basically, primary and secondary metabolites of plants) in different residual fractions. Phenolics, alkaloids, glycosides, active volatile oils, mucilage, gums and oleoresins are some of the examples of secondary metabolites. Fruit wastes are an important source for recovery of cellulose from peels, hemicelluloses from pomace, lignin from seed coats and peels being good source of pectin also. These fruit wastes which are bioactive-rich extracts may be used in a diverse range of novel applications due to the proven health effects on long term consumption. Fruit waste biomass generated can also be utilized for various other applications such as low-cost biosorbent, feedstock for producing biochemical and biofuels, substrate for production of various enzymes and metabolites. Besides, using these wastes will produce value-added products will further eliminate them from the environment thus avoiding solid-waste

handling. Minced banana peel can be applied in the extraction and preconcentration of metal ions in raw river water with an enrichment factor of approximately 20-fold. The surface properties of fruit peel makes it suitable as a bioadsorbent. Heavy metals, dyes and organic pollutants can be successfully removed from aqueous solution using fruit peel, as heavy metals show higher affinity towards it. Fruit peel also contains substantial amounts of micronutrients such as Na, K, Ca, Zn and Mg which are essential for plant growth can be used as bio-fertiliser. Bio-hydrogen production from food and food-processing waste containing large amounts of cellulose, as jackfruit fruit peel provides higher bio-hydrogen yields. The fruit peel wastes contain simple and complex sugars that can be metabolized by microorganisms and converted to bio-ethanol, biogas and animal feed. Fruit wastes are rich source of various bio-products that can serve as a source of flavours and aromas. Pineapple peel waste contains ferulic acid, a precursor for vanillic acid. l-Rhamnose is the main component of cell wall pectins, obtained from citrus peel and it is the raw material used for the production of the strawberry flavour “furaneol”.

Conclusions

Various compositional studies of the fruit wastes suggest presence of various bioactive compounds in different residual fractions. Large amounts of phenolic antioxidants are present in fruit peel. Annonaceous fruit pericarp was found to be as a pharmacologically effective antitumor agent. The search for new chemopreventive and antitumor agents that are more effective and less toxic has kindled great interest in phytochemicals. Hence in this new era, there is a need to search for some “green alternative” for the cure of several diseases. Fruit waste yielding polysaccharides, gum exudates, and proteins finds application in pharmaceutical. Cellulose, the most abundant polymer is used as diluent or filler in solid oral dosage formulations and can be obtained from various fruit peels. A linear polysaccharide, pectin, is widely extracted from fruits and used as gelling agent or thickener. Also there is a need to utilize more novel techniques with respect to the waste materials to achieve higher retrieval rates of bioactive compounds.

References

Ayala-Zavala, J. F., Rosas-Domınguez, C., Vega-Vega, V. And Gonz´ alez-Aguilar, G.A. (2010). Antioxidant enrichment and antimicrobial protection of fresh-cut fruits using their own byproducts: looking for integral exploitation. J Food Sci, 75:175–81.



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19611

44. Kokum: Wonder Fruit of Western GhatsPREETI SINGH1 AND DR HIDAYATULLAH MIR2

1Division of Fruits and Horticultural Technology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi-1100122Department of Horticulture, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur

Kokum (Garcinia indica) is one of the most important economical plant belonging to the family Guttiferae, originated in India. It is also known as kokum butter tree, goa butter tree, malabar tamarind, mangosteen oil tree and ratamba. In India, it widely grows in the tropical forests of Western Ghats which includes regions of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. Other than these regions its cultivation has also extended to parts of Tamil Nadu, Assam and West Bengal. Almost every part of the kokum fruit viz., pulp, rind (fresh and dried) or seeds have tonnes of health benefits and industrial uses. Other than its economic utilization, kokum is also popular for its bioactive compounds and medicinal properties.

Fresh Kokum fruit contains B-complex vitamins such as niacin, folates and thiamine which are co-factors of many biochemical reactions. The antioxidant activity of kokum has been reported to be higher than that of many fruits like blueberry, strawberry and plum and vegetables like garlic, cauliflower, carrot and beet.

Multifarious Uses of Kokum

Starting from the fruit to its rind and seeds, all of them have major health benefits along with its culinary and industrial uses. The acidic and sour fruit of kokum which can be used raw or in form of juice helps in combating dehydration and effects of sunstroke. The dried kokum rind is traditionally used as acidulant in place of tamarind in many Indian dishes and curries in the Konkan region. The seeds of kokum contains high quantity of oil which ranges from 33 to 44 per cent, which is further frozen into butter known as “kokum butter” (Swami et al. 2014). Kokum butter is widely used by cosmetic and drug industry for different product development owing to its nutritive, demulcent, soothing and softening properties. Kokum butter is also used for chocolate preparation as the butter does not melt below 40° C.

Therapeutic Properties of Kokum

Kokum has been traditionally used in ayurvedic medicines due to its several positive influence on human health. It contains essential nutrients and vitamins like carbohydrate, manganese, potassium and dietary fibre along with vitamin B and C. The health-related benefits of the fruit includes:1. The cooling or refrigerant effect of kokum juice

is well known all over the world, so its demand increases potentially during the summer months. Fruit is made into a refreshing juice or syrup known as ‘amrutkokam’ which helps in avoiding the incidence of dehydration and sunstroke. The syrup/juice also protects the liver by suppressing the oxidative degradation of lipids in the liver.

2. One of the important component of kokum is Hydroxycitric acid (HCA) which has also been patented for use as a hypo-cholesterolaemic agent as it regulates the blood cholesterol level and reduces the risk of heart disease. HCA also has an effect on reduction of obesity and can be used as anti-obesity agent.

3. Another important component of kokum fruit is ‘Garcinol’ which possess antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-ulcer properties.

4. Kokum butter has an anti-aging property and is widely used in cosmetic products such as lotions, lip balm, lipsticks, soaps, etc. The anti-aging property of Kokum is attributed to the presence of antioxidants and vitamin E that nourishes the skin cells and prevents skin ailments like skin cracking, rashes, allergies, etc.

5. It also possess antioxidant, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties and thus, its fruits can also be used as a preservative.It also aids in better digestion of food. The

fruits of kokum are used for treating issues like flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea and dysentery. Studies have shown that it basically acts against the pathogens which are involved in issues related to stomach.ultivation of Kokum:

Kokum is a tropical evergreen tree, and grows well up to an elevation of about 800 m from MSL. It requires warm and humid tropical climate and thrives well in coastal areas receiving rainfall over 250 cm. Being a hardy and evergreen tree it grows well under rainfed conditions without much care. This hardiness makes it suitable for cultivation in the rainforests of Western Ghats of India and other parts of the country with similar climatic conditions. The factor which limits its cultivation as a commercial fruit or spice tree is the lack of market for kokum. The fruits of kokum is available during second week of May to the end of May, this is the time when the market is occupied with a more lucrative crop, i.e., mango, making



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its marketing more difficult. Moreover, Kokum is found growing deep inside the rainforest, usually solitary which makes its transportation difficult and perishable nature of this fruit results in heavy losses every year. These factors has limited the role of kokum to minor fruit only. To promote large scale systematic cultivation of kokum, the Western Ghats Kokum Foundation (WGKF) was established in the Western Ghats region. The WGKF conducted a survey to identify the pros and cons of commercial cultivation and came up with suggestions which can boost up its cultivation, expansion of area and livelihood of the local people. The suggestions included: creating awareness among the locals about its health and industrial utilization besides its culinary importance, improved crop production

technology, improvement of the indigenous cultivars, processing or value addition of the fruit and its different parts and production of export quality products. Value-added products included: kokum juice, kokum rind, kokum soda, kokum syrup, kokum date, wine and kokum butter for chocolates and cosmetics products.This foundation was able to convince the farmers for cultivation of kokum on commercial scale.

Reference

Braganza, M., Shirodkar, A., Bhat, D. J. and Krishnan, S. (Eds.). 2012. Resource Book on Kokum, Western Ghats Kokum Foundation, Panaji – Goa. India.

19624

45. Mineral and nutrition-Rich Leafy Green: ChekkurmanisPRAVEEN KUMAR MAURYA1* AND NIDHI TYAGI2

1Department of Vegetable Science, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, ‎Mohanpur-741252, West Bengal, India2Department of Vegetable Science, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan-173230, Himachal Pradesh, India*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Sweetleaf (Sauropus androgynus L. Merr.) is also known as 21st-century vegetable, most popular leafy vegetable, belongs to family Euphorbiaceae. This crop is important not only in India but also in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Besides vegetable, Chekkurmanis is also grown as fence around vegetable plots or kitchen gardens. It occupies a prominent place in almost each and every household kitchen gardens in Kerala. It is well-known as tropical asparagus and can be eaten as raw or cooked.

Nutritive Value

Sauropus androgynus L. Merr. is also called “Multivitamin Greens” vegetable due to its perceived superior nutrition and vitamin content in comparison to other vegetables. Its leaves are rich in proteins, minerals and vitamins. The tender shoots are used as leafy vegetable either as salad or after frying. It is a rich source of Ca, P, K, vitamin C and vitamin A. The dark green leaves make available a rich source of chlorophyll which is a valuable blood-building element, cell rejuvenator, and beneficial to circulation, intestinal flora, and for regular bowel elimination. The leaves are used in sandwiches, salads, curries meat, rice and curry dishes, scrambles eggs, omelettes, pickles, casseroles, stir-fries and as garnish. They are

not only nutritious but used to give a light green colour to pastry and to fermented rice in Java and Dutch East Indies for preparation of soups. An extract made of plant has a strong activity against pinewood nematodes, and may have possibility against other species.

Botanical Characteristics

It is a slow-growing glabrous shrub; attaining a height of 2-3.5 m. Main branches are terete and flaccid, while lateral branches are thin. It bears dark green oval leave 5-6 cm long. The plant bears small reddish monoecious flowers. Fruits are sessile, white or pinkish, 0.2 cm in diameter with a fleshy epicarp. It is usually maintained as a perennial plant at a height of 1-1.5 m by frequent harvesting of leaves.

Soil and Climate

Chekkurmanis can be grown in any type of soil, but for better growth and yield, soil rich in organic matter, well-drained and sandy loam or laterite is preferred. It prefers a pH of 7.0, but tolerates acid soils. For luxuriant growth a warm climate with good rainfall and lower elevation of about 500 m above mean sea-level is best suited. It has been seen that plant grown under shade produce broader leaves. Growth is rapid during the warm



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months, slowing down in leaf production in winter, or even going dormant but should come back from the stump.

Propagation

It is propagated mainly through stem cuttings and seeds. However, viability of both seeds and cuttings is short-lived, so both should be planted as soon as possible after collection. Seeds are viable for only 3-4 months when kept dry and cool. Stem cutting of 6-12 months old, with 5-6 nodes or 20-30 cm length are planted in polythene bags containing soil, sand and manures in equal proportions. Cuttings should be dipped in 50 ppm IAA/IBA before planting them in polybags, which hasten their rooting. Cutting should be planted in furrows at least a fortnight before the onset of monsoon during April- May.

Planting

The plant attaining a desirable height are planted in pits of 30 cm × 30 cm × 30 cm, which in turn are filled with 5 kg FYM and 25 g each of urea, SSP and MOP. After each clipping, application

of 7: 10: 5 (N:P:K) mixture @ 30 g per plant, supplemented with 1 % urea spray enhances leaf yield considerably. It is a usual practice that after the plants has attained a height of about 1 m they are tipped to develop laterals. After every clipping, the plants are manured and regularly watered during rainless period.

Irrigation

Frequent irrigations are given until root initiation takes place. Even though it can withstand hot dry weather for a long period, watering of plants is desirable for getting constant appearance and growth of new leaves. Fertilize regularly, and mulch to conserve moisture.

Harvesting

First clipping of leaves and tender shoots is taken after 3-4 months of planting or when the plants have attained the height of 60-90 cm. Plants when trimmed to a height of about 1-1.5 m facilitate easy harvesting of leaves and tender shoots. On an average, it yield 30-50 tonnes/ha or 1-3 kg of leaves/plant/year.

19631

46. ethylene Detection in Fruit CropsSHIVENDU PRATAP SINGH SOLANKI AND GOSANGI AVINASH

Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab 141004

Ethylene is a phytohormone present in both climacteric and non-climacteric fruits. It is, therefore, essential to monitor the levels of ethylene precisely at various storage conditions. Until recently, there were no small instruments available for use in the supply chain. Recent developments of portable devices are revolutionizing fruit producers’ and suppliers’ ability to maintain post-harvest stock.

Various Ethylene Estimation and Detection Methods are given below:

1. Gas chromatography (GC) detection: Gas chromatographic systems are very powerful for the detection of ethylene in the lower ppm range.

2. Electrochemical sensing: The sensing principle in this electrochemical sensor is based on a two-step process. At first, ethylene from the gas phase is dissolved in the electrolyte, and secondly the dissolved ethylene undergoes an oxidation reaction at a noble metal electrode that is kept at a suitable potential. The measured oxidation current is directly proportional to the concentration of dissolved ethylene at the electrode-electrolyte interface. The concentration of ethylene in the

electrolyte is on its turn directly proportional to the concentration in the gas phase.

3. Optical sensing: by knowing the absorption strength of ethylene at a specific IR light frequency, the molecular ethylene concentration can be quantified.

4. Kitagawa tubes: The kitagawa Gas Detector Tube System is a complete sampling and analysis system for determining hazardous gas and vapour concentrations quickly and easily. The kitagawa Gas Detector Tube System is comprised of an Air Sampling Pump and Precision Gas Detector Tubes.

5. Photo-acoustic detector: in photo-acoustic detector the gas to be measured is irradiated by modulated light of a pre-selected wavelength. The gas molecules absorb some of the light energy and convert it into an acoustic signal which is detected by a microphone. The IR-source is a spherical, heated black body. A mirror focuses the light onto the window of the PAS cell after it has passed the light chopper and the optical filter. The chopper is a slotted disk that rotates and effectively “switches” the light on and off. The optical filter is a narrow-band IR interference filter.

6. Ethylene detection using Grubbs



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catalysts: National University of Singapore has developed fluorescent probes which provide a convenient way to visually detect the presence of ethylene gas released from the fruit ripening process through a simple fluorescence microscope. The probes are developed from a class of transition metal carbene complexes known as Grubbs catalysts and can detect ethylene up to a level of 0.9 ppm (parts per million) in air. The probe contains weakly fluorescent molecules which are activated when exposed to ethylene gas. The colour intensity increases when more

ethylene gas is detected.7. A nanotechnology ethylene detector:

Based on the ethylene binding site, Carbon nanotubes ‘doped’ with copper used for ethylene detection, when ethylene binds, the electrical properties of the nanotubes change.Porous ZnO nanosheets: porous ZnO

nanosheets combining the advantages of having porous structures, being single-crystalline, and being ultra-thin present a pretty good sensing performance and a dramatic response speed in ethylene detection.

PLANT BREEDING AND GENETICS

19512

47. Genetic Basis of Meiotic Crossovers in CropsRAHUL KUMAR1*, DEEPAK BISHT2 AND SURESH YADAV1

1PhD scholar, Division of Genetics, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi2Scientist, National Institute of Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

The breeding of plants is based on meiotic crossover to combine desirable alleles in elite varieties. Meiotic crossovers, however, are relatively rare, restricting breeding process efficiency and associated activities such as genetic mapping. Many genes have been identified in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana that restrict meiotic recombination (Fernandes et al., 2018). Mutation of these genes in Arabidopsis contributes to a significant increase in the incidence of crossover. A study was conducted by Mieulet et al. (2018) to investigate the impact of mutating FANCM, RECQ4 or FIGL1 orthologists on recombination in three distant crops, rice, pea and tomato. They found that the single recq4 mutation increases around three-fold crossovers in these crops, indicating that manipulating RECQ4 could be a universal method to improve plant recombination.

Crossing Over

The term Crossing over was coined by Thomas Hunt Morgan. Crossing over is a recombination of genes due to exchange of genetic material between two homologous chromosomes. It is the mutual exchange of segments of genetic material between non-sister chromatids of two homologous chromosomes, so as to produce new combinations of genes. It occurs in Pachytene stage at four strand stage. The exchange is usually reciprocal- the exchanging segments of two chromosomes are of similar size but crossing over can be sometimes

unequal. The point of cross over is visible as cross-shaped chiasma in diplotene stage. Crossing-over may be: single crossing-over, double crossing-over or multiple crossing-overs.

Significance of Crossing Over

� Crossing over is the means of introducing new combination of genes and hence produces new combination of traits.

� It increases variability which is useful for natural selection under changed environment.

� It is important for normal segregation of chromosomes during meiosis.

� Since the frequency of crossing over depends upon the distance between the two genes, the phenomenon is used for preparing linkage chromosome maps.

� Crossing overplays a very important role in the field of breeding to improve the verities of plants and animals.

Pathways of Cross Over Formation

In most eukaryotes including plants two pathways of crossover formation are known.

Class I CO

� It is the major pathway which depends on the ZMM proteins (for Zip1-4, Msh4/5, and Mer3) in addition to MutL homolog 1 (MLH1) and MutL homolog 3 (MLH3).

� It results in 85–90% of crossovers. � ZMM proteins act to stabilize the



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interhomologous recombination intermediates to promote resolution by crossover.

� Class I crossovers show interference.

Class II CO

� These are non-ZMM crossovers and interference independent.

� The best-known player for class II COs is MUS81, an endonuclease which is able to process joint molecules (e.g., D-loops).

Can we increase the crossing over by manipulating the genes?

Yes, the crossing over frequency can be increased by manipulating the Anti-crossover genes. Three pathways limiting meiotic crossovers in Arabidopsis thaliana has been identified that rely on the activity of FANCM [CrismaniW, et al. (2012) Science 336:1588–1590], RECQ4 [Seguela-Arnaud M, et al. (2015) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112:4713–4718], and FIGL1 [Girard C, et al. (2015) PLoS Genet 11:e1005369].

FANCM

� FANCM (Fanconi anaemia complementation group M) is the first meiotic anti-CO gene described in Arabidopsis.

� FANCM processes meiotic DSB repair intermediates, disassembling D-loops to promote SDSA, driving them toward NCO resolution (or sister chromatid events). In the absence of FANCM, MUS81 repairs these intermediates as interference-insensitive COs, whereas ZMMs cannot process these intermediates as COs.

RECQ4

� It is a DNA helicase homologue of mammalian BLOOM and yeast Sgs1 and act as major barrier to meiotic cross over formation.

FIGL1

� FIGL1 hinders the interaction between homologous chromosomes, indication that

FIGL1 counteracts DMC1/ RAD51-mediated inter-homologue strand invasion to limit CO formation.

� Limits class II meiotic crossover (CO) formation by regulating the invasion step of meiotic HR.

Unleashing Meiotic Crossover in Crops

� Mutating FANCM results in around two-fold increase in recombination in hybrid rice (Dongjin/Nipponbare) and hybrid pea (Cameor/ Kayanne) but not in Hybrid Arabidopsis (Col/Ler). This difference could be due to variation in the recombination machinery in these species or be associated with the level of polymorphisms in these hybrids.

� Single recq4 mutation increases crossovers about three-fold in these crops, suggesting that manipulating RECQ4 may be a universal tool for increasing recombination in plants.

� The pericentromeric regions, that are reluctant to crossover in wild type, still fail to recombine in the mutants, suggesting that additional unknown mechanisms prevent crossovers close to centromeres.

� The increase in recombination tends to be lower in more divergent regions of the genome.

Conclusion

Studies should give priority to the identification mechanisms and methods to increase crossover in proximal regions, as these regions represent a large part of the genome in important crops such as wheat. Further studies are required to understand how sequence divergence drives genetic recombination and to develop effective targeted mutagenesis techniques to disrupt these genes for increasing recombination frequency which is foremost requirement for plant breeding activities.

References

Mieulet, D., Aubert, G., Bres, C., Klein, & Raphael Mercier., R. (2018). Unleashing meiotic crossovers in crops. Nat. plants, 4, 1010-1016.

19544

48. Applications of Biometrical techniques in Plant BreedingPRASANTA K. MAJHI* AND AMRUTLAL R. KHAIRE

Research Scholar, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005, U.P., India.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction: The science that deals with the applications of statistical concepts and procedures



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to the study of biological problems is referred to as Biometry or Biometrics. The branch of Genetics which utilizes various statistical concepts and procedures for genetics studies is called as Biometrical genetics.

The main features of Biometrical genetics are presented below;

1. There are two branches of Biometrical Genetics namely (1) Population Genetics: Study of inheritance of qualitative characters with frequency of genes and genotypes in natural populations and (2) Quantitative Genetics: Study of inheritance of quantitative characters or polygenic characters in the experimental populations.

2. Quantitative genetics differs from Mendelian genetics in two main aspects as given below:

a) Quantitative genetics deals with continuous variation, while Mendelian genetics deals with discontinuous variations.

b) Quantitative genetics based on means, variances and co-variances, while Mendelian genetics based on frequencies and rations.

3. Quantitative genetics provides ways and means for the study of polygenic characters which is not possible by Mendelian Genetics.

List of various Biometrical techniques used in Crop Improvement

Applications Biometrical techniques Used

Assessment of Variability Measures of DispersionComponent of Genetic variancesMetroglyph AnalysisD2 Statistics

Selection of Elite genotypes

Correlation AnalysisPath Coefficient analysisDiscriminant Analysis

Selection of Suitable parents and Breeding procedures

Analysis of Several Single crosses

Diallel cross AnalysisPartial diallel crossesLine x Tester Analysis

Analysis of Several Three-way crosses

Triallel Analysis

Assessment of Stability of Genotypes

Stability Analysis ModelsFinlay and Wilkinson Model (1963)Eberhart and Russell Model (1966)Perkins and Jinks Model (1968)Freemans and Perkins Model (1971)

Applications Biometrical techniques Used

Analysis of Several Double crosses

Quadriallel Analysis

Analysis of individual crosses

Generation Mean AnalysisBiparental cross AnalysisTriple Test Cross Analysis


Stability Analysis ModelsFinlay and Wilkinson Model (1963)Eberhart and Russell Model (1966)Perkins and Jinks Model (1968)Freemans and Perkins Model (1971)

Applications of Biometrical Techniques in Crop Improvement

Biometrical techniques are useful to Plant breeders in four principal ways and these are briefly discussed below.

Assessment of polygenic Variations

Variability refers to the presence of differences among the individuals of a population. Variability results due to differences either in the genetic constitutions of the individual or in the environment in which they have grown. The effectiveness of any plant breeding programme depends on the existence of genetic variability. Hence, assessment of existing variability for any character present in the gene pool of a species is of utmost importance to a plant breeder for starting a judicious plant breeding programme.

Selection of Elite genotypes

The efficiency of selection largely depends on the extent of genetic variability present in the population and the heritability of the concerned characters. Selection is generally more effective or the characters which are highly heritable in nature than the characters which show low heritability. However, polygenic characters like yield and other economically important characters are generally shown low heritability and direct selection is not sufficiently effective.

Selection of Suitable parents and Breeding procedures

Hybridization is the most potent technique for breaking yield barriers and evolving varieties having built-in high yield potential. The selection of suitable parents on the basis of their genetic value for hybridization is one of the most important steps in plant breeding.



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Stability of genotypes to environmental fluctuations is important for the hybridization of crop production both over regions and seasons. Stability analysis is useful in the identification of adaptable genotypes and in predicting the response of various genotypes over changing the environment.

Conclusion

Biometrical techniques provide basic information about various genetical aspects, which is useful for better planning and modelling the plant breeding

programme. This technique provides solutions to the analysis of polygenic characters, which is not possible through Mendelian genetics.

References

Nandarajan, N., Manivannan, N. and Gunasekaran, M. (2016). Quantitative Genetics and Biometrical Techniques in Plant Breeding. Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi-110002.

Singh, P. and Narayan, S. S. (2017). Biometrical Techniques in Plant Breeding. Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi-110002.

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49. Radiation Hybrid Mapping1KIRANMAYEE BANGARU AND 2RACHANA BAGUDAM1PhD. Scholar, Dept. of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University2PhD. Scholar, Dept. of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University

Introduction

A genome map helps the scientists to navigate around the genome. Gene mapping is that the method to identify the position of a gene and therefore the distances between genes on the chromosome. The essence of all genome mapping is to put a set of molecular markers onto their respective positions on the genome. Genes are often viewed together, special sort of genetic markers within the construction of genome maps, and mapped an equivalent way as the other markers. Scientists isolate DNA from the samples and closely examine it, looking for unique patterns in the DNA. These unique molecular patterns within the DNA are mentioned as polymorphisms, or markers.

The first steps of building a genetic map are the event of genetic markers and a mapping population. The closer two markers are on the chromosome, the more likely they’re to be passed on to subsequent generation together. Therefore, the “co-segregation” patterns of all markers are often used to reconstruct their order. The quality of the genetic maps is essentially dependent upon these factors: the amount of genetic markers on the map and therefore the size of the mapping population. The two factors are interlinked, as a bigger mapping population could increase the “resolution” of the map and stop the map being “saturated”.

In gene mapping, any sequence feature which will be faithfully distinguished from the 2 parents are often used as a gene. Genes, during this regard, are represented by “traits” which will be faithfully

distinguished between two parents. Their linkage with other genetic markers are calculated same way as if they’re common markers and therefore the actual gene loci are then bracketed in a region between the two nearest neighbouring markers. The entire process is then repeated by finding more markers which target that region to map the gene neighbourhood to a better resolution until a selected causative locus can be identified. This process is usually mentioned as “positional cloning”, and it’s used extensively within the study of plant species.

Radiation Hybrid Mapping

Radiation hybrid mapping may be a genetic technique that was originally developed for constructing long-range maps of mammalian chromosomes. It is supported on a statistical procedure to work out not only the distances between deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) markers but also their order on the chromosomes. DNA markers are short, repetitive DNA sequences, most frequently located in noncoding regions of the genome, that have proven extremely valuable for localizing human disease genes within the genome.

� Radiation hybrid mapping (also referred to as RH mapping) may be a technique for mapping mammalian chromosomes. Radiation hybrid mapping uses X-ray breakage of chromosomes to work out the distances between DNA markers, also as their order on the chromosome.

� Radiation hybrid mapping has emerged towards end of the 1990s as a successful and



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complementary approach to map genomes, due to its ability to bridge the gaps between genetic and clone-based physical maps.

� ANALYSIS of plant genome organization, especially in grasses, is often complicated because of large genome sizes, a high proportion of repeated DNA sequences in a genome, and extensive gene or chromosome duplication or polyploidy (Flavell 1986; Lapitan 1992; Bennetzen and Freeling 1993; Gill and Gill 1994).

� Despite limited reports, RH mapping in plants has shown the power to uniquely map markers that would not be resolved through traditional genetic mapping.

Theory and Application

In radiation hybrid mapping, chromosomes are separated from one another and broken into

several fragments using high doses of X rays. Similar to the underlying principle of mapping genes by linkage analysis based on recombination events, the farther apart two DNA markers are on a chromosome, the more likely a given dose of X rays will break the chromosome between them and thus place the 2 markers on two different chromosomal fragments. The order of markers on a chromosome can be determined by estimating the frequency of breakage that, in turn, depends on the distance between the markers. This technique has been used to construct whole-genome radiation hybrid maps.

Technique

A method for ordering genetic loci along chromosomes. The method involves fusing irradiated donor cells with host cells of other species. Following cell fusion, fragments of DNA from the irradiated cells become integrated into the chromosome of the host cells.

Molecular probing of the DNA obtained from the fused cells is employed to work out if two or more genetic loci are located within an equivalent fragment of the donor cell DNA. During the culture of RH cell lines, chromosomal segments originating from the donor cells are randomly eliminated, while chromosomes from the receptor cell are conserved. Consequently, each independent RH cell line constituting an RH panel (usually composed of about one hundred lines) will contain a different set of chromosomal segments from the donor genome.

Rh Mapping Methodology

� RH mapping methodology is usually inspired by the linkage mapping.

� The two important parameters to be considered in RH mapping are the probability of breakage

between two markers and the retention probability of the donor chromosomal segment.

Relevance in Breeding

� Genetic variation is the key to phenotypic improvement in plants. Variation within the genome provides individuals the potential to interact with DNA adapt to changing environmental pressures and improve their chances of survival.

� Genetic variability in any population are often the results of natural processes like recombination, mistakes in DNA replication and repair, gene flow or induced mutagenesis which ends up from chemical or radiation treatment

� The use of radiation-induced changes on genes and chromosomes helps to understand



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the structure and function of plant genomes, dissect genetic mechanisms, and the potential

use of these changes for plant improvement.

19568

50. organellar Heterosis and ComplementationRACHANA BAGUDAM AND KIRANMAYEE BANGARU

Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana- 500030.

Heterosis could be a method of superior growth, development, differentiation and maturation ensuing from the interaction of genes, metabolism and environment. The nuclear genome considerably plays a major role in its expression. However, living substance additionally contain enough deoxyribonucleic acid to produce similar conditions of intracellular competitive interactions. The intra-organism genetic interaction between cellular organelles and between organelles and their nucleus could also be answerable for the combination of genetic info offered on completely different genomes, energy supply and substance flow in cellular functions. Many distinct lines of proof from biochemical, physiological, ultra-structural and restriction endonuclease DNA fragment analyses in different organisms are a measure of the 3 genetic sources - nuclear genome, mitochondrial genome and plastid genome that manifests the heterosis. Jones (1952) and Whaley (1952) were first to purpose out the role of cytoplasmic genome in expression

of heterosis. Mac key (1976) classified heterosis as Genomic heterosis: originates from nuclear genome and Plasmatic heterosis: originates from the cytoplasmic genome.

Mitochondrial Heterosis

The involvement of mitochondria in heterosis as judged by respiratory function (respiratory management magnitude relation and ADP:0 magnitude relation of isolated mitochondria) and higher enzyme activities within the hybrids. Mitochondrial complementation has been reported as correlated with seedling heterosis in maize. Also a lot of vigorous kinds of maize and soybean have tightly coupled mitochondria than the less vigorous varieties. A correlation between mitochondrial complementation heterosis and grain yield has been interpreted to indicate that mitochondrial activity is rate-limiting for yield and enhanced mitochondrial efficiency, the biochemical basis of heterosis. Recent extensive studies of mitochondrial complementation and



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grain yield in hybrid wheat, however, have given new clues to the detectable correlation between F1 yield heterosis and mitochondrial efficiency.

Chloroplast Heterosis

Chloroplast heterosis i.e. higher photosynthetic rates, have additionally been determined within the seedling stages. The term “chloroplast complementation” is usually used to indicate the larger activity of 1:1 parental mixture of isolated chloroplasts in comparison to the mid- parental values. Many studies have provided proof that hybrids are characterised to possess extremely developed spectrum line of mitochondria and plastid than their individual parents. The increase in size of the lamellae and thylakoid membrane structure within the plastid of the hybrid was directly related with their chlorophyll contents. The improved activities of plastid complementation were additionally found to be closely related to the degree of grain yield heterosis. These observations on plastid heterosis and complementation, recommend that hybrids endowed with efficient conservation of energy in their organelles.

Intergenomic Interaction and Organ Complementation

Intergenomic interaction between nuclear and organ genes may be a dominant theme in heterosis. Heterosis is associated to a larger extent with higher potency of mitochondria and plastid; organ heterosis is the result of complementation between polymorphic mitochondria and chloroplast, which can be transmitted biparentally (non- Mendelian) within the F1 hybrid. A potential operational mechanism of heterosis at the amount of mitochondria and plastid would involve complementation of proteins or peptide subunits

encoded by each nuclear and organ factors having non-additive gene effects rather than distinctive nuclear genome. The mechanism of intergenomic interaction in organelles of hybrid organisms would then be expected to make sure for increased structural and chemical change functions of those organelles.

Interspecific Complementation and Heterosis

It is thought of that organ polymorphism or non-uniformity as a reason behind hybrid vigour. Organ polymorphism may end up from recombination between organ genomes derived from the paternal and maternal sources because of biparental (non-mendelian) transmission. In parasexual hybrids, chloroplasts from each parents might stick together and be distributed to female offspring cells, with one form of plastid dominating the opposite. Mitochondria isolated from the seedlings of the hybrids and their parents showed completely different efficiencies of biological process throughout adenosine triphosphate synthesis, whereas the mitochondria from the non-heterotic hybrids had constant phosphorylated potency as that of the parents considered as an expression of heterosis. Superior mitochondrial and plastid functions caused by each genomic and intergenomic complementation are essential elements of heterosis. The result of intergenomic interaction in mitochondria and plastid of hybrid organisms would then be expected to exhibit increased structural, catalytic and regulatory functions resulting in heterosis Recombinant DNA technology have opened up the possibility not only of a greater understanding of heterosis as a phenomenon but of its directed utilization to make agriculture highly productive and efficient in terms of resource utilization and environmental cost.

19590

51. Pre-Breeding: A new Genetic Resource for Crop ImprovementZAFAR IMAM1*, MD. MAHTAB RASHID2 AND SURABHI SINHA3

1 Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding and Crop Physiology, Palli Siksha Bhavana (Institute of Agriculture), Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan-731236.2 Department of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Institute of Agriculture Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221005.3 Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Bihar Agricultural College, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur-813210.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

The exploitation of the existing genetic diversity and reinforcement of the plant breeding progression is a vital part of sustainable agriculture system to meet

the global food security which is possible through some novel strategies. It is surprising to know that, in spite of large collection of germplasm, only a few germplasm accessions (<1%) were used in the breeding programme due to cross incompatibility,



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undesirable linkage drag existing in the wild germplasm. Plant genetic resources (PGR) are a source of genetic variation and basic material for crop improvement programmes. About 7.4 million germplasm accessions have been conserved in more than 1750 ex-situ gene banks worldwide (FAO, 2010).

Pre-Breeding

Pre-breeding concerns to diagnose desirable characteristics and/or genes from unadapted materials which cannot be used directly in breeding populations and to transfer these traits into a bridge materials that breeders can use further in development of new varieties (GIPB/FAO, 2008). The plant breeders should ultimately, able to manipulate the intermediate materials further to develop new advance varieties by utilizing the wild relatives and other unimproved materials. The term ‘enhancement for germplasm’ was first used by Jones (1983), whereas Rick (1984) used the term ‘Pre-breeding’. Pre-breeding aims at introgression of desirable genes and base broadening of pre-breeding material.

The word ‘domestication’ was loosely defined by R.W. Allard, 1960 as “the bringing of a wild species under the human management”. It is a method of plant breeding, when successful, it provides domestication types that are superior to previously available methods”. Allard further improved the definition, “when a plant breeder transfers one or few desirable genes from a wild relative to a cultivated type, he is domesticating the wild species”. The current delineation of ‘pre-breeding’ also used as an equal sense as like Allard. So it defined as “any manipulation of germplasm leading to domestication”. The pre-breeding activity helps in broadening genetic base and genetic enhancement of many cultivated crop plants like chickpea and lentil through collaborative research work. The developed materials not only shown the yield improvement but also shown the increasing genetic diversity along with the emerging concern of heat, drought, new pathogen races and other stresses in India.

Difference between Genetic Resources and Pre-Breeding

The genetic resources well-defined as the sum of all the genes present in a crop species which is also with equivalent meaning referred to as genetic resources or genetic stock or germplasm or gene pool. Germplasm or gene pool is the basic material which is used by plant breeder to initiate the plant breeding programme.

Sir Otto Frankel coined the term ‘genetic resources’ only in 1968 shows that the plant breeders though aware of the gradual loss of the germplasm, failed to recognize the urgency of protecting the genetic resources of crop plants prior to a point of no return. The sum of all allelic

sources influencing a broad range of characters constitutes the plant genetic resources of a crop. These genetic wealth of crops acquired under natural conditions or human cultivation over millions of years of its existence and thus provides the source for further improvements through the natural or human interference.

Pre-breeding is a special approach for the use of wild and unadapted germplasm and landraces where the desirable gene complexes are transferred from wild species to good agronomic bases through specialized breeding programme. The desirable gene complexes from wild or primitive types are therefore, brought into these types before the start of actual breeding work.

Why and where Germplasm Resources Utilized Low?

Even though a large size germplasm collection is there, but plant breeders’ preference for working collections and the linkage drag associated with utilizing wild relatives in crop improvement programmes are the some of the reasons for whys for low utilization of germplasm resources. A large germplasm collection of most of the crop plants possesses lack of information about the trait of economic importance, which exhibit high genotype × environment interaction. This is a problematic situation for plant breeder to select the appropriate genetic diversity for use in their breeding programmes. So the alternative to avoid this problem is development of small-sized subsets such as core (Frankel and Brown, 1984) and minicore (Upadhyaya and Ortiz, 2001).

About 7.2 million accessions are available in over 1300 gene banks, but these accessions are not used optimally in crop improvement because:

� Lack of documentation and adequate description of collections.

� Insufficient evaluation of the collection. � Limited input provided by breeders during

documentation � Accessions with limited environmental

adaptability. � Accessible materials not always appropriate to

agronomic needs. � Adequately quantities of seeds are not

achievable in a timely manner.

Pre-Breeding Scheme Needs

� Close collaboration between gene bank manager and breeders.

� Greater likelihood of more complex hybridization issues.

� End product of pre-breeding is a raw material for breeding.

� Breeding result should be a new variety.



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Pre-Breeding is not necessary if anyone is available

� Commercially available adapted and acceptable varieties.

� Advanced selection, greatly adapted to the marked environment.

� Gene bank accessions that is greatly adapted to the marked environment.

Pre-Breeding Probably needed if anyone is available

� Gene bank accessions are not greatly adapted to the target environment.

� Closely related wild species easily crossed with the crop species.

� Wild species less closely related and more tough to cross.

Pre-Breeding as an Alternative to genetic resources

The limited usable genetic resource in the present situation is a specious threat to meet the growing food requirement to feed the billions. The global climate change also create alarming situation for better sustainable food security. The newly developed modern cultivars though increasing the food grain production, on the opposite side it also increases the genetic vulnerably by replacing the wild potential germplasms like local cultivars and landraces. The genetic vulnerability helps in emerging new races of pathogens and insect pests. These emerging problems badly need the efficient application of genetic resources through pre-breeding to develop not only the resistance cultivars but also quality products also.

Pre-Breeding for Assessing Novel Genes

The achievement of any crop improvement program build upon the availability of sufficient genetic variability, but this variability must be in conventionally consistent. The variability present in any crop germplasm preserved in gene banks broadly classify into three groups: (1) Cultivated type, (2) Cross-compatible wild type and (3) Cross-incompatible wild type.

The cultivated type germplasm’s genetic variability is either poor in agronomic or genetic background not used directly in conventional breeding programmes. The linkage drag play a major role for genetic variability in wild species during cultivar development. Under such situations, pre-breeding offers a unique tool to increase the use of genetic variability available in both cultivated and wild type germplasm. Pre-breeding concerns all the action associated with identification of desirable traits and/or genes from inappropriate germplasm (donor) that cannot be used directly in breeding populations (exotic/wild species), and to transfer these traits into well-adapted germplasm.

Improvement of Pre-Breeding Materials

The following efforts may enhance the activity of pre-breeding materials:

� Information on gene pool origins, domestication syndrome traits, molecular diversity and mapping data of the wild forms.

� Indirect screening for the biotic and abiotic stresses.

� Marker-assisted selection.

Pre-Breeding should aims at

� Identify potentially appropriate genes in a coherent and documented gene bank.

� Design strategy that leads to evolution of an enhanced germplasm ready to use in varietal development.

� Pre-breeding is a collaborative endeavour, i.e., reinforced by intercommunication, between gene bank curators and breeders.

Conclusion

� Domestication and selections (plant breeding and farmers) have narrowed the base of our most gene pools.

� Interests over long-term sustainability of crop improvement emanate in enhanced conservation and viable use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA).

� Direct use of gene bank accessions in breeding programmes is determined with constraints.

� Pre-breeding is a bridge between gene banks and crop improvement programmes.

References

[1]. Allard, R. W., (1966), Principles of plant breeding. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

[2]. FAO, (2010). The second report on the state world’s plant genetic resources for Food and Agriculture. Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA), Rome.

[3]. Pre-breeding and genetic enhancement in breaking yield barriers in kabuli chickpea and lentil through DAC-ICARDA-ICAR collaboration, Project proposal, 2010.

[4]. Sharma, S., (2017). Pre-breeding using wild species for genetic enhancement of grain legumes at ICRISAT. Crop Science. 57:1132–1144.

[5]. Smith, G. A., (1993). Theory of pre-breeding. USDA- Agriculture research service, North Crop Science Laboratory, Fargo, ND 58105.

[6]. Vinay, K. and Shukla, Y. M., (2014). Pre-breeding: its application in crop improvement. Research News for U (RNFU), Double helix research. Vol-16.



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19598

52. somaclonal Variation: A Biotechnological tool for Crop ImprovementMAINAK BARMAN

Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar

Introduction

The term ‘somaclone’ was coined to refer the plants derived from any form of cell culture which is identical both biochemically and genetically to the donor plant from which it is generated. Somaclonal variation can be referred to any variations (epigenetic or genetic) in plants that have been produced by plant tissue culture and can be detected as phenotypic or genetic traits. The term “gametoclonal variation” is employed for the variations detected in the regenerated plants from gametic cells (e.g., anther culture). For the plants obtained from protoplast cultures, the term “proto-clonal variation” is used. Somaclonal variation provides a great promise for trimming the time down that is necessary to generate new crop varieties or breeding lines which are patentable in a easy manner due to their novel variation.

History

� The term “Somaclone” was coined by Larkin and Scowcroft in the year 1981. They are the pioneers in the study of Somaclonal variation.

� Chaleff in the year 1981 considered variants

as R or P plants from tissue culture and selfed progeny as R0 as R1.

� Shepard et al. first developed Protoclones. � Term “gametoclonal variation” was coined by

Evans et al. � Phillips et al. in the year 1994 put forwarded

that somaclonal variation is driven by a stress-response mechanism.

Mechanisms of Somaclonal Variations

1. Genetic

� These are the variations in the somatic cells of explants which are pre-existing

� These are caused by mutations and/or other changes of DNA

� These occur at high frequency

2. Epigenetic

� These are variations generated during tissue culture

� These are caused by temporary changes in phenotypic level

� These occur at a low frequency

Fig.1 Causes of somaclonal variation



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Some factors which Influence the Somaclonal Variation

1. The system by which the induction of regeneration is done.

2. Type of the tissue under culture.3. Source of the explants.4. Media components.5. The duration of culture cycle.6. Genetic constitution of the donor plant.

Limitations

There is no specific and directed approach for the isolation of somaclones without the in-vitro selection. Therefore, the appearance of a trait of desire is purely by possibility. Further, this method is very time consuming and necessitates screening of numerous plants.

Some of the Commercial Varieties

� “Ono” variety of sugarcane is a Fiji disease-resistant somaclone of the susceptible cultivar Pindar.

� “Scarlet” a sweet potato cultivar that was selected from shoot tip culture-derived clones.

� A geranium variety called “Velvet Rose” is a somaclone of “Rober’s Lemon Rose”.

� An alfalfa variety called “Sigma” is a poly cross of selected somaclones.

� Flax variety “Andro” is an early developing salt-tolerant variant of variety “Macgreor”

� A somaclonal variant of the Brassica juncea variety “Varuna” has been released as “Pusa Jai Kisan” in India.

� A somaclone of khesari (Lathyrus sativus) has low neurotoxin content; it has been released

as “Ratan” for commercial cultivation in India.

Advantages of Somaclonal Variations

� Help in crop improvement � Creation of additional genetic variations � Increased and improved production of

secondary metabolites � Selection of plants resistant to various toxins,

herbicides, high salt concentration and mineral toxicity

� Suitable for breeding of tree species

Disadvantages of Somaclonal Variations

� A serious disadvantage takes place in the operations which have need of clonal uniformity, as in the forestry and horticulture industries where the tissue culture is employed for rapid propagation of the elite genotypes.

� Sometimes it leads to undesirable results. � The selected variants are random and also

genetically unstable. � These are not suitable for complex agronomic

traits like quality, yield etc. � These may develop variants having the

pleiotropic effects which are not true.

Conclusion

Somaclonal variation is a multifaceted phenomenon which consequences from a multiplicity of genetic and cellular mechanisms. Even though we are beginning to realize how these mechanisms outcome in the creation of variability in culture, a lot more work is required to develop our understanding of the key procedures engaged before the reasons and origins of somaclonal variation can be explicated.

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53. High throughput Phenotyping (HtP): tools to Accelerate Crop BreedingVERSHA AND NEHA ROHILLA

Ph.D. Scholars, Dept. of Genetics and Plant Breeding, CCS HAU, Hisar-125004*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Over the next thirty years, the global human population is expected to grow by 25% and reach to 10 billion then the crop production must double by 2050 to meet the predicted demands of the global population. To meet future needs there is a need to increase breeding efficiency. Advances in high-throughput genotyping have provided fast and reasonable genomic information and the low cost, high-throughput genotyping has covered the way for the development of large mapping populations.

Plant phenotyping is still the bottleneck as

the development of techniques for the detailed and accurate recording of important agronomical traits and crop monitoring are lagging behind. The method of phenotyping may also vary based on the crop, trait, developmental stages and the resources available. HTP can enable screening of larger number of samples with higher accuracy and reduced costs, thereby improving the selection intensity and accuracy of breeding programs.



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Requirement of HTP

Plant breeding programs and farming have different phenotyping requirements. While the main goals of phenotyping in plant breeding are:

� To identify plants with improved traits � Monitoring crops for fertilizer requirement

and weed detection in crop cultivation � Future detection of pathogens and pests

holds great promise to revolutionize precision agriculture

� Evaluation of traits that are invisible to the naked eye or are correlated with the trait of interest

Tools Used For HTP

� Satellite Imaging: Satellite imaging is readily available with multispectral spatial resolution ranging from 1.24 m to 260 m. The major limitations with satellite imaging are the weather conditions, frequency of imaging, resolution, costs for imaging and the time it takes from image acquisition to access.

� UAVs: UAVs are broadly classified into four groups, namely parachutes, blimps, rotocopters and fixed-wing systems. Rotocopters are normally flown at an altitude between 10 and 200 m, thus providing a significantly higher spatial resolution and a lower ground sampling distance compared to satellites that are at an altitude of approximately 700 km.

� Proximal Phenotyping: Phenotyping of plants done with ground-based vehicles and sensors is categorized as proximal phenotyping. Sensors can be handheld or mounted on phenotyping platforms such as vehicles, stationary towers and cable suspensions. Handheld sensors

are commonly used for estimating plant chlorophyll fluorescence, canopy temperature, nitrogen content, leaf area and plant height.

Why HTP tools?

� To collect the data from large number of plots � Measurement of secondary traits that

correlated with yield � Minimize experimental error � Minimize human error � Save time and resources � Handle large data set with minimal efforts � Enhanced genetic gain

High-Throughput Phenotyping for Plant Breeding

The main goal of plant breeding is to develop new cultivars that perform better than those cultivars that grown in the target population of environments. This increase in performance achieved in a given time through artificial selection i.e., genetic gain. This approach accelerates evaluation of genotypes (breeding lines, populations and cultivars) in diverse environments (weather, soil, or abiotic stress related to salinity and watering) and under different management practices and input use (fertilizers, pesticides and tillage).

References

Chawade, A., Van Ham, J., Blomquist, H., Bagge, O., Alexandersson, E., Ortiz, R (2019). High-throughput field-phenotyping tools for plant breeding and precision agriculture. agronomy, 9, 258.

Araus, J. L., & Cairns, J. E. (2014). Field high-throughput phenotyping: the new crop breeding frontier. Trends in plant science, 19(1), 52-61.

BIOTECHNOLOGY

19589

54. the Role of Biotechnology in the Development of ecologically safer techniques to Cater to the need of the escalating Population1SHRI HARI PRASAD, 2AMIT AHUJA AND 3DR. SANDHYA1M.Sc. Scholar, CPBMB, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, Kerala2Ph.D. Scholar, Division of Nematology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi-123Scientist, ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi-12

Introduction: 1The escalating population around the world is pausing a negative impact

on the environment and biodiversity directly or indirectly. The industrial pollutants and



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agricultural chemicals have exponentially enhanced environmental pollution. The research interests of the scientific communities are shifting towards the development of ecologically safer technologies to cater to the routine demands of people. The role of biotechnology in environmental protection is enormous, but its potential is yet to be realized. The development of biotechnological based cleaner technologies will help in the reduction of environmental pollution.

The Role of Biotechnology in Environmental Protection

1. Application of friendly microbes for biodegrading of toxic pollutants.

2. Development of efficient techniques for the production of environmentally safer energy sources like biodiesel, bioethanol etc.

3. Development of biological-based agricultural inputs, like bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides

Management of industrial pollutants

Since the last two decades, there are a huge number of microbes are being utilized in the biodegradation of industrial pollutants. These microbes are safer for the environment. By using biotechnological tools, these microbes can be multiplied at large scale fermenters and can be directly applied in the pollutant discharge units. In this way, the direct exposure of pollutants to the environment can be reduced.

Metabolic engineering of biological pathways

The altered genetic pathways of useful microbes help in the ample production of vitamins, proteins, insulins, enzymes and other consumable products in an ecological safer ways.

Bioremediation

The alteration of the environment to stimulate the growth and development of micro-organism to treat the contaminated water, soil and subsurface material is done by the bioremediation process. The microbial reactions lead to the degradation of hazardous pollutants by in-situ or ex-situ bioremediation processes.

Microbial pumping to remove heavy metals

Recently many micro-organisms have been tested for their efficacy to remove heavy metals from liquid wastes. The microbial-based removal of heavy metals is cost-effective and reduces the

development of another secondary pollutant. Bioaccumulation and biosorption are the way of metal uptake by microbes.

Air and aquatic pollution management by Bio scrubber

These biological scrubbers use combined techniques for water absorption and treatment. The wastewater is passed through a biologically active column where pollutants are absorbed by active media attached on the surface of the column and further it is treated to improve its quality.

Development of Biofertilizers and Biopesticides

The long term uses of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are posing threat to aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity. Biotechnology has played an enormous role in the development of biopesticides and bio-fertilizer, which caters to the need of farmers while it does not cause any negative impact on the ecosystem. By using biotechnology and genetic engineering processes, the efficacy of these beneficial microbes can be enhanced.

Biotechnology in clean energy development

Bioethanol

Bioethanol is mainly produced by microbial fermentation of agricultural wastages abundant in sugar and starches. These bioethanol are utilized as an alternative fuel to petrol and diesel in many countries.

Biogas

Many useful microbes are used in the development of biogas by digesting cellulose-rich agricultural waste materials. These biogases are rich in methane and can be utilized as an alternative to LPG or CNG. The processed and left residues can be utilized as manure in the agricultural fields.

Conclusion

The role of biotechnology in recent days is emphasizing at every scales. The industrial sectors related to food, cosmetics, drug development, etc. are directly or indirectly dependent on biotechnology. These techniques are proven to be safer for the environment and do not cause harm to the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem. The full potential of the role of biotechnology in environmental protection is yet to be realized.



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19597

55. therapeutic ProteinsAMRITA GIRI

Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidalaya Raipur (C.G.)*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

In the largest challenges of India the most important one is the day by day growing population and their increasing demand for fulfilment of basic needs of life. We know that in major part of Indian economy is covered by agriculture and it is the prime way of fulfilling requirement of population. Hence the need of time is advancing agriculture by advancement of tools and technology. In such situation over the all potent tool recombinant proteins are a powerful tools for encounter many diseases which have previously been hard to treat or which affect the yield. Hence these proteins are better option for reduce the losses due to biotic factors and they can be used to treat hazardous disease of mammals. In different way of production of proteins using a plant as producing agent is the best way of generation of such proteins as some therapeutic proteins are very expensive to produce and combination of agriculture and biotechnology for production of new biomolecule for the benefit of human being is known as biopharming. Therapeutic recombinant proteins are exogenic proteins that are expressed in a production organism and used for the treatment or eradication of disease in humans, animals and plants. These therapeutic recombinant proteins have become the latest great upstart in the field of pharmaceuticals. Since then large number of recombinant protein drugs have come to the market, and hundreds more are currently in development. They can be produced by using recombinant DNA technology (Fig -1) Recombinant proteins have a refined and specific mechanics of action. Their size and complexity make chemically synthesizing proteins incredibly difficult, so these new drugs must be produced biologically using the protein synthesis machinery found in all cells. Therapeutic proteins are translated products of exogenous DNA in living cells and the production of these protein consist two major step molecule cloning and protein expression. In previous time, the prime way to obtain a specific protein was to separate it from a natural source, which is generally tedious inadequate and time-consuming. Recent advancement in molecule biological techniques have made it possible to clone the DNA encoding a specific protein into an expression vector and express the protein in expression systems, such

as bacteria, yeast, insect cells, and mammalian cells. There are a lot of basic issues that must be revising when think over the most appropriate expression system to produce a therapeutic recombinant protein which is protein size, folding and solubility, post-translation modification, genetic engineering and growth condition and rate. But with the advancement of the tool, now plant has become capable to work as expression system for production of therapeutic proteins for example transcripts of human growth hormone fusion gene were expressed in tobacco and sunflower callus tissues. This was the first report that proved that plants can express human genes and plants became as a powerful production system for recombinant therapeutic proteins. Later on, the expression of a full-sized IgG in tobacco and production of the first human protein (serum albumin) in tobacco and potato have proved the “authenticity” of plant-derived recombinant proteins. Hence plants are the potent tool to produce complex mammalian medical importance proteins and in this aspect Arabidopsis thaliana is used as model plant due to their small genome, easy genetics and availability of mutants. Tobacco alfalfa lettuce, some cereals (Maize wheat and Rice), Legume (pea and Soybean), Fruit and vegetables (Banana, potato and tomato) and oilseed crops (Safflower) can also be used for this aspect. Now a day’s these plants are using as transgenic plants on wide scale due to their high production yield, low production cost, unlimited gene size and inexpensive cost of maintenance. On the other hand nuclear transformation having some disadvantage over plastid transformation like it can’t express several genes simultaneously, low expression level, multiple transformation system is required, need of selection markers, risk of outcrossing, random integration and gene silencing Different ways of protein expression in plants are stable nuclear transformation, plastid transformation, transient transformation and stable transformation for hydroponics. In this way by using biopharming we can produce pharmaceutical intermediates, industrial protein and enzymes of agricultural importance, monoclonal antibodies, biopolymers and edible vaccines. But there are some challenges faced by



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plant expression system and perhaps the biggest challenge facing protein expression in plants are the concerns around GM crops. Main concerns comprise the spread of modified recombinant genes through seed dispersal, pollen dispersal, viral transfer or horizontal transfer; therapeutic proteins getting into the food supply of humans or animals; and adverse effects on organisms in the environment. The another problem is that drug companies are unwished to risk the huge amount of money need to get a new product approved by the large drug approval administrations if there is beforehand a proven alternative expression system with regulatory approval. Protein stability

and post-translational modification is also a major problem with plant expression system. After the understanding of recombinant protein expression systems progression and their limitations, companies will be able to make appropriate choices on the ideal expression systems available to produce a specific therapeutic protein. Plant expressions systems will no doubt fit into this aspect, but how much they are utilized depend upon how effectively the challenges can be overcome.

Keywords: - Therapeutic proteins, Recombinant DNA technology, Plant expression system.

Fig -1- General recombinant DNA technology for production of Therapeutic protein.

MICROBIOLOGY

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56. An Accident between Replication and transcription in BacteriaVIKRAM, K. V1*., WAGHMARE, V. V2., SHRINIKETAN PURANIK1 AND SRUTHY, K. S1.1ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi- 110 0122University of Ag. Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru- 560 065*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Most bacteria possess circular chromosome and its replication starts at a defined origin (terC) and proceeds bidirectionally (clockwise and anticlockwise) until they reach the terminal site (ter) where it ends. But the process is far more complicated than what is ought to be thought.

The replication machineries have to face many obstacles like DNA binding proteins before they make their way. The major obstacle is RNA Polymerase (RNAP), since the process of replication and transcription is not separated spatially and temporally and collision between the



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replication complex and RNAP are expected to occur. Two types of collisions are probable to occur based on which strand the genes are transcribed. One is head on collision where the replication and transcription machineries meet face to face i.e., when the lagging strand genes are transcribed. The other is co-directional collision where both the machineries are on the same direction i.e., when

the leading strand genes are transcribed. Even though replication and transcription complexes move in the same direction in case of co-directional collision, there will be frequent encounters between these two complexes as the speed of replication is 12-30 times faster than that of transcription. They are likely to occur at highly transcribed regions and at the sites of backtracked RNAPs.

Image from Soultanas, 2011

Both kinds of collisions have negative consequences, affecting replication process and also on the survivability of the cell but the severity are more in case of head-on collision as there is direct encounter between replication and transcription. Stalling of replication process, replisome disassembly, replisome disassembly, reversal of replication forks, R-loop formation, positive supercoiling of DNA are the major consequences that arise during the conflicts. In response the cells have developed resolving mechanisms to combat these consequences such as Pri proteins for the reassembly of the replisome (PriA in B. subtilis, DnaC in E. coli), Rec and Ruv proteins to resolve the reversed replication fork, Type II topoisomerase to relieve positive coiling and in addition accessory helicases like DinG, Rep and/ UvrA (PcrA in B. subtilis) can remove RNAPs from DNA and the RNAP modulators like DksA in E.coli, Gre A/B can act to rescue the backtracked RNAPs which reduces the severity of the conflict. It is found that always more genes are encoded on the leading strand compared to the lagging strand especially when highly transcribed and essential genes are considered. It is assumed that this gene orientation bias is a result of the migration of genes to the leading strand over evolutionary time and the decrease in the number of severe head-

on conflicts has been found by the orientation of gene on leading strand. However, this strategy is not applicable for most of the core genes which are required for stress survival, pathogenesis and other genes which are generally present on the lagging strand.

From the recent studies it has been found that the severity of head-on conflicts is due to the formation of R-loops which is pervasively formed when the gene is in the lagging strand (head-on orientation) and during active replication and transcription. R-loops are nucleic acid structures where a nascent mRNA anneals to the coding DNA (DNA:RNA hybrid) strand outside the transcription bubble, leaving the displaced noncoding DNA single-stranded. These R-loops are resolved by RNAse HIII enzymes in bacteria. It results in complete blockage of replication, elevated mutagenesis, gene expression defects and finally lethality of cells if these R-loops are left unresolved.

The increased mutagenesis due to the head-on conflict is believed to have a role in evolution of many stress survival and pathogenesis genes which are usually located on the lagging strand in bacteria. These genes are highly induced under stress conditions and/or pathogenesis during active replication leading to head conflict and



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thereby increased mutation rates. Some resulting positive mutations help the bacteria to adapt to new conditions or in virulence.

References

Lang, K. S., Hall, A. N., Merrikh, C. N., Woodward, J. J., Dreifus, J. E. and Merrikh, H. (2017) Replication-Transcription conflicts generate

R-loops that orchestrate bacterial stress survival and pathogenesis. Cell, 170: 787–799.

Lang, K. S. and Merrikh, H. (2018) The clash of macromolecular titans: Replication-Transcription conflicts in bacteria. Ann. Rev. Microbiol., 72: 71-88.

Soultanas, P., 2011, Replication transcription conflict, Transcription, 2(3): 140–144.

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57. Preservation of Microorganisms for Long times1LALITA LAKHRAN, 1MEERA CHOUDHARY 2BIMLA AND 3GARIMA VAISHNAV1Department of Plant Pathology, S.K.N. College of Agriculture Jobner, Jaipur, Rajasthan 3033282Division of Plant Pathology, Rajasthan Agriculture Research Institute, Durgapura, Jaipur,3Department of Plant breeding and genetics, S.K.N. College of Agriculture Jobner, Jaipur, Rajasthan 303328

Introduction

Preservation of microorgansism is necessary to reduce their metabolism and store for long time. Preservation of microorganism to main their identity in the original form and also helps in utilization of useful mutants in long term genetic studies. During preservation extended viable period and stop the microbial growth.

Why Preservation is Needed??

� Because repeated subculturing is time-consuming.

� It become to difficult to maintain a large no of pure cultures successfully for a long time.

� There is a risk of genetic changes as well as contamination.Importance of Preservation: Used in

Fermentation industry, Biotechnological work and research purpose.

These methods include:

1. Periodic transfer of fresh media (subculturing): Strains can be maintained by periodically preparing a fresh culture from the previous stock culture. The culture medium, storage temperature and time interval at which the transfer are made vary with the species and must be ascertained. This method rapidly available and cheap. Culture tube stored at 5-80c needs transferring every 6-8months. Transfer can be made using spore mass and mycelia transfer should be restricted to non sporulating fungi.

2. Mineral Oil: In this method culture will be covered with sterile mineral oil at least 1cm

deep to prevent dehydration of medium and to reduce metabolic activities and growth of culture. Fungi that produce or liquefy media are not suitable, like Fusarium.

Example: Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola (4 years) and Venturia inequalis (2 year)

3. Drying: Pathogen when dried infected host tissue or agar culture and stored in low humidity in a refrigerator for a long period of time. Example: Cochiobolus heterostophus is stored for 15 years at 100c.

4. Refrigeration: Pure cultures can be stored at 0-40c either in refrigerators or in cold rooms. This method for short duration (2-3 week for bacteria and 3-4 months for fungi) because the metabolic activities of the microorganism are greatly slowed down but not stocked, thus their growth continues slowly nutrient are utilized and waste products are released in the medium. This results in the death of the microbes after sometimes, so regular subculturing is essential. Cultures grown on agar slants in bottles or test tubes with screw caps can be placed directly in the freezer. Examples: Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci for 2year at -200C.

5. Cryopreservation or liquid nitrogen method: In this method the cultures are rapidly frozen in liquid nitrogen at -1960C in the presence of stabilizing agent such as glycerol of Dimethyl sulfo oxide (DMSO) that prevent the cell damage due to formation of ice crystals and promotes cell survival. Culture is shield into small ampoules and stored in liquid



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nitrogen refrigerate at -1960C. This method has been successful with many species of bacteria can remain viable under this condition for 10-30 years without undergoing change in their characters however this method is expensive.

6. Lyopsilization and vacuum drying: It also known as freezing and drying method. Principle of lyopsilization is the reduction spore water content to 2-3% by vacuum drying and storage in the absence of oxygen and water vapour. Freezing before drying by submation is essential. In this method the culture is rapidly frozen at very low temperature (-700C) and then dehydrated by vacuum. Under these conditions microbial cells are dehydration and their metabolic activities are stocked. As a result of this the microbes into this method dormant and remain viable more than 30 years. Lyopsilization/ freeze dried pure

cultures are shield and stored in dark at 40C in refrigeration.

7. Soil: Some fungi can be preserved under dry and sterile soil or sand for many years. This method easily and successfully for soil fungi like rhizoctonia and fusarium. Spore suspension is poured into sterile soi; allowed to grow for 10-12 days and the culture can be stored on agar slants.

References

Kumar, S., Kashyap, P.L. and Srivastava, A. (2013). Preservation and maintenance of microbial cultures. Springer. DOI:10.1007/978-3-642-34410-7_11. Page no. 135-152.

Prakash, Om., Nimonkar, Y., and Shouche, Y.S. (2013). Practice and prospects of microbial preservation. FEMS microbiology letters. 339(1):1-9.

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58. Quorum sensing in BacteriaK. GREESHMA1, HUMA NAZNEEN2 AND A. JAWAHAR REDDY3

1Ph.D Scholar, Plant Pathology, PJTSAU, Hyderabad, Telangana.2Ph.D Scholar, Plant Pathology, BCKV, Nadia, West Bengal.3Ph.D Scholar, Entomology, ANGRAU, Bapatla, Andhra Pradesh.

Bacteria have specific characters for causing diseases in the plants. Unlike fungi bacteria are not able to directly penetrate the cuticle of plants, they tend to enter through wounds or natural openings and then colonise the apoplast or xylem. Prior to colonization bacteria inhabit phyllosphere or rhizosphere at low densities as saprophytes. For colonization to occur at higher densities resulting in infection expression certain virulence factors is essential. The mechanism that is controlling the expression is identified as Quorum sensing. It is the regulation of gene expression in response to

fluctuations in the cell density. Quorum sensing is the common communication mechanism used by bacteria that enables them to sense population density and respond through the regulation of particular genes. It involves production of certain biochemical signal molecules either actively or passively by the bacterial cell into the surrounding environment which are recognized by specific receptors once they exceed a threshold concentration resulting in change in the gene expression.

Fig.1: Quorum Sensing In Gram –Ve And Gram +Ve Bacteria

In Gram-negative bacteria system produces autoinducers, which are diffusible signal molecules that can pass in and out through the bacterial cell

membrane. In Gram + positive system is different involving modified oligonucleotides secreted via. ABC transporter mechanism and detected via. two-



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component histidine kinase signal transduction systems. Quorum sensing in Erwinia cartovora is mediated by N-acyl homoserine lactoses and in Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae secreted conserved sulphated peptides called Ax21, which mediate quorum sensing by controlling pathogen mobility, biofilm formation and virulence.

The key protein components of Gram-negative systems are the LuxI family of AHL synthases and the LuxR family of transcriptional activators. The AHL synthases catalyse the formation of AHL

(N-acyl homoserine lactone) signal molecules from S- adenosyl methionine, in which the N-acyl chains are provided via acyl-acyl carrier proteins or acyl-coenzyme A. The LuxR transcriptional activator proteins function as a dimer and possess an amino-terminal membrane-bound regulatory domain that binds the AHLs, and a carboxy-terminal DNA-binding domain. This domain interacts directly with a target sequence, the ‘lux’ box that is present in the regulatory regions of specific genes and results in activation of transcription.

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59. Mitochondria Microbial Cross-talk, a Vital Interaction?1*SRUTHY K. S., 1VIKRAM K. V., 1SHRINIKETAN PURANIK AND 2WAGHMARE V. V.1Ph.D. Scholar, Division of Microbiology, IARI, New Delhi2Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Agricultural Microbiology, UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Human body is home for more than fifty trillion microorganisms that outnumber human cells. In the recent past, the intimate connection between gut microbiome and health has been subjected for intense research and many of them says that, you are what you host. The relation between mitochondria and microorganism were spectacularly clued from endosymbiotic theory which says, mitochondria were free-living aerobic bacteria taken inside during endosymbiosis. Bacteria like respiration was believed to be lost after endosymbiosis and subsequent evolution inside the eukaryotic cell. However, these lost processes in mitochondria were found to manifest again under specific conditions such as hypoxia where, mammalian cardiomyocytes use fumarate as an alternative electron acceptor at mitochondrial complex II. This bringing forth the possibility that, products of microbial fermentation influence mitochondrial metabolism. Moreover, polymorphism in ND5, CYTB genes of mitochondrial genome are found to be strongly associated with specific microbiota composition. Some of the pharmacological research says that, patients with mitochondrial neuro-gastrointestinal encephalomyopathy are more prone to bacterial infection than the general population.

Gut derived Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Mitochondria

Microorganisms produce various short-chain fatty acids in the gut such as, butyrate, acetate and propionate. Butyrate concentration in portal vein falls from 22% to 8% and a colon-

specific decrease in NADH/NAD+ ratio was also reported. This discoveries indicating a direct link between mitochondria and microbes, mitochondria of colonocytes use butyrate in TCA cycle to reduce NAD+. Besides, butyrate is found to stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis. However, higher concentration of butyrate is associated with uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation and progressive degradation of mitochondrial function, possibly by effects on electron transport chain. Propionate is consumed as a substrate for gluconeogenesis. A fall in propionate fraction is also found from 21% (portal vein) to 12% (hepatic vein). Acetate is the most abundant SCFA. In isolated perfused rat hearts and its purified mitochondrial fraction, use of acetate as a primary fuel impaired fatty acid oxidation, depleted ATP and had cardio-depressant effects. In another study, acetate was found to increase mitochondrial respiration in yeast, but reduces functionality and accelerates aging.

Other Metabolites Influence Mitochondria

Gut microbes such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli produce a large quantity of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) by degradation of sulfur amino acids in the gut. Elevated levels of H

2S inhibit cytochrome

oxidase and block electron transfer at ETC complex IV. However, at low levels hydrogen peroxide enhance glutathionine (ROS scavenger). Mitochondria are often targeted by pathogenic bacteria. For example, Listeria infection leads to fragmentation of the mitochondrial network. In some microbial infections, to overcome the



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mitochondrial effect on the immune response, microbiota tend to directly reduce mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production. Ehrlichia chaffeensis up-regulate mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) and lower ROS content and reduces host cell apoptosis. Metabolic analysis of human blood has shown that a large fraction of the circulating small metabolites derives from the gut microbiome. IPA and other indole derived metabolites have been shown to re-establish the mitochondrial respiration and membrane potential derived from microbes. Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) is another metabolite, identified as a co-factor in the bacterial respiratory pathway also found to stimulate mammalian mitochondrial biogenesis via a PGC1-alpha dependent pathway PQQ-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase (PQQ-ADH) activity of Acetobacter pomorum, a commensal, modulates energy metabolism in Drosophila.

Overlap between Microbial and Mitochondrial Metabolism

Extraction and release of metabolites by microbiome would regulate mitochondrial metabolism in different ways. As the studies says, the gut microbiome have the capacity to critically regulate availability of amino acids to the host and strongly influences glutathione metabolism. Moreover, mitochondrial and microbial reactome study shows that, 437 mitochondrial metabolites

mapped to KEGG, 325 were also found in a set of similarly annotated microbial metabolites. As an extension of this, about 80 diseases are found to be linked with both gut microbiome as well as mitochondria. This includes, neurological disorders such as, Parkinson, autism and alzheimers, gastrointestinal disorders like colitis, diarrhea and constipation. Some of the metabolic disorders such as, obesity, hypertension and asthma also affect both gut microbiome and mitochondria. This gives a direct evidence for cross between microbiota and mitochondria.

Conclusion and Future Perspectives

The role of mitochondria during the host-microbiota cross-talk is essential and microbiota species tend to control mitochondrial activity in order to favour interaction and infection. The response of the host cell toward the presence of microbiota is dependent on the presence of factors released by the microbiota that will increase (SCFA) or decrease (NO) mitochondrial activity. From the various studies conducted, it is evident that, this particular interaction gains importance in various diseases. Till date, elucidation of particular classes of microbes that are mitochondria-friendly or mitochondria-antagonistic is not conducted. This may help for improving health-related aspects. Mitochondria-targeted treatment of gut microbiota related diseases is another future perspective of the cross talk studies.

PLANT PATHOLOGY

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60. Protein – nucleic Acid Interaction techniques to Identify Molecular Host-Pathogen InteractionDARSHAN K* AND M. GURIVI REDDY

Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012, India*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

The relationship between host and pathogens is characterized by how microbes or viruses sustain themselves at the level of molecular, cell, organism or population within host. Microbes can infect the host and divide quickly, causing disease thereby affect the homeostatic imbalance in the plant, or by excreting toxins which cause symptoms. In this chapter, Protein-nucleic acid interactions techniques have been discussed to predict molecular host-pathogen interactions.

1. Protein-Nucleic Acid Interactions

A wide range of bio physio-chemical methods have been used to study interactions between proteins and nucleic acids. Particularly good for determining the strength (affinity) of the interactions

� High affinity, μM – nM: tend to involve sequence-specific interactions, e.g. Restriction enzymes

� Low affinity, mM – μM: proteins tend to recognise aspects of “overall” structure i.e. not



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sequence-dependent

A. Gel Shift Assay or Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA)

Biochemical approach used to elucidate protein-nucleic acid-binding. The DNA moves faster if not bound to protein through the gel. A decrease in electrophoretic mobility indicates that between DNA and protein a complex is formed. It can be used to identify DNA-binding proteins present in a nuclear cell extract.

A radiolabelled nucleic acid is combined with the reference protein in this experiment. Binding is determined by means of gel electrophoresis that separates components based on weight, load and conformation. It is a technique that is simple, effective and sensitive.

Methods

a) Preparation of purified or crude protein sample

b) Preparation of nucleic acidc) Binding reactionsd) Non-denaturing gel electrophoresise) Detection of the outcome

B. DNA footprinting (David Galas and Albert Schmitz, 1978)

A tool to analyze the specific sequence of DNA-binding in vitro protein. This method can be used to study protein–DNA interactions within and outside the cell. This technique helps clarify which protein binds to the associated DNA regions and unravel the dynamics of transcriptional regulation. At its binding site, protein-bound DNA will be protected against chemical cleavage.

FIG.1 Protein-DNA Footprinting

Principle: Nucleases such as DNase I are used in this method to kill the DNA molecule. Nucleases cannot degrade DNA if they are bounded by a protein. Therefore, nucleases protect the area from degradation. Isolate a DNA fragment thought to contain a binding site.

a) In one tube bind protein to DNA; hold the other as a “naked DNA”

b) To cleave the DNA, treat the two samples with chemical or enzymatic agent

c) Place the fragments apart through gel electrophoresis and display the strips on an

X-ray film or imaging plate

Applications

� To identify the binding sites of proteins in a DNA molecule.

� To identify whether a particular protein can activate or inhibit transcription.

� To detect where proteins bind to DNA in a living cell.



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19520

61. Current status of Rice Blast Management: Present and PastASHARANI PATEL1*, SAHIL MEHTA2, KULESHWAR PRASAD SAHU1 AND MUKESH KUMAR1

1Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR- IARI, New Delhi, India2International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

1. Introduction

In accordance with the data from Statista, the cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the second most widely grown cereal food for more than 50% of the whole human population (Mehta et al., 2019). Since the traditional time, multiple Asian countries including India produce around 90% of the total world rice (Mehta et al., 2019). Especially in India, it is grown in more than half of the total Indian states with West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab being the largest three rice-producing Indian states. More than 80% of area is covered by rice production which is mainly contributed by rural households and generating income for around 85% of population. However, 50% of the global rice productivity is constrained by multiple abiotic (growing environment conditions) and biotic stresses (weeds, pathogens, pests and rodents). Among all the stresses, Magnaporthe oryzae B. C. Couch (syn. Pyricularia oryzae Cavara), the causing agent of rice blast disease solely induce the 10% global yield losses approximately (Mehta et al., 2019).

2. Etiology

Conidia are 3-celled pyriform to top-shaped obclavate attached to the broader base through a hilum (Atkinson et al., 2002).

3. Symptoms

All the stages of the rice crop are affected by the devastating pathogen from the seedlings (in nursery) to the grain formation stage (in fields). As a result, the blast lesions are formed at multiple organs including leaf, node, neck, etc. Primarily in leaf blast, the elliptical lesions or grey-coloured centric spindle-shaped spots with dark brown margins are found on the leaves during the vegetative and reproductive phase (Mehta et al., 2019). At the phenomic level, the severely infected fields seem to be appearing burnt heavily. In the node blast, symptoms occur at the stem nodal region which ultimately leads to the node break up which might lead to the plant death evidently (Kato, 2001). Lastly, neck blast lead to rotting of grains which causes grain sterility, reduction in

grain size, quality and yield (Kato, 2001).

4. Favourable Conditions

As per the literature survey, the favourable conditions for blast infection are enlisted below:1. Heavy N-fertilization2. High relative humidity (>90%)3. Low temperature (Between 15-22°C)4. Cloudy weather with intermittent drizzles with

longer dew duration, and5. Availability of collateral hosts.

5. Disease Management

5.1 Cultural strategies

Among all, the primary strategy is to use high quality, disease-free seeds because infested seeds left on the soil surface provide inoculum from which huge epidemics develop. In addition with the inoculum-free seeds, crop rotation is a simple, effective and highly recommended technique since the traditional times because it creates a mechanistic window that separates the viable spores of crop residue from the newly emerging rice seedlings. Next to the crop rotation, field sanitation another regular common practice employed for blast disease management. Additionally, judicious usage of both nitrogen- and silicon-fertilizers is also started being practised in the farmer fields to cutoff the blast severity (Jawahar et al., 2019).

5.2 Host resistance

Though various fungus isolates have shown high genetic variability for virulence, many countries still managing the rice blast disease through host resistance strategies. Many rice cultivars contain resistance genes that works well against one or more individual races found regionally. However, the major difficulty lies in the single resistance genes containing rice cultivars as well as virulence development of the pathogen. As a result, tolerance to nearly >90 R-genes including Pi-ta gene have been broken leading to development of many superior blast races (Mehta et al., 2019)



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5.3 Biological control

Since the 1990s, living bio-control agents are being employed in disease management due to the green cum environmental safety. As a result, few bio-control agents are also being incorporated in the management of rice blast disease. For example, treatment of rice seeds with biocontrol agent Trichoderma viride @ 4g/kg or Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 10g/kg.

5.4 Chemical method

Lastly, this chemical strategy i.e. use of chemical fungicides is viewed as the most effective mean to control the rice blast disease. In this, the chemicals (Carbendazim or Edifenphos) can be treated with seeds during storage (Pre-infection) so as to prevent any chance of infection in

the seedlings after germination. On the other hand, the fungicides (Pyroquilon, Tricyclazole, Carbendazim, Iprobenphos) are also sprayed foliarly on the infected site (Post-infection) so as to control infection to the other leaves and panicles (emerging from the boot) during the growing season. The chemical fungicides generally employed in rice blast management are Captan, Thiram, Carbendazim, Carboxin and Tricyclazole (Table 1.). All the techniques have been used to manage the rice blast, however, the integrated approach is considered to be highly successful.

Table 1. Enlisted chemical blasticides with their trade name, active ingredient and recommended dose employed in India for rice blast management. The data have been adapted from the Rice Knowledge Management Portal (http://www.rkmp.co.in/).

s. no. trade product name Active chemical constituent Recommended dose (per 1L/1Kg)1 Fongorene Pyroquilon 1g2 Beam or Sivic Tricyclazole 1g3 Bavistin Carbendazim 2g4 Hinosan Ediphenphos 1mL5 Kitazin Iprobenphos 2g6 Fiji-One Isoprothiolane 1.5 mL7 Kasu-B Kasugamycin 2.5 mL8 Protega Carpropamid 1 mL

References

Atkinson, H. A., Daniels, A., & Read, N. D. (2002). Live-cell imaging of endocytosis during conidial germination in the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe grisea. Fungal Genetics and Biology, 37(3), 233-244.

Jawahar, S., Jain, N., Kumar, S. V., Kalaiyarasan, C., Arivukkarasu, K., Ramesh, S., & Suseendran, K. (2019). Effect of silicon sources on silicon uptake

and blast incidence in low land rice. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 8(3), 2275-2278.

Kato, H. (2001). Rice blast disease. Pesticide Outlook, 12(1), 23-25.

Mehta, S., Singh, B., Dhakate, P., Rahman, M., & Islam, M. A. (2019).Rice, Marker-Assisted Breeding, and disease Resistance.In Disease Resistance in Crop Plants (pp. 83-111).Springer, Cham.

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62. epidemiology and Management of Wheat Rust in India1MEERA CHOUDHARY, 1LALITA LAKHRAN AND 2BIMLA1Ph.D Scholar, Department of Plant Pathology, SKN College of Agriculture (SKNAU), Jobner-303-329, Jaipur, India2Ph.D Scholar, Department of Plant Pathology, Rajasthan Agriculture Research Institute, Durgapura, Jaipur*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Every year wheat rusts are the most important pathogen responsible for reduction in wheat yield. There are three rusts of wheat, viz., black (Puccinia

graminis f. sp. tritici), brown (Puccinia recondita) and yellow (Puccinia striformis). There is estimated that during normal years yield loss due to rust could be around six per cent of the harvest, while during rust favourable years percentage of loss



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could be greater. The establishment heterocious nature of cereal rust fungi by de Bary in 1860. Stakman and Piemeisel found further pathogenic variation within species and gave the concept of races. During 1927, Cragie discovered the role of pycnidial stages in the sexual cycle on the alternate host of the black rust- Berberis spp.The uradinales order include the rust fungi contain 95 per cent of the species of Puccini omycotina. The name rust is used for the fungi include. These are obligate parasites and show extreme host specialization. Rust is the greatest enemy of cereals. Romans held a spring festival the Rubigalia, to save their crop from the wrath of god Rubigo.

Symptoms

In black stem rust symptoms appears in the form of elongated, narrow, elliptical reddish-brown pustules on stem, leaf-sheath and leaves. The stems often most severely affected.

In yellow rust of wheat symptoms appears on leaves and other aerial parts such as leaf sheath, stalk and glumes are also attacked and they show bright yellow coloured pinhead like uredospores arranged in long streaks so also called it stripe rust of wheat.

In brown rust of wheat symptoms appears on leaves in the form of bright orange coloured pustules. Pustules turns orange to brown are uredosori. Heavy rusting of the foliage results poorly developed root system, poor quality of grains and reduced yield of straw.

Causal Organism

According to Kirk et. alKingdom : FungiPhylum : BasidiomycotaClass : PucciniomycetesOrder : puccinialesFamily : PucciniaceaeGenus : PucciniaSpecies : graminis, recondita, striformis

The pathogen is a biotroph and its primary host is wheat. It produces uredospores in uredosori and teliosori. The uredospores are wind-dispersed and germinate on the leaf, stem and penetrate indirectly through stomatal opening. Inside host leaf and stem fungus grows in the intercellular spaces in the form of much-branched dikaryotic mycelium.

Predisposing Factors

In rust of wheat temperature plays crucial role in infection or incidence. Minimum, optimum and maximum temperatures for the germination of uredospores are 20, 24 and 300C respectively. When the temperature is below the stated then uredospores take more time to cause infection, the incubation period is increased. Results show that in fewer inflectional cycles during the growing season and very slow development of disease. Humidity

is a factor which determines infection of rust. Free water availability deposit on the surface of leaves and other susceptible parts of the host atleast for two hours is essential for quick germination of uredospores. If one takes temperature and moisture together, the disease becomes severe in the season of abundant moisture when temperatures for major part of the day and around 15-200C.

Life Cycle

Rust fungi have most complex life cycle in kingdom fungi. There are five spore types, 0-4 and each is also given morphological name to avoid confusion. These are as follows: 0=spermatia new name is pycniospore, 1= aciospore, 2= uredospore, 3=teliospore, 4= besidiospore.The characteristics feature of pucciniaceae family are erumpent telia, pedicillate bi-celled teliospore, fiat or discoid, sub-epidermal pycnia and catenulate aeciospores. Prevalence of high temperature in the plains of India during summer months followed by rainy season, both teleotospore and uredospore are destroyed. As the result local source of infection in the plains from one season to the next. Rust can survive in the hills in form of uredospores throughout the year on volunteer plants, ratoon tillers and also summer crop grown in the hills, which conclude that every year rust spores are blown down from the hills to the plains where they re-establish infection on the crop. Rust appears in December to march.

Management of the Wheat Rust

1. Use of resistant varieties is the easy and cheap method to control the disease. Example: chhoti lerma. Fungus grows well on its alternate host to complete life cycle, survival of pathogen is least contribute to disease development in India. In our country problem is perennating the pathogen on self-sown wheat plants and other collateral host growing on the hills. Use of immune or resistant varieties for the hilly regions could be raised.

2. Mixed cropping of wheat and barley with suitable crop renders good crop insurance even if the main crop fails.

3. The proportion of nitrogen is reduced in the N:P:K ratio in a fertilizer can help reduce rust incidence in a susceptible variety.

4. Composition of chemicals have been tested against rust incidence. These include: sulfur dust, nabam and zinc sulfate at fourteen days intervals; zineb, maneb and zinc as four foliar spray at 10-14 days interval.

5. The pathogen evolves new physiological races, the resistance varieties one time become susceptible on the other season. This is the reason why this aspect requires continues investigation followed by time to time use of resistant varieties. At present varieties like HD-2278, HW-741, WL-614, Sonara 63 and Sonara 64 are considered resistant to wheat rust.



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6. Propiconazole at 0.1 per cent has been found effective in controlling rust of wheat because it

persists for twelve days and completely inhibit uredospore germination.

19529

63. evolutionary trends in Fungal effector GenesASHARANI PATEL1*, SAHIL MEHTA2, KULESHWAR PRASAD SAHU1 AND MUKESH KUMAR1

1Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR- IARI, New Delhi, India2International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

All the plants present on the planet earth have been established useful for the humankind in one or more aspects. As a result of it, multiple plants are being cultivated around the globe for various food, feed, fuel, drugs and medicines. However, the field to products pipeline is highly affected by multiple biotic factors including fungi and oomycetes. As a result, all these factors pose a ubiquitous cut sustained threat to the global crop production. To combat with the adverse effect of various pathogenic organisms, the green plants have developed different layers in their defense system which leads to bet-hedging between the pathogen and host plant to win the race in their own favour. In this context, the effectors (synthesised by pathogenic Avr genes) play a central dogma-like role in the hot fight of plant pathology since the pathogen-host interaction started. After being transported to either the host apoplast or cytoplasm, these effector molecules shield the fungus cell walls from hydrolytic enzymes mainly by profoundly manipulating the plant host immune response. Overall, they are expressed only after plant-contact with their expression profile tightly tuned to the different infection stages. In order to better understand the effectors importance, it is highly recommended to focus on trade-off related to the effector evolution. The reason lies in the continuous emergence of novel effectors primarily for long-term fitness of a pathogen. These enormous demands on the effector repertoire directly implicate a strong evolutionary pressure leading to diversified multi-gene effector families. As a result, two co-evolutionary principles such as arm race model and trench warfare model have evolved to explain the effector and plant target evolution.The major difference in both models is allele fixation and recurrent development of new alleles (in the arms race model) contrast with the fluctuation of allele frequencies (in the trench warfare model).

At the genomic level, the effector genes are located in repeat-rich, gene-sparse regions on mobile, conditionally dispensable chromosomes in the fungi like Leptosphaeria, Magnaporthe,

and Phytophthora. Whereas in Fusarium and Verticillium spp. The effector genes are reported to be present on mainly repeat-rich DNA at chromosomal breakpoints of highly rearranged chromosomes. On the other hand, in case of smut fungi reported in gene clusters (Sánchez-Valletet al.,2018). Overall, the birth and death of effectors in fungus on evolutionary level take place through various mechanisms such as mutation, sexual recombination, HGT, transposable elements, clonal propagation, non-synonymous replacements and genome compartmentalization (Fudalet al., 2009;Mehrabiet al., 2011; Huang et al., 2014; Jonathan et al., 2014; Singh et al., 2014;Singh et al., 2018; Sánchez-Valletet al., 2018).

References

Fudal, I., Ross, S., Brun, H., Besnard, A.L., Ermel, M., Kuhn, M.L., Balesdent, M.H. and Rouxel, T., 2009. Repeat-induced point mutation (RIP) as an alternative mechanism of evolution toward virulence in Leptosphaeriamaculans. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, 22(8), pp.932-941.

Grandaubert, J., Lowe, R.G., Soyer, J.L., Schoch, C.L., Van de Wouw, A.P., Fudal, I., Robbertse, B., Lapalu, N., Links, M.G., Ollivier, B. and Linglin, J., 2014. Transposable element-assisted evolution and adaptation to host plant within the Leptosphaeriamaculans-Leptosphaeriabiglobosa species complex of fungal pathogens. BMC genomics, 15(1), p.891.

Huang, J., Si, W., Deng, Q., Li, P. and Yang, S., 2014. Rapid evolution of avirulence genes in rice blast fungus Magnaportheoryzae. BMC Genetics, 15(1), p.45.

Mehrabi, R., Bahkali, A.H., Abd-Elsalam, K.A., Moslem, M., Ben M’Barek, S., Gohari, A.M., Jashni, M.K., Stergiopoulos, I., Kema, G.H. and de Wit, P.J., 2011. Horizontal gene and chromosome transfer in plant pathogenic fungi affecting host range. FEMS microbiology reviews, 35(3), pp.542-554.

Sánchez-Vallet, A., Fouché, S., Fudal, I., Hartmann, F.E., Soyer, J.L., Tellier, A. and Croll, D., 2018. The genome biology of effector gene evolution in filamentous plant pathogens. Annual review of



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phytopathology.Singh, P.K., Thakur, S., Rathour, R., Variar, M.,

Prashanthi, S.K., Singh, A.K., Singh, U.D., Sharma, V., Singh, N.K. and Sharma, T.R., 2014. Transposon-based high sequence diversity in Avr-Pita alleles increases the potential for pathogenicity of Magnaportheoryzae populations. Functional & integrative genomics, 14(2),

pp.419-429.Singh, P.K., Ray, S., Thakur, S., Rathour, R.,

Sharma, V. and Sharma, T.R., 2018. Co-evolutionary interactions between host resistance and pathogen avirulence genes in rice-Magnaportheoryzaepathosystem. Fungal Genetics and Biology, 115, pp.9-19.

19551

64. Importance and Formation of Plant Associated Bacterial BiofilmN. OLIVIA DEVI1

Ph.D Scholar, School of Crop Protection, Plant Pathology, College of Post Graduate Studies, Umiam, Meghalaya*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek using his microscope studied the microbial masses on the tooth surface that subsequently lead to the identification of microbial biofilms (Donlan, 2002). The term ‘Biofilm’ was coined and described by Bill Costerton in 1978. Biofilm is well organized bacterial communities of surface-associated microbial cells that are enclosed in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) produced by themselves (Kokare et al., 2009). Biofilm EPS also referred to as ‘slime’ is a polymeric jumbles of DNA, proteins, and polysaccharides. Biofilms have complex community interactions, genetic diversity and structural heterogeneity. Bacteria biofilm thrives and develops wherever there is water such as natural aquatic, living tissues, soil environment, in the kitchen, in the gut lining of animals. They can also be found inside pipes, medical devices and green from plumbing. Biofilm communities can protect the bacteria from harmful external conditions like shear force, attack by antimicrobial, immune system, etc. It is an important factor in the disease cycle of both plants and animals bacterial pathogens. Plant associated bacterial biofilms induce plant growth and have biocontrol property against certain plant pathogens, they also have a symbiotic response in plants (Bogino et al., 2013).It facilitates the exchange of substrate, distribution of metabolic products and removal of toxins so that the bacteria can survive and support each other. Bacterial biofilm are formed by multiple steps so it is a developmental process similar to other bacterial developmental processes.

Importance of Biofilm

Protection from environmental stresses

Bacteria inside the biofilm are protected from extreme environmental conditions like ultraviolet radiation, extreme pH and temperature, high salinity, high pressure, poor nutrient, antibiotics etc. (Yin et al., 2019). They act as a ‘protective clothing’ mostly due to the presence of extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) that have protein, nucleic acid, carbohydrate and other substances. These EPS restricts the access of antimicrobial agents, toxins, metal ions or cations and other compounds which can enter into the biofilm by diffusion.

Acquisition and exchange of New Genetic material

Bacteria in biofilm communicate with each other through quorum sensing which is a cross-talk between bacteria, dependent on cell density and mediated through signalling compounds. These quorum sensing allows the exchange of genetic material i.e. extrachromosomal DNA (plasmids) between bacterial species which will allow the evolution of microbial community with different trait. Bacteria undergoes evolution by horizontal transfer of genetic material resulting in genetic diversity. Conjugation occurs at a greater rate between cells in biofilms. Bacterial communities acquire new genetic material and transcribe it to genes forming a main part of biofilm.

Nutrient trapping and availability in a biofilm

It can grow in nutrient-deprived ecosystem because of its ability to concentrate trace elements and nutrients by physically trapping or by electrostatic interaction. The complex architecture of biofilm provides an opportunity for metabolic cooperation



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and niches are formed within this well-organized systems. Presence of water in biofilm forms an aqueous phase and controls the nutrient availability. The multispecies approach of biofilm leads to an effective nutrient ability by syntrophism and anaerobic degradation of compounds.

Role in plant disease control

Common bacterial biocontrol agents like Bacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp. forms biofilms and protect

the plants against infectious pathogens. Bacterial antibiotics that have a role in biocontrol have a broad-spectrum activity. Pyrrolnitrin produced by Pseudomonas are effective against phytopathogens Rhizoctonia solani, Verticillium dahlia, Botrytis cinerea etc. Bacillus thuringiensis produces Cyr proteins which have insecticidal activity are exploited for plant disease control. Bacillus subtilis produce antibiotics like surfactin, iturin and fengycin involved in disease suppression (Rafique et al., 2015).

Figure 1: Steps of biofilm formation (Vasudevan, 2014)

Steps of biofilm formation

Biofilm formation involves a number of steps (Figure 1) beginning from transitioning of bacteria from free-swimming planktonic form to its attachment and growth on every type of living and non-living surfaces. Biofilms are 100µm thick with single or multiples species, sometimes involving fungi, algae and protozoa. Bacterial biofilm formation involves the following steps:

Step 1-Surface conditioning

A clean and mostly rough surface is covered with a conditioning film of organic substance which includes a mixture of proteins, glycoproteins and polysaccharide. These substances are rapidly transported and absorbed to the surface to provide a suitable condition for the bacteria in the biofilm formation. Roughness, wettability, surface tension and nature of fabricated material are important factors that control the conditioning process.

Step 2- Initial reversible attachment

By mass transport mechanism bacteria in fluid comes in contact with a substrate. Bacteria will penetrate by eddy diffusion and migrate through the diffusive sublayer using pili, flagella and adhere to the surface. In the initial stage, bacterial

adhesion to the conditioned surface is reversible and easily removed from the surface with mild rinsing.

Step 3- Irreversible attachment

Bacterial attachment becomes irreversible due extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and anchor permanently using pilli later subsequently forms a monolayer. It can be removed by chemical or mechanical treatment if the bacteria attaches itself to unwanted surface.

Step 4- Microcolony formation where multilayers appear

Bacteria forms microcolony where multilayer appears producing extracellular matrix-like EPS which makes the adhesion irreversible and inhibit their swimming motility. This matrix encloses the cells within it and helps communication between the bacteria through biochemical signals as well as genetic exchange. EPS provides nutrients, protection from the external environment and cohesive forces.

Step 5-Maturation

Bacterial communities inside biofilm will communicate by quorum sensing which is a



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cross-talk between bacteria cells. These signalling molecules will move from one cell to another. Acylhomoserine lactone is a commonly produced signalling molecule of quorum sensing which makes the biofilm durable. The biofilm becomes mature and forms a characteristic mushroom-like structure due to the polysaccharides.

Step 6-Dispersal

Dispersion is the final step in biofilm formation where the bacterial cells will start to detach from the surface and actively disperse itself, at the time of dispersal, microcolonies endure cell death and lysis leaving behind hollow colonies. These detached bacterial cells will again resume its planktonic state and start a new cycle on another clean surface.

Conclusion

Biofilm formation have both positive and negative sides. Formation of biofilm by PGPR and biocontrol agents like Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas florescense have great potential to fulfil the growing demand for food, health and yielding plants. Through biofilm communities bacteria communicate with each other by quorum sensing and can confuse the pathogenic bacteria. On the negative side biofilm produced by pathogenic bacteria are resistant to anti-microbial treatment

so biofilm research is receiving more attention to prevent its formation and re-engineer the surface where they are prone to biofilm formation.

Reference

Donlan, R. M. (2002). Biofilms: microbial life on surfaces. Emerging infectious diseases, 8(9): 881.

Kokare, C. R., Chakraborty, S., Khopade, A. N., & Mahadik, K. R. (2009). Biofilm: Importance and applications. Indian Journal of Biotechnology. 8:159-268.

Bogino, P., Oliva, M., Sorroche, F., & Giordano, W. (2013). The role of bacterial biofilms and surface components in plant-bacterial associations. International journal of molecular sciences, 14(8): 15838-15859.

Rafique, M., Hayat, K., Mukhtar, T., Khan, A. A., Afridi, M. S., Hussain, T., & Chaudhary, H. J. (2015). Bacterial biofilm formation and its role against agricultural pathogens. The battle against microbial pathogens: basic science, technological advances and educational programs. Formatex Research Centre, Spain, 373-382.

Yin, W., Wang, Y., Liu, L., & He, J. (2019). Biofilms: The Microbial “Protective Clothing” in Extreme Environments. International journal of molecular sciences, 20(14): 3423.

Vasudevan, R. (2014). Biofilms: microbial cities of scientific significance. J Microbiol Exp, 1(3):00014.

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65. Plants, Defense system and PhytopathogensMUKESH KUMAR1*, SAHIL MEHTA2, KULESHWAR PRASAD SAHU1, TUSHAR GOYAL1 AND ASHARANI PATEL1

1 Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India.2 International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, New Delhi, India.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Like animals, the green plants are continually exposed to the wide spectrum of phytopathogenic organisms such as viruses, mycoplasma, bacteria, fungi, viroid, mycoplasma, spiroplasma, nematodes, protozoa, and parasites (Mehta et al., 2019; Singh et al., 2019; Rahman et al., 2019). In accordance with this input, resistance is the way to survival and existence (Chisholm et al., 2006; Boyd et al., 2013; Liu and Lam, 2019). As a result, the mighty green plants utilize two evolutionarily interrelated resistance tactics namely basal defense and R-gene mediated defense (Liu and Lam, 2019). The primary basal resistance, a combination of host and non-host resistance is an established first defense ray to the wide range of infecting pests (especially pathogens) (Shubchynskyy et al., 2017; Liu and Lam, 2019; Han et al., 2020). The basal defense is elicited when plant/pathogen cell wall-

derived components (PAMPs) are released upon action of invasive hydrolytic enzymes. As a result, the PAMPs (such as LPS, chitin, glucan or flagellin) are recognized by the extracellular receptor domains of PM integral proteins. This kind of elicitor binding to PM proteins evoke a response called as Pattern-Triggered immunity (PTI) (Hatsugai et al., 2017; Poltronieri et al., 2020). The following relay of actions which occur to prevent microbial growth are enlisted below:

� Signals conveyed to MAPK cascades and other protein kinases (by phosphorylation)

� MAP kinase signalling activation � Pathogen-responsive gene transcription

induction � ROS formation � Callose deposition to strengthen the cell wall.

Another component of the plant immune



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system uses R-gene encoded intracellular resistance proteins to identify pathogenic effectors presence/absence in direct or indirect manner (Shehzadi et al., 2018). This lead to activation of effector-triggered immunity (ETI) which is often called as hypersensitive response (HR) (Künstler et al., 2016; Salguero-Linares and Coll, 2019). Most of the cloned plant R genes encode nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) proteins that facilitate recognition of diverse effectors from all pathogen classes (Collier and Moffett, 2009). Based on their amino acid sequence and their plasma membrane-spanning domains, plant R-genes are widely categorized into the following eight classes:

1 TIR Toll/Interleukin-1-receptors2 TRMD Transmembrane domain3 HM

1Helminthosporium carbonum toxin reductase enzyme

4 ECS Endocytosis cell signalling domain5 CC Coiled-coil6 WRKY Amino acid domain7 PEST Protein degradation domain8 NLS Nuclear localization signal

The pathogenic effector proteins target two different host plant locations namely extracellular space (targeted by apoplastic effectors) and cytoplasmic subcellular compartments (targeted by cytoplasmic effectors) (Cui et al., 2009; Lee et al., 2019). However, the ETI mechanisms are still not properly understood by pathologists. Here importantly, plant receptors rapidly change through mutations (such as point-type, gene duplications and rearrangements) on an evolutionary scale. The direct recognition is reported for rice Pi-ta, RGA5 and PiK genes whereas indirect recognition is based on guardee or decoy (RIN4 protein-RPS2 and RPM1-AvrRpt2 and AvrRpm1). Furthermore, the focus of research is now on elucidating fungal PAMPs and their cognate receptors based on genome sequencing and computational methods. This will lead to comprehensive implementation to create plants that are resistant to wide range of pathogens due to combinations of long-lasting disease resistance mechanisms.

References

Boyd, L.A., Ridout, C., O’Sullivan, D.M., Leach, J.E. and Leung, H., 2013. Plant–pathogen interactions: disease resistance in modern agriculture. Trends in genetics, 29(4), pp.233-240.

Chisholm, S.T., Coaker, G., Day, B. and Staskawicz, B.J., 2006. Host-microbe interactions: shaping the evolution of the plant immune response. Cell, 124(4), pp.803-814.

Collier, S.M. and Moffett, P., 2009. NB-LRRs work a “bait and switch” on pathogens. Trends in plant science, 14(10), pp.521-529.

Cui, H., Xiang, T. and Zhou, J.M., 2009. Plant immunity: a lesson from pathogenic bacterial

effector proteins. Cellular microbiology, 11(10), pp.1453-1461.

Han, B., Jiang, Y., Cui, G., Mi, J., Roelfsema, R., Mouille, G., Sechet, J., Al-Babili, S., Aranda, M. and Hirt, H., 2020. CATION-CHLORIDE CO-TRANSPORTER 1 (CCC1) mediates plant resistance against Pseudomonas syringae. Plant Physiology.

Hatsugai, N., Igarashi, D., Mase, K., Lu, Y., Tsuda, Y., Chakravarthy, S., Wei, H.L., Foley, J.W., Collmer, A., Glazebrook, J. and Katagiri, F., 2017. A plant effector‐triggered immunity signalling sector is inhibited by pattern‐triggered immunity. The EMBO journal, 36(18), pp.2758-2769.

Künstler, A., Bacsó, R., Gullner, G., Hafez, Y.M. and Király, L., 2016. Staying alive–is cell death dispensable for plant disease resistance during the hypersensitive response?. Physiological and molecular plant pathology, 93, pp.75-84.

Lee, J.H., Kim, H., Chae, W.B. and Oh, M.H., 2019. Pattern recognition receptors and their interactions with bacterial type III effectors in plants. Genes & genomics, 41(5), pp.499-506.

Liu, J.Z. and Lam, H.M., 2019. Signal Transduction Pathways in Plants for Resistance against Pathogens.

Mehta, S., Singh, B., Dhakate, P., Rahman, M. and Islam, M.A., 2019. Rice, Marker-Assisted Breeding, and Disease Resistance. In Disease Resistance in Crop Plants (pp. 83-111). Springer, Cham.

Poltronieri, P., Brutus, A., Reca, I.B., Francocci, F., Cheng, X. and Stigliano, E., 2020. Engineering plant leucine-rich repeat-receptors for enhanced pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). In Applied Plant Biotechnology for Improving Resistance to Biotic Stress (pp. 1-31). Academic Press.

Rahman, M., Sultana, S., Nath, D., Kalita, S., Chakravarty, D., Mehta, S., Wani, S.H. and Islam, M.A., 2019. Molecular Breeding Approaches for Disease Resistance in Sugarcane. In Disease Resistance in Crop Plants (pp. 131-155). Springer, Cham.

Salguero-Linares, J. and Coll, N.S., 2019. Plant proteases in the control of the hypersensitive response. Journal of experimental botany, 70(7), pp.2087-2095.

Shehzadi, A., Muhammad, H., Abbas, K., Ahmed, Z. and Saleem, S., 2018. Effect plant disease resistance genes: recent applications and future perspectives. J Innov Bio-Res, 1, pp.86-103.

Shubchynskyy, V., Boniecka, J., Schweighofer, A., Simulis, J., Kvederaviciute, K., Stumpe, M., Mauch, F., Balazadeh, S., Mueller-Roeber, B., Boutrot, F. and Zipfel, C., 2017. Protein phosphatase AP2C1 negatively regulates basal resistance and defense responses to Pseudomonas syringae. Journal of experimental botany, 68(5), pp.1169-1183.

Singh, B., Mehta, S., Aggarwal, S.K., Tiwari, M., Bhuyan, S.I., Bhatia, S. and Islam, M.A., 2019. Barley, Disease Resistance, and Molecular



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Breeding Approaches. In Disease Resistance in Crop Plants (pp. 261-299). Springer, Cham.

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66. Plant Disease Forecasting: An overview*SUBHASH CHANDRA, AJAY KUMAR1 AND RAMESH CHAND2

*1Department of Plant Pathology & 2Department of Nematology, A.N.D.U.A.&T., Kumarganj, Ayodhya-224229 UP*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Plant disease forecasting involves all the activities in ascertaining and notifying the farmer in an area/community that the conditions are sufficiently favourable for certain diseases, that application of control measures will result in economic gain or that the amount of disease expected is unlikely to be enough to justify the expenditure of time, money and energy for its control. Forecasting means to foresee or to calculate beforehand. Disease forecasting is a system used to predict the occurrence of plant disease. At the field scale, these systems are used by growers to make economic decisions about disease control.

Plant disease forecasting requires complete knowledge of epidemiology i.e. the development of disease in plant population under the influence of the factors associated with the host, the pathogen and the environment. Forecasting is actually, the applied epidemiology. Plant disease forecasting is made more reliable if the reasons for a particular disease developing under certain conditions and not others are known. Experimental investigation is necessary to show that exactly what stage during the disease development is critical for variable incidence or intensity of disease. A timely and reliable forecast gives the farmer many options to choose from that he can weigh the risks, costs and benefits of his possible decisions.

Requirements or Conditions of Plant Disease Forecasting

� The disease must be causing economically significant damage in terms of loss of quantity and quality of the produce in the area concerned.

� The onset, speed of spread and destructiveness of the disease is variable mostly due to dependence on the weather which is variable.

� Control measures are known and can be economically applied by the farmer when told to so.

� Information on weather- disease relationship is fully known.

Objectives of Disease Forecasting

� Disease management by timely application of control measures.

� To decrease the risk of large losses in crop value from the disease.

� To decrease the amount of pesticide and thereby reduce deleterious effect on environment and human health.

� To identify or pinpoint the gaps existing in our knowledge through research.

� Modern research on modelling the complexities of epidemics is stimulating and rewarding in the long run.

Methods used in Plant Disease Forecasting: Disease forecasting models.

� EPIDEM - Alternaria solani on tomato and potato

� FAST - Forecasting Alternaria solani on tomato � TOMCAST - Alternari solani on tomato � BLITECAST - Late blight on tomato and potato � MELCAST - Watermelons (Anthracnose,

gummy stem blight), Muskmelons (Alternaria) � Mary blight - Fire blight on apples � EPIVEN - Venturia inaequalis scab on apples � EPICORN - Southern corn leaf blight

(Helminthosporium maydis) � North American Blue Mold warning system -

Tobacco.

TOMCAST Disease Severity Value Chart

Average temperature During Leaf Wet Hours

Hours of Leaf Wetness per Day

13-170C (55-630F)18-200C (64-680F)21-250C (69-770F)26-290C (78-840F)

0-6 7-15 16-20 21+0-3 4-8 9-15 16-22 23+0-2 3-5 6-12 13-20 21+0-3 4-8 9-15 16-22 23+

Daily DSV= 0 1 2 3 4

0-Environmental Conditions unfavorable for spore formation4-Environmental Conditions highly favorable for spore formation



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Tomcast Equipment

Campbell Scientific CR10

� Programmable data loggers � Very Reliable. � Very low maintenance cost. � Connection through phone lines and modems

(now wireless possibilities). � One person can run the entire data collection

network. � Automatic logging of units via

telecommunications software.New Tools in Epidemiology: The study

of plant disease epidemiology has been facilitated greatly by new methods and new equipment that make possible studies of aspects of plant disease that were impossible or very difficult to study earlier. Some of the equipment and instruments that have contributed to modern epidemiology have been listed already. Some of the methods and other equipment that have been used to great advantage in plant disease epidemiology include the following.

Benefits of new tools in epidemiology:

New tools such as Geographic Information System (GIS), Geostatistics and Remote sensing benefited as follows-

� Provides a tool for refined analysis of traditional and contemporary biological/ecological information on plant disease.

� It will aid practitioners in the design of disease management in IDM programs, particularly on a regional scale.

� It will also provide a way of analyzing and communicating results of regional programs on a continuing basis.

References

Agrios, G.N. (2005). Plant Pathology 5th edition, Elsevier Academic Press, London, UK, pp. 283-287.

Chiarappa, L., Chiang, H.C and Smith, R.F. (1972). Plant pests and disease: assessments of crop losses, Science, 174:769-773.

Krause, R.A., Massive, L.B. and Hyre, R.A. (1975). Blightcast: a computerised forecast of potato late blight, Plant Disease Reporter. 59: 95-98.

19603

67. Diseases of CoconutSHIKHA PATHAK1*, TUSHNIMA CHAUDHURI1, DESH RAJ SHRI BHARATI1

1Research Scholar, Dept. Plant Pathology, Faculty of agriculture Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, India*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Coconut is one of the most important and economical palms in India which is known for its nutritional values and products like food, fuel and timber. Major coconut growing area in India is confined to West Coast and East Coast regions which includes Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and also Goa, Orissa, West Bengal, Puducherry, Maharashtra and the island territories of Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar. Despite of its hardy nature, coconut palm is affected by a number of diseases. Coconut palm may also be infected by fungi, phytoplasma, viroid and suffer from other deficiency diseases. Some of the important coconut diseases are –

Fungal Diseases

Ganoderma wilt/Basal Stem Rot/ Thanjavur Wilt

Thanjavur wilt first appeared in the coastal areas of Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu hence, named as Thanjavur wilt.

Causal Organism. Ganoderma lucidem and

Ganoderma applanatumSymptoms- Initial symptoms starts with the

withering, yellowing and drooping of the outer whorl of leaves. At the base of the trunk reddish brown to dark brown liquid oozes out through cracks which further, spreads upward. The tissues on the bleeding spots softens. Bracket formation and Ganoderma appears at the base of the trunk. In severe cases palm dies off.

Stem Bleeding

It first appeared in India in 1922. Stem bleeding disease is prevalent in almost all the coconut growing areas of India.

Causal organism- Thielaviopsis paradoxa.Symptoms- The exudation of reddish-brown

gummy fluid from growth cracks on the trunk is a characteristic symptom of stem bleeding which later becomes black on drying. In the initial stages of infection, bleeding symptoms appears only from one or two longitudinal cracks at the base and later spreads upward on the stem. These longitudinal patches may coalesce to form larger patches and



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in severe cases, the patches may extend up to the crown.

Bud Rot/ Mahali Disease/ Fruit Rot

Bud rot or fruit rot is commonly known as ‘ Mahali’ in local languages, has been known in Kerala since 1924.

Causal Organism- Phytophthora palmivora, Lasiodiplodia theobromae (in some eriophyid mite-infested coconut)

Symptoms- The disease is characterised by decaying of premature nuts. Greyish green water-soaked lesions develops at the stalk end of the nuts. These lesions further turns brown and become sunken due to decay of underlying tissues. If the shell has not hardened the rotting may extend into the husk and sometimes deep into the endosperm cavity. The affected nuts deform, desiccate, and shrink. In some cases, the contents leak owing to splitting of such nuts.

Leaf Blight or Grey Leaf Spot

Grey blight is a disease of coconut mainly affecting the mature palms.

Causal organism- Pestalotia palmarumSymptoms-The infection causes yellowish-

brown oval-shaped spots with grey-brown margins on the leaflets. The affected leaves turn greyish and gets dry. The centre of the spots become greyish white, while the brown colour of the margins deepens. Small spots coalesce and forms large irregular necrotic patches resulting in severe blight. In advanced stages, the tips and margins of the leaflets dry and shrivel giving a burnt appearance.

Phytoplasma Disease

Root Wilt

Root (wilt), also known as Kerala wilt or Kattuveezhcha in Malayalam is a non-lethal but debilitating disease of coconut as palms of all age groups are susceptible to infection.

Symptom: Symptoms on leaves includes wilting and drooping and flaccidity; ribbing, paling/yellowing and necrosis of leaflets. The other associated symptoms are foliar yellowing and marginal necrosis. The root system starts rotting, drying of spathe and necrosis of spikelets are other symptoms. The nuts from diseased palms have thinner husk and fibres becomes weak and lose firmness. The kernel is thinner and remains soft and flexible. The oil content is reduced and oil loses its quality as well.

Causal organism: PhytoplasmaPerpetuation:The disease is transmitted

by planthoppers (Proutista moesta) and lacewing bug (Stephanitis typica) and also in some cases by dodders.

Tatipaka Disease

Tatipaka disease was first observed in Tatipaka village of East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.

Causal organism: Phytoplasma.Symptoms: The crown becomes smaller in

size producing short leaves and stems are tappered. The leaves appears intense due to improper unfolding of leaflets. The affected palms produces smaller bunches with atrophied barren nuts.

Crown Choke caused by boron deficiency, Red ring disease caused by nematode Rhadinaphelenchus cocophilus, coconut cadang cadang caused by Coconut cadang-cadang viroid (CCCVd) and Coconut tinangaja viroid (CtiVd) are some other important diseases of coconut.

19605

68. Plant Parasitic nematodes and their ManagementMANOJ KUMAR CHITARA*, SADHNA CHAUHAN AND PRINCE KUMAR GUPTA

Ph. D. Scholar, Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, GBPUAT, Pantnagar-263145*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Nematodes are tiny or microscopic, round-bodied, unsegmented, free-living worms that are found in terrestrial as well as in the aquatic environment. They parasitize on both plants as well as animals. About 90% of the nematode population is found in the top 15 cm soil surface layer. They generally

feed on organic matter, bacteria, insects and plants. Scientists reported that the nematode are plant-parasitic in nature resulting into several diseases on the crop plants such as Needham (1743) first described plant-parasitic nematodes Anguina tritici in wheat likewise Berkeley (1855)



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described root-knot nematode of cucumber and Schacht (1859) described cyst nematode causing “beet-tired” disease on sugar beets. Nathan A. Cobb is considered as the father of American nematology. The nematodes especially plant-parasitic nematodes cause several economic losses in crops. Such nematode losses can be minimized by adopting management viz. soil fumigation etc. Further plant-parasitic nematode management practices are followed as given below:

Management of Plant-Parasitic Nematodes

Plant-parasitic nematodes can be managed by adopting an integrated management programme including:

A. Cultural Control

1. Prevention: It includes avoiding the entry of the nematode infected plant or its parts into uninfested soil. For this, avoid the transfer of the propagating material from one place to another by enforcing legislation or by quarantine, in which propagating materials are restricted which may be diseased or seriously reduce growth and might cause the plants to be unfit for shipment to many potential markets.

2. Crop rotation: It includes rotation of the crop in the field. It is an old practice which is followed for soil-borne diseases. Basically, through crop rotation programme we can interrupt the life cycle of the pathogen because in case of the unavailability of the host plant it can reduce the soil-borne pathogen populations. Rotation of the non-host crop also hinders the cycle of the plant-parasitic nematodes as well as the growth of the nematodes.

3. Flooding: Basically, flooding conditions can cause anoxia or deficiency of oxygen (O

2)

in the field, due to this nematode cannot breathe properly, so it may help in reducing the nematode population at the optimum level. This may require the proper water level control, which is maintained at an upper limit for several weeks and also needs to be alternating periods of about two to three weeks of flooding, drying and flooding again is apparently much more effective than a continuous period of flooding.

4. Fallowing: It includes leaving a field with no plants in it for a prolonged period to starve nematodes or other pests. Due to the unavailability of the food, the nematode population can be reduced. For the effectiveness of this practice, it is needed to be cultivated regularly to prevent the growth of unwanted plants or weeds and to expose the soil directly into the sunlight, due to drying and heating it may reduce nematode population at optimum level.

5. Soil amendments: Soil amendments practice also helps in reducing the population

densities of plant-parasitic nematodes either by releasing toxic substances to nematodes or by stimulating soil-inhabiting microorganisms and antagonistic fungi.

6. Sanitation: Basically, it includes destruction of infested plant material and preventing the spread of infested soil to uninfested soil.

7. Weed control: Weed control by ploughing helps to expose the nematodes to direct sunlight and killing nematodes by drying on the soil surface.

B. Chemical Control

Chemical control includes application of nematicides, which are mainly soil fumigants and non-fumigants. The soil fumigants are gaseous nematicides which include 1, 3-dichloropropene (Telone II), chloropicrin (tear gas), and dazomet (Basamid) and non-fumigants nematicides are soil or liquid which includes fenamiphos (Nemacur) and aldicarb (Temik). These are inexpensive chemicals that effectively kill nematodes in soil-based upon the same kinds of active ingredients and it reduces nematode populations.1. Biological Control: Biological control of the

plant pathogenic nematodes is a sustainable approach, in which a living organism utilizes the suppression of the other organism. These biocontrol agents are showing specificity to their host or they will attack one or more nematode pests. It has been difficult to culture nematodes in sufficient amount to be useful for field application or both. Egg-colonizing fungi (e.g., Paecilomyces spp., Verticillium spp.) have the ability to control cyst and root-knot nematode infestations. The use of antagonistic fungi like Arthrobotrys dactyloides to trap and parasitize plant pathogenic nematodes.

2. Genetic Host Resistance: Genetic host resistance includes the development of the resistance to the crop varieties and cultivars to nematode damage or that do not allow nematode populations to increase are desirable as a nematode management tool. Recently developed a peach rootstock ‘Nemaguard’against root-knot nematode-resistant by USDA plant breeders, thus permitting peach production even on infested soils.

References

Anonymous.Plant Parasitic Nematodes, mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/lso/SCOUT/Nematodes.pdf Retrieved on 12 April 2016.

Buchinski, A. (2016). Plant Parasitic Nematodes, University of California.

Johnson, A.W. (1982). Managing nematode populations in crop production. Pages 193-203 in RD. Riggs, ed Nematology in the southern region of the United States. South. Coop. Ser. Bull. 276

Lambert, K. and S. Bekal. (2002).Introduction to



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Plant-Parasitic Nematodes. The Plant Health Instructor, 10, 1094-1218.

Snyder D. (2002).Plant Parasitic Nematodes: an introduction, NC State University.

19623

69. Co-Immunoprecipitation technique to Investigate Protein-Protein Interaction in PhytopathogensDARSHAN K*, AMRUTHA LAKSHMI M AND M. GURIVI REDDY

Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110012, India*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

The relationship between host and pathogens is characterized by how microbes or viruses sustain themselves at the level of molecular, cell, organism or population within host. In this chapter, the novel protein-interactions techniques called Co-immunoprecipitation technique have been discussed to predict molecular host-pathogen interactions. It is the technique to identify and validate protein-protein interaction in living cells. It is the classic technology widely used for protein-protein interaction. It is a popular technique for

protein interaction identification and validation.

Principle

It is evolved from immune-precipitation based on specific antigen and antibody reaction where target protein is captured from total lysate by specific antibody which is further precipitated using resin (agarose or sepharose or magnetic beads) that is conjugated with IgG-binding protein. Eluted bound protein are analysed by SDSPAGE or immunoblotting or Mass spectrometry.

Advantages

� Study protein-protein interaction in native conformation of bait and prey proteins without denaturation

� The interaction between the bait and prey proteins happens in vivo with little to no external influence

� More specificity in interaction � Very simple to perform

Disadvantages

� Low affinity or transient interaction between proteins may not be detected.

� Weaker signals from low-affinity proteins are

not detected. � Not suitable for identification of protein

interaction which takes place within short time period

� Antibodies with high affinity or avidity are often difficult to isolate

Application

� Study the interactions between proteins and protein complex

� Monitor dynamics of protein interaction � Mapping the interacting domains of proteins � New binding partners, binding affinities, the

binding kinetics and target protein structure.



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SEED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

19511

70. Rice seed-Borne Diseases: An Update1MUSHINENI ASHAJYOTHI*, 2JYOTSANA TILGAM AND 1GOPI KISHAN1ICAR - Indian Institute of Seed Science, Mau, UP-2751032ICAR - National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Mau, UP-275103*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Rice being an Asian staple cereal and world’s second most important food crop after wheat have the responsibility to feed billions of people around the globe. Current global production and consumption of rice is around 700 million tonnes (http://ricepedia.org/rice-as-a-crop/rice-productivity) and still there is growing demand for the improvement of productivity and production statistics. According to the recent reports climate plays a major role in the upcoming productivity and nutritional levels in rice grain (Zhang et al., 2015). Though climate change is a known threat for the cereals production many a times actual hidden threat always comes from seed-borne pathogens as the history witnessed two major famines. Many of the important rice pathogens are also seed-borne in nature (Kauraw et al., 1987). Recently ISTA has published the revised pest list for rice which

contains almost 55 pests among which 12 are known for both seed-borne and seed transmitted nature and they also proved for those diseases seed as their pathway of dispersal (ISTA., 2019). Among all the seed-borne pathogens five are fungal, six bacterial pathogens and one nematode (Table 1). Apart from these some of the diseases are found to be seed-borne nature but the proof of their transmission has been not yet deciphered.

Timely detection and regular monitoring through proper legislature approaches can check the trans-boundary movement of these pests in and around India. Quarantine stations must adopt rapid diagnostic procedures to keep seed-borne pathogens under control. In this article all the 12 seed-borne diseases of rice for which mode of dispersal proven as seed and other seed-borne diseases of economic importance have been given according to the ISTA pest list.

Table 1. Important rice seed-borne diseases

Disease Causal organism seed-borne nature

seed as pathway of transmission

Brown stripe Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae (Manns, 1909) Willems et al., 1992

Yes Proven

White tip Aphelenchoides besseyi Christie, 1942 Yes ProvenBrown spot Bipolaris oryzae (Breda de Haan) Shoemaker, 1959 Yes ProvenPanicle blight; grain rot

Burkholderia gladioli (Severini, 1913) Yabuuchi et al., 1993

Yes Proven

Burkholderia glumae (Kurita and Tabei, 1967) Urakami et al., 1994

Bakanae Fusarium fujikuroi Nirenberg 1976 Yes ProvenLeaf scald Microdochium albescens (Thüm.) Hern.-Restr. &

Crous, 2015Yes Proven

Sheath brown rot

Pseudomonas fuscovaginae (ex Tanii et al., 1976) Miyajima et al., 1983

Yes Proven

Blast Pyricularia oryzae Cavara, 1892 Yes ProvenStackburn; leaf spot; seedling blight

Trichoconiella padwickii (Ganguly) B.L. Jain, 1976 Yes Proven

Bacterial leaf blight

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Ishiyama 1922) Swings et al. (1990)

Yes Proven



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Disease Causal organism seed-borne nature

seed as pathway of transmission

Bacterial leaf streak

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola (Fang et al., 1956) Swings et al. (1990)

Yes Proven

Black kernal Curvularia australiensis (Bugnic. ex M.B. Ellis) Manamgoda, L. Cai & K.D. Hyde, 2012

Yes No

Curvularia clavata B. L. Jain, 1962 Yes NoBlack kernel Curvularia eragrostidis (Henn.) J. A. Mey., 1959

Curvularia fallax Boedijn, 1933Cochliobolus geniculatus R. R. Nelson, 1964Curvularia hawaiiensis (Bugnic. ex M.B. Ellis) Manamgoda, L. Cai & K.D. Hyde, 2012 Curvularia inaequalis (Shear) Boedijn, 1933Curvularia intermedia Boedijn, 1933 Curvularia lunata (Wakker) Boedijn, 1933Curvularia neergaardii (Danquah) Y.P. Tan & R.G. Shivas, 2014

Yes Not proven

Curvularia oryzae Bugnic., 1950 Yes NoCurvularia oryzae-sativae Sivan., 1987 Yes NoCurvularia pallescens Boedijn, 1933Curvularia senegalensis (Speg.) Subram., 1956Curvularia tuberculata B. L. Jain, 1962Curvularia uncinata Bugnic., 1950Curvularia verruculosa Tandon & Bilgrami ex M.B. Ellis, 1966

Yellow grain Protascus colorans Wolk, 1913 Yes NoKernel smut Tilletia barclayana (Bref.) Sacc. & P. Syd., 1899 Yes Not provenFalse smut Ustilaginoidea virens (Cooke) Takah., 1896 Yes Not provenBlotch Albifimbria verrucaria (Alb. & Schwein.) L.

Lombard & Crous, 2016Yes Not proven

Un known Prathoda longissima (Deighton & MacGarvie) E. G. Simmons, 2007

Yes No

Un known Colletotrichum dematium (Pers.) Grove, 1918 Yes Not proven

Source: ISTA pest list 2019

References

h t t p : / / r i c e p e d i a . o r g / r i c e - a s - a - c r o p / r i c e -productivity

ISTA., 2019. https://www.seedtest.org/en/pest-list-

tool-_content---1--3477.htmlKauraw, L.P., 1987. Important seed-borne fungal

diseases of rice, detection methods and control.

In 11th International Congress of Plant Protection, Manila (Philippines).

Zhang, G., Sakai, H., Usui, Y., Tokida, T., Nakamura, H., Zhu, C., Fukuoka, M., Kobayashi, K. and Hasegawa, T., 2015. Grain growth of different rice cultivars under elevated CO2 concentrations affects yield and quality. Field Crops Research, 179, pp.72-80.

19565

71. Hybrid-enabled Line Profiling (HeLP)THOTA JOSEPH RAJU1 AND GAZALA PARVEEN S2

1Department of Seed Science and Technology, UAS, Raichur2Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru

The universal commercialized crop area consisting of hybrid cultivars from self-pollinated crops doesn’t even reached 1%. Having said that it

has been observed that in the past 60 years, the national, international, public and private sectors has witnessed a recurrent pattern of growth and



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decline with regard to the eagerness of hybrid production in self-pollinated crops. Development of hybrids is considered to be a reassuring avenue to enhance the yield potential of agricultural crops.

Hybrid-enabled line profiling (HELP) is a informative and newfangled integrated breeding strategy for self-fertilizing crops. It is a concoction of ultra-modern high-throughput versions of current and novel concepts and methodologies into a breeding system that focuses on the most exceptional and flawless crosses. These focus’ results in remarkable and appreciable increase in efficiency and can reverse the edible yield plateauing feared in some of the crops having major self-fertilization as a rule.3

Extracting high yielding lines from self-pollinated crops is one of the important way to exploit fixable heterosis. The performance of these lines are on par/exceeds F

1 hybrid performance. A

study was conducted in soybean to predict superior yielding lines by evaluating F

2 bulk. F

6:7 lines and

F2 were evaluated for yield and yield-related traits

and gave an evidence that F2 bulk can be used to

predict derived lines performance. Thus helps to retain and forward only the superior lines.1

Transgressive segregants are the individuals with extreme phenotypes in segregating generation. It is one of the important means to acquire higher-performing lines from self-pollinated crops were crossing is tedious and unsuccessful. An effort was made to acquire transgressive segregants from potential crosses in wheat. The crosses that

exhibited high sca effects and also which had good general combiners produced a higher frequency of transgressive segregants. The crosses involving low general combiners irrespective of their sca effects showed poor performance with respect to transgressive segregation.2

In this context, HELP strategy serves as a confidant to discern the best performing crosses with mostly additive and additive × additive gene action, which envisages a high progeny performance. Best parents are crossed and only superior hybrids are selected. Multilocation testing and molecular confirmation of target line profiles and identify superior lines for release. It can be recommended to all breeding systems of self-pollinated crops, since it has improved accuracy and resource use efficiency. Thus HELP is a ray of hope to increase yield and exploiting heterosis in self-pollinated crops.

Reference

1. Friedrichs, M.R., Burton, J.W. and Brownie, C., 2016, Heterosis and genetic variance in soybean recombinant inbred line populations. Crop Sci., 56(4): 2072-2079

2. Yadav, B., Tyagi, C.S. and Singh, D., 1998, Genetics of transgressive segregation for yield and yield components in wheat. Ann. Appl. Biol., 133(2): 227-235

3. Van Ginkel, M. and Ortiz, R., 2018, Cross the best with the best, and select the best: HELP in breeding selfing crops. Crop Sci., 58(1): 17-30

19573

72. Varietal Identification for Maintenance of Genetic PuritySRIDEVI RAMAMURTHY

Department of Seed Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tamil Nadu.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Seed multiplication and production of foundation and certified seeds require legal system of seed certification. Seed certification is a legally sanctioned system which is crucial for maintenance of quality control. Through seed certification high-quality seeds of notified varieties are supplied to the farmers. Certification of seeds ensures both physical purity and genetic purity. Genetic purity is the true to type nature of seeds which resembles its mother plant in all its morphological traits. Presence of genetic contaminants in seed production affects the genetic purity of the seed lots and lead to genetic deterioration of particular

varieties / hybrids. It also conserves germplasm and protects the rights of breeders and farmers.

There are different methods available for identification of varieties,

� Physical test � Grow out test � Biochemical test � Electrophoresis � Molecular methods

Physical Test

The other distinguishable variety (ODV) in the seed lots can be identified by physical characters. The seed size, seed shape, seed weight, surface



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texture, seed colour, endospermic characters and appendages / special characters are used identify the ODV. These morphological traits are observed under purity work board randomly with 400 seeds from the working sample. ODV observed is expressed as number / Kg of seed.

Grow Out Test (GOT)

Grow out test acts as both pre-control and post control test to assess the genetic purity of crops. The seeds of working sample is sown and grown following standard cultural practices with recommended row length, plant to plant distance, space between rows and plots for different crops. The standard sample should be raised along with the tested sample for reference of morphological traits. The plants are examined for the presence of off-types mainly from flowering to maturity stages. The plants which exhibit deviation in morphological characters should be tagged and examined carefully. The plants which are found other than reported by the sender is counted and expressed in percentage.

Biochemical Test

Some of the biochemical tests are used for identification of varieties,

� Phenol test � Seed coat peroxidase test for soybean � Sodium hydroxide test � KOH bleach test for sorghum � Ferrous sulphate colour test

Electrophoresis

Electrophoresis is a Greek word which means borne by electricity, used to separate charged particles in electrical field. In electrophoresis proteins and enzymes are employed for assessing the genetic purity of variety. It separates the molecules based on electrical charge and molecular weight. Protein molecules are specific to crop and varieties, which is a genetic character. Each genotype possess specific banding pattern and the admixtures found can be identified by varying banding patterns. The

varieties are identified based on relative mobility of bands, presence or absence of bands, number of bands found and intensity of bands.

Molecular Methods

DNA fingerprinting is used to identify the varieties using agarose gel electrophoresis. Genetic markers are a sequence of DNA or gene with the location in chromosome used to distinguish genotypes. The genetic marker cannot be affected by environmental conditions and development stages which is advantageous.

Classification of DNA Markers

� Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)

� Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) � Simple sequence repeats (SSR) � Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) � Sequenced Characterized Amplified Region

Markers (SCAR) � Amplified fragment length polymorphism

(AFLP) � Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP)

Steps involved in DNA fingerprinting

� Isolation of DNA � Quantification of DNA � DNA amplification - Polymerase chain reaction

(PCR) � Electrophoresis � Documentation

Conclusion

Maintenance of genetic purity is very vital during seed production systems of both varieties and hybrids. Admixture of other genotypes in the seed lot disintegrates the originality of seed lots. Identification of other varieties before sowing, during field inspection and seed processing can be done by various testing methods. Seed lots devoid of other varieties or genotypes only can pass through seed certification procedures. Therefore, the main aim of seed production system is to ensure genetic purity to supply high-quality seeds to farmers.

19584

73. Insights into the seed PrimingKULESHWAR PRASAD SAHU*1, SAHIL MEHTA2, TUSHAR GOYAL1, MUKESH KUMAR1 AND ASHARANI PATEL1

1Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India.2International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, New Delhi, India.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

In the productivity scenario, quality seeds play vital role in increasing both production and productivity

of crops (Suesada et al., 2018; Lal et al., 2018; Wojtyla et al., 2019). In the easy term, there is a



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quote “More the seeds germinate, more the seeds we get to feed own future child”. This direct seed-yield relation depend on various parameters like purity (genetic, physical), germination rate, pathogen-inoculum freeness, storage period, unfavourable weather conditions and lastly vigour (Sher et al., 2019). However, this relation can be improved by various seed enhancement techniques such as seed pelleting, seed coating, seed priming etc. Among all these techniques, the seed priming (pre-sowing seed enhancement based on water or osmotic solutions) is the process of controlled seed hydration (Phase I. Imbibition) to the level that starts the pre-germinative metabolic activities (Phase II & III. Lag and Rapid growth phase), but prevents actual emergence of the radicle (Hussain et al., 2016; Zheng et al., 2016; Lal et al., 2018). As a result of imbibition, the primed seeds can also be stored for later germination; however, they are supposed to dry again to the original moisture content. In the literature, the seed priming concept was given by Theophrastus (372-287 BC) while working on pre-soaked cucumber seeds in milk. However, the term was given by Malnassy and group in the year of 1971. Overall, in the priming process, markable biochemical changes occur in seed such as breakdown and transport of more endospermic reserve materials to the embryo growing parts (Hussain et al., 2016; Zheng et al., 2016). In addition, priming also expands the range of temperature range at which germination occur (Hussain et al., 2019). It is highly beneficial as the aged or low vigour seeds have low germination rate and high mortality rate. Furthermore, under stress conditions, the seeds are not able to give good germination % (Jisha et al., 2013; Jisha and Puthur, 2016; Wojtyla et al., 2019). Thus, this makes priming more important technique to overcome such stresses (Lal et al., 2018; Hussain et al., 2019).

Methods of Priming

� Hydro priming-Specific amount of water (not an osmoticum) is added to the seeds so as to bring the moisture content to the desired level (Lemmens et al., 2019; Sher et al., 2019). In this, there is no wastage of solutions.

� Osmo priming (Osmo-conditioning)-It uses specific osmotic solution (Polyethylene glycol or KNO3 salts) to set the water potential and moisture content of the seeds (Lemmens et al., 2019). In this, aeration is provided to support the seed respiration during priming.

� Matrix priming-It is the incubation of seeds in a predetermined mixture of water and solid, insoluble matrix particles like vermiculite, diatomaceous earth, clay pellets, etc. (Wu et al., 2019). After incubation, the moist matrix material is removed by sieving or screening.

� Hormonal priming-The pre-sowing of seeds with different exogenous hormones (GA, SA and cytokinins) so as to change

the concentration and ratios of endogenous hormones to mediate the germination (Sher et al., 2019; Hussain et al., 2019).

� Bio-priming- In this, beneficial microbes (fungi or bacteria) like Trichoderma harzianum, Pseudomonas striata and Aspergillus spp., etc. are used for colonizing the seeds during priming (Devi et al., 2019; Balaji et al., 2019).

� Magneto-Priming-In this, the seeds are exposed to the desired level of magnetic field for different time intervals (monitored by digital gaussmeter) so as to increase the seed germination as well as seedling emergence (Bukhari et al., 2019).However, the phenomenon of seed priming

is affected by various factors solution osmotic potential, oxygen content, rate of aeration, employed drying method, priming duration, temperature and light. The related pros and cons of seed priming are described in the following Table 1.

Table 1. Tabulation of seed priming pros and cons.

Advantages DisadvantagesEnhances the % germination.Provide protection against seed and soil-borne plant pathogens.Improved seedling growth.Enhancement in germination uniformity.Improved resistance towards water and other-related stresses.Increase in the seed shelf life.Highly suitable for small size seeds.Controlled water imbibition.Low risk of imbibition-based injuries.Supply of seeds with N and other nutrients.

Chances of chemicals-based toxicity.Chances of low O2 supply to the seed.Handling issue with large pool of seeds.

References

Balaji, D.S. and Narayana, G.S., 2019. Effect of various bio priming seed enhancement treatment on seed quality in certain minor millets. Plant Archives, 19(1), pp.1727-1732.

Bukhari, S.A., Farah, N., Mustafa, G., Mahmood, S. and Naqvi, S.A.R., 2019. Magneto-Priming Improved Nutraceutical Potential and Antimicrobial Activity of Momordica charantia L. Without Affecting Nutritive Value. Applied biochemistry and biotechnology, 188(3), pp.878-892.

Devi, K.S., Devi, P.S., Sinha, B., Singh, L.N.K., Chanu, W.T., Maibam, N. and Devi, H.C., 2019. Effects of bio priming of rice seeds with native Trichoderma



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spp. isolated from rice rhizospheric soil. Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, 8(4), pp.1968-1971.

Hussain, S., Hussain, S., Khaliq, A., Ali, S. and Khan, I., 2019. Physiological, Biochemical, and Molecular Aspects of Seed Priming. In Priming and Pretreatment of Seeds and Seedlings (pp. 43-62). Springer, Singapore.

Hussain, S., Yin, H., Peng, S., Khan, F.A., Khan, F., Sameeullah, M., Hussain, H.A., Huang, J., Cui, K. and Nie, L., 2016. Comparative transcriptional profiling of primed and non-primed rice seedlings under submergence stress. Frontiers in plant science, 7, p.1125.

Jisha, K.C. and Puthur, J.T., 2016. Seed priming with BABA (β-aminobutyric acid): a cost-effective method of abiotic stress tolerance in Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek. Protoplasma, 253(2), pp.277-289.

Jisha, K.C., Vijayakumari, K. and Puthur, J.T., 2013. Seed priming for abiotic stress tolerance: an overview. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum, 35(5), pp.1381-1396.

Lal, S.K., Kumar, S., Sheri, V., Mehta, S., Varakumar, P., Ram, B., Borphukan, B., James, D., Fartyal, D. and Reddy, M.K., 2018. Seed priming: An emerging technology to impart abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants. In Advances in Seed Priming (pp. 41-50). Springer, Singapore.

Lemmens, E., Deleu, L.J., De Brier, N., De Man, W.L., De Proft, M., Prinsen, E. and Delcour, J.A., 2019. The Impact of Hydro-Priming and Osmo-Priming

on Seedling Characteristics, Plant Hormone Concentrations, Activity of Selected Hydrolytic Enzymes, and Cell Wall and Phytate Hydrolysis in Sprouted Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). ACS omega.

Sher, A., Sarwar, T., Nawaz, A., Ijaz, M., Sattar, A. and Ahmad, S., 2019. Methods of Seed Priming. In Priming and Pretreatment of Seeds and Seedlings (pp. 1-10). Springer, Singapore.

Suesada, T., Usuki, K., Muro, T., Higashino, Y., Kawashiro, H., Morita, N. and Morinaga, Y., 2018. Effect of seeding time and phosphate fertilizer using the method of local application below the seeds on yield in direct-sown seeds of onions (Allium cepa L.) in Central Japan (No. RESEARCH).

Wojtyla, Ł., Lechowska, K., Kubala, S., Quinet, M., Lutts, S. and Garnczarska, M., 2019. seed priming as a strategy to overcome abiotic stresses during germination. Under Environmental Stress, p.67.

Wu, L., Huo, W., Yao, D. and Li, M., 2019. Effects of solid matrix priming (SMP) and salt stress on broccoli and cauliflower seed germination and early seedling growth. Scientia Horticulturae, 255, pp.161-168.

Zheng, M., Tao, Y., Hussain, S., Jiang, Q., Peng, S., Huang, J., Cui, K. and Nie, L., 2016. Seed priming in dry direct-seeded rice: consequences for emergence, seedling growth and associated metabolic events under drought stress. Plant growth regulation, 78(2), pp.167-178.

ENTOMOLOGY

19535

74. Behavioural Attributes of stingless BeesSARASWATI MAHATO

Ph.D Scholar, Department of Agricultural Entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur- 584104*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Stingless bees are also known as dammer bees, which are 2-16mm in size. Beekeeping with stingless bees is known as Meliponiculture. There are 2 important genera of stingless bees described under subfamily Meliponinae i.e., Trigona and Melipona where, Tetragonula (Trigona) genera consists of 130 species and Melipona consist 50 species. Melipona is restricted to Tropical America while the largest group Trigona is widely distributed from Southern Asia to Australia (crane, 1992). Colonies of stingless bees are perennial and usually consist of 100s or 1000s of workers (Wille, 1983). Functional sting and wing venation is very

much reduced so they don’t sting rather bites. They protect the nest by biting the intruders with strong mandibles. They can be hived (domesticated) and used for production of honey (Honey is unique and highly valued for medicinal properties) and can also be exploited for pollination service.

Nest Biology

Nesting biology is a highly visible aspect of stingless bee behaviour (Michener, 1974). There are different shapes and arrangements of brood cells and food storage containers inside the nest. Honey and pollen are stored in separate ‘pots’. Stored nectar or ripened honey are found in nest cavity extremes (for storage during heavy flowering periods), while



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pollen and some honey surround the brood area. Nest consists of external tube, internal tunnel, waste dumps, resin dumps, brood pots, food pots for storing pollen and honey, and nest envelops like involucrum and batumen. Batumen is made up of cerumen and mud. Entrance tube has made out of cerumen. Cerumen is a mixture of wax secreted by bees from their abdominal wax gland and resins collected from plant. Criss-cross cerumen strands support the nest components.

Food Pots

� Present either above, below or at both sides of the brood area

� Built one above other or side by side � Pollen pots were built closer to the entrance � Honey pots in outer parts of the nest but often

the cluster will contain both honey and pollen pots

Brood Cells

� Arrange in clusters and more crowded � Distinct colour variation on their age � Newly constructed: brownish � Straw coloured with as age advances � Brood cells are vertically elongated and

oriented � Brood cells of worker and drone are similar in

size but queen cells are large

Nesting Behavior

In addition to the normal habitat of the stingless bee, Tetragonula iridipennis Smith i.e., mud walls, the stingless bees were also observed in the extremely secured places like, joints of boundary wall made up of stones, holes of cemented wall, stone walls of temples, switch boxes, electric pipes, dried roots and branches of live banyan tree. Interestingly, large numbers of colonies were observed on the dried roots and branches of live banyan tree. These stingless bees are observed as low as 0.5 m above ground to over 12 m from the ground. The pattern of entrance hole varies from small round hole to oval and extremely flat.

� Trigona carbonaria- inside hollows in trees or wooden pillars of houses

� Trigona laevicepes - tree cavities � Trigona gribodei - tree trunks and cavities � T. oyuni and T. moorei - ant nests � T. Gribodei - termite mound

Reproductive Behaviour

Colony reproduction is slow. It occurs through swarming. After selection of new site virgin queen moves outside the nest with a group of workers. Nesting materials is shifted and food pots are fabricated. Later food is transported to food pots. Afterwards young queen mate with drone, It flies only once and mate only once in her life. Abdomen enlarge due to physogastry and queen loses ability to fly. Brood cells constructed & queen began to lay

eggs after mating.

Communication

Role of semiochemicals in foraging ecology of stingless bees divides the main volatile compounds in the 4 categories.1. Food odours2. Food source marking volatiles3. Trail pheromones4. The chemical used by robber bees and casual

thieves during nest plundering

Diseases of Stingless Bee

Stingless bee bacterial infection

� Infected brood does not develop, cells can form sunken caps

� Infected brood becomes discoloured, first turning brown from the last segments of the abdomen eventually turning dark brown all over

� Larvae that have been removed from cells can be found singly or groups throughout hive

� Infected brood eventually degrades to a watery consistency

� Cells become darker in appearance as contents degrade

� Cell provisions discolouration of and/or dry � Ammonia or decaying smell from infected cells � Brood formation becomes scattered instead of

in organised spiral discs (for T. carbonaria) � Worker behaviour can initially be frenetic and

disorganised, becoming lethargic over time

Recommended Strategies

� Isolate the nest and workers i.e., close the hive entrance when all nestmates have returned

� Burn the entire colony and box. � Minimise chances of cross-contamination

between colonies. So, Beekeepers should sterilise equipment and all hive tools with bleach and then reuse the boxes.

� DO NOT leave boxes or stores out for other colonies to rob, it has more chances of infection into neighbouring colonies

� The transfer of brood between colonies, to aid in population or recovery, is not recommended. Infected larvae do not progress to pupal stage.

Why should we use Stingless Bees for Pollination?

� Better pollination (Flower preference: Generalist flower visitors, small flowers, dense inflorescence, shorter corolla tube, wider corolla tube)

� Survival in tropical climates � Harmless � Native species � Eco-friendly � Conservation � Limited foraging distance



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� Greenhouse pollination � Owner’s benefit-maximum

strength of stingless Bees in Pollination Advantages to Farmer

Floral consistency SafetyDomestication Medicinal honeyPerennial colonies Restricted foraging Large foods reserves are stored in nests

Easy management

Polylecty and adaptability

Easy transportation

Forager recruitment Low-cost technology Economical

Colony Requirement

For most of the crops, 15 to 20 colonies per hectare are usually recommended for effective pollination. But, if natural pollinators are scarce then additional hives may be necessary.

References

Michener, C.D., 1974, The social behaviour of the bees: a comparative study, Belknap, Harvard University Press, Cambridge

Wille, A., 1983, Biology of the stingless bees. Ann. Rev. Entomol., 28:41-64

19550

75. Insects as Biological WeaponsM. SREEDHAR*1, A. VASUDHA2 AND SUSHIL KUMAR1

1Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pant Nagar-263145(Uttarakhand).2Department of Entomology, Agrl. College & Res. Instt, Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore-641003 (Tamil Nadu).*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Over the past century, weapons systems have evolved in concert with human kind’s understanding over the sciences – physics, chemistry and biology. Nuclear weapons, and other advanced weapons and delivery systems have brought distant targets closer. While debate of arms and potential disarmament rages on, bio-warfare remains the one field where most countries have signed up to not only disallow use, but even destroy their own resources. Bioweapons can be of different origins – bacteria, virus, fungi, or toxins. Insects can also be used as bioweapons and are covered under the biological weapons convention.

Definitions

Biological Weapons: It is use of living organisms like viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and insects or their toxins to cause disease or kill humans, animals and plants.

Agricultural Warfare: The knowledge on crop protection is used for offensive purpose by terrorist organisations and enemy countries. The insect pests, non-insect pests, microbial pathogens or products can all be used as biological weapons parallel with the development of chemical weapons and some of them have common mode of delivery system.

Biological Warfare: Use of a biological organism or biologically derived toxin or other substance to cause lethal effects; these agents may

be used to target humans, crops or livestock, or nonliving, but economically vital material, such as an oil supply

Bioterrorism: Bioterrorism is defined as a planned or destructive use of biological agents such as viruses, bacteria, fungi or toxins produced from living organisms.

Biocrime: The threat or use of biological agents for individual objectives such as revenge or financial gain.

Agro Terrorism: The intentional introduction of an animal or plant disease as well as damage to crops and livestock with the goal of generating fear, causing economic losses, and undermining social stability. It is also called as asymmetric warfare.

Food Terrorism: An act or threat to deliberately contaminate food for human consumption with biological, chemical, or physical agents or radio nuclear materials for the purpose of causing injury or death to civilian populations and/or disrupting social, economic, or political stability

Entomological Warfare: It is use of insects to attack on enemy. It is type of biological warfare in which insects are used as biological weapons. Different insects can be used by different ways in entomological warfare.

History

� In14th century fleas are used to spread plague against the city of kaffa in Asia minor



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� In 2nd world war Germans used colorado beetle against enemy crops.

� Japanese also used plague-infected fleas and cholera infected flies against Chinese in 2nd world war.

� Many techniques are developed by soviets during cold war era to transmit diseases like foot and mouth disease using ticks. But however they did not used them against any country.

� Similarly during cold war USA also developed a laboratory capable of producing millions of yellow fever infected mosquitos to attack soviets and they also did experiment on their survivability if dropped from plane effect.

� French entomologists also concluded that colorado beetle can be used as biological weapon against enemy crops.

Types of Entomological Warfare

These are exists in three forms � Infecting insects with pathogens and

dispersing over target crops. � Use insects directly to attack crops. � Use uninfected insects to attack the enemy like

bees.

India’s Susceptibility to Biological weapons Threat

India has so far not had any major bioweapons attack on its territory. However, the consequences to India if a threat emerges are higher because-1. Geographical location: The closer the

perpetrator state is to India, the easier they will find to disperse a biological agent in Indian territory, land or water.

2. Connectivity with India (through air, water, or land): Increased access to India would increase the chances of delivering a biological weapon through these ports of entry. Further, the more access points, the less likely would it be to detect the entry and dissemination of a biological agent

3. Possession of weapons of mass destruction/prior history of armed conflict: Prior history of use of weapons or ongoing conflicts with India would increase the likelihood of these countries attempting to engage in biological warfare against India.

4. Signatory Status: The biological weapons convention or reports of alleged bioweapon possession.

Indian Laws and Policies

� Destructive insects and pests act, 1914. Through this act the plant quarantine order was enforced.

� National security act, 1980. To strengthen the national security by allowing the government to arrest a person, if his actions are suspected to cause harm to the defence of the country or affect its foreign relations.

� Other acts: � The epidemic diseases act, EDA (Act 111 of

1897). � The water (prevention and control of pollution)

act, 1974. � The air (prevention and control of pollution)

act, 1981. � Environment Protection Act, 1986. � The disaster management act (DM act), 2005.

Insect vectors are not mentioned in the text of biological and toxic weapons convention (BWC) of 1972. However vectors are covered in treaty. Use of vectors in armed conflict for hostile purposes is banned by article 1 of BWC. So BWC covers insect vectors. However the use of uninfected insects against crops is not clear.

Conclusion

Use of insects as biological weapons is very cheap and effective warfare. They can easily be used to spread disease among enemy and to destroy enemy crops and livestock. Bioweapons have once again come into the limelight and India needs to be prepared for defending against biological warfare. Biological weapons development after 1975 virtually is unknown because all the major nations signed the BW Convention making. BW illegal, little information is available as to what is going on today.

References

Chaudhary, F. N, Malik, M. F, Hussain, M. and Asif, N. (2017) Insects as Biological Weapons. Journal of Bioterrorism & Biodefense 9: 156.

Naik, Shambhavi. Assessing Measures for India to Tackle Biowarfare Threats. Takshashila Discussion Document, April 23, 2019-03.



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19586

76. RnAi technology in Insect Pest ManagementK. ASHOK1 AND M. MUTHUKUMAR2

1PG Research Scholar and 2PDF, Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 03

Introduction

RNA interference (RNAi) is a gene silencing mechanism at the cellular level triggered by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and is likely to be the new approach underlying the next generation of insect-resistant transgenic plants. In some studies, successful delivery of dsRNA molecules to insects by ingestion resulted in the expected essential gene target silencing which led to death or affected the viability of the target insect, resulting in control of the pest. RNAi-mediated silencing of different insect genes involved in various physiological processes was found to be detrimental to insect growth, development and survival.

RNAi - Next-Generation Pest Control Strategy

Ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) in insect is emerging as an alternative genetic tool in the ongoing task of developing pathogen and pest-resistant crops or sprayable formulations. A mechanism that degrades unwanted RNAs in the cytoplasm introduction of gene-specific dsRNA into a cell. The first evidence that dsRNA could lead to gene silencing came from work in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Andrew Fire and Craig Mello unveiled the underlying mechanism of RNAi phenomenon in C. elegans for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize. They systematically clarified that double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) was more effective than either sense or antisense RNA.

Two mechanism of gene “knockdown” or silencing:

Transcriptional gene silencing (TGS)

Modifications of either the histone or DNA

Post Transcriptional Gene Silencing (PTGS)

Silencing mRNA of a target gene.

Major Cellular Components of Gene Silencing

DICER

It is a ribonuclease enzyme that cleaves dsRNA into siRNA

RISC

RNA Induced Silencing Complex is a protein complex which guides siRNA to cleave and degrade mRNA. It has a major component, arguante protein which acts as endonuclease and cut mRNA, acts as

a SLICER function.

Methods of Transporting RNAi Information

1. Cell autonomous RNAi: The silencing process is limited to the cell which the dsRNA is introduced and encompasses the RNAi process within individual cells

2. Non cell autonomous RNAi: The silencing process take place in tissues/cells different from the location of application or production of the dsRNA.a) Environmental RNAi: dsRNA is taken

up by a cell from the environment such as gut or haemocoel.

b) Systemic RNAi: dsRNA silencing signal spreads to neighbouring cells from epicentre of cell

HI-RNA for Insect Pest Management

In plant-mediated or host-induced RNAi (HI-RNAi) approach, a crop plant is engineered with hair-pin RNAi vector to produce dsRNA against the target gene of insect pest. When insects feeding on plant parts, dsRNA enters into the insect gut, leading to the induction of RNAi and then, silencing of the target gene in the insect pest takes place.

Use of RNAi to Control Insects by Transgenic Plants

Transgenic crops with specific control against insect pests are based on Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins, which act in gut epithelial cell membrane in susceptible insects. Bt toxins are highly specific against certain orders of insects, where the most successful use was achieved against Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. However, continuous exposure of those insects to Bt crops evolved field-resistance, affecting the efficiency in controlling those pests. This encouraged the development of new strategies to help in controlling agricultural pests. The application of RNAi by transgenic plants became a potential new approach to control important agricultural pests, which led to the flourishing of a new field of research. Many of the main agricultural pest species have already been targeted by RNAi technology using various genes and delivery methods. However, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Lepidoptera have been the major focus of the development of transgenic plants expressing target gene regions for RNAi.



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Table 1. Methods involved in delivering RNAi:

s. no. Insects Plants1 Microinjection Vectors2 Viral infections Spraying RNAi-based

insecticide products3 Soaking Transgenic techniques4 Bacterial

expressionsRoot feeding or trunk injection

5 Feeding Challenges for RNAi success in insects

Challenges in RNAi Technology for Insect Pest Management

1. Length of dsRNA molecules2. Life stages of target insects3. Off-targets and identification of the right

target genes4. Efficiency of RNAi in Pest Control5. Concentration of dsRNA6. Nucleotide sequence7. The stability of dsRNA molecule after ingestion8. Efficiency of the silencing process is

determined by the gut pH and nucleases9. Lack of effective dsRNA delivery in practice10. Resistance Development to RNAi11. siRNAs often silence unintended genes12. Development of commercial products or

transgenic plant

Conclusion

The insect pests are big threat in meeting the food demands for future generation. The present pest

control strategies, including the existing transgenic approaches show certain limitations and are not completely successful in limiting the insect pests. However, the sequence-specific gene silencing via RNA interference (RNAi) holds a great promise for effective management of agricultural pests. The efficacy of RNAi varies among different insect orders and also depends upon various factors, including the target gene selection, method of dsRNAs delivery and expression of dsRNAs and presence of off-target effects.

Future Directions

Though RNAi acts as a promising strategy for control of insect pests in agriculture, there is still a need to analyse several aspects of RNAi before establishing it as a long-term effective pest control method in the field. RNAi technology coupled with Bt or other technologies offers a great choice in controlling the insects pests, which are prone to develop resistance against insecticidal proteins. Combined strategy involves gene pyramiding, pyramiding genes with different mode of actions against insects such as Bt toxin and dsRNAs of RNAi targets to control insect pests.

References

Gordon, K. H. and Waterhouse, P. M., 2007. RNAi for insect-proof plants. Nature Biotechnology, 25(11): 1231.

Burand, J. P. and Hunter, W. B., 2013. RNAi: future in insect management. Journal of invertebrate pathology, 112: S68-S74.

19622

77. Crop Losses by Insect-Pests and its estimation MethodsLOKESH KUMAR MEENA

Scientist (Entomology), ICAR-IISR, Indore (MP)*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

A crop loss is any reduction in quantity or quality of yield and it is considered equivalent to damage. Crop loss may be measured as the difference between actual yield and attainable yield due to effects of one or more insect-pests. the evaluation of pest damage is useful in pest management because it defines the economic status of pest species, establishes the EIL and ETL, estimate the effectiveness of pest control measures, evaluate crop varieties from their reaction to pests species, helping in deciding the allocations for research and extension in plant protection and helping in assigning priorities on the basis of relative importance of different pests. There are different

types of losses are caused by insects to different crop at different stages of crops.

Direct losses: This includes quantitative and qualitative losses of produce such as killing of flowers, buds, twigs of whole plants, light infestations of scale insects of fruits, puncturing of fruits before harvest etc.

Actual losses: It includes the total losses of the crop, both direct and indirect, cost of control measures, expenditure on developing pest control technology and expenditures incurred on extension of theses technology to farmers.

Potential losses: This refers to losses likely to be sustained without adoption of crop protection



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measure.Avoidable losses: These losses can be

avoided by use of proper control protection measures.

Unavoidable losses: These losses cannot be avoided by use of currently available any control protection measures.

Methods of Crop Losses Estimation

1. Mechanical protection: The crop is grown under enclosure of cotton cloth or wire gauze to keep pests away from crop and yield is compared with without closure crop in similar climatic conditions. This technique is used mostly in cotton for whitefly and jassids.

Limitations: 1. The enclosure crop generally become weak and pale due to change in environmental conditions. 2. This technique cannot be used for large scale because it is time-consuming and impracticable in field conditions.

2. Chemical protection: The crop is protected from the pests by application of pesticides. The yield of treated crop is compared with untreated crop with natural pest infestations. This technique can be used large scale and most widely used by researchers.

Limitations: 1. The crop treated with chemicals may be physiologically affected and may give more or less yield.

3. Comparison of yield in different fields: The yield is calculated per unit area in different fields with different degrees of pest infestations. The correlation between crop yield and different degree of crop infestations is worked out to estimate loss in yield. This technique is quite useful for estimating crop loss due to different pests over large area.

Limitations: 1. The yield in different fields may influenced by soil heterogeneity.

4. Comparison of yield of individual plants: The individual plants form same field are examined for incidence of pests and yields. The average yield of healthy plants is compared

with yields of different degree of infested plants and the loss in yield is calculated. This technique can be used for maize stem borer, sugarcane borers and aphids. In this method soil heterogeneity factor is considerably reduced.

Limitations: 1. Different plants in same field show different degrees of infestations due to unknown factors. This factor may be genetic, physiological or maybe mere soil heterogeneity in same field. 2. This technique is time-consuming and laborious.

5. Damaged caused by individual insect: This is obtained by information’s which are generated by studies on biology of pest species. The details regarding amount of damage by different age or stages of insect pests are worked out and amount of loss is calculated. This technique is very useful for leaf-feeding insect such as semiloopers in soybean.

Limitations: 1. This technique is very difficult to use in large area since it is time-consuming.

6. Manipulation of natural enemies: The pest is controlled by introducing natural enemies such as predators and parasitoids and yield of such crop is compared with no such measures have been used.

Limitations: 1. This technique has not been widely used. 2. This technique cannot be used on large field and feasible only on small plots.

7. Simulation of damage: The pest injury is simulated by removing or injuring leaves or other plant parts. This technique have been used for spotted bollworms on cotton in India

Limitations: 1. Simulated damage is not always equivalent to the damage caused by a pest. Insects may inject long-acting toxins rather than producing injury instantly. Feeding on margins of leaves may not equivalent to feeding in centre. The concept of incorporating rate of injury in simulation studies is very difficult. The period of leaf removed and time of simulating damage with respect to the stage of plant growth is also critical.

19629

78. Insects as PetsJ. KOUSIKA1 AND M. THIYAGARAJAN

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

As pets, insects are universally abundant and interesting to rear. The insects are never bad to humans because they never bite or chew or kick or scratch as the other pets do. Like dogs they do not bark for food, like cats they do not need all-time attention and much space for living. They

simply grow with you without much effort. Rearing insect pets are like learning science because watching a caterpillar transforming into pupa and into a colourful butterfly which is called as metamorphosis is an interesting event. Children’s catch fireflies, jewel beetle etc., to grow them in pet



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jars. In Japan insects are common pets and kept as pets widely in the Far East and the Mediterranean region for thousands of years. The Japanese accept insects as pets and sell live crickets in bamboo cages in markets. Night-singing crickets are reared as household pets to indicate the intruders, because the crickets suddenly stop singing when disturbed. The insect pets are harmless, allergy-free and their food is less expensive than the food of most commons pets. All this makes them an increasingly popular to keep as pets among people. The following are the most common insects pets reared across the world.

Field Crickets. These insects are flightless. Like musicians, they make wonderful pets and can be kept in a large glass bowl or aquarium. The container should have soil or loam and should be covered with a piece of cheesecloth or wire screening to prevent escaping. They eat lettuce, fruit, moist bread and even dried dog food.

Praying Mantids. They come in beautiful shapes, colours and show specific behaviour. They require a warm habitat with a high humidity level and a good supply of live insects to hunt for food. It is interesting to see the animals hunt, grow, molt, lay eggs and see their methods of camouflage and defense mechanism. They can be grown in a aquarium with a enclosure of screened top, even a home-made insect cages can be used. The enclosure should have a layer of soil on the bottom and small plants or small branches for the mantid to climb and time pass. Mantids are predators and cannibalistic, both as nymphs and adults and should be kept as individually in compartments. They lay their eggs in autumn in layered clusters, covered by foam that hardens later and is waterproof, hanging from a branch twig. Egg cases can be collected in spring only after they start to hatch. Some of them survives as they are cannibalistic and climb up and get dispersed and starts their life cycle.

Ant Lion Grubs. As immatures know as grub, ant lions are called as “Doodle-bugs,” and are generally familiar to most people especially to the kids. Doodle-bugs form a cone-like pits in sandy soil and then wait at the bottom of the pit until for a passing insect, often an ant. When it falls into the pit it is captured and eaten. They can survive without food even for a week. It may take two or three years before the grub to become adult ant lions. Ant lion grubs should be placed in a shallow box or dish of sand so that they can build pits to entrap live prey.

Caterpillars. Observing a caterpillar change through the pupal stage into the adult form is a interesting lesson in nature and is recommended as an individual or group project during the schooling. As most of the caterpillar are monophagous, when finding a caterpillar to rear one should note on which the plant foliage it is feeding because it is important to resupply the same food as the insect develops. Small branches of the food plant may be cut off and placed in a small water jar in the rearing

cage moisten with cotton. Using a transparent material or screening a small enclosure can be built around the caterpillar and its surroundings on the food plant. Plug any opening at the end (clothing, cardboard or such) that will keep the insect from escaping. When the caterpillar enters the pupal stage (chrysalis or cocoon) it may be left in place or removed to be kept for closer observation without disturbing. It is important to keep the pupa outdoors in a natural state of weather and out of ants. When the moth or butterfly emerges, they rest on the same place so that their wings will develop fully to fly high.

Stick and Leaf Insects: They belong to the class Phasmatoda from the Latin word phasma meaning phantom. Camouflage as their main defense mechanism, most of these “phasmids” have evolved to look like sticks, twigs or leaves (dried/fresh). When kept in captivity they may fool as they have escaped. Stick insects must handle carefully as they are extremely fragile. They go through three life stages in their life cycle. The female drops many numbers of eggs that they land wherever during autumn, nymphs emerges in the spring, and by summer they become adults. The female can reproduce without males and the offspring will be clones of the female. They may measure from few inches to a foot long. A stick bug enclosure should be about three-feet high with branches and twigs for them to climb and hang on. If it is reared in wire instead of a glass enclosure, consider screen as they can get through standard wire enclosures. They should be kept in 75 and 80 per cent humidity by providing a bowl of freshwater daily. These insects are fairly easy to care for, reproduce well in captivity and are fascinating to watch. But in some parts of the world, some species are considered as possible agricultural pests thus importing foreign species are often prohibited.

Hissing Cockroaches: Hissing cockroaches are popular pets and also they have bad reputation that cockroaches have. Only 5 or so out of 4,000 species of roaches are household pests. Though they prefer warm environment can adapt easily to their environment. These insects are about two inches long and are fairly sturdy, so unlike many other land-dwelling invertebrates, they are quite easy to handle. They are also very easy to care for and are one of the most low maintenance pets available and they eat fruits, vegetables and dry dog food.

Beetles: In Japan, the rhinoceros beetle is a popular pet. They have a horn on the thorax and a horn pointing forward from the centre of their thorax. They can reach almost 6 inches long. Sometimes they are used for gambling, fighting one another, as males tend to be combative. To keep larvae that live in soil, spread a thick layer of moisture soil. Some larvae are cannibalistic, so should be reared individually. They eat decaying wood, decaying leaves and other rotting plant material. The pupae should be maintained with



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suitable and moist environment. The adults can be reared in a tank containing moist soil, fresh leaves and twigs. The light will provide a suitable temperature for their survival.

Ants: They are social insects called as eusocial system and live in groups with a hierarchy. A queen, who is the only fertile female, heads the colony. The other, infertile females, are workers and soldiers. The communication is by using pheromones which include trail marking pheromone, sounds, touches and defend themselves by biting or stinging using formic acid. Harvester ants have large jaws and will bite. They are available commercially as farms. These farms are flat so the ants can be viewed from

outside which include their daily lives, building tunnels and carrying food. They should be fed a healthy diet like fruits, vegetables, birdseed or the white of a boiled egg with some water. Children’s will learn from their unique socialization and teamwork. The ants can be reared in a formicarium and fed with sugar and dead or live insects.

Reference

Keeping Insects Caring for a praying mantis, butterflies, stick insects and beetles. Retrieved from https://www.keepinginsects.com/. Accessed on 27.01.2020.

PEST MANAGEMENT

19558

79. Biofumigation for Pest ManagementE. SANKARGANESH1 AND C. SOWMIYA2

1Research Scholar, Department of Agricultural Entomology, BCKV, West Bengal-7412522Research Scholar, Department of Agricultural Entomology, TNAU, Coimbatore-641003

With the introduction of high yielding varieties, change in cropping pattern and extensive use of synthetic chemicals invites pest resistance. On the other hand, overdependence of chemical fumigants increased the pressure on environment. Storage of food grain is prime most important to safeguard the increasing global population. Since long back, Methy bromide (MBr) is an efficient broad-spectrum fumigant, which became increasingly preferred for pest control around the world. It is a potential soil fumigant against soil-borne pests, diseases and weeds associated with high valued agricultural and horticultural crops. Due to increasing environmental concern, Methyl bromide (MBr) was listed as an Ozone Depleting Substance (ODS) under the Montreal Protocol for the protection of ozone layer. So, the use of MBr in developed countries has stopped in 2005 and developing countries continued to use only for quarantine and pre-shipment purposes. In addition cases of resistance to phosphine have been reported and also this fumigant is highly unsafe to the humans. But the post-harvest losses of agricultural commodities due to storage pests extend upto 40% in developing countries.

Bio fumigation is the alternative technique to conventional fumigant can effectively use in pest management especially in stored product protection and pest management in vegetable crops. Managing soil-borne pests and diseases is critical for smallholder vegetable producers. Bio fumigation is the practice of using volatile

chemicals (allelochemicals) released from decomposing plant tissues to suppress pests viz., insects, nematodes, bacteria, fungi, viruses and weeds. The plants in the family brassicaceae are mainly used for biofumigation, its suppressing the pests by release of isothiocyanates (ITCs) with myrosinase enzymes, neutral pH, hydrolyse (in presence of water) glucosinolates (GSLs). GSLs are sulphur-containing chemicals (thioglucosides) that are produced as secondary metabolites. Besides brassicas, Caricaceae, Moringaceae, Salvadoraceae and Tropaeolaceae plant families also have biofumigant action.

Table 1: Common sources of ITCs

Isothiocyanates Common sourcesMethyl Capparales, Metham sodium2-Propenyl B. juncea, B. carinata, B. nigra3-Butenyl B. napus, B. campestris4-Pentenyl B. napus, B. campestrisBenzyl Sinapis spp

Like chemical and essential oils, biofumigant also having potent action against the stored pests viz., Sitophilus, Rhyzopertha, Oryzaephilus and Tribolium. It has considerable importance in the storage pest management because very low concentrations are enough to control this dreaded pests. Research studies indicated that the biofumigation is effective in suppressing Australian soldier fly (Inopus rubriceps), root-knot



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nematode (Meloidogyne spp.), take-all disease caused by Gaeumannomyces graminis var tritici, potato scab caused by Streptomyces scabies etc. It also enhanced the saprophytic activity of soil microbes like Streptomyces. At the same time, biofumigation is not considered to be the long term control strategy. However, this eco-friendly technique has many potential benefits especially in organic production and it may serve as a better crop protection tool to reduce the pesticide load in the environment.

References

Karavina, C. and Mandumbu, R. (2012). Biofumigation for crop protection: potential for adoption in Zimbabwe. J. Anim. Plant Sci.,14(3): 1996-2005.

Lowe, M.D., Henzell, R.F. and Taylor, H.J. (1971). Insecticidal activity to soldier fly larvae, Inopus rubriceps (Macq), of isothiocyanates occurring in choumoellier (Brassica oleracea cv.). N. Z. J. Sci.,14: 322.

19604

80. Role of tritrophic Interactions in Pest ManagementMONICA JAT

Ph.D. Scholar, Division of Entomology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi-12*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

A food chain is a linear network from producer organisms to apex predator species. An agroecosystem food chain consists of three trophic levels: plants, herbivores and their enemies (e.g. parasitoids, predators), behave in mutualistic manner. In terrestrial ecosystem, plants are the major source of food and evolve themselves against overgrazing by herbivores (insects) while insects evolve to increase in numbers, which is regulated by carnivore (natural enemies). Plants defend themselves from the attack of insects by intrinsic and extrinsic factors as by producing chemicals such as toxins or digestibility reducers or through physical defense by trichomes and benefitting natural enemies of insects respectively. In return, plants provide nutrition to the natural enemies in the form of pollen, nectar and extrafloral nectar directly or indirectly through their hosts. The conflict between intrinsic and extrinsic defenses affects the evolution of plant allelochemistry. The development of IPM strategies including semiochemicals is increasing since many problems appeared with the use of synthetic pesticides.

Kinds of Tritrophic Interactions

1. Physically Mediated Interaction

It includes leaf toughness, cuticle thickness and trichomes which influence dispersion of insect and host searching efficiency of predators/ parasitoids. For example an aphid parasitoid was entrapped in the glandular hairs of petunia plant.

2. Chemically Mediated Interaction

The production of secondary metabolites is part of

plant defense system. Herbivores use detoxification enzymes to counter the toxic products released by plant. For eg., A monarch butterfly parasitoid sequesters cardiac glycosides from its host which it picks up from milkweed plants. As a result, it is distasteful to predatory birds.

3. Semiochemically mediated interaction

The semiochemical message provided by plants influence the third trophic level as:

(i) plants provide chemical cues for searching enemies. ii) plant chemicals become kairomones in herbivore- enemy interaction. iii) associated plants produce chemicals that mask attractants to enemies. Tricosane, the kairomone for Trichogramma evanescens, isolated from Heliothis zea was isolated from its food plant Zea mays. The tricosane from the food plant is incorporated into eggs of H. zea and is thus used as searching cue by T. evanescens.

IPM Strategies using Semiochemical

Semiochemicals generally includes two types of interactions:1. Intraspecific interactions which further

includes sex, trail, aggregation, alarm and host recognition pheromones.

2. Interspecific interactions which further includes allelochemicals as allomone, kairomone and synomone.Nowadays, use of semiochemicals in biological

control is the most adopted option to reduce the pesticidal effect on environment. Due to their natural origin, they are considered safe and has low persistency in the environment, and species-



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specific, so that these had harmless effect on nontarget organisms. It has been reported that sex pheromone (approx. 69%) are widely used in management practices followed by aggregation pheromones. ISCA technologies also developed an innovative semiochemical application technique called specialized pheromone and lure application technology (SPLAT). Several agricultural pests including the tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta, fruit flies Bactrocera sp., Asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri, and the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus have been successfully managed by using semiochemicals.

However, there are some difficulties in the practical applications of semiochemicals in pest management as the difficulties in the mate-finding behaviour of different species, the use of proper trap design and due to these challenges they are still minimally used.

Various strategies exist depending on the goals to achieve:

1. Attract and kill: This strategy use attractant to lure an insect to a place where killing agents as insecticides were placed.

2. Mating disruption: It involves competitive attraction or false trail following, camouflage, desensitization and sensory imbalance.

3. Mass trapping: It is used for direct pest population suppression. If females were trapped it can reduce the egg-laying

4. Push and pull: The use of semiochemicals to make a protected resource an attractive or unsuitable for the pests (push) while luring them to an attractive source (pull) where the pests can be removed.

The release of volatile semiochemical depends on 2 major factors:

1. The diffusion speed of the compound through the dispenser matrix

It depends on the characteristics of the dispenser shape, thickness, distribution of semiochemical in the matrix.

2. The evaporation speed of the molecule in the air.It depends on environmental parameters like

temperature, wind speed, RH.

Conclusion

The host plants plays major role in tritrophic interactions and can be exploited for increasing the influence of natural enemies. Semiochemicals have been exploited in several ways to manage insect pests which includes monitoring and detection, population suppression through mating disruption, mass trapping and attract-and-kill techniques. They are naturally occurring and are environment-friendly, being volatile in nature which can act at long distance and dissipate rapidly, also reduce human health and environment risk. The perspectives of semiochemicals use in IPM programs seems to be promising with the increasing worldwide biological agriculture.

References

1.El-Shafie H. and Faleiro J.R. (2017). Semiochemicals and their Potential Use in Pest Management. Biological Control of Pest and Vector Insect.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/66463.

EXTENSION EDUCATION & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

19532

81. Indigenous Communication Channels: the obliterated splendour of extension CommunicationSAMRAT SIKDAR

M.Sc.(Ag.) Scholar, Department of Extension Education, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University (Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar-848125)*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

In every society there are various forms of communication among people. Some channels and forms of communication are deeply rooted in the culture and preserved traditionally from generation to generation. Such channels are called as indigenous traditional folk media. They serve

various social needs of the community. They are direct, face to face and linked with emotions and values of people. Thus, they are quite powerful in raising consciousness of people. They are cheap and do not require external resources. Examples of indigenous communication channel



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may include various social gatherings like feasts, village meetings, spontaneous gathering at tea shops, festivals, fairs, storytelling, magic shows, dances, songs, oral narrations etc. Indigenous communication channels can take many forms. Some of them are mentioned below.

Folk Media- Folk media are indigenous equivalents of mass media. They are used primarily for entertainment, but they can also promote educational values and help in cultural continuity. They include festivals, plays and puppet shows, dance, song, storytelling, poetry, debates.

Indigenous Organisation and Social Gatherings- Indigenous organisations include religious groups, village meetings, irrigation associations, mothers clubs and loan association.

Deliberate Instruction- Parents teach children, craftspeople instruct apprentices, elders guide young people and adolescents undergo initiation rites. Many societies have Traditional religious schools.

Record- Many societies keep records in written, carved, painted or memorized forms.

Unstructured channels- Indigenous communication occurs in many settings like talk at home and at the well, in the fields and on the road, in tea house and coffee house, in the chief’s house and at the market whenever people meet and talk. This communication is not organised or orchestrated but spontaneous and informal. Communication does not have to be intentional. A farmer may see a neighbour’s bumper crop and conclude its usefulness.

Special Features of Indigenous Communication Channels

1. These are precious source of traditional wisdom. Indigenous communication forms contain valuable cultural knowledge on a variety of useful themes including vocations, natural resource, and philosophy in understandable terms.

2. These are capable of raising public consciousness. As indigenous channels are popular and linked with the emotions and aspirations of people, they have great appeal to the masses. Messages of development can

be effectively communicated in local idioms, proverbs and symbols.

3. They have both entertainment and information value. These are already popular sources of entertainment. So they naturally attract attention and thus information is easily communicated to those who are otherwise not reached through modern media.

4. These are people-oriented. These involve people both as resource (talents) and audience. People have control over it.

5. These are credible and culturally compatible. As people believe them and can understand them easily, they are acceptable in rural society.

6. These are quite inexpensive and informal. As the indigenous channels do not require outside resources, they are economic without much formality.

Use of Indigenous Communication in Extension

Indigenous channels have attracted attention of social scientists as diffusion studies indicated importance of opinion leadership and interpersonal networks. Of late, studies have also indicated how new varieties of crops were adopted by the farmers without help or deliberate efforts of extension workers. Peer group, village elders, youth groups. Market place and ceremonial occasions may easily be used to disseminate useful information strategically. Experienced farmers can be used as trainees.

So, it is quite perspicuous that indigenous communication channels play a significantly vital role in information dissemination and also in convincing the peasants regarding the adoption of any superior technology. These channels are almost blurred in the contemporary period, but their importance in extension communication can never be denied. As a suggestion, extension scientists should rethink again regarding the reintroduction of these channels into extension practice. That will certainly change the nature of extension activity in a positive direction.



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19592

82. strategic Initiatives to Attract Youth towards Agriculture in IndiaALOK K SAHOO AND TARAK C PANDA

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bargarh, OUAT

Introduction

A country’s ability and potential for growth is determined by the size of its youth population. The Government of India (GoI) officially defines youth as persons between the ages of 15 and 29 years (NYP, 2014). India presently has the largest population of youth (356 million between 10-24 years) in the world (UN Report, 2014), even larger than China (269 million). This obviously reflects a bright future provided greater percentage of those living in rural areas (around 200 million), is motivated and attracted professionally to agriculture and allied fields. On the contrary, at present hardly 5 per cent of the rural youth is getting engaged in agriculture. This presents a historic opportunity for India to transform its demographic surplus into a demographic dividend.

Problems with Youth and Agriculture

The challenge of rural youth is more vulnerable due to changing occupation pattern, increasing uncertainty as climate change, low return from investment, lack of extension and advisory services along with low market access. The agrarian situation is worse due to migration as youth are not interested to take farming as an occupation. The internal reasons are social stigma, undignified job, risky and uncertain venture, low return investment and external reasons are the alluring lifestyle and facilities in the urban and metropolitan cities. The present youth are attracted to lucrative jobs, urban facilities, assured employment for assured monthly or weekly payment, early (short-run) return to investment in other enterprises, professionalism in job for status maintenance etc. which create harsh competition among the youth in urban area. This creates underemployment, disguise employment for lower payment to the deserving ones. Our human resource is basically unskilled, fragmented, scattered, underperforming, disguised, seasonal and conventional type.

Strategic initiatives

The only solution is youth-friendly, Techno friendly, drudgery reduced, climate-smart agriculture technologies to combat the weather distress, market risk, post-harvest loss, distress sale etc.

Infrastructural initiatives: There is a need

of developing urban amenities in rural areas and establishing infrastructure like storage house, agro-processing, post-harvest management, value chain development, farm-market linkage, producer-consumer network for direct marketing etc. by mobilizing and networking of youth with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Technological initiatives: There is a huge scope in allied non- conventional agriculture like livestock, mushroom cultivation, apiary, where B: C ratio is much higher than rice-wheat based agriculture. Making agriculture as a vibrant, profitable, drudgery less enterprise with trained skilled farmer entrepreneur is need of the hour. Hitech-agriculture and high-tech horticulture are the key areas for the youth for better remuneration. Farm mechanization can hold on the youth for drudgery free technology-led agriculture. It also save the labour shortage problem. The Custom Hiring Service can overcome the initial high-cost problem in machineries purchase by marginal and poor farmers.

Institutional initiatives: ICAR- Krishi Vigyan Kendra train the rural youth in agricultural skill to get engaged in income-generating activities. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushal Vikas Yojana (DDUGKY) is another flagship programme for the same. ICAR started ARYA (Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture) and Students READY (Rural Entrepreneurship Awareness Development Program) for youth empowerment in agriculture with a mission mode. MANAGE driven Agri-Clinic and Agri-business centre can retain agricultural graduate in agribusiness being local advisory support system. NABARD is the financial agency to help the skilled trainees to startup their agribusiness.

Extension Initiatives: The agricultural extension has a vital role in providing advisory services (weather alert, market information etc.) through cyber extension as maximum rural youth are using cell or smartphones. Use of ICT in agricultural extension can speed up problem diagnosis and technology dissemination as customized message through several social media platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, Whatsapp etc.

Conclusion

Policymakers should establish integrated module



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for holistic growth and development of youth ensuring access to right information, updated training, ICT led agriculture, youth-friendly programs, profitable ventures, market linkage, infrastructure support, Farmers Producer company etc.

References

National Youth Policy. 2014. Exposure draft, 2014. Available at http://yas.nic.in/writereaddata/mainlinkfile/File1039. pdf.

UN. 2014. India has world’s largest youth population: UN report. The Economic Times, 18 Nov, 2014. Available at http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com.

19618

83. Role of extension in Development of Fisheries sectorKUSUMLATA GOSWAMI

Department of Fisheries Resource Management, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Extension is transfer of knowledge, innovation, concepts and technology to the needy section of the society. The basic objective of fisheries extension is to motivate and help fishing communities to improve their socio-economic condition and quality of life by making improvement in their farming practices. Extension services negotiate the gap between technological advances and fish production strategies at ground level. Fishing is both a primary source of livelihood and a secondary or supplementary farming activity. Aquaculture is also practised in common property resources mainly by the resource-poor groups. In this context, the task of educating the local communities in the management of resources also becomes an additional responsibility of the extension system. In view of these functions, the extension workers need to be trained in various aspects like group mobilization, participatory techniques, integrated coastal zone management, special requirements of developing countries, participatory resources management etc.

Objective: The main aim of extension is providing information and communication support to fishermen and other fish communities who use marine, freshwater and brackish water resources. The applications of fisheries extension applies in various fields like aquaculture, conservation and management practices, post-harvest technology, community development, fishery information as well as forecasting. Thus, extension worker forms an important connecting link between the research stations and the fishing communities. The achievements obtained by research institutes are transferred to production units through extension services.

Recent trend: Present scenario of Indian

fisheries is that coastal fishery is overexploited while offshore and deep-sea fishery resources are underexploited. So, fisheries extension has to play a major role in making proper exploitation of resources, providing appropriate sanitation, hygiene, medical care, education, trainings etc.

An extension service works efficiently under existence of an institutional mechanism, well defined and well-prepared objectives and program, efficient activity planning, proper infrastructure at national and regional level, strong involvement of stakeholders and availability of human and material resources. The basic foundation of education and training should be given to the farmers by the extension agents. Various aids which are helpful in spreading awareness includes mobile phones, television, radio, internet, magazines and journals. Extension workers play the following roles in fish farming: information exchange, promotion of education and awareness, knowledge sharing, monitoring illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing and regulating price paradox. To enhance the transfer of technology processes, fish farmers should be organized into cooperative societies and learn advancement in techniques through various demonstration models.

Drawbacks: Fisheries of open waters faces continuous deterioration due to natural and anthropogenic changes in the water quality as well as fish habitats, so accordingly this sector needs special consideration in regards to extension services. The shortcomings that negatively influence the extension pathway are lack of motivation, coordination, over excessive reliance on outsourcing arrangements, shortage of human and material resources, lack of stakeholders outreach and involvement as well as weakness in monitoring and evaluation.

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recognize the main problems prevailing in their region and they should conform that local leaders are involved in setting the objectives and plans for the extension activities in the community. The amount of subsidies or loan provided for achievement of adequate production should be increased. The essential infrastructure facilities like roads, waterways and telephone connections in the local areas should be facilitated. The main

functions of extension workers which provide benefits to local communities are organizing awareness campaigns, frame survey, arrangement of credit facilities, training program, production monitoring, identification of pollution source, disease diagnostic and its prevention strategies. The key factor which provides optimization of fisheries potential is creating awareness through efficient extension services.

ECONOMICS

19524

84. Food security in India: An Issue of Major ConcernSHAILZA

Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Agricultural Economics & Management, MPUAT, Udaipur (Rajasthan)

Introduction

Food security itself signifies that adequate food is available to the people, especially to the backward population of country. According to United Nations, India is having one- fourth of hunger burden of world (approximately 193 million undernourished people). Under food security index India ranked 74 out of 113 major countries. Food security is linked with so many factors like environment, socio-economic development, human rights and politics as well. Various measures have been taken in the world towards this important step like World food summit 1974 emphasized that upto 10 years children shouldn’t be malnutrition. During 1996, world food summit at Rome, it was pledged to eradicate hunger and reduce the undernourished people level upto half of present level till 2015. Apart from that Millenium development goals by United Nations in 2000 also focused on reducing the population suffering from hunger to half of its level. Present article focused on highlighting the strategies adopted by India to overcome this genuine problem.

Food SecurityAvailabilityAccessibilityAffordability

India’s effort to Achieve Food Security

1. Public distribution system (PDS), 1944: Initiated with the universal coverage and issuing rice and wheat at Rs. 2.89 /kg and Rs. 2.34 /kg, respectively.

2. Revamped PDS, 1992: PDS was reviewed and provision of issuing 20 kg of food grains

was made for backward blocks.3. Food Corporation Act, 1964: An act

which served as base for establishment of food corporation of India for the purpose of trading in foodgrains and other foodstuff.

4. Targeted public distribution system, 1997: the government reviewed the existing PDS and enabled TPDS with an objective to identify families below poverty line.

5. Antyodaya Anna Yojana, 2000: Under this scheme, each family below the poverty line is eligible for 35 kg of rice or wheat every month, while family above the poverty line is entitled to 15 kg of foodgrain on a monthly basis.

6. National Food Security Act, 2013: The main objective was right to food. Under this act beneficiaries were entitled to get rice @ Rs. 3/Kg, wheat @ Rs. 2/ kg and coarse grains @ Rs. 1/ kg.

Problems in Present Food Security System in India

Problem under food security system started with low agricultural production and poor availability of food. The large price spread, low producer’s share in consumer rupee, high prices of essential commodities like onion, potato, etc. are the major causes of concern for farmers as well as whole society. However government is adopting various measures to deal with such situation still the problem persists in our country.1. At present when India had achieved self-

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storage of produce became major area of concern.

2. There occurs huge post-harvest losses even before the produce reaches the FCI godowns.

3. As per the study of ICRIER (Indian council for research on international economic relations) highest percentage of pilferages were reported under poor states.

4. Further the study recommended cash transfer to tackle such problem. Millions of people were having bogus ration cards and millions other eligible poors were not possessing ration cards.

5. Public distribution shops are involved in allegedly diverting the subsidized the food to the black markets.

6. DBT (Direct Benefit Transfers) are always preferred but in the poor or underdeveloped states like Bihar not sufficient deal with the leakages.The UN agencies who are evaluating the

progress of countries towards the MDGs have also noted that while malnutrition in India has decreased due to various programmes like food security systems and the PDS but still the country continues to rank low on the Global Hunger Index.

Measure to be adopted to Combat Food Security Problem

Government of India had set up six-membered High-level committee in 2014 under Sh. Shanta Kumar chairmanship to make recommendations regarding restructuring FCI and improving the financial system also. The main recommendations of committee were:1. FCI should decentralize the procurement

of wheat and rice to those states who have the capacity and infrastructure for the procurement.

2. Negotiable warehouse receipt system should be scaled up so that farmers could get better storage, returns and finance by pledging the same.

3. End to end computerization must be increased to reduce the high leakages of Public distribution system.

4. Present allotment of ration i.e. 5 kg per person must be increased to 7 kg per person.

5. Buffer stocking should be managed efficiently so that excess over capacity conditions could not occur.

6. Rather than subsidizing fertilizer companies, direct subsidies may be given to the farmers for the purchase of fertilizers and pesticides.

Conclusion

It may be concluded that food security system constantly need improvement to ensure good delivery mechanism, reduction of losses, supply chain management and price stability vide fair price shops. Food subsidy bills must be reduced by use of greater technology and better management. Although we have achieved sufficiency in foodgrain production but oilseed production still needs focus. Present situation of India might seem stable but coupled with growing population needs attention towards improving the various systems for achieving food security. Continuous and ceaseless effort are required to improve food security in India.

References

Annual Report 2015-16 of the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, p. 5

Mishra, P. 2013. Financial and Distributional Implications of Food Security Law. Economic and Political Weekly, 48 (39): 14-17.

Pillay, D. P. K. and Kumar, T. K. M. 2018. Food security in India: Evolution, Efforts and Problems. Strategic Analysis, 42(6): 595- 611.

Sinha, D. 2013. Cost of Implementing the Food Security Act. Economic and Political Weekly, 48 (39): 19-22.



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19606

85. Agri-tourism: Alternative to Double Farmer’s IncomeMISS NIKITA INANIYA1 AND DEEPALI CHADHA2

1PhD Research Scholar, Department of Agricultural Economics, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner- 3340062PhD Research Scholar, Department of Agricultural Economics, G.B. Pant Agricultural University, Pantnagar- 263145*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

What is Agri Tourism?

Agritourism is where agriculture and tourism meet to provide us with an amazing educational experience, whether it is a tour of a farm or ranch, a festival or cheese-making class. Farmers turn their farmlands into a destination and open their doors to the public in order to teach more about what they do. Agritourism is becoming an increasingly popular industry globally and even in almost every state in India. Agritourism offers a unique experience from picking our own fresh fruit at an orchard, to trying your hand at calf roping, to a hayride at a pumpkin farm. There are tons of unique activities waiting to be explored. Agritourism has branched out as an offshoot of rural tourism and has immense scope in India. Since agriculture is the main occupation of the people in India and other developing countries, specifically Asian economies, there is a need for these countries to think of allied income generation strategies with agriculture, one of which is Agri-Tourism. Agritourism or agro tourism, involves any agriculturally based operation or activity that brings visitors to a farm or ranch.

Why Agri Tourism?

Agri Tourism is to experience the real rural life, taste the local genuine food and get familiar with the various farming tasks. Agriculture is the backbone of Indian Economy. Around 75% of the population is directly or indirectly dependent on Agriculture and almost 26 per cent of India’s GDP comes from Agriculture. 90 million farmers are dwelling in 6.25 lack villages producing food grains for feeding the country. More than a profession or a business, agriculture is India’s culture. Hence, adding additional income-generating activities to existing agriculture would certainly increase contribution of agriculture in the national GDP. Serious efforts need to be made in this direction and Agri-Tourism is one such activity.

To promote domestic tourism, thrust areas identified by Government of India are development of infrastructure, product development and diversification, development of eco-adventure sports, cultural presentations, providing

inexpensive accommodation, streamlining facilitation procedures at airports, human resource development, creating awareness and public participation and facilitation of private sector participation. As commercialism and mass production become the standards by which we live, agritourism has given people who work in the agricultural and horticultural sectors a chance to share their work with the masses. Some agritourism experiences allow guests to buy food products grown on the farm or hand-crafted products made by the farmers’ families; purchasing these goods helps provide farmers who rely on their land with another source of income.

Benefits for Farmers

� expanding farm operations; � using farm-based products in new and

innovative ways; � improving farm revenue streams; � developing new consumer market niches; � increasing awareness of local agricultural

products; � increasing appreciation of the importance of

maintaining agricultural land; � channelling additional on-farm revenues

directly to family members; � improving farm living conditions, working

areas & farm recreation opportunities; � developing managerial skill and

entrepreneurial spirit; and � Increasing the long term sustainability for

farm businesses.

Agri-Tourism Opportunities in India

1. Indian tourism industry is growing @10.1% - The World Tourism Organization has estimated that the tourism industry is growing at the rate of 4% a year and that by the year 2010 there will be more than one billion tourists visiting various parts of the world. But the Indian tourism industry is growing at the rate of 10% which is 2½ times more that the growth rate at global level. By introducing Agri-Tourism concept, not only present growth rate is sustained but also this



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value addition contributes to further growth.2. India has entered amongst the top 10

tourist destinations list (Conde Nast Traveller – A leading European Travel Magazine) - India is already established as one of the top tourist destination in the world. Value addition by introducing novel products like Agri-tourism would only strengthen the competitiveness of Indian tourism industry in global market.

3. India has diverse culture and geography which provides ample and unlimited scope for the growth of this business. India has diverse

Agro-climatic conditions, diverse crops, people, culture, deserts, mountains, coastal systems and islands which provides scope for promotion of all-season, multi-location tourism products.

4. Increasing number of tourists preferring non-urban tourist spots (financial express). Hence, there is scope for promotion of non-urban tourist spots in interior villages by establishing Agri-tourism centres. But, adequate facilities and publicity are must to promote such centres.

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

19513

86. Application of Robotics in Agricultural operationsJYOTI ANANT DAREKAR1, VINAYAKA2 AND LUBNA SADAF ANCHAL3

1M.tech Student, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur-5841042Ph. D. Scholar, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur-5841043Assistant Professor (Contr.) Agricultural Engineering, Dept. of Natural Resource and Management, College of Horticulture, Kolar-563103*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Introduction

Robotics is playing a significant role in agricultural production and management. Agricultural robots have been researched and developed principally for sowing, transplanting, harvesting, chemical spraying and monitoring of crops. Robots like these are perfect substitute for manpower to a great extent as they deploy unmanned sensing and automation systems. The prime benefits of development of autonomous and intelligent agricultural robots are to improve repeatable precision, efficiency, reliability, minimization of soil compaction and drudgery. Agricultural robots bring together advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, automatic control, image recognition technology, environmental modelling calculations, sensors, and flexible implementation. Robot is an electromechanical machine or artificial intelligent machine guided by a computer program. Robotics is a replica of human intelligence. They can programme entities with human-like perceptive capabilities. Robot are developed on the basis of what people do in certain situations, to make decisions based on the ground situations, to perform function more efficiently. When designing agricultural robots, the important variables which

must be considered for each crop are the species of crop, growth stage, type of crop, harvesting season.

Application Status of Agricultural Robots

According to the different focuses of the problems to be solved, agricultural robots can be divided into two categories: one is walking series agricultural robots.

Walking Series Robots

In recent years, the combination of GPS and CCD cameras has been used to realize the observation of road conditions and nearby features and signs, and the relevant information has been acquired through the processing of images, which can determine the current exact position of the robot.

a. Spray robot

In terms of pesticide spraying, the traditional way of agriculture is to control the insect pests by carrying medicine fighters. Robots are equipped with inductive sensors, pressure sensors, and automatic spray control devices to achieve more accurate and effective pest control. The sensor detects the magnetic field signal generated by the cable on the spray path, and then the control



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system controls the direction of the robot based on the signal.

b. Weeding robot

The weeding robot identifies weeds based on the image processing system and positioning system and then accurately positions them, and weeds according to the type and amount of weeds. This weeding method can accurately locate weeds and only spray herbicides on weeds, which can greatly reduce the use of pesticides and save costs.

Manipulator Series Robots

At present, the most common way to study robots is to install special agricultural end effectors and visual sensors on the basis of industrial robots to form an agricultural robot system. The following lists several typical manipulator series robots.

a. Tomato picking robot

The tomato harvest robots studied by Japan are composed of a manipulator, an end effector, a visual sensor, a moving mechanism, and a control section. The vision sensor first identifies the ripe fruit and then picks it by the robot. Because tomatoes are easily damaged, the end effector of the manipulator should have a soft-lined aspirator. Suck the fruit with a pressure sensor and then unscrew it.

b. Transplant robot

The robot body part is composed of an industrial robot ADEPT-SCARA four-degree-of-freedom industrial robot and an SNS holder. The size of the seedling plate and the position of the seedling are first determined by the visual sensor, and then the force sensor ensures that the SNS gripper clamps without damaging the vegetable seedlings.

c. Strawberry picking robot

The robot observes the colour of strawberries through a camera to judge whether the strawberries can be picked or not, at the same time judges the distance between the robot and the ripe strawberries, and then picks the ripe strawberries and puts them into a basket.

d. Soil analysis robots

Real-time soil sensing (RTSS) used a visible and near-infrared spectrophotometer to detect the various chemical properties of soil, such as the total carbon, organic matter, total nitrogen, available

phosphorus, and moisture content in cultivated paddies.

Mobile vehicle↓

Control System↓

Vision System↓

Sensors↓

Micro-controller↓

End Effector↓

ManipulatorFig. 1 Layout of robotic system

Scope of Robotics

There is a need for autonomous and time-saving technology in agriculture to have efficient farm management. We have lot of scope to improve mechanization in vegetable and rice production in India by fully automatic transplanters. Farm operations are largely carried out by manual labour in India and other developing countries which incur large investments in labour, time and cost. The robots have potential for multitasking, sensory acuity, operational consistency as well as suitability to odd operating conditions. With an advent of wireless communication technologies and with the support of artificial intelligence, the impetus is largely given to the automation. It requires some visionary efforts and artistic skillsets to achieve a completely automated agricultural system.

References

Hui, Y., Liu, H., Zhang, H., Wu, Y., Li, Y., Li, X., Wang, D., 2018, Application status and development trend of agricultural robot. ASABE Annual International Meeting.

Kushwaha, H. L., Sinha, J. P., Khura, T. K., Kushwaha, D.K., Ekka, U., Purushottam, M., Singh, N., 2016, Status and scope of robotics in agriculture. International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Agricultural and Food Engineering. pp.264-277.

Ryu, K. H., Kim, G., Han, J. S., 2001, Development of a robotic transplanter for bedding plants. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research. 78 (2):141-146.



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19581

87. Benefits of DronesTUSHAR GOYAL*1, SAHIL MEHTA2, KULESHWAR PRASAD SAHU1, MUKESH KUMAR1 AND ASHARANI PATEL1

1 Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India.2 International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, New Delhi, India.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

In accordance with the Global drone regulations database (https://www.droneregulations.info/), the drones (fitted with IR, MS and HS sensors) are being employed in multiple fields from the defense, relief, care, management to the stomach-feeding agriculture (Brunstetter and Braun, 2011; Tripicchio et al., 2015; Chowdhury et al., 2017; Song et al., 2018; Braun et al., 2019). The reason lies in the technical advances in science and technology which occurred in the last fifty years precisely. However, besides being in the year 2020, privacy, safety and security are the top-most priority issues which need to be addressed for sustainable implementation of drones in all human-related realms (Mirzaeinia et al., 2020). Currently, the drones are being used more-importantly in agriculture, forestry and fisheries at an extended pace.

� Agriculture: In this perspective, the combination of sensor data along with real-time analytical data imaging is used to reduce the much-needed spatial variability of farmer field productivity (Tripicchio et al., 2015). In this regard, the drones primarily manufactured by company-Skymet are generally being employed in the Republic of India. Furthermore, the drones also carry out the following enlisted functions accurately:– Scanning the soil health– Monitoring the crop health status round

the clock– Planning better schedules for field

irrigation– Fertilizers and pesticides foliar spray– Observing the weather and providing

datasheets for next-year weather-based planning analysis

– Yield/Losses data estimation, and– Insuring the forensic claims.

� Forestry: In 2011, the famous Patrick Ribeiro and its colleagues from Germany founded OpenForests (https://openforests.com/) which currently use multiple drones at a time to image and generate high-resolution orthomaps for bigger forests and landscapes for proper monitoring and research perspective. In addition, hundreds of orthomaps are stiched together into GIS

systems for better analysis, management and forest-conservation. In another instance, Novadrone, an another company also use the drones to monitor the illegal activities (animal killing and encroachment) primarily. Their other assistances are described below:– Carbon sequestration– Tree canopy analysis– Monitoring/ Tracking the whole

biodiversity especially native species, and– Ecological landscaping.

� Fisheries: In the fisheries sectors, multiple nations government such as USA, Jamaica, Republic of Palau and Republic of Costa Rica use fixed-wing drones for the following characters:– Prosecution the international water-law

offenders– Detecting illegal fishing– Enforcement of fisheries-related rules and

regulations– In-channel habitat mapping during low

water.However, for the refined applications, the

data processing and analytics strength need to be increased exponentially with passage of each month. Furthermore, the drone properties such as more high-resolution aerial imaging, precision, takeoff facility, easy-landing facility, speed, flight duration and payload capacity will improve in the near future compared to the present (Nayyar et al., 2020). As a result, the next-generation drones will be driven by pre-accessed data which will definitely translate to increase the productivity with no environmental damage and happier livelihoods.

References

Braun, J., Gertz, S.D., Furer, A., Bader, T., Frenkel, H., Chen, J., Glassberg, E. and Nachman, D., 2019. The promising future of drones in prehospital medical care and its application to battlefield medicine. Journal of trauma and acute care surgery, 87(1S), pp.S28-S34.

Brunstetter, D. and Braun, M., 2011. The implications of drones on the just war tradition. Ethics & International Affairs, 25(3), pp.337-358.

Chowdhury, S., Emelogu, A., Marufuzzaman, M., Nurre, S.G. and Bian, L., 2017. Drones for disaster



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response and relief operations: A continuous approximation model. International Journal of Production Economics, 188, pp.167-184.

Mirzaeinia, A., Hassanalian, M. and Lee, K., 2020. Drones for Borders Surveillance: Autonomous Battery Maintenance Station and Replacement for Multirotor Drones. In AIAA Scitech 2020 Forum (p. 0062).

Nayyar, A., Nguyen, B.L. and Nguyen, N.G., 2020. The Internet of Drone Things (IoDT): Future Envision of Smart Drones. In First International Conference on Sustainable Technologies for Computational Intelligence (pp. 563-580).

Springer, Singapore.Song, W.S., Lee, S.Y., Lim, B.T., Im, E.T. and Gim,

G.Y., 2018, June. A Study on the Operation of National Defense Strategic Operation System Using Drones. In International Conference on Computer and Information Science (pp. 155-175). Springer, Cham.

Tripicchio, P., Satler, M., Dabisias, G., Ruffaldi, E. and Avizzano, C.A., 2015, July. Towards smart farming and sustainable agriculture with drones. In 2015 International Conference on Intelligent Environments (pp. 140-143). IEEE.

19594

88. Role of Agricultural engineers in sustainable Rural DevelopmentPOOJA M. R. AND REVANTH K.

Dept. of Agril. Engg., AC, Vijayapur, UAS, Dharwad

Engineering is a crucial thing for assisting to satisfy the demanding situations going through improved crop cultivation. In the early years of the Green Revolution, engineering made many technical contributions to lessen drudgery and assist increase labour productiveness. The opportunity is for contributing to an included system from field preparation all the way thru the chain to give up users.

Agricultural Engineers have, for some years, been discussing the existing and destiny role of their career. Actions like changing the call of the higher training institutes and title of the ranges to those more appealing and publicly well-known and acknowledged terminology or changing the agricultural engineering to and/or merging greater with biological structures engineering had been taken. However, except those public focus efforts, significant focus ought to additionally be given to the way to understand their roles in sustainable rural development as engineers of agriculture.

Agricultural engineers ought to therefore make sure an adequate and secure meals deliver for an expanding international population, control and defend the sector’s essential water, soil, air and energy resources, help human beings thru contribution to meals manufacturing, meals high-quality and protection, food storage, food processing, transport, packaging and marketing, help lessen the rural poverty and improve farmers’ welfare, help negative farmers boost their earning with the aid of “head to head” contacts, keep away from environmental degradation, conserve natural sources and control pollutants, lessen drudgery of work finished in rural existence, ensure labour productivity even as allowing more well-timed

operations for a higher manufacturingIt is vital to note that younger generations

in both evolved and developing countries choose living in urban regions and leaving parents on their personal at rural sports. This limits the sustainability of rural improvement. As United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panels on Climate Change (IPCC) warn approximately the impacts of worldwide warming and climate trade, together with scarcity of meals and water components, draughts, floods, migrations, increasing frequency of herbal failures, safety of meals and water sources and many others.

In mild of these climate change concerns, promotion of sustainable types of agriculture; studies on, and merchandising, development and extended use of, new and renewable varieties of strength, and of advanced and progressive environmentally sound technology are to be implemented. All those and plenty of different measures are without delay associated with the profession of agricultural engineering. It is likewise foreseen that weather alternate will carry serious dangers of draught and flood conditions. It is, therefore essential to pay unique attention to conservation and control of soil and water sources, model and breeding of draught-resistant crop and farm animals types and create consciousness of rural groups via extensive education and extension offerings in the location.

Agricultural engineers will really play a vital role in fight with those influences of climate trade. For a sustainable rural improvement, farmers need to comfy their income via adequate costs and additionally comfortable marketplace situations.



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Integration of farming sports with agro-industry, in other words a whole chain of meals production

from farm to customers brings approximately an crucial function for agricultural engineers.

19610

89. Key Aspects of Conservation AgricultureANIKET BAISHYA1, SAHELY KANTHAL2

1PhD Research Scholar, Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur2PhD Research Scholar, Department of Agronomy, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur

A new era of 21st century in agriculture begins with conservation agriculture (CA). Minimum soil disturbance, residue management or use of cover crop and crop rotation combinedly create a new definition of sustainable agriculture, soil health and quality and increased water productivity by using optimum resource utilization with minimum hazardous environmental impact. Now a question arises, will there be enough water available for enough cultivation to sustain livelihood? Overuse of water as irrigation, does it sustainable? One of the solutions is CA. As we know out of 100% used water every year nearly 80% of it is applied in irrigation purpose. India has a very low water productivity of US$ 3/ m3 as compared to other Asia-Pacific countries e.g. US$ 8/m3 in Indonesia, US$ 14/m3 in China, US$ 65/m3 in Australia and as high as US$ 1,493/m3 in Singapore (ADB, 2017). Besides that, currently due to lack of access to adequate water more than 50 per cent of the agricultural land in the country remains uncultivated for half the productive months even in irrigated areas there is not enough water available throughout the year. So in that context water conservation and water productivity need to be improved. Water productivity defined as the output produced per unit of total consumptive water used (TCWU) as well as irrigation water applied. Output can be in the form of agricultural yield, economic return point of view, nutritional yield point of view, energy point of view. So from the definition it can be understandable that to increase WP, output need to be increased or application of irrigation water need to be reduced. At this point three principles conservation agriculture can partially solve the problem. Let’s discuss it.

First principle “minimum soil disturbance” means topsoil (up to 15 cm) disturbance not more than 30% (FAO). Sowing of seed is done by zero till seed cum fertilizer drill or by happy seeder. Without any primary or secondary tillage operation, seed of the next crop is sown directly after the harvest of the previous crop In this process there is very less chance to disturb the existing soil ecosystem. Proper soil health can be maintained by this process. In convention tillage, due to primary and secondary

tillage operation topsoil is totally pulverised. For that reason amount of organic carbon mineralized and emits as carbon dioxide which leads to global warming. Excessive tillage can degrade soil physical, chemical and biological properties. It also accelerate loss of fertile topsoil to wind and water erosion. Year after year excessive tillage practices can create a hardpan in soil profile that restrict the root growth, reduces infiltration and percolation rate which can create anaerobic condition and also increases the runoff which leads to soil erosion. Whereas CA promotes biological tillage which maintains physical condition of soil like porosity, bulk density, increase aeration in soil, help to formation of good soil aggregate. Faulty tillage practices like puddling destroy the soil physical properties and produce greenhouse gases like methane but in directed seeded rice environmental impact is very less. Additionally reduces cost of cultivation and reduces the application of huge amount irrigation water which increases the water productivity.

Permanent soil cover is one of the fundamental principles of CA which means keeping the soil covered with crop residues or live mulch (cover crop). Cover crops are highly acceptable if the gap between harvesting of one crop and establishment of the succeeding crop is too long. Cover crops can improve the stability of the CA system, not only on the improvement of soil properties but also for their capacity to promote an increased biodiversity in the agro-ecosystem.

CA provides enough food to microorganism which produces organic acid. This organic acids acts as cementing agent and provide good aggregate stability. Residue cover protects the soil surface from the beating effect of rainfall which enhances the soil erosion. Permanent soil cover helps to retain the soil moisture and increases the soil moisture-holding capacity by increasing soil organic carbon and also helps to reduce soil evaporation. For that reason irrigation water application is reduced and the costs of irrigation by the farmers are also reduced. PSC also helps the soil microorganism to hide from the direct sunray which can destroy their ecosystem. Return of crop



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residue to the soil surface not only increase the aggregate formation but it also reduces oxidation of organic matter and release the available form of nutrient for crops through the crop growth period. So the availability of nutrient increases throughout the cropping season. Soil cover gives a favourable soil water nutrient condition for crops to produce good yield and helps to increase water productivity in terms of irrigation or economic or nutrient WP.

Weed is a competitor which competes for nutrient and water with the main crop. Long term residue retention under CA can suppress the weed germination which helps to increase the water productivity. Cover crop also helps in to conserve the soil moisture during fallow period. In long run CA helps to increase the infiltration and percolation capacity which contributes in groundwater recharge.

Besides that cover crop has a market value. Amaranthus, Barsem, Latheiras etc can be grown as cover crops which can gives some additional monetary. Also cover crops can be used as livestock fodder. In regions where smaller amounts of biomass are produced, such as semi-arid regions or areas of eroded and degraded soils, cover crops are beneficial.

Crop rotations will have an effect on soil aggregation by their root systems because plant roots act as a binding agent at the scale of macro

aggregate. Different root length of crops can deplete moisture and nutrient from different layer of the soil. But crop rotation can proves diverse “diet” to soil microorganism.

This way the crop rotation operates as biological pumps. Furthermore, a diverse soil flora and fauna can be found in diverse crop rotation, as the roots excrete different organic substances that attract different types of bacteria and fungi, which in turn, play an important role in the transformation of these substances into plant-available nutrients. Crop rotation also has an important phytosanitary function as it prevents the carry-over of crop-specific pests and diseases from one crop to the next via crop residues.

Due to crop rotation, infiltration capacity of soil will be increased. Different root depths can create aeration and reduces compactness of soil. Better percolation means better groundwater replenishment.

Conclusion

Conservation agriculture a type of farming system which can show us a way of looking forward to deals with the current issues like degradation of soil health, sustainable crop productivity, low water productivity and water use efficiency, climate change.

FOOD TECHNOLOGY

19596

90. Food Fingerprinting: Let’s test before tasteANIRBAN SIL

Dept. of Agricultural Chemicals, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, Delhi

Introduction

Most of our modern-day style of living is getting dependable more and more on labelled foods. Any modification in the quality of food, maybe voluntarily or for economic advantages, is considered as food fraud. As a result, one cannot be able to distinguish between what the food product is and what it is actually called for. And nowadays it is becoming a serious problem in every part and parcel of the food supply chains.

Types of Food Frauds

Fraudulent acts in food manufacturing may fall under the following categories :

� Comparatively low-cost ingredients used as major alternatives. (Ethanol substituted with methanol in wine and melamine addition to

milk) � Interfering with the product up-labelling and

packaging in a fraudulent way by changing the original expiry dates.

� Processing of products in a non acceptable way like irradiation, thawing, heating, freezing (Freezed and thawed meats and fishes sold as freshly derived products)

� Product simulation by illegitimate mode of designing, sale of products outside the markets actually opted for the product.

� Counterfeiting (foods manufactured without safety assurances, not maintaining the intellectual property rights), Misrepresentation of the original ingredients such as selling conventional products as value-added products (organic foods).

� Other activities like overrunning of products,



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dilutions, selling the products in excess which are not exploited, concealing diseases of farm animals by injecting hormones, use of food colours, mixing of seeds etc.

Food Authentication

To identify these kind of fraudulent activities, valid authentication of foods is the need of the hour. Food authentication process is generally based on analytical techniques like chromatographic, spectroscopic, isotopic, elemental and molecular genetics and chemometric techniques. Conventionally, authentication involved acquiring amount of marker compound(s) in the sample and comparing with values predetermined for those of the genuine materials. It also verifies by claiming the product labels such as the ingredients used according to standard legislations, quality of the material, proportion of the components in the making. But some of the facets in this potent process like geographical origin of the product, products comprised of organics and free-range or application of some specific processes cannot be considered with these conventional approaches. Moreover, the adulterants could only be detected if it was known beforehand and also hardly any single method of detection could clearly and firmly authenticate the food samples. Thus a more non-targeted and holistic, comprehensive and rapid approach of screening out of contaminants is implemented and called as food fingerprinting.

Food Fingerprinting

A characteristic pictorial or spectral representation of a test sample, depicting its properties and thus correlates to its validity and authenticity is defined as fingerprints just like human fingerprints are unique for each people. Whole information in the system is studied by analytical techniques and the dataset of information is summarized graphically by a technique called chemometrics. This deduces the relationship between the samples and helps detecting the patterns characteristic for each material. The steps involved in it are :

� Samples for testing are identified and further a sample set is prepared by thorough processing like clean up, derivatization, bringing uniformity, buffer additions.

� Now the analytical techniques like chromatography, spectroscopy etc. have been set up and chemical fingerprints are aquisited.

� Thereafter the data is being pre-processed by selecting features, primary and secondary derivatives, normalizing, scaling, bucketing etc.

� Then basic data analysis of the samples are done thoroughly without knowing any prior information about the samples. This process is carried out via some separate identification techniques like Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA), Cluster Analysis (CA), Principal

Component Analysis (PCA) (mostly used). � Finally the databases obtained from the

analysis of the variables represents the original compounds.So, as the time flies, the enormous advantages of

food fingerprinting are coming out as blessings and advancements in instrumentation added an extra flavour to it. Depending on the type of fingerprints obtained, the techniques can be broadly classified under five classes : Mass Spectrometry (MS), Chromatographic, Electrophoretic, Spectroscopic and others.

MS Fingerprinting

An analytical technique used in fingerprinting considering the ratio of mass to charge balance of the ions. Samples are excited first, gets ionized and thus separated. Their comparative abundance is examined depending on the relative intensity of their flux. Thus fragments of masses produces a mass spectrum of the representative sample components. MS can work alone or maybe conjugated with different techniques. Most successfully used are the stand-alone techniques like:a) Proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry

(for volatile organic compounds e.g. monovarietal virgin olive oil authentication in Spain.)

b) Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (used for wide range of metals and non-metals)

c) Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (ratio of stable isotopes of biological material e.g. with multielement analysis it can determine geographical origin of foods)

d) Direct Infusion Mass Spectrometry (used for fatty acids and phenolic compounds & their derivatives)

Chromatography

Physical separation of mixture of compounds and purity of the compounds can be judged through chromatograms. Each compound generates a different signal based on their detections and the graphical representation of the signal with respect to reference time can be considered for multivariate analysis. There may be identification of different components and their quantification or the peak area calculation for analysis.a) Liquid chromatography (based on the

partition coefficients of components in a column, it is done. Most common is HPLC (for biomolecules and metabolites). e.g. differentiating organic eggs with conventional eggs).

b) Gas Chromatography (analysis of volatile compounds like fatty acids and triglyceraldehydes can be rendered volatile with flame ionization detector and analyzed,



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metabolomics study can be done using GC-MS)

Spectroscopy

By interacting the sample material with the radiant energy, a spectrum can be obtained depicting the nature of the target sample and its multivariate dataset which can be used further for chemometric analysis. Depending on the nature of the energy radiated, interaction varies and so as the spectral variation can be observed.a) NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance contains

more detailed information and molecular fingerprints are achievable. A study of H1 NMR spectra of cola drinks provided qualitative and compositional information used to restrict food frauds)

b) Infrared spectroscopy (functional groups detection)

c) Fluroscence Spectroscopy (Natural or added flurophore containing compounds like tyrosine, tryptophan, phenylalanine etc. can be analyzed by the 3D spectra).

Electrophoresis

Separation of mixtures of compounds depending on their ionic mobility under a field where electricity is applied. It also depends on their hydrodynamics and sizes.a) Gel electrophoresis (genomic fingerprinting

like DNA, RNA, proteins and nucleic acid analysis)

b) Capillary electrophoresis (depends on capillarity, electrophoretic mobility. Analysis of most of the fruits and vegetables high in organic acids)

Other Fingerprinting

a) Differential Scanning Calorimetry

(thermograms used. Analysis of melting profiles of animal milk fat samples)

b) Sensor Technology (electronic nose technology. Cheaper than GC. Detection of pork and lard samples identified)

c) Transcriptomics (post-genomic tool. Still not explored.)

Conclusions

Fingerprinting in association with chemometrics certainly is a beneficial tool for controlling adulteration and fraudulent activities in food and beverage supply. This can be further used for:

� Detection of usage of chemicals in organic products

� Identifying geographical origin and degree of naturality in the product.

� Identifying additives which have not been cleared such as sugars.

� Increase the reputation of the seller and loyalty of customers.

� Finally health risk can be prevented and quality and safety both can be assured.

Future Prospects

It is a emerging branch of analysis in food chemistry. With further improvement in the analytical tools and techniques, validation of the models used in chemometric techniques we can get adulterant free foods and stay healthy.

References

Medina S., Pereira J., Silva P., Perestrelo R. and Camara J., (2018) Food Fingerprints- A valuable tool to monitor food authenticity and safety, Food Chemistry, 204: 201-209.

Dazenis P., Tsagkari A., Camin F., Brusic V. and Georgiou C., (2016) Food authentication: techniques, trends, & emerging approaches, Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 85:123-132.

19593

91. Mushroom and nutritional securityJAGMOHAN SINGH*1, SAHIL MEHTA2, TUSHAR GOYAL1, KULESHWAR PRASAD SAHU1, MUKESH KUMAR1 AND ASHARANI PATEL1

1Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India.2International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, New Delhi, India.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

By the year 2020, the food security has been achieved by producing million tonnes of food grain (Rosen et al., 2016; Valdes, 2019). However, nutritional security has become wholesome important for the sustenance and security of the exponentially

expanding population (Dillard, 2019). This state is more worsen by the anthropogenic activities (such as urbanization) and its associated ill-effects (deforestation, desertification and global warming) (Mehta et al., 2019; Dillard, 2019). According



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to the 2018 report by FAO namely State of Food Security and Nutrition for World, about 821 million people are chronically undernourished (http://www.fao.org/home/en/). Within this, 196 million undernourished people reside in the country India. This whole scenario makes nutrition highly important as it leads to human resource development, increased adult productivity and somewhere creates a gender equality indirectly (Rosen et al., 2016; Valdes, 2019; Dillard, 2019). The answer to this world’s nutritional food shortage as well as health problems can be mushroom (Boa, 2004; Miles and Chang, 2004; Chatterjee et al., 2017; Pandey et al. 2018; Wacker, 2020). The reason lies in their stock of inherited bioactive medicinal value compounds, immunity and strength imparting nature to the body (Chang and Miles, 2004; Pandey et al. 2018). The mushrooms are nowadays highly popular as vegetable as they are lower in calories, carbohydrates, fats and cholesterol-free. As per the Indian context, there is presence of varied agro-climatic zones with farm-wastes abundance which enable the cultivation of various mushrooms from the temperate tropical to subtropical climatic areas. On a commercial scale, basically five major mushroom species are getting cultivated namely Common mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), Shiitake mushroom (Lentinus edodes), Paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella spp.), Milky white mushroom (Calocybe spp.) and Pearl oyster mushroom (Pleurotus spp.). The common five substrates employed for mushroom generation are dried leaves, coir, leafy food buildup, coffee husk and tea plant wastes. The advantages of mushroom cultivation are enlisted below:

� High nutritional and medicinal value are ideal for socially vulnerable groups (newborn/growing children, lactating mother, old-age people).

� Very less area and resources needed which makes it suitable even for self-help groups/ farmers.

� Not need of large-scale arrangements for starting.

� Brings benefit of great remuneration to especially the landless women.

� Part-time basis with very low maintenance.However, as compared to the other countries,

the Indian status of mushroom cultivation is yet not very attractive to the general masses as people

cultivate on comparatively very very small scale mostly in pockets. Other reasons for low progress of the mushroom industry are enlisted below:

� Nearly no government funds for new-starters. � Poor efforts in marketing. � No serious efforts for of available germplasm. � Excess use of unpasteurized compost rather

than locally available substrates by small growers.

� No standardised yet for high-scale cultivation of multiple mushrooms at a time.

� No research interest in picking, grading and long-term preservation.

References

Boa, E.R., 2004. Wild edible fungi: a global overview of their use and importance to people (No. 17). Food & Agriculture Org..

Chatterjee, S., Sarma, M.K., Deb, U., Steinhauser, G., Walther, C. and Gupta, D.K., 2017. Mushrooms: from nutrition to mycoremediation. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 24(24), pp.19480-19493.

Dillard, H.R., 2019. Global food and nutrition security: from challenges to solutions. Food Security, 11(1), pp.249-252.

Mehta, S., Singh, B., Dhakate, P., Rahman, M. and Islam, M.A., 2019. Rice, Marker-Assisted Breeding, and Disease Resistance. In Disease Resistance in Crop Plants (pp. 83-111). Springer, Cham.

Miles, P.G. and Chang, S.T., 2004. Mushrooms: cultivation, nutritional value, medicinal effect, and environmental impact. CRC press.

Pandey, V.V., Kumari, A., Kumar, M., Saxena, J., Kainthola, C. and Pandey, A., 2018. Mushroom cultivation: Substantial key to food security. Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 10(4), pp.1325-1331.

Rosen, S., Meade, B., Fuglie, K. and Rada, N., 2016. International food security assessment, 2014-2024. Economic Research, 2014, p.2024.

Valdes, A., 2019. Food security for developing countries. Routledge.

Wacker, M., 2020. Common nutrition and health issues. In Nutritional and Health Aspects of Food in Western Europe (pp. 159-171). Academic Press.



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19601

92. Value Addition: A strategical tool for Doubling Farmers IncomeSTEPHY DAS, ANU. V, AND DR. MANJU K.P.

Scientists, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kannur

Agriculture forms backbone of Indian economy and even though there has been large industrialization in last 60 years, Agriculture still occupies a place of importance. Agriculture has abled to provide us more or less food security, but still failed in providing nutritional security.

Value addition is one of the important component of food security. Sometimes surplus production is the cause of lower price of produce in market. One way to solve the problem is crop diversification which is responsible for a viable market system, creates opportunity to earn more as well as strong step towards nutritional security.

Another step is value addition of agricultural produce. Crop diversification and value addition are the two important techniques of profit maximization and important pillars of nutritional security.

The most important problem facing the country today is providing remunerative price to the farmers for their produce. This problem could be solved largely in the surplus production of cereals, vegetables, fruits, milk, fish, meat, poultry etc, which are processed and marketed aggressively both inside and outside the country.

The Value addition coupled with marketing has enormous potential of solving the basic problems of agricultural surplus and produce wastage. Also it can create rural jobs, provide remunerative price to farmer.

What is Value Addition?

Value addition is a process in which for the same volume of a primary product, a high price is realized by means of processing, packing, upgrading the quality or other such methods.

What is Value Added Agriculture?

Value-added agriculture refers most generally to manufacturing process that increases the value of primary agricultural commodities. It also increases the economic value of a commodity through particular production process, eg., organic produce, through regionally branded products that increase consumer appeal and willingness to pay a premium over similar but differentiated products. It is regarded as a rural development strategy.

Small scale production unit, organic food processing, agritourism and biofuels development are examples of various value-added projects that

have created new jobs in rural area.

Need for Value Addition

� To improve the profitability of farmers � To empower farmers and also women through

gainful employment opportunities � To provide better quality, safe and branded

foods to the consumers � To reduce post-harvest losses � Reduction of import and meet the export

demands � Way of increased foreign exchange � Encourage growth of subsidiary industries � Reduce economic risk of marketing � Diversify the economic base of rural

communities � Overall, increase farmers financial stability

Value Addition in Horticultural Crops

� Horticulture deals a large group of crops, crops belong to us possess great medicinal, nutritional and health-promoting values.

� India as second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables, only 10 per cent of that horticultural produce is processed, but other developed and developing countries where 40-80 per cent produce is value-added.

� Post-harvest losses in Horticultural produce are 3 to 4 per cent which amounts to more than 8000 crore rupees per annum. If we subject our produce to value addition the losses can be checked.

� Horticulture crops are right for value addition because they are more profitable, has high degree of processability and richness in health-promoting compounds and higher potential export.

Value Addition through New Product Development

To be unique and novel product development should be attempted and this can be approached through various ways.

� A product entirely new in character � A product made by novel process or through

novel ingredient � A product with distinguishing features and

new form of manufacture � A product resulting from modification, change



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in processing methods or ingredient or packing system.

19510

93. Better Household Waste ManagementDIVYA MARTOLIA

Research Scholar Deptt. of Family Resource Management, College of Community Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]

Waste is an inevitable thing in the world, things which are not in need or used completely is ended into trash. As a nation, we are generating more garbage and we don’t know what to do with it. According to the Press Information Bureau, India generates 62 million tonnes of waste (mixed waste containing both recyclable and non-recyclable waste) every year, with an average annual growth rate of 4% (PIB 2016). The heap of waste is not only generated in industrial sector but domestic one is not far to generate the waste.

The management of home waste is essential factor for health, hygiene and on social ground as well because the home is a place where people and its neighbourhood interact. If the waste is not scraped properly there will be a depressive environment so, every member of family is responsible for managing home waste. Most people do not give any second thought to reprocess the waste at household level. All we need is the creative imagination and a well-disciplined nature to manage home waste. In India, majority of the household without segregating the home waste dispose off in municipal dumping yard or garbage van.

Municipality corporations play very important role in carrying out home waste from home by collecting the waste and dispose off to its next destination which is a common dumping ground in each cities. Although there have been many programmes working on waste management for commercial level but still at the end the waste generated from industrial and household is being disposed off in landfills or limited surface areas in the most unhygienic manner.

However, due to ever-increasing urbanization, fast adoption of use & throw concept results in dwindling of ecological resources such as drop-in groundwater level, polluted atmosphere and water sources. If we try to manage waste at household level this not only avoid the consequences but it gives monetary return too in some of the other forms balancing the ecology. The garbage output in household need to supplement with innovative ideas to generate something from the waste output no doubt it is not an easy task to work even though some efforts are required from every member of household. There have been many sources such as internet and interactive rapport

with neighbourhood through which we can have basic idea to manage the home waste at primary level and it just a matter of time which is required with an interest of a person to build a hygienic and healthy environment.

Management of Household Waste at Primary Stage are:

Segregation of waste is important factor to manage waste properly

� Make a habit of dropping things or wastes in separate containers or bins. Keep separate bin for dry waste like flowers, papers, plastic, glass and metal as they can be reused and recycled.

� Wet waste like vegetables, kitchen waste, fruit peels, tea leaves, eggshells and fish scales should be kept in separate bin and go for composting the organic waste rather than just disposing it off. There are thousands of ideas in internet about composting procedure at small level for your kitchen garden which in the end save some money and serve the waste management at household level.

� Hike in technology no doubt ease the human life motion but it has another face which created chaos in every household, e-waste i.e. batteries, wires, electronic toys, remotes, bulbs, tube lights; toxic waste i.e paints, insecticides, their containers; and biomedical waste i.e expired medicines, tubes, used cosmetics, thermometer and used syringes. These should be disposed off carefully because some items contain hazardous substance which may ultimately leads to vanish our sustainable system.

Better to donate rather than throw away

The other way is donate items when possible you can give away to someone who is in need rather than scrapping it off in trash, better to fill a needy closet.

� Old clothes and fabric scraps can be donated to a fabric recycling facility.

� Schools often accept donations of old computers and other electronics.

� Contact a local homeless shelter, thrift store,



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or donation centre to see about donating the items which are not in used by your family.

Think before you throw, recreating magic to reduce the waste

Reducing waste you throw away has a direct impact, apart from Segregation of waste recreating items also be done to reduce the amount of waste

� Repair the usable items. � Give it to someone in need or sell it. � Buy products that are durable and have long

life and reduce turnover of clothes and other products.

� Avoid unnecessary purchases of products, clothes and other appliances.

� Avoid multi-layered package goods. Once you have purchased the goods try to remove the unnecessary wrapping, unless it is served for gift purpose.Conclusion: In nutshell home waste is a

problem but better home waste management is the only solution for a healthy home and its neighbourhood. Home waste management practices cannot attained in a single shot, until

the people show true concern to the problem by practising in better means to deal the home waste. Education and awareness in the area of home waste management is increasingly important from a developing nation perspective of resource management. Segregation of home waste into dry and wet is first and effective method of home waste management. The root of the problems lies in the attitude of the residents they should foreseen the improper management which will ultimately result in unhygienic surrounding filled with house of diseases. It is responsible for all of us to engage in proper and effective home waste management. As a civilized person in society, home is the basic unit from where a person holds its identity and reflects the attitude toward the hygienic as well as healthy home environment.

Reference

PIB (2016) Solid Waste Management Rules Revised After 16 Years; Rules Now Extend to Urban and Industrial Areas, Press Information Bureau, Government of India.Retrieved from http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=138591on 2 November 2019.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

19645

94. Removal of Dyes from textile effluents: Why and How? INDU CHOPRA AND NEERAJ PATANJALI

Division of Agricultural Chemicals, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi-110012Corresponding author email: [email protected]

Dyes are water soluble organic compounds which are used to impart desirable color to the fabric. These coloring substances are widely used in different industries including leather, paper, printing, tannery, cosmetics and textiles. After the use of dyes, the effluents are discharged into different water bodies without further treatment. It is reported that among different dye-utilizing industries, the textile industry utilizes the highest amount of dyestuff. Due to low absorption capacity of fabric (maximum 25%), the dye mixtures get discharged as effluents to the water bodies which contribute to more than half of the existing dye effluents seen in the environment around the world. The dyes and their breakdown products have proven to be toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic. The dyes present in water bodies reduce sunlight

penetration in to water thus interfering with the photosynthetic activity of the aquatic organisms. The dyes may also adversely affect animal and human health. Therefore it becomes utmost important to remove dyes from textile effluents so as to prevent them from polluting the environment and causing damage to life on earth. It can also pave a way to reuse the treated water for different purposes (eg. industrial units) and one of the potential approaches for wastewater management.

The dyes used in textile industry can be classified into cationic (basic) dyes, anionic (acid, reactive, azo, direct) dyes and non-ionic (disperse) dyes. The techniques used for the removal of dyes can be classified into following:



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Chemical Methods

These methods use chemistry or its theories for the dye removal. The methods include:1. Advanced oxidation- Multiple oxidation is

done simultaneously2. Electrochemical destruction- Electro-

coagulation or non-soluble anodes are used3. Fenton reaction- Fenton’s reagent is used4. Oxidation- Oxidising agents are used5. Ozonation- Ozone produced from oxygen is

used6. Photochemical oxidation- Fenton’s reagent

and UV light is used7. UV- irradiation- Ultraviolet radiation is used

Chemical dye removal processes displayed the highest percentage of dye removal ranging from 88.8 to 99 %. It is to be noted that chemical dye removal processes with the exception to upcoming electrochemical destruction technologies depend on the pH of the dye solution.

Physical Methods

These methods are based on mass transfer mechanism and used most commonly for dyes removal. These methods include: 1. Adsorption: Adsorbents with high adsorption

capacity are used.2. Coagulation and Flocculation: Coagulating/

flocculating agents are used to form clumps.3. Irradiation: Radiation is used to remove dye

molecules4. Membrane Filtration: Membrane is used for

dye molecules separation5. Ion Exchange: Reversible chemical method to

remove ionic molecules from water.6. Reverse Osmosis: Pressure driven system to

separate contaminants and water.7. Nano/ Ultrafiltration: Membrane of specific

pore size is used to separate dye molecules from water.Physical dye removal methods have a removal

percentage ranging from 86.8 to 99 % with the adsorption method ranking highest on the list as it is capable of degrading almost any dye or a mixture of dyes easily.

Biological Methods

These methods involve use of living organisms for the removal of dyes. Though these methods are commonly used for dye removal but the growth and reactions cannot be predicted/ judged many a times. These methods involve:1. Algae Degradation: Algae uses dye molecules

for self growth.2. Enzymatic Degradation: Degradation of dye

molecules is carried out by extracted enzymes.3. Fungal Culture: Dye molecules are used for

self growth by fungus after breaking down of the molecules

4. Adsorption by Microbial Biomass: Mixture of living organisms adsorb the dyes

5. Aerobic-Anaerobic Degradation: It is the conventional method in which the dye molecules are broken down by the prepared sludge.

6. Microbial Culture: Bacteria are mixed with chemical are used to remove dye molecules.

7. Pure and Mixed Culture: Mixture of algae, bacteria and fungus with chemicals are used to remove dye molecules. Biological dye removal methods have a

removal percentage ranging from 76 to 90.1 % with the enzyme degradation method ranking highest on the list being cheap, efficient, non-toxic and reusable.

Among the three methods (biological, chemical and physical), dye removal by biological or physical methods are fairly successful. But different techniques of physical dye removal are the most commonly used methods. The basis of choosing any of the physical methods is its simplicity, ease of operation and efficiency. By far, physical method requires the least amount of chemicals compared to the biological or chemical dye removal methods. This method does not deal with living organisms hence is considered to be more predictable than the other two dye removal methods.

So it can be concluded that before the discharge of textile effluents in the environment, it should be treated with the most efficient method of the dye removal. It will not only help to reduce the environmental pollution but also improve water quality which is the need of the hour.



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19646

95. nanotechnology: tool for Detection and Remediation of environmental PollutantsINDU CHOPRA AND NEERAJ PATANJALI

Division of Agricultural Chemicals, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi -110012, India*Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected]

Introduction

With a constantly growing population, crop protectants including pesticides play an important role in ensuring sustainable crop production. They are used to mitigate the losses caused by weeds/ insect-pest or diseases which may otherwise cause havoc with 25-55% losses in crop yields. Though these chemicals have proved their worth by increasing and maintaining the crop production but several disadvantages are also associated with the use of these crop protectants. Low effectiveness of these chemicals leads to their multiple uses that further contributes to increased cost, environmental contamination and the risk of exposure to non-targeted living organisms. In order to assess the risks associated with these contaminants, there is a need to develop sensitive detection techniques and innovative methods for efficient removal of persisting and recently emerged contaminants. For the purpose, nanomaterials can serve as promising materials for attaining the aim of maximum output with minimum inputs. Nanomaterials are the materials which have a particle size of less than 100 nm in at least one dimension. Recent developments of nanotechnology in conjunction with biotechnology has widened its application in different fields. Different carbon-based nanomaterials including single-walled and multiwalled carbon nanotubes, metal and metal oxides have been developed and applied for wastewater treatment, environmental remediation, food processing and packaging, medicine and smart sensor development in general. This article envisages the potential of nanomaterials in the field of environmental monitoring and remediation of water soil and other matrices.

Applications of Nanomaterials

Monitoring of Environmental Pollutants/ Toxicants

To ensure public well-being it becomes very important to ensure environmental security. Though the pesticides and other agrochemicals are used to avoid crop yield losses, their indiscriminate use and lack of information about their application

has led to pesticide residues in food and other commodities. Therefore, it becomes utmost important to detect and monitor the levels of pesticide and other contaminants in crop produce so as to avoid any ill effects on nontarget organisms.

Traditionally, techniques like GC, GC-MS, LC-MS, LC-MS-MS are used for pesticide residue detection which are although reliable, powerful and provide accuracy but time-consuming, expensive and require intensive sample purification at the same time. So, there is a need for the technology that can serve as an alternative to the existing ones at affordable cost. Nowadays nanomaterials-based sensors have attracted global attention. Nanosensors used for pesticide residue detection offer high sensitivity, high surface to volume ratio, low detection limits, super selectivity and fast responses being small-sized. Some enzyme-based biosensors for detection of OC, OP, and carbamate residues have also used nanomaterials for enzyme immobilization. The use of nanomaterials in biosensors helps the response, sensitivity and selectivity of the analyte under study. The most commonly used enzymes for the detection of pesticide residues from different matrices include acetylcholinesterase (AChE), organophosphate hydrolase (OPH) and laccase. In addition, nanomaterials can also be used for pesticide degradation. Some researchers have established that the photocatalytic degradation of pesticides can be enabled and enhanced with the use of nanomaterials (Liu et al, 2008). It can be attributed to the explicit surface activity and specific surface area of the nanomaterials. These materials degrade the pesticides through different mechanisms that include photocatalysis, dechlorination and catalytic reduction.

Nanomaterials can also serve as biomarkers for the detection of different plant pathogens or their by-products. These materials can also be utilized as a tool to indirectly diagnose the disease/ infection in plants by monitoring the levels of compounds that are released in response to the induction of disease. The use of nanomaterial-based sensors along with global positioning and information system can help to generate data on the crop, pest and environmental variables which can support



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the decision making for input reduction and timely management of different resources.

Use of Nanomaterials For Water and Soil Remediation

Contamination of soil and water by toxic pollutants can be either natural or anthropogenic which are posing threat to different environmental components along with life on earth. So it becomes important to develop new techniques/ methods that are effective in the removal of pollutants like heavy metals, dyes, and other organic pollutants.

Nanotechnology-based remediation techniques offer the application of reactive nanomaterials for the removal of different contaminants. The cost-effective methods are flexible enough to make them suitable for both in-situ as well as ex-situ application for the transformation and detoxification of the pollutants. Nano-scale zero-valent iron (ZVI-NPs), the electron donor molecule, has been found to be effective in the degradation of chlorinated compounds and reduction of heavy metals like Cadmium through redox reaction. Carbonaceous nanomaterials and their composites can also be used for the effective removal of halogenated organics and PCBs through adsorption. Different types of nanomaterials like

nanoparticles, nanocomposites and nanotubes have been used worldwide for detection, degradation and remediation of contaminants from different matrices

Conclusion: Nanomaterial based techniques offer the choice of reducing the cleanup time and cost of clean-up of contaminated sites at large scale thus reducing the concentration of contaminants to near zero -all in situ. Though nanomaterials offer an attractive choice for detection and remediation of environmental contaminants and pollutants but information about regeneration and reusability, efficiency in wastewater remediation along with the life cycle of these materials and its impact on different environmental components is still lacking. Therefore, utmost care needs to be taken before their applications in different fields.

References

Liu, S., Yuan, L., Yue, X., Zheng, Z., & Tang, Z. (2008). Recent advances in nano sensors for organophosphate pesticide detection. Advanced Powder Technology, 19(5), 419-441.

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