Screening and characterization of thermotolerant and ethanogenic yeast with improved economics for ethanol production was attempted in present study. Eight thermotolerant and ethanogenic isolates of yeast were isolated from the diverge ecosystem. All the isolates grew at 40°C but EM12 and ST1 showed better growth than other six. Evaluation of ethanol tolerance showed that five isolates tolerate up to 12% ethanol. Enzyme profiling of these isolates revealed that they were found to possess β-galactosidase. The EM12 isolate was found to produce maximum of 49.21 IU/ml β-galactosidase amongst all. Isolate EM12 was most potential ethanogenic amongst all, with yield of 44.4% and fermentation efficiency of 86.38%. This isolate found to produce 38 g/l of ethanol. This thermotolerant and ethanogenic strain EM12 showed better economic for ethanol fermentation at elevated temperature in laboratory experiment. Therefore, it was selected for further thorough characterization. Based on the morphological, cultural and biochemical characterization followed by molecular analysis of 18S rDNA, EM12 isolate was identified as the strain of Pichia kudriavzevii.

In the present investigation 22 dessert banana genotypes were evaluated under coastal plain zone of Odisha during the year 2013-14 and 2104-15 in a randomized block design with three replications. Observations were recorded on growth parameters and yield attributing traits. Analysis of variance indicated significant differences among the genotypes in respect of all the growth parameters and yield attributing traits. The PCV and GCV (phenotypic and genotypic coefficient variation) were higher for finger weight, bunch weight and number of fingers. Bunch girth and finger weight had very high broad sense heritability (h2). Finger weight recorded the highest genetic advance followed by bunch weight. All the genotypes, on the basis of total variability were grouped into twelve distinct clusters. Maximum number of cultivars was accommodated in Cluster 1 followed by Cluster 7. Inter cluster distance was the highest between cluster 12 and cluster 7. Bunch girth made the maximum contribution to divergence (45.02 %) followed by finger weight (39.83 %).

In the study, CMS based hybrid combination involving two male sterile lines (Cajanus cajanifolius) and four restorer lines in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) were studied to determine the genetics of fertility restoration in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.). Based on the pollen fertility and pod setting, F2 segregating populations were categorised. Out of two major genes governing the fertility restoration, one gene segregated in the ratio of 9:3:4 whereas the second gene in 12:3:1 due to the allelic differences. The ICPA 2043/ LRG 41 and ICPA 2043/NDA 1 hybrids fits best for agronomical aspects as they showed earliness with respect to flowering and maturity having more number of pods plant-1, increase in pod length along with more seed yield plant-1. CMS system is a useful tool serving to increase seed yield production of various crops and consummate the demands of increasing populations.

Protected cultivation structures provide favourable environment for crop growth thereby achieving greater yield and high quality produce. Green house, polyhouse, shade net house & low tunnels are different types of protected cultivation structures, which are commonly adopted for crop cultivation. During extreme cold in winter season (November-February) vegetables can be grown under green house structure. Accurate irrigation scheduling in protected cultivation structures is one of the important factors in achieving high yields and avoiding loss of quality. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of protected cultivation structures (Poly house, shade net house and shadow hall) on temperature, relative humidity and water requirement of vegetable crops (Tomato, Cucumber, Capsicum, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Broccoli & Brinjal) with drip irrigation system grown during winter season (November-February). FAO-56 Penman Monteith approach was used to estimate the reference crop evapotranspiration under different kind of protected cultivation structures with different vegetable crops. Study shows that vegetable production in winter for sub humid region reduces due to fall in temperature below optimum level. Green house structure offers a solar energy saver and enhances temperature inside the structures. Daily average reference crop evapotranspiration value was found to be minimum for shadow hall (1.2-2.9 mm day-1) followed by polyhouse (1.3-3.2 mm day-1), shadenet house (1.4-3.7 mm day-1) and open field (2.0-4.9 mm day-1) condition. The total water requirement of drip irrigated vegetable crops in protected cultivation structure is reduced by about 35.6 %, 35.2 % and 25.5 % respectively under shadow hall, poly house and shade net house in comparison to open field cultivation.

An experiment was conducted on integration of Trichoderma, Pseudomonas and fungicides for the control of Collar rot disease of Chickpea during 2013-14 and 2014-15. Results indicated that the most effective treatment was Trichoderma harzianum @ 8q/ha–1 (Soil) + Hexaconazole @ 3ml/kg–1 seed with minimum mortality (4.30 and 2.25%) which was at par with treatment Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 8q/ha–1 (Soil) + Hexaconazole @ 3ml/kg–1 seed (5.80 and 2.59%) and Trichoderma harzianum @ 8q/ha–1 (Soil)+Tubeconazole @ 3ml/kg–1 seed (6.15 and 4.09%) whereas maximum mortality 15.70 and 12.35%) was recorded in control plot. Maximum no. of pods per plant (41.30 and 49.75) was recorded in treatment T7 = Trichoderma harzianum @ 8q/ha–1 (Soil) + Hexaconazole @ 3ml/kg–1 seed which was at par with T8 = Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 8q/ha–1 (Soil) + Hexaconazole @ 3ml/kg–1 (38.7 and 45.95) and significantly superior over rest of the treatment. In case of grain yield highest grain yield was increased in treatment T7 = Trichoderma harzianum @ 8q/ha–1 (Soil) + Hexaconazole @ 3ml/kg–1 seed (44.85%) followed by T8 = Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 8q/ha–1 (Soil) + Hexaconazole @ 3ml/kg–1 (43.61%) and T10 = Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 8q/ha–1 (Soil) + Tubeconazole @ 3ml/kg–1 seed (29.63%).

Deep placement of fertilizers will reduce the nutrient losses to the environment and increases the nutrient use efficiency. Nutriseed pack is a small tubular assembly consisting seed with bio-inoculants on top, manure pellet in middle and fertilizer pellet at bottom. A field study has been taken to determine nitrogen recovery and to evaluate the compatibility of phosphorus fertilizer sources with nitrogen sources which suited for Nutriseed pack by estimating the recovery of applied fertilizer N added as 15N labeled urea with Nutriseed pack in maize and retention in soil using 15N tracer technique in eastern block of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. This study has revealed that the actual nitrogen recovery from fertilizer and fertilizer nitrogen retention in the soil. The highest fertilizer nitrogen recovery (15N) in leaves, stem and grain (47.95 %) was found with NP(DAP)K Nutriseed pack with phosphorus as Di ammonium phosphate placement recording the highest nitrogen use efficiency of 64.91%. Relatively low recovery of nitrogen (45.25%) was observed with NP(SSP)K Nutriseed pack with phosphorus as Single super phosphate placement recording 58.67% of nitrogen use efficiency. The labeled nitrogen retention in soil is recorded low in NP(DAP)K Nutriseed pack placement and comparatively high in NP(SSP)K Nutriseed pack placement.

Tomato grown during the rainy season fetches a premium price. But high temperature, rainfall and humidity hinder the success of rainy season tomato crop in coastal plain zone of Odisha. Therefore, a preliminary evaluation was done to predict the performance of twenty five advanced breeding lines along with five state released and two national tomato varieties during off-season in order to identify promising genotypes. The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design with two replications during the year 2012-13. Overall performances of the genotypes in respect of growth characters and fruit characters were expressed in terms of growth index (GI) and fruit index (FI) and selection was done following metroglyph analysis. Analysis of variance indicated significant differences among the genotypes for plant height, number of branches/plant, plant girth, fruit girth, fruit weight, total soluble solids, bacterial wilt incidence (%) and fruit yield except fruit length. From the results of preliminary evaluation it could be suggested that the advanced breeding lines BT 18, BT 101, BT 106, BT 213, BT 317 and BT 433-3-2 are the elite genotypes for off-season cultivation in coastal plain zone of Odisha.

An experiment was conducted during the kharif seasons of 2014-15 under All India Coordinated Research Project for Dry land Agriculture at College of Agriculture, Indore Madhya Pradesh to study the major nutrient and other chemical properties of sampled vertisols and associated soils of Ralyawan village of Jhabua district of western Madhya Pradesh. Results showed that the Soils of Ralyawan village in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh were low in available nitrogen, low to medium available phosphorous and medium to high level in available potassium. Available nitrogen content in soils of Ralyawan village ranged from 152 to 298 kg ha1 with an average of 236 kg ha Nutrient index values was in low fertility class in soil of village. Thus, the overall poor and or low status of available nitrogen was observed in this soil. The status of available phosphorous varied from 7.15 to 38.8 kg ha1 with a mean value of 16.4 kg ha1. The 22.47% village soil samples from the study area can be classified as low fertility class and 64.84 % in medium fertility class. The nutrient index value for P was in medium fertility class of village. The status of available potassium varied from 179 to 826 kg ha1 with a mean value of 418 kg ha1. The 0% village soil samples under the study were classified as low fertility class, 2.30% as medium and 97.69% as high fertility class. The pH of varied from 7 to 8 with the mean value of 7.5. The electrical conductivity of soil water suspension ranged from 0.17 to 0.86 dSm1 with a mean value of 0.37 dSm1. The variation in organic carbon content in this soil was from 0.23% to 0.80% with a mean value of 0.53%. In general, the organic carbon status of Ralyawan village soils of was low to medium.

The present investigation to investigate ameliorative effect of salicylic acid (SA) on waterlogged situation was carried out as pot culture experiment in tomato variety H-86 (Kashi Vishesh) in poly house with nine treatments including control in three replications under short term stress. The response of various morphological and biochemical attributes progressively reduced with the increased duration of waterlogged condition. Seeds treated with SA (50 and 100 ppm) or without SA, and foliar application of SA were given alone or in combination. Treated seeds significantly promoted seedling growth and ameliorated waterlogged stress induced responses as confirmed by the changes in growth pattern and several morphological and biochemical attributes. Among treatments, SA (50 ppm seed treatment combined with100 ppm foliar spray) produced better results in terms of shoot length, leaf number, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, sugar and protein content, number of flower, number of fruits and fruit weight per plant as compared to waterlogging control plant.

Recognising the potential of hybrid rice to increase the productivity, the present investigation was conducted using three WA CMS lines (Pusa 6A, IR79156A and IR 68897A) and 31 male genotypes. The results manifested that the magnitude of heterosis for grain yield over better parent was significantly superior in eight hybrids with highest value of 60.83% in Pusa 6A x HUR-105. Sixteen hybrids showed significant positive heterosis over standard variety (NDR-97) with highest value of 116.48% in Pusa 6A x HUR-105. Twelve hybrids showed significant positive heterosis over standard hybrid (Arize-6444) with highest value of 85.69% in Pusa 6A x HUR-105. The top two high yielding heterotic crosses over the standard variety (NDR-97) were Pusa-6A x HUR-105 (116.48%) and Pusa-6A x Pantdhan-12 (114.74%). These two hybrids also exhibited significant positive heterosis for yield over standard hybrid (Arize 6444 Gold) i.e. 85.69% and 84.19% respectively. Hybrids Pusa-6A x HUR-105 and Pusa-6A x Pantdhan-12 showed significant positive standard heterosis for almost all the desirable yield attributing traits, apart from this Pusa-6A x Pantdhan-12 also showed significant negative standard heterosis over SH (Arize-6444) for days to 1st flowering, days to 50% flowering and days to maturity. The top heterotic crosses viz., Pusa-6A x HUR-105, Pusa-6A x Pantdhan-12, Pusa-6A x URG-30, IR-79156A x Akshaydhan and Pusa-6A x NDR-359 and others which expressed higher standard heterosis for grain yield along with other desirable yield components should be tested in large scale under rainfed condition.

A field experiment was carried out during summer season of 2015 at Horticultural Research Station, Mondouri, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal to optimise different levels of nitrogen level and cutting intervals for growth and yield of Ipomoea reptans. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Block Design with four levels of nitrogen doses (i.e. 60, 80, 100, 120 kg/ha) with two cutting treatments at 20 days and 30 days intervals and four replications. Result revealed that growth and yield parameters increases with the increase dose of nitrogen and cutting frequencies. Maximum plant height of 47.87 cm obtained under 120 kg/ha nitrogen with 30 days of cutting condition. Highest weight of leaves and weight of stems per plant were recorded 116 g and 56.13g, respectively under 120 kg/ha nitrogen application with 30 days of cutting interval. The highest total green yield (52.46 ton/ha) was obtained at 120 kg/ha nitrogen application 20 days of cutting. It was found that 11.15% more yield has been obtained that the yield of 30 days of cutting. It has been noticed green yield per hectare has been increased from first cutting to second cutting whereas after second cutting the yield declined which concludes cutting management was beneficial for improving yield and yield attributing characters.

Combining ability studies were carried out in ricebean through line x tester analysis involving two lines and six testers for nine quantitative traits. The relative estimates of variance due to specific combining ability (sca) were higher than variance due to general combing ability (gca) for days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, pod length, grain yield per plant and 100-seed weight indicating the pre-dominance of non-additive gene action for these traits. The parents LRB 482 and KBR1 were good general combiners for plant height, number of pods per plant and grain yield per plant. The hybrid combination RBL 35 x KBR 1 recorded highly significant sca effects for days to maturity, number of primary branches per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, pod length and grain yield per plant along with high per se performance.

Soybean is one of the most economically important crops in the world. Soybean yield is severely affected by biotic agents, especially by Asian Soybean Rust (ASR). The causal agent of ASR is Phakopsora pachyrhizi; a biotrophic fungus that belongs to Basidiomycota. Chemical control is the most effective control method for ASR, but it is costly. In the past, many soybean varieties resistant to ASR have been developed by introgression of resistance genes (R genes) to local varieties. Since P. pachyrhizi isolates are highly diverse, the resistant varieties are vulnerable to newly evolved pathogen isolates. Until now there is no variety that is resistant to all pathogen isolates. Therefore, there is a need to develop new strategies other than R genes. Identification of new candidate genes that are crucial for fungi in pathogenicity may lead to new options for P. pachyrhizi control. Many interesting genes have been identified but their study is impaired by the biotrophic nature of rust fungi. In this regard RNAi has emerged as a reverse genetic tool. The HIGS method (Host Induced Gene Silencing) is used to down regulate fungal candidate genes in planta. This is an indirect method where the silencing signal is formed in the plant but it mediates RNAi in the fungus.

Soy protein isolate film was reinforced with TiO2 nanoparticles. The effect of homogenization time and speed on mechanical and water barrier properties were tested by measuring thickness, swelling percentage, opacity, tensile strength (TS), elongation at break (Eb), water vapour permeability (WVP) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR). The thickness, opacity, TS and Eb of the film increased from 0.202 mm to 0.219 mm; 58.40% to 374.31%; 1.60 MPa to 3.20 MPa and 0.60% to 3.20% respectively and swelling percent, WVP and OTR decreased from 684.39 % to 313.63%; 63.721 g/m2/day to 3.042 g/m2/day and 127.53cc/m2/day to 49.15 cc/m2/day respectively.

A timely and reliable system of forecasting of mango area and production well in advance is of prime importance to farmers and other people who are dependent on horticultural sector. In this study the crop yield forecast models have been developed by considering time series dataon the area and production of mango crop in Karnataka. Daily data on weather variables and yearly data on other exogenous variables of Karnataka state are considered under this study. Weighted and unweighted indices are developed based on the considered weather variables and these indices are further used as independent variables in the regression model. In this study the stepwise regression analysis and ARIMA models were used to forecast the area and production of mango in Karnataka. The empirical study reveals that the weather based stepwise regression model performed better than the ARIMA model for forecasting area and production of mango in Karnataka.

The present research work was carried to prepare a special anjeer, chicory, oat Burfi with improved product characteristics and consumer acceptability. Levels of different component were optimized using response surface methodology. Besides that, physico-chemical properties such as moisture, fat, carbohydrate, protein, ash and energy content were also analysed. Sensory evaluation of product was done on a 9 point hedonic scale by a panel of experts for color, body and texture, flavor, sweetness and overall acceptability. Fat, Protein, carbohydrate and ash content was respectively 16.6%, 11.55%, 57.86% and 3.06%. Per gram of Burfi provides 317kcal of energy. The color, body and texture, flavor, sweetness and overall acceptability of product was respectively 81.25%, 82.5%, 80.00%, 86.25% and81.25%.

Heavy metals are causing serious health hazard due to its toxicity and persistence in soil and aqueous medium too. Heavy metals contamination in drinking water has become a major cause of concern for the environmentalists. Arsenic(III) and Chromium(VI) is widely distributed in aqueous medium in the Gangetic plain causing skin pigmentation and liver disorders. Fluoride is also a major pollutant of drinking water in southern part of the Ganges. Several methods of removal of heavy metals from aqueous medium e.g. precipitation, adsorption, ion exchange are in practice. But the naturally grown aquatic weeds, biomass and medicinal plants can be utilized for the removal of arsenic and chromium(VI) from aqueous medium. Medicinal plants e.g. Cymbopogon flexuosus (Lemon grass) is grown by farmers in this area due to its aroma. In the present study, medicinal plants have been put to study by taking different masses up to fixed interval of time in the synthetic solutions of As(III) and Cr(VI) . The kinetic study of adsorption of As(III) and Cr(VI) by Lemon grass has been done with a view to know the order and characteristics of the reaction.

The present work aimed to classify the irrigation water quality of surface water (Pond) and groundwater (shallow), Collected from different sources and different seasons in Canning Block, 24 South Parganas, West Bengal. Thirty water samples were collected in Pre-monsoon and post- monsoon for analysis of physico - chemical parameters like pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Chloride (Cl-), Carbonate (CO3--). Bicarbonate (HCO3--), Sulphate (SO4-), Calcium (Ca++), magnesium (Mg++), Sodium (Na++), Potassium (K+), Sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), Residual sodium carbonate ( RSC) . Analysed water samples of shallow tube well were found in pre- monsoon rated as 73.33 % (C3-S1) under high salinity and 23.66% (C4-S1) under very high salinity water, but after post- monsoon were found of shallow tube well were 46.66% (C2-S1) water samples converted in under medium range and 53.33% (C3-S1) water under high range found. In respect of Pond water samples were found in pre monsoon 93.33% (C3-S1) samples under high salinity water and 6.66 % (C2-S1) under medium range. After post monsoon of pond samples found 73.33 % (C2-S1) in medium range and 26.66 % (C3-S1) in high range.