In the present study, the synthesized derivatives of cinnamanilide and α-aminophosphonic acid were used to analyze their binding affinity with acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS) (PDB ID: 1YHY) a molecular target for development of herbicide through molecular docking. The result of present studies showed that cinnamanilide derivative 2-nitro cinnamanilide has greatest affinity toward AHAS as compared to other derivatives, which bind at amino acids residue Ile396, Arg246, Ser186 with three hydrogen bonds and -8.5 kcal/mol binding energy. α-Aminophosphonic acid 1-(2,5 dimethoxyphenyl)-1-(phenylamino) methylphosphonic acid exhibited the maximum affinity toward AHAS with four double bonds binding at amino acids Trp267, Arg109 and -5.6 kcal/mol binding energy as compared to other derivatives. This may lead to inhibition of AHAS protein. Further field trial is required to validate its efficacy and potency as herbicide for the protection of crop plants.

Ramie or (Boehmeria nivea L. Gaudich.) is one of the most valuable bast fibre yielding crops of the world. Ramie fibre is much more superior than the other commonly used plant fibres like jute, cotton, flax, etc. in terms of bundle tenacity, wet strength, fineness, ultimate fibre length and the length to breadth ratio. It is one of the strongest but stiffest bast fibre due to its high cellulose to hemicellulose ratio which favours a high degree of cellulose crystallinity. Besides having the unique physical properties, its silklike

appearance and anti-microbial property of the fibres as well as the edicinal value and antioxidant property of the ramie leaves make the plant utmost valuable in the International market. China is the chief ramie producer followed by Brazil and Philippines. In India there is a huge scope to exploit this fibre economically to get maximum benefit. The sandy loam soil with slopping land and hot-humid weather conditions that are required for ramie cultivation is available in the North Eastern parts of India. The foothills of Himalaya and the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, along with Western Ghats and Arunachal Pradesh have great natural resource to promote ramie cultivation. There is a great demand of ramie fibre in the market but the production is not enough to meet the need. This is an opportunity for the Indian farmers to start ramie cultivation in a wide range besides the regular cultivation of jute, cotton, mesta, flax, sisal, etc. As ramie has an inherent property to tolerate a wide range of temperature, soil and climatic factors, it isn’t difficult to cultivate ramie in a large scale. Moreover, ramie being a perennial crop helps in soil conservation and can also be intercropped with other plants to get the economical benefit of both the crops. Scientific cultivation of ramie, therefore, can pave a new path for sustaining rural livelihood.

The investigation was carried out aiming to develop a technique for rapid in vitro micropropagation of potato with three different popular cultivars in middle Gujarat. Different surface sterilization treatments were carried out and axenic cultures were established on agar solidified (0.8%) Murashige and Skoog’s (1962) medium containing 2% sucrose and 10 mgl-1 GA3. The axenic culture of different cultivar reported the difference among them and concluded that a higher concentration is good for vegetative growth whereas the lower concentration favors the root growth in the presence of 2.0 mgl-1 calcium pantothenate. Effect of CaCl2 on the growth of in vitro cultures was evaluated and it was found that Ca nutrition is one of the most important factors for growth. The produced in vitro cultures were used for further production of microtuberisation study.

The experiment comprised of fifteen combinations of biofertilizers, organic manures and chemical fertilizers was conducted in RBD replicated thrice. The biofertilizers improved the microbial content and nutrient uptake of onion stover as compared to control and recommended chemical fertilizers. Highest Bulb dry mass (45.7 q/ha) and stover dry mass (27.9 q/ha) was observed in Azospirillum along with recommended fertilizer dose (T3) followed by Azotobacter along with recommended fertilizer dose (T1).

Application of Azospirillum along with recommended fertilizer dose (T3) resulted in significantly higher nitrogen uptake (210.3 Kg ha-1) over all the treatments except Azotobacter along with recommended fertilizer dose (T1). The highest phosphorus uptake (21.5 Kg ha-1) was attained with application of Azotobacter along with Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizae and recommended fertilizer dose (T9) over all the treatments. Organic manures improved the organic carbon status of soil and highest organic carbon of soil was observed in treatment where FYM @ 20 t/ha (T12) and FYM @ 20 t/ha along with Azotobacter and Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (0.4%) was applied. While, highest bacteria (27.2 × 106) and actinomyctes (34.0 × 104) count was observed in FYM @ 20 t/ha treatment (T12). Azotobacter along with recommended fertilizer dose (28.2 × 103) had highest fungal count at the time of harvesting. The present study highlights the need of use

of biofertilizers along with organic and inorganic manures/fertilizer to enhance the nutrient availability and improve soil health.

Terminal heat stress is a key yield-reducing factor in late sown wheat. Twenty-five bread wheat genotypes were evaluated for terminal heat tolerance by planting in normal (non-stress) and late (stress) environments. To check the tolerance level of genotypes to heat stress, indices namely mean performance of genotypes, heat susceptibility index, and heat susceptibility percent were studied. The analysis of variance revealed significant variation due to genotypes for all characters in two sowing dates except grain filling period. In heat stressed environment, genotypes DBW 107, HUW 688, UP 2883, K 1314, HD 3118, HI 1604 and HD 3159 had high per se performance for grain yield/m2. Genotypes HD 3164, GW

463, PBW 718 and CG 1015 showed low heat susceptibility index (HSI<1) for grain yield/m2 and were thus consider as heat tolerant genotypes. Reduction in grain yield/m2 (14.97%) was mainly associated with a reduction in grain filling period (16.73%).

The influence of organic matter vis-a-vis humic acids on the availability of nutrient status and its impact on the cultivation of rice (Variety MTU 1010) followed by mustard (Variety B-9), was studied in Typic Fluvaquent soil under Old Alluvial zone of West Bengal, India. Important physical and chemical properties of the soil texture were identified as sandy clay loam, bulk density 1.34 Mg m-3, oxidizable organic carbon 1.16 g 100gm-1, pH 6.34, total nitrogen 0.14 g 100gm-1, available phosphorus 25.90 kg ha-1, available

potash 127.40 kg ha-1, available sulphate 39.56 kg ha-1, respectively. The C: N ratio of the added FYM, Commercial and FYM extracted humic acid were 32:11, 32:61, and 13:53 respectively. The soil received recommended doses of fertilizer for the cultivation of paddy (N:P2O5:K2O::60:30:30) followed by mustard (N:P2O5:K2O::80:40:40) along with FYM at 5.0 and 2.5 t ha-1, Commercial humic acid at 0.5, 0.25 kg ha-1 and FYM extracted humic acid at 0.5, 0.25 kg ha-1, respectively as per the treatments combination. The

study selected the Randomized Block Design (RBD). Periodical analysis for the collected rhizosphere soil (0-15 cm) and the plant samples in the C: N ratio was done, along with the available amount of phosphate, potash and sulphur with their integral effect on the crops growth. At the panicle initiation

and branching stages of paddy and mustard, the highest content of the available phosphate, potash and sulphur were recorded. This content gradually decreases toward the harvesting stage. FYM extracted humic acid showed the highest availability of phosphate, potash and sulphur whereas Commercial humic acid enhanced the content of potash in soil, which signified the uptake of phosphorus, potash and sulphur within plants, which resulted in the qualitative enrichment through biometric parameters and yield of paddy and mustard.

This study was done to modify the existing rocker sprayer. Manually operated lever was replaced with an electric motor and the speed of the motor was regulated by a voltage regulator. For determining the power requirement, the speed of the manually operated sprayer was regulated by subjects’ analysis and was found to work with an average speed of 74 rpm of the piston movement. Modification was done to get the same boom length of the sprayer. The power requirement of the sprayer was determined as 0.016 hp, but 0.25 hp motor was used due to market’s unavailability. A model of the slider crank mechanism was developed to study the effect of connecting rod length, crank angle and rpm on the piston displacement and the linear velocity for the modification of the rocker sprayer. It was found that, the piston displacement and the velocity decreases with an increase in the length of the connecting rod and vice versa. Piston linear velocity was found to be maximum at two crank angles in the range of 90-120° and 260-280°. The weight of the implement was about 4.75 kg. The sufficient pressure of 80-90 psi was obtained for the purpose of spraying, as found in the existing manually operated sprayer. The slider-crank mechanism is useful for the development of the power operated sprayer and for other agricultural machineries.

Fruit bar is the product prepared by blending pulp from sound ripe fruit, nutritive sweeteners and other ingredients appropriate to the product and dehydrated to form sheet which can be cut to desired shape and size. The research was carried out to optimize levels of different ingredients for production of banana-papaya mixed fruit bar and its quality evaluation. Central composite design (CCD) was used to conduct experiments and optimization was carried out using response surface methodology (RSM). The effect of banana-papaya pulp ratio (0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25 and 100:0), citric acid (0.3-1.0%), corn starch (1.0-5.0%) and pectin (0.2-0.6%) was evaluated with respect to overall acceptability scores, hardness, stickiness and ascorbic acid in dried mixed fruit bar. The best recipe was 25:75 of banana- papaya pulp ratio, 0.48% citric acid, 4% corn starch and 0.5% pectin. This resulted in acceptable product with overall acceptability score 7.31, hardness 304.06 N, stickiness 1.57382 N.mm and ascorbic acid 34.10 mg/100g.

Stream flow is a principal element of the hydrological cycle and its temporal variability is important from both the scientific and practical point of view. In the present study the monthly stream flow trends of 3 gauging stations viz. Kedar, Naula and Sarpdully in Ramganga river catchment were detected using the Mann–Kendall (MK) non parametric test and Sen’s slope estimator. For the trend detection of Kedar and Naula gauging stations stream flow data for the period 1973-2012 was used and for Sarpdully the

data for the period 1986-2012 was used. Trend estimation with Mann-Kendall non parametric test at 5% level of significance and Sen’s slope magnitude were determined for each months. The trend result for Kedar gauging station was found to be negative from January to July and December whereas positive trend was observed during August to November. At Naula gauging station a negative trend was noted in all months whereas at Sarpdully station there was positive trend in all months. Sen’s slope estimator indicated increasing and decreasing magnitude of slope during different months.

A study of peduncle parameters were conducted inorder to find the factors affecting cutting of peduncles in the harvesting operation. The study was conducted as an initial step for designing a cutting unit for harvesting tomato. Cross section of peduncle was studied in the lab. Cutting force required to cut the peduncle was measured for tomatoes harvested on different stages, i.e. mature unripe, immature unripe and mature ripe. Also, force for cutting the peduncle with different diameters were measured. It was seen that, peduncle length is an unavoidable factor to determine the cutting portion. It decides where to make the cut, for detaching the fruit from the plant. The parameters like blade parameters, cell structure of cutting material and force for cutting directly affects the cutting operation.

Paclobutrazol and summer pruning can restrict vegetative growth and improve productivity and fruit quality in apple. The present experiment was carried out during two successive seasons on Red Delicious cultivar of apple. The study was carried out in a randomized block design with sixteen treatments and three replications. The trees were > 15 years old grown in experimental orchard of Division of Fruit Science, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, spaced at 5.49 × 5.49 metre distance. The study was aimed to show the effect of different concentrations of paclobutrazol along with different levels of pruning on fruit quality. With increase in paclobutrazol concentration and pruning levels, an increase in TSS, TSS/acid ratio, anthocyanin, sugars, fruit calcium and improvement in fruit grade was observed with decrease in fruit acidity.

A field study on seasonal variability bottle gourd was conducted at Vegetable Research Farm, BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar, India during early winter season and early summer season, 2013 and summer season, 2014 to know the genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for eleven yield and its contributing traits in nine bottle gourd genotypes. Highly significant treatment differences for all traits in the three environments viz., E1, E2 and E3 except for fruit circumference in E2 and vine length in E3, represent inherent genetic difference among the genotypes. The field condition revealed that PCV was higher than the GCV in all environments and pooled for most of traits. The moderate to high heritability in broad sense (51% – 80%) in the different environments and pooled coupled with high genetic advance in per cent of mean (23.11% – 30.72%) in all environments and pooled for number of fruits per vine, that indicates the preponderance of additive gene action and better scope for improvement of these characters

would be effective through selection of genotype. The promising genotypes identified in order to merit of fruit yield per plant were Pusa Naveen and HZP-RC-1 for early maturity and high yielding in all environments and polled.

Feed intake, digestibility, body weight change, carcass characteristics and profitability of supplementing 20 yearling central-highland sheep (17±1.5 kg) fed basal diet of natural pasture hay (NPH) and wheat bran with dried Leucana leucocephala leaves (LLL) and pods (LLP) and their mixture were evaluated after 84 d of feeding trial followed by 7 d of fecal collection and carcass analyses. Treatment diets(partial DM basis) were: T1 (control) = 90g wheat bran +3 g salt; T2=90g wheat bran +3 g salt +207 g LLL; T3= 90g

wheat bran +3 g salt +207 g LLP; T4= 90g wheat bran +3 g salt+103.5 g LLL +103.5 g LLP with NPH offered ad libitum for all treatments. Lambs were assigned to each treatment in RCBD. The crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) contents of LLL were 21.8, 20.2 and 9.9 %/ DM, respectively and that of LLP 18.9, 42.1 and 25.7 %/DM, respectively. The total DM intake was highest for T2, T3 and T4 as compared to the control group. However, the total CP and digestible CP intakes were highest (P<0.05) for T2 but lowest in T1, T3 and T4. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in total NDF and ADF intakes among the treatments. Coefficient of DM digestibility (P<0.05) of T2, T3 and T4 was higher than that of T1. Dressing percentage (DP) calculated onthe basis of slaughter body weight (SBW) was higher (P<0.05) for T2 and T4 than T1. Rib eye muscle area (REMA) and hot carcass weight were higher (P<0.05) for T2 followed by T4 and T3 but T1 was least. Thus, T2 (LLL supplementation) gave better nutrient digestibility, feed conversion efficiency and carcass characteristics and is recommended. However, all leucaena meal supplemented animals performed better than the control, thus can be used

as supplements.

An increasingly important channel of communication, social media has made its presence in every sphere of our life: social, economic, physical, human and political. It has great potential for sharing news, communicating new technologies, and making available of products and services. However,

several questions have emerged about this new media with respect to agricultural extension education, research, and extension services. Given the expanding scope and enormity of use of social media, the researchers sought to identify the activities and the level of their use related to extension education that are being shared in this platform. The objective of our research was to determine the types and extent of social media use in relation to students’ subject discipline. The study was conducted at four Indian agricultural universities. Information from students on communication techniques and activities related to agricultural extension was collected through a stratified random sampling, and data were analyzed using mean, SD, chi-square and correlations. It was revealed that the students of extension education were engaged in eighteen activities on social media. In addition, the three activities which majority of Indian extension students performed in social media were creating, strengthening and debating on extension forums (98%), writing blogs related to extension education (74%), and videoconferencing (61%). The evidence shows that in the future social media will increase its role in educating students, as well as training farmers and other agriculture stake holders in India.

An investigation was done to work out the cost of production, cost of cultivation, returns and profitability from Sugarcane, Wheat and Paddy crops in order to identify which crop is more profitable and economic for the farmers of Uttar Pradesh. On an average, the cost of production was ` 78.29 per quintal and the net return per hectare after subtracting the total cost (Cost C3) from the gross return was ` 54956.01 per hectare. Whereas, production and returns from wheat and paddy crop were ` 714.13 per quintal, ` 8614.32 per hectare and ` 614.93 per quintal, ` 10870.71 per hectare respectively. The observations indicated that per quintal cost of production for sugarcane crop was less than wheat and paddy crop, on the other hand

per hectare net return was the highest for sugarcane when compared to wheat and paddy crop. All the major crops viz., paddy, wheat and sugarcane were profitable for the farmers, but sugarcane was the most profitable crop when compared to the rest, because the per quintal cost of production as well as the per hectare return were more economic than wheat and paddy crops.

Since green revolution wave didn’t touch the state of Assam there is scope to increase production by 3-4 folds through implementation of improved technology with conservation of natural resources. Being a rice cultivating state, System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a very good options for the farmers of Assam, as it provides higher yields with lesser inputs and intensive management practices. The study carried out to find the sources of yield gap between SRI and conventional method of rice cultivation in Assam.

The study revealed that cultural practices contributed highest (32.63%) to the yield gap followed by FYM (10.76%) and human labour (7.46%). Seed (-33%) and irrigation (-2.24%) contributed negatively which implied that farmers growing SRI method paddy obtained higher output per hectare than that obtained by the farmers of Conventional method of paddy by spending less on those inputs. SRI was found to be sustainable with sustainability indices ranged from 78.09 to 129.5. It is estimated to be 56% that implies that SRI can thrive in the conditions of the study area and farmers can avail greater output and ultimately higher income by practicing this method of rice cultivation.