VOL. 11, NO. 4, AUGUST 2018

Palmyrah young shoot is rich in starch and fibre, which is helpful in controlling various diseases especially diabetic. Regular consumption of this flour increase the body strength, reduce hunger and incorporation of it in other foods would positively reduce the malnutrition. However, presence of bitter compounds (flabelliferin or steroidal saponin) limited its consumption rate. Very few studies are carried out in this area and hence the present study was aimed to remove the bitter compounds by aqueous extraction and to evaluate the effect of debittering on changes of palmyrah young shoot flour. The starch and fiber content were dramatically increased and phenolic and saponin contents significantly decreased in debittered flour (DBF) than raw flour (RF). In addition, the color value ‘L’ value increased whereas ‘a’ and ‘b’ value decreased in DBF. The debittered flour had good thickening and gelling properties, which can sustain the use of debittered palmyarh flour in food industries.

Plastid genome engineering is a credible tool for the basic biotechnological research and various innovative techniques have led to the better understanding of the complex processes involved in the plastid transformation. Plastids in higher plants are the major biosynthetic centers for photosynthesis which is the main source of energy requirement. Plastids have their own genome i.e. plastome which is maternally inherited in most angiospermic plant species. Although production of transgenic plants has traditionally been through expression of transgene in the nucleus, but plastid transformation is considered more attractive and efficient target for genetic engineering due to several advantages over nuclear transformation including high level of foreign protein, eliminating the risk of cross pollination with weeds, absence of silencing mechanism and ability to engineer multiple genes rather than a single gene. The potential utility of plastid genome engineering has been explored in development of crops with various agronomic traits, development of vaccine, biopharmaceuticals, therapeutic proteins, biomaterials and industrial enzymes, which will definitely prove beneficial in near future. Plastid transformation is still to be fully utilized for product commercialization, because of the problems associated with protein purification and expression level control. This review article highlights the various possibilities and potential applications of plastid genome engineering for generation of marker free transplastomic plants, improvement in agronomic traits and role of plastids in the production of cost effective biopharmaceuticals and biomaterials.

Endometrial cytology is a method commonly used in gynaecological practice for the diagnosis of reproductive disorders in cattle. This is due to the unusual structure of the cervix, which make reaching the uterus difficult. Proper preparation and evaluation of cytological smears depend not only on the experience of the personal performing the examination but also on the selection of an appropriate method for obtaining material from the uterus. Cytological examination is performed in cows mainly in order to exclude or confirm subclinical endometritis when ultrasonography reveals only slight changes or no irregularities. Subclinical endometritis (SE) is defi ned as inflammation of the endometrium in the absence of any signs of clinical endometritis such as purulent vaginal discharge and is associated with delayed uterine involution. SCE is also known as cytological endometritis on the basis of “an elevated ratio of polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) in endometrial cytology samples. Endometritis is indicated 21-33 d after parturition if leukocytes exceed 18% and 34-47 d after parturition if the percentage exceeds 10%.

The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three farming practices as main plots and four cropping systems as subplots with three replications. Among the farming practices organic farming practice (7571.40 kg ha-1) resulted in significantly highest MGEY where as production efficiency was found to be significantly higher under organic farming practice (20.74 kg ha-1 day-1) which remained at par with integrated farming practice (19.97 kg ha-1 day-1) and were found superior over inorganic farming practice. With non premium pricing inorganic farming practice resulted in lowest cost of cultivation and higher B:C ratio and Integrated farming practice resulted in higher net returns over organic farming practice. While, with the premium pricing of organic produce organic farming practice resulted in higher gross and net returns over inorganic farming practices. It is the premium price that makes organic systems more profitable. However, even without premiums, organic systems may be more profitable than conventional systems in the long run as organic management will enhance overall farm value.

Now-a-day’s biodegradable organic sources are gaining global importance for the cultivation of crops specially in the rice culture. The organic wastes like digested sludge, wooden carpet waste and press mud proved equally effective in rice crop compared to other organic sources with respect to milling and cooking qualities and volume expansion ratio. The building up the total amylase and protein content in rice grain was more effective when organic sources were used in comparison to inorganic or other sources of N. The soil bulk density and electrical conductivity was reduced by the application of organic sources thereby increasing the water holding capacity and the availability of organic carbon or P, K, S and micronutrients such as Fe, Zn, Cu content of the soil.

Nannochloropsis salina is a free living unicellular marine microalga. The present study analyse the influence of salinity and pH on the growth and biochemical composition of this microalga. The alga could tolerate a wide range of salinities. Maximum growth rate and production of chlorophyll, carotenoids and protein was noted in cultures with 40ppt salinity. Cultures with a salinity of 50ppt recorded maximum carbohydrate and lipid production. However, the organism could not tolerate low salinity levels as no growth was observed at zero and 10ppt salinity. The optimum pH required for the maximum production of biochemicals varied considerably. While maximum growth rate and Chl a production were noted at pH 9, carotenoid production was more in cultures with pH 6. Production of protein and carbohydrate was high at pH 10, and lipid at pH 7.

A study was conducted to understand the knowledge level of fish farmers on scientific Pengba farming practices in the valleys of Manipur. Imphal West, Bishnupur, and Thoubal districts were purposively selected based on the higher concentration of Pengba farmers. After consultation with Department of Fisheries, Government of Manipur and with the village key informants, a total of 80 respondents were selected for the study. Primary data were collected through pre tested and structured interview schedule. Analysis of the collected data showed that majority (50%) of the respondents had medium level of knowledge towards scientific farming of Pengba. It was found that majority of the respondents had good knowledge of stocking appropriate size of Pengba in grow out ponds with a mean score value of 0.97. The study also revealed that the socio personal and socio economic characteristic such as age, experience in fisheries activities, annual income from Pengba farming and scientific orientation had significant relationship with the extent of knowledge level of the fish farmers towards scientific farming of Pengba at 5 % level of significance.

The present study was undertaken to analyze the information management behaviour of fish farmers in West Tripura, Tripura. An ex-post-facto research design was followed for the study and West Tripura district was purposively selected based on the prevalence of fish farmers in the district. A sample of 80 fish farmers were selected randomly from the eight selected villages from four blocks of the district. A structured interview schedule was used to collect the information through personal interview. The results showed that majority of the respondents belonged to medium category (62.50%) of information management behaviour, followed by low (21.25%) and high (16.25%) categories. A positive and significant relationship was observed between information management behaviour of fish farmers with independent variables i.e., education, annual income, experience in fisheries, extension contact, achievement motivation, economic motivation, information source exposure, credibility of information source and training exposure.

In comparison with tractor drawn implements, rotary tillers are of particular interest in final seedbed preparation. In India vertical axis rotary tiller has been introduced in recent years by some farm equipment manufacturers. Farmers claim difference between horizontal and vertical axis rotary action but there are no scientific work compare them. Some research has been done on comparison between rotavator and conventional tillage implements. In this research, a quantitative basis for the description of torque created by different rake angle is given. The design optimization in terms of torque requirement has been carried out for the different rake angle viz., 5, 10 and 15 degree; forward speed viz., 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5; rotor rpm viz., 220, 270 and 310. At all groups the investigations indicated that the optimum torque was produced at 2.5 kmph with 270 rpm when the rake angle is 100.

Ohmic heating is a novel and alternating thermal processing technology wherein food materials are heated by passing electric current through materials. Ohmic heating has extreme potential for achieving rapid and uniform heating in foods, providing microbiologically safe and high quality foods. Ohmic heating presents a wide range of potential applications including pasteurization, sterilization, aseptic processing, cooking, thawing, blanching, evaporation, extraction, fermentation, and in the military field or long-duration space missions. This review discusses the brief history, basic principle, some process parameters, applicable food products, potential commercial applications and current industrial status of ohmic heating in food industry throughout the world. The review also highlights the scope and work done on ohmic heating in India. The corrosion problems in electrodes and heterogeneous heat generation rate and distribution are interesting area for further research. Ohmic heating is a good comparable with the other ideal technologies like microwave heating, radio-frequency heating and induction heating. More and intensive investigations are required to assess performance and to reduce the overall cost of ohmic heating for viability of commercial application of this technology also in developing countries like India.

With the inception of climate change phenomenon occurrence of drought in a region has impacted the agricultural production. Occurrence of rainfall, its frequency and intensity are important characteristics which are being studied to trace the climate variability of any region. Standardized precipitation index was used to assess the drought for Solapur region of Maharashtra. Monthly rainfall data of 42 years of four monsoon months i.e. June, July, August and September was used to generate SPI values, based on these values drought was categorized into mild, moderate, severe and extreme drought. This study showed that there was deviation in rainfall received than the normal rainfall, also drought categories indicated that rainfall and its variation are critical and important for dry climatic conditions for crop planning .Based on drought assessment one can adopted drought mitigation strategies for drought proof agriculture in such rainfall deficit zone.

In India, a huge quantity of jute (Corchorus spp.) stick is being produced as a primary by-product of jute fibre (economic part) cultivation every year, and the common practice in vogue is to burn such resides as firewood for domestic energy purposes. Present study aimed to utilize this jute stick alpha cellulose as raw material for synthesis of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) under microwave radiation. The samples were characterized by FTIR and degree of polymerization. Effect of various mineral acids under microwave radiation were also tested. This study reported a new method for preparing MCC from jute stick alpha cellulose by microwave radiation (650W for 45 min at 80 oC). The order of finer MCC was HCl>HNO3> H2SO4 whereas, the yield order was HCl>H2SO4> HNO3. The developed MCC could be explored for pharmaceutical and other applications.

Soil erosion is a crucial problem and a critical environmental hazard in agricultural land, river catchments and reservoirs. Its assessment by various methods such as universal soil loss equation (USLE) is widely carried out by estimating the factors of the equation in a GIS environment. The Non-River catchment in Madhya Pradesh, India comprising of 836 sq. km area was studied for soil erosion and sediment losses in entirety as well as for its 33 sub catchments. The study revealed that a vertical fall of 230 meter with a sudden drop within 10 km generates a high erosion potential by runoff water in micro catchments numbered 1,2, 3, 7, 21 and 29. The erosivity (R) parameter of catchment suggested of medium precipitation but high kinetic energy in western and southern part of the catchment. The topographic factor (LS) in western part of the catchments is higher which covers the sub catchments referred above. The forest land, fallow land and ravine lands comprising of 43.79% of the total catchment area are having sparse-vegetation and steep slopes, and are more prone to the soil erosion. In the Non River catchment no conservation practices are followed. The total annual rate of soil erosion in the catchment, as obtained by multiplying USLE factors, ranged variably under different land uses. The erosion from the steep and sparsely vegetated sub catchments under forest and fallows is highest in the range of 5.90-10.25 t/ha/yr. However, the agricultural land comprising of 50% of the catchment area is under the ‘slight’ class of the erosion ranging from 0.05 to 2.57t/ha/yr.