Bananas are one the most important fruit crop which are the major economic source for several fruit growers. Lack of knowledge over the pre-harvest practices and insufficient post-shooting spray could be the contributing factors towards lower productivity in banana. Meanwhile, the inevitable use of plant bio-regulators has become a crucial component of the current cropping system with a view to improving the production of high-quality fruit. Hence, an investigation entitled ‘Effect of pre-harvest sprays with plant bio-regulator on bunch character and yield of banana cv. Poovan’ was taken up to access the impact of certain plant bio-regulators sprays over the bunch development and yield-related traits in banana cv. Poovan. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with six treatments (T1 – GA3 50ppm, T2 – CPPU 2ppm, T3 – 2,4-D 25 ppm, T4 – Brassinosteroid 1 ppm, T5 – Sea weed extract 0.1% and T6 – control) and four replications. Two Bunch spray of treatments were given at the time of opening of last hand and at 20 days later the first spray. The results revealed that the bunch treatment with GA3 at 50 ppm recorded highest yield and found effectiveness over the bunch characters and yield of banana.

In India, nearly 25-30 million tonnes of cotton stalks are produced annually; the majority of which is burnt in-situ. The adoption of machinery in farm operations is lagging because of various factors like unavailability of credit to purchase expensive machinery, small size holdings of farmers, and lack of technical knowledge and skills to operate complex farm machinery. A field study was conducted during kharif 2020, 2021, and 2022 on a sandy loam soil at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Palem, Nagarkurnool district, Telangana State, India in a large plot size design without replications to assess the performance of cotton under partial mechanization with two treatments i.e., T1: Farmer’s practice (manual dibbling of seed/inter cultivation with cattle pair/burning of cotton residues) and T2: Partial mechanization (use of pneumatic vacuum planter/power weeder/cotton shredder). The results revealed that growth, yield attributes, and yield (6.94%) of cotton were significantly higher with partial mechanization compared to farmer’s practices. Soil physical and chemical characteristics were also significantly improved under partial mechanization when compared to farmer’s practices. Higher gross returns, net returns with an increase of Rs 12,536 per hectare, and the highest B:C ratio were also obtained with partial mechanization in cotton under rainfed conditions.

Legume or spotted pod borer, Maruca vitrata, is an important insect pest that causes severe economic damage in pulses. As the continuous mass culturing of this insect on different pulses is found to be difficult, comprehensive studies have not been done earlier. In keeping this, a comparison was made on its biology in different pulses viz., pigeon pea, green gram, black gram, cowpea, and lablab at the Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, during 2012–13. Maximum fecundity of M. vitrata was recorded (61.0 eggs) in lablab with a mean of 15.3 eggs/female/day in an oviposition period of 3.4 days followed by pigeon pea (14.0 eggs). The mean incubation period of the egg was minimum on pigeon peas (2.33 days) as against 3.07 days on lablab. Five larval instars were recorded with a mean developmental period of 2.19–2.47 days in different instars. The total larval period ranged from 10.76 days in cowpea to 13.19 days on the black gram with a mean of 11.81 days irrespective of the host studied. The pupal period ranged from 6.07 (green gram) to 6.67 days (lablab) with maximum pupation of 83.0% on pigeonpea. The total life cycle was minimum in cowpea (19.50 days) compared to 21.47 days on the black gram and the mean of 20.58 days irrespective of hosts studied. The mean longevity of females (3.64 days) was higher than male moths (3.15 days). The highest growth index of 7.45 was recorded on pigeonpea compared to 5.09 days on the black gram. The sex ratio (♂:♀) favoured females in all hosts and ranged from 1.0:2.13 in lablab to 1.0:2.34 on pigeonpea except on cowpea where it was male-biased (1.0:0.65). Hence, it is that clear the host preference was maximum on cowpea followed lablab, green gram, pigeon pea, and black gram. Lablab and cowpea found to be ideal hosts for quick development of M. vitrata.

The use of densely bred cultivars for production has restricted genetic variety; on the other hand, genetic variation provided by germplasm accessions is regarded as the raw resources of plant genetics. Therefore, genetic diversity was evaluated in twenty-seven genotypes of tomatoes using SSR markers to study the population structure which provides information at the molecular level. Out of 44 primers, six primers showed polymorphism sizes varying between 160 and 400 bp. Dendrogram was constructed to investigate the genetic relationships among genotypes and cluster analysis was done and genotypes were grouped into two major clusters, which indicates a significant influence of environment on genetic diversity. Analysis of molecular variance revealed 96 percent of total variation within the population and 4 percent among the populations indicating the diversity of genotypes. Nine genotypes were found to be pure which was due to the common source used in developing the lines revealed through STRUCTURE analysis. The present research has shown that SSR markers are efficacious for acquiring unique fingerprint image of tomato relatives and trying to assess genetic diversity among them, and that they could be used for a wide range of practical specific purpose such as various data sources and which was before for distinctiveness of tomato genotypes. The presence of high genetic differentiation allows the selection of promising tomato genotypes to be used in hybridization, mapping, gene pyramiding, molecular breeding, and future exploration.

The study aimed to assess the effects of foliar spray using different phytohormones, such as salicylic acid and brassinolides, on various plant growth and yield parameters of maize. The experiments were conducted on COH(M) 8 maize seeds to identify suitable phytohormones and optimize their concentrations for improving its yield under drought-stress conditions. Foliar spray treatments involved different concentrations of salicylic acid (50, 75 ppm) and brassinolides (0.2, and 0.5 ppm) along with a control group. The findings indicated that seeds treated with salicylic acid at a concentration of 75 ppm exhibited better performance outperforming the control and other treatments, regardless of the drought stress conditions.

The diversity of the family Coccinellidae is of great practical and scientific importance due to their worldwide utilization as natural enemies of phytophagous insects. The COI gene sequences of ten coccinellid species were generated and submitted to NCBI database with accession numbers. The phylogenetic analysis using molecular data revealed that the family Coccinellidae was monophyletic in origin. The species of tribe Coccinellini formed a single clade and had shown monophyly. The tribe Epilachnini and Stethorini formed the basal clades. The interspecific genetic distance among the Coccinellid species ranged between 0.170–0.315 with the lowest genetic distance of 0.170 between C. transversalis and P. bisoctonotata while the highest genetic distance was found between H. octomaculata and S. pauperculus (0.315). This study confirms the monophyletic origin of the family Coccinellidae.

The tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura (Fab.) was considered the major pest of many crops such as tobacco, cotton, tomato, castor, cowpea, sesbania, etc. A total of 15 indigenous Streptomyces spp. strains were isolated from soil samples of the Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India. Isolation of Streptomyces strains was carried out by serial dilution method and plating technique. Purification of strain was done by streaking method on International Streptomyces Project 2 (ISP 2), ISP 4, and starch casein nitrate agar (SCNA) medium. The main challenges in the study was the isolation and purification of Streptomyces strains were difficult with the contamination of cultures. They were overcome by the addition of antibiotics such as Cyclohexamide and Streptomycin sulphate into the media. The morphological and biochemical characterization was performed for identifying the efficient strain. Diet impregnation bioassay was also carried out against the 2nd instar larvae of S. litura. Based on the results of morphological, biochemical, and diet impregnation bioassay, Strain 1 (ST1) was considered as the efficient strain. The ST 1 was molecularly identified by 16S rDNA sequencing and compared with Streptomyces species using NCBI BLAST program. Among the 15 isolated Streptomyces strains, ST 1 (Streptomyces katrae) showed a higher percentage of mortality (73.33 %) of S. litura. ST 1 showed the most efficient entomopathogenic activity against S. litura among the 15 isolates of Streptomyces. The metabolites present in the fermentation broth showed strong larvicidal, pupicidal and toxic effects against the notorious pest S. litura. These findings denote that the fermentation broth of S. katrae strain has the ability to control the S. litura pest populations at a considerable level.

An experiment was conducted during kharif season in 2020 at Instructional Farm, College of Agriculture, Ummedganj, Kota. The experiment comprised 24 treatment combinations, having four levels of phosphorus viz., 0, 20, 40 and 60 kg ha-1, three levels of sulphur viz., 15, 30 and 45 kg ha-1 and foliar spray of gibberellic acid viz., no spray and spray of GA3 @ 75 ppm laid out in sub-sub split -plot design with three replications. Application of 40 and 60 kg P2O5 ha-1 were found at par with each other in respect of seed yield (1877 and 1956 kg ha-1), respectively over control and 20 kg P2O5 ha-1. Application of 60 kg P2O5 ha-1 was produced significantly higher protein content (40.44 %) and protein yield (787 kg ha-1) in soybean seed over rest of the phosphorus levels. The data further revealed that under application of 60 kg P2O5 ha-1 was recorded maximum oil content (21.01 %) and oil yield (413 kg ha-1) over 20 kg P2O5 ha-1 and control. However, it was found at par with application of 40 kg P2O5 ha-1.
Application of 45 kg sulphur ha-1 gave a significantly higher seed yield (1742 kg ha-1), which was found at par with 30 kg sulphur ha-1(1684 kg ha-1) over the application of 15 kg sulphur ha-1. The maximum protein content (40.30 %) and protein yield (700 kg ha-1) were recorded with the application of 45 kg sulphur ha-1, which was found at par with 30 kg sulphur ha-1 over the application of 15 kg sulphur ha-1. Results revealed that under application of 45 kg sulphur ha-1 was recorded maximum oil content (20.67 %) and oil yield (364 kg ha-1) over 15 kg sulphur ha-1. However, it was found at par with the application of 30 kg sulphur ha-1. A significantly higher seed yield (1770 kg ha-1) was recorded under application of GA3 @ 75 ppm as foliar spray over no spray. The maximum protein content (39.36 per cent) and protein yield (695 kg ha-1) were recorded with the application of GA3 @ 75 ppm as foliar spray over control in soybean. The data further revealed that foliar spray of GA3 @ 75 ppm gave maximum oil content (20.08 per cent) and oil yield (359 kg ha-1) in soybean over control. Phosphorous and sulphur is an important macronutrient required for plants, animals as well as human. Their deficiency in soil is a worldwide concern for production of food crops. The gibberellic acid constitutes a group of tetracyclic diterpenoids, involved in plant growth and development. Therefore, present investigation was done to study influenced of phosphorus, sulphur and gibberellic acid on nutrient content and uptake of soybean.

The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of poly-herbal mixture supplementation on production and reproductive performance in freshly calved buffaloes. Twenty Murrah buffaloes were divided into two groups viz.; T0 control (n=10, parity P=3.3±0.55, avg. milk yield (kg)=2659±204) without any supplementation and T1 (n=10, parity P=3.5±0.56, avg. milk yield (kg)=2620±112) poly-herbal mixture was supplemented for ten days postpartum. 1st heat in days (T0- 103.6a±12.40, T1- 71.9b±9.55), no of AI done (T0- 2.3±0.48, T1- 2.2±0.49), service period (days) (T0-108.4±22.47, T1- 89.67±8.51), time of the expulsion of the fetus (hours) (T0- 15.7a±2.15, T1- 9.3b±1.84), conception rate (%) (T0- 41.7%, T1- 46.14%), RFM (%) (T0- 20%, T1- NIL), and yield per day (kg) (FCM6%) (T0- 12.81±0.67, T1- 13.50±0.37), peak yield (kg) (FCM6%) (T0- 16.53±0.85, T1- 17.23±0.47), milk yield of 4 months (kg) (FCM6%) (T0- 1537±80.92, T1- 1620±44.11). 1st heat in days and expulsion of the fetal membrane were significantly higher (P<0.05) in the supplemented group as compared to the control group (T0). Feeding of the poly-herbal mixture could lower the number of days to first insemination and service period due to early uterine involution. It can be concluded that the supplementation with the polyherbal mixture in the postpartum diet enhances the postpartum productive and reproductive performance of Murrah buffaloes.