A field experiment was carried out during Rabi,2021 at RARS, palem to study the biochemical factors responsible for insect resistance. The biochemical parameters viz., crude fibre, crude protein, tannins, phenols and carbohydrates were quantified in five castor hybrids to find out their association with tolerance or resistance against two defoliators Achaea janata and Spodoptera litura and two sucking insects, leafhoppers and thrips. Crude fibre and carbohydrates had a positive correlation with the insect population whereas phenols, tannins and crude protein showed a significant negative correlation. DCH-519 and NBCH-22 with least crude fibre, carbohydrates and higher phenols are considered to be resistant to insect population.

There is a growing demand for medical textiles globally, which has created a great need for antimicrobial textile finish. The antimicrobial finish is given to fabrics to protect them from microbial damage and also to provide protection to the wearer. The current study is conducted to develop an eco-friendly antimicrobial finish with Saraca asoca (Ashoka tree) bark. Two different union fabrics Bamboo/ Linen and Bamboo/ Cotton were woven and pretreated with citric acid as crosslinking agent and the bark extract was applied. The antimicrobial efficacy against gram positive (Bacillus subtills), gram negative (E. coli) bacteria and a fungus (Aspergillus niger) were tested. The durability of the finish was tested by conducting washing tests and subjecting to antimicrobial tests. The results showed that, 10% methanol extract of Ashoka exhibited good antimicrobial efficacy and resistance to washing up to 10 washes. The FTIR characterization and quantitative Phytochemical Analysis showed the presence of antioxidants, flavonoids, saponins, phenols and tannins, which may be the causative of antimicrobial activity of the bark. Though well diffusion test of extracts yielded very good ZOI, the treatment fabrics didn’t exhibit good ZOI with disc diffusion, hence the parallel streak method was used. The current study contributes to the present knowledge of natural antimicrobial agents and the textile finish developed can be applied on medical textiles, surgical gowns and health care uniforms.

The experiment was conducted by the Agricultural Research Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Vellore district of Tamil Nadu during 2014-15 to study the effect of foliar spray of micronutrients on the growth and yield parameter of Banana. The investigation was carried out in a simple Randomized Block Design with three replications and 12 treatments in the experimental field at Kavasampattu village, Vellore district. The uniform healthy 2 months old sword suckers of cv. poovan were planted in pit at a spacing of 2m x 2m after treating the Carbendazim. The nitrogen and potash were applied in 3 splits i.e at 3,5 and 7th months after planting. The Phosphorus was applied by basal. The Micronutrients viz. Zn(0.5%), Borax (0.1%), Fe (0.2%), and Cu (0.2%) were applied singly or in combination as a foliar spray at 3, 5, and 7th month after planting of suckers. Control plants were sprayed with water only. Recommended plant protection measures and cultural operations were made throughout the period of study. Observation on plant height, leaf number and flowering percentage were recorded at shooting. From the findings of the present investigation, the yield per hectare was significantly higher in high density populations of plant height, number of leaves, and flowering percentage with the application of foliar spray of Zinc (0.5 %) and Boron (0.1%) followed by Boron (0.1 %) and Iron (0.2 %). It can be adopted for a higher yield of banana.

The present experiment was carried out the to determine the economic threshold level of onion thrips. The economic threshold level of T. tabaci is determined using the pesticide application technique. So the Economic Injury Level (EIL) of T. tabaci on onion plants can be determined as the number of thrips follows the value of ET levels for the detected peaks ranging between 4-5 individuals/leaf during the study. As the results of the pesticide application technique, the thrips mean numbers and mean yield of onion plants were correlated significantly during the two years. Results of chi-square analysis (R2) indicated that the values of the economic damage threshold of T. tabaci infested onion plants were 7 thrips/plant, while the economic injury level was 9.6 thrips/ plant during the study.

Land suitability analysis is an important aspect of agricultural land use planning. Several approaches viz. remote sensing, geographical information system and multi-criteria decision making were used to analyze the suitable lands for cereals, millets, pulses, oilseeds and other crops. However, digital thematic maps of climatic conditions, topography and soil physic-chemical properties were prepared and overlaid under multi criteria decision-making (MCDM) for land suitability of the assigned crop.With these facts, the present study was carried out to analyze the suitable lands for green gram cultivation in Thakurganj block of Kishanganj district, Bihar.To fulfill the objective, parameters viz. elevation, slope, temperature, rainfall, soil texture, soil pH, EC, OC, and land use pattern were analyzed and mapped under RS-GIS domain. Satellite data of Land sat 8 and the shuttle radar topographic mission (SRTM) were used to map the land use pattern, elevation and slope. However, thematic data of annual rainfall and temperature were also integrated with derived data of analyzed soil pH, EC and organic carbon and their conversion into inverse distance weight (IDW) based mapping process in QGIS software. All these thematic layers (in addition method) overlaid to prepare the potential lad suitability map for green gram, where MCDM based Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique was used to statistical evaluation for decision making of the derived data, and all the data set were added to prepare the final suitability map of green gram. The pH range of the soils in the study area ranged from 4.42 to 6.67, indicating that they were acidic in nature. However, EC of the soil was found to be non-saline, organic carbon was found to be low to medium and the majority of the area was found to have a loamy soil texture. In terms of elevation and slope, the study area lies between 45–92 m above the mean sea level, and the slope range was observed as 0-3% (gentle or flat). The results revealed that out of the total geographical area only 3537 ha(9.12 %) was found to be highly suitable, followed by 15621 ha (40.28%) moderately suitable, 17584 ha (45.34%) marginally suitable and the remaining 2040 ha(5.26%) was not suitable (NS) for green gram cultivation.

Millets are ancient crops that are been cultivated ago from 10000 years. One of the
dietary importance of millets are mainly due to its nutritional quality as well as its role in
promoting health. Minor millets are underutilized and under-researched when compared to
other millets. Hence, the present study has developed three differently treated (soaking-
drying, autoclaving-drying and roasting) four minor millets (Proso, Barnyard, Little, and
Kodo millets) based instant khichdi mixes to select the best treatment for sensory
acceptability of each millet-based khichdi mix. Based on the sensory scores, autoclaved kodo,
roasted proso, soaked little and barnyard millet-based khichdi were highly acceptable. The
nutritional quality of developed instant khichdi mixes showed that they were good source of
protein (12.50-17.92%), crude fiber (0.70-5.64%), iron (6.26-10.56mg/100g), zinc (3.51-
5.07mg/100g) and phytonutrients like phenols (2.28-4.8mg GAE/100g) and tannins (0.43-
0.57mg TAE/100g). The results show that kodo khichdi mix can be safely stored up to 60
days, whereas proso, little, and barnyard millet khichdi mixes can be stored up to 90 days at
ambient conditions in LDPE pouches.

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is highly nutritious, and contains significant minerals, vitamins,
and dietary fibre, which makes it effective for treating stomach-related issues. Fruit quality is
influenced by biotic and abiotic factors, with external appearance being crucial. Agronomic practices
can improve the fruit microenvironment, enhancing quality and market value. Thus, producing high-
quality, defect-free, and chemical-free fruits is essential. The present experiment studied the effect of
bagging on the development and quality of guava variety Lalit. Bagging at marble and egg stages
used various materials: control (no bagging), newspaper, butter paper, and different colored non-
woven bags. Bagging improved physicochemical parameters compared to unbagged fruits. The egg
stage bagging recorded maximum fruit weight (134.79 g), fruit length (6.07 cm), fruit diameter (6.43
cm), fruit volume (133.99 ml), fruit retention (96.11%), number of fruits per tree (28.83), yield per
tree (3.95 kg), shelf life (6.73 days), TSS (11.83 °Brix), reducing sugars (6.48%), total sugars
(8.32%), ascorbic acid (170.66 mg/100 g pulp), minimum PLW (7.34%), and titratable acidity
(0.55%). Among bagging materials, the non-woven red bag yielded the highest fruit weight (137.13
g), fruit length (6.22 cm), fruit diameter (6.53 cm), fruit volume (138.81 ml), fruit retention (97.22%),
number of fruits per tree (29.17), yield per tree (4.12 kg), shelf life (7.00 days), TSS (12.07 °Brix),
reducing sugars (6.61%), total sugars (8.56%), non-reducing sugars (1.95%), ascorbic acid (173.46
mg/100 g pulp), and minimum days required for harvesting and physiological weight loss (7.04%).
Conversely, the newspaper bag showed the lowest titratable acidity (0.52%). Bagged fruits had fewer
fruit fly infestations and higher marketability. No significant differences were observed in physical
and quality attributes across various stages and bagging materials.

With the increasing cost of labor and water shortage, the farmers are forced to look for substitute to
present existing transplanting system of cultivation to drum seeded rice, where labor need is reduced by
more than 20% but, weed infestation and low nitrogen use efficiency are the major problems. Because
of the above problems a field experiment was conducted at the College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar,
Hyderabad, during Rabi 2020-21 and 2021-22 to study the effect of nitrogen levels and weed
management practices on drum-seeded rice. The field trial consisted of 16 treatments with four weed
management practices and four nitrogen levels laid out in a factorial randomized block design. During
both years, out of all weed practices, energy indices were found to be higher with Pretilachlor 6% +
Pyrazosulfuron-ethyl 0.15% GR 615 g ha -1 as pre-emergence followed by mechanical weeding at 25
and 50 DAS (W 4 ) at par with Pretilachlor 6% + Pyrazosulfuron-ethyl 0.15% GR 615 g ha -1 as pre-
emergence followed by penoxsulam 1.02% + cyhalofop butyl 5.1% OD 120 g ha -1 as post-emergence
(W 2 ). Among nitrogen levels, 125% RDN (N 4 ) which was statistically comparable with 100% RDN
(N 3 ) registered higher.

In the recent times pink bollworm has emerged as a serious pest of cotton in India causing
ecological and economic damage. For proper management of pink bollworm it is very important
to know source of infestation along with survival during offseason. Monitoring of pink
bollworms was done in 2018 and 2019 in Adilabad district of Telangana. For this market area of
Adilabad having 10 ginning mills and 15 villages surrounding the mills with an radius of 5, 10
and 15 km were selected. In ginning mills average moth catches started in September measuring
0.20moths/trap/week and a peak was observed on 26 th March and 1 st April recording 158.2moths/
trap/week. There it declined to 120moths/trap/week during the end of April then became
negligible by July. Average moth catches at the field started in August measuring
21.27moths/trap/week. The peak level of adult activity in the season was recorded in 3 rd week of
February recording 117.13 moths/trap/week. The later population became negligible by June.
Temperature showed a significant negative correlation with trap catches of month/week. A
decrease in the number of moth catches/trap/week was observed with an increase in radius from
ginning mills. Average catches of male moths in traps set at 5, 10, and 15 km away from ginning
mills revealed 42.63, 35.68, and 29.94 moths/trap/week respectively.

Zinc (Zn) is one of the most critical plant nutrients in soil, among 17 essential plant nutrients.
The activities of Zn in soil depend on different soil characteristics, parent material, climatic
conditions, and cropping systems (vegetation). The distribution of Zn decreases with an increase
in sandy soils, increasing pH or lime content with depth, mounting soil moisture regime, and
being low in organic matter. In general, the solubility of Zn is highest in soil reactions of 4.5 to
6.0 in organic soils and 5 to 7 in mineral soils. Soil reaction and organic matter level regulate the
behavior of zinc and the plant pools available. The formation of dissoluble stable organic-metal
complexes and organo-metal complexes through the organic substance plays role in the
availability of Zn. Adsorption and desorption are the critical processes in soil that regulate the
behavior of Zn in soil and act as a division between the solution and solid phases. Zinc is
released from soil minerals or added through organic and inorganic fertilizers, and equilibrium
reactions become operative between the solution and the exchangeable phase of the soil. The
application of the organic amendment will decrease the potential for leaching. The adsorption,
desorption, and equilibrium behavior of Zn in soil are affected by soil reactions, organic sources,
cation exchange capacity, clay content, and Fe/Al oxides.