Collaborative planning & sustainability: exploring ecosystems as common-pool resources in the Lockyer Catchment

This chapter examines the current planning and management of natural resources in the Lockyer Catchment in Queensland, Australia, and explores potentials for planning and management informed by the concept of ‘commons’ or ‘common-pool resources’ (CPR), which emphasise bottom-up, collaborative planning and management by community groups

Fusarium Wilt: A Killer Disease of Lentil

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus subsp. culinaris) is an important dietary source of protein and other essential nutrients in South and West Asia, North and East Africa. Lentil crops are vulnerable to a number of diseases caused by fungi, viruses, nematodes, insect pests, parasitic plants and abiotic stresses. Among them, the most significant and serious soil-borne disease is Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lentis: Fol). Fusarium wilt causes yield loss up to 50% in farmers’ fields. The pathogen showed high levels of phenotypic and genotypic diversity in India, Algeria, Syria and Iran. The disease thrives at 22–25°C temperature and affect lentil either at seedling and vegetative or the reproductive stages of the crop. To minimize yield losses, an integrated management strategy comprising resistant/partial resistant cultivars, adjusting sowing time, bio-control and chemical seed treatments is the best approach to reduce the incidence of the Fusarium wilt of lentil. This review covers past achievements in managing the disease, pathogen diversity and identify gaps in managing Fusarium wilt to improve productivity and production of the crop

Grasspea: A Potential Fodder and Feed Resources

Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is a an important legume crop grown in India, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Pakistan for human food, animal feed and soil health improvement. In India, grasspea is grown in about 521,100 ha, mainly in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa, Assam, West Bengal, and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Grasspea cultivation is low-cost and easy. Inherently grasspea possesses resistance to drought, excess moisture, salinity, diseases, and insect pests. As grasspea has an ambivalent reputation due to ODAP content in its plant parts, efforts are on to develop low or ODAP-free grasspea varieties with high biomass for dual purpose for human food and animal feed. A number of such varieties are now available in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Ethiopia. Grasspea is known as excellent feed and fodder crop for centuries as a main concentrate for horses (Anonymous, 1894). Livestock is a key component of farming systems in South Asia and in Africa, and most particularly with small and marginal farmers, estimated about 678 million, and indicates importance of livestock to their livelihoods (ILRI, 2000)

Determination of genetic diversity in lentil germplasm based on quantitative traits

Genetic diversity present in a gene pool is an important determination for breeding programs and characterization is useful of building crop plant collections primarily based on the knowledge of the presence of valuable genes and traits. In Bangladesh, one of the most common problems in lentil is the narrow genetic base, which must be broadened to enhance production. So, a detailed morphological study based on quantitative traits was under taken to assess the genetic diversity in 110 lentil germplasm, including landraces, popular varieties, phenologically adapted exotic lines and selected advanced lines of lentil of diverse origin. The main aim was to identify superior genotypes to be used for future breeding program in Bangladesh. The experiments were carried out during 2006-07 and 2007-08 and eight quantitative characters were studied under international standard of characterization. The UPGMA dendrogram segregated lentil accessions into six clusters. Genotypes fell in different clusters irrespective of their origin and accessions. The accession from ICARDA gene bank showed high diversity. Group B3, B4 and F were important as they comprised accessions with higher yield per plant, higher number of pods per plant and higher number of seeds per pod separated by higher inter cluster distance, which warrant their use in the breeding program

Pastoral Land Use and Grazing Measurement through Remotely Sensed Data

About 60 percent of the world\u27s pasture land (about 2.2 million sq km), just less than half the world\u27s usable surface is covered by grazinglands. These are distributed between arid, semi arid and sub humid, humid, temperate and tropical highlands zones. This supports about 360 million cattle (half of which are in the humid savannas), and over 600 million sheep and goats, mostly in the arid rangelands (grasslands) (IFAD, 2005). Grasslands around the world can have drastically different grazing management systems depending on the political, social, economic, and cultural settings. Livestock grazing is the predominant type of land use, providing the livelihood for more than a billion people. Still, livestock grazing is associated with large uncertainties, as the productivity of the pastures depends strongly on the low and highly variable precipitation (Behnke et al., 1993; Sullivan and Rhode, 2002; Westoby et al., 1989). In the semi-arid areas of western Rajasthan, the sparse yearly rainfall is concentrated in a distinct and short rainy season that is followed by the crop growing season and also the grassland vegetation. For a risk-averse herder, the challenge of grazing management is to optimally adapt to this highly variable and highly uncertain rainfall scenario while taking into account ecosystem dynamics. Extensive livestock rearing by Raika / Dewasi community has been a major occupation for centuries and traditional nomadic herding lifestyle in western arid Rajasthan. Its open grazing lands have so far, more or less, sustained this activity. But, with the teeming population of small-ruminants, management and control over village pasture use has slackened as a result incidences of encroachment have increased during recent past. We studied a pre- and post-monsoon pasture in the Nimbol village of Pali district using Clark’s Animal Tracking System (GPS) and remote sensing techniques. Our objectives were to: 1) understand the changes in pastoral land use management and document grazing land use patterns during the pre-grazing (pre-monsoon) and post-grazing (post-monsoon) periods at a local scale using remote sensing mapping methods, 2) evaluate changes in grazing land use from the pre-grazing and post-grazing period, and 3) assess the effects of land use changes on rangeland vegetation productivity using LISS-IV Mx satellite images

Driving Factors Behind the Adoption of Improved Technologies by Lentil Growers in West Bengal

Over the last six decades in India, there has been an unsatisfactory gain in pulse productivity, which is a severe threat to the creation of resilient livelihoods and the overall food and nutritional security of the country. To specifically enhance lentil productivity under rice-based cropping systems in West Bengal, the International Centre for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) began a multi-disciplinary project in 2012/13 providing improved technologies, including 29 improved lentil varieties, and a package of agronomic practices to farmers

Does Maturity Change the Chemical-Bromatological Makeup of Cladodes in Spineless Forage Cactus?

In Kutch (Gujarat District, India), there is a growing concern about the lack of good quality forage owing to the arid climate and poor soil health. Opuntia ficus-indica has been increasingly recognized as a drought-resilient forage in arid Kutch. This study seeks to identify the maturity phase of cactus cladodes with the best forage qualities. Five accessions of spineless forage cactus (CBG, No. 1270, No. 1271, No. 1308, and Bianca Macomer) and three cladode maturity phases (young, intermediate, and mature) were examined in a randomized block design experiment in a 5 _ 3 factorial arrangement. Although only mineral matter and total carbohydrate concentration were significantly different among the accessions, CBG showed better forage qualities than other accessions. Dry matter, organic matter, mineral matter, crude protein, ether extract, and total carbohydrate accumulations were higher in the intermediate phase. In the mature phase, relatively difficult to digest fiber components such as neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose increase. Our findings indicate that for spineless forage cactus grown in arid areas, the intermediate phase is the best phase to harvest cladodes for feeding livestoc

Legumes in conservation agriculture: A sustainable approach in rice-based ecology of the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain of South Asia − an overview

Legumes in Conservation Agriculture (CA) have the potential to increase crop productivity and sustainability of the rice-based system. However, there is limited information available on the importance of legume crops in CA in the rice-based system of the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain (EIGP). Rice-based cropping is the mainstay of the people in Bangladesh, on the EIGP. These systems are the major food supplier to the region. In addition, they provide income and employment opportunities to the majority of people in the region. However, the system is facing unprecedented challenges and increased risk due to water, energy, labour and capital scarcity, which are exaggerated due to the effects of climate change. This could be further aggravated by deteriorating soil health, depleting underground water, and reduced land and water productivity which ultimately threaten sustainable food production and food security of the EIGP. Hence, sustainable crop intensification is essential, but increasing cropping intensity has reduced the yield of single crops by degrading soil properties. To address these constraints, Conservation Agriculture (CA), with a minimum tillage system, residue retention and crop diversification with legumes, could be an effective approach for improving crop productivity while sustaining the natural resources in intensive rice-based systems of EIGP. The addition of legumes in crop rotation is a suitable technique for crop diversification due to its multiple benefits related to soil health and natural resources. Diverse legume crops involving rice-based cropping exist at different agro-ecological zones in Bangladesh, and their rotation definitely could act a major role in promoting the CA in rice-based systems. Legume-based rotation offers multiple benefits, such as biological nitrogen fixation, improves soil pores through the deep root system, P-availability, soil fertility and enhanced nutrient cycling, and reducing the use of external input and thereby minimizing greenhouse gas emission and groundwater pollution, improving water productivity, and minimizes diseases and pest incidence. As a result, crop rotation with legumes has a high potential for CA and sustainable rice-based cropping systems in Bangladesh. The gaps between legume and non-legume crops in CA for each parameter suggest a noteworthy possibility for the improvement of rice-based systems in EIGP. This review suggests further sustainability improvements can be achieved through future field research focused on the inclusion of legume crops in the diverse rice-based systems under CA

Khesari (Lathyrus sativus L.), an ancient legume for future gain: An expedition collection from parts of West Bengal state of Eastern India

395-403Grasspea is one of the staple foods of the local people living in the eastern parts of India. An expedition was undertaken during March, 2020 to collect germplasm of grasspea in the lower-Gangetic riverine belt and coastal areas of West Bengal of eastern India lying between latitude 21.43-24.44°N and longitude 87.23-88.90°E. From the results of a structured questionnaire administered to grasspea farmers in 57 villages located in 96 local government areas, it appeared that grasspea is the primary winter pulse cultivated in this region. Large variability of germplasm exist, ranging from small to bold seed, early to late maturing types, moderate to the high biomass type of grasspea. Most of these landraces have been adopted over the years from neighbouring communities, but in a few instances, the varietal replacement was noted, which came either through the involvement of government departments or local seed dealers. The highest proportion of the accessions (52.38%) was collected from the Purba Medinipur district, and the lowest (19.05%) was from Paschim Medinipur. On-spot evaluation of morphological traits, variations was detected in the descriptor characteristics across the locations. A total of 21 accessions was collected and assessed on-spot for different characters, viz., the seed's size, shape, seed colour, taste and texture revealed significant variation. The implications of this survey results for grasspea improvement in India are discussed in the present study

Measurements and simulations of the phonon thermal conductivity of entropy stabilized alloys

The phonon thermal conductivity of solids is intimately related to any changes in atomic scale periodicity. As a classic example, the phonon thermal conductivity of alloys can be greatly reduces as compared to that of the corresponding non-alloy parent materials. However, the improved mechanical properties and environmental stability of alloyed materials makes these multi-atom solids ideal for a wide variety of applications. In this sense, entropy stabilized oxides and high entropy diborides are promising new materials that have potential to withstand extreme environments consisting of high temperatures and pressures. In these novel materials, thermal characterization is essential for understanding and predicting performance at elevated temperatures, as the presence of multi atomic species (5+ different atoms) in these solid solutions could lead to drastically modified phonon scattering rates and thermal conductivities. In this talk, we present recent measurements and molecular dynamics simulations on multiple atom alloys, including entropy stabilized oxides and high entropy diborides. We use time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR), and optical pump-probe technique, to measure the thermal conductivity of these various systems. We also demonstrate the ability to extend TDTR measurements to temperatures above 1000 deg. C. The TDTR measurements show drastic reductions in the thermal conductivity of these crystalline solid solution materials, approaching values of the amorphous phases. These reductions in thermal conductivity can not be explained by phonon-mass scattering alone. Thus, to investigate the nature of the reduction in thermal conductivity of these multi-atom solid solutions, we turn to classical molecular dynamics simulations. In agreement with the Klemens’ perturbation theory, the thermal conductivity reduction due to mass scattering alone is found to reach a critical point, whereby adding more impurity atoms in the solid solution does not reduce the thermal conductivity. A further decrease in thermal conductivity requires a change in local strain-field, which together with mass defect scattering can lead to ultralow thermal conductivities in solid solutions, which surpasses the theoretical minimum limit of the corresponding amorphous phases. These simulations qualitatively agree well with our experimental measurements, and add insight into the nature of phonon scattering in entropy stabilized materials. This work is supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research MURI program (grant No. N00014-15-1-2863)