A Study on Consumer Behaviour at Organized Fish Retail Outlet

Indian consumers have been buying fish from the unhygienic fish markets, but of late fish has become available at many of the multi-format retail outlets. Consumers’ behaviour at organized fish retail outlets in Mumbai has been studied. The majority of consumers are young (25-35 years) and belong to upper middle class. Fresh fish is the preferred choice and about 60 per cent consumers have emphasized on freshness rather than price of fish. About 97 per cent consumers have recently shifted to organized retail outlets from local markets for purchasing fish. The majority of consumers (84.3%) have been found to be species-specific while buying fish. Quality and convenience have been found to be the major factors responsible for shift from local markets. Sensory evaluation of CIFE’s value-added products like fish munch, fish keema, prawn pickle and prawn masala have shown a positive feedback from the consumers as about 62 per cent have rated the parameters like taste, texture, odour, price, etc. highly. However, appearance and packaging have received average feedback, indicating the need to make products more attractive. A majority of consumers (72%) have shown willingness to buy these products and 95 per cent wish to try new products, in both fresh and processed forms, indicating changing consumption pattern in the urban areas. The study has argued that since the technology to prepare such products is already available with Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai and other institutes like CIFT, Kochi, this can be readily extended to the willing entrepreneurs and women SHGs.Organized retailing, Purchasing behaviour, Consumer’s awareness, Fish and fisheries products, CIFE technology, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q13, Q22,

Constraints Related to Production and Marketing of Freshwater Fish Rohu (Labeo rohita) in Cuttack District of Odisha

Aquaculture can be considered as a rapidly growing sector in many Indian states including Odisha. The impressive overall upward trend in fish production is likely to continue in future years as there are plenty of unutilized or underutilized fishery resources in the state. In spite of the growing popularity of aquaculture in the state, fish farmers have been experiencing financial, social and technical constraints in fish farming and in marketing practices. Cuttack district of Odisha was selected for the study.98 respondents from 4 villages were selected based on the population of the villages. The present study was conducted in the year 2021-2022 years.This paper examines the constraints faced by the fish farmers while producing and marketing of the freshwater fish Rohu (Labeo rohita) which reveals that damage due to natural calamities in production and frequent price fluctuations in marketing are the major constraints expressed by the farmers

Microbe-Based Strategy for Plant Nutrient Management

The rapid industrialization and urbanization of developing countries such as India have encroached on cultivable lands to meet the demands of an ever-increasing population. The altered land use patterns with increased fertilizer use has increased crop yields with leaching of major portion of the applied nutrients from the soil. Nitrates and phosphates are the agricultural pollutants that are discharged into aquifers due to anthropogenic reasons causing severe environmental and health problems. Production of these nutrients requires energy and finite resources (rock phosphate, which has gradually depleting reserves). An alternative management strategy would be to sequester excess nutrients within a biomass that is reused for agriculture. Two discrete enriched microbial consortia with the potential of simultaneous nitrate and phosphate sequestration upon application as biofertilizer restricted them within the plant root zone, ensuring prevention of eutrophication through leaching while making it available for uptake by plants. The nutrient accumulated biomass enhanced the crop yield by 21.88% during mung bean cultivation with maintained elemental content and other nutritional qualities. The major drawback of conventional biofertilizer application (slow release and action) could be overcome using this formulation leading to environmental protection, crop yield enhancement and soil fertility maintenance post-cultivation

Bacterial quorum sensing facilitates <i>Xanthomonas campesteris</i> pv. <i>campestris</i> invasion of host tissue to maximize disease symptoms

Abstract Quorum sensing (QS) helps the Xanthomonas group of phytopathogens to infect several crop plants. The vascular phytopathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc) is the causal agent of black rot disease on Brassicaceae leaves, where a typical v-shaped lesion spans both vascular and mesophyll regions with progressive leaf chlorosis. Recently, the role of QS has been elucidated during Xcc early infection stages. However, a detailed insight into the possible role of QS-regulated bacterial invasion in host chlorophagy during late infection stages remains elusive. In this study, using QS-responsive whole-cell bioreporters of Xcc, we present a detailed chronology of QS-facilitated Xcc colonization in the mesophyll region of cabbage (Brassica oleracea) leaves. We report that QS-enabled localization of Xcc to parenchymal chloroplasts triggers leaf chlorosis and promotion of systemic infection. Our results indicate that the QS response in the Xanthomonas group of vascular phytopathogens maximizes their population fitness across host tissues to trigger stage-specific host chlorophagy and establish a systemic infection.</jats:p

Profitability in rice cultivation across Indian States

The paper discusses the profitability in rice farming using secondary data for the period 1980-81 to 2014-15. The average costs and profits were computed and it was found that cost of cultivation has increased over years, but profit has not increased commensurately. The irrigated states like Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh have maintained or increased profits over years, but not the rainfed states. There were losses in rice farming in rainfed states like Assam, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Maharashtra, when total cost of cultivation was considered. Promotional measures and investment by state and central governments are needed to make rice production profitable.</jats:p

New insight into bacterial social communication in natural host: Evidence for interplay of heterogeneous and unison quorum response.

Many microbes exhibit quorum sensing (QS) to cooperate, share and perform a social task in unison. Recent studies have shown the emergence of reversible phenotypic heterogeneity in the QS-responding pathogenic microbial population under laboratory conditions as a possible bet-hedging survival strategy. However, very little is known about the dynamics of QS-response and the nature of phenotypic heterogeneity in an actual host-pathogen interaction environment. Here, we investigated the dynamics of QS-response of a Gram-negative phytopathogen Xanthomonas pv. campestris (Xcc) inside its natural host cabbage, that communicate through a fatty acid signal molecule called DSF (diffusible signal factor) for coordination of several social traits including virulence functions. In this study, we engineered a novel DSF responsive whole-cell QS dual-bioreporter to measure the DSF mediated QS-response in Xcc at the single cell level inside its natural host plant in vivo. Employing the dual-bioreporter strain of Xcc, we show that QS non-responsive cells coexist with responsive cells in microcolonies at the early stage of the disease; whereas in the late stages, the QS-response is more homogeneous as the QS non-responders exhibit reduced fitness and are out competed by the wild-type. Furthermore, using the wild-type Xcc and its QS mutants in single and mixed infection studies, we show that QS mutants get benefit to some extend at the early stage of disease and contribute to localized colonization. However, the QS-responding cells contribute to spread along xylem vessel. These results contrast with the earlier studies describing that expected cross-induction and cooperative sharing at high cell density in vivo may lead to synchronize QS-response. Our findings suggest that the transition from heterogeneity to homogeneity in QS-response within a bacterial population contributes to its overall virulence efficiency to cause disease in the host plant under natural environment

Profitability in rice cultivation across Indian States

The paper discusses the profitability in rice farming using secondary data for the period 1980-81 to 2014-15. The average costs and profits were computed and it was found that cost of cultivation has increased over years, but profit has not increased commensurately. The irrigated states like Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh have maintained or increased profits over years, but not the rainfed states. There were losses in rice farming in rainfed states like Assam, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Maharashtra, when total cost of cultivation was considered. Promotional measures and investment by state and central governments are needed to make rice production profitable.</jats:p