Georeferenced soil information system: assessment of database

Land-use planning is a decision-making process that facilitates the allocation of land to different uses that provide optimal and sustainable benefit. As land-use is shaped by society–nature interaction, in land-use planning different components/facets play a significant role involving soil, water, climate, animal (ruminant/ non-ruminant) and others, including forestry and the environment needed for survival of mankind. At times these components are moderated by human interference. Thus land-use planning being a dynamic phenomenon is not guided by a single factor, but by a complex system working simultaneously,which largely affects the sustainability. To address such issues a National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) on ‘Georeferenced soil information system for land-use planning and monitoring soil and land quality for agriculture’ was undertaken to develop threshold values of land quality parameters for land-use planning through quantitative land evaluation and crop modelling for dominant cropping systems in major agro-ecological sub-regions (AESRs) representing rice–wheat cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) and deep-rooted crops in the black soil regions (BSR). To assess the impact of landuse change, threshold land quality indicator values are used. A modified AESR map for agricultural landuse planning is generated for effective land-use planning

Soil information system: use and potentials in humid and semi-arid tropics

The articles presented in this special section emanated from the researches of consortium members of the National Agricultural Innovative Project (NAIP, Component 4) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi. These researches have helped develop a soil information system (SIS). In view of the changing scenario all over the world, the need of the hour is to get assistance from a host of researchers specialized in soils, crops, geology, geography and information technology to make proper use of the datasets. Equipped with the essential knowledge of data storage and retrieval for management recommendations, these experts should be able to address the issues of land degradation, biodiversity, food security, climate change and ultimately arrive at an appropriate agricultural land-use planning. Moreover, as the natural resource information is an essential prerequisite for monitoring and predicting global environmental change with special reference to climate and land use options, the SIS needs to be a dynamic exercise to accommodate temporal datasets, so that subsequently it should result in the evolution of the soil information technology. The database developed through this NAIP would serve as an example of the usefulness of the Consortium and the research initiative of ICAR involving experts from different fields to find out the potentials of the soils of humid and semi-arid bioclimatic systems of the country

Chemical Properties of Soil Influence by Sewage Water Irrigation of Different District of Haryana

The present study deals with the difference of chemical properties between sewage and tube well water irrigated soils. Samples were collected from sewage and tube well water irrigated soil of various site like Kaithal, Narwana and Jind district of Haryana state where these waters are directly used for irrigating the crops. Soil samples (0-15 and 15-30 cm) were also collected from fields irrigated with these waters and from nearby fields irrigated with non-sewage waters to determine the changes in soil chemical properties due to sewage irrigation. Total Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, Cd, Pb, Co, and Cr along with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were estimated form the samples. The mean value of N (200.50 kg ha-1) was found highest in the soils irrigated with sewage water of Kaithal. The mean value of P (35.85 kg ha-1) and K (236.40 kg ha-1) was found highest in the soils irrigated with sewage water of Jind. The mean value of K (236.40 kg ha-1) was found highest in the soils irrigated with sewage water of Jind. The mean value of Zn (4.43 mg kg-1), Cu (3.33 mg kg-1) and Fe (19.43 mg kg-1) was found highest in the soils irrigated with sewage water of Jind. The mean value of Mn (15.13 mg kg-1) was found highest in the soils irrigated with sewage water of Kaithal. The DTPA extractable heavy metals like Cd, Pb and Co were found higher in the soils irrigated with sewage water as compared to soils irrigated with non-sewage water. The value of Cr content was found nil all the soils samples collected from different cities from sewage and non-sewage water irrigated sites

Effect of Crop Establishment Methods and Nitrogen Levels on Growth, Yield Attributes and Yield of Coarse Rice

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2020 at farm of College of Agriculture, Kaul (Kaithal) of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar to investigate the response of short duration non-scented rice variety HKR-48 to nitrogen under two different methods of crop establishment. The experiment was laid out in RBD factorial design consisting of two establishment methods i.e. direct seeded (DSR) and transplanted (TPR) as main plot treatments and six different levels of nitrogen (0, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 kg/ha) in sub- plots with three replications. The experiment showed that plants grown under the DSR method had greater height and tiller production at all growth stages but experienced higher tiller mortality later on. DSR also resulted in higher early-stage dry matter accumulation compared to TPR, but there was no significant difference at later stages or at harvest. Although the number of effective tillers did not significantly differ between DSR and TPR, DSR had 16% more grains per panicle with the same test weight. However, the transplanted crop had a significantly higher grain yield (11.9%) compared to the direct-seeded crop. Increasing nitrogen dosage up to 120 kg N/ha positively influenced growth parameters and yield-contributing characters. There was no significant difference between 120 kg N/ha and 150 kg N/ha in respect of growth indicators. Grain yield was significantly enhanced with increased nitrogen dosage, but the difference between 120 kg N/ha and 150 kg N/ha was not significant

Silk genes and silk gene expression in the spider Tengella perfuga (Zoropsidae), including a potential cribellar spidroin (CrSp).

Most spiders spin multiple types of silk, including silks for reproduction, prey capture, and draglines. Spiders are a megadiverse group and the majority of spider silks remain uncharacterized. For example, nothing is known about the silk molecules of Tengella perfuga, a spider that spins sheet webs lined with cribellar silk. Cribellar silk is a type of adhesive capture thread composed of numerous fibrils that originate from a specialized plate-like spinning organ called the cribellum. The predominant components of spider silks are spidroins, members of a protein family synthesized in silk glands. Here, we use silk gland RNA-Seq and cDNA libraries to infer T. perfuga silks at the protein level. We show that T. perfuga spiders express 13 silk transcripts representing at least five categories of spider silk proteins (spidroins). One category is a candidate for cribellar silk and is thus named cribellar spidroin (CrSp). Studies of ontogenetic changes in web construction and spigot morphology in T. perfuga have documented that after sexual maturation, T. perfuga females continue to make capture webs but males halt web maintenance and cease spinning cribellar silk. Consistent with these observations, our candidate CrSp was expressed only in females. The other four spidroin categories correspond to paralogs of aciniform, ampullate, pyriform, and tubuliform spidroins. These spidroins are associated with egg sac and web construction. Except for the tubuliform spidroin, the spidroins from T. perfuga contain novel combinations of amino acid sequence motifs that have not been observed before in these spidroin types. Characterization of T. perfuga silk genes, particularly CrSp, expand the diversity of the spidroin family and inspire new structure/function hypotheses

Effects of Time of Pruning and Plant Bio-Regulators on the Growth, Yield, Fruit Quality, and Post-Harvest Losses of Ber (Ziziphus mauritiana)

Indian jujube or ber (Ziziphus mauritiana Lam.) is a deciduous fruit tree typically cultivated in several semi-arid areas of Asia because of its adaptability to yield-limiting conditions. The present study aimed to assess the effect of four pruning times (i.e., the fourth week of March, second week of April, fourth week of April, and second week of May) and four treatments using stress-mitigating plant bio-regulators (thiourea at 500 ppm and 1000 ppm; salicylic acid at 100 ppm and 150 ppm) as a means to improve both fruit yield and quality post-harvest. To this end, a full factorial experiment lasting two growing seasons was carried out under field conditions in the representative semi-arid region of Rajasthan, the state with the largest production in India. We assessed the vegetative growth of the trees, the fruit size and yield, and some quality parameters (soluble content, acidity, ascorbic acid, and total sugars) as well as the main post-harvest traits (fruit weight loss and spoilage). Overall, pruning during the second week of April had the greatest positive influence on most of the variables studied. For instance, it induced the highest vegetative vigor, allowing the maintenance of relatively higher chlorophyll and relative water content in the leaves. The fruit parameters also responded most positively to the second week of April pruning, a treatment that, compared to the others, induced a higher diameter; a higher amount of TSS (19.6 °Brix), ascorbic acid (86.5 mg/100 g), and total sugar (10.4%); and a better post-harvest shelf-life. Among the plant bio-regulators, the application of thiourea at 1000 ppm had the highest positive influence on the growth parameters, yield, quality, and reduction in spoilage post-harvest. The differences between the doses of PBRs were limited

Natural resources of the Indo-Gangetic Plains: a land-use planning perspective

Not AvailableCurrent status of land/soil resources of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) is analysed to highlight the issuesthat need to be tackled in near future for sustained agricultural productivity. There are intraregional variations in soil properties, cropping systems; status of land usage, groundwater utilization and irrigation development which vary across the subregions besides demographies. Framework for land use policy is suggested that includes acquisition of farm-level data, detailing capability of each unit to support a chosen land use, assess infrastructural support required to meet the projected challenges and finally develop skilled manpower to effectively monitor the dynamics of land use changes.Not Availabl