Weed menace and management strategies for enhancing oilseed brassicas production in the Indian sub-continent: a review

Oilseed brassicas (OSB) contribute 28.6% to the total oilseed production in India, sharing 27.8% in its oilseed economy. Despite phenomenal increases in production after the launch of Technology Mission on Oilseeds, a gap of 9 million tonnes (MT) edible oils remains between current production (8\ua0MT) and demand (17\ua0MT). This gap could be abridged by enhancing existing OSB productivity from 1.25\ua0t\ua0ha to at least world's average (1.97\ua0t\ua0ha). Among the various biotic stresses that OSB experience, weeds including Aesphodelus tenuifolius, Anagallis spp., Chenopodium spp., Argemone mexicana, and Orobanche aegyptica, cause yield reductions from 30% to complete crop failure. Weeds pose serious concerns for the ecosystem stability and socio-economic development of small and marginal farms, particularly in semi-arid regions. Conventional manual weeding has become impractical due to labour shortages and escalating costs. Commonly used dinitroaniline herbicides could improve economic returns, but they are not effective against a wide spectrum of weeds. Multi-tactic approaches, integrating tillage, improved crop husbandry, host-plant resistance, breeding herbicide-tolerant cultivars, innovations in farm implements, and use of broad-spectrum herbicides are vital to overpass the existing 78% technological gap for weed control in OSB producing areas of India. Integrating these different weed control methods may enhance mustard yield by 20–200%, besides improving quality and environmental sustainability. This review summarizes the advances made so far in weed management strategies, and identifies new areas of research that can make an important contribution towards realizing the production goal of 24\ua0MT oilseeds in India by 2020 AD

Weed management in rice using crop competition-a review

Rice is the principal food commodity for millions of people. Its growing demand invokes for an enhanced productivity, but with limited land and water resources. Among various biotic stresses limiting rice yields, the major stress is imposed by weeds, particularly in direct-seeded rice (DSR) under aerobic situations. In weedy situations, the yield losses may ascend to 50–60% in puddled transplanted rice and 70–80% in DSR. Herbicidal weed management is the most widely adapted strategy, however, the large scale application of herbicides mainly of same or similar mode of action is constrained by the risks of environmental trade-offs, introduction of herbicide-resistance in different bio-types of weeds, non-selectivity and narrow-spectrum of herbicides. Hence, ecological approaches, like weed-competitive cultivars, alterations in seed rates, and planting patterns could be highly useful in reducing the weed menace. This review reveals that main characteristics imparting weed-competitiveness to rice include selection of cultivars, seedling vigour, early and faster establishment of seedlings, root-shoot characteristics, and self-supportive allelopathy. In DSR, a higher seeding rate of 50–60\ua0kg\ua0ha has been found to reduce weed biomass by ∼50%, without imposing any yield penalty and, thus desirable under weedy conditions. Similarly, a narrow row spacing of 15–25\ua0cm in DSR and 20\ua0×\ua010\ua0cm in puddled transplanted rice resulted in higher productivity with minimum weed infestations. Although all such practices are not sufficient enough to suppress weeds completely, they are useful in reducing the herbicide dose up to 50% on 158\ua0m\ua0ha area under rice cultivation in the world, thereby, reducing huge environmental trade-offs

System-Based Integrated Nutrient Management Improves Productivity, Profitability, Energy Use Efficiency and Soil Quality in Peanut-Wheat Cropping Sequence in Light Black Soils

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), being an energy-rich crop, is sensitive to nutrient deficiencies and a scavenger of nutrients from the soil. Optimum and integrated nutrient management (INM) improves productivity and the quality of seeds. The objective of this study was to identify suitable system-based INM (S-INM) options for peanut–wheat cropping sequence in the Saurashtra region of India. Results showed that peanut growth, yield attributing parameters, pod, and haulm yield, and NPK uptake were higher when 100% recommended fertilizer doses (RDFs) + farmyard manure (FYM) @5 t/ha + plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) were applied. However, application of 75% RDFs + FYM @5 t/ha + PGPR in peanut and 100% RDF in wheat was most effective to improve growth and yield attributes, yields and nutrient uptake by wheat. Further, this FYM- and PGPR-amended treatment was found to increase system productivity by 15.3 and 17.1%, system profitability by 17.0 and 22.6%, and net energy gain by 10.0 and 17.9% over the reference treatment and over farmers’ practice (FF), respectively. This sustainable system approach will be helpful for agronomists and farmers in identifying and practicing suitable field practices with further study on the residual effect of organic manures on the peanut–wheat based cropping system in the western region of India with light black soils

New drug discovery of cardiac anti-arrhythmic drugs: insights in animal models

Abstract Cardiac rhythm regulated by micro-macroscopic structures of heart. Pacemaker abnormalities or disruptions in electrical conduction, lead to arrhythmic disorders may be benign, typical, threatening, ultimately fatal, occurs in clinical practice, patients on digitalis, anaesthesia or acute myocardial infarction. Both traditional and genetic animal models are: In-vitro: Isolated ventricular Myocytes, Guinea pig papillary muscles, Patch-Clamp Experiments, Porcine Atrial Myocytes, Guinea pig ventricular myocytes, Guinea pig papillary muscle: action potential and refractory period, Langendorff technique, Arrhythmia by acetylcholine or potassium. Acquired arrhythmia disorders: Transverse Aortic Constriction, Myocardial Ischemia, Complete Heart Block and AV Node Ablation, Chronic Tachypacing, Inflammation, Metabolic and Drug-Induced Arrhythmia. In-Vivo: Chemically induced arrhythmia: Aconitine antagonism, Digoxin-induced arrhythmia, Strophanthin/ouabain-induced arrhythmia, Adrenaline-induced arrhythmia, and Calcium-induced arrhythmia. Electrically induced arrhythmia: Ventricular fibrillation electrical threshold, Arrhythmia through programmed electrical stimulation, sudden coronary death in dogs, Exercise ventricular fibrillation. Genetic Arrhythmia: Channelopathies, Calcium Release Deficiency Syndrome, Long QT Syndrome, Short QT Syndrome, Brugada Syndrome. Genetic with Structural Heart Disease: Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy/Dysplasia, Dilated Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Atrial Fibrillation, Sick Sinus Syndrome, Atrioventricular Block, Preexcitation Syndrome. Arrhythmia in Pluripotent Stem Cell Cardiomyocytes. Conclusion: Both traditional and genetic, experimental models of cardiac arrhythmias’ characteristics and significance help in development of new antiarrhythmic drugs