Performance of edible cactus (Opuntiaficus-indica) in saline environments

Edible cactus [Opuntiaficus-indica (L.) Mill.] has been used as fruit, vegetable, forage and wide range of commercial purposes in arid regions. It has high efficiency to produce biomass per unit water use due to specialized photosynthetic mechanism. Owing to its tolerance to low input and adverse conditions, it has ample scope for introduction and cultivation in arid and saline parts of world. A field experiment was conducted to standardise planting techniques and irrigation requirements of cactus at Hisar (Haryana) during 2008-2010. Cactus clones 1270, 1271, 1280 and 1287 were planted on ridges, flat beds and furrows with no irrigation, irrigations at one month and two months interval using saline ground water. Raised bed plantations resulted in better survival and plant height. The survival was higher without irrigation but the plant height was higher with monthly irrigation. Clone 1270 sprouted earliest and highest survival was recorded in clone 1271. To assess salinity and alkalinity tolerance, clone 1280, was planted at Karnal. Three soil salinity (ECe) levels and four pH levels were maintained along with no fertilizer, NPK and FYM. This clone was found to tolerate moderate salinity (52 mM) but sensitive to pH and had negligible growth at pH 9.8. Application of NPK and FYM helped in mitigating the effects of salt stress. Raised bed planting was advantageous and once established, Opuntia can sustain saline groundwater irrigation for optimum growth and production

Productivity and profitability of drip fertigated wheat (Triticum aestivum) – mungbean (Vigna radiata) – maize (Zea mays) cropping system

An experiment was conducted at the research farm of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi during 2019–20 and 2020–21 to study the productivity and economic viability of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)– mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek)–maize (Zea mays L.) fertigated with 0, 60, 80, 100% recommended doses of NPK and irrigated at 0.6 and 0.8 crop evapotranspiration (ETc) through subsurface (SSDI) and surface drip irrigation (SDI). The results were compared with the conventional practice of surface irrigation and soil application of 100% recommended doses of NPK. Grain yields of wheat, mungbean, maize and system wheat equivalent yield (SWEY) improved by 22.9, 7.2, 21.9 and 19.4%, respectively with increase in NPK fertigation doses from 60 to 100% and by 15.6, 9.2, 4.9 and 9.7% with the increase in irrigation frequency from 0.6 to 0.8 ETc. However, SDI and SSDI had equal system productivity (12.48 and 12.85 Mg/ha). The SWEY at 0.8ETc fertigated either with NPK80 or NPK100 was statistically at par (14.2–15.9 Mg/ha) with the conventional practice (14.3–15.2 Mg/ha). The cash inflow, net income and benefit cost ratio (BCR) of the cropping system also increased successively with increase in fertigation doses and irrigation frequency. The net income and BCR followed the order maize>wheat>mungbean. The net income under SSDI at 0.8 ETc with NPK80 or NPK100 in wheat, mungbean, maize and system was 11–13, 88–105, 1-9 and 8–14% higher than the conventional practice. At 0.8 ETc and NPK100, BCR in SSDI (1.86) was higher than in SDI (1.71) and conventional system (1.67).

Temporal characterization of biogas slurry: a pre-requisite for sustainable nutrigation in crop production

Biogas slurry serves as a useful organic fertilizer due to its substantial nutrient content, and its characterization enables the evaluation of nutrient content and its efficient utilization. This study focuses on the variations in the nutrient content of biogas slurry from different dairy farm systems located near the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) (New Delhi), Daryapur Kalan (New Delhi), and Madanpur (Uttar Pradesh) during the pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon seasons. The study reveals significant variations in macronutrient levels, particularly nitrogen (N), which showed variations exceeding 3% and a wider range of almost 6% during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods. Spatial differences between dairy farms also contributed to the variance, with more than 10% differences observed between IARI and Daryapur Kalan and between IARI and Madanpur. Phosphorus (P) remained stable across seasons with spatial variation, while potassium (K) exhibited a reverse trend. Correlation analysis highlighted strong positive associations between N content and phosphorus (0.959), organic carbon (0.954), pH (0.813), and electrical conductivity (0.806). The findings suggest the use of biogas slurry has a potential to reduce the synthetic fertilizer consumption of N, P, and K by approximately 8.78%, 11.01%, and 14.33%, respectively and using them for further for nutrigation

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Not AvailableFarmers in peri-urban areas of developing countries depend on wastewaters for their livelihood but with grave health and environmental risks. An 8-year field experiment compared food grain (FGPS), agro- forestry (AFS), fodder (FPS) and vegetable (VPS) production systems and quantified responses to fertilizers(NP 25–100%) when irrigated with sewage (SW; EC 1.3 ± 0.3 dS m-1 BOD 82 ± 11, NO –N 9.6± 0.5, P 1.8 ± 0.3, K 6.4 ± 0.4 mg L -1 ) vis-à-vis groundwater (GW). Productivity improved with SW by 14–28% while trends were negative with sub-optimal NP under GW. Partial factor productivity (PFP) averaged 18.0, 11.1, 157 and 149 kg kg -1 NP with GW in FGPS, AFS, FPS and VPS, respectively. Counter figures were 13.8, 8.8, 96 and 56 kg kg -1 NP with SW. Paddy-wheat equivalent yields were 5.5, 1.8 and 19.9 fold under AFS, FPS and VPS with SW. About 40, 33, 75 and 20% of fertilizer NP with SW was sufficient for similar production as with recommended NP and GW in FGPS, AFS, FPS and VPS, respectively. Quality of produce improved in terms of crude protein and the micronutrients in edible parts with SW while toxic metals were within the permissible limits. However, the keeping quality of vegetables was lowered due to faster decay with pathogens contamination (Aerobic bacterial plate counts 5 × 1053–N 3.2 0.4, NH–4.2 × 10and Escherichia coli <2 × 10 2–7 × 105). Thus, the sewage proved as a vital resource in improving productivity, sustainability and saving fertiliser costs but this may pose health risks because of pathogenic infestation that need to be regulated.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableIn the course of the present century, the world population has increased from less than two thousand million to over Six and a half thousand million. Until one hundred years ago, the expanding population’s increasing needs for food, fuel, fibre and construction materials were met from the land by cultivating progressively larger areas. The much greater increase in population during this century has been supported mainly by intensifying the use of much of the land that is already cultivated. In the next 25 years a further 200 million people will be added to global population and most of this growth will take place in the tropics. As a result, the demands which will be placed on the soil and water resources of the tropics will far exceed those of the past. In the arid and semi arid regions where low rainfall coupled with uncertainty of its occurrence has been the limiting factor in the crop production. The salt affected soils are an important ecological entity in India and it is estimated that nearly 6.73 m ha is affected with this menace. The problem being dynamic in nature, the extent keeps on changing. The extent of Vertisols covers a total of about 340 million hectares. Most Vertisols occur in the semi-arid tropics, mainly in Gezira and other parts of central Sudan, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Tanzania in Africa, the Deccan plateau of India in Asia and Australia. The Extent of Vertisols and associated soils in India is approximately 72.9 million hectares, comprising 22.2 % of total geographical area of the country. Vertisols and associated soils are mainly confined between 8045’ to 260 N latitude and 60 to 83 0 E longitude in India, extensively occurring in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Vertisols are imperfectly to poorly drained, leaching of soluble weathering products is limited, the contents of available calcium and magnesium are high and pH is above 7. This is due to the very low hydraulic conductivity. As a result of soil degradation, there have been negative effects such as decrease in farm production due to abandoned farm lands, decline in resource productivity, and cut back in resources use. Similarly at the regional level there have been displacement of labour from agriculture, widening of income disparities and adverse effect on the sustainability of agriculture based sectors. For better management of land and water resources would not only tackle dynamic nature of soil salinity but also increase the productivity of the soils.Not Availabl

Effect of punping on temporal changes in groundwater quality

Pumping studies were conducted at five sites distributed over a 3000 ha area in the Gohana block in Haryana state of India. The project area is a part of the Indo-Gangetic plain and lies in a topographical depression susceptible to waterlogging, soil salinity and groundwater pollution from surrounding industrial towns. The crop productivity of irrigated lands in the project area is declining due to secondary salinization and shortage of surface irrigation supplies forcing farmers to depend on groundwater abstraction through shallow tubewells. Three wells of 30 m depth and two of 60 m depth were developed in the project area and the effect of pumping on temporal changes in groundwater depths and quality was studied over a period of 72 h. Groundwater samples, collected from different depths up to 30 m at each site while installing piezometers and at different times during pumping tests, were analyzed for electrical conductivity (EC), pH, ionic composition and heavy metals like arsenic (As), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and chromium (Cr). The results indicated varying values of EC, pH, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and residual sodium carbonate (RSC) which, in an average sense, were much above the limits prescribed for use of water for irrigation. Of the heavy metals, groundwater was heavily contaminated with As, Pb, Cd and Ni having maximum concentrations of 27.5, 1.53, 0.12 and 1.46 mg/l, respectively, which are much higher than maximum permissible limits. Contaminants had variable times of peak concentration, some with multiple peaks, denoting non-uniform contaminant concentrations and possibly different adsorption characteristics. The results emphasize that groundwater in the project area needs to be analyzed not only in respect of conventional quality parameters but also for heavy metal contamination for their safe use in agriculture. The source or the cause of such serious groundwater pollution problems in the region must be identified to minimize the hazardous effects of using such waters on a long-term basis

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Not AvailableA number of black boxand process-based modelling approaches, their strengths/limitations, and future applications for simulating contaminant dynamics in constructed wetlands (CWs) have been reviewed. Scanning of literature reveals that most of the CW modelling approaches are limited to the simulation of only nutrient and organic pollutant load dynamics. Performance analysis of the various process/black box-based models for simulating pollutant dynamics in vertical subsurface flow, horizontal subsurface flow, and hybrid CW systems further reveals that most of the existing modelling approaches have not not so far been able to account for the changing climatic conditions and the heavy metal dynamics. The paper thus highlights the gaps in the knowledge in the current state of the art for simulating wetland pollutant dynamics and suggests mechanisms for increasing the scope of such modelling approaches in the proper design and operation of the CW systems.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableTo evaluate the production potential and Cd removal by three flower crops, viz.: marigold (Tagetes erecta), chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum indicum) and gladiolus (Gladiolus grandiflorus), an experiment was conducted on differentially contaminated soils (DTPA-Cd 0.6–68.4 mg kg 1). Biotoxicity of Cd lead to reductions in growth and flower yield of marigold at DTPA-Cd P7.9 mg kg 1 soil, while the productivity of chrysanthemum and gladiolus was sustained up to 21.2 mg kg 1. DTPA-Cd for 50% yield reduction (C50) was 85, 106 and 215 mg kg 1 soil for marigold, chrysanthemum and gladiolus, respectively, that indicates a better Cd-tolerance in gladiolus. The uptake of Cd increased with contents in soils and the maximum accumulation occurred in leaves. Among the economic parts, gladiolus spikes accumulated the highest Cd (7.2) followed by flowers of marigold (6.5) and chrysanthemum (4.0 mg kg 1). But, because of higher biomass, the total Cd removal was the maximum with chrysanthemum (8.3) followed by gladiolus (6.0) and the minimum (2.6 mg m 2) with marigold. Gladiolus with highest tolerance and Cd-content in saleable part holds potential to clean up the moderately contaminated soils.Not Availabl