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Not AvailableA field experiment was conducted to investigate the soil microbial growth and enzymatic activity of TreatedDistillery Effluent (TDE) and Bio-compost (BC) applied in Vertisols having clay loam texture grown with Maize crop (Zea mays). Under split plot design with five main and sub plots with addition of organics viz., No organics; application of TDE @ 0.5 lakh litres ha-1 ; TDE @ 1.0 lakh litres ha-1 ; BC@ 5 t ha and FYM @ 12.5 t ha + biofertilizers. subplot treatments viz., addition of inorganic fertilizers at different levels of recommended dose of NP fertilizers (0 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 %) compared with 100% recommended dose of NPK @ 150 : 75: 75 of kg N, P2 ,O5 and K2O ha-1 . Application of TDE 1.0 lakh litres ha resulted higher bacterial, fungal and actinomycetes population over control at all stages. The soil enzyme activities as phosphatase, dehydrogenase andurease recorded the highest values with the application of TDE @ 1.0 lakh litres ha-1 over control. The soilmicrobial population and enzyme activities increased with the application of TDE over control. Soil microbialactivity had a direct impact on the plant nutrient availability as well as other favorable properties associated with soil productivity.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableA field experiment was conducted to investigate the soil microbial growth and enzymatic activity of Treated Distillery Effluent (TDE) and Bio-compost (BC) applied in sandy loam soils grown with Maize crop (Zeamays). Under split plot design with five main plots with addition of organics viz., No organics; application of TDE @ 0.5 lakh litres ha-1TDE @ 1.0 lakh litres ha; Bio compost @ 5 t ha-1 and FYM @ 12.5 t ha +biofertilizers. In addition, five subplot treatments viz., addition of inorganic fertilizers atdifferent levels of recommended dose of NP fertilizers (0 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 %) compared with 100 per cent recommended dose of NPK @ 150 :75: 75 of kg N, P andK2O ha-1. Application of TDE 1.0 lakh litres ha-1 resulted higher bacterial, fungal and actinomycetes population over control at all stages of crop growth. Indeed, the soil bacterial population recorded the highest value of 20.1 and 19.3 x106 of soilwith the application of TDE @ 1.0 lakh litres ha-1 compared to control at post-harvest stage. There was an increase in the soil fungal population to the tune of 30.3 per cent over control at post-harvest stage. Furthermore, application of TDE @ 1.0 lakh litres ha-1 recorded the highest soil actinomycetes population at all stages of crop growth. The soil enzyme activities as phosphatase, dehydrogenase and urease recorded the highest values of12.8 µg p-nitrophenol g-1 soil hr-1; 2.96 µg TPF g-1 soil hr -1 and 5.16 µg NH4-N g -1 respectively with the application of TDE @ 1.0 lakh litres ha -1 . The soil microbial population and enzyme activities increased with the application of distillery effluent over control. Hence, it was observed that, Soil microbial activity had a direct impact on the plant nutrient availability as well as other favorable properties associated with soil productivity.Not Availabl

Traditional Cultivars Influence on Physical and Engineering Properties of Rice from the Cauvery Deltaic Region of Tamil Nadu

Standard unit operations/equipment have not evolved for the traditional rice varieties of the Cauvery Deltaic region of Tamil Nadu. The fame of traditional rice is increasing nowadays owing to its health benefits. Non-standard unit operations may cause rice grains to crack during milling, accumulating more broken rice and yields in products of inferior quality. As a result, research into the physical properties of rice is crucial for the development of rice processing equipment that minimizes post-harvest losses during milling. Hence, an assessment was made to evaluate 30 traditional rice cultivars on their Physical (grain length, width, thickness, shape, and size), gravimetric (bulk, true, tapped density, porosity, Carr’s index, and Hausner ratio), and engineering characteristics (equivalent, arithmetic, square mean, and geometric mean diameter) using standard protocols, with the goal of reviving and preserving older varieties. The results from the analysis showed significant variations (p 2, respectively. Of the 30 varieties, 28 were under the high amylose category, and 2 belonged to the intermediate type. The Pearson correlation was established to study the interrelationships between the dimensions and engineering properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) reduced the dimensionality of 540 data into five principal components (PC), which explained 95.7% of the total variance. These findings suggest that it is possible to revive old landraces through careful selection and analysis of these properties. The superior characteristics of these traditional varieties can be further evaluated for breeding programs in order to improve the cultivation of these cherished rice landraces to enhance nutritional security

Impacts and Climate Change Adaptation of Agrometeorological Services among the Maize Farmers of West Tamil Nadu

Climate change is often linked with record-breaking heavy or poor rainfall events, unprecedented storms, extreme day and night time temperatures, etc. It may have a marked impact on climate-sensitive sectors and associated livelihoods. Block-level weather forecasting is a new-fangled dimension of agrometeorological services (AAS) in the country and is getting popularized as a climate-smart farming strategy. Studies on the economic impact of these microlevel advisories are uncommon. Agromet advisory services (AAS) play a critical role as an early warning service and preparedness among the maize farmers in the Parambikulam–Aliyar Basin, as this area still needs to widen and deepen its AWS network to reach the village level. In this article, the responses of the maize farmers of Parambikulam–Aliyar Basin on AAS were analyzed. AAS were provided to early and late Rabi farmers during the year 2020–2022. An automatic weather station was installed at the farmers’ field to understand the real-time weather. Forecast data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) were used to provide agromet advisory services. Therefore, the present study deserves special focus. Social media and other ICT tools were used for AAS dissemination purposes. A crop simulation model (CSM), DSSAT4.7cereal maize, was used for assessing maize yield in the present scenario and under the elevated GHGs scenario under climate change. Our findings suggest that the AAS significantly supported the farmers in sustaining production. The AAS were helpful for the farmers during the dry spells in the late samba (2021–2022) to provide critical irrigation and during heavy rainfall events at the events of harvest during early and late Rabi (2021–22). Published research articles on the verification of weather forecasts from South India are scanty. This article also tries to understand the reliability of forecasts. Findings from the verification suggest that rainfall represented a fairly good forecast for the season, though erratic, with an accuracy score or HI score of 0.77 and an HK score of 0.60, and the probability of detection (PoD) of hits was found to be 0.91. Verification shows that the forecasted relative humidity observed showed a fairly good correlation, with an R2 value of 0.52. These findings suggest that enhancing model forecast accuracy can enhance the reliability and utility of AAS as a climate-smart adaptation option. This study recommends that AAS can act as a valuable input to alleviate the impacts of hydrometeorological disasters on maize crop production in the basin. There is a huge demand for quality weather forecasts with respect to accuracy, resolution, and lead time, which is increasing across the country. Externally funded research studies such as ours are an added advantage to bridge the gap in AAS dissemination to a great extent

Genetic Diversity and Structure of <i>Terminalia bellerica</i> (Gaertn. Roxb.) Population in India as Revealed by Genetic Analysis

In this study, an extensive exploration survey of wild progeny was conducted which yielded 18 candidate plus trees (CPTs) of Terminalia bellerica. Seeds of these CPTs were collected from diverse locations between 10°54′ and 28°07′ E longitude, and 76°27′ and 95°32′ N latitude, covering 18 different locations across 5 states of the Indian subcontinent. The objective of the progeny trial was to assess genetic associations and variability in growth and physio-chemical characteristics. Significant variations (p 2b) estimates were consistently high, exceeding 80% for all growth and physiological related traits under investigation except for plant height, leaf length, and girth at breast height. A correlation study revealed that selecting based on plant height, leaf area, and girth at breast height effectively enhances T. bellerica volume. A moderate genetic advance in percent of the mean (GAM) was observed for most traits, except leaf length, leaf width, girth at breast height, and plant height. Across all 13 traits, phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) surpassed genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV). Utilizing principal component analysis (PCA) and dendrogram construction categorized the genotypes into seven distinct groups. In conclusion, the study has demonstrated that targeting girth at breast height and plant height would be a highly effective strategy for the establishment of elite seedling nurseries and clonal seed nurseries for varietal and hybridization programs in the future

Data_Sheet_1_Metabolomic analysis for disclosing nutritional and therapeutic prospective of traditional rice cultivars of Cauvery deltaic region, India.pdf

Traditional rice is gaining popularity worldwide due to its high nutritional and pharmaceutical value, as well as its high resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. This has attracted significant attention from breeders, nutritionists, and plant protection scientists in recent years. Hence, it is critical to investigate the grain metabolome to reveal germination and nutritional importance. This research aimed to explore non-targeted metabolites of five traditional rice varieties, viz., Chinnar, Chithiraikar, Karunguruvai, Kichili samba, and Thooyamalli, for their nutritional and therapeutic properties. Approximately 149 metabolites were identified using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library and Human Metabolome Database (HMDB) and were grouped into 34 chemical classes. Major classes include fatty acids (31.1–56.3%), steroids and their derivatives (1.80–22.4%), dihydrofurans (8.98–11.6%), prenol lipids (0.66–4.44%), organooxygen compounds (0.12–6.45%), benzene and substituted derivatives (0.53–3.73%), glycerolipids (0.36–2.28%), and hydroxy acids and derivatives (0.03–2.70%). Significant variations in metabolite composition among the rice varieties were also observed through the combination of univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. Principal component analysis (PCA) reduced the dimensionality of 149 metabolites into five principle components (PCs), which explained 96% of the total variance. Two clusters were revealed by hierarchical cluster analysis, indicating the distinctiveness of the traditional varieties. Additionally, a partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) found 17 variables important in the projection (VIP) scores of metabolites. The findings of this study reveal the biochemical intricate and distinctive metabolomes of the traditional therapeutic rice varieties. This will serve as the foundation for future research on developing new rice varieties with traditional rice grain metabolisms to increase grain quality and production with various nutritional and therapeutic benefits.</p