Assessment of yield gap in chick pea through improved pulse production and protection technology

The Assessment and comparison of yield gap of the demonstrations over farmers practice under IPPPT component. The demonstration was conducted in several village of Jabalpur during year 2008-2011. The average chickpea yield was obtained 16.16 q/ha, which was higher than the farmers practices (11.58 q/ha) and the data observed that max. yield potential of chickpea 20.3 q/ha through Improved Pulse Production Protection Technology (IPPPT). The IPPPT programme was effective in changing attitude, skill and knowledge of recent technology for high yielding varieties, balanced dose of the fertilizer and biological disease management of chick pea including their adoption

Participatory varietal selection of chickpea in rainfed rice fallow lands of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in India for sustainable crop production

Production and area of chickpea are reducing every year in India due to competition with horticulture and other cash crops in irrigated areas. There is a great scope for expanding chickpea production with or without limited irrigation in rainfed rice fallow lands (RRFL) in the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Nineteen chickpea genotypes were tested using participatory varietal selection (PVS) trials on farmers’ fields in each of the four districts of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Among the several traits of the introduced chickpea varieties, grain yield was the most preferred trait by farmers, followed by resistance to diseases and early maturity. Selection of chickpea genotypes varied over time and location depending on agronomic and climatic pressures, indicating a preference by farmers for growing multiple, improved varieties. Yield potential of PVS genotypes averaged up to 50% greater than the local cultivar. Farmers’ participation in the selection process of genotypes laid the foundation of better and sustainable yields of chickpea and thereby providing better economic returns suitable to small farmers of RRFL of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The results of this study can be replicated in the similar environments in Asia and Africa

Study Of Higher Harmonics Of Cosmic Ray Intensity On Quiet Days At Tokyo Station

ABSTRACT The cosmic ray intensity data recorded with TOKYO Neutron Monitoring Station have been investigated on 60 Quiet Days (QD) in a year for studying the higher harmonics of daily variation during solar cycle 21 and 22. It has been observed that inspite of the abrupt change in the amplitude and the phase of the higher harmonics of daily variation in cosmic ray intensity, the amplitude of third harmonic of daily variation on QDs is larger by a factor of two during the period 1983 to 1986, i.e. the declining phase of solar cycle 21, similar to that observed 11-years ago i.e., declining phase of solar cycle 20, at Tokyo station. Thus, 11-year variation in the tri-diurnal anisotropy of cosmic ray intensity is clearly observed at the Tokyo neutron monitoring station. Further, the amplitude of the fourth harmonic of the daily variation on QD during 1987-90 shows an increasing trend continuously in association with phase of fourth harmonic shifting to earlier hours

A heuristic approach to long-range production planning of cement quarry operations

Cement manufacturing requires sustained supply of raw materials from limestone quarry. Raw materials inventory in limestone quarry is identified as a block model, usually, consisting of thousands of blocks. Each block consists of a distinct amount of chemical constituents which are vital for cement production. An individual block never satisfies the process quality constraints; therefore, the blending of various quarry blocks with expensive additives purchased from the market becomes a prerequisite. The objective of a quarry production scheduling model is to mine available blocks in a sequence such that cement plant quantity and quality requirements are satisfied. Achieving a solution to the problem, where each block is defined as an integer (0-1) variable, often within reasonable time, has been a challenge for the mining industry. In this article, the complex production scheduling problem is divided into two sub-problems, where quarry sequencing algorithm develops feasible quarry plans and mixed integer linear programming based blending formulation minimises cost by selecting a plan that requires least amount of additives from the market. The implementation of methodology on an existing operation ensures time as well as cost savings compared to the schedules produced manually