Zinc deficiency in Indian soils with special focus to enrich zinc in peanut

In India, zinc (Zn) is now considered as fourth most important yield limiting nutrient in agricultural crops. Zn deficiency in Indian soils is likely to increase from 49 to 63% by 2025. India is leading in groundnut acreage but behind the China in production due to less productivity. Apart from raindependant cultivation and mineral nutrition play a vital role in groundnut productivity. Among the nutrients, Zn deficiency cause yield loss to the maximum of 40% in groundnut. The average response of groundnut to zinc fertilization ranged from 210 to 470 kg ha-1. Hence, it is ideal to follow suitable crop improvement and agronomic management strategies to enhance the uptake and availability of Zn in peanut. There are reports emerging that genetic variability exists among the peanut genotypes for zinc response and accumulation in kernel. This implies that high zinc dense confectionary peanut genotypes can be exploited for the further breeding programmes. In addition, Zn fertilization strategies viz., soil application of enriched Zn, seed coating and foliar application can be suitably adapted with available sources of Zn fertilizer to enhance Zn availability and uptake by peanut under changing climate. This article attempts to examine the status of Zn deficiency in semiarid tropics and approaches to enhance Zn content in peanut kernel through crop improvement and agronomic manipulation

Maximizing the Productivity and Profitability of Summer Irrigated Greengram (Vigna radiata L.) by Combining Basal Nitrogen Dose and Foliar Nutrition of Nano and Normal Urea

Field experiment was conducted at wetland farm of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, during summer season, 2022 with an objective of maximizing the productivity and profitability of greengram by adopting varied dose of basal nitrogen and foliar application of nano and normal urea at Flower Initiation (FI) stage and 15 days thereafter. The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design and replicated thrice with the following treatments viz., N1 - 100% RDN (25kg N ha-1), N2 - 80% RDN (20kg N ha-1), N3 - 60% RDN (15kg N ha-1) and N4 - Control as factor I, and F1 - Nano urea @ 2ml litre-1 of water, F2 - Nano urea @ 3ml litre-1 of water, F3 - Nano urea @ 4ml litre-1 of water and F4 - 1% urea as factor II. The experiment results revealed that, 100% RDN and nano urea foliar spray @ 4ml litre-1 of water significantly registered higher fertility co-efficient (71.2%), pods plant-1 (38.5 Nos.), seeds pod-1 (12.7 Nos.) and maximum grain yield (1291 kg ha-1). Nevertheless, it was on par with the application of 80% RDN and nano urea foliar spray @ 4ml    litre-1 of water, which recorded fertility co-efficient of 70.6%, 38.0 pods plant-1, 12.6 seeds pod-1 and grain yield of 1289 kg ha-1. In economics perspective also, application of 100% RDN and foliar supplement of nano urea @ 4ml litre-1 accounted maximum gross return (₹100114 ha-1), net return (₹53549 ha-1) and benefit-cost ratio (2.15), which was comparable with application of 80% RDN and foliar application of nano urea @ 4ml litre-1 of water at FI stage and 15 days thereafter. Based on the experimental results, it is concluded that reduced application of basal nitrogen i.e., 80% RDN with nano urea foliar spray @ 4ml litre-1 of water at FI stage and 15 days thereafter found to be the optimal nitrogen dose and nano urea foliar nutrition for maximizing the productivity and profitability of summer irrigated greengram

Impact of Pre and Post Emergence Herbicide Application on Soil Microbial Population Assessment in Direct Wet Seeded Rice

Direct wet seeded rice is eminent due to low energy and cost required for the cultivation. The only disadvantage is difficulty to manage weeds due to which farmers rely mostly on herbicides for the effective management. Herbicides are bioactive compounds which will affect the soil microflora by its ecotoxicological behaviour. Hence, in this study herbicides such as pendimethalin, pretilachlor + pyrazosulfuron ethyl (tank mix) as pre-emergence and bispyribac sodium + ethoxy sulfuron (tank mix), penoxsulam + cyhalofop butyl (ready mix), trifamone + ethoxy sulfuron (ready mix), bispyribac sodium as post emergence herbicides in their regular dosage were evaluated for their impact on soil microbial population viz; bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes. The results revealed that these herbicides affected the microbial population during the initial days but later the population was regained at 55 DAS which indicates the reduction in toxicity level of the applied herbicides.&nbsp

Influence of Super Nano Urea and Nano DAP on Growth Parameters of Rice Fallow Cotton under High Density Planting System

The experiment was carried out at wetlands farm, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, during summer, 2023 in a Randomized block design with ten treatments and replicated thrice. The main objective of this study is to find out the effect of varied dose of basal nitrogen & phosphorus and foliar application of conventional urea, super nano urea and nano DAP on rice fallow cotton under High Density Planting System (HDPS) on growth parameters. Cotton variety CO 17 was taken up for the study with RDF of 150:50:50 NPK Kg ha-1. The experimental details viz., T1- control (without N&P) K alone, T2- RDF (150:50:50 NPK Kg ha-1), T3- 50% RDN&P,100% K+ conventional urea @ 1% and nano DAP @ 0.5% at 25 DAS, T4- 50% RDN&P,100% K+ conventional urea @ 1% and nano DAP @ 0.5% at 25 DAS and 45 DAS, T5- 50% RDN&P,100% K+  SNU(Super Nano Urea) @ 0.25%  and nano DAP @ 0.5%  at 25 DAS (Days After Sowing) and 45 DAS, T6- 50% RDN&P,100% K+ SNU @ 0.25%  and nano DAP @ 0.5%  at 25 DAS, 45 DAS and 65 DAS, T7- 50% RDN&P,100% K+ SNU @ 0.5% and nano DAP @ 0.5% at 25 DAS and 45 DAS, T8- 25% RDN&P,100% K+ SNU @ 0.5% and nano DAP @ 0.5%  at 25 DAS 45 DAS and 65 DAS, T9- 50% RDN&P,100% K+ SNU @ 1% and nano DAP @ 0.5%  at 25 DAS, T10- 50% RDN&P,100% K+ SNU @ 1% and nano DAP @ 0.5%  at 25 DAS and 45 DAS. The experimental results revealed that, among all the treatments, T10 significantly registered the increased plant height (112.33 cm) and highest leaf area index (4.11) and enhanced light interception (91%). Based on the experimental results, it is concluded T10 i.e., reduced application of basal nitrogen and phosphorus (50% RDN&P + 100% K) with super nano urea foliar spray @ 1% and nano DAP foliar spray @ 0.5% at 25 DAS and 45 DAS found to be the optimal dosage for increased growth parameters under high density planting system in rice fallow cotton