Optimising Farm Plans in Different Farming Systems

This study has been conducted to optimize farm plans in different farming systems in Orathanadu block of the Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu by randomly selecting 150 livestock farmers from 6 villages. A linear programming (LP) model has been developed to arrive at the optimal farm plans for different categories of farms (landless, marginal, small and large) separately. The net returns from dairying have been found as Rs 25,864, which is about 29.7 per cent to the total and it also could contribute maximum to employment (55 per cent). The optimal plan for small-farmer category has revealed that dairy animals have contributed maximum net returns (Rs 31,640) to the aggregate net returns (Rs 49,105). Dairy animals have also generated an employment of 840 humandays as against 45, 80 and 38.6 humandays, from paddy–I, paddy–II and groundnut crops, respectively. The optimal plan for marginal farmers has indicated that dairy animals and sheep could be more attractive in terms of income and employment generation. Optimal plan for landless households has revealed that 5 dairy animals, 15 goats and 15 sheep could be valuable for increasing their income and employment. Income increase in the optimal farm plans has been found maximum (223.5 per cent) in large-farmer category, followed by small (192.7 per cent), marginal (180.1 per cent) and landless households (116 per cent). The increase in employment of family labour in the optimal plan over the existing plan in all categories has indicated that optimal combination of enterprises could reduce unemployment.Farm Management,

Quantifying Economic Losses due to Milk Fever in Dairy Farms

Milk fever, a metabolic disease, affects dairy animals usually within one or two days after calving, resulting in a huge reduction in milk production and thus becomes economically most important. This study, conducted in five milkshed districts of Tamil Nadu, has estimated the economic losses arising from milk fever, based on the data collected from a random sample of 557 milk fever affected bovines (516 cows and 41 she buffaloes) during 2005-08. For assessing economic losses caused by milk fever, cost of medicines, veterinarian’s fee, cost of additional labour utilized, loss due to reduction in milk output, cost of animals dead and culled have been considered. The prevalence of milk fever has been found 13.67 per cent in cows and 11.99 per cent in buffaloes across the study districts. The total loss has been found as Rs 1,068 per affected cow and Rs 665 per buffalo. Taking into account the observed prevalence of milk fever, the population of milch cows and buffaloes and the per animal loss due to milk fever has been estimated to be of Rs 40.62 crore in the state, which is a substantial damage to the dairy farming community. Some suggestions for prevention and management of milk fever have been given in the study.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Effect of Integrated nutrient management (INM) on growth attributes, biomass yield, secondary nutrient uptake and quality parameters of bhendi (Abelmoschus esculentus L.)

Organic manure from different sources could be an effective substitute of chemical fertilizers. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to study the impact of various sources of organic manures viz., sole application of composted pressmud, vermicompost, sewage sludge and farmyard manure and its combination with various levels of inorganic fertilizers on growth attributes, biomass yield, yield attributes, secondary nutrient uptake and its available status and quality parameters of bhendi (A. esculentus (L.) Moench). The results indicated that application of pressmud @ 5 t ha-1 with 50 per cent recommended dose of fertilizer had recorded the highest calcium and magnesium uptake of 30.9 and 15.4 kg ha-1 respectively and biomass yield of 2233.2 kg ha-1, In comparison to control, the increases in biomass yield and calcium and magnesium uptake were 20 and 51 and 136% higher under the same set of treatment combinations . The results revealed that treatment received with pressmud application @ 5 t ha-1 along with 50 per cent recommended dose of fertilizers registered highest available calcium and magnesium content of 0.14 and 0.28% respectively. In addition to that, there was an improvement in growth parameters such as plant height and number of branches plant-1 at all the growth stages of crop and also quality attributes viz., crude fibre (10.2%) and mucilage content (1.56%) were recorded significantly highest by same treatment compared to control (15.0 and 1.2% respectively). Among the organics, pressmud based inorganic fertilizers application was suitable for higher biomass yield, improvement in quality parameters and also maintaining the fertility status of the secondary nutrients in soil

Quality Improvements in Public Livestock Services Delivery: Are Farmers Ready to Pay? An Inquiry in South India

Farmers Willingness To Pay (WTP) for improving the quality of public livestock services delivery, in terms of Service Provider and Farmer Relationship (SPFR), chance of recovery from ailments and chance of conception following Artificial Insemination (AI), was assessed through Contingent Valuation (CV) in southern peninsular state of India, the Tamil Nadu State. The districts of the state were categorized as '˜Livestock Developed' (LD) and 'Livestock Under Developed' (LUD) based on initial base line developed. Contingent Valuation (CV) approach and Tobit regressions were used to assess variations in the stated Willingness To Pay (WTP) values, and the probability of stating a positive WTP value for respondents who declared that they were not willing to pay. Overall, the respondents in the study area were willing to pay INR 3.91 for improving the SPFR attribute of the public veterinary centre, while they were ready to pay INR 5.84 for augmenting the chances of recovery from illness by the services of public veterinary centres. In order to benefit from improved chance of conception of their bovines after AI, the farmers were willing to pay INR 11.71. An absolute concordance on the levels of attributes and the variations in the stated positive WTP values for quality improvements was noticed. Tobit regression analyses on the improvements of all above attributes indicated that the farmers who were at disadvantaged levels of an attribute were willing to pay more compared to those at an advantaged level.

Crystal structure of 4-(dimethylamino)-pyridinium 4-aminobenzoate dihydrate

Acknowledgements The authors thank SAIF, IIT, Madras for thedata collection.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Surface modified nano-zeolite used as carrier for slow release of sulphur

Surface modified nano-zeolite (SMNZ) was used as carrier to develop nano-zeolite based nano-sulphur fertilizer. A laboratory study on sulphur nano-fertilizer and conventional sulphur fertilizer were studied with percolation reactor system to evaluate the slow release of sulphur from both fertilizers in ambient temperature. SMNZ and sulphur nano-fertilizer were characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Zeta Analyzer, Raman Spectroscopy, XRD and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Raman spectroscopy confirmed the sulphur attachment at 480 cm-1 in the SMNZ. The FTIR spectra at 1030 cm-1 confirmed the sulphate attachments in the SMNZ spectrum. Zeta analyzer showed the surface charge of sulphur nano-fertilizer had (-) 52.6 mV. SEM imaged the sulphur loaded SMNZ in irregular flake like structure. A comparative study of the release of sulphate (SO4 2-) from fertilizer-loaded SMNZ and (NH4)2 SO4 fertilizers were performed using the percolation reactor. The results showed that the SO42- supply from fertilizer-loaded SMNZ was available even after 912 h of continuous percolation, whereas SO42- from (NH4)2 SO4 was exhausted within 384 h. These properties suggest that SMNZ has a great potential as the fertilizer carrier for slow release of SO42-

Normal modes and mode transformation of pure electron vortex beams

Electron vortex beams constitute the first class of matter vortex beams which are currently routinely produced in the laboratory. Here, we briefly review the progress of this nascent field and put forward a natural quantum basis set which we show is suitable for the description of electron vortex beams. The normal modes are truncated Bessel beams (TBBs) defined in the aperture plane or the Fourier transform of the transverse structure of the TBBs (FT-TBBs) in the focal plane of a lens with the said aperture. As these modes are eigenfunctions of the axial orbital angular momentum operator, they can provide a complete description of the two-dimensional transverse distribution of the wave function of any electron vortex beam in such a system, in analogy with the prominent role Laguerre- Gaussian (LG) beams played in the description of optical vortex beams. The characteristics of the normal modes of TBBs and FT-TBBs are described, including the quantized orbital angular momentum (in terms of the winding number l) and the radial index p> 0. We present the experimental realization of such beams using computer-generated holograms. The mode analysis can be carried out using astigmatic transformation optics, demonstrating close analogy with the astigmatic mode transformation between LG and Hermite-Gaussian beams

Even-odd effect in higher-order holographic production of electron vortex beams with nontrivial radial structures

Structured electron beams carrying orbital angular momentum are currently of considerable interest, both from a fundamental point of view and for application in electron microscopy and spectroscopy. Until recently, most studies have focused on the azimuthal structure of electron vortex beams with well-defined orbital angular momentum. To unambiguously define real electron-beam states and realize them in the laboratory, the radial structure must also be specified. Here we use a specific set of orthonormal modes of electron (vortex) beams to describe both the radial and azimuthal structures of arbitrary electron wavefronts. The specific beam states are based on truncated Bessel beams localized within the lens aperture plane of an electron microscope. We show that their Fourier transform set of beams can be realized at the focal planes of the probe-forming lens using a binary computer-generated electron hologram. Using astigmatic transformation optics, we demonstrate that the azimuthal indices of the diffracted beams scale with the order of the diffraction through phase amplification. However, their radial indices remain the same as those of the encoding beams for all the odd diffraction orders or are reduced to the zeroth order for the even-order diffracted beams. This simple even-odd rule can also be explained in terms of the phase amplification of the radial profiles. We envisage that the orthonormal cylindrical basis set of states could lead to new possibilities in phase contrast electron microscopy and spectroscopy using structured electron beams

Success in hatchery development of seabass and its potential for commercial cage culture in India

Brackishwater fish farming is considered as one of the potential areas not only as a source for fish production but also ensures the food security, livelihood for coastal community, business opportunity for entrepreneurs and also can earn foreign exchange. Coastal aquaculture has grown tremendously in early 1990s with farming of single species, the tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon. However, the shrimp farming faced severe set back due to outbreak of viral diseases coupled with social and other environmental issues. To overcome these issues, it is important to introduce some of the remedial measures in order to revive the aquaculture industry to achieve the sustainable production and one such measure clearly visible is the diversification of brackishwater aquaculture with fish species. It is evident that crop rotation can also decrease the risk of disease outbreak in the pond system

Orbital-Angular-Momentum Mode Selection by Rotationally Symmetric Superposition of Chiral States with Application to Electron Vortex Beams

A general orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) mode selection principle is put forward involving the rotationally symmetric superposition of chiral states. This principle is not only capable of explaining the operation of vortex generating elements such as spiral zone plate holograms, but more importantly, it enables the systematic and flexible generation of structured OAM waves in general. This is demonstrated both experimentally and theoretically in the context of electron vortex beams using rotationally symmetric binary amplitude chiral sieve masks