Post-harvest technology

In recent years great interest is envinced in several countries in the culture of molluscan shellfish. In the tropics favourable conditions exist for rapid growth and marketable oysters are obtained with in vir^n to twelve months. Investigations have been conducted at the Central Marine Fisheries Research institute and success has been achieved in perfecting the techniques of oyster culture in coastal waters (Nayar and Mahadevan, 1983). The awareness that shellfish have to be purified and rendered harmless goes back to the time of the Roman Empire. During the first century B.C. the Romans consumed cockles and oysters after treating them in tanks known as cockle washery (Yonge, 1962)

Management of scombroid resources of India

Scombroids consisting of mackerels, seerfishes and tunas are an economically important pelagic fishes whose average landings during the 90s was 2.81 lakh t forming 11.7 % of the total marine fish production in India. Their demand in the domestic and export markets is on the rise and the group assumes topical importance in a situation where most of the coastal fishery resources are exploited to the near optimum level. Resource potential, status of exploitation and management and conservation issues regarding the scombroid resource in the coastal fishery sector are presented and discussed

Indian edible oyster

In India pioneering attempts were made by James Hornell in 1910 in developing Oyster culture in the erstwhile Madras State. Scientific investigations were undertaken during early 70's by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, at Tuticorin. The Institute has conducted R & D programmes on all aspects of Oyster farming during the last two decades, culminating in a wealth of informations on the technology of Oyster farming. The Brochure outlines various aspects of the technology of farming of the Indian Edible Oyster or the Indian Backwater Oyster Crasaostrea madrasensis (Preston} including information on biology, ecology and economics of Oyster farming

The edible oyster culture

In 1970s the CMFR Institute initiated oyster culture through rack and tray method. Large scale spat collection, preparation of spat collectors, season and seed availability were studied. In 1980, a hatchery was set up with annual production capacity of one million edible oyster seed and the techniques involved in hatchery system were standardized. The seed were supplied to other centres of this Institute and Gujarat Fisheries Department. The production rates for rack and tray, string and stake method were estimated as 120 t and 22 t respectively. As part of extension, one lab to land programme, 8 training programmes, one workshop and a summer insitute were conducted. Results of experimental oyster culture work carried out at Mandapam, Madras, Bheemunipatnam, Kakinada, Mulki, Dharmadam, Ashtamudi and Cochin backwaters are given. Rearing 600 strings in 0.04 ha at Ashtamudi and harvesting 2.5t oysters pointed out 44.8% return with estimated production of 80- 105t/ha. Further research priorities on oyster culture aspects are indicated

Estimates of genetic parameters for yield and yield attributes in elite lines and popular cultivars of India’s pearl millet

Estimation of genetic parameters would be useful in developing appropriate selection strategies. Heritability is a measure of possible genetic advancement under selection. The research work pertaining to the study of genetic variability, heritability, and genetic advance for yield and yield contributing characters in twenty one diverse elite lines and cultivars of pearl millet was conducted during 2007 at the Millet Breeding Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. Analysis of variance manifested highly significant differences among the genotypes for all the traits except number of productive tillers and days to maturity. Variability for genetic potential of twenty one genotypes for different traits was recorded and the highest variability were recorded for plant height (two folds), number of productive tillers (two fold) and for grain yield (four fold). The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV). Low, medium and high estimates of broad sense heritability were found in different plant characters under the study. High estimates of broad sense heritability were recorded for grain yield per plant followed by panicle girth. Greater magnitude of broad sense heritability coupled with higher genetic advance in grain yield per plant and panicle length revealed that the simple selection should lead to a fast genetic improvement of the genotypes used in this study

Simple, Rapid and Cost effective screening method for drought resistant breeding in pearl millet

Pearl millet is one of the most important cereals in drought-prone areas and is the staple grain for million of people in West Africa and India. However, its growth and productivity are limited by temporally and spatially erratic rainfall and poor soil fertility. Breeding for drought-prone environments is constrained by lack of suitable selection indices of drought stress resistance. Drought resistance screening under field condition varies from year to year and many traits are measured with complex, time-consuming techniques that are unsuitable for screening large numbers of progeny. The objective of the present study is to determine the reliability of in vitro screening method for initiating drought breeding programme. This in vitro screening method proves to be an ideal method for screening large set of germplasm with less efforts and accurately cost effective, in vitro growth pattern differences are only due to genotypes and environment has least influence. This experiment was carried out at Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. A collection oftwenty one millet genotypes including commercial varieties and hybrid culture (under pipe line) were tested in completely randomized design. Data were recorded at five different moisture stress levels (-3, -5, -7.5, -10 bars and control) by using polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 on germination percentage, root length, shoot length, root / shoot ratio and analyzed for significance. The genotypes were differing significantly in response to the four levels of moisture stresses. There were highly significant differences for all traits. The genotype TNBH 0538 gave the highest germination percentage, root length, shoot length, and root/shoot ratio as compared with commercial cultivars under all four moisture stresses. ICMV- 221 showed maximum resistance against moisture stress while PT 6034 showed minimum resistance. TNBH 0541 also gave the better performance under all five moisture levels for most of the traits at seedling stage. The correlation studies indicated the germination percentage were the most important trait for drought tolerance owing to their high significant and positive correlation with root and shoot length. Hence, the hydroponic system used in this study appeared to be a simple, rapid and cost effective method for screening seedling traits response to water stress condition

Simple, rapid and cost effective screening method for drought resistant breeding in pearl millet

Pearl millet is one of the most important cereals grown in drought-prone areas and is the staple grain for million of people in West Africa and India. Breeding for drought-prone environments is constrained by lack of suitable selection indices of drought stress resistance. The present study is conducted to determine the reliability of in vitro screening method for initiating drought breeding programme. This in vitro screening method proves to be an ideal method for screening large set of germplasm with less efforts accurately and cost effective. This experiment was carried out with a collection of twenty one millet genotypes including commercial varieties and advance hybrid cultures tested in completely randomized design. Data were recorded at five different moisture stress levels (−3, -5, -7.5, -10 bars and control) by using polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 on germination percentage, root length, shoot length, root/shoot ratio and statistically analyzed for significant differences. The genotypes recorded significant differences for all traits in response to various moisture stresses. The genotype TNBH 0538 gave the good germination percentage, root length, shoot length, and root/shoot ratio as compared with commercial cultivars under all five moisture stresses. ICMV- 221 showed highest resistance against moisture stress, while PT6034 showed lowest resistance. TNBH 0642 also gave the better performance under all four moisture levels for most of the traits at seedling stage. The regression studies indicated, the osmotic stress were the most suitable method for drought tolerance screening owing to their highly significant relationship with declining root length (R2 = 0.991; P < 0.001) and shoot length (R2 = 0.998; P < 0.001). Hence, the system used in this study appeared to be a simple, rapid and cost effective method for screening seedling traits response to water stress condition to improve the drought tolerance in pearl mille

Tuna fisheries in India: Recent trends

Tuna is one of the least exploited resources of the Indian seas accounting for 0.98 % of the total marine fish catch of India at the 1978 level. On the other hand tuna resources have been exploited by countries such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan from the Indian Ocean. Relevant portions of the recommendations of the 'Symposium on scombroid fishes' held at Mandapam camp. The authorities involved with the planning of the Indian Ocean Expedition give due consideration to gathering and collating the information which should be useful in aiding the development of high seas fisheries for scombroid fishes in the Indian Ocean. In the context of these developments and the need for efficient utilisation of the resources of the Exclusive Economic Zone, a brief account on the trend in the tuna fisheries in the country is presented here

Reliability of diaphragmatic mobility assessment: A systematic review

Introduction: Diaphragm Mobility (DM) assessment is gaining interest in the field of medicine and in the healthcare sector. Despite its clinical usage, the measure of reliability in assessing DM is not clearly known. Aim: To critically appraise the evidence describing the reliability measures of DM assessment using any of the diagnostic modalities. Material and methods: A systematic search across five databases was carried out from January 1990 to September 2016. Quality Appraisal of Reliability Studies (QUAREL) and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system were used to assess the risk of bias and for rating the quality of the evidence. In addition, levels of evidence grading which synthesize all the included articles for grading were also used. Results and discussion: Four papers were included for assessing both intra-rater and inter-rater reliability using ultrasound and radiography. Three papers reported ICC measures of reliability, with one paper reporting CV% of reliability. The results demonstrate that, overall, lower levels of evidence exist among the selected articles between moderate and good for intra-rater reliability and good for inter-rater reliability measures. The synthesis of all the included articles demonstrated that, overall, moderate evidence exists. Conclusions: There were moderate-to-good reliability measures with a low risk of bias in both the forms of reliability for assessing diaphragmatic mobility