Perceived Level of Importance and Competency of Agricultural Extension Officers in Agriculture and Allied Activities

Training is the process of assisting a person for enhancing one’s efficiency and effectiveness at work.. A study was conducted in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu to ascertain the perceived importance and competency of agriculture extension officials and their training needs. The first six ranked training needs of the respondents in the study area were found to be integrated nutrient management, integrated water management, integrated weed management, agricultural waste management, organic farming and integrated pest management

DNET: A communications facility for distributed heterogeneous computing

This document describes DNET, a heterogeneous data communications networking facility. DNET allows programs operating on hosts on dissimilar networks to communicate with one another without concern for computer hardware, network protocol, or operating system differences. The overall DNET network is defined as the collection of host machines/networks on which the DNET software is operating. Each underlying network is considered a DNET 'domain'. Data communications service is provided between any two processes on any two hosts on any of the networks (domains) that may be reached via DNET. DNET provides protocol transparent, reliable, streaming data transmission between hosts (restricted, initially to DECnet and TCP/IP networks). DNET also provides variable length datagram service with optional return receipts

Oyster farming

Large quantities of the edible oyster, Crassostrea madrasensis (Fig. 1) growing wildly in most of the tidal creeks and estuarine regions along the east coast of India, are allowed to perish un-exploring the great strides made in this venture by developed nations. The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute focused its attention in developing systems for the culture of edible bivalves, identifying edible oyster farming and mussel farming as priority areas for Research and Development. Evaluation of the resources potential, identification of suitable water spread and areas for culture, evolving proper techniques to collect required seed for farming, introducing an appropriate method of farming and establishing a model farm formed the broad objectives of the project initiated in 1975 on edible oyster culture. By employing suitable method for spat collection and providing better growing conditions for the seed so collected it appeared distinctly possible to raise large number of oysters achieving faster growth rate and better meat yield. Weighing the pros and cons of the different systems of oyster culture followed in other countries and bearing in mind the local conditions, it was decided to experiment with the 'rack' system of culture

Incidence of Perkinsus marinus in Crassostrea madrasensis

Perkinsus marinus (Dermocystidium marinum) commonly known as "Dermo" is one of the causative pathogens for widespread mortalities in oysters. In the natural population of oysters at Tuticorin, oyster tissues cultured in fluid thioglycollate medium with dextrose fortified with antibiotics were found to be Infected with P. marinus. This is the first time that this pathogen has been reported from Indian waters. The incidence of infection in oysters ranged from 10 to 60%. The weighted incidence ranging from 0.05 to 0.35 indicates the very light level of Infection

Larval rearing and production of spat of the oyster Crassostrea madrasensis (Preston) in an Experimental hatchery

The Indian backwater oyster, Crassostrea madrasensis, was spawned in the laboratory at Tuticorin. The larvae were reared and the spat settled in 15-20 days. Two species of jihytoflagellates, Isochrysis galbana and Pavlova sp. were isolated from the natural environment, cultured in mass scale and given as food throughout the larval period. Early stages of the development of fertilized egg, successive stages of developing larvae, and metamorphosis to the spat have been described. The methodology of the production of cultchless spat and rearing the post-set oysters are discussed

Economics of oyster culture

Economic analysis of any system of aquaculture practice aids not only to improvise management practices but also ensures profitability. Attention on return on investment has bsen rightly emphasized by MitcheU and Usry (1967), PiUay (1973) and IPFC (1975) to show that well planned and propsrly managed aquaculture ventures compare very favourably with similar other food production industries. Homell (1910) realising the edibility of the oyster meat and its nutritional value initiated efforts on oyster farming at Pulicat Lake and gave an approximate account of working expenses of a one ha. park

Coastal Aquaculture - Mussel farming; Progress and prospects

During the seventies, the Central Marine Fisheri^ lleseardi Institute gave a lead in researches on mariculture and has carved for itself a pioneering role in the R& D programmes of mariculture in the countiy which has been well recognised. Impressed by the outstanding contributions made during the decade, the infrastructure facilities built up and, above all, the scientific and techni<ial competence it has acquittdi jm UNDP/ICAR Centre of Advanced Studies in Mariculture has been instituted at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute since June 1979. The Centre aims at providing postgraduate education in the new discipline of Mariculture and improvmg the quality of research through doct(»ral and post-doctoral research programmes in identified areas. One of the priority areas of mariculture in India is mussel culture. Although considered a poor relation of the oyster in Europe, mussel has one of the highest potentials in India for increaang production of protein- rich sea food. Mussel gives the highest conversion of primary producera ^hytojrfankton) to human food and culture production in column waters enhances the yield several fold. India has a traditional sustenance fishery for the mmsels at a few centres but the scope for increasing natural production from the existing beds is rather limited

Induced spawning and larval rearing of Crassostrea madrasensis (Preston) in the laboratory

The technology of culturing the edible oyster Crassostrea madrasensis by rack and tray method has been developed. Investigations on induced spawning and rearing of the oyster lead to produce spat of Crassostrea madrasensis on a large scale for the first time in India.The spawning of oysters were done in suitable conditions and the fertilised eggs undergone larval rearing,each stage is examined carefully and discussed, to complete the development within 19 days

Immobilization of Ruthenium Benzylidene on Thermoresponsive Polymer : Methodology and Application

Attachment of metal complex on polymer has direct implication for the development of novel catalyst with recyclability, reusability and water solubility in the context environmental concern. In this paper, we illustrate a simple strategy to immobilize ruthenium benzylidene organometallic complex on thermoresponsive polymer. For this, pyridine-substituted poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) has been synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization from a suitable initiator. Then, ruthenium benzylidene has been conjugated by binding with pyridine part of the polymer. Polymer conjugated ruthenium benzylidene is shown to have thermoresponsive characteristic in water (soluble below lower critical solution temperature (LCST) but precipitates out above LCST in water). Hence it can act as smart catalyst for metathesis reaction in water. For instance, it can be used as homogeneous metathesis catalyst for allyl alcohol in aqueous medium below lower critical solution temperature (LCST), that can be recovered as heterogeneous catalyst above LCST and recycled again as homogeneous catalyst. This is the first example of water-soluble recyclable metathesis catalyst. It is further demonstrated that steric crowding in the ligand play an important role in the superior performance of the catalyst