Desempenho do inhame (taro) em plantio direto e no consórcio com crotalária, sob manejo orgânico.

Estudaram-se os efeitos do plantio direto em cobertura morta de aveia-preta e do consórcio com Crotalaria juncea, em sistema orgânico de produção de inhame, em ensaio na EE de Nova Friburgo(Pesagro-Rio), região serrana do estado do Rio de Janeiro. Utilizouse o delineamento de blocos ao acaso com quatro repetições, em esquema fatorial 2 x 2, onde os tratamentos corresponderam ao: modo de plantio (direto ou convencional) e modo de cultivo (monocultivo ou consórcio com crotalária). O cultivo consorciado com a leguminosa promoveu maior altura nas plantas do inhame, assim como reduziu a queima de folhas pelos raios solares. A população infestante de ervas espontâneas foi mais efetivamente controlada com a combinação entre consórcio e plantio direto. Nenhum dos tratamentos influenciou a produtividade do inhame, que foi considerada satisfatória, indicando o potencial do manejo orgânico adotado

Chickpea

The narrow genetic base of cultivated chickpea warrants systematic collection, documentation and evaluation of chickpea germplasm and particularly wild Cicer species for effective and efficient use in chickpea breeding programmes. Limiting factors to crop production, possible solutions and ways to overcome them, importance of wild relatives and barriers to alien gene introgression and strategies to overcome them and traits for base broadening have been discussed. It has been clearly demonstrated that resistance to major biotic and abiotic stresses can be successfully introgressed from the primary gene pool comprising progenitor species. However, many desirable traits including high degree of resistance to multiple stresses that are present in the species belonging to secondary and tertiary gene pools can also be introgressed by using special techniques to overcome pre- and post-fertilization barriers. Besides resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses, the yield QTLs have also been introgressed from wild Cicer species to cultivated varieties. Status and importance of molecular markers, genome mapping and genomic tools for chickpea improvement are elaborated. Because of major genes for various biotic and abiotic stresses, the transfer of agronomically important traits into elite cultivars has been made easy and practical through marker-assisted selection and marker-assisted backcross. The usefulness of molecular markers such as SSR and SNP for the construction of high-density genetic maps of chickpea and for the identification of genes/QTLs for stress resistance, quality and yield contributing traits has also been discussed

Azolla as a Green Manure: Use and Management in Crop Production

Volume: 73Start Page: 96End Page: 9

Ratoon cropping

Ratoon cropping is an old system that has been practiced for many years, especially in the Tropics. Although the origin of ratooning is probably not known for any particular crop, it may have begun when man first noticed the regrowth of new shoots following the cutting of certain crops at harvest, thus, producing a new crop without replanting. Because ratooning is practiced widely and is important in many crops, a review of the practice may be valuable, especially because increased food and fiber production is imperative in tropical areas. With hand-harvesting it is usually possible to obtain several ratoon crops, and growing and maintaining good ratoons is very important. Ratoon cropping is also practiced to some degree in the following commercial crops: kodra millet in India, ramie, and various grasses used for essential oils, especially the genus Cymbopogon. In many of the major crops examined, evidence has been found to support the view that under certain conditions, yields of ratooned crops such as sugarcane, cotton, bananas, and forage sorghum have shown no decline over a reasonably long period. Over shorter periods of one or two rations, no yield decline has been recorded in grain sorghum, cotton, pineapple, and other crops

Rationalization of taro germplam collections in the Pacific Island region using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers

A regional (Oceania) core collection for taro germplasm has been developed based on phenotypic and molecular characterization. In total, 2199 accessions of taro germplasm have been collected by TaroGen (Taro Genetic Resources: Conservation and Utilisation) from 10 countries in Oceania: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Palau, Niue, Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa. Our objective was to select 10% from each country to contribute to a regional core. The larger collections from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and New Caledonia were analysed based on phenotypic characters, and a diverse subset representing 20% of these collections was fingerprinted. A diverse 20% subsample was also taken from the Solomon Islands. All accessions from the other six countries were fingerprinted. In total, 515 accessions were genotyped (23.4% overall) using taro specific simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. DNA fingerprint data showed that great allelic diversity existed in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Interestingly, rare alleles were identified in taros from the Solomon Islands province of Choiseul which were not observed in any of the other collections. Overall, 211 accessions were recommended for inclusion in the final regional core collection based on the phenotypic and molecular characterization