Effects of sowing dates and irrigation regimes on grain quality of wheat grown under semi-arid condition of India

An experiment was conducted with aim to investigate the effect of sowing dates and irrigation regimes on wheat grain quality. There was four sowing dates [November 1(S1), November 16 (S2), December 1(S3) and December 16 (S4)], in main plots and four irrigation regimes [25% (I1), 50% (I2) and 75% (I3) maximum allowable depletion (MAD) of available soil moisture (ASM) and I4 – four critical growth stages in sub plots. The results revealed that hectolitre weight decreased from 80.2 and 81.4 kg hl-1 in S1 treatment to 78.3 and 79.4 kg hl-1 in S4 treatment and 79.9 and 81.5 kg hl-1 in I1 treatment to 79.0 and 79.9 kg hl-1 in I3 treatment in 2010-11 and 2011-12, respectively. Grain hardness outcome was ?75 in 2010-11 while it was <75 in 2011-12 irrespective of sowing dates and irrigation regimes. The highest percentage of flour recovery obtained in S1 treatment (68.2 and 63.2%) and I1 treatment (68.0 and 62.8%) with lowest coarse bran. On average, dry gluten content increased by 16.5 and 7.1% in S4 over S1 treatment in 2010-11 and 2011-12, respectively. Grain protein content increased from 11.9 and 12.8% in S1 treatment to 12.6 and 13.8% in S4 treatment in respective seasons. The milling and technological properties in S2 and I2 treatment was at par with S1 and I2 treatment. Therefore, it may be inferred that optimum milling and technological properties of wheat grain can be maintained by sowing till mid-November and irrigation scheduling up to 50% depletion of ASM

ROS Regulation Mechanism for Mitigation of Abiotic Stress in Plants

Plants respond to various stresses during their lifecycle among which abiotic stress is the most severe one comprising heat, cold, drought, salinity, flooding, etc. which take a heavy toll on crop yield worldwide in every corresponding year. ROS has a dual role in abiotic stress mechanisms where, at high levels, they are toxic to cells while at the same time, the same molecule can function as a signal transducer that activates a local as well as a systemic plant defense response against stress. The most common ROS species are Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), Superoxide anions (O2-), Hydroxyl radicals (OH-), and Singlet oxygen (1O2) which are results of physiological metabolism often controlled by enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense systems. ROS generally accumulate in plants during abiotic and biotic stress conditions resulting in oxidative damage which ultimately leads to programmed cell death. Many ROS scavenging pathways have been well studied against stress responses. Through careful manipulation of ROS levels in plants, we can enhance stress tolerance in plants under unfavorable environmental conditions. This chapter presents an overview of ROS regulation in plants and the essential enzymes involved in the abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms which are thoroughly discussed below

Trichoderma: A part of possible answer towards crop residue disposal

India is one of the leading countries in agricultural production and generate large volume of crop residue. Increasing demand for food grains due to growing population leads to generation of crop residues. Due to lack of proper disposal mechanism of crop residue, farmers burn the residue which release greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere, and poses great threat to environment as well as human health. The residue burning causes greater carbon emission and nutrient losses which otherwise incorporated into the soil system may substantially improve the soil biodiversity. Besides several practices of crop residue management, the most feasible method for farmers is incorporation of residue into the soil with the inoculation of microbes. In soil system the ability of microbial community in degrading organic substances is well known. In the early stages of residue decomposition simple substrates like carbohydrates are degraded by bacteria, but in later stages degradation of complex constituents viz., cellulose, lignin needs microbes which are capable of secreting enzymes like cellulase, acting on complex organic substrates. In this context, cellulolytic micro organisms like Trichoderma have the potential and emerging as an important microbial inoculants to enhance the rate of decomposition as well as alleviate the effect of residue burning

Trend Analysis of Streamflow and Rainfall in the Kosi River Basin of Mid-Himalaya of Kumaon Region, Uttarakhand

Due to climate change phenomenon and substantial decrease in water resources, analyzing the streamflow trend is of significant importance. In the present study, investigation was carried out to find rainfall and streamflow trends in the Kosi river watershed at different timescales from 1986 to 2016. Kosi river is one of the principal rivers in the Kumaon region. The different methods employed for trend detection of streamflow and rainfall were the Mann–Kendall (MK) test and the Sen’s slope (SS) estimator. Results showed a statistically significant decreasing trend in pre-monsoonal and annual rainfall with a Sen’s slope of -2.27 and -1.49 mm/year, respectively. The decreasing trends in pre-monsoon, post-monsoon, and winter streamflow were found during 1986–2016, which were not statistically significant. The results of the study help in understanding the variation and availability of rainfall and streamflow in different seasons of the year and motivate to adopt effective water management and agricultural practices for rainfed hills

Importance of Biochar in Agriculture and Its Consequence

Climate change is affecting all four dimensions of food security: food availability, food accessibility, food utilization, and food systems stability. It is also affecting human health, livelihood assets, food production, and distribution channels, as well as changing purchasing power and market flows. Keeping in view, the present chapter is focusing mostly on biochar. Biochar is usually produced by pyrolysis of biomass at around temperature range of 300–600°C. It is under investigation as an approach to carbon sequestration to produce negative carbon emissions. Present agriculture is leading mining of nutrients and reduction in soil organic matter levels through repetitive harvesting of crops. The most widespread solution to this depletion is the application of soil amendments in the form of fertilizers containing the three major nutrients. The nitrogen is considered the most limiting nutrient for plant growth useful for protein builds, structures, hormones, chlorophyll, vitamins, and enzymes. Biochar may be added to soils to improve soil health, improve soil fertility, and sequester carbon. However, the variable application rates, uncertain feedstock effects, and initial soil state provide a wide range of cost for marginally improved yield from biochar additions, which is often economically impracticable. There is a need for further research on optimizing biochar application to improve crop yields

Climatic Variation and Its Impacts on Yield and Water Requirement of Crops in Indian Central Himalaya

Climate is most important factor affecting agriculture, and issues related to climate and its implications have attracted attention of policy makers globally. The farm sector, particularly marginal ecosystems in mountains are vulnerable because of unpredictable variation and severe sink limitations. Efforts to impart resilience to farm and its allied sector are an urgent need. The climatic parameters play very important role to determine type of crops, cattle rearing and the life style adopted by the people. Moreover, weather has a significant impact on crop growth and development. Weather plays a vital role and affects the production and productivity of the crops. According to an estimate, weather contributes 67% variation in productivity and rest of the factors (soil, nutrient and management practices etc.) accounts for 33%. Therefore, there is a need of in-depth analysis of each meteorological parameters and identification of their trend over the years in order to identify and adapt suitable agriculture practices, better adaptable crops, varieties and their duration, time of field preparation, sowing time and irrigation as per the climatic conditions of the region. This will lead farming community to plan strategies of agriculture operation to obtain optimum yield. The climatic data from the meteorological observatory of ICAR-VPKAS, Hawalbagh located at mid hill condition (1250 m amsl) were analyzed for different periods (annual, seasonal, monthly, weekly). It was revealed that rainfall is decreasing over the years but significant (P < 0.05) decrease was recorded at mid hills. The maximum temperature is increasing significantly (P < 0.05) during post-monsoon and winter season however decreasing in monsoon season whereas minimum temperature is decreasing round the year. These changes in rainfall and temperatures are affecting production and productivity of the crops, as hills are largely rainfed. In terms of crop water demand, there is no need to apply irrigation during the rainy season except the transplanted rice. However, during the winter season as there is more than 60% of water deficit to irrigate the crops. The proper understanding of climate is necessary to bring sustainability in hill agriculture by adjusting crop sowing window and other operations as per suitability of the climate

Fungal biodiversity profiles 21–30

The authors describe ten new taxa for science using mostly both morphological and molecular data. In Basidiomycota, descriptions are provided for Botryobasidium fusisporum sp. nov., B. triangulosporum sp. nov., Cantharellus hydnoides sp. nov. and Hydnum aerostatisporum sp. nov. in Cantharellales; Lactarius rahjamalensis sp. nov. and Russula pseudoaurantiophylla sp. nov. in Russulales and for Mycena paraguayensis comb. nov. in Agaricales. In Ascomycota and hyphomycetes, descriptions are provided for Colletotrichurn eryngiicola sp. nov. (Glomerellales), Corynesporella indica sp. nov. (incertae sedis) and Repetophragma zygopetali sp. nov. (Microthyriales)

Design of a rectenna system for GSM-900 band using novel broadside 2 × 1 array antenna

In this study, a rectenna operating at the GSM-900 frequency band has been fabricated and tested. This rectenna composed of a 2 × 1 T-shaped monopole array antenna and an energy processing circuit. In order to reduce the gap between adjacent antenna elements in the array structure, the proposed array antenna uses a ground stub. Compared with other array antennas, the proposed array antenna with the ground stub reduces the size up to 50% without affecting the gain and bandwidth. An antenna prototype is fabricated and experimentally tested. The measured antenna's gain and bandwidth are 3.2 and 152 MHz, respectively, hence showing its suitability for radio-frequency (RF) energy harvesting application. For this to be feasible, the developed array antenna is matched with the rectifier at GSM-900 using a single stub matching network. The measured result demonstrates that the proposed rectifier circuit offers the conversion efficiency of 21.2 and 63.6% for an input power of −20 and 0 dBm, respectively. Finally, the rectifier performance is attested experimentally with the developed array antenna. The rectenna's measured RF-to-dc conversion efficiency was found to be 60% at the far-field distance from the transmitting antenna

A dual-band RF energy harvesting circuit using 4th order dual-band matching network

A novel compact rectifier for dual-band operation in the RF energy harvesting is presented. The circuit comprises a 4th order dual-band impedance matching and a single-series circuit with one double diode, both are integrating into a compact shape to occupy a small area of $30\times 35 \, \text{ mm}^{2}$. The merit of the proposed rectifier circuit is that it can be extended to n number of the frequency band by using only $2\times n$ matching elements. To validate the design method experimentally, a prototype of a dual-band rectifier is fabricated for two public telecommunication bands of GSM-900 and 1800. In order to reduce the circuit complexity and sensitivity arising due to lumped elements, the meander line and the open stub are used to realize the proposed circuit. A good agreement is obtained between the simulation and the measurement. The measured results show that the proposed rectifier circuit exhibits the conversion efficiency of 25.7 and 65% for an input power of $-20$ and 0 dBm, respectively. In addition, diode nonlinearity which affects the performance of the rectifier in terms of impedance matching is also investigated

Three interesting wood rotting macro-fungi from Jharkhand, India

Routine surveys of mycologically unexplored forest areas of Jharkhand, followed by a thorough examination of macro-fungal collections reveal two hitherto unrecorded poroid species (Basidiomycete) for Indian mycobiota namely, Ganoderma elegantum and Perenniporia bambusicola, and a less known hydnoid wood-rotting species Beenakia fuliginosa.  Detailed taxonomic descriptions coupled with illustrations are provided for all three taxa and compared with allied taxa. </div