Vitamin A Administered with measles vaccine to nine-month-old infants does not reduce vaccine immunogenicity

After a report of reduced seroconversion to measles in infants, aged 6 mo, given vitamin A with their measles vaccination, serious concerns were raised regarding the safety of the WHO's recommendation that infants be supplemented with vitamin A at the time of measles immunization. To determine the impact of coadministered vitamin A on the antibody response to measles vaccine given to infants aged 9 mo, the more common age for immunization in developing countries, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in an urban slum community in Delhi. Infants (618) were randomly allocated to receive 30 mg vitamin A or a placebo with the measles immunization. Antibodies to measles were measured by ELISA in serum samples obtained at before (baseline) and 12 wk after immunization. Overall, the seroconversion rates did not differ between vitamin A (89.5%) and placebo (87.6%) groups. There were no significant differences in the geometric mean titers in the two groups (ratio of geometric means, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 0.97-1.46). Among malnourished infants, the geometric mean titer was significantly greater in the vitamin A group compared to the placebo group (ratio of geometric means, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-2.0), but seroconversion rates did not differ. There were no differences in seroconversion rates and geometric mean titers in the two study groups among the well-nourished children. These results indicate that 30 mg vitamin A does not reduce the immune response to the coadministered vaccine and, therefore, can be continued to be given safely in public health programs

Impact of sintering temperature on room temperature magneto-resistive and magneto-caloric properties of Pr2/3Sr1/3MnO3

Magneto-resistive and magneto-caloric properties of polycrystalline Pr2/3Sr1/3MnO3 have been studied as a function of sintering temperature (Ts) between 1260-1450{\deg}C. Reitveld refinement of their X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirms their single phase crystalline structure with orthorhombic Pbnm space group. The point of maximum value of temperature coefficient of resistance (TCRmax) and Curie temperature (Tc) decreased slightly with Ts. Magneto-resistance (MR) and magnetic entropy ({\Delta}SM) increased markedly with sintering temperature. This could be attributed to the observed sharpness of both the magnetic and resistive transitions due to better grain connectivity. Optimum results are obtained for the sample with Ts = 1400{\deg}C. MR at Tc of the same is found to be as large as 32% at 1T and 58% at 5T magnetic fields. The maximum entropy change ({\Delta}SMmax) near its Tc is 2.3Jkg-1K-1 and 7.8 Jkg-1K-1 upon 1T and 5T fields change respectively. These characteristics [MR (32% 1T, 58% 5T) and reasonable change in magnetic entropy (7.8Jkg-1K-1, 5T)] generate possibility that the optimized compound can be used as a potential magnetic refrigerant close to room temperature.Comment: 19 pages text + fig

Field Bund & Border as Alternative Land Use for Forage Production: A Case of Marginal Farmer in Bundelkhand Region of India

In India, if marginal farmers are approached for production of forage grasses in their agricultural lands, the response of the farmers would be straight forward „NO‟ to the forage crops on agricultural lands. The reason is that food grains (cereals & pulses), vegetables, oilseeds, fruits, etc. are grown on agricultural land and get the first preference for family members, while the forage grasses are least preferred, as crops residues are being fed to livestock. More than 60% of the farm produce come from the small farms only. The productivity of the marginal and small farmers is the solution for growing population food needs. Most of the marginal and small farmers cultivate the farm land with the support of their family members and local labour which the quality of the work is higher. They grow multiple crops and sow as soon as they harvest. The last four decades has witnessed a sharp decline in the average size of operational land holdings in India. The average size of operational land holdings has reduced by half from 2.28 ha in 1970-71 to 1.6 ha in 2010-11. Land holdings in the marginal category (less than 1 ha) constitute 67% of the operational holdings in India (2010-11). Marginal and small holdings together, constitute 85% in terms of number of operational holdings and 44% of the operated area in the country. Thus, over the period, the marginal category has emerged as a distinct and dominant class by itself with its average size dwindling to a mere 0.38 ha. (NABARD, 2014). This is the case study of an illiterate & marginal farmer, Shri Vijay Singh Kushwaha (37) S/o shri Dhan Singh resides in Kushwaha Dera at village Parasai (under Babina development block) in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh, Bundelkhand region of central India. He used to cultivate only monsoon crops, was the target of an extension programme initiated by ICAR-Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi in 2011 under the project “Enhancing groundwater recharge and water use efficiency in Semi-Arid Tropics region through watershed interventions, Parasai-Sindh watershed, Jhansi”. The watershed is being developed in consortia mode with ICAR-Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi, and International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad. The watershed comprises three villages namely Parasai, Chhatpur and Bachhauni and located between 250 23‟56‟‟ to 250 27‟ 9.34‟‟ N latitude and 780 19‟ 45.71‟‟ to 780 22‟ 42.57‟‟E longitude. The watershed is about 35 km in the West of the district headquarter. Bundelkhand is prone to severe drought leading to huge migration towards cities in search of livelihoods and the scarcity of green fodder posed as one of the major hindrances for dairy and livestock production activity in the region

\u3cem\u3e Albizia procera\u3c/em\u3e Based Silvipastoral System: An Ideal Alternate Land Use System for Sustainable Forage Production in Semi-Arid Region

India’s economy is agro-based and about 69% of the total population depends on it for their livelihood (GoI, 2013). Livestock is the integral component of Indian agriculture since time immemorial. Its contribution to national economy through milk, meat, wool as well as farmyard manure is enormous. India has the largest number of livestock, representing over 17% of the world. Among four important species of livestock, cattle represent over 43% of the population followed by buffaloes (19%), goats (26%) and sheep (10%). The share of livestock reared is highest in marginal followed by small and semi-medium land holders implying that marginal holders and small land holders are playing seminal role in development of livestock sector in country. The productivity of livestock and growth of animal husbandry are closely linked with the biomass and quality of forages. Currently there has been radical change in realising the importance of forages in integrated farming system, crop diversification, watershed management, restoration of degraded lands and climate resilient agriculture. Grasslands represent some 70% of global agricultural land area; unfortunately as much as 35% of the grasslands are degraded. The insufficient fodder availability has adversely affected all the three systems of livestock production. Silvipasture systems is an integrated approach of growing ideal combinations of grasses, legumes and trees for higher land productivity, conserving biodiversity and nutrients and producing forage, timber and firewood from a single unit area on a sustainable basis. The trees and shrubs used in silvipasture are used primarily to produce fodder for livestock. Looking at the enormous production potential of the slivipastoral systems, it is pertinent to introduce these in the arid and semi-arid regions so that large area of wasteland which is not suitable for crop production can be used for of fodder and biomass production. Dev et al. (2014) observed significant impact of participatory silvipastoral intervention and soil conservation measures for forage resource enhancement in western Himalaya. The study aims to present the suitability of silvipastoral systems in detail and advocate the extensive use of silvipasture in semi-arid regions for higher production

Phenotypic Data from Inbred Parents Can Improve Genomic Prediction in Pearl Millet Hybrids

Pearl millet is a non-model grain and fodder crop adapted to extremely hot and dry environments globally. In India, a great deal of public and private sectors’ investment has focused on developing pearl millet single cross hybrids based on the cytoplasmic-genetic male sterility (CMS) system, while in Africa most pearl millet production relies on open pollinated varieties. Pearl millet lines were phenotyped for both the inbred parents and hybrids stage. Many breeding efforts focus on phenotypic selection of inbred parents to generate improved parental lines and hybrids. This study evaluated two genotyping techniques and four genomic selection schemes in pearl millet. Despite the fact that 6· more sequencing data were generated per sample for RAD-seq than for tGBS, tGBS yielded more than 2· as many informative SNPs (defined as those having MAF \u3e 0.05) than RAD-seq. A genomic prediction scheme utilizing only data from hybrids generated prediction accuracies (median) ranging from 0.73-0.74 (1000- grain weight), 0.87-0.89 (days to flowering time), 0.48-0.51 (grain yield) and 0.72-0.73 (plant height). For traits with little to no heterosis, hybrid only and hybrid/inbred prediction schemes performed almost equivalently. For traits with significant mid-parent heterosis, the direct inclusion of phenotypic data from inbred lines significantly (P \u3c 0.05) reduced prediction accuracy when all lines were analyzed together. However, when inbreds and hybrid trait values were both scored relative to the mean trait values for the respective populations, the inclusion of inbred phenotypic datasets moderately improved genomic predictions of the hybrid genomic estimated breeding values. Here we show that modern approaches to genotyping by sequencing can enable genomic selection in pearl millet. While historical pearl millet breeding records include a wealth of phenotypic data from inbred lines, we demonstrate that the naive incorporation of this data into a hybrid breeding program can reduce prediction accuracy, while controlling for the effects of heterosis per se allowed inbred genotype and trait data to improve the accuracy of genomic estimated breeding values for pearl millet hybrids

Genomic resources in plant breeding for sustainable agriculture

Climate change during the last 40 years has had a serious impact on agriculture and threatens global food and nutritional security. From over half a million plant species, cereals and legumes are the most important for food and nutritional security. Although systematic plant breeding has a relatively short history, conventional breeding coupled with advances in technology and crop management strategies has increased crop yields by 56 % globally between 1965-85, referred to as the Green Revolution. Nevertheless, increased demand for food, feed, fiber, and fuel necessitates the need to break existing yield barriers in many crop plants. In the first decade of the 21st century we witnessed rapid discovery, transformative technological development and declining costs of genomics technologies. In the second decade, the field turned towards making sense of the vast amount of genomic information and subsequently moved towards accurately predicting gene-to-phenotype associations and tailoring plants for climate resilience and global food security. In this review we focus on genomic resources, genome and germplasm sequencing, sequencing-based trait mapping, and genomics-assisted breeding approaches aimed at developing biotic stress resistant, abiotic stress tolerant and high nutrition varieties in six major cereals (rice, maize, wheat, barley, sorghum and pearl millet), and six major legumes (soybean, groundnut, cowpea, common bean, chickpea and pigeonpea). We further provide a perspective and way forward to use genomic breeding approaches including marker-assisted selection, marker-assisted backcrossing, haplotype based breeding and genomic prediction approaches coupled with machine learning and artificial intelligence, to speed breeding approaches. The overall goal is to accelerate genetic gains and deliver climate resilient and high nutrition crop varieties for sustainable agriculture

Of cattle, sand flies and men : a systematic review of risk factor analyses for South Asian visceral leishmaniasis and implications for elimination

Background: Studies performed over the past decade have identified fairly consistent epidemiological patterns of risk factors for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Indian subcontinent. Methods and Principal Findings: To inform the current regional VL elimination effort and identify key gaps in knowledge, we performed a systematic review of the literature, with a special emphasis on data regarding the role of cattle because primary risk factor studies have yielded apparently contradictory results. Because humans form the sole infection reservoir, clustering of kala-azar cases is a prominent epidemiological feature, both at the household level and on a larger scale. Subclinical infection also tends to show clustering around kala-azar cases. Within villages, areas become saturated over a period of several years; kala-azar incidence then decreases while neighboring areas see increases. More recently, post kalaazar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) cases have followed kala-azar peaks. Mud walls, palpable dampness in houses, and peridomestic vegetation may increase infection risk through enhanced density and prolonged survival of the sand fly vector. Bed net use, sleeping on a cot and indoor residual spraying are generally associated with decreased risk. Poor micronutrient status increases the risk of progression to kala-azar. The presence of cattle is associated with increased risk in some studies and decreased risk in others, reflecting the complexity of the effect of bovines on sand fly abundance, aggregation, feeding behavior and leishmanial infection rates. Poverty is an overarching theme, interacting with individual risk factors on multiple levels. Conclusions: Carefully designed demonstration projects, taking into account the complex web of interconnected risk factors, are needed to provide direct proof of principle for elimination and to identify the most effective maintenance activities to prevent a rapid resurgence when interventions are scaled back. More effective, short-course treatment regimens for PKDL are urgently needed to enable the elimination initiative to succeed

Characterization of Benchmark Spots of Selected Red and Black Soils in Semi-Arid Tropics of India for Identifying Systems for Carbon Sequestration and Increased Productivity in Semi-Arid Tropical Environments: Global Theme on Agroecosystems Report no. 42

Fifty two pedons spread over 28 Benchmark (BM) spots were studied in different systems viz. agricultural, horticultural, forest and wasteland. The agricultural system represents dominant crops namely cereals, soybean and cotton. The horticultural system represents mandarins. The forest systems represent teak (Tectona sp.) and sal (Shorea sp.). The selection of BM spots were limited to a mean annual rainfall (MAR) range from 1448 to 520 mm in semi-arid tropics, India and encompass various bioclimatic systems such as sub-humid (moist) (MAR >1200 mm), sub-humid (dry) (MAR 1200-1000 mm), semi-arid (dry) (1000-850 mm), semi-arid (moist) (850-550 mm) and arid (<550 mm). In order to find out the level of carbon (organic and inorganic) in soils as influenced by different land use systems, the quality and quantity of (soil) substrates require to be similar. Judging by dominantly clayey and smectitic nature of black soils (Vertisols and their intergrades) and the associated red soils, they were selected for the present study. The soils were characterized in terms of morphological, physical and chemical properties with the data sets generated in the field and laboratory. Each profile was also characterized by the climatic data, indicating monthly potential evapotranspiration (PET), rainfall, temperature and length of growing period (LGP) data. The exact landscape situations, cropping patterns and typical soil profiles depicted through photographs further indicate the exact location of each spot studied in this project. The present document attempts to find out various relation of morphological, physical and chemical properties of soils as far as both organic and inorganic carbon sequestration are concerned. The present document also helps in estimating carbon stock in different system under various bioclimatic zones in semi-arid tropics, India as detailed in subsequent working reports