Profitability of Cotton on a Pest Management Continuum in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh

The plant protection response of farmers in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh has been examined with particular reference to the adoption of Bt cotton varieties and IPM components. The farmers have been found to follow a wide range of practices to manage the insect pests in cotton. The use of chemical insecticides has accounted for, about 37 per cent of the total variable costs. No significant reduction in plant protection expenditure has been recorded on adoption of Bt varieties without IPM practices. The adoption of IPM practices, however, has led to reduced use of insecticides and increased profitability. The saving on plant protection chemicals has more than compensated the cost of adopting IPM components. Consequently, the net returns have been found increased considerably from cotton cultivation.Crop Production/Industries,

Multi Response Optimization of Turning Process by Considering its Cutting Parameters Implementing Grey Relational Analysis

Machining process is most broadly utilized in the manufacturing industries. The purpose of the present effort is to investigate the cutting parameters in turning process on the responses: ‘Material Removal Rate’, ‘Surface Roughness’ and ‘Tool Wear Rate’ in CNC turning of EN8 steel using tool made of tungsten carbide. Three factors namely ‘Cutting Speed’, ‘feed rate’ and ‘depth of cut’ with each of the three levels have been considered as the cutting parameters. In the present study using the Taguchi's DOE methodology, multi-response optimization is carried out using Grey Relational approach to optimize the responses. Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array is used to conduct the experiments. The obtained results are then analyzed by the Grey Taguchi. Grey Taguchi Method is implemented to find the optimal levels for the parameters. Validation test is performed to confirm the optimal levels

Genetic analysis of traits contributing to stalk sugar yield in sorghum

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a potential raw material for production of ethanol that on blending in petrol is expected to meet the energy demand and address the environmental issues. Well-developed hybrid technology will make the crop remunerative to the farmers. Hence, gene action and best combining female and male parents for sugar yield in sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) and the association of sugar yield with other agronomic traits was studied in 171 hybrids developed by crossing 19 female parents with nine male parents in line × tester design and evaluated during both rainy and postrainy seasons of 2006. The significant differences between the seasons for all the traits suggested that these traits are greatly influenced by the environment. The lines (female parents) ICSA 38, ICSA 479, ICSA 702, ICSA 675 and ICSA 474 and the restorers (male parents), SSV 74 and SSV 84 combined well for sugar yield during rainy season and the lines, ICSA 702, ICSA 38 and ICSA 474 and the restorers, ICSV 93046, SPV 1411 and ICSV 700 combined well during postrainy season. The magnitude of SCA variance was higher suggesting the importance of non-additive gene action in inheritance of all the traits though both additive and dominant genes controlled overall sugar yield during both the seasons. Hence, selection in early generation would be ineffective and recurrent selection with periodic intercrossing is advocated. However, breeding good combining restorer parents can fetch high sugar yield in postrainy season. There is an indication of existence of transgressive segregation for sugar yield that can be exploited. The sugar yield was weak though significantly correlated with high brix and poor grain yield during both the seasons requiring extensive crossing to improve these traits simultaneously. Keeping in view mean performance, SCA effects and heterobeltiosis, the hybrids, ICSA 474 × SSV 84, ICSA 24001 × ICSR 93046 and ICSA 474 × SPV 422 were identified promising for rainy season and the hybrids ICSA 24001 × SPV 1411 and ICSA 511 × ICSV 93046 were identified for postrainy season

Ab initio study of Fermi surface and dynamical properties of Ni 2XAl (X = Ti, V, Zr, Nb, Hf and Ta)

A detailed study on the pressure and temperature effects on ternary Ni-based inter-metallic compounds Ni2XAl (X = Ti, V, Zr, Nb, Hf and Ta) have been carried out using density functional theory. The calculated ground state properties are in good agreement with experiments for all the investigated compounds. The band structures and Fermi surface topology is found to be quite similar for all the compounds except for Ni2NbAl, where we find an extra band to cross the Fermi level under compression resulting in a new electron pocket at X-point. Ni2NbAl is found to be a superconductor with superconducting transition temperature of 3.1 K which agrees quite well with the experimental value and the calculated Tc is found to vary non-monotonically under pressure. From the calculated phonon dispersion relation, we find all the investigated Ni-based Heusler compounds to be dynamically stable, until high pressure. The ductile nature of these compounds is confirmed from the calculated Cauchy's pressure, Pugh's ratio and Poisson's ratio. In addition, the thermodynamic properties show Ni 2TiAl to have lower specific heat and entropy but higher internal energy and free energy among all the investigated compounds. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

study of gene effects for stalk sugar yield and its component traits in sweet sorghum [sorghum bicolor (l.) moench] using generation mean analysis

Generation mean analysis was carried out to estimate the nature and magnitude of gene effects for sugar yield and its component traits in sweet sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. Six basic generations, namely P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1P1, BC1P2 of four crosses involving seven diverse parents were evaluated in rainy 2009. The mean performance of the F1 in all the crosses indicated dominant gene effect for all the characters. Simple additive-dominance model indicated presence of epistatic interaction. High positive additive × additive interaction effects were found in all the crosses. Higher magnitude of dominance and dominance × dominance gene interactions which were found minimizes the expression of heterosis leading to non-exploitation of crosses with duplicate epistasis. Reciprocal recurrent selection and/or biparental mating in early segregating generations has been suggested for development of high sugar yielding genotypes in view of the genotypes studied

Application GGE biplot and AMMI model to evaluate sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) hybrids for genotype x environment interaction and seasonal adaptation,”

ABSTRACT The genotype × environment interaction influences greatly the success of breeding strategy in a multipurpose crop like sweet sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. Eleven improved sweet sorghum hybrids were evaluated in both seasons for three years and genotype main effects and genotype × environment interaction (GGE) biplot analysis revealed that the hybrids that performed well in rainy season are: 'ICSSH 24' and 'ICSSH 39' and post rainy season are: 'ICSSH 57' and 'ICSSH 28'. The stable hybrid, based on additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and GGE biplot analysis that performed well across seasons and over the years for grain yield and stalk sugar yield is: 'ICSSH 28'

Perl module and PISE wrappers for the integrated analysis of sequence data and SNP features

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Application GGE biplot and AMMI model to evaluate sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) hybrids for genotype x environment interaction and seasonal adaptation

The genotype x environment interaction influences greatly the success of breeding strategy in a multipurpose crop like sweet sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]. Eleven improved sweet sorghum hybrids were evaluated in both seasons for three years and genotype main effects and genotype x environment interaction (GGE) biplot analysis revealed that the hybrids that performed well in rainy season are: 'ICSSH 24' and 'ICSSH 39' and post rainy season are: 'ICSSH 57' and 'ICSSH 28'. The stable hybrid, based on additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and GGE biplot analysis that performed well across seasons and over the years for grain yield and stalk sugar yield is: 'ICSSH 28'

Interrelationship Among Biomass Related Traits and Their Role in Sweet Sorghum Cultivar Productivity in Main and Ratoon Crops

Increased global interest in biofuel feedstocks made sweet sorghum as one of the prominent energy crop suitable for both first and second generation biofuel production. An attempt has been made to critically identify the factors contributing to biomass yield and their interrelationship in sweet sorghum plant (main) and ratoon trials. The genotypes ICSSH 28, ICSSH 58, ICSA 749 × SPV 1411, B-24 and ICSV 93046 exhibited higher ratooning efficiency. It was observed that higher the ratooning efficiency lower will be the difference between the growing degree days (GDD) of main and ratoon crop. GDD can be used as one of the selection criteria in breeding programs aiming for enhanced biomass and ratooning efficiency

Commercialization: Status and way forward

Ethanol is a biofuel that is used as a fuel additive and a replacement for nearly 3 % of the world’s fossil fuel-based gasoline consumption. Currently, most of the bioethanol is produced from sugarcane in Brazil and corn in the United States, while biodiesel is made from rapeseed in Europe. The rationale for the success of the Brazilian Proalcool program, its present status and its perspectives has been presented. The Proalcool program’s mandate was a vast increase in ethanol production with a sound government-backed subsidies and incentives initially to reach the goal; however, it was the private investors and companies that were solely responsible to achieve the end result. The Proalcool program indeed provides several essential lessons to many countries around the world about the potential competitiveness of biofuels vis-à-vis traditional fuels. Considering the importance of alternate biofuels, sweet sorghum has been identified as a promising energy crop to meet the energy security and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels in many countries around the globe. The Indian National Biofuel Policy (2009) recognizes sweet sorghum as a major biofuel feedstock and well adapted to India. However, its value chain could not get popular as anticipated due to low price level (Rs. 27) fixed by Government of India. Hence, it is necessary to review the ethanol price in India so as to give fillip to the beleaguered biofuel industry, which will likely to play a stabilization role in a oil import dependent economy like ours. Similarly, a number of case studies are presented on the research efforts made in various countries around the world like India, USA, Brazil and China on the use of sweet sorghum as a potential bioenergy feedstock. The current and commercialization status of the various biofuel technologies and approaches are discussed. The biofuel blending targets and mandates of different countries are also presente