Low-cost interventions for big impacts in dryland production systems

A study at selected action sites in semi-arid region of Andhra Pradesh, India, showed widespread land degradation due to low levels of soil organic carbon (78% of fields) and deficiencies of available nutrients like phosphorus (34%), sulfur (93%), calcium (33%), zinc (84%), boron (73%), and copper (33%). Soil test-based addition of deficient micro- and macronutrients increased food grain production by 30–40% and straw (which is used as fodder) production by 10–30%. Micro-watershed scale low-cost cement-lined farm-ponds at smallholder farm level proved a scalable technology for drought-proofing of crops resulting into additional crop yield by more than 30% during 2015. Augmentation of water sources also facilitated farmers’ to successfully diversify the production system. Shared machinery resources improved the operational and economic efficiency of farm sowing operations through higher crop yields by around 10%. We conclude that a mix of low-cost critical interventions if out-scaled in a large number of dryland small holdings through policy support may not only improve productivity and livelihoods, but also enhance their abilities to effectively cope with the climatic aberrations

Data mining and wireless sensor network for agriculture pest/disease predictions

Data driven precision agriculture aspects, particularly the pest/disease management, require a dynamic crop-weather data. An experiment was conducted in a semi-arid region to understand the crop-weather-pest/disease relations using wireless sensory and field-level surveillance data on closely related and interdependent pest (Thrips) - disease (Bud Necrosis) dynamics of groundnut crop. Data mining techniques were used to turn the data into useful information/knowledge/relations/trends and correlation of crop-weather-pest/ disease continuum. These dynamics obtained from the data mining techniques and trained through mathematical models were validated with corresponding surveillance data. Results obtained from 2009 & 2010 kharif seasons (monsoon) and 2009-10 & 2010-11 rabi seasons (post monsoon) data could be used to develop a real to near real-time decision support system for pest/disease predictions

Kinetics of hydrolysis of 2-methyl/phenyl-3-(2'-hydroxybenzalamino)-quinazolin- <span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#141414;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN; mso-fareast-language:EN-IN;mso-bidi-language:HI" lang="EN-IN">4(3<i>H</i>)-one</span>

712-715Kinetics of hydrolysis of 2-methyl-3-(2'-hydroxybenzalamino) quinazolin-4(3H)-one (MHBQ) and 2-phenyl-3-(2'hydroxybenzalamino) quinazolin-4(3H)-one (PHBQ) have been studied. Rate coefficients have been measured for the alkaline hydrolysis of MHBQ and PHBQ in 70% (v/v) dioxane-water at various temperatures. The enthalpies and entropies of activation have been evaluated. The hydrolysis of MHBQ and PHBQ follows first order kinetics in both the substrate and the base. The relative rates of hydrolysis and activation parameters have been used to suggest the mech<span style="

Not Available

Not AvailableField experiment was conducted for two consecutive seasons (2004-05 and 2005-06) to study the influence of foliar spray and topping level on yield and quality of FCV tobacco cv. Kanchan proved that two foliar sprays of 0.5% Zn SO4 + 0.5% Mg SO4 at 35 and 45 days after planting enhanced mean green leaf yield, cured leaf yield and grade index by 2303.5 (15.7%), 116 (5.1%) and 236.5 kg/ ha (14.77%) respectively as compared to two water sprays. Topping at 24 and 28 leaves both being on a par enhanced mean green leaf yield by 2649 (18.6%) and 2701 kg/ha (19.0%), cured leaf yield by 500 (24.8%) and 529 kg/ha (26.3%), and that of grade index by 489 (35.1%) and 519 kg/ha (37.2%), respectively as compared to 16 leaves topping level. Foliar sprays of 0.5% Zn SO4 + 0.5% Mg SO4 recorded significantly higher reducing sugars in P and X positions in both the seasons and higher nicotine in P, X, L and T positions during 2004-05 and in P and X positions only during 200506 as compared to other foliar sprays. Topping at 28 leaves level recorded significantly lower reducing sugars and nicotine content and there was a significant increase in reducing sugars and nicotine content as the topping level decreased from 28 to 16 leaves. Chlorides were well within the acceptable limits of good quality. It can be concluded that two foliar sprays of ZnSO4 + Mg SO4 at 35 and 45 days after planting and topping at 24 or 28 leaves would be optimum for the cv. Kanchan for getting higher green leaf yield, cured leaf yield and grade index with superior quality in irrigated Alfisols of Andhra Pradesh.Not Availabl

Ultra-Range Bimetallic Pt-Pd Nanospheres Deposited on Reduced Graphene Sheet as Efficient Electrocatalyst Towards Electrooxidation of Methanol

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) offers promising possibilities in meeting future energy needs in a most sustainable way. To electro oxidize methanol at anode of DMFCs, till date Pt and Pt-based materials were widely employed. To improve the utilization of precious metals it is highly desirable to disperse them on conductive carbon structures. Here, we synthesized ultra-range bimetallic platinum-palladium (Pt-Pd) nanospheres (NSs) with uniform dispersion on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets by a simple hydrothermal method and studied their efficacies towards methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). From HR-TEM analysis, it was found that the synthesized bimetallic Pt-Pd NSs possess an average particles size of about 5 to 7 nm consistent with XRD data. The MOR electro catalytic activity of bimetallic PtPd-RGO NSs was higher compared to homemade mono metallic Pt-RGO, Pd-RGO catalysts and commercial E-tekPt/C

Evaluation of Weather-Based Rice Yield Models in India

The objective of this study was to compare two different rice simulation models-standalone (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer [DSSAT]) and web based (SImulation Model for RIce-Weather relations [SIMRIW])-with agrometeorological data and agronomic parameters for estimation of rice crop production in southern semi-arid tropics of India. Studies were carried out on the BPT5204 rice variety to evaluate two crop simulation models. Long-term experiments were conducted in a research farm of Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Hyderabad, India. Initially, the results were obtained using 4 years (1994-1997) of data with weather parameters from a local weather station to evaluate DSSAT simulated results with observed values. Linear regression models used for the purpose showed a close relationship between DSSAT and observed yield. Subsequently, yield comparisons were also carried out with SIMRIW and DSSAT, and validated with actual observed values. Realizing the correlation coefficient values of SIMRIW simulation values in acceptable limits, further rice experiments in monsoon (Kharif) and post-monsoon (Rabi) agricultural seasons (2009, 2010 and 2011) were carried out with a location-specific distributed sensor network system. These proximal systems help to simulate dry weight, leaf area index and potential yield by the Java based SIMRIW on a daily/weekly/monthly/seasonal basis. These dynamic parameters are useful to the farming community for necessary decision making in a ubiquitous manner. However, SIMRIW requires fine tuning for better results/decision makin