Popularization of organic chilli cultivation in the Eastern Ghat high land zone of Odisha, India

The present study was conducted in the Koraput district of Odisha in India during 2012-13 and 2013-14 under National Horticulture Mission for popularization of organic chilli cultivation through frontline demonstrations.The green chilli yield of hybrid Guntur Hope varied from 5.0 t/ha to 6.67 t/ha in different FLD organic plots, where as it varied from 5.75 t/ha to 6.83t/ha in inorganic plots (Farmers Practice). The average yield in organic plots was 6.29 t/ha in comparison with average yield 6.52 t/ha of inorganic plots in farmers practice. The average cost of cultivation per ha of chilli on FLD plots was Rs.46, 100/- as against Rs. 43,400/- on inorganic plots (Farmers Practice). The cost of chilli cultivation in organic farming was comparatively higher than the conventional practice because of use of bio inputs in the field. However, the averages net return of Organic chilli in different FLD plots was Rs. 58,167/- in contrast to Rs. 43,107/- in inorganic chilli. The organic farming recorded higher net return than that of the Farmers Practice. The B:C ratio was found to be 1: 2.28 in Organic chilli and 1: 2.00 in Inorganic chilli. Organic chilli growers were highly satisfied with their organic production and economic return. Chilli farmers were advised to switch over to organic farming which can give high return and minimize environmental degradation

An Overview of Non Starch Polysaccharide

Abstract Polysaccharides are macromolecules of monosaccharides linked by glycosidic bonds. Polysaccharides are widespread biopolymers, which quantitatively represent the most important group of nutrients in feed. These are major components of plant materials used in rations for monogastrics. Non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) contain ß-glucans, cellulose, pectin and hemicellulose. NSP consist of both soluble and insoluble fractions. Soluble NSP of cereals such as wheat, barley and rye increases intestinal viscosity there by interfere with the digestive processes and exert strong negative effects on net utilisation of energy. NSP cannot be degraded by endogeneous enzymes and therefore reach the colon almost indigested. Insoluble NSP make up the bulk in the diets. NSP are known to posses anti-nutritional properties by either encapsulating nutrients and/or depressing overall nutrient digestibility through gastro-intestinal modifications

Multilingual representations for low resource speech recognition and keyword search

© 2015 IEEE. This paper examines the impact of multilingual (ML) acoustic representations on Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and keyword search (KWS) for low resource languages in the context of the OpenKWS15 evaluation of the IARPA Babel program. The task is to develop Swahili ASR and KWS systems within two weeks using as little as 3 hours of transcribed data. Multilingual acoustic representations proved to be crucial for building these systems under strict time constraints. The paper discusses several key insights on how these representations are derived and used. First, we present a data sampling strategy that can speed up the training of multilingual representations without appreciable loss in ASR performance. Second, we show that fusion of diverse multilingual representations developed at different LORELEI sites yields substantial ASR and KWS gains. Speaker adaptation and data augmentation of these representations improves both ASR and KWS performance (up to 8.7% relative). Third, incorporating un-transcribed data through semi-supervised learning, improves WER and KWS performance. Finally, we show that these multilingual representations significantly improve ASR and KWS performance (relative 9% for WER and 5% for MTWV) even when forty hours of transcribed audio in the target language is available. Multilingual representations significantly contributed to the LORELEI KWS systems winning the OpenKWS15 evaluation

Development and use of genic molecular markers (GMMs) for construction of a transcript map of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

A transcript map has been constructed by the development and integration of genic molecular markers (GMMs) including single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), genic microsatellite or simple sequence repeat (SSR) and intron spanning region (ISR)-based markers, on an inter-specific mapping population of chickpea, the third food legume crop of the world and the first food legume crop of India. For SNP discovery through allele re-sequencing, primer pairs were designed for 688 genes/expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of chickpea and 657 genes/ESTs of closely related species of chickpea. High-quality sequence data obtained for 220 candidate genic regions on 2–20 genotypes representing 9 Cicer species provided 1,893 SNPs with an average frequency of 1/35.83 bp and 0.34 PIC (polymorphism information content) value. On an average 2.9 haplotypes were present in 220 candidate genic regions with an average haplotype diversity of 0.6326. SNP2CAPS analysis of 220 sequence alignments, as mentioned above, provided a total of 192 CAPS candidates. Experimental analysis of these 192 CAPS candidates together with 87 CAPS candidates identified earlier through in silico mining of ESTs provided scorable amplification in 173 (62.01%) cases of which predicted assays were validated in 143 (82.66%) cases (CGMM). Alignments of chickpea unigenes with Medicago truncatula genome were used to develop 121 intron spanning region (CISR) markers of which 87 yielded scorable products. In addition, optimization of 77 EST-derived SSR (ICCeM) markers provided 51 scorable markers. Screening of easily assayable 281 markers including 143 CGMMs, 87 CISRs and 51 ICCeMs on 5 parental genotypes of three mapping populations identified 104 polymorphic markers including 90 markers on the inter-specific mapping population. Sixty-two of these GMMs together with 218 earlier published markers (including 64 GMM loci) and 20 other unpublished markers could be integrated into this genetic map. A genetic map developed here, therefore, has a total of 300 loci including 126 GMM loci and spans 766.56 cM, with an average inter-marker distance of 2.55 cM. In summary, this is the first report on the development of large-scale genic markers including development of easily assayable markers and a transcript map of chickpea. These resources should be useful not only for genome analysis and genetics and breeding applications of chickpea, but also for comparative legume genomics

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

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Not Available.Application of a dynamic potential groundwater recharge simulation (DPGRS) model for predicting potential groundwater recharge from small ponds is demonstrated. The DPGRS model includes rainfall, runoff, surface water evaporation, outflow, and depth of ponding as external inputs. The model also considered saturated hydraulic conductivity and fillable porosity of pond’s bed material as its parameters.The DPGRS model is successfully applied with 3 years (2006-2008) field data from two small recharge ponds located over a watershed in a semi arid region of India. Response of the \DPGRS model is found promising for simulating potential recharge from small recharge ponds. Analyzed results showed that on average 83.0% to 90.2% of accumulated runoffs in the selected ponds contributed to artificial recharge into aquifer underneath ponds. Evaporation losses varied from 7.7% to 9.2% of stored runoffs. Surplus flows from the ponds and stored runoffs in ponds at the end of simulation periods ranged, respectively, from 0 to 8.3%;and 0.6% to 0.8%. The predictions of the DPGRS model are found to be comparable to the rigorous numerical solution of the Richards model (HYDRUS-1D). These results are, however, site specific and may vary with hydro-climatic condition of location, size of recharge pond, and pond’s bed soil parameters. An additional calibration and validation of the DPGRS model with field observed data in varied climatic and hydrological conditions would be conducted to increase the applicability and credibility of the model.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableDetermination of length of advancement of wetting front is prerequisite for estimation of potential recharge. The advancement of wetting front is a time varying function governs by depth of ponding and suction head. Use of the Green-Ampt (GA) model for determining time varying length of wetting front involves a trial and error iterative method and hence, a tedious procedure. Replacing the logarithmic term of the GA model by sequential segmental second order polynomial, generalized algebraic equation based models for estimating time varying length of advancement of wetting front and potential recharge rates have been developed. Unlike following a trial and error method as involve in the GA model, the proposed model provides an explicit equation with no restriction to infiltration time period and depth of ponding. The universal values of the models coefficients for different ranges of Lf /(H+ψf)[Lf = length of advance of wetting front, H = depth of ponding, and ψf = suction head at the wetting front] have been determined with the help of the GA model by numerical experiments. Validity of the model has also been tested with the published laboratory experimental data. Analyzed results showed, the proposed models have similar responses as that of the GA model within a maximum relative error of 0.5 % for length of wetting front and 1.2 % for potential recharge estimate, and the corresponding percent bias has been found 0.20 % and 0.12 %, respectively. The proposed models can successfully be used as alternate to the GA model to design artificial groundwater recharge structures, irrigation systems and resolving solute transport problems.Not Availabl

Site suitability and land availability for endospermum medullosum plantation on Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

Site and soil characteristics associated with existing plantings of whitewood (Endospermum medullosum Euphorbiaceae) were characterised across Espiritu Santo Island in Vanuatu. Two hundred, generally small (most commonly around 0.5 ha), plantations dominated by whitewood have been planted across the eastern side of the island. These plantations range up to 20 years in age and provide a guide to the expected growth rates of whitewood in plantation in those areas. Site and growth data collected from a range of those plots were used to determine the characteristics associated with the most productive plantations. This association of site variables with growth was correlated with pre-existing resource mapping to estimate the area and locations of land suitable (in terms of sustainable productivity) for whitewood plantation on the island. Some of the characteristics used in that estimation included soil depth, drainage, soil erodibility, slope and existing land use. Using this method it was estimated that around 33 000 ha of land on Espiritu Santo, currently not used or native forest, is highly suitable for whitewood development