On-farm evaluation of integrated nutrient and pest management in Cicer arietinum L.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the world’s third most important pulse crop. In chickpea, wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri is one of the major production constraints. On-farm demonstration on use of Trichoderma viride, PSB and Rhizobium was conducted during rabi (Nov-Jan) 2006 in Machanapally village, Ranga Reddy district, AP, India. At harvest, data on wilt incidence yield and related parameters were recorded. In T1, where seeds were treated with PSB+Rhizobium+T. viride followed by soil application of T. viride+PSB+Rhizobium after 30 DAS (mixed with 200 kg of FYM), wilt incidence was 4.5% and yield was 0.995 t.ha-1. In T2, where carbendazim was applied as seed treatment followed by the soil application of recommended doses of NPK, wilt incidence was 8.3% with a yield of 1.2 t.ha-1. In T3, where seeds were treated as in T1 and NPK was applied to soil as in T2, wilt incidence was 3.3% and crop yield was 1.13 t. ha-1. Highest plant dry mass (25.5 g.plant-1) and number of effective nodules (6.3 plant-1) were recorded in T3. To conclude, integrated nutrient and disease management is an ideal approach for chickpea cultivation

Zinc solubilizing plant growth promoting microbes produce zinc nanoparticles

Strains of Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and Azospirillum with plant growth promoting ability were checked for their zinc solubilizing ability at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad, India. Efficient zinc solubilizing microorganisms were evaluated for their ability to produce nano-scale zinc particles. The nanoparticles from the cell-free culture filtrates obtained from these strains were characterized for particle size, Zeta potential and functional groups. Presence of Zn nanoparticles in the bacterial culture filtrate was confirmed by particle distribution and Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. Most properties of nanoparticles are size dependent. Zinc nanoparticles were observed to be spherical in shape and size ranged from 52.0 to 106.0nm. Zeta potential of the Zn nanoparticles was estimated to understand the stability of the particles. The measured zeta potentials varied from -14.5mV to +179.10 mV indicating high stability and dispersion of the zinc nanoparticles. FTIR peaks at different wave numbers depicted the role of functional groups of proteins in the biosynthesis of Zn nanoparticles. These results demonstrate the green synthesis of zinc nanoparticles by the plant growth promoting and zinc solubilizing strains of Azospirillum, Pseudomonas and Bacillus

Prospective Zinc Solubilising Bacteria for Enhanced Nutrient Uptake and Growth Promotion in Maize (Zea mays L.)

Zinc (Zn) is one of the essential micronutrients required for optimum plant growth. Substantial quantity of applied inorganic zinc in soil is converted into unavailable form. Zinc solubilising bacteria are potential alternates for zinc supplement. Among 10 strains screened for Zn solubilisation, P29, P33, and B40 produced 22.0 mm clear haloes on solid medium amended with ZnCO3. Similarly, P17 and B40 showed 31.0 mm zone in ZnO incorporated medium. P29 and B40 showed significant release of Zn in broth amended with ZnCO3 (17 and 16.8 ppm) and ZnO (18 and 17 ppm), respectively. The pH of the broth was almost acidic in all the cases ranging from 3.9 to 6.1 in ZnCO3 and from 4.1 to 6.4 in ZnO added medium. Short term pot culture experiment with maize revealed that seed bacterization with P29 @ 10 g·kg−1 significantly enhanced total dry mass (12.96 g) and uptake of N (2.268%), K (2.0%), Mn (60 ppm), and Zn (278.8 ppm)

Impact of Climate Change on Host-Pathogen Interacons and its Implicaons on Crop Disease

Not AvailableNatural and human activities have increased the greenhouse emissions and st it will continue to boost global temperature in the 21 century. In this paper, we discuss the profound impact of climate on plant diseases — if the climatic conditions are not favourable to disease, a vulnerable host will not be infected by a virulent pathogen. Variable concentrations of CO , temperature, and availability 2 of water may induce positive, neutral, or negative effects on disease development. Nevertheless, the basic concept of interactions of host-pathogen-environment may theoretically be applied to all pathosystems. Environmental factors also inuence different pathways of plant resistance viz., pathogen pattern-triggered immunity, effector-triggered immunity, RNA interference, and other networks of defence-related hormones. On the pathogen hand, temperature and humidity affect the processes of virulence, such as the development of toxins and virulence proteins, as well as reproduction and survival of pathogenic substances. Most of the laboratory works so far conducted on molecular-level plant-pathogen interactions focused on a few well-established pathosystems and static environmental conditions that represent just a fraction of the whole gamut of complex plant-pathogen-environmental interactions that occur in nature. To address the impacts of climate change on host plant resistance, the future work is urgently required to understand the complex plant-pathogen interactions under variable environmental conditions to understand the multidimensional nature of the interactions and develop climate-ready disease-resistant crop plants.Not Availabl

Climate Change and Indian Agriculture: Challenges and Adaptation Strategies

Not AvailableNoNatural and human activities have increased the greenhouse emissions and st it will continue to boost global temperature in the 21 century. In this paper, we discuss the profound impact of climate on plant diseases — if the climatic conditions are not favourable to disease, a vulnerable host will not be infected by a virulent pathogen. Variable concentrations of CO , temperature, and availability 2 of water may induce positive, neutral, or negative effects on disease development. Nevertheless, the basic concept of interactions of host-pathogen-environment may theoretically be applied to all pathosystems. Environmental factors also int AvailableDirector ICAR-NAARM Hyderabad - 500 03