Soil Physico Chemical Properties and Macronutrients Evaluation during Sowing and after Harvesting of Crop at High Altitude Leh Ladakh India

The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of physico-chemical parameters and soil macro-nutrients to know the nutrient uptake status during sowing time (ST) and after the harvesting (AH) of crops of Leh-Ladakh. In this context, total 55 no. of soil samples were collected from the eleven villages. Thereafter, soil texture, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), organic carbon (OC), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) were analyzed as per the standard methods. The results exhibited variation in different studied parameters at ST and AH, are OC (ST- 1.70 ± 0.11; AH-2.31±0.08), N (ST- 171.54±11.40; AH- 212.03±13.18), P (ST- 75.62±8.16; AH- 96.32±11.56), pH (ST- 8.12±0.05; AH- 8.16±0.06), EC (ST- 0.48±0.04; AH- 0.58±17), TDS (ST-309±22.41; AH-189±16.42) and soil texture gradient (Sand: ST-75.16±1.27 & AH-71.75±1.26, Silt: ST- 18.55±1.09 & AH- 20.66±1.02 and clay: ST- 6.33±0.53 & AH- 7.76±0.63). The comparison of physico-chemical parameters, macronutrients, soil texture, and organic carbon at sowing time (ST) and after harvesting (AH) revealed significant difference in some macronutrients, EC, and organic carbon, whereas no changes were observed in soil texture, pH and phosphorus. Hence, this study highlights the need of physico-chemical parameters management during crops sowing for enhancing macronutrients availability to crops in trans-Himalayan high altitude region

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Not AvailableThermophilic fungi play an important role in determining selectivity of compost produced for growing Agaricus bisporus. Compost samples were collected during different stages of composting process from six mushroom growing states of India. Thermophilic microorganisms were isolated on yeast starch agar medium at 45 and 52ºC. Scytalidium thermophilum and Humicola insolense were predominant and frequently isolated in large numbers from compost prepared by long and short method on variety of substrates. In all, twenty four isolates of Scytalidium thermophilum and thirty one isolates of Humicola insolense were studied for their RAPD and ITS patterns. No intraspecific diversity in ITS lengths of 5.8S r-DNA gene could be observed in the isolates of both the thermophiles. Phylogenetic analyses of RAPD patterns determined seven and eight distinct groups of isolates in S. thermophilum and H. insolense, respectively.Not Availabl

Effect Of Daily And Alternate Day Iron & Folic Acid Supplementation To Pregnant Females On The Weight Of The Newborn

Research question: What is the effect of IFA supplementation when given daily and on alternate days? Objective: To study the effect of daily and alternate day IFA supplementation. Study design: Intervention study. Setting: Rural health center of Gazipur village in east Delhi under deptt, of PSM, University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi. Participants: Pregnant females with period of gestation 20±4 weeks registering during Jan. to Dec. 94. Sample size: 120 pregnant females. Study variables: Birth weight. Results: Total 120 pregnant females were studied. 64 were put on daily (Group I) and 56 on alternate day (group II) IFA supplementation. In group I, 7 (10.9%) babies had birth weight less than 2.5 Kg as compared to 3 (5.3%) in Group II. However, the difference between the two groups regarding the birth weight was not statistically significant (p=0.489). Supplementation of IFA in Group II caused fewer adverse effects compared to Group I. Alternate day IFA supplementation may be an alternate to daily IFA in cases of non-compliance due to adverse effects without adversely affecting the outcome of pregnancy

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Not AvailableMolecular characterization of Humicola grisea isolates associated with Agaricus bisporus compostNot Availabl

Conservation agriculture in irrigated intensive maize-based systems of north-western India: Effects on crop yields, water productivity and economic profitability

In north-western India, maize-based systems are being advocated as an alternative to rice-based systems to address the issues of resource degradation, particularly declining water tables and climate-change-induced variability in rainfall and temperature. Conservation agriculture (CA) based best-bet crop management practices may increase crop and water productivity, while conserving and sustaining natural resources. In a 6-year study of conservation agriculture experiment established in 2008, we have evaluated the performance of CA-based management practices [permanent bed (PB) and zero tillage (ZT)] and conventional till (CT) for four intensified irrigated maize systems [maize-wheat-mungbean (MWMb), maize-chickpea-Sesbania green manure (MCS), maize-mustard-mungbean (MMuMb) and maize-maize-Sesbania (MMS)]. Significant (P < 0.05) tillage and cropping system interactions were observed for system productivity. Agronomic performance (yield attributes) of all the crops (except wheat) grown in sequence with maize was maximum with ZT, however wheat outperformed on PB over ZT and CT. In the initial two years, higher system productivity (maize equivalent yield) was recorded in PB (8.2–8.5 Mg ha−1), while from third year onwards ZT registered maximum productivity (11.3–12.9 Mg ha−1).The system glucose equivalent yield increased by 0.6 Mg ha−1 under ZT and PB compared to CT. Economic profits from maize-based rotations were invariably higher either in MMuMb or MWMb systems, while in terms of glucose equivalent yield, MMS and MWMb rotation were highest. Synergistic effects of summer legumes (mungbean and Sesbania) after winter legume/oilseed/cereal were observed on yield of individual crop vis-a-vis system productivity and irrigation water use. ZT and PB practices reduced the irrigation water requirement by 40–65 ha-mm and 60–98 ha-mm, respectively compared to CT system, resulted enhanced system water productivity by 19.4% equally under both ZT and PB. Net profit from the maize-based systems under ZT was up to 31% higher with 72$ ha−1 lower production cost compared to CT. Results from our study showed that adoption of CA based tillage practices in MMuMb and MWMb system for sustainable increase of crop and water productivity in north-western region of India