Ensuring Water Availability in Future through Revival of Indian Traditional Water Culture

After the recurrent spells of weak monsoons, a big part of the country’s population, are affected by a severe drought obliging India to walk towards a water-stressed future. The drought has dried up wells and other water reservoirs already stressed by overuse resulting into crop failure to a reasonable extent of more than 60 per cent. The current water management systems particularly in rural areas are poorly equipped to deal with the issue in significant part because they do not promote distributed water collection, water conservation, and water reuse. Providentially, a combination of often forgotten traditional water practices and more recent innovations in water use and management can help resolve this growing water crisis. These include rainwater capture, water recycling and reuse, and innovative technologies to purify water. India’s history is witness to how well-planned cities of our ancient civilization were equipped with outstanding systems of water harvesting and drainage. These ancient structures synergized with well validated water practices were the strong support systems during the times when the modern infrastructural marvels did not exist, but they were more than efficient in managing the water resources even at the time. Today the traditional water practices and ancient but ignored water sources of the country are yearning to discharge the ancient traditions to revive the glorious history of their past for the dire need of the hour. If water strategists aim to spread the message of water conservation to the common people and want to ensure that every drop of water is conserved, then the proven and scientifically validated Indian traditional water culture will have to be revived. Coincidently, customary water bodies have always been subject of reverence for Indians, reviving these traditional water bodies by involving locals could be a strategy that every region needs to adopt. Stepping up these revival options will indispensably require change in legal and regulatory framework but will perceptibly offer policy makers a better chance to meet present demands and future needs in an increasingly water-constrained India

Molecular Diversity Assessment in Selected Accessions of White Seeded Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) using SSR Markers

315-321Fifty sesame accessions with 10 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used for their molecular characterization and assessment of genetic diversity. It was observed through this study that the accessions have enough genetic variability at molecular levels. Thirty five alleles with mean polymorphism information content of 0.42 resulted from the molecular studies very explicitly indicate the superiority of SSR primers in assessment of genetic diversity. These primer bands size varied from 200 to 400 bp. The number of alleles per locus in selected accessions varied from 3 to 6 and heterozygosity per primer ranged from 0.00 to 0.40. The pair wise genetic similarity varied from 0.44 to 0.86. A closure view of dendrogram identified two major clusters, indicating high genetic resemblance among sesame accessions. Hence, under the study here, diversity assessment through SSR markers was proved to be stronger tools for discriminating Sesamum indicum accessions

Molecular Diversity Assessment in Selected Accessions of White Seeded Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) Using SSR Markers

Molecular characterization and genetic diversity among 50 sesame accessions was carried out by using 10 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The study revealed enough genetic variability among the accessions at molecular levels. A total of 35 alleles with mean PIC of 0.42 obtained from the molecular analysis show the informative nature of SSR primers and their superiority in genetic diversity assessment. The bands produced by these primers considerably varied in size from 200 to 400 bp. The observed number of alleles per locus in all sesame accessions ranged from 3 to 6. The observed heterozygosity per primer ranged from 0.00 to 0.40 indicating a high degree of variation. The pair wise genetic similarity among 50 sesame accessions varied from 0.44 to 0.86. The dendrogram constructed based on genetic similarities among the accessions identified two major clusters, indicating high genetic resemblance among sesame accessions

The Impact of Various IPM Modules on the Management of Major Insect Pests of Sesame in Madhya Pradesh's Bundhelkhand Zone

The All India Coordinated Research Project Sesame Centre, College of Agriculture, JNKVV, Tikamgarh (M.P.) conducted a field experiment in 2017 kharif season using a Randomised block design to examine the effects of several IPM modules on the control of the main sesame insect pest. The experiment was set up using a Randomized Block Design with three replications, six treatments, and 21.6 M2 plots for each, using the sesame variety modrate resistant TKG -22 as the test variety. All of the plots' seeds were treated with imidacloprid 600 (5g/kg seed), and all plots except for the control were intercropping with black gram (3:3) and yellow sticky trap (1 trap/plot). Profenofos 50EC (2ml/L), NSKE5% (T1 and T2), two sprays of NSKE5% + NSKE 5%, Profenofos 0.1% (2ml/l)+ NSKE 5%, and Profenofos 0.1% were used as the treatment, with the untreated control side receiving no treatment. The results showed that treated areas with insecticides outperformed untreated areas by a significant margin. Of the treatments, treatment T5 (imidacloprid 600FS (5g/kg seed) foliar spray of NSKE5% at 30 & profenofos 0.11% (2ml/l)45 DAS) was the most effective and recorded the lowest population of Antigashtra (0.17) larvae/5plant). Bud flies were greatly diminished, and the populations of the three main sucking pests—mirid bugs (0.24 bugs per three leaves/plant), white flies (0.48 Nymphs per three leaves/plant were at their lowest. In T5 (imidacloprid 600FS (5g/kg seeds + intercropping with black gram 3:3) foliar srpray of NSKE5% at 30, & profenofos 0.1% (2ml/l), the seed equivalent yield was also greatly increased. 45 DAS had the highest seed equivalent yield of 1176 kg/ha, the highest net profit of Rs. 78667, and the highest B:C ratio (6.11); T4 had the highest seed equivalent yield of 1075 kg/ha, the  net profit of Rs.70297, and the highest B:C ratio (5.48)

Study of Genetic Improvement and Susceptibility in Relation to the Infestations of the Leaf Roller and Capsule Borer Antigastra catalaunalis (Duponchel)

One hundred twenty  nine   accession of sesame with susceptible (TC-25) and resistance check (SI-250) were screened under natural infestation condition during two consecutive seasons of 2019 and 2020 to identify the source of resistance against leaf roller and capsule borer (Antigastra catalaunalis Dup.) at AICRP on oilseeds sesame center of JNKVV,  College of Agriculture, Tikamgarh (M.P.). The sesame accession were categorized as highly resistant (HR), resistant (R), moderately resistant (MR), susceptible (S) and highly susceptible (HS) based on the cumulative score (0-9) and grade (1-9) of the individual accsession. Among 131 accession viz., In pooled analysis, leaf damage ranged from 0.0 to 40.0 against 40.0 and 0.0 per cent  on susceptible and resistant checks, Flower damage ranged from 0.0 to 29.6 against 15.85 and 1.3 per cent  on susceptible and resistant checks , respectively, while capsules damage ranged from 0.0 to 17.15 per cent  against 3.05 and 0.4 % on susceptible and resistant checks, respectively. In pooled analysis none of the accession were found free from infestation of A. catalaunalis. Based on the cumulative scoring ,twenty one accession namely EC-334961-1, Annand local, IS-653-A, NIL-16426, IC-14331, NIC-8282, IS-387, G-13, EC-334955, NIC-8062, G-8, SI-1925, EC-35000, G-19, IS-90, GRT-83138, EC-303423-C, NIC-17362-A, ES-310420, IS-178-C, SI-250 and forty one accession namely S-0481, ES-75, TILO/Hana, EC-335001-A, S-003116, NIC-16114-B, BS-61, EC-164966, KMR-90, EC-335003, IS-722-2-84-I, NIC-17477-I, 43994, Oct.-81, Ec-182832, NIC-8033, G-2, G-6, NIC-9835, IS-77, GRT-8327, S-0619, ES-131-I-84, IC-152485, IS-449, IS-150-3-84, ES-64, IC-30884 ,GRT-8359, S-0281, IS-712, GRT-83128, NIC-16218, KJS-21, NIC-14730, Juland Sahame, SI-1865-1-B, GSM-21, IS-346, S-01159-C, GRT-8336. With resistance check, SI -250 (RC) were rated as highly resistant and resistance these could be a possible source of resistance and used in breeding programs to develop resistant varieties. These germplasm lines might be exploited in the hybridization programs for development of the resistant cultivars

Weather based rules for yellow mosaic disease prediction on soybean in Madhya Pradesh

The yellow mosaic disease (YMD) found to be one of the major constraints in soybean production in Madhya Pradesh. For timely management of this disease and for reducing the calendar based prophylactic pesticides spray, this study was conducted to screen out critical weather limits for peak YMD incidence. Field experiments as well as farmers field survey were conducted during kharif seasons of 2015 to 2019 in four districts viz. Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Datia and Jabalpur of Madhya Pradesh to record spacio-temporal variability of whitefly and YMD on soybean. Isolation of DNA from the infected soybean leaf samples was executed as per the standardized protocol of DNA isolation and molecular level identification of mungbean yellow mosaic India virus (MYMIV) was carried out as well. It was noted that the preceding week’s weather conditions significantly influenced the peak YMD incidence during the study periods. It was observed that maximum temperature, sunshine hours, number of whitefly population were positively related with YMD at the significant level; while the rainfall, evening relative humidity were negatively related. A weather based rule was worked out for peak prediction of YMD in soybean during the previous two weeks period when the following conditions were satisfied: Whitefly population per plant was above 12, maximum temperature was above 33°C and passive phase of monsoon was for more than a week. The transmission rate was found to be higher when dry period coincide with maximum temperature above 33°C for greater than or equal to 5days. This weather based rule for peak YMD prediction was also validated