Colonization behaviour of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and phosphorus uptake pattern of mycorrhizal sensitive upland paddy using hydroponics culture

Three upland rice cultivars namely Vandana, Brown Gora and Kalinga collected from the Central Rainfed Upland Rice Research Station (CRURRS), Hazaribag, Jharkhand of the Central Rice Research Institute, are mycorrhiza sensitive genotypes. Their affinity towards mycorrhizal colonization varied. The cv. Kalinga had the highest colonization followed by Vandana and Brown Gora. Variation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affinity of the rice genotypes might be due to the variable demands of phosphorus nutrition of the different genotypes. To justify these variable demands of phosphorus among these three cultivars of rice, four different doses of phosphorus (5, 10, 15 and 20 ppm) were imposed to them in a system of hydroponics. Overall, among the three cultivars, the highest uptake efficiency (34% at 30 days, 57% at 45 days, 68% at 60days and 70% at 75 days interval) throughout the growth period was noticed in the cv. Brown Gora, followed by Kalinga and Vandana. The physiological demands of phosphorus of these cultivars were finally estimated as the contribution of uptake phosphorus to the total dry matter production of the plants with respect to available phosphorus. The overall results of these estimations gave the highest value in cv. Kalinga followed by the cv. Vandana and Brown Gora. Therefore, the cultivars Brown Gora and Kalinga could be recommended for the cultivation of the vast upland rain-fed areas of the country for higher yield and increased phosphorus use efficiency which could ultimately contribute significantly to the food grain production of the country

Quality and safety driven optimal operation of deep-fat frying of potato chips

10 páginas, 10 figuras, 1 tablaIncreasing oil temperature and heating duration in deep-fat frying of potato chips can improve textural quality but worsen the chemical safety of acrylamide formation. Optimal design of this complex process is formulated as a non-linear constrained optimization problem where the objective is to compute the oil temperature profile that guarantees the desired final moisture content while minimizing final acrylamide content subject to operating constraints and the process dynamics. The process dynamics uses a multicomponent and multiphase transport model in the potato as a porous medium taken from literature. Results show that five different heating zones offer a good compromise between process duration (shorter the better) and safety in terms of lower acrylamide formation. A short, high temperature zone at the beginning with a progressive decrease in zone temperatures was found to be the optimal design. The multi-zone optimal operating conditions show significant advantages over nominal constant temperature processes, opening new avenues for optimization.The authors acknowledge financial support from EU [CAFE FP7-KBBE-2007-1(212754)], Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [SMART-QC AGL2008-05267-C03-01], Xunta de Galicia [IDECOP 08DPI007402PR] and CSIC [PIE201270E075]. A. Arias-Méndez acknowledges financial support from the JAE-CSIC program.Peer reviewe

Large diamagnetic persistent currents

In multichannel rings, evanescent modes will always co-exist with propagating modes. The evanescent modes can carry a very large diamagnetic persistent current that can oscillate with energy and are very sensitive to impurity scattering. This provides a natural explanation for the large diamagnetic persistent currents observed in experiments.Comment: 5 figure

Growth and yield of transplanted rice as affected by different cultivars and weed management practices

An experiment was conducted to study the competitive ability of rice cultivars in different weed management practices in transplanted rice. Five cultivars viz. BPT-5204, Malviya 36, HUBR2-1, Swarna and Adamchini were tested for three weed management practices viz. Hand weeding, Bispyribac-sodium@25g ha-1 and Weedy check. Among the different cultivars tested, the Swarna proved to be the best selection in producing higher grain (4.6 t ha-1) and straw yield (5 t ha-1) as well as harvest index (44.4%) due to more no. of tillers hill-1, dry matter accumulation, no. of panicles hill-1, no. of grains/panicle and test weight (20.3 g). The grain and straw yield in Swarnawere 130 and 43% higher than the lowest yielding cultivar Adamchini respectively. The best weed control was achieved by hand weeding thrice at 25, 55 and 85 DAT. The grain yield was 58 and 27 % higher through hand weeding than that of weedy check and Bispyribac-sodium applied treatment, respectively. To examine the performance of different rice cultivars in terms of growth and yield potential, evaluation of these cultivars is necessary with different weed management practices. Therefore, release of best weed suppressive rice cultivars for the farmers is important for improving the productivity as well as reduced cost of production for feeding the ever growing population of the country in the year to come

Evaluation of saturated hydraulic conductivity from soil properties in an Inceptisol using different land cover and depths

hree soil profiles from Regional Research Station of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Gayeshpur situated in New Alluvial zone of Nadia district, West Bengal were studied to assess the predictability of the hydraulic conductivity of the soil as influenced by different physical and chemical and properties of cultivated and forest land. The various statistical procedures were employed on the measured laboratory based data for comprehensive agree-ment of dependent hydraulic conductivity of soils as a model function of independent soil variables that is likely to be useful for different land cover systems. Soils are neutral in reaction, silty clay to silty clay loam in nature. Forest soil contained greater organic carbon (OC) (5.9 ± 0.16 g kg-1) compared to cultivated soil (4.4 ± 0.34 g kg-1). Jhau plan-tation recorded the highest value (6.8 g kg-1) of OC due to soil texture and cation exchange capacity (CEC). Soil hydraulic conductivity was greater in soil for cabbage and Sagun tree among the cultivated and forest soil studied with values 2.80 and 1.10 cmh -1. Correlation study showed a positive and negative relation with hydraulic conductiv-ity for sand (r= 0.68; P > 0.05) and clay (r= - 0.71; P > 0.05) respectively. Further, principal component analysis con-cluded that addition of bulk density with clay and sand can predict the hydraulic conductivity for different land uses

Performance of pearl millet genotypes under irrigated and rainfed conditions at Hisar, India

A field experiment was carried out at Research Farm of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India to evaluate the performance of pearl millet genotypes (HHB 67 ‘Improved’, HHB 197, HHB 223 and HHB 234) under different environment (rainfed and irrigated). Results showed that irrigated condition recorded significantly (p < 0.05) higher plant height, dry matter accumulation, root dry weight, ear head girth, test weight and yield of pearl millet than rainfed condition. Root length was significantly (p < 0.05) higher under rainfedthan irrigated condition. Genotypes were found significant (p < 0.05) with respect to plant height at harvest and HHB 234 recorded higher plant height. Genotype HHB 223 recorded higher earhead girth (2.6 cm) and test weight (11.16 g) compared to other genotypes. Interaction effect was also found significant (p < 0.05) with respect to plant height, dry matter accumulation, root length and weight and yield. These were higher in genotype HHB 223 and HHB 234 under irrigated and rainfed condition respectively but at 20 days after sowing, longest root was observed in genotype HHB 67 ‘Improved’ under rainfed condition and genotype HHB 197 under irrigated condition. To examine the performance of pearl millet genotypes in terms of survivality and yield potential, evaluation trials are necessary under different environment. Therefore, release of those varieties under different situations are essential for the sustainability of the fragile arid and semi arid regions of country

Climate Smart agricultural practices improve soil quality through organic carbon enrichment and lower greenhouse gas emissions in farms of bread bowl of India

Acknowledgements The authors are thankful to NEWS India-UK for providing the first author Fellowship during the study. We are also grateful to CCAFS-CIMMYT for allowing us to collect soil samples from climate smart villages of Karnal, Haryana. The help received from Kartar Singh during soil analysis, and Kapil, Rakesh, Rajinder and Anil during field survey and sample collection is gratefully acknowledged. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments which significantly improved the quality of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

A systems model describing the impact of organic resource use on farming households in low to middle income countries

We are grateful for support from the DFID-NERC El Niño programme in project NE P004830, “Building Resilience in Ethiopia’s Awassa region to Drought (BREAD)”, the ESRC NEXUS programme in project IEAS/POO2501/1, “Improving organic resource use in rural Ethiopia (IPORE)”, and the NERC ESPA programme in project NEK0104251 “Alternative carbon investments in ecosystems for poverty alleviation (ALTER)”. We are also grateful to Dr. V.U.M. Rao (Former Project Coordinator, AICRP on Agrometeorology, CRIDA, Hyderabad) and Dr. S.K. Chaudhari (DDG, NRM Division, KAB-II, ICAR, New Delhi) for their assistance in collecting meteorological data of Parbhani, Maharashtra.Peer reviewedPostprin

Carbon sequestration potential, challenges, and strategies towards climate action in smallholder agricultural systems of South Asia

South Asia is a global hotspot for climate change with enormous pressure on land and water resources for feeding the burgeoning population. The agricultural production systems are highly vulnerable in the region and is primarily dominated by small and marginal farmers with intensive farming practices that had favored the loss of carbon (C) from soil. This review discusses the potential of soil and crop management practices such as minimum/reduced/no-tillage, use of organic manure, balanced and integrated plant nutrient application, precision land levelling, precision water and pest management, residue management, and cropping system optimization to maintain the C-equilibrium between soil and atmosphere and to enhance the C-sequestration in the long run. Results of meta-analysis show a potential 36% increase in soil organic C stock in the top 0–15 cm layer in this region which amounts to ∼18 Mg C stocks ha−1. Improved management practices across crops and environment may reduce methane em0ission by 12% resulting in an 8% reduction in global warming potential (GWP), while non-submerged condition led to a 51% GWP reduction in rice. Conservation agriculture and precision fertilization also reduced GWP by 11 and 14%, respectively. Although several innovative climate resilient technologies having significant potential for C-sequestration have been developed, there is an urgent need for their scaling and accelerated adoption to increase soil C-sequestration. Policies and programs need to be devised for incentivizing farmers to adopt more C-neutral or C-positive agricultural practices. The national governments and other agencies should work towards C farming together with global initiatives such as the “4 per 1000” Initiative and Global Soil Partnership, and regional public-private partnership initiatives on carbon credits for Regenerative Agriculture such as by Grow Indigo-CIMMYT-ICAR in India, in addition to research and policy changes. This will be vital for the success of soil C sequestration towards climate action in South Asia

A Compendium of Key Climate Smart Agriculture Practices in Intensive Cereal Based Systems of South Asia

CSA initially proposed by FAO in 2010 at “The Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (CC)”, to address the need for a strategy to manage agriculture and food systems, under climate change. The CSA by its original proponents describes the three objectives; i) sustainably increasing agricultural productivity to support equitable increases in incomes, food security and development; ii) adapting and building resilience to climate change from the farm to national levels; and iii) developing opportunities to reduce GHG emissions from agriculture compared with past trends. Since then, these three objectives (in short food security, adaptation and mitigation) are designated as the three “pillars” (or criteria) of CSA within the agricultural science and development communities. Climate Smart (Sustainable Management of Agricultural Resources and Techniques) Agriculture is an approach of crop production, which deals with the management of available agricultural resources with latest management practices and farm machinery, under a particular set of edaphic and environmental conditions. It works to enhance the achievement of national food security and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CSA is location specific and tailored to fit the agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions of a location. CSA may be defined as “agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, resilience (adaptation), reduces/removes greenhouse gases (mitigation), and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals.” Therefore, if CSA implemented at right time with required resources, techniques and knowledge in a particular typological domain, will lead towards food security while improving adaptive capacity and mitigating potential for sustainable agriculture production