Socio-economic Profile and Adoption of Recommended Milking Practices among Small Dairy Farmers of Meenangadi Gram Panchayat of Wayanad District of Kerala

The study was conducted in Meenangadi panchayat of Wayanad, Kerala. Agriculture was primary occupation for majority of the respondents (44 percent). 38 percentage of the respondents were utilising the facilities provided by the animal husbandry department of the state. According to the perception of 72 percent of the respondents, the most important constraint in dairy farming was the non-availability of fodder followed by responses that indicated the next deterrent to be the high cost of cattle feed (60 percent). A total of fourteen clean milking practices were analysed and adoption of milking practices were calculated by using adoption index. Majority of the respondents were found to be medium adopters

In vitro production of growth regulators and phosphatase activity by phosphate solubilizing bacteria

Crops absorb phosphorous in the form of soluble orthophosphate ion. The solubility of phosphate is inhibited by the presence of iron and aluminium in acidic soils and calcium in neutral and alkaline soils. This leads to fixation of phosphorous, making it not available to crop plants. The phosphate solubilizing bacteria (phosphobacteria) secretes some kinds of organic acids which act on insoluble phosphates and convert the same into soluble form, thus providing phosphorous to plant. An experiment was conducted to enumerate the population density of phosphobacteria in the rhizosphere soils of brinjal, chilly, cotton, green grain, groundnut, maize, paddy, ragi, sorghum and turmeric using Ketznelson and Bose medium following dilution plate technique. Efforts have been made to isolate phosphobacteria from these soils and isolated strains were inoculated in specific media containing specific substrates to produce growth regulating substances such as IAA and GA3 and phosphatase enzyme. The result showed that the population levels of phosphobacteria were higher in the rhizosphere soil of groundnut plant. Further, all the strains of phosphobacteria were able to produce phytohormones and phosphatase enzyme under in vitro conditions.Keywords: In vitro, phosphobacteria, growth regulator

Thresholding technique for flood extent mapping using dual polarization ENVISAT ASAR data

363-368The research paper explores an optimum water extraction technique using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to give the flood inundation map for irregular flood scenario, in which the planned algorithm depends on thresholding technique using MRS amplitude SAR data. For classification, supervised maximum likelihood method is used, and gamma filtering technique was used for speckle removal. Since water layer in SAR data has low amplitude value, thresholding technique for amplitude SAR data could efficiently take out water layer. The mean backscatter basics of water layers in SAR data is not to be compared with inundated regions caused by sharp release and is not considered as a terrain value. The speckle filtering method was used for the power generated noise subtraction using a window size 5x5. The threshold values were calculated from backscatter values and their average was taken as threshold, which gives clear difference of backscatter values between the land and the water in the river and the flood plain areas. The maximum likelihood classifier provides 99% overall accuracy. The Landsat 5 TM data was used in this research for delineating water feature and flood accurately. The results obtained from SAR data were validated with Landsat TM data. Finally, the flood inundation map using optical data and SAR data was generated

In vitro multiplication of Ocimum gratissimum L. through direct regeneration

The objective of this study was to develop a rapid system for regeneration of the important medicinal plant, Ocimum gratissimum L, from nodal explant. Single node explants were inoculated on basal MS (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) medium containing 3% (w/v) sucrose, supplemented with differentconcentrations and combinations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), kinetin (KN), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) or indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) for direct plant regeneration. Maximum numbers of shoot (14.3±1.5) were observed on the medium containing 0.5 mg/l BAP and 0.25 mg/l IAA after four weeks of culture. Regenerated shoots were separated and rooted on same half strength MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l of IAA alone for three weeks. Well-developed complete plantlets were transferred on to speciallymade plastic cup containing soilrite. Acclimatized plantlets were successfully grown in garden soi

Evaluation of different types of chest symptoms for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis cases in community surveys

Background: Prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) is an important epidemiological index to measure the load of the disease in a community. A series of disease surveys were undertaken in rural community in Tiruvallur district in Tamilnadu, south India Objective: To investigate the yield of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) cases by different symptoms status and suggest predominant symptoms for detection of cases in the community based surveys. Methods: Three disease surveys were conducted during 1999-2006, in a random sample of 82,000 adults aged > 15 years to estimate the prevalence and incidence of pulmonary TB. All subjects were screened for chest symptoms and chest radiography. Sputum examination was done among those who were either symptomatic or abnormal on X-ray or both. Cases observed through symptom inquiry were included for analysis. Results: In survey-I, 65.6% had cough of > 14 days and yielded 79.1% of the total cases. In surveys II and III, symptomatic subjects with cough contributed 69.5% and 69.2% of the cases respectively. In survey I, 26.8% had symptoms without cough but with at least chest pain > 1 month contributed 8.4% of total cases. The corresponding proportions in subsequent surveys were 29.3, 11.5%; and 23.4, 11.2% respectively. The number of symptomatics without cough and chest pain but with fever > 1 month was negligible. Conclusion: The relative importance of cough as a predominant symptom was reiterated. The yield of pulmonary TB cases from symptomatics having fever of > 1 month was negligible. Fever may be excluded from the definition of symptomatics for screening the population in community survey

Weight gain in patients with tuberculosis treated under directly observed treatment short-course (DOTS)

Set up: One Tuberculosis Unit (TU) in Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu, India where Tuberculosis (TB) patients treated under Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) programme. Objective: To identify the effects of weight gain among TB patients at the end of treatment on different factors such as socio-economic and demographic characteristics, smoking and drinking habits, treatment under supervision, the type of DOTS centres and problems in taking drugs. Methods: TB patients registered between May 1999 and December 2004 formed the study population. Multiple regression method was used for the analysis. Results: Among 1557 smear-positive TB patients registered under DOTS programme, the changes in weight ranged from a loss of 4 kgs to a gain of 20 kgs at the end of TB treatment; the average change in weight was 3.22 kgs. The gain in weight at the end of treatment was associated with age (<45 years), DOT at government centres, no problems in taking drugs as reported by patients and cure rate. Conclusion: The findings showed that there is an association between gain in weight with DOT at government centres and cure of patients

Efficacy of certain fungicides against Phomopsis theae under in vitro conditions

Four contact fungicides, Blitox (copper oxychloride), Kocide (copper hydroxide), Mancozeb (dithane M-45) and Bordeaux mixture and four systemic fungicides, Baycor (bitertanol), Calixin (tridemorph), Contaf (hexaconazole) and Bavistin (carbendazim) were evaluated against Phomopsis theae under in vitro condition. The results indicated that carbendazim was found to be the most effective in suppressing the growth followed by dithane M-45. Among the different concentrations tested, carbendazim at 4 ppm and dithane M-45 at 8 ppm were found to be optimum for the control of pathogen’s growth.Keywords: Phomopsis theae, fungicides, in vitro screening, phomopsis canke

Survival of tuberculosis patients treated under DOTS in a rural tuberculosis unit (TU), south India.

Objective: To estimate survival probabilities and identify risk factors for death of tuberculosis (TB) patients during treatment period. Methods: TB patients registered during May 1999 to December 2004 from a rural TB unit (TU) with a population of 580 000 in Tiruvallur district, South India, formed study population. Life table and Cox’s regression methods were used. Results: Of the 3818 TB patients who were initiated on treatment, 96, 94 and 97% of category – I, II and III respectively, were surviving after completion of treatment. Higher death rates were independently associated with patient’s age (45 years), previous history of treatment, alcoholism and initial body weight (<35 kgs). Conclusion: The survival probability was found to be similar in all patients irrespective of categorization. Necessary actions need to be initiated in the programme to improve body weight and abstain from alcoholism

Information Management Behaviour of Rice Farmers under Collective Farming in Kerala

The study was conducted in Kannur district of Kerala State, to assess the information management behaviour of rice farmers under the collective farming project of Kudumbashree mission. Expost facto research design was followed for the study. A sample of 120 farmers was selected by using proportionate sampling procedure and information was gathered and analyzed. The results showed that majority of the women rice farmers belonged to medium category of information management behavior