Economic Analysis of Parawilt Management in Bt-Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) in Mansa District of South-western Punjab, India

Parawilt characterized by a sudden drooping of leaves followed by death of plants withinfew hours after rainfall or heavy irrigation has been the major physiological disorder affectingproductivity of Bt-Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). We studied the effect of foliarapplication of cobalt chloride (@10 mg L-1 water) within 24-36 hours after appearance ofsymptoms on recovery rate, seed cotton yield and economics at farmers’ fields in Mansadistrict of south-western Punjab. The results of front line demonstrations revealed thatfoliar application of cobalt chloride resulted in significantly (p<0.05) higher seed cottonyield by ~9.1 per cent, compared with the control (no-spray). The mean gross returns(MGRs) increased significantly by Rs. 9620/- ha-1 in the demonstration plots. The higherbenefit-cost (B:C) ratio of 2.38 was observed for the demonstration plots, against 2.15 forthe control (no-spray). The foliar application of cobalt chloride resulted in higher averageproduction efficiency of 1.1 kg seed cotton yield ha-1 d-1 and average economic efficiencyof Rs. 65.7 ha-1 d-1, compared with the control. These results therefore, revealed that farmerscan effectively manage parawilt in Bt-cotton using foliar application of cobalt chloride andmay increase seed cotton yield and economic returns.

Comparative efficacy of different mulching materials to enhance growth and development and to control weed infestation in cotton

The present study was based on the hypothesis that mulching materials can directly control weeds and indirectly crop growth and development by improving soil fertility. The present study was conducted to evaluate the “Comparative efficacy of different mulching materials to enhance growth and development and to control weed infestation in cotton” at Student’s Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, during Kharif season, 2016, in a three, replicated randomized complete block design (RCBD). The net plot size was 4m x 3m (12m-2). There were three cotton varieties (Haridost, Shahbaz, and Sind-1), three mulching materials (wheat straw, sunflower, and banana leaves, each applied at 12 t ha-1), and a control without any mulching treatment. The study revealed that the maximum sympodial branches plant-1 (27.93), opened bolls plant-1 (47.53), the weight of seed cotton plant-1 (124.55 g), seed index (8.73 g), seed cotton yield (5394.4 kg ha-1), staple length (30.33 mm), ginning out-turn percentage (37.96%) and oil contents (22.45%) were recorded in Sindh-1 with banana leaves as mulching material. The same treatment caused the maximum leaf area (136.56 cm-2), and leaf area index (4.92 cm) in Haridost. The minimum weed density (55.00 m-2), weed fresh (293.6 g m-2) and dry biomass (122.52 g m-2) with maximum weed control (81%) was recorded with banana leaves as mulching material in Sindh-1. It can be concluded that mulching with banana leaves at 12 t ha-1 significantly reduced the weeds infestation, resulting in enhanced growth, yield, and physiological parameters of cotton crop..

Bio-efficacy of Certain Insecticides Sequence on Cotton Sucking Pests and Pink Bollworm

The field trials were conducted for two consecutive years during kharif, 2018 and 2019 seasons in the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Warangal, Telangana, India. The susceptible hybrid RCH-2 was grown during both the years of study. Among the treatments, significant (25.4%) reduction of aphids was recorded in neem oil, clothianidin and flonicamid sequential spray. The sequence chlorpyriphos, flonicamid and clothianidin achieved superior efficacy against jassids with 32.3% reduction over control during the two seasons. The highest reduction (25.2%) of thrips was observed in neem oil, clothianidin, flonicamid sequential spray. The incidence of whitefly was low during the experimental period, however, the highest white fly reduction (15.0%) was observed in chlorpyriphos, flonicamid, clothianidin spray. The lowest number of PBW larvae per 10 green bolls was observed in profenophos, spinetoram, chlorpyriphos+cypermethrin sequential spray that reduces up to 61.9% incidence. The lowest number of (38.5) damaged locules per 100 fully opened bolls were observed in profenophos, spinetoram, chlorpyriphos+cypermethrin sequential spray. But, the highest seed cotton yield (1414 kg ha-1) as well as benefit cost ratio (1.02) was recorded in chlorpyriphos, flonicamid, emamectin benzoate, clothianidin, indoxacarb+acetamiprid sequential spray. The study further revealed that, initial control of sucking pests menace especially jassid was crucial in deciding the cotton yield as compared to later stage pink bollworm menace. During both the years, it was noticed that during peak incidence of jassid, the treated plot with flonicamid against jassid in first instance had given highest seed cotton yield.

Path analysis based on genetic association of yield components and insects pest in upland cotton varieties

Gossypium hirsutum L. is also called upland cotton or Mexican cotton. It is the most widely cultivated species of cotton in the whole world. Globally, about 90% of all cotton production comes from the cultivars derived from this species. Some genetic parameters like monopodial branches per plant, sympodial branches per plant, sympodial branch length, bolls per plant, boll weight, sympo-boll distance, Ginning Out Turn%, staple length (rg = 0.9199**), and fiber strength along with seed cotton yield were evaluated for their potential utilization via selection in seed cotton yield improvement. Significant positive genetic correlations were estimated for monopodial branches per plant (rg = 0.9722**), sympodial branches per plant (rg = 0.7098**), sympodial branch length (rg = 0.617**), bolls per plant (rg = 0.8271**), boll weight (rg = 0.8065**), sympo-boll distance (rg = 0.6507**), Ginning Out Turn (GOT)% (rg = 0.7541**), staple length (rg = 0.9199**), and fiber strength (rg = 0.7534**) with seed cotton yield. A path analysis of all the yield traits under study revealed strong positive direct effects of monopodial branch length (1.1556), sympo-boll distance (0.8173) and staple length (0.7633), while plant height exerted a highly strong direct negative effect (-1.2096) on yield. It is concluded that a direct selection based on monopodial branch length and sympo-boll distance, and staple length is effective, whereas, monopodial branch length, and sympodial branch length are good selection indicators via bolls per plant for yield improvement in cotton.

The Detection of Impurity Content in Machine-Picked Seed Cotton Based on Image Processing and Improved YOLO V4

The detection of cotton impurity rates can reflect the cleaning effect of cotton impurity removal equipment, which plays a vital role in improving cotton quality and economic benefits. Therefore, several studies are being carried out to improve detection accuracy. Image processing technology is increasingly used in cotton impurity detection, in which deep learning technology based on convolution neural networks has shown excellent results in image classification, segmentation, target detection, etc. However, most of these applications focus on detecting foreign fibers in lint, which is of little significance to the parameter adjustment of cotton impurity removal equipment. For this reason, our goal was to develop an impurity detection system for seed cotton. In image segmentation, we propose a multi-channel fusion segmentation algorithm to segment the machine-picked seed cotton image. We collected 1017 images of machine-picked seed cotton as a dataset to train the detection model and tested and recognized 100 groups of samples, with an average recognition rate of 94.1%. Finally, the image segmented by the multi-channel fusion algorithm is input into the improved YOLOv4 network model for classification and recognition, and the established V–W model calculates the content of all kinds of impurities. The experimental results show that the impurity content in machine-picked cotton can be obtained effectively, and the detection accuracy of the impurity rate can increase by 5.6%.

Effect of Plant Spacings on Growth, Physiology, Yield and Fiber Quality Attributes of Cotton Genotypes under Nitrogen Fertilization

Cotton is a major cash crop of Pakistan that provides high foreign exchange and plays an important role in agriculture, industry, and economic development. The plant population is important in achieving high cotton yield and fiber quality attributes in irrigated conditions. Most farmers maintain plant spacing according to their local tradition, and often ignore the varietal characteristics in Pakistan that cause low yield and poor quality of products. Therefore, standardization of plant spacings according to varietal characteristics is important to achieve higher yield and fiber quality. A field experiment was carried out at the Agronomic Research Area, Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan in 2017, in order to evaluate the performance of four cotton cultivars (MNH-1016, FH-Lalazar, NIAB-878, and Cyto-124) under five plant spacings (15.0, 22.5, 30.0, 37.5, and 45.0 cm), comparing them with and without nitrogen application. Nitrogen fertilization was applied at the rate of 197 kg ha−1. The experiment was replicated thrice, as per Randomized Complete Block Design with factorial arrangements. The results showed that nitrogen application of 197 kg ha−1 showed a positive impact on all crop parameters compared to plots where no nitrogen fertilizer was applied. The wider plant spacing (45 cm) increased the values of many cotton parameters compared with other plant spacings (22.5, 30.0, 37.5 and 45.0 cm), but the seed cotton yield was found to be higher in the narrow plant spacing (15 cm). However, fiber quality parameters such as GOT, staple strength, and micronaire showed higher values under wider plant spacing (45.0 cm). The varieties showed a mixed effect on cotton productivity and fiber quality. The MNH-1016 significantly impacted yield-contributing parameters such as bolls plant−1, boll weight and seed cotton yield. The NIAB-878 showed a higher photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance compared to other varieties. Therefore, the wider plant spacing with nitrogen application could be a better strategy to increase cotton growth, yield, physiology, and fiber quality. However, long-term studies under different climatic conditions are suggested for wider plant spacing with nitrogen fertilizers.

Causation studies for Kapas yield, yield components and lint quality traits in Mexican cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

Cotton is a very important crop that consists of traits with different associationship due to genetic and environmental factors. In order to determine the degree of association between seed cotton yield and important traits, a study was done using an RBD experiment with 30 hybrids. Seed cotton yield, plant height, GOT, number of sympodial braches, boll weight, bolls per plant, span length, fineness and strength data were collected and analysed. The experiment was done with 30 F1 hybrids have delivered through Line x Tester mating configuration utilizing six lines and five testers were planted in a Randomized Block Design (RBD) with two replications at the Department of Cotton, TNAU, Coimbatore. Seed cotton yield per plant was found to have significant positive genotypic connection with boll weight (0.5810), number of bolls per plant (0.3867), plant height (0.422) and ginning percent (0.2182) however altogether and contrarily related with consistency proportion at genotypic level. The phenotypic relationship esteems likewise uncovered that seed cotton yield per plant had highly huge and positive phenotypic connection with number of bolls per plant (0.3470) and boll weight (0.4763). Path coefficients were processed to assess the commitment of individual characters to yield in cotton. The way investigation demonstrated high certain immediate impact of number of bolls per plant (0.4743) and fiber strength (0.6880) on seed cotton yield. Micronaire value displayed high sure circuitous impact on seed cotton yield through range length (0.3393), the outcome showed that number of bolls per plant had a high sure relationship with seed cotton yield and sympodial per plant recorded low certain connection with seed cotton yield. It was therefore concluded that selection of high yielding cotton hybrids could emphasize more on lint yield, boll weights, plant height and bolls per plant for better-performing lines. Gin outturn and fibre strength could be used indirectly to improve seed cotton yield through other traits.

Estimating Genetic Parameters for DSSAT CROPGRO-Cotton Model Calibration and Validation

DSSAT CROPGRO-Cotton Model (version 4.7.5) was generally used to forecast the effect of climate change on productivity. The objective of this study was to calibrate and validate this model in Tamil Nadu, India for simulation of development, growth and seed cotton yield of Suraj cotton cultivars under varied planting dates viz., 28th July, 11th August, 18th August, 25th August, 8th September and 15th September. The model was calibrated with data (phenology, biomass and yield components) collected during 2019. Calibration of CROPGRO-Cotton model with genetic coefficients of cultivar Suraj for seed cotton yield (kg ha-1). Simulation of days to flowering, days from planting to first pod and physiological maturity, LAI and seed cotton yield with normalized RMSE (NRMSE) values of less than 10% across all the various planting dates densities were considered excellent. Finally, we discovered that planting at the right time can mitigate many of the negative effects of fluctuating weather on cotton productivity. As a result conclude that DSSAT model will be used to make decision on cotton planting in changing climates.

PLANT SPACING AND ITS EFFECT ON YIELD, FIBRE QUALITY AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS IN COTTON

The purpose of this study was to see how changing plant spacings affected cotton yield, yield components, fibre quality traits, and physiological parameters. In this study, six plant spacings (no thinning, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 cm) were investigated. Plant density caused significant differences in the number of first fruiting branches, number of bolls, ginning percentage, seed cotton yield, fibre yield, and normalised difference vegetative index (NDVI). Plant height, the number of sympodial branches, number of monopodial branches, boll weight, seed cotton weight/boll, number of 100-seed weight, seeds/boll, canopy temperature, chlorophyll content, leaf area, and fibre quality properties (micronaire, length, strength, elongation, uniformity, short fibre index, reflectance, yellowness, and spinning consistency index [SCI] were non-significant. The highest values of seed cotton yield, fibre yield, ginning percentage, number of first fruiting branches, and NDVI were obtained in the no thinning and 5 cm plant spacing applications, while the highest boll number was obtained at 20 and 25 cm plant spacings. In this study, physiological parameters, such as canopy temperature, leaf area, chlorophyll content, and fibre technological traits, were not affected by plant spacing. The highest seed cotton yield, fibre yield, ginning percentage and NDVI were obtained from no thinning and 5 cm intra-row spacing, indicating their impact on examined characteristics. Therefore, a yield estimation can be made in the flowering period with the NDVI in different plant densities in cotton.