Dietary habits of lesser bandicoot rat (Bandicota Bengalensis) in an agro-ecosystem, Pothwar Plateau, Pakistan

Dietary habits of bandicoot rats (bandicota bengalensis) were investigated in the agricultural crops of the Pothwar Plateau, Pakistan by analysing stomach contents. The research activities were conducted in major field crops including wheat-groundnut and in the fallow lands during non-crop season at the field boundaries. The specimens were captured from the fields using kill/snap traps, and dissected to collect their stomach samples for laboratory analysis. Light microscopic slides of the plant material were recovered from stomach samples and the reference materials were collected from the field. Results revealed that the bandicoot rat predominantly fed upon cultivated crops during cropping season but consumed wild vegetation during non-cropping season. There was no significance difference between summer and winter diets. Most frequently consumed crop food items were wheat (Triticum aestivum; 28.57%), groundnut (Arachis hypogea; 11.26%), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor; 10.17%), chickpea (Cicer arietinum; 9.52%), maize (Zea mays; 6.49%), millet (Pennisetum glaucum; 5.84%), barley (Hordeum vulgare; 4.98%) and mustard (Brassica campestris; 4.98%). Among wild vegetation were consumed khbal gha (Cynodon dactylon; 7.79%), baron dhab (Demostachya bipinnata; 7.36%) and Prickly flower (Achyranthes aspera; 3.03%). The study concludes that, in addition to consuming wheat and groundnut crops, the Lesser bandicoot rat also subsists on grasses, weeds, and some fodder crops, as important component of its diet in agro-ecosystem of the Pothwar Plateau.

Attitude of Farmers towards Groundnut Cultivation in Bikaner District of Rajasthan

The National Mission on Oilseed and Oil Palm (NMOOP) in India aims to increase oilseed and oil palm production and productivity by converting fallow lands to oilseed cropsand diversifying regions away from low-yielding cereals. It plans to improve vegetable oilavailability and reduce edible oil imports by increasing oilseed production and productivityfrom 29.79 million tons and 1122 kg/ha in the 12th plan period to 36.10 million tons and1290 kg/ha by the end of 2019-20. The study, aimed to explore respondents’ opinionstowards groundnut cultivation was conducted on 80 beneficiary farmers of NMOOP and80 non-beneficiaries. Groundnut growers, accounting for 11.24 percent, had a less favorableattitude toward groundnut cultivation whereas, 69.38 per cent of respondents fell into themoderately favorable category. It was noted that the both category of respondents hadfavorable attitude towards the interventions of groundnut cultivation.

A Preliminary Taxonomic Study on the Flora of Rangpur District, Bangladesh

This study demonstrates that the vascular flora of the Rangpur district area consists of 825 species under 537 genera and 139 families. The pteridophytes and gymnosperms are represented by 25 and seven species, respectively, whereas the angiosperms by 793 species including 582 species of dicotyledons (Magnoliopsida) and 211 species of monocotyledons (Liliopsida). Poaceae with 67 species, representing 8.12% of the flora, is appeared as the largest family, and followed by Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Araceae, Malvaceae and Euphorbiaceae that collectively constitute 17.94% of this flora. Persicaria comprising 10 species is recorded as the largest genus, and followed by Ficus, Euphorbia, Solanum, Albizia and Brassica. About 59.71% taxa of this flora are herbs, 21.71% trees, 14.72% shrubs and the rest are palms, lianas, and bamboos. Erect herbs forming 35.22% of the flora comprise the most common life-form. In this flora, almost 64.29% taxa are native and the rest 35.71% are exotic. Nearly 62.61% taxa of the flora are found in wild, 26.90% as planted and 10.49% as cultivated. About 35.46% of the species commonly occur throughout all upazilas of this district. Most of the species are harboured in fallow lands, roadsides, gardens, and homesteads. All species of this district flora are known as economically useful. Most of its habitats and ecosystems are exposed to different threats. Adequate measures with effective management plans should be adopted and implemented for the sustainable use, improvement and conservation of this precious flora. Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 28(2): 329-365, 2021 (December)

Проблемы актуализации земледельческих практик в Ямало-Ненецком автономном округе

Agricultural practices in agrocenoses of different ages and in fallow lands of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region of the Russian Federation were studied with account for post-agrogenic transformations of soils under cryogenic conditions. Agricultural practices in the YNAR are much consistent with those in Finnish Lapland, Southern Greenland, and remote fishing villages in Alaska. Well-drained areas with sandy, light and medium loamy, sod-meadow or sod-podzolic soils, which are easily warmed and not floating in cases of heavy rainfall, are selected for gardens and fields. The depth of permafrost is reduced in plowed areas and depends on the age of their development. The content of available forms of phosphorus and potassium in the upper layer of fallow soils remains very high even through 5-20 years. The use of agricultural techniques, including mulching, drainage, and application of manure and compost derived from fish, increases soil fertility. Currently, agriculture in YNAR decays for such reasons as remoteness (logistics problems), dependence on weather conditions, difficulties in field cultivation, lack of market for agricultural products, and limited choice of products due to natural conditions and the specifics of the agricultural industry. The small indigenous peoples and the landscapes of the North are inseparable and may be sustainable only based on the traditional ways of life harmonized with the natural and social environments.

Use of fallow lands to create new farm (peasant) farms

The organizational mechanism of the implementation of the Subprogram "Support of small forms of management" is proposed due to the development of fallow lands and the creation of cooperatives on these lands from newly created farms (peasant) farms.

Economic efficiency of oil crops cultivation in the Omsk region

We observed the production of oil crops in the Omsk region in 2016–2020. There are presented data on dynamics of sowing areas under oil crops (sunflower, soybean, oil flax, spring rapeseed, false flax, etc.). Production of oil crops is economically profitable due to sharp rise in sale prices of seeds and decrease in prime cost as a result of lowering of expenses for production. A level of profitability during a research period varied hard depending on expenses for chemicals. The most economically resulting was 2020, yields of oil flax and spring rapeseed was the highest. We studied impact of climatic conditions on yield of oil crops, namely precipitation amount in a period flowering–maturing. Increased interest to oil flax, rapeseed and soybean is conditioned with high economic efficiency of production, good adaptability to the climate of the Western Siberia, high yield and oil content, creating of favorable background for the further crops in rotation. Growth of oil crops production in the Omsk region can be reached both by intensive and extensive components of production. Intensive direction is realized by a range of factors including formation of varietal structure of crops, implementation of an intensive technology including all elements of oil crops cultivation. An extensive way proposes expansion of sowing areas involving fallow lands into sowing structure and northward expansion of early maturing crops cultivation, such as spring turnip rape, false flax and mustard.

Productivity of the crop rotation link depending on the technology of development of fallow lands in the south of Central Siberia

Relevance. According to the conducted studies, it was found that the disadvantages of steppe nature management include water erosion, deflation and other adverse phenomena. Similar processes are taking place in Siberia. At present, the redevelopment of deposits is beginning and soil degradation is again manifested in the steppe regions of Khakassia. For the rational and efficient use of land resources, it is necessary to develop a technology for processing soil deposits in the arid steppe zone of the south of Central Siberia.Methods. The study of the efficiency of soil cultivation technologies for the erosional agroecological group of fallow lands was carried out in the arid steppe agrolandscape region of the Republic of Khakassia, located in the south of Central Siberia. Research for four years was carried out in the link of fodder crop rotation: a long-term (20–25 years) cereal-forb fallow — oats (corn) for green mass by the method of B.A. Dospekhov. When performing the work, statistical and graphical methods were used.Results. It is established that malicious perennial grasses and juvenile weeds grow on long-term fallow lands (20–25 years). High efficiency of complex application of herbicides of continuous action (Tornado 500, Octopus Extra) and intensive tillage was revealed. Tillage of a long-term deposit to a depth of 18–20 cm, disking, fine flatcutting treatment and spraying with herbicide reduces the number of perennial weeds by 2 times more compared to technologies, that include small treatments and herbicide application. In the arid steppe zone, the technology with tillage of a long-term deposit to a depth of 18–20 cm increases the productivity of the feed crop rotation link by an average of 25.3–33.7% compared to technological operations involving small-scale processing (12–14 cm and 14–16 cm).

Occurrence of juvenile Dermacentor reticulatus ticks in three regions in Poland: the final evidence of the conquest

Background Two populations of Dermacentor reticulatus ticks (Western and Eastern) in Poland are among the most dynamic tick populations in Central Europe. Expansion and settlement of ticks in new localizations depend on the presence of suitable hosts, for both adult and juvenile ticks. Methods The current study was planned to complement our previous studies on questing adult ticks and was focused on a collection of juvenile D. reticulatus ticks from rodents from three regions in Poland, defined by the presence/absence of adult ticks (regions of the Western and Eastern tick population and the gap area between them) to confirm the existence of stable populations. Rodent trapping was conducted in open habitats (fallow lands, wasteland and submerged meadows) in 2016–2018 in June, July and/or August to encompass seasonal peaks of larvae and nymph activity. Results Altogether, three tick species were collected, 2866 D. reticulatus, 2141 Ixodes ricinus and 427 Haemaphysalis concinna. Dermacentor reticulatus was the most common (72.3%) and abundant (mean 17.94 ± 2.62 ticks/rodent) tick species on rodents from the Eastern region; in the Western region infestation of rodents was only 6.8%. Ixodes ricinus was found in all three regions and was the only tick species collected from rodents from the gap area. Haemaphysalis concinna was noted only in the Western region. The highest infestation of juvenile D. reticulatus was recorded on voles (Myodes and Microtus spp.), infestation of I. ricinus was the highest on Apodemus mice, and the majority of H. concinna ticks were collected from root voles Alexandromys oeconomus. Conclusions Our study confirmed a stable population of D. reticulatus in Eastern and Central Poland and a lower prevalence and mean abundance of this tick species among rodents from the Western region. A lack of juvenile D. reticulatus on rodents in Niewiadów confirmed the existence of the gap area, free of D. reticulatus ticks. Graphical abstract

Spatial distribution of land use concentration and land-use efficiency of the Kakodonga river basin, Assam

The Kakodonga river basin covers an area of about 1,113 km2. The average maximum temperature is 28.50C and the minimum temperature is 18.40C. The average rainfall of the basin is 1766 mm. The present paper is an attempt to analyze spatially land-use concentration and land-use efficiency of the Kakodonga river basin. For the preparation of thematic maps, Survey of India topographic sheets and IRS P6 LISS-III imagery (2011) data are used. The land-use categories data has been collected for three years (2012-2014) at the revenue circle level from the Economic and Statistical Department of Assam. To work out land-use concentration Bhatia’s (1965) method was adopted. The major land-use categories are forest cover, area put under non-agricultural use, barren lands, permanent pastures, and other grazing lands, miscellaneous trees and groves, culturable wasteland, current fallow land, other fallow lands, and the net area sown. The land-use efficiency has been worked out taking five positive variables are net sown area, total irrigated area, area irrigated more than once, the intensity of irrigation, and intensity of crops.

Rice- Fallows: A Destiny or Opportunity to Farmers from Bhagalpur District of Bihar

The study attempted to critically review the status and scope of rice fallows in India, specifically to the Bhagalpur district of Bihar. Technological progress and capital-intensive cultivation through conversion of marginal lands into mitigated the ever-increasing demand of food production for burgeoning population to some extent but a continuous expansion of fallow lands brought serious concern on policy dynamics. The changes in temporal and spatial distribution of fallow lands are mostly documented due to increasing variability in the precipitation and irrigation water, and low level of mechanization. However, this is not true in case of flood and drought prone areas, and state like Bihar, where farmers are financially weak and technological expansion is very limited. The results revealed that, the most important constraint for rice fallows was rainfed ecology, low soil moisture content after the harvest of paddy and lack of irrigation facilities. The farmers also identified lack of short duration and high yielding varieties, poor plant stand, no use of fertilizers and chemicals and severe weed infestation in the field as the other major constraints. The size of land holding was found positively significant with rice fallows area indicating that the income penalty of keeping land fallow could not be tolerated by marginal small farmers