Sudden changes in crop environment, as influenced by total solar eclipse

The Division of Agricultural Meteorology, at Pune of IMD conducted an experiment at Principal Evapotranspiration Observatory, Canning, W.B., during October, 1995 to study the sudden changes in crop environment. The present study revealed that both the crop canopy temperature and observatory temperature at different heights recorded sharp fall of around 2.0°C at 0900 hr (IST) on the eclipse day. The relative humidity (% ) increased sharply at 0900 hr (IST) on the eclipse day within crop canopy as well as within observatory. The soil temperature dropped suddenly at 10 and 20 cm depths of the subsoil and delayed reversal of the soil temperature gradient occurred on the eclipse day; the grass minimum temperature was 21.2°C. Bright sunshine hours reduced by 0.8 on 'the eclipse day as compared to the preceding and succeeding days. The wind during the eclipse period was almost calm between 0900 -0930 hr (IST). The daily total ET recorded on the eclipse day was the minimum. The rate of evapotranspiration was less than half as compared to the other days, as recorded at 0830 hr (IST) (0.2 mm) on the eclipse day, which was closely followed by that observed at 1130 hr (IST) (0.3 mm).

​​Habitat Manipulation: An Important Component of IPM in the Management of Webbing Caterpillar, Maruca vitrata (Geyer) in Pigeonpea

Background: Maruca vitrata is an economically important cryptic insect pest in pigeonpea. Caterpillar, the damaging stage hides in the webs thus escapes the contact with insecticides thus making an effective insecticide also ineffective. Hence, the role of some tall statured intercrops in the manipulation of pigeonpea crop environment for reducing the incidence of this webbing caterpillar was studied. Methods: Studies were conducted at NPRC, Vamban, Pudukottai dt., Tamil Nadu to study the effect of different intercrops in reducing the incidence of Maruca vitrata. During kharif 2016-17 and 2017-18, M. vitrata incidence was compared among the intercropping systems (pigeonpea with pearlmillet, sorghum and maize in 1:6 ratio) and sole pigeonpea crop. IPM modules were formulated in which botanical spray (NSKE 5% at bud initiation stage) and spray of recommended insecticide (indoxacarb 15.8 EC-0.7 ml/lt at flowering and 15 days later) were integrated with intercropping practice and tested for efficacy against this borer pest. Result: Intercropping of pigeonpea with pearlmillet was effective in managing the spotted pod borer. Coccinellids and spiders were more in intercropped pigeonpea than the sole pigeonpea crop. Synchronized flowering times of short duration pigeonpea and intercrops would have facilitated the transfer of natural enemies from intercrops to pigeonpea and this may be the one of the reasons for the lower insect population. IPM module I (pigeonpea intercropped with pearlmillet, NSKE and indoxacarb sprays) was effective in reducing the spotted pod borer damage. In IPM module I, yield of 770 kg/ha was obtained as against 550 kg/ha in sole pigeonpea crop. Among the IPM modules, high B:C ratio of 1:1.66 was recorded with IPM module I.

Implementation of Automatic Irrigation Controller

Agriculture and food production is a traditional technique; nevertheless, modern technologies were introduced, and it was only via the modernization of advanced technological equipment that Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) were able to manage the sequence range of data. The sequence from the agricultural field is updated in real time by these automated irrigation controllers. The pH levels of the agricultural field are measured, and the selected crops of the observe framework are live adapted for optimal crop environment. The main goals are to control wastage of water, boost fertilization requirements, and enhance the performance in yield. The cloud server solution restores data oracle ingress and restricts without the need for human intervention.

Degenerescence of virus-free garlic cultivars in altitude conditions in the Semiarid region of the Northeast of Brazil

ABSTRACT It is necessary to use virus-free garlic seeds to reach high bulb yields; however, information is needed on the number of generations that these seeds can be grown in field conditions without decreasing bulb yield and quality due to degeneration. Degeneration is dependent on the production season and locality; thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the degeneration of virus-free garlic cultivars grown in the Semiarid region of the Northeast of Brazil, through three experiments conducted in Portalegre, state of Rio Grande do Norte. Virus-free garlic cultivars were used in the first generation (G1) and second-generation (G2) and cultivars without clonal cleaning (infected) in the third experiment. The experiments were conducted in randomized blocks experimental design, with four replications. The treatments consisted of five cultivars: Amarante, Branco Mossoró, Cateto Roxo, Gravatá, and Hozan. The use of G2 garlic seeds in field conditions is viable, mainly for the cultivars Branco Mossoró and Hozan, which showed lower production losses. However, further evaluations, considering at least four generations, are necessary for these cultivars, since the degeneration level depends on the crop environment.

Rendimiento de maíz (Zea mays L.) en la mixteca, calculado con DSSAT

Los modelos de simulación, basados en procesos biofísicos, aplicados a la agricultura permiten conocer la dinámica de variables biológicas y ambientales, pero su uso implica grandes cantidades de información de suelo, clima, manejo y fenología de cultivos. En este estudio se calibraron y validaron, con el rendimiento del grano, los coeficientes genéticos del modelo CERES-Maize (Crop Environment Resource Synthesis) (DSSAT, versión 4.7) de plantas híbridas y criollas de maíz (Zea mays L.). El objetivo fue determinar el alcance y las limitaciones del modelo para estimar rendimientos de grano en la región Mixteca de Oaxaca, México. Para el proceso de calibración el ajuste para el maíz híbrido mostró r2 = 0.94 y RMSE = 567.11 y para el criollo se obtuvo r2 = 0.86 y RMSE = 601.58. En el proceso de validación correlación del maíz híbrido mostró r2 = 0.73 y RMSE = 976.65, valores mayores que el cultivar criollo (r2 = 0.62, RMSE = 698.74). El modelo CERES subestimó en promedio 10% del rendimiento del grano. Los cultivares híbridos mostraron un ajuste 10% mayor que los criollos. En general el modelo CERES-Maize estimó adecuadamente los rendimientos de maíz.

CAṄKA ILAKKIYATTIL NĪR MĒLĀṆMAI [WATER MANAGEMENT IN SANGGAM LITERATURE]

Water is a natural resource that every human being on earth rely to satisfy his or her needs. The earth is now facing many problems such as climate change droughts and water scarcity which is a result from human activity. Life on earth without water cannot be imagined and importance and usage of water has been discussed in Sanggam Literature. In Sanggam Literature water resource has been treated in a very high state and maintained well. Water maintenance has been equipped with skills and expertise of mankind in design the water construction of reservoirs to dams. A safe crop environment also has been developed and practiced to ensure the water in the pond is not contaminated. On the other hand, guards also assigned to guard the water levels throughout the day and night. This system ensures there is enough water to access and awareness of water disaster from beginning. This paper discuss by establishing the danger of water in proper way it is possible to live by hitting the level of self- sufficient.