: Disease prediction in plants has acquired much attention in recent years. Meteorological factors such as: temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, sunshine play an important role in a plan’s growth only if they are present in adequate amounts as required by the plant. On the other hand, if the factors are inadequate, they may also support the growth of a disease in the plants. The current study focuses on the Rust disease in Aonla fruits and leaves by utilizing a real time dataset of weather parameters. Fifteen different models are tested for spray prediction on conducive days. Two resampling techniques, random over sampling (ROS) and synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) have been used to balance the dataset and five different classifiers: support vector machine (SVM), logistic regression (LR), k-nearest neighbor (kNN), decision tree (DT) and random forest (RF) have been used to classify a particular day based on weather conditions as conducive or non-conducive. The classifiers are then evaluated based on four performance metrics: accuracy, precision, recall and F1-score. The results indicate that for imbalanced dataset, kNN is appropriate with high precision and recall values. Considering both balanced and imbalanced dataset models, the proposed model SMOTE-RF performs best among all models with 94.6% accuracy and can be used in a real time application for spray prediction. Hence, timely fungicide spray prediction without over spraying will help in better productivity and will prevent the yield loss due to rust disease in Aonla crop.
: This research aimed at studying the effect of late sowing on the vegetative growth and yield of twelve genotypes of bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.). An experiment was carried out in 2012/2013 using two sowing dates: 28th of November (reference) and 27th of December (late) at two locations (Shambat Demonstration Farm, Faculty of Agriculture University of Khartoum and Hudeiba Research Station). The experimental design was a split-plot with three replications. The results showed that late sowing significantly affected most of the vegetative characters. The results showed significant differences ( p ≤ 0.05) among genotypes for vegetative growth and yield at both locations. The interaction of sowing date and wheat genotypes was significant ( p ≤ 0.05) for 50% booting, 50% anthesis, 95% maturity, leaf area index and grain yield. Under reference sowing date total yield was 2.21 tons/ha and under late sowing it was 1.43 tons/ha with a reduction of about 35%. The genotypes exhibited large variation in their response to heat stress imposed at late sowing indicating the possibility of improving this trait genetically. Genotype 56 was the earliest in maturity at both locations; therefore, it can be tested for cultivation south of Khartoum.
Brazil is the center of diversity and dispersion of species of the genus Passiflora.Two species of passion fruit Passiflora tenuifila BRS VT (passiflora garlic) and another of Passiflora setacea BRS PC were used in this study.The plants were grown on the Embrapa Cerrados experimental farm.The fruits were washed, minimally cut and their constituents separated.Both species differed in the proportion of wet mass between husk, seed, and pulp.As expected, both species had a higher proportion of husks and seeds and a lower amount of pulp.A semi-purification procedure for the proteins present in the seeds and husks was described and the molecular aspects were analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).The quantification of soluble proteins was performed using the Bradford method.The analysis of the soluble protein extracted from the seeds and husks showed that these values are up to 70 times higher for the seeds of P. tenuifila and 28.5 times for P. setacea, in the husks.It was verified that both species present a similar protein profile, observed by the intense and diverse bands found in the polyacrylamide gel, mainly in the range of 32 to 19 kDa.This work opens up an unexplored field of tracking bioactive proteins and/or peptides including forms of nanostructure systems that protect other bioactive molecules.The objective of this work was to present an analytical procedure to semi-purify seed proteins of two Passiflora species and use electrophoresis as an analysis tool for further screening of their protein profiles and selection of a molecular marker to differentiate them.
: Faba bean is an important legume crop with food and feed applications. Since 2015, the culture of faba bean has decreased in France. Poor yield caused by climate change is proposed as one of the main reasons. Chitosan is a promising biopolymer with empirically proved impact on germination and disease tolerance of faba bean. However, the impact of chitosan seed priming on germination and yield of this plant is not experimentally studied. We followed chitosan primed faba bean seeds, from sowing until maturation, using germination, fruit and grain parameters. We observed that chitosan seed priming ameliorated several yield related traits. Germination rate, length of radicle and seedling, radicle dry matter, number of pods/plants, number of grains/pods were increased in chitosan primed faba beans. Total grain mass/plant increased up to 47% in treated plants. The probable underlying mechanisms, namely, root enhancement nitrogen metabolism, and elicitation of immune system are discussed. We conclude that, chitosan seed priming with compatible commercial preparations could be a potential solution to recompensate the loss of yield under variable climate conditions.
Bacterial wilt complex disease of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) was incited jointly by bacterial wilt pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum and Meloidogyne incognita worldwide. Bio-efficacy of bacterial antagonists i.e. B. amyloliquefaciens DSBA-11 and P. fluorescens DTPF-3 was studied against the wilt disease complex in tomato at National Phytotran facility Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, at 26 ± 2 °C. Minimum wilt disease incidence (26.00%) with the highest bio-control efficacy (64.15%), less juvenile population (19.33 J2/g of soil) of M. incognita was recorded in the combined application of DTPF-3 + DSBA-11 after 30 d of inoculation under glasshouse conditions. In a field study, minimum bacterial wilt disease incidences 19.0% and 20.4% were recorded in the bleaching powder treatment followed by mixed application of DSBA-11 + DTPF-3, 19.6% and 21.2% wilt incidence in 2014 and 2015 respectively. However, a reduction of root-knot gall index was recorded a maximum of 59.76% and 69.62% in DSBA-11 + DTPF-3 treated plants followed by 54.88% and 60.13% over control in DTPF-3 treatment in 2014 and 2015 respectively. The yield of tomato fruit was increased over control by 17.48% and 16.97% in 2014 and 2015 respectively under field conditions. A combination of P. fluorescens DTPF-3 + B. amyloliquefaciens DSBA-11 suppressed bacterial wilt and root-knot diseases and also increased the yield of the tomato fruit significantly (p < 0.05) under field conditions.
New and old genotypes of German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla Linn.) were experimented under different planting methods, manure and fertilizer combinations first time in Kathmandu valley. The researches aimed at evaluating genotypes performance, identifying suitable planting method and optimum combination of manures and fertilizers. The germplasm evaluation experiment was conducted at the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) field, Khumaltar during January-May. Planting method trial was laid out in randomized complete block and manure cum fertilizer trial was in Latin square design (LSD). The results showed good performance of chamomile growth, development and oil content. Major agronomic traits had average figures in all experiments comparable to chamomile growing areas. Most data differed significantly and at par. New genotype produced relatively higher number of branches, leaves and flower heads maintaining more plant density. Growth was higher in row sown and transplanted plots, row sowing found more beneficial. Transplanted plots delayed maturity. Transplanted (0.95%) and broadcasted (0.80%) chamomile gave higher oil percentage, no difference found between genotypes. Significantly (p < 0.05) higher and at par branch numbers, flower heads, biomass yield, plant height were recorded in the treatments with higher rate of farm yard manure (FYM) 20 t/ha followed by combined application of NPK 60:40:20 kg/ha plus manure 10 t/ha. Oil content was the highest (0.95%) in FYM (20 t/ha) applied plots followed by combined fertilization (0.80%). Despite inferior to treatment N:P:K 60:40:20 kg/ha only to enhance growth and oil production, other results suggested suitable technology and successful cultivation of chamomile in valley conditions are recommended.
: Oilseed Brassicas have prominent place after soybean and groundnut. More than 90% of the area under oilseed Brassicas is occupied by the Indian mustard ( Brassica juncea ) because of its relative tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses as compared to other oilseed Brassica species. Light plays key a role in net primary productivity and is necessary for plant growth , morphogenesis and several physiological processes. The present investigation aimed to assess the effect of low light stress on photosynthetic traits and antioxidative enzymes in Brassica juncea genotypes. Shading was imposed with nets from mid-December to mid-January which cut 25%-30% of natural sunlight. Shading period coincided with the onset of flowering. The results showed that chlorophyll b and antioxidant activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), guaiacol-peroxidase (G-POD) and catalase (CAT) increased under low light stress at two stages of investigations (10 and 30 days after removal of nets). With shading treatment, soil plant analysis development (SPAD) chlorophyll meter values, chlorophyll a , total chlorophyll, chlorophyll a / b ratio, carotenoid and protein content decreased significantly while malondialdehyde content increased due to damages of plant cells. This study provides valuable information for further deciphering genetic mechanism and improving agronomic traits in Indian mustard cultivated under optimal light requirements.
Maize shelling activity by the small scale farmers is done manually by either stripping with fingers, beating bagged cops with sticks or rubbing two cobs against each other. Shelling forms part of maize post-harvest losses which span from harvesting to consumption. The objective of this research was to demonstrate, test and evaluate the maize shellers in Meru County. The scope applied to one diesel (control) and three locally fabricated gasoline-powered throw-in type maize shellers and was performed on-farm at three different commercial villages (CVs). Traditional methods of shelling were compared to motorized shellers followed by the comparison between the 8 horsepower (hp) diesel (control) and 5 hp locally fabricated gasoline-powered shellers. The average shelling capacity (1,384 kg/h) and shelling efficiency (97.8%) of the locally fabricated shellers were lower as compared to the control (2,138 kg/h) with a shelling efficiency of 99.93%. The average scattering losses for the locally fabricated shellers were high (12.6%) compared to the control (0.053%). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed control had the highest mean (9.23) and p value > 0.05 hence more efficient compared to locally fabricated (9.15). The shellers lacked the cleaning component, hence shelled maize required cleaning by winnowing manually and were not gender friendly since women and people enabled differently (PED) could not operate the machine due to height of the feeding hopper compared to control. It took traditional methods longer (59.4 s) to perform a shelling operation compared to using motorized shellers (15 s). The efficient control sheller demonstrated reduced farmers’ drudgery and post-harvest losses and was recommended for use by the small scale farmers in the county.
The vegetable production in Cambodia has been plagued with poor productivity and broken chain, leaving the comparative advantage to the neighboring countries, namely Vietnam and Thailand. Poor soil condition during wet season has been significantly impacting the productivity of vegetable production in Cambodia which leads to an introduction of sub-surface drainage system at the root zone of Chinese cabbage under this paper. The aim of the experiment is to determine the possibility in increasing the effectiveness and productivity during wet season of Cambodian vegetable producers. The results of the experiment indicate positive improvement in terms of yield and growth of the Chinese cabbage at a rate of 24% and 34% for T2 and T3, respectively. There are, however, limited practicality and generalization for the research due to the controlling factors during the experiment and the detailed experimental setting which need further analysis, especially economic analysis and following up research work.
