Photographic evidence of some important coral diseases (black band disease, black disease/Terpios hoshinota, white syndrome, pink line syndrome, pink spots, invertebrate galls, skeletal growth anomalies, tissue loss), coral competing sponges, and coral–algal phase shifts (competitive overgrowth of the seaweed Caulerpa spp. over corals and competitive scleractinian interactions such as with Halimeda spp.) have been collected during field observations in a few atolls within the Lakshadweep archipelago, Arabian Sea. Further, earlier reports of similar diseases and other stressors within the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and its contiguous international waters, including the reefs of the Maldives and Sri Lanka, are highlighted and their distributional ranges are shown.

CRISPR is important because it is a component of the bacterial immune system that can cleave DNA and once the molecular mechanism behind its DNA-cleaving ability was discovered, it quickly evolved into a genome-editing tool and adopted widely. Web of Science, a platform for scientific and scholarly research based on citation index, showed an increase from 145 research papers in 2012–2272 research papers in 2021. This shows the popularity of this tool for precisely and efficiently manipulate the genomic regions of any organism. The efficiency of CRISPR-cas9 genome editing depends on sgRNA which is complementary to the target sequence, as any deviation can lead to off-targets also, and, the PAM sequence, the cleavage site for Cas9. Computational tools made genome editing simpler which design sgRNA considering the GC content, type of Cas, target sequence, PAM sequence. Several tools like CHOPCHOP, CRISPR-P, CRISPRdirect, E-crisp, etc., are available for sgRNA design. CRISPR-Cas genome editing has been widely used to increase the yield in crops, treat diseases which are impossible or difficult to treat before the discovery of CRISPR.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the World Bank have collaborated on a project entitled the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) to improve agricultural higher education in India, paving the way for sustainable higher education in agriculture. As part of this project, the present investigation was carried out through national-level workshops involving seven State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) across India, with participants from academia and industry, to strengthen ‘academia–industry collaboration’ through effective linkages. Based on the responses of 199 respondents from academia and industry, the study demonstrates an absolute need for linkages between universities and industries (p < 0.001), which are perceived to help improve higher education sustainably. Academic institutions believe that such linkages benefit students concerning their employability, entrepreneurial skills, and financial support received. At the same time, industries believe that they would benefit from novel technologies and influencing academic curricula. This article also establishes an alliance between some parts of academia and industry in the form of MoUs in the identified areas. However, many other areas need more appropriate linkage models. Both sectors, i.e., academia and industry, concur that such exposure and collaboration between the two entities will help to improve the quality of education. Moreover, such collaborations provide financial support, increase students’ employability, and improve their entrepreneurial skills. Among the areas requiring collaboration, the ‘capacity building of students’ was rated most important by academia and industry. Overall, the present study has significant implications for university administrators and industry leaders involved in enhancing academia–industry cooperation and improving the quality and sustainability of higher education in agriculture. Further, the study greatly contributes to the National Education Policy (NEP) to promote innovation among the student communities through Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) and to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Reservoirs are major inland water resources benefitting society through multiple ecosystem services, including fish production. However, the scope of the reservoirs in India is yet to be explored for its full fisheries potential and the scientific/management personnel are engaged in bridging the yield gap. This paper reviews the research progress made in Indian reservoir fisheries from 1998 to 2019 as a case and compares with global studies using bibliometric indicators extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database. A total of 7607 papers published globally, mainly by the USA (2662 papers), Brazil (874 papers), and People’s Republic China (678 papers) were considered. India produced 162 publications (2.13% of total papers) during the period mainly authored by research institutes of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The predominant research subjects both globally and in India were ‘Environmental Sciences, Ecology, Marine and Freshwater Biology, and Fisheries’, though the composition varies. The trend in the reservoir research output indicated a shift towards applied research such as spatial planning and cage culture which offers scope for the international scientific fraternity to collaborate with Indian counterparts to solve common researchable issues. Indian authors have collaborated with 29 countries on various researchable issues, and preferred Indian journals for publications. The reservoir research in India is mainly funded by public sources and the extent of work carried out on a particular geographical area depends on the nearness to laboratories and availability of the infrastructure. This study advocates that creation of research network at pan-India level in collaboration with international partners would benefit the reservoir fisheries research in the future. This analysis including the trend and dynamics of Indian reservoir fisheries portrayed as a case study would aid in prioritising research efforts for the development of the sector in India and elsewhere. Keywords: Bibliometric indicators, Collaboration, Reservoir fisheries, Scientometrics, Web of Science

In the current study we have undertaken the scientometric analysis to map research publications from 19 different animal science research institutions under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), for a period of two decades (1998 to 2020), using the Web of Science (WoS) platform of Clarivate Analytics. We analyzed different scientometric parameters like year-wise citation records, institute-wise publication output, authorship pattern, publication types, top collaborating countries, research areas and journals, and relative growth rate and doubling time. Current analysis revealed that the maximum number of research articles were published in 2017 and ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute contributed to the highest number of research papers and citations during the study period. Multi-authorship papers were significantly higher than single and double-authored papers. The study showed that in the field of animal sciences, the USA is the top collaborator with India resulting in 417 collaborative research papers. The Indian Journal of Animal Sciences carried the maximum number of research papers published by researchers from ICAR-Animal Science Research Institutes (ASRI) during 1998-2020. Relative Growth Rate (RGR) showed a decreasing trend in research publications while the doubling time increased during this period. The paper provides a comprehensive account of the research trends in animal sciences research and also insights for strengthening research focus in India.

A meta-analysis of research on fishstock identification in India was performed to examine the trends and patterns of work conducted in fish-stock identification between 2000 and 2021. The publication data extracted from the Web of Science database with different sets of keywords resulted in a total of 214 research articles dealing with fish-stock identification. The common methods applied for stock identification are mtDNA sequencing, microsatellite markers and truss morphometrics. Published records showed that 14.49% of the research used different stock-identification methods in a single study to arrive at an accurate result on the stock structure of the studied species. Teleosts were the most studied group, followed by crustaceans, bivalves and elasmobranchs, and most of the studies focused on the fishes belonging to the orders Cypriniformes and Siluriformes. Fishes caught from the wild populations accounted for most of the studies, rather than the farmed ones. The study highlighted pitfalls in the stock-identification studies in India, viz. fewer studies on the marine realm and more specifically on elasmobranchs, farm escapees into the wild, threatened species, etc. The study also highlighted the need for strengthening stock-identification studies so that they aid in data-driven fisheries management measures.

The eight National Fisheries Research Institutes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) play a significant role in driving fisheries development in the country by advancing knowledge through basic and applied research; technology development and extension/outreach. Collaboration and networking among researchers and institutes are fundamental to address the multi-faceted issues confronting the fisheries sector in India. Collaborative research pattern among ICARFisheries Research Institutes (IFRIs) and with R&D organisations in other countries was studied for a period of 20 years (2000-2019). Research productivity and focus areas of research of these institutes were also assessed through bibliometrics of publications extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database. The search yielded 4,557 publications and a significant increase in the number of publications from 2000 to 2019 was evident . Major chunk of these papers (87%) was published in collaboration with National Institutes while only 10.6% had international collaboration especially with the United States of America (USA), Australia and Japan. A positive correlation (p<0.01) was observed between the extent of collaboration (both national and international) and the average citation per paper. The average impact factor of the journals carrying fisheries research papers with at least one international author was higher than those in which the papers were with only Indian authors. This leads us to hypothesise that the network of IFRIs with international research institutions aids in increasing the quality, visibility and impact of research. The co-authorship pattern revealed a gradual reduction in single and two-authored papers during the last 20 years, while multi-authored papers exhibited an increasing trend. The study showed that the collaboration network in fisheries research is growing fast; collaborating countries in the network increased gradually, and the number of authors and publications increased almost exponentially, as indicated by the growth rate and doubling time in research publications. The present study provides a multi-dimensional overview of the impact of research publications from IFRIs and provides specific insights in to the research managers to plan and strategise their collaborations to enhance the influence of fisheries research in India.Keywords: Collaborative index, Collaboration coefficient, Doubling time, Research productivity

1. Abstract Arabidopsis thaliana , a model plant, is intensively researched because of the intrinsic advantages associated with its life cycle, genetics, and other characteristics. In the present study, we analysed the publication data of research work done on A. thaliana during 2001-2020, a period when the whole genome sequence of the plant was available to the researchers. The current meta-analysis showed that 31965 research papers were published globally on Arabidopsis during the study period. The USA topped the countries with the maximum share of publications (28.97%), followed by China, Japan, and West European countries. The analysis showed a temporal shift in the number of publications from different countries and their research focus. After 2013, the research output from China was higher than that from the USA, and there was a shift in focus from developmental biology to stress-related topics. Plant Physiology journal carried the most research work (2490 publications) on Arabidopsis, which was followed by Plant Cell (2376), the Plant Journal (2260) and the Journal of Experimental Botany (1121). However, there was a progressive decline in the publication in these journals, and a shift was evident in favour of open access journals like Frontiers in Plant Science. The publication and citation numbers also show ongoing Arabidopsis research’s relevance to plant sciences, particularly curiosity-driven and discovery-based science. This article delves into the patterns in the prominence of research areas, ideas and foci for the future Arabidopsis research roadmap.

Herbicides are continuing to be an integral part of weed control in global agriculture and hence the research related to herbicides have paramount importance. Therefore, the present study attempts a scientometric analysis of global herbicide research undertaken during the last decade (2011 to 2020). For this, we collected the bibliometric data on published literature from the ISI Web of science core collection database in March 2021. A combination of search strings was used to obtain the appropriate data on herbicide research and VOSviewer was used for analyzing the networks among authors, organizations, journals, and countries. The study showed that 9,980 research papers were published on herbicide research with an average citation per article of 9.94 during this period. The volume of publications exhibited an increasing trend over the years. Further, the leading countries involved in the herbicide research domain were the USA, China and Brazil. The co-occurrence analysis of author keywords indicted “herbicide resistance” as the most focussed field in the herbicide research domain.

The riverine ecosystem provides multiple benefits to human community and contributes to the sustainable development of the ecoregion. The growing dependency on these ecosystems has largely contributed to aggravating the ecological risks, habitat degradation, and loss of ecosystem services. The present study evaluates the ecological risk emanating from nine anthropogenic stressors including river use, hydro-morphology, catchment pollution, and biological stressor on river Pranhita in Godavari Basin of Peninsular India using InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) Habitat Risk Assessment model. The primary field survey, remote sensing, and secondary data-assisted spatial modelling results revealed low ecological risk (R = 0.65 of 3) in river Pranhita due to anthropogenic activities. Sediment loading, the inflow of nitrogen, and habitat fragmentation were the major stressors with relatively higher risk score (> 1); influence on a sizeable portion of riverine habitat (29–75

Seasonal occurrence of baleen whales along Odisha coast is investigated based on critical evaluation of the stranding data collected from beach surveys, citizen reports and unpublished records during2016- 2020. The study reveals that there have been 18 instances of whale stranding in Odisha of which baleen whales accounted for 12 (66.6%) and Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) alone accounted for 11 instances (61%). Two of the incidents were noted while data review and 16 were investigated in the field and by observing photographs. As the lengths of 55% of the individuals of Bryde’s whale stranded in Odisha were less than the size at which they attain sexual maturity (<39 feet), their seasonal migration to this coast could not be conclusively attributed to mating, breeding or calving purposes. However, a critical review of the seasonal distribution data showed that 91% of the strandings of Bryde’s whale in Odisha beaches occurred during post-monsoon season (November-February), which coincides with the period of high productivity and availability of plenty of food. This leads us to hypothesize that Bryde’s whales, the inhabitants of all tropical and warm temperate waters between 40ºN and 40ºS, possibly migrate to seawaters off Odisha coast, along north-western side of Bay of Bengal for feeding purposes. However, the stranding data alone could not ascertain the habitat use and hence the study calls for further investigations such as stomach content, stable isotopes analysis, and/ or visual observation of feeding activity of the whales in the region to confirm their purpose of congregation as feeding. The study further claims a thorough investigation to understand the reason behind instances of stranding and mortality of baleen whales along the Odisha coast.

Sustainable development warrants cognizance of the limits of the ecosystem in terms of carrying capacity and technological externalities and, therefore, the limited extent of substitutability of natural capital with physical capital. The notion of sustainability assumes maximization and/or maintenance of current production without increasing the per unit use of inputs. In this paper, we assess the agricultural sustainability of 17 Indian states using an indicator approach for a period of two decades (1991–2011). For the analysis, the paper primarily uses the normalized temporal data for construction of indices for each of the selected indicators grouped under environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Overall, the agricultural sustainability has improved in all the states. Among the sub-components, while the social-sustainability dimension improved in all the states, the environmental and economic dimensions improved in 8 and 14 states, respectively. There was significant variation in sustainability performance among the states. Economic and environmental sustainability indices were negatively correlated. Based on the results, we advocate a strategy that negates this negative correlation. We recommend a comprehensive approach for integrating all the three dimensions for planning actions towards sustainable agricultural growth.

Seasonal occurrence of baleen whales along Odisha coast is investigated based on critical evaluation of the stranding data collected from beach surveys, citizen reports and unpublished records during2016- 2020. The study reveals that there have been 18 instances of whale stranding in Odisha of which baleen whales accounted for 12 (66.6%) and Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) alone accounted for 11 instances (61%). Two of the incidents were noted while data review and 16 were investigated in the field and by observing photographs. As the lengths of 55% of the individuals of Bryde’s whale stranded in Odisha were less than the size at which they attain sexual maturity (<39 feet), their seasonal migration to this coast could not be conclusively attributed to mating, breeding or calving purposes. However, a critical review of the seasonal distribution data showed that 91% of the strandings of Bryde’s whale in Odisha beaches occurred during post-monsoon season (November-February), which coincides with the period of high productivity and availability of plenty of food. This leads us to hypothesize that Bryde’s whales, the inhabitants of all tropical and warm temperate waters between 40ºN and 40ºS, possibly migrate to seawaters off Odisha coast, along north-western side of Bay of Bengal for feeding purposes. However, the stranding data alone could not ascertain the habitat use and hence the study calls for further investigations such as stomach content, stable isotopes analysis, and/ or visual observation of feeding activity of the whales in the region to confirm their purpose of congregation as feeding. The study further claims a thorough investigation to understand the reason behind instances of stranding and mortality of baleen whales along the Odisha coast.

The conservation and management of inland fish and freshwater ecosystems immensely contribute to global sustainable development. The existing ‘Protected Area’ (PA) network does not represent freshwater resources well and seldom considers its fish communities, while designating PAs. A study was undertaken to quantitatively assess the role played by the three terrestrial PAs (IUCN category IV) in conserving fish diversity and preserving habitat quality in the river reaches bordering the three PAs of the river Pranhita. It is a unique river system in the Indian Deccan Plateau in terms of fish diversity and community structure. Field surveys were conducted during the non-monsoon and monsoon seasons in 2020–21, that recorded 53 species including endemic and threatened fishes from river Pranhita, which represent more than one-third the number of fish species of Telangana state. The higher diversity and lower dominance index value (p < 0.01) reported in PAs compared to Eco Sensitive Zones and unprotected areas during the non-monsoon season indicate the role of intact physical habitat in providing refuges to the fish species in monsoon dependent tropical rivers. The optimal water quality revealed no significant difference (p > 0.0001) between protected and unprotected river reaches, and healthy biotic integrity assessed on the basis of fish community structure was attributed to the contiguous flow and less anthropogenic disturbance. This study supports that it can be considered as a representative zone for the conservation and protection of indigenous and endemic fish species of the Godavari Basin. The results concluded that the scope of the terrestrial PA network in India could be potentially extended to their bordering aquatic ecosystems, especially rivers to maintain pristine habitat conditions and conserve the fish genetic resources to ensure the flow of ecosystem services.

An Expost facto research design was adopted to understand the learning approaches of agricultural students (deep, strategic, and surface) and the data were collected randomly from 1514 students of Indian agricultural higher education institutions using the ‘Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST)’ instrument. The predominant learning approach adopted by the agricultural students was found to be ‘strategic’ (41.1%), followed by ‘deep’ (40.3 %) and ‘surface’ (15.5 %) approaches. No significant association (Chi-square statistic = 24.106, p=0.156) was found in the student learning approaches across the disciplines, while significant difference (t-statistic=2.248, p=0.028) was found between graduate and undergraduate students in case of ‘deep approach’. Gender had a significant association (Chi-square statistic =14.817, p<0.001) with the students’ learning approaches, especially in ‘strategic’ and ‘surface’ approaches. The paper calls for more systematic and effective teaching-learning and assessment strategies to enhance agricultural higher education quality.

Soil is a living and dynamic body, which is prone to degradation under conventional agricultural practices. Healthy soil is one of the most important pillars of sustainability as it delivers several ecosystem services along with its control on microbial activity, nutrient recycling, and decomposition. Nature‐based solutions can play an important role in restoring soil quality for enhanced agricultural productivity and sustainability. This article discusses various nature‐based options available for improving soil quality. Indigenous practices such as sheep penning, tank silt application, green manuring, and refuse from croplands and households have the potential to restore and maintain soil fertility. Biofertilizers can add nutrients (N fixers), fixe up to 300 kg N ha through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) and facilitate (nutrient solubilizer and mobilizers) nutrient availability in the soil. Biochar, a commonly used product, can increase soil moisture availability by 8%–10% and aids in mitigating climate change through C‐sequestration. Biochar may have a climate change mitigation potential of 1.8 Pg CO 2 ‐C equivalent per year. When added to the soil, it not only acts as a nutrient source; but also acts as a soil amendment. Biogas slurry, the effluent from biogas reactors, contains various nutrient elements that can enrich soil fertility. The holistic approach in a farming system, through integration of different enterprises, reduces dependence on off‐farm resources. Soil management through nature‐based options will maintain crop productivity and sustainability in the long run without any adverse effects on the environment.

Reservoirs have tremendous fisheries potential amongst the inland water resources and aptly referred as ‘sleeping giants’, as the fish yield potential of these resources are yet to be tapped. Existing gaps in the availability of absolute information and data on the inland water resources hinder the applicability and implementation of various fisheries development programmes, which in turn impact inland fisheries production. The present study was carried out in the reservoirs viz., Sri Ram Sagar, Kaddam and Swarna from the Godavari Basin, covering the period 2016-2021, as a case study to demonstrate the use of remote sensed data in fisheries stock enhancement planning. The perennial and seasonal water spread area of the reservoirs under study, estimated through composite water maps prepared using Sentinel 2A data ranged between 8 to 19 and 4 to 29%, respectively. Further, the potential area for enclosure fish culture (both cage and pen culture) in these reservoirs were found to range between 14.89% (Sir Ram Sagar) to 48.54% (Kaddam). The field validated results revealed less than 0.1% of the perennial water spread area mapped in these reservoirs is under use for cage culture. This highlights under-utilisation of these reservoirs and demonstrates scope for developing enclosure fish culture or other culture-based fisheries for enhancing the fish production. The study also demonstrates the use of geospatial tools in development planning for expanding enclosure fish culture in the reservoirs and in turn enhancing fisheries production from the reservoirs in India. Keywords: Composite water maps, Enclosure fish culture, Geospatial tools, Godavari River, NDWI, Reservoir, Sentinel 2A data, Water spread area

Rivers are dynamic ecosystems with diverse habitats that require ample connectivity to ensure the flow of ecosystem services, thus empowering the sustainable development of an entire basin. Geo-spatial tools offer powerful prospects for monitoring of aquatic ecosystems. The usefulness of Sentinel-2 datasets to assess river connectivity has been explored for an un-gauged seasonal river system. The present study was undertaken in five ecologically unique river reaches viz. Wainganga, Wardha, Pranhita, Godavari-mid and Manair in Godavari Basin in the Indian Deccan Plateau to map water spread dynamics at various time scales, i.e., fortnightly, monthly, seasonal, annual and demi-decadal during 2016–2021. The maximum value of perennial water spread per square kilometre of total floodplain area (2016–2021), determined using Sentinel-2 imageries, was observed in river Wardha (0.18) followed by Pranhita (0.12) and Wainganga (0.11). The water spread showed a decreasing trend, while the number of patches in the river corridor increased over time from post-monsoon to pre-monsoon season. The copious perennial habitat with relatively larger patches, incessant flow in river Pranhita and obstructed flow, large-sized patches reported in river Wardha during summer months, hold importance in terms of providing refuge to aquatic biota. This study provides evidence for the impact of water projects on spatio-temporal water spread dynamics in Godavari Basin. The demonstrated utility of Sentinel-2 imagery coupled with gauge station measurements for river continuity assessment and deep pool mapping would aid in enhancing our understanding on environmental flow at a spatial scale, which in turn would aid in effective river management to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The implications of this study for sustainable environmental management and limitations are also discussed.

Inland fisheries resources are vital for the human community and contribute to the development of a particular region. However, inland water bodies are highly dynamic, surrounded by terrestrial ecosystems, and face multiple threats from various anthropogenic stressors. Hence, the conservation and management of aquatic resources are becoming formidable which require the use of geo-spatial technologies for evidence-based scientific management of their habitats and fish genetic resources. The applications of geo-spatial tools are well acknowledged in data-scarce regions and in the field of natural resource management where the decision can be made based on the outputs arising from limited scientific assumptions. The remote sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) based habitat characterization of inland water bodies, viz., inventory, monitoring of water spread and quality, habitat risk and suitability mapping, habitat prediction, and connectivity assessment is getting momentum in recent times, and incorporation of field exploration data with landscape information derived from geo-spatial tools enhance our understanding on aquatic habitats. The applications of geo-spatial models enhanced the potential of ecosystem service quantification and conservation planning in inland aquatic habitats. The demonstration of RS and GIS applications at a larger landform scale in inland open water bodies is necessary to illustrate its potential for science-based management of inland aquatic habitats for the conservation of fish genetic resources.