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Blackgram is the most important legume crop grown throughout India. It is mostly cultivated during the rainy and winter seasons in central and southern India. An investigation was carried out during winter 2021 to evaluate the effect of High Day Temperature (ambient+3oC) and Elevated CO2 (600ppm) (HDT and eCO2) and High Day and Night Temperature (ambient+3oC) and Elevated CO2 (600ppm) (HDNT and eCO2) on growth and yield of blackgram (Vigna mungo) under soil plant atmospheric research (SPAR) and ambient conditions with eleven treatments (T1 to T11). The results revealed that significant (P=0.05) increase in photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, number of pods per plant and grain yield by 22.3%, 80.6%, 29.2%, 28% and 41.3%, respectively, under HDT and eCO2 conditions from 46 to 60 DAS (days after sowing) in comparison with HDNT and eCO2 and ambient conditions. The increase in chlorophyll index under HDT and eCO2 during 16 to 30 DAS by 12.9%. The significant increase in the number of flowers per plant and biomass of the blackgram was increased under HDT and eCO2 during 31 to 45 DAS by 7% and 38.1%, respectively. However, the plant height and leaf area index of the blackgram were found to have significantly increased under HDT and eCO2 during the early stage (1 to 15 DAS) by 29.3% and 44.5%, respectively. This experiment indicated a significant increase in crop growth, leaf photosynthesis and yield of blackgram under HDT and eCO2 at flowering stage to pod development stage (31 to 60 DAS) followed by HDNT and eCO2 and ambient condition. The overall findings of the study showed that increased temperature and CO2 levels would result in greater biomass production and increased yield for the black gram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field investigation was carried out during winter 2022 at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to study the phenological behaviour and yield of baby corn (Zea mays L.) as influenced by heat units. The split-plot design consisting of three dates of sowing viz., D1 - 21st January, D2 - 5th February and D3 - 20th February as a main plot and three spacing viz., 60x45 cm (S1), 60x30 cm (S2) and 60x20 (S3) as a sub plot was adopted and replicated thrice. Growing Degree Days, Helio Thermal Unit and Heat Use Efficiency were calculated for different phenological stages viz., plant emergence to 50% flowering (P1), 50% flowering to cob emergence (P2), cob emergence to harvest (P3), plant emergence to cob emergence (P4), 50% flowering to harvest (P5) and plant emergence to harvest (P6). The results revealed that sowing on 20th Feb. had completed the phenophases early, followed by 5th Feb and 21st Jan. GDD required for attaining physiological maturity was highest in 20th Feb. (1194.6 °C days)). Except morning relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation, all other weather parameters had negative correlation with baby corn yield (R2=0.921). The optimum temperature was obtained during D1 (27.2 - 27.5 °C) along with short-day length (11.7 hours) resulting in higher corn yield (9333.3 kg/ha) as well as higher HUE (5.75). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weather forecasting become important tool for the planning of everyday farming activities, particularly the medium range weather forecast is highly required to reduce both input and production loss. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University is providing block level medium range weather forecast for next six days with Weather Research Forecast (WRF) Model and having accuracy of 50 -70 per cent, varies with season. An attempt was made at Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during 2019-21 to improve the accuracy of medium range rainfall forecast over different Agro Climate Zones of Tamil Nadu state by increasing the resolution from block level (9 km) to village level (3km) and altering the microphysics options in WRF v 4.2.1. The performance study tested four microphysics schemes viz., Kessler, WSM3, WSM5 and WSM6 for all the four seasons of 2020. The results obtained for the Southern Zone (SZ) is discussed in this paper and study concluded that the performance of high resolution village level (3km) rainfall forecast at Southern Agro Climatic Zone of Tamil Nadu generated from WRFv4.2.1 model was best with the WSM3 microphysics scheme followed by Kessler scheme, WSM5 and WSM6. Between the major rainfall seasons, Forecast Accuracy Index (FAI) was higher in NEM (0.56 to 0.73) than SWM (0.38 to 0.70), whereas the Forecast Usability Percent (FUP) was almost similar during both the South West Monsoon (SWM, 53.0 to 81.4) and North East Monsoon (NEM, 52.9 to 85.9). There was overestimation observed irrespective of season and microphysics options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]