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Honey bees suffer from a cosmic array of biotic and abiotic stress during their life cycle. The insect pests like wax moths and Dermestid beetles contribute immensely to the damage of bee colonies and reduction in honey yield in tropical regions of India. While, the bee colonies in temperate regions of Indian Himalayas, face an entirely different set of hitches that include predation of forager bees by three hornet species (Vespa mandarinia, Vespa velutina nigrithorax and Vespa tropica). The attacks on bee colonies by these hornet species compel the bees to desert the colony and swarm away to a new habitat thus, causing severe economic losses to bee keepers. Considering the severe setbacks enforced by hornets, a low-cost hornet trap was designed. The bait ingredients and their trapping efficiency against targeted hornet species are presented herewith. It was observed that green colored bottles attracted 34 hornets of three species in 10 days, while transparent bottles attracted only seven hornets at bait proportions of 1:2:2 (Apple cedar Vinegar: orange juice: water). Moreover, to reduce the attraction of honey bees into the trap, supplementary ingredients like rotten fruits and market honey were used, which enhanced the trapping efficiency of hornets. The benefit-cost ratio of 12.30:1 was recorded after the installation of the trap, which was significantly superior to traditional method (1.64:1) of manual swatting of hornets in the apiary. The farmers are currently trained to design and use these traps for the management of hornet pests in the Indian Himalayas.

Due to climate change phenomenon and substantial decrease in water resources, analyzing the streamflow trend is of significant importance. In the present study, investigation was carried out to find rainfall and streamflow trends in the Kosi river watershed at different timescales from 1986 to 2016. Kosi river is one of the principal rivers in the Kumaon region. The different methods employed for trend detection of streamflow and rainfall were the Mann–Kendall (MK) test and the Sen’s slope (SS) estimator. Results showed a statistically significant decreasing trend in pre-monsoonal and annual rainfall with a Sen’s slope of -2.27 and -1.49 mm/year, respectively. The decreasing trends in pre-monsoon, post-monsoon, and winter streamflow were found during 1986–2016, which were not statistically significant. The results of the study help in understanding the variation and availability of rainfall and streamflow in different seasons of the year and motivate to adopt effective water management and agricultural practices for rainfed hills.

Agriculture in hill and mountain ecosystem is predominantly rainfed with common occurrence of moisture stress. Due to erratic rainfall and adverse topology in the Indian Himalaya Region (IHR), agricultural drought has become a prime concern. It is a natural disaster which evolves in time and their impacts generally last a long period of time. The present study attempts to characterize annual, seasonal and monthly temporal trend and rainfall pattern of 56 years long-term (1964-2019) and post-urbanization or recent (1980-2019) period using meteorological data of ICARVPKAS, Experimental Farm Hawalbagh, Almoraand Headquarter office, Almora observatory located in mid-Himalayan region of Uttarakhand state of India. Man-Kendall (α≤ 0.05; α≤ 0.10) test, Sen.’s slope and rainfall anomaly index (RAI) were employed for detecting trend, changes in magnitude of rainfall and identifying rainfall deficit year, respectively. The statistically significant (α≤ 0.05) decreasing trend was found during post-urbanization (1980-2019) with Sen.'s slope for pre-monsoon season (-2.38 mm/year) and annual rainfall (-7.26 mm/year) for Hawalbagh, while cold winter season shows statistically significant deceasing trend with Sen.'s slope (-2.00 mm/year) at Headquarter office, Almora. The decreasing trend in monsoon season (statistically significant at α≤ 0.10) was found during (1964-2019). However, both the station showed decreasing rainfall trend for pre-monsoon, post-monsoon, cold winter season and annual season. Results revealed that RAI analysis frequency of drought year was increasing in last 10 years.

A field trial was conducted in winter period of 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 to study the variation in energy budget, carbon dynamics and economic profitability of the Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) as shaped with differential irrigation schedule, varieties and sulphur levels. The treatments consisted three irrigation water/cumulative pan evaporation ratio (0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 IW/CPE), two mustard varieties (NRCHB-506 and PAC 432) and three levels of sulphur (0, 30 and 60 kg S ha−1). The study revealed significant effect of irrigation scheduling, varieties and sulphur levels on the productivity levels wherein 0.8 IW/CPE ratio, mustard hybrid ‘PAC 432’ and sulphur dose of 60 kg ha−1 recorded improved yield attributes culminating into an increment in seed yield to the extent of ~ 8.12 to 20.98%, ~ 9.85% and ~ 3.43 to 17.90% over their respective varying treatments. These highest yield levels obtained under the given treatments were reflected in highest gross (1601, 1540 and 1566 US $ ha−1, respectively) and net returns (1137, 862 and 866 US $ ha−1, respectively) with net return per USD invested (NRPUI) except in case of sulphur levels where NRPUI was reported highest for 30 kg S ha−1. The treatment combination of irrigation at 0.8 IW/CPE and sulphur application at 60 kg S ha−1 irrespective of varieties recorded highest energy consumption (15,192 MJ ha−1) and spatial carbon footprint (3469 kg CO2 eq. ha−1) and individually, 0.8 IW/CPE ratio, mustard hybrid ‘PAC 432’ and sulphur dose of 60 kg ha−1 proved to be more beneficial in terms of higher energy use efficiency, energy productivity, energy intensiveness, energy profitability and human energy profitability

For identification and adoption of improved and environmental friendly agricultural practices with minimum emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), observations were recorded for 3 years (2015–17) in a...

The current experiment envisages estimating nitrification and elucidates the mechanistic processes of nitrogen mineralization in a long-term fertilizer experiment (LTFE) on a soybean-wheat cropping...

Plants respond to various stresses during their lifecycle among which abiotic stress is the most severe one comprising heat, cold, drought, salinity, flooding, etc. which take a heavy toll on crop yield worldwide in every corresponding year. ROS has a dual role in abiotic stress mechanisms where, at high levels, they are toxic to cells while at the same time, the same molecule can function as a signal transducer that activates a local as well as a systemic plant defense response against stress. The most common ROS species are Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), Superoxide anions (O2-), Hydroxyl radicals (OH-), and Singlet oxygen (1O2) which are results of physiological metabolism often controlled by enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense systems. ROS generally accumulate in plants during abiotic and biotic stress conditions resulting in oxidative damage which ultimately leads to programmed cell death. Many ROS scavenging pathways have been well studied against stress responses. Through careful manipulation of ROS levels in plants, we can enhance stress tolerance in plants under unfavorable environmental conditions. This chapter presents an overview of ROS regulation in plants and the essential enzymes involved in the abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms which are thoroughly discussed below.

The experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of silicon (Si) and phosphorus (P) application on crop productivity, grain quality, water-use efficiency (WUE), and soil enzyme activity in ae...

Salinity is one of the major threats to an agriculture production system and limits crop growth and productivity. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form a mutualistic association with majority of ...

Micronutrients in soil include zinc, iron, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum, chlorine and nickel. Their deficiency in soil may result from an inherently poor soil nutrient status, poor mobility or fixation in soil, reduced or poor solubility of the given chemical form of the nutrient and antagonistic interactions. The unavailable forms of these nutrients are solubilized by certain soil microbes through secretion of protons and release of chelated ligands through their oxidoreductive systems. Of all the micronutrients, Zinc (Zn) is the most deficient one; both in global and Indian soils. Zinc solubilizing bacteria (Bacillus sp.) present in soil secrete gluconic acid which increases the solubility of Zn through dissolution of insoluble and precipitated Zn compounds. Soil fungi, in general, solubilize zinc oxide preferentially followed by zinc carbonate and zinc phosphate. Several rhizobacteria secrete compounds that release siderophores like catechol, hydroxamate, pyoverdins which chelate and assimilate fixed iron from the soil. Some well known siderophore producing rhizobacteria include fluorescent pseudomonads, Arthrobacter, Aeromonas, Streptomyces, Bacillus and Nocardia. Aspergillus niger and Serpula himantioides were reported to solubilize different insoluble oxides of Mn. Rhizobacteria viz. Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas, Bacillus, Arthrobacter, Stenotrophomonas, etc. are active in copper solubilization. Several bacterial genera viz. Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Leptothrix, Citrobacter, Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, Nitrospira, Chromobacterium, Actinomyces, Azotobacter and Azospirillum are widely known for Mo solubilization and enhancing plant availability. Soil bacteria such as Gypsophila, Bacillus, and Microbacter can immobilize boron at pH 8 to 9.

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of sulfur fertilization and irrigation scheduling on mustard hybrids in Varanasi, India. Experiment comprised 18 treatment combination involv...

Silicon (Si) is known as a beneficial or quasi-essential element particularly for graminaceous crops, as Si increases dry matter accumulation and enhances resistance to lodging and drought. However, the combined application of phosphorus (P) and Si has a tremendous impact on the growth and yield of various crops. While the residual effect of Si and P application on growth, yield and soil biological activity in wheat were not ascertained. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the residual effect of Si and P on growth indices, yield, nutrient uptake, and soil enzyme activities of succeeding wheat crops. The four levels of Si (0, 40, 80, and 120 kg Si ha− 1) and P (0, 30, 60, and 90 kg P2O5 ha− 1) were applied to the preceding aerobic rice crop and their effect was evaluated in succeeding wheat crop. The results demonstrated a significant effect of Si and P on wheat growth, yield, nutrient uptake, and soil enzyme activities. The residual effect of 120 kg Si and 90 kg P2O5 ha− 1 significantly improved the grain yield of the succeeding wheat crop by 24–45%. Further, the residual Si and P remarkably improved Si, N, P, and K concentration in wheat grain by 35, 13.2, 45, and 56 %, respectively, over control. Similarly, an increase in the microbial biomass carbon, dehydrogenase, fluorescein diacetate, and alkaline phosphatase activity by 17.2, 33.5, 12.4, and 37.5%, respectively were observed in the residual application of 120 kg Si and 90 kg P2O5 ha− 1 over control. Therefore, the inclusion of Si and P could have great potential to improve soil enzyme activities and productivity of the wheat crop.

The Himalayan mountains are early indicators of climate change, wherein slight changes in climate can lead to a drastic variation in faunal diversity, distribution, invasion of fauna into higher altitudes, rapid population growth, shortening of life cycle and increased number of overwintering species. The insects best represent the faunal diversity. In recent years, due to variation in pattern of rainfall and temperature regimes, several insect pests have moved northwards and are posing great threat to hill agriculture. Few among them are greenhouse whiteflies, thrips and mites in protected cultivation system; blister beetles on flowers of cereals, pulses and oilseeds; invasive insect pests like fall armyworm of maize and tomato pin worm and sporadic pests like grasshoppers that are reaching a status of major key pest in various crops. Keeping in mind the phenomenon of climate change and associated changes in pest population, the present article focuses on emerging insect pest problems in cereals, millets, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables of Indian Himalayas, along with their changing population density with respect to different climatic parameters, the per cent increase in the pest damage over the years and their potential of gaining the status of major pests in near future and causing huge economic losses to hill agriculture.

VL Dhan 159 is an early duration rice variety suitable for cultivation under rainfed upland organic condition of Uttarakhand hills. This variety has been developed by ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan(VPKAS) Almora, Uttarakhand for the kharif season and released by the State Varietal Release Committee of Uttarakhand in 2020, Subsequently it was notified by the Central Seed Committee vide notification number S.O.500(E) dated the 29th January, 2021. VL Dhan 159 is derived from the cross VL 66/HPR 2143 with a maturity duration of 110-115 days. Under organic conditions, this variety has recorded an average yield of 2,054 kg/ha and out yielded the check varieties of Vivek Dhan 154 by 42.34 per cent, VL Dhan 221 by 27.34 per cent and VL Dhan 156 by 33.64 per cent. It was found resistant against leaf and neck blast (score 0-3), brown leaf spot (score 3-4), sheath rot (score 1), leaf scald (score 1-3), false smut (score 0), stem borer and leaf folder (score 0-1) under natural condition. It has more number of panicles/m2 (229) compared to the checks of Vivek Dhan 154 (200) and VL Dhan 156 (172). This variety has non lodging intermediate plant height, semi-erect with well exerted panicle. It has exhibited a better quality characteristics like high hulling (82.8%) and milling (72.1%), intermediate Alkali Spreading Value (4.0), Gel consistency (50) and amylose content (25.93%). Grain Chalkiness is very occasionally present. It has short bold grain with L/B ratio of 2.00

Plant beneficial rhizobacteria (PBR) is a group of naturally occurring rhizospheric microbes that enhance nutrient availability and induce biotic and abiotic stress tolerance through a wide array of mechanisms to enhance agricultural sustainability. Application of PBR has the potential to reduce worldwide requirement of agricultural chemicals and improve agro-ecological sustainability. The PBR exert their beneficial effects in three major ways; (1) fix atmospheric nitrogen and synthesize specific compounds to promote plant growth, (2) solubilize essential mineral nutrients in soils for plant uptake, and (3) produce antimicrobial substances and induce systemic resistance in host plants to protect them from biotic and abiotic stresses. Application of PBR as suitable inoculants appears to be a viable alternative technology to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Furthermore, PBR enhance nutrient and water use efficiency, influence dynamics of mineral recycling, and tolerance of plants to other environmental stresses by improving health of soils. This report provides comprehensive reviews and discusses beneficial effects of PBR on plant and soil health. Considering their multitude of functions to improve plant and soil health, we propose to call the plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPR) as PBR.

India is one of the leading countries in agricultural production and generate large volume of crop residue. Increasing demand for food grains due to growing population leads to generation of crop residues. Due to lack of proper disposal mechanism of crop residue, farmers burn the residue which release greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere, and poses great threat to environment as well as human health. The residue burning causes greater carbon emission and nutrient losses which otherwise incorporated into the soil system may substantially improve the soil biodiversity. Besides several practices of crop residue management, the most feasible method for farmers is incorporation of residue into the soil with the inoculation of microbes. In soil system the ability of microbial community in degrading organic substances is well known. In the early stages of residue decomposition simple substrates like carbohydrates are degraded by bacteria, but in later stages degradation of complex constituents viz., cellulose, lignin needs microbes which are capable of secreting enzymes like cellulase, acting on complex organic substrates. In this context, cellulolytic micro organisms like Trichoderma have the potential and emerging as an important microbial inoculants to enhance the rate of decomposition as well as alleviate the effect of residue burning.

Arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi's (AMF) role in plant nutrition and stress management is well known, but very few researches and studies have been conducted so far on the fungal ability to reduce different nutrient losses (runoff, leaching and volatilization) from the soil system. This important ecosystem service of AMF had been neglected largely. From the recent findings, it has been confirmed that mycorrhizal symbiosis has potential to check the losses of applied nutrients. The role of soil biota in nutrient cycling is indispensable and determines the nutrient availability to plants. Among these biota, AMF's association with plants is the most prevalent, but the exact mechanisms followed by AMF in nutrient cycling, transformation and reducing nutrient loss ability are still inconclusive. In this review, we will try to unlock this particular aspect of AMF which is important to achieve global food demand in a sustainable way.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the diversity and distribution of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in the salt affected soils of Varanasi district. Saccharum munja Roxb. was predominate among all the vegetation and shown strong AM fungal colonisation. Soil characteristics revealed their neutral to alkali nature and habituated six genera and eight different species of AM fungi i.e. Acaulospora (1), Cetraspora (1), Entrophospora (1), Funneliformis (2- F. geosporum and F. mosseae), Glomus (1), Rhizolglomus (2- R. intraradices and R. fasciculatum) in the rhizosphere of native salt tolerant vegetation. Rhizolglomus fasciculatum was the most widely distributed species under strongly alkaline condition (52.96%) while Funneliformis mosseae was well distributed under slightly (22.99%) to moderately alkaline condition (35.78%). Soil alkalinity was observed to be detrimental for AMF but members of family Glomeraceae registered their presence more frequently (∼65%) with higher spore density showing str...

Rice is known to be a nutrient exhaustive crop and the application of silicon (Si) has been reported for the better utilization of plant nutrients from the soil. Hence, the response of the plant to phosphorus (P) could be enhanced by co-fertilization of Si and P. The present study evaluates the dry matter production (DMP), grain yield, nutrients uptake, and nutrient-use efficiency (NUE) of Si and P application in aerobic rice (AR). Therefore, a field experiment was conducted at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), New Delhi, India in a factorial randomized block design (FRBD), the treatments comprised four levels of Si (0, 40, 80, and 120 kg Si ha–1) and P (0, 30, 60, and 90 kg P2O5 ha–1) application. The results revealed the significant effect of Si and P application on DMA, grain yield, and nutrient uptake in AR. The highest DMP and grain yield of AR was found with the combination of 120 kg Si and 90 kg P2O5 ha–1 closely followed by the combination of 80 kg Si and 60 kg P2O5 ha–1. The rate of increase in DMP due to different doses of Si and P ranged between 7.6–25.6% over control. A strong positive relationship was observed between different doses of Si and P and concentrations and uptakes of different nutrients, barring zinc (Zn). Application of Si and P elevated the grain concentration of Si, nitrogen (N), P, and potassium (K) by 25, 16.5, 47, and 25%, respectively, over control. Overall, the addition of Si and P application in nutrient management could increase the productivity and NUE of AR.

Plastics are high molecular weight organic polymers with innumerable applications that have changed our society in myriad of ways. Problem with plastic lies in its safe disposal being non- biodegradable in nature thus posing serious threat to our environment. The rising plastic pollution has created growing concern among various stakeholders with a rising need to formulate innovative strategies and their proper implementation for effective plastic waste management. Among various strategies, biodegradation of plastic is an important alternative to reduce the magnitude of plastic waste. Biodegradation is primarily mediated by microbial enzymes, which can convert even recalcitrant polymers and oligomers into simple monomers thus facilitating their breakdown. Moreover, use of biodegradable plastics that are intrinsically more vulnerable to microbial attack should replace the conventional polymers. In this chapter, we provide the biodegradability based classification of plastic, mechanism and factor affecting biodegradation of plastic waste, involvement of important enzymes, current insight and future strategies to provide a sustainable direction for safer management of plastic pollution.

With ever-increasing population of the world, which has now reached 7.75 billion, it has become a major challenge for world to meet the sustainable development goal (SDG) of zero hunger via meeting demand for food, feed, and other agricultural products especially in developing countries. Therefore, improving and sustaining agricultural crops yield without posing negative impact on environment should be the ultimate goal to meet food and nutritional requirement around the world. Application of chemical fertilizers although has increased the crop productivity but simultaneously has posed serious threat to human and environmental health. Therefore, biofertilizers from microorganisms have potential to replace these chemical fertilizers in sustaining agricultural productivity and maintaining environmental health. Moreover biofertilizers are easy to use and less expensive than chemical fertilizers. Biofertilizers includes one or more beneficial microbes that facilitate better nutrient uptake, greater production of growth hormone and beneficial phytochemicals in crops leading to higher quantity as well quality crop production. Nitrogen-fixing microbes, phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB), sulfur-solubilizing bacteria (SSB), potassium-solubilizing bacteria (KSB), and vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM) etc. are already being utilized in combination for making biofertilizers formulations for enhancing crop production but on small scale. Thus, large scale exploitation of agriculturally important microbes for sustaining agricultural productivity is the need of the hour. This chapter highlights the types, quality control measures, inoculation techniques of microbial biofertilizers; their role in sustaining agricultural productionand challenges as well as ways forward to promote the use of biofertilizers in order to achieve sustainable agricultural production to meet out the SDG of zero hunger.