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An experiment entitled, Influence of pre cut foliar application of plant growth substances on multiplication of pomegranate through sub apical cutting was carried out with two factors viz., time of cutting three levels and plant growth substances with four repetitions.The results of the study revealed that, significantly early sprouting (9.61 days), maximum number of shoots (2.41) and shoot length (10.85 cm) per cutting at 60 days after planting, maximum number of roots (8.40) and root length (7.61 cm) per cutting at 60 days after planting was recorded with treatment c1 (Cutting taken at 3 days after spraying). Among the treatments of growth substances, significantly early sprouting (9.27 days), highest survival percentage (80.98) at 45 days after planting, highest length shoot per cutting at 60 days after planting (12.08 cm), maximum number of roots (9.36) and root length (8.47 cm) per cutting at 60 days after planting was recorded with treatment p1 (spray of ethrel 1000 ppm). Use of pomegranate cutting after three days of foliar spray of ethrel 1000 ppm on mother plant for getting early sprouting, highest survival, maximum number and length of shoots and roots of cutting under green house.

Conservation agriculture (CA)-based practices have been promoted and recouped, as they hold the potential to enhance farm profits besides a consistent improvement in soil properties. A 7 years' field experiment consisting of three crop establishment practices viz., zero-till flatbed (ZTFB), permanent beds (PNB), conventional system (CT) along with the three-nutrient management; nutrient expert-based application (NE), recommended fertilization (RDF), and farmers’ fertilizer practice (FFP), was carried out from 2013 to 2020. The CA-based practices (ZTFB/PNB) produced 13.9–17.6% greater maize grain-equivalent yield (MGEY) compared to the CT, while NE and RDF had 10.7–20% greater MGEY than the FFP. PNB and ZTFB gave 28.8% and 24% additional net returns than CT, while NE and RDF had 22.8% and 17.4% greater returns, respectively over FFP. PNB and ZTFB had 2.3–4.1% (0.0–0.20 m soil layers) lower bulk density than the CT. Furthermore, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) increased by 8–19% (0.0–0.50 m soil layers) in ZTFB/PNB over the CT, and by 7.6–11.0% in NE/RDF over FFP. Hence, CA-based crop establishment coupled with the NE or RDF could enhance the yields, farm profits, soil properties of the maize–chickpea rotation, thereby, could sustain production in the long run.

Present time need to more and emphasize supply of food for fulfill the increasing demand of food for the large population of the world. The value-added products of aonla are rich source of fiber, vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and have therapeutic values along with the medicinal values. However, they play an important role for the supply in sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals to meet the daily requirement of healthy human body. Development of value-added products of aonla like dried and dehydrated fruits, ready-to-serve, squash, candies, pickles and powders and condensed fruit juices provide enterprises for the peoples through the made big industries for the processing. Demand for aonla fruit value added products and profits could be increased through formation of small self-help groups one their training station. However, still awareness on benefits, their addition and market promotion is required.

The effect of post-harvest application of calcium chloride (CaCl2) and gibberellic acid (GA3) on physiochemical properties of ber fruits were studied. Mature ber fruits cv. Umran were dipped in aqueous solutions of calcium chloride (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%) and gibberellic acid (20, 40 and 60 ppm), for 5 minutes and packed in netlon bags for storage under ambient and cold storage conditions. Ber fruits treated with 1.5% CaCl2 could be stored for longer duration in both storage conditions with higher retention of physiochemical quality of the fruits. Results revealed that physiological loss in weight, fruit weight, palatability rating, titratable acidity showed a declining trend with advancement of storage period and other parameters i.e. total soluble solids, ascorbic acid, reducing sugar, and total sugars showed an increase up to 9 days in ambient storage condition and up to 12 days in cold storage condition, but after 9 days in ambient storage condition and after 12 days in cold storage condition, a decline trend was observed in these parameters respectively. Storage life was extended to 9 days and 15 days of ber fruits treated with 1.5% CaCl2 under ambient and cold storage conditions, respectively.

The indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides along with improper nutrient management is deleterious to the plant health, environment and human being who consume them. The quality attributes of different fruits are badly affected due to indiscriminate application of inorganic agro-chemicals which results in quality deterioration with less consumer preference and low returns to the growers. It also causes soil health deterioration and disturbs the soil microorganisms. Such practices are also common among the fruit growers. Due to these practices, the plants also become susceptible to several biotic and abiotic stresses. Therefore, it is a holistic approach based on usage of all possible sources of plant nutrients in an integrated manner is considered as alternative source to maintain soil fertility and plant nutrient supply for sustaining the desired crop productivity.

Sequestration of soil organic carbon (SOC) is an important strategy to improve soil quality and to mitigate climate change. To investigate changes in SOC under conservation agriculture (CA), we measured SOC concentrations after seven years of rice (Oryza sativa L.)–wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) rotations in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India under various combinations of tillage and crop establishment methods. The six treatments were as follows: conventional till transplanted rice followed by conventional till wheat (CTR-CTW), CTR followed by zero-till wheat (CTR-ZTW), ZT direct-seeded rice followed by CTW (ZTDSR-CTW), ZTDSR followed by ZT wheat both on permanent raised beds with residue (PBDSR-PBW+R), and ZTDSR followed by ZTW both with (ZTDSR-ZTW+R) and without residues (ZTDSR-ZTW). We hypothesized that CA systems (i.e. ZT with residue retention) would sequester more carbon (C) than CT. After seven years, ZTDSR-ZTW+R and PBDSR-PBW+R increased SOC at 0–0.6 m depth by 4.7 and 3.0 t C/ha, respectively, whereas the CTR-CTW system resulted in a decrease in SOC of 0.9 t C/ha. Over the same soil depth, ZT without residue retention (ZTDSR-ZTW) only increased SOC by 1.1 t C/ha. There was no increase in SOC where ZT in either rice or wheat was followed by CT in the next crop (i.e. CTR-ZTW and ZTDSR-CTW), most likely because the benefit of ZT is lost when followed by tillage. Tillage and crop establishment methods had no significant effect on the SOC stock below the 0.15-m soil layer. Over the seven years, the total carbon input from above-ground residues was ca. 14.5 t/ha in ZTDSR-ZTW+R and PBDSR-PBW+R, almost sixfold greater than in the other systems. Our findings suggest that the increased biomass production achieved through a combination of ZT and partial residue retention offers an opportunity to increase SOC whilst allowing residues to be used for other purposes.

Maize-based crop rotations are advocated as alternate to rice-based systems in South Asia due to better suitability for diverse ecologies, higher yields with less water use and more palatable maize fodder compared to rice, and increased demand of maize from piggery and poultry industries. Alternate tillage and crop establishment practices are important management strategies for tackling the issues of soil health deterioration and over exploitation of underground water resources, particularly in rice based intensive crop rotations. The conservation agriculture (CA) based tillage and crop establishment practices such as zero tillage (ZT) and permanent raised beds (PB) hold potential to enhance soil organic carbon (SOC), physical and biological properties for sustainability of soil health. Therefore, a long term study was conducted to evaluate the twelve combinations of tillage practices (03) and irrigated intensive maize based crop rotations (04) on organic carbon, physical properties and microbial biomass and enzymatic activities of a sandy loam (Typic Haplustept) soil in north-western India. The tillage practices consisted of ZT, PB and conventional tillage (CT) in main plots and four diversified intensive maize based crop rotations (MWMb: Maize-Wheat-Mungbean, MCS: Maize-Chickpea- Sesbaina , MMuMb: Maize-Mustard-Mungbean, MMS: Maize-Maize- Sesbania ) in sub plots. In this study we analysed the SOC, physical and biological properties of soil at various depths after 7 years of continuous ZT, PB and CT in diversified maize rotations. Compared to CT plots, the soil physical properties like water stable aggregates (WSA) > 250 μm were 16.1-32.5% higher, and bulk density (BD) and penetration resistance (PR) showed significant (P β Glucosidase and Alkaline phosphatase was also recorded in the CA based treatments. Significant (P Sesbania ) with winter legume/cereal in crop rotations were observed on SOC,WSA, BD, PR and K sat at 0–15 and 15–30 cm depths. Interaction between tillage and crop rotations were significant (P

In north-western India, maize-based systems are being advocated as an alternative to rice-based systems to address the issues of resource degradation, particularly declining water tables and climate-change-induced variability in rainfall and temperature. Conservation agriculture (CA) based best-bet crop management practices may increase crop and water productivity, while conserving and sustaining natural resources. In a 6-year study of conservation agriculture experiment established in 2008, we have evaluated the performance of CA-based management practices [permanent bed (PB) and zero tillage (ZT)] and conventional till (CT) for four intensified irrigated maize systems [maize-wheat-mungbean (MWMb), maize-chickpea- Sesbania green manure (MCS), maize-mustard-mungbean (MMuMb) and maize-maize- Sesbania (MMS)]. Significant (P −1 ), while from third year onwards ZT registered maximum productivity (11.3–12.9 Mg ha −1 ).The system glucose equivalent yield increased by 0.6 Mg ha −1 under ZT and PB compared to CT. Economic profits from maize-based rotations were invariably higher either in MMuMb or MWMb systems, while in terms of glucose equivalent yield, MMS and MWMb rotation were highest. Synergistic effects of summer legumes (mungbean and Sesbania ) after winter legume/oilseed/cereal were observed on yield of individual crop vis-a - vis system productivity and irrigation water use. ZT and PB practices reduced the irrigation water requirement by 40–65 ha-mm and 60–98 ha-mm, respectively compared to CT system, resulted enhanced system water productivity by 19.4% equally under both ZT and PB. Net profit from the maize-based systems under ZT was up to 31% higher with 72$ ha −1 lower production cost compared to CT. Results from our study showed that adoption of CA based tillage practices in MMuMb and MWMb system for sustainable increase of crop and water productivity in north-western region of India.

A sensitive and rapid extractive spectrophotometer method has been developed for the assay of Fenofibrate in bulk drug and tablets. Fenofibrate shows maximum absorbance at 296 nm. Beer’s law was obeyed in the concentration range of in the range of 5-35µg/ml. Beers law was obeyed in this concentration range with correlation coefficient of 0.999. The concentrations of this drug were evaluated in laboratory mixture and marketed formulation. Accuracy was determined by recovery studies from tablet dosages forms and ranges from 99.33 -100.92 %. Precision of method was find out as repeatability, day to day and analyst to analyst variation and shows the values within acceptable limit (R.S.D ≤ 2 percentage)