Cover article · 2020-05-06 · Cover article by Mohapatra et al. Chief Editor Volume 01, Issue 01 May, 2020 A monthly agriculture and allied sciences newsletter Dr. Padmaja Pancharatnam

Cover article

by

Mohapatra et al.

Chief Editor

Volume 01, Issue 01 May, 2020

A monthly agriculture and allied sciences newsletter

Dr. Padmaja Pancharatnam

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Volume 01, Issue 01 Publishing date: May, 2020

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IN THIS ISSUE

1. A brief description of Agriculture Pramit Pandit, Rahul Halder

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05


10


15


17


19


22


25


30


35


68


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IN THIS ISSUE

1. MOLECULAR PHARMING: Plant as a Bioreactor Upasana Mohapatra, Udit Nandan Mishra, Chandrasekhar Sahu

02

2. GRAMENE: Comparative Genome Analysis Bishvajit Bakshi

04

3. BASMATI RICE: A New Hope for Farmers Anurag Bera

06

4. Farming and Processing Constraints of Sugarcane-based Industries in India: An Insight Siddappa

09

5. Altering Meiotic Recombination and Its Significance in Plant Breeding Harsh Deep

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6. Modern breeding techniques for genetic improvement of Moringa (Moringa oleifera): current status & future prospects Sourav Roy

13

7. SOIL SWAPPING – A technique by farmer for betterment of crop and soil S. A. Durgude

16

8. APMC: A Critical Appraisal Kiran K. S.

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9. Potassium Solubilizing Bio fertilizer- A novel way to increase potassium availability to plants P. S. Nishad

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Volume 01, Issue 01 (May, 2020)

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May, 2020 Agriculture Letters

Introduction

Cultivation of therapeutics in a host (plants or animals) with the aid of genetic engineering and biotechnology is the simpler depiction of the word pharming (Norris, 2005). Production of various commercially viable products like recombinant proteins, industrial grade enzymes, antibodies, vaccines using this approach is also known as Molecular pharming or Biopharming as the process includes exploitation of both living organisms and molecular techniques for its successful execution. Coupled with the power of genes, Biopharming provides a window of opportunity for the scientific community to research on. Decades of research on Biopharming indicate microbes as the most exploited expression system which comes with a costlier and cumbersome production setup. This has pushed the researchers to ascertain alternative and affordable options of manufacturing industrial grade products by exploiting plant as bioreactor for Biopharming through transgenic approach.

Strategies/steps involved in plant Molecular pharming

The strategies of Molecular pharming includes following coordinated steps:

Preparation of the gene construct Introduction into

suitable vector Direct or Indirect method of plant transformation Regeneration of plantSelection of tarnsformed plant Purification and characterization of plant made pharmaceuticals Downstream processing Preclinical and clinical trials

Plant Molecular Farming:

As of now microbes were the most exploited living system

for pharming but with rapid involvement of biotechnological tools, genetically modified plants become a successful living factory for producing therapeutics and associated molecules, called collectively as plant made pharmaceuticals (PMPs). Plant molecular pharming has

the industrial grade potential involving huge-scale production and purification of pharmaceutical proteins in plant-based expression systems. The plant molecular pharming is advantageous over general molecular pharming because of the following reasons.

i) Marginable lower production cost than existing molecular pharming involving

animal expression system. ii) Low to medium-level of knowledge with

respect to infrastructure and expertise can be manageable for the operation.

iii) Plants contain no known human pathogens which ensure the healthiness of

derived products. iv) High post translational processing activity

in case of plants ensure lesser amount of misfolded protein as compared to other higher eukaryotes.

v) Low cost of storage and transportation of plant derived products.

vi) Low ethical concerns. vii) Easier purification steps.

Expression Systems of Plant Molecular Pharming

Proper selection of host plant and gene expression systems are the key factors in deciphering the efficient substance production using plant as bioreactor. The different expression systems for plant molecular pharming

are transgenic plants, plant cell suspension culture, transplastomic plants, transient expression system and hydroponic cultures (Floss et al., 2007). Common cereals like rice, wheat, corn, solanaceae family crops like tobacco etc (table 1) have been exploited the most to

produce desired therapeutic molecules through up- and down-regulation of desired plant incorporated genes (Rishi et al., 2001). Some of the expression systems include transgenic plants, plant cell suspension culture, transplastomic plants, transient expression system, hydroponic culture etc.

MOLECULAR PHARMING: Plant as a Bioreactor

Upasana Mohapatra*1, Udit Nandan Mishra

2, Chandrasekhar Sahu

2

1Department of Plant Biotechnology, UAS-Bangalore, Karnataka 2Department of Biochemistry & Crop Physiology, Centurion University of Technology & Management, Odisha Article ID: 20/05/010132


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Agriculture Letters May, 2020

Table 1: Therapeutic Proteins, Industrial Enzymes &

Proteins, Antibodies, Vaccines Produced In

Different Plant Host Systems

Proteins Plant Host

System

Used for

α and β

haemoglobin

Tobacco Blood substitute

Human serum

albumin

Potato Blood substitute

α- tricosanthin Tobacco HIV Therapy

α- interferon Rice Viral protection

anticancer

Epidermal

growth factor.

Erythropoietin.

Tuber growth

factor

Tobacco

Mitogen

Hirudin Canola Anticoagulant

Protein C Tobacco Anticoagulant

Glutamate

decarboxylase

Tobacco Diabetes

Human

somatotropin

Tobacco Hypopituitary

dwarfism

Calcitonin Paget

disease.

Osteoporosis

Potato

Antibodies Produced In Different Plant Host System

Antigen used Host Used for

Colon cancer

antigen

Tobacco Colon cancer

ScFv og IgG

from miuse B cell

lymphoma

Tobacco Hodgkins

lymphoma

Nematode

antigen

Tobacco Plant protection

Atrazine Tobacco Phytoremediation

S. mutans

antigen

Tobacco Dental care

Vaccines Produced In Different Plant Host Systems

Antigen used Host Used for

Hepatitis B

surface antigen

Tobacco,

potato

Hepatitis B

Malarial antigen Tobacco malaria

Gp 41 peptide Cowpea HIV-1

C-Myc Tobacco Cancer

Hemagglutinin Tobacco Influenza

(Rishi, A. S., Nelson, N. D. And Goyal, A., 2001)

Limitations of Plant Molecular Pharming

The transgene pollution is a critical problem to be

concerned for plant molecular pharming. Unintended modification of either non-targeted sequence in the targeted species or across species barrier might arose

due to the natural gene flow mechanisms causing transgene pollution. It can be because of the possible spread of primary transgenes and the possible spread of

superfluous DNA sequences. The transgene pollution can be avoided by following points should be considered during production of plant derived biopharmaceuticals. 1) Minimum required genetic modification, 2) Elimination of non-essential genetic information, 3) Containment of

essential transgenes, 4) Alternative production systems transient expression, 5) Plant suspension cultures in sealed, sterile reactor vessel.

Conclusion

Molecular farming has enabled us to produce bulk amount of active and secure pharmaceutical products with lower prices. Easy production, cost, safety, etc are the key determinants which gives transgenic plant an upper hand over microbial and animal expression systems for

producing pharmaceutical biomolecules. Active involvement and rapid scientific advances in biotechnology coupled with genetic engineering in plants have considerably contributed in this regard. Plant produced pharmaceutical proteins and antibodies have

remarkably helped the treatment of patients by overcoming the limitations of production and preservation costs for such products. Public acceptance, transgene escape, biosecurity, clinical and commercialization of these plant-based pharmaceuticals are still some of the debatable area.

References

Norris, S., 2005, Molecular farming, Parliamentary information and research services, Library of

Parliament. Parliament of Canada.http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/prb0509-e.htm

Floss, D. M., Falkenburg, D. and Conrad, U., 2007, Production of vaccines and therapeutic antibodies for veterinary applications in transgenic plants: an overview. Transgenic Research. 16: 315-332

Rishi, A. S., Nelson, N. D., & Goyal, A. (2001). Molecular

farming in plants: a current perspective. Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology. 10(1): 1-12.


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Introduction

Gramene is a tool for grass genomics. It is an online re-hotspot for near practical genomics in yields and model plant species. All the more explicitly, it is a similar genome database for grain crops and a network asset for rice. Computational scientists populate and minister Gramene with explained rice (Oryza sativa) genomic grouping information and related organic data including molecular markers, mutants, phenotypes, polymorphisms and Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL).

Objectives of Gramene

The specific goal of Gramene is first to provide a Trait Ontology (TO) that can be used across the cereal crops to facilitate phenotypic comparisons both within and between the genera. Secondly, being a jargon for plant anatomy terms, the Plant Ontology (PO) will encourage the curation of morphological and anatomical component data concerning articulation, confinement of qualities and quality items and the influenced plant parts in a phenotype.

What is a comparative genome analysis data resource?

It is the database utilized in the investigation of cross-species homology connections in genomic and EST sequencing, protein structure and capacity examination, hereditary and physical mapping, understanding of biochemical pathways, quality and QTL restriction portrayals of phenotypic characters and changes.

Where does Gramene fit in?

It lies somewhere between a resource like a Model Organism Database (MOD) and a resource like the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

Model Organism Data Bases (MOD)

i. Model Organisms: Set of organisms studied in great detail. e.g. S. cerevisiae, D. melanogaster, etc.

ii. Model Organism Databases: Core data resource for a community. It integrates data from many sources with expert domain knowledge. e.g. FlyBase

Gramene Curation

Curation is the use of expert domain knowledge to enter data into a database. Much of the rice data is curated as follows.

- Maps

- Markers

- Proteins

- Phenotypes

Scope of Gramene

i) Rice - whole genome sequence ii) Other crop grasses like maize,

sorghum, millet, sugarcane, wheat, oats, and barley

Ontology

Ontology is basically a Collaboration tool

Gene Ontology

It is the system for the model of science. The GO characterizes ideas/classes used to depict quality capacity, and connections between the qualities. It classifies functions along three aspects

:

GRAMENE: Comparative Genome Analysis

Bishvajit Bakshi* Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement, Bengaluru, Karnataka

Article ID: 20/05/010133


5


Fig 1: Genotypic data

Fig 2: Phenotypic data

i) Molecular function: molecular activities of gene products

ii) Cellular component: where gene products are active

iii) Biological process: Pathways and bigger procedures made up of the exercises of numerous quality items.

Table 1: Cereal Genome Sizes

Cereal Genome size

Sorghum 1000 Mb Maize 3000 Mb Barley 5000 Mb Wheat 16,000 Mb Rice 420 Mb Note: 77% of predicted genes showed; Homology to another predicted gene within genome

Plant Ontology

Gramene is working together with the Plant Ontology Consortium (POC) to build up a controlled jargon to

portray plant life systems and the phases of plant advancement.

Trait Ontology

It is a controlled jargon to depict every attribute as a recognizable component, attributes, quality or phenotypic element of a creating or develop person.

e.g. Plant height, Disease resistance, etc.

Synteny in Gramene

Synteny

These are genes on the same chromosome

Conserved synteny

These genes on same chromosome in one species also found together on same chromosome in another species.

Synteny among crop grasses

It is rice genomic sequence a window onto other genomes.

References

Gene Ontology Consortium. (2001). Creating the gene ontology resource: design and implementation. Genome research, 11(8), 1425-1433.

Jaiswal, P., Ware, D., Ni, J., Chang, K., Zhao, W., Schmidt, S., ... & Stein, L. (2002). Gramene: development and integration of trait and gene ontologies for rice. International Journal of Genomics, 3(2), 132-136.

Tello-Ruiz, M. K., Stein, J., Wei, S., Preece, J., Olson, A., Naithani, S., ... & Kumari, S. (2016). Gramene 2016: comparative plant genomics and pathway resources. Nucleic acids research, 44(D1), D1133-D1140.

Zimmer, E. A., & Wen, J. (2013). Reprint of: Using nuclear gene data for plant phylogenetics: Progress and prospects. Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 66(2), 539-550.


6


Introduction

Basmati occupies a special status in Rice cultivation.It is a variety of long,slender grained,aromatic rice.In India,Basmati rice is grown in the specific geographical area,at the Himalayan foot-hills confined into few states of India.These states are located at northern parts of our country e.g. Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Western UP, Delhi, Bihar.

The Basmati rice are differentiated from other aromatic rice in a certain criteria that it’s length increases twice of their original size after cooking with other characteristics like soft and fluffy texture upon cooking,delicious taste,superior aroma and distinct flavour.The chemical compound responsible for aroma in Rice 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline present @0.09 ppm in Basmati Rice grain which is almost 12 times more than non Basmati Rice.Hence,Basmati rice is unique among other aromatic long grained rice.

In India, Basmati rice is mainly grown for exporting purpose.A huge amount of income generated from export of this product.India is the largest producer and exporter of basmati rice in the world.It accounts 75% of global Basmati Rice production. In the economic year 2018-19, India sent out around 4.4

million tons of Basmati rice worth USD 4.7 billion. Whereas,comparably if we see from non-Basmati rice,our country generated USD 3 billion even if exporting 7.5 million tonnes,which is almost doubled amount of Basmati rice exported.

So,very clearly the importance of Basmati Rice production in our country can be understood here.At present lockdown period is prevailing due to COVID-19 pandemic which may stagger our country’s economic growth.In such crisis,country need to find way out through generating export duties.Basmati Rice can boost India’s rice export as well as greater for human consumption.

Climate Requirement for Basmati Rice Farming

For Basmati Rice cultivation, climatic requirement is as same as normal Paddy cultivation. Basmati Rice requires evenly distributed rainfall throughout its growth and ideal temperature for its cultivation i.e. 20 to 38°C.It also requires clear sky during day and low

night temperature. Basmati varieties with unrivalled cooking and eating attributes can be produced if the crop develops in cooler temperature. The high temperature during grain filling period lessens the cooking and eating quality highlights of basmati rice

Name of Variety Height of plant

Avg. Yield (Qtl/acre)

Ripening Duration

Others

Pusa Basmati 1 100 cm 16 140 days affected by few diseases & insects Basmati 370 165 cm 12 150 days --do-- Basmati 386 180 cm 10 155 days --do-- Taraori Basmati 155 cm 11 155 days --do-- Super Basmati 113 cm 14 145 days Comparatively less affected by

diseases, long grained. Pusa Basmati 1121

120 cm 13.7 137 days Comparatively less affected by diseases, long grained.

BASMATI RICE: A New Hope for Farmers

Anurag Bera* Department of Agronomy, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya,West Bengal

Article ID: 20/05/010127


7


like kernel elongation and non-stickiness of cooked rice.

Soil Requirement

It can be grown in all kind of soils. However,heavy neutral soils like clay loam is excellent due to its good water holding capacity. The ideal pH range of soil for its better yield is 5.0-8.5.

Selection of Varieties

Selection of good variety is essential for good quality and yield of Basmati Rice. A good quality must ensure few characteristics i.e. 1) More yield 2) Best quality 3) Resistant to insect and disease 4) Short heighted with short ripening duration. Few suggested varieties are as following.

Agronomic Practises

Seed rate & seed treatment

Once seeds are selected, they should be treated properly. According to variety of Basmati Paddy,25-30 kg seed is sufficient for one ha. land or 10-12 kg per acre.Seed treatment must be done with 20g Bavistin and 2.5 g Streptocycline taken in 25 litre water solution,kept the solution for 24 hrs & then rice seeds should be spread in a place with wet sack on the seeds,spray water on it.Seeds should be well soaked before sowing in nursery.

Nursery preparation

For preparation of nursery,fertile land with good water drainage facility nearby irrigation facility should be selected.Generally Nursery prepared from 15th May to 15th June.But for late maturing varieties like Basmati 370,Basmati 386 it should be prepared within 1st week of June.

For 1 ha of Basmati Rice cultivation,700 square metres nursery is needed.In Nursery,fill the field with water and use leveller after 2-3 plough.Divide the field in small & raised beds.Before sowing,apply 225g ammonium or 100 g urea and 200g super phosphate per 10 square metres.Hoeing,weeding,apply irrigation at frequent interval and proper management of disease,insects is needed.

Preparation of Field and Time of planting

Time of trsnsplanting is an important criteria to determine the yield of Basmati Rice. 25-35 days

after sowing in nursery at 5-6 leaf stage,the transplanting should be done.To make the soil soft,use plough 2-3 times in water filled field & use leveller to make the field level.Spacing recommended as 20×15 cm.For late varieties,it can be done in 15×15 cm spacing.Transplanting should not be done in waterlogged field for traditional Basmati varieties,it may affect the quality.

Manures & Fertilizers

Requirement of fertilizers is less in case of Basmati Rice compared to normal Rice varieties.90-100 kg Nitrogen(200 kg Urea or 500kg Ammonium Sulphate),40 kg Phosphorus(250 kg SSP),30 kg Potash(50 kg MOP) is recommended.Apply 1/3rd of Nitrogen,full quantity of Phosphorus,Potash should be applied at the time of preparation of field,the remaining 1/3rd Nitrogen at tillering stage & 1/3rd at the time of Panicle initiation.Apply 25 kg Zinc Sulphate per ha at the time of field preparation.If available,manure or vermicompost can be applied @5 tonnes per ha.

Intercultural Practises for Basmati Rice

Hand weeding should be practised 3 to 4 times @3 weeks interval starting from 3 weeks after planting.To reduce the plant height and prevent from lodging,Pruning is must for Basmati Rice cultivation.It should be cut at flag leaf at about 10 cm from upper most leaf collar without affecting the field.

Pest & Diseases

The major diseases observed in Basmati Rice,are-Neck blast disease,Sheath blight,Brown spot.Proper Seed treatment may inhibit these diseases outcome.Major insect pest observed are Stem Borer,Brown & white beetle,Gundhi bug & Leaf folder.Furadan 3G,Monocrotophos like insecticide at proper doses can inhibit them.Another suggestion,these pest & diseases can be reduced substantially by applying effective bio-agents like Trichogramma japonicum & T.chilonis.

Harvesting & Threshing

Drying the field/removing the water from the field 2 weeks before the harvesting is mandatory for


8


getting good yield & quality of seed.Harvest the crop when colour of 90% grains turns golden yellow from green colour.To get maximum yield,crop should be harvested @20% moisture at 35-40 days after 50% flowering period.In case of late harvesting,grains shed off.As result,yield is reduced.Threshing should be done immediately after harvesting.Late threshing deteriorates the quality of Basmati Rice.For long awned varieties like Pusa Basmati-1 double winnowing is required sometimes for removal of awns.

Conclusion

Basmati Rice is always aged. It means the grains have to be aged for a long time in the storage units approximately,18-24 months.This is very time consuming process and requires particular conditions for ageing and warehousing.This adds to the overhead cost of the Rice. After packaging, Basmati Rice is available in markets in different brands e.g. Dawat,Lal Qila,India Gate,Kohinoor,Sungold etc with a very high price value even upto Rs.180-200/Kg.

References

Basmati Rice Farming info guide. http://www.agrifarming.in

Textbook of Field Crops Production vol.1 by Dr. Rajendra Prasad.

Pandit U, Nain M.S., Singh R.Article in Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences,January, 2017,Adoption of good agricultural practises in basmati rice: a study of prospects and retroprspects.


9


Introduction

Sugar industry in India is the second biggest agro-based industry after textiles. The industry gives work to skilled and semi-skilled labourers generally from provincial zones and assumes a critical job in the Indian Economy. Working of a sugar industry is regular in nature and its working period is just for 120 to 200 days in a year. India is the second biggest sugar maker on the planet after Brazil. The subtropical district (Uttar Pradesh) contributes practically over half of India's all out sugar creation. Despite the fact that the industry contributes colossally to the financial improvement of the nation yet it is burdened with various issues like out of date innovation, short edge, arrangement obstacles, mediator, budgetary emergency and defilement. The most serious issue of the Indian sugar industry is that sugar is one of the most politically touchy product. Regardless of little offer in the month to month family budget, the smallest cost increment can trigger expansion in different products. Cyclicality in Production is another huge issue of the sugar industry which imply that the sugar cycle in our nation gives three years of good creation straight followed by continuous long periods of terrible harvest. This makes challenges in approach making. In a large portion of the significant sugar sending out nations, the sugarcane costs are connected to sugar costs. In our nation, there is a hole between them. This is predominantly in light of the fact that simultaneously one can't continue the low sugar value, high cane cost and a decent sugar industry simultaneously. Various councils have attempted to plan an equation connecting sugar and sugarcane costs, yet till date, none of such formulae is great. The primary driver behind this is, if there is sufficient gracefully of sugarcane, the plants will drop the costs to be paid to ranchers and if there is a sporadic

flexibly of sugarcane, the factories will raise the costs to be paid to ranchers.

Problems faced by Industries

i) Despite the fact that India has the biggest territory under sugarcane development, the yield per hectare is incredibly low when contrasted with a portion of the significant sugarcane creating nations of the world. Endeavours are being made to take care of this issue through the presentation of high yielding, early maturing, frost resistant and high sucrose content varieties of sugarcane just as by controlling pests and diseases, which are unsafe for sugarcane.

ii) Assembling of sugar is a seasonal wonder with a short crushing season differing regularly from 4 to 7 months in a year. The mills and its labourers stay inert during the rest of the time of the year. One potential strategy to expand the crushing season is to sow and harvest sugarcane at legitimate interims in various territories abutting the sugar mill. This will expand the length of flexibly of sugarcane to sugar mills.

iii) Significant expense of sugarcane, wasteful innovation, uneconomic procedure of production and heavy excise duty bring about significant expense of assembling. The production cost of sugar in India is one of the most noteworthy on the planet. Extreme research is required to build the sugarcane production in the horticultural field and to present new innovation of production effectiveness in the sugar plants. Production cost can likewise be diminished through appropriate use of by-products of the business. For instance, bagasse can be utilized for assembling paper pulp, insulating board, plastic, carbon cortex and so forth. Molasses contain another significant by-item, which can be beneficially utilized for the assembling of intensity liquor.

Farming and Processing Constraints of Sugarcane-based

Industries in India: An Insight

Siddappa* Department of Agricultural Statistics, Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru Article ID: 20/05/010134


10


iv) The vast majority of the sugar mills in India are of little size with a limit of 1,000 to 1,500 tons for every day. This makes enormous scope of production uneconomic. A considerable lot of the mills are financially not feasible.

v) A large portion of the machinery utilized in Indian sugar mills, especially those of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is old and out of date, being 50-60 years of age and needs rehabilitation. Be that as it may, low edge of benefit keeps a few mill proprietors from supplanting the old machinery by the enhanced one.

vi) Khandsari and gur have been produced in provincial India much before the approach of sugar industry in the sorted out part. Since khandsari industry is liberated from excise duty, it can offer more significant expenses of cane to the cane producers. In India around 33% of the sugarcane production is used for making gur and khandsari. This causes deficiency of raw material for the sugar factories. Further, cane producers themselves use cane for manufacturing gur and save money on work cost which is beyond the realm of imagination in sugar industry.

Problems faced by Farmers

The sugarcane growers in India face two types of problems viz. i) during cultivation and ii) during marketing.

i) During cultivation

-Availability of seeds or setts, fertilizers, pesticides etc.

-Fertility of land and Supply of water.

-Labour.

-Finance.

-Technical guidance.

Absence of these factors may affect the sugarcane cultivation and yields in terms of quality and quantity.

ii) During marketing

-Low rate for sugarcane

-Waiting in a long queue

-Dishonest in weighing at weigh bridge

-Unnecessary deductions in the name of toll, charges, etc.

-Delay in payment

-Shortages of sugarcane buyers

In sugarcane, cultivation techniques and innovations are changing each day. So it is fundamental to acknowledge and apply of all these new things during cultivation. Sugar industry and cane ranchers them two should work with collaboration for corresponding advantages on the grounds that the advantages are interrelated and progress is associated. In this manner, the sugar factories must deal with sugarcane cultivators by giving materials and data when required. So as to improve the connection between the ranchers and the manufacturing plant.

References

Golub, A., Hertel, T. W., Taheripour, F., & Tyner, W. E. (2010). Chapter 6 Modeling Biofuels Policies in General Equilibrium: Insights, Pitfalls, and Opportunities'. New Developments in Computable General Equilibrium Analysis for Trade Policy (Frontiers of Economics and Globalization, Volume 7). Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 153-187.

Reddy, K. S., Pankaj, P. K., Reddy, N. N., & Raju, N. S. (2016). Participatory Rural Appraisal in Drylands: A Holistic Approach for Getting Insight into an Agro-Ecosystem Analysis. Journal of Rural Development, 35(4), 555-580.

Shanthy, T. R., Singh, M., & Sahu, N. (2016). Participatory Rural Appraisal: A Holistic Approach for Getting Insight into an Agro-ecosystem Analysis. Indian Research Journal of Extension Education, 13(2), 1-9.

Sherpa, K. C., Rajak, R. C., & Banerjee, R. (2017). Sugarcane: A potential agricultural crop for bioeconomy through biorefinery. Lignocellulosic Biomass Production and Industrial Applications, 171-196.

Wu, L., & Birch, R. G. (2007). Doubled sugar content in sugarcane plants modified to produce a sucrose isomer. Plant biotechnology journal, 5(1), 109-117.


11


Introduction

Meiosis is a specialized cell division that is essential in most sexually reproducing organisms to halve the number of chromosomes, thereby enabling the restoration of ploidy levels during fertilization. The gene/allele reshuffling that occurs during meiosis prophase-I is crucial for plant breeding efforts, because it create novel genetic variation that is prerequisite for any plant breeding program. Breeder’s aim to bring the desired alleles/genes together on a particular chromosome is greatly influenced by crossover frequency and allocation. However, crossing over is a rare process and on an average only three crossovers occurs per chromosome during meiotic division, but minimum one event is always require for proper segregation of chromosome. Moreover, the positions of crossovers are not random and there are some recombination poor sites in the genome. The genes present on these places tends to inherit together, hindering creation of novel gene combinations. Recently, much progress has been made in understanding the process of meiotic recombination in plants that has helped plant breeders to influence crossover

frequencies, crossover position and crossover allocation.

Anti-crossover Genes

Anti-crossover genes are present naturally in the genome of plants to prevent excessive crossover that can cause destruction of chromosomes. In past few years some anti-crossover genes has been identified and among them three genes viz. FANCM, RECQ4 and FIGL1 are well characterized. Suppression of anti-crossover genes (FANCM, RECQ4 and FIGL1) for increasing frequency of crossovers has been found effective in many crop species as shown in the table 1.

Genes Promoting Crossover

In addition to anti-crossover factors, some genes has been discovered that are promoting crossing over in plants. An extra copies of these genes (RNF212, PRDM9 and HEI10) can increase frequency of recombination by many fold. For example in Arabidopsis plant when an extra genomic copy of the HEI10 gene was introduced the frequency of recombination increased by 2- fold.

Table 1. Anti-crossover gene mutations and their effect on crossover frequencies in different plants

Complex/Pathway Gene Plant species Fold increase in CO rate

Reference

FANCM helicase

FANCM Arabidopsis 3 Crismani et al., 2012; Fernandes et al., 2017

FANCM B. rapa 3 Blary et al. 2018

FANCM Rice 2.3 Mieulet et al., 2018

RTR complex

RECQ4A, RECQ4B Arabidopsis 6 Fernandes et al., 2017b

RECQ4 Rice 3.2 Mieulet et al., 2018

FIGL1 helicase FIGL1 Arabidopsis 2 Girard et al., 2015

FIGL1 Pea, Rice Sterile Mieulet et al., 2018

Altering Meiotic Recombination and Its Significance in Plant

Breeding

Harsh Deep* Ph.d. Research scholar, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology Article ID: 20/05/010128


12


Complete Elimination of Crossover (Achiasmatic meiosis): COs can be completely suppressed by knocking down the genes responsible for proper paring and recombination between chromosomes. Studies have shown silencing of essential early meiotic genes, such as DMC1, SPO11 and RecA can lead to (almost) complete suppression of crossover formation. In addition exogenous application of some chemical like Mirin can cause inhibition of pairing between chromosomes. Reverse Breeding technology is a well-known application of Achiasmatic meiosis that is used for produce parental lines for any heterozygous plant by developing perfectly complementing homozygous parental lines through engineered meiosis.

Utilization in Plant Breeding

Artificial control of meiotic recombination can be useful in plant breeding in several ways as give below:

Unlocking otherwise inaccessible genetic diversity: The increased frequency of recombination can unlock otherwise inaccessible genetic diversity by extra rearrangements in genomes. This can decrease the time to isolate desirable recombinants from segregating generations.

Reduction of linkage drag: Linkage drag is a major problem when genes from the wild relatives are introgressed into cultivated varieties because limited pairing between homeologous chromosomes results in rare recombination events. This problem can be reduced by mutating the genes responsible for suppression of homeologous pairing (ph locus in wheat) and this can provide greater opportunity for getting recombinants having with less linkage drag.

Increase the power of genetic mapping experiments: In case of linkage mapping the distance between two genes is determined by frequency of recombination between them. In some cases the true distance between the genes is not depicted because they are present in crossover poor regions. Therefor increased recombination can more finely map the genes on the chromosomes and that generally leads to many fold increase in the genetic map length.

Preserving elite genotypes by reverse breeding approach: This is not possible through convenetional breeding approaches as the genotype

constituent of heterozygous plant is lost after one generation due to segregation. Revere breeding approach can help the breeder to preserve a desirable heterozygous plant by developing its homozygous parental lines through achiasmatic meiosis.

Future prospective

Future research should focus on improving the basic understanding of crossover and recombination in crop plants, especially those that are polyploids.

Future Studies should give priority to the identification of mechanisms and methods to increase crossover in proximal regions, as these regions represent a large part of the genome in important crops such as wheat and many important genes reside in these regions.

Development of effective Targeted mutagenesis techniques based on CRISPR/Cas can offer great possibility for controlled recombination


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Introduction

Modern breeding techniques for genetic improvement of Moringa (Moringa oleifera): current status & future prospects While Green Revolution technologies were being sheltered on agriculture around the entire country, scientists as well as experts were practicing to conceive the biochemical & molecular foundation for every living entity.

Their saga cities offered emergence to novel craftsmanship for making highly diacritic alterations in the characteristics of plants in ways not practicable with customary breeding tactics. This field of quest is mostly alluded to as modern breeding techniques or more minutely "modern biotechnology." However, the field of biotechnology (which besets any Solicitation of living forms to promote new bestowing and processes) is hardly new. Virtually, what we envisage the neoteric site of agricultural biotechnology is morally part of a unswerving calcification of ameliorations in both science and agriculture that has unlocked since the primordial ethnic civilizations. Modern biotechnology has its sources in different monumental achievements in the fundamental biological sciences.

Economic, Agronomic, and Societal Importance of Moringa

The Hindustan centre of crop origin is the birth place of numerous numbers of economically considerable vegetable crops. Ash gourd, bitter gourd, Kundru, pointed gourd, snake gourd, eggplant, lab lab bean, sword bean and various other plants of pecuniary advantage evolved in this segment of the planet.

There is another vitamin rich, mineral packed and nutritive vegetable of this tropical & sub-tropical midst of crop origin cultivated by the Dravidians and afterwards by the aryans in each and every kitchen

garden and currently vanishing from cultivation called variously as Drum stick, Horse radish tree, West Indian Ben & Radish tree.

Because of its manifold uses, its liberation in blossom disposition and the freedom with which it can be cultivated, the area needful for it is on progress, as is demand for its components. The farming of moringa in India takes place predominantly in the southern parts of our terrain. States like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are the pre-eminent producers of moringa.

Chiefly perennial and long-lived variants of drum stick have been recognized for cultivation for a very ancient time. Nevertheless perennial types are best with several production constraints, such as a comparatively long gestation period, Impregnability of planting materials, necessity of a higher number of peachy days in locations where water is infrequent and debilitation to mischievous pathogens & insects.

India is the maximum producer of Moringa in the world with production of 1.1-1.3 million tons per annum of tender fruits from an area of 38,000 ha. Among the states Andhra Pradesh commands in area as well as in production. There are only a sparse designated cultivars of Moringa. One variant, entitled Jaffna cultivated in several places of Southern India, generates fruits of 60-90 cm in length with tender and sapid flesh.

It is postulated to have been prefaced from Sri Lanka, where however, 3 more types are separated on the basis of the colour and extent of pods. Kadumurungai is wild and uncultivated type producing small inferior and coarse quality pods. Smoother less avowed types includes Palmurungai and puna Murungai with thick core and a sardonic

Modern breeding techniques for genetic improvement of

Moringa (Moringa oleifera): current status & future prospects

Sourav Roy* Department of Vegetable Science, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya,West Bengal

Article ID: 20/05/010131


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taste and kodikkal Murungai from betel vine growing belts of Tamil Nadu.

Modern breeding techniques:

Moringa is a plant of old-World dry tropical parts of the planet with exalted sustenance and having elevated agronomical, horticultural, industrial and pharmaceutical value. Although many of the thirteen discovered Moringa species are in jeopardy of extinction, one species, M. oleifera Lam., is now widely recognized and cultivated. M. oleifera was therefore utilized to standardize micro-propagation techniques that may be contextual to the more calamitous species of this particular genus of huge potentialities. Restricted tidings on biotechnological investigation are available in moringa. Lately, due magnificence has been pressed in tiddu culture.

A technique was considered by Kantharajah and Dodd (1991) for in vitro propagation of moringa through excersicing on nodal pieces gathered from a full-aged and productive field grown tree. An approximate of 22.1 shoots per tree were flourished in the timbered plant medium smeared with sucrose 2%, coagulated with agar and reinforced with 1mg Benzyl Adenine/l. Rooting was willingly accomplished utilizing MS basal medium with 0.5 mg NAA/l. the resultant plantlets were shifted to ground and effectively raised in the protected structure. Tissues from seedlings were less feasible as origins of explants for micropropagation than those which acquired from mature nodal sections from full-aged plants.

Stem segments from 10 days young seedlings were disposed on to MS medium supplemented with several consolidations and concentrations of auxin (NAA) and cytokinin (kinetin & BAP). Palingenesis of plantlets of 100 % (with profuse rooting) was achieved after 21 days on MS medium reinforced with NAA (0.2 mg/l) + kinetin (0.2mg/l) (Mughal et al., 1999).

Straight somatic embryogenesis was performed in immature and under developed zygotic embryos of Moringa cultured in endless light in media with gibberellic acid, BA and activated charcoal (Iyer and Gopinath, 1999). Enduring, stable & rapid growing callus cultures were Commenced from Speedily extending epicotyls in in vitro plantlets of drum stick in culture prepared with 2,4-D, NAA and coconut milk (Iyer and Gopinath, 1999).

Numerous studies demonstrate that very often plant growth regulator (PGR) regimes in culture media must be defined for each genotype to succeed in plant regeneration and micro-propagation, which means that valuable plants may be sacrificed for this purpose. Moreover, due to genotype-specific PGR requirements, formulation of a uniform culture protocol valid for a genetically heterogeneous wild or non-cultivated plant population is often impossible. Molecular markers Molecular data can be used to define conservation strategies, both ex situ (e.g. collecting strategies) and in situ. Molecular technologies may help promote germplasm use by providing exact data about the genotypic attributes of plants, including crops. Germplasm characterization offers information about individual genomic composition and, as such, allows breeders to select promising material based on genotype, as well as on phenotype.

Molecular markers have ascertained to be mighty potent kits in the determination of genetic variation both within and between plant populations by analyzing large fragments of loci scattered throughout genome (Powell et al., 2000). In order to simplify bottomed scientific decisions on its management and conservation and prepare for selection breeding programme, genetic analysis of seven populations was performed using AFLP markers by Muluvi et al (1999). The four pairs of AFLP primers (psI/MseI) generated a total of 236 amplification products of which 157 (66.5%) were polymorphic between or within populations.

Analysis of molecular variance revealed significant difference between regions and populations, even though outcrossing perennial plants are expected to maintain most variations within populations. The evolution and utilization of isozymes provided several genetic markers which can be applied to reckon the mating rituals in plant populations (Brown and Allard, 1970; Holtsford and Ellstrand, 1990; Cottrell and White, 1995; Premoli, 1996; Schoen et al., 1997).

This is specifically pertinent for utilizations that demands genotype disparity, as in the case of outcrossing-rate computation (Gaiotto et al., 1997). However, Ritland and Jain (1981) displayed that this restrictions could be smoothly wear down by multi locus computation of outcrossing with dominant markers having medial genetic recurrences.


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Mode of pollination in moringa is selfing (exhibits geitonogamy) and outcrossing with larger fruit set, seed set and fertility in the sequential form (Jyoth et al., 1990). The flowers generate both pollen and nectar with bees as the chief pollinating agents. (Puri, 1941, Jyoth et al., 1990, Chand et al., 1994). However, the rate of self-pollination in this crop has not been formally enumerated. Raja and Bagle (2008) examined the appropriateness of dominant AFLP markers in computing the proportion of cross pollination in M. oleifera and then utilize them (AFLP markers) to acquire estimates of cross pollination in an M. oleifera seed plantation from Mbololo, Kenya.

The ulterior thrust areas for improvement of moringa

There are two exigent and urgent advancements required in moringa, genomics & functional genomics today; first, the generation of cabalistic sequence-based treasures, second, the utilisation of these sequence treasures for fulfilment moringa improvement research and exploration into the corporeal informational and naturalistic resources that formerly subsist in other main crops.

In recent past, crop experts endeavored in their own species with narrow allusion to what was occurring on the other hand. Bioinformatics, genomics & functional genomics have generated to the clause where most experts today will at the very nominal use reports and tidings from other species as a demonstrator to go through with the crop of interest, if not as a representative.

For drum stick, this could soothe the constraints of researching in this species, while still allowing the exceptional strengths of moringa to be explored.

The future punches those are needed to straighten the moringa improvement work includes

Restoration of germplasm, compilation and characterization of several economically important traits for utilization in crop improvement programmes.

Cryopreservation (-196 degree Celsius with liquid nitrogen) of germplasm and generation of molecular markers for marker assisted selection (MAS) in breeding programmes.

Development of regeneration protocol.

Evolution of conceptual crop ideotype for focused crop improvement.

Adequate understanding regarding the abiotic stress tolerance and screening the germplasms of drum stick for resistance to different abiotic stresses.

Physiological, biochemical & molecular characterization and documentation for productivity potential of this dynamic crop of economic importance.

Evolvement of mobilzed, compact, eco-friendly and environmentally feasible IPM & INM technologies. Formulation of reliable & authentic stastical databases regarding actual area, production and productivity of moringa in our homeland.

References

Brown AHD and Allard RW. 1970. Estimation of the mating system in open-pollinated maize populations using isozyme polymorphisms. Genetics 66: 135-145.

Chand H, Singh R and Hameed SF. 1994. Studies on the flowering period, density of Indian mustard and competing flora for honey bees in and around Pusa, Bihar (India). J. Entomol. Res. 18: 361-367.

Chaves LHG, Viégas RA, Feitosa de Vasconcelos AC and Vieira H. 2005. Effect of potassium on moringa plants growth in nutrient solution. Revista de biologia. 5.

Clegg MT. 1980. Measuring plant mating systems. Bioscience 30: 814-818.

Cottrell JE and White IMS. 1995. The use of isozyme genetic markers to estimate the rate of outcrossing in a Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) seed orchard in Scotland. New For. 10: 112-122.

Gaiotto FA, Bramucci M and Grattapaglia D. 1997. Estimation of outcrossing rate in a breeding population of Eucalyptus urophylla with dominant RAPD and AFLP markers. Theor. Appl. Genet. 95: 842-849.


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Increasing the use efficiency of nutrient and maintaining soil health are the big challenges of century. We are looking forward for sustainable production without losing soil quality. Currently various techniques are been suggested by scientist but some techniques which are having farmers origin always been found practical as per as the execution consequences are concerned.

In this small manuscript we will have a look on one of such farmer originated technique, Soil swapping. This technique is patented by Karnataka farmer Chintala Venkat Reddy. C V Reddy an innovative organic farmer known for his soil and nutrient management techniques in farming. He holds the distinction of being the first independent farmer in India to receive an international patent for his technique in soil swapping and soil fertility

(Source : Youtube)

Soil swapping

According to C V Reddy, Soil swapping is technique of changing the top soil with sub soil from other farmland where a different crop is grown

Significance

With soil swapping there is no compelling reason to apply any manure, pesticide or insecticidal spray. Everything is taken consideration by the nature.

Further farmer or grower will encounter tremendous decrease in the creation cost with this technique.

According to C V Reddy, Soil substitution should be possible in a similar field also. It gives best outcomes before planting the seeds or transplanting the saplings. First burrow a channel with a machine or physically about 2.5ft wide and 4ft profundity. At that point supplant 1 or 2 creeps of top soil with sub soil followed by working the land and start development. This soil trade can be utilized for most extreme 10 harvests or for 4-5years. In this period he additionally watched dry soil is more helpful than the wet soil subsequently he began splashing wet soil arrangement on the plants. It was his subsequent innovation. He begun applying the dried sub soil through trickle and manual application that is 1kg dried sub soil close to the plant root and on all pieces of the plant. The top soil and sub soil ought to be combined, showered on the plant through foliar splash. During winters, the nitrogen substance will be less in both the soil levels henceforth it should be included moreover. Unexpectedly, during summers, the blend of both soil ought to be applied in night when temperature drops to 22 degrees, it doesn't require any nitrogen supplement as it will be inexhaustible in the climate.

This patented technology has several benefits specially in orchard growing. Another implications of this technology on soil properties must be studies further. Swapped soil may also have positive impact on soil microbial biomass, physic chemical properties of soil. Technique holds enormous potential in assets conservation of the era. Further investigation should be encouraged for the bringing sustainability in production through such innovative technologies.

SOIL SWAPPING – A technique by farmer for betterment of

crop and soil

S. A. Durgude* Research Scholar, Soil Science GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, 263145 Article ID: 20/05/010126


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Introduction

Marketing and exchange movement comes as a piece of the worth chain for any ware but it is the most significant determinant for every single other action. All the info costs for work, materials and capital are remunerated at this stage, which will incorporate some impetus far beyond inputs. Agricultural items, in a creating nation stay in uniform interest all through year, while creation of the vast majority of them is gathered in some piece of the year. Directly, markets in agricultural items are managed under the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act authorized by particular State Government. This Act advises agricultural items produced in the district, for example, grain, beats, eatable oilseed and even chicken, goat and so on. The main deal in these products can be directed uniquely under the aegis of APMC through the commission specialists authorized by the APMC. The typical amenities available in or around the APMC are: auction halls, weigh bridges, godowns, shops for retailers, farmer’s amenity center etc. Various taxes, fees/charges and cess levied on the trades conducted in the Mandis are also notified under the Act. Under the APMC demonstrations, States are geologically isolated into markets which are going by market committees and any creation around there will be brought to a market committee available to be purchased. This is appropriate to 'informed agricultural items' which varies from state to state and by and large incorporates a large portion of the significant grains, vegetables and other cultivation items. Told items are intended to be brought to the market committee and sold in nearness of the rancher. In this Market committee (prominently called Mandi) there are commission's specialists who hold permit and are dispensed a shop in the market. Rancher and purchaser have

attentiveness to go to any specialist in this market, in view of individual relations.

Shortcomings of the existing system

i) Imposing business model of any exchange (notwithstanding not many special cases) is terrible, regardless of whether it is by some MNC company by government or by any APMC. It denies ranchers from better clients, and shoppers from unique providers.

ii) It is regularly observed that specialists in an APMC get together to shape a cartel and intentionally limitation from higher offering. Produce is obtained at manipulatively found cost and sold at more significant expense. Crown jewels are then common by members, leaving ranchers in stagger.

iii) License charge in these business sectors are profoundly restrictive. In numerous business sectors ranchers were not permitted to work. Further, well beyond license expense, lease/esteem for shops is very high which fends off rivalry. At most places just a gathering of town/urban tip top works in APMC.

iv) APMC assume dual role of regulator and Market. Thusly, its job as regulator is sabotaged by personal stake in worthwhile exchange. They regardless of wastefulness won't let go any control. For the most part, part and director are designated/chose out of the specialists working in that advertise.

v) Ranchers need to pay commission, showcasing expense, APMC cess which pushes up costs. Aside from this numerous states force Value Added Tax.

vi) Agents have inclination to obstruct a piece of installment for unexplained or imaginary reasons. Rancher is now and then rejected installment slip (which recognizes deal and installment) which is basic for him to get advance.

APMC: A Critical Appraisal

Kiran K. S.* Data Analyst, 6th Grain

Article ID: 20/05/010135


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The Economic Survey underscores on the requirement for a national basic horticultural market and distinguishes un-incorporated and contortion ridden farming business sector as the one of the most striking issues in agribusiness development. The Economic Survey proposes 3 steady strides as conceivable arrangement, expanding on the Budget 2014 acknowledgment for setting up a national market, ranchers' business sectors and requirement for the Central Government and the State Government to work near reorient their particular APMC Act.

i) It might be conceivable to get all States to drop products of the soil from APMC timetable of regulated wares and followed by different items.

ii) State governments ought to likewise be explicitly convinced to give strategy backing to option or extraordinary markets in private segment.

iii) Taking into account the troubles in drawing in household capital for the setting-up promoting foundation, progression in FDI in retail could make opportunities for filling in the huge venture and framework shortfall in supply chain inefficiencies.

Ministry of Agriculture built up a Model APMC Act, 2003 for the opportunity of ranchers to sell their produce. The ranchers could sell their produce legitimately to the agreement supports or in the market set up by private people, purchasers or producers. The Model Act additionally expands the intensity of the market of horticultural produce by permitting normal enlistment of market middle people. A considerable lot of the States have mostly embraced the arrangements of model Act and a few states, for example, Karnataka have received changes to make more prominent rivalry inside State. Karnataka Model accommodates a solitary authorizing framework, offers robotized sale and post closeout offices. It additionally encourages stockroom based offer of produce, encourage ware subsidizing, costs scattering by utilizing innovation and private part interest in marketing foundation. So as to diminish the value hole among producers and shoppers through decrease in intermediation of flexibly chain, make elective market channels and advance speculation on improvement of marketing framework with private area support, states have been solicited to deregulate marketing from products of the soil outside the Agriculture Market Produce

Market (APMC) yards. Continuing provincial trouble, in spite of ongoing years' liberal climbs in minimum support prices (MSPs) for ranch produce, is inferable from the gigantic hole between the prices acknowledged by ranchers for things out of the MSP domain and those the purchasers pay. Regardless of numerous states, expelling foods grown from the ground from the domain of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, wholesale markets of the sort where the producers can sell things straightforwardly to mass purchasers like large retailers are yet to represent an opposition to customary wholesale focuses harrowed with cartelised activities by the merchants. Following the delisting of products of the soil from the APMC Act domain, ranchers currently take their produce to purchasers without utilizing conventional markets across state. Since the measure is proposed to decrease gracefully chain and make rivalry in marketing of products of the soil, in this way it can possibly make accessible these nourishment things to customers' at sensible prices alongside to upgrade ranchers' benefit with their open decision of offering to anyone, anyplace, any place show signs of improvement prices.

References

Mohanty, S. S., & Singh, A. (2014). Agricultural produce market committee (APMC) act in Uttarakhand and its impact on agribusiness. International Journal of Marketing and Technology, 4(4), 189-203.

Neha, T. (2013). APMC act in India: rising food inflation a decade story. International Journal of Social Science and Interdisciplinary Research, 2(7), 38-49.

Ramakrishna, H., & Ajjappa, V. (2013). Problems and prospects of agricultural produce marketing committees (APMC) in India: A case study of APMC bellary, Karnataka. South Asian Journal of Marketing & Management Research, 3(1), 17-42.

Reddy, A. (2016). Status of Market Reforms in India. Indian farming, 66(8), 33-37.

Singh, S. (2012). New markets for smallholders in India: Exclusion, policy and mechanisms. Economic and Political Weekly, 95-105.


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Introduction

Biofertilizers or microbial inoculants are carrier based ready to use live bacterial or fungal formulations, on application to the living plants, soil or composting pits, which through their biological activity provides aid in the mobilization of several nutrients. The role of bio fertilizers assumes special role due to ever increasing cost of chemical fertilizers and their ill effects on soil health due to non-judicious applications.

Importance

Potassium is one of the important plant nutrients and the most abundantly absorbed cation from the soil in most of the crops. It plays a very significant role in the plant growth and development. It is associated with activation of numerous enzymes, maintenance of tissue water balance and cell turgor, enhances photosynthesis, reduces respiration, helps in transport of sugars and starches, helps in nitrogen uptake and is essential for protein synthesis. Plant can take up potassium only from the soil solution.

Forms of K

There are three forms of K found in the soil viz., soil mineral K, nonexchangeable K and available K forms. Mineral form of K in the soil minerals constitutes more than 90 to 98% of total soil K. Non exchangeable K is bound very tightly and most of it is not in dynamic equilibrium with readily available for plant uptake. The third type is available potassium which constitutes 1 to 2 per cent. Among these three different forms of K in the soils, the concentrations of soluble K in soils are usually very low but the highest proportion of potassium in soils are in insoluble rocks and minerals.

Rationale & KSB

Although K deficiency is not as wide spread as that of nitrogen and phosphorus, many soils which were initially rich in K become deficit in due course due to heavy nutrient mining by crops and inadequate K application, imbalanced nutrient application runoff, leaching and soil erosion. Micro-organisms play a key role in the natural K cycle. Some species of rhizosphere bacteria have the capability to mobilize bound potassium to the available K pool in soils. Several micro-organisms viz. Bacillus extroquens, Aspergillus niger and C. pasteurianum were repeatedly found to grow on different mineral matters such as orthoclase, microclase muscovite, biotite and micas. Potassium solubilizing bacteria (KSB) viz. Bacillus edaphicus and B. mucilagenosus are example of microorganisms that can be used in K-biofertilizers.

KSBs have ablity to solubilize potassium minerals through production and secretion of several organic acids. Research says K solubilization is more effective in alkaline soils than acidic soils. The transformation of crystalline biotite, mica, vermiculite and certain rocks to amorphous state is due to the action of certain organic by-products of microbial metabolism.

Fundamentally, KSBs is a group of heterotrophic bacterium which obtains their energy and cellular carbon from soil organic material. They are also important part in the formation of humus in soil. KSBs are aerobic in nature which play pivotal role in the maintenance of soil physical structure by their contribution in the formation and stabilization of water-stable soil aggregates. In addition, these gram positive bacteria can produce substances that are known to stimulate plant growth or inhibit root

Potassium Solubilizing Bio fertilizer- A novel way to increase

potassium availability to plants

P. S. Nishad* Department of Agril. Chemistry, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar

Article ID: 20/05/010129


20


pathogens. Moreover, KSBs specifically are well known for its capability to solubilize rock potassium mineral viz. mica, illite and orthoclase.

Method of Application

1. Seedling Dipping: 100 ml or 100 g of commercial KSB culture dispersed in 10 litres of water. Seedlings are dipped for 30 minutes before transplanting in the solution. 2. Sett Dipping: About 3 litres of commercial KSB culture is to be mixed in water sufficient enough to dip the setts.

The setts are treated for 30 minutes before planting. 3. Soil Application: About 3 litres of commercial KSB culture is to be thoroughly mixed with Organic manure / topsoil / vermi-compost. The mixture is applied near the root zone of the plants. Potassium is known to enhance photosynthetic efficiency and assimilate partitioning to the storage organs (fruits, roots & seeds). Symbion-K is a commercially available potassium solubilizing bio-fertilizer based on Frateuria aurantia. It is available in liquid formulation having (1 x 109 bacterial CFU/ml).

Reference:

Ahmad, M., Nadeem, S. M., Naveed, M., & Zahir, Z. A. (2016). Potassium-solubilizing bacteria and their application in agriculture. In Potassium solubilizing microorganisms for sustainable agriculture (pp. 293-313). Springer, New Delhi.

Meena, O. P., Maurya, B. R., & Meena, V. S. (2013). Influence of K-solubilizing bacteria on release of potassium from waste mica. Agric Sust Dev, 1, 53-56.

Han, H. S., & Lee, K. D. (2006). Effect of co-inoculation with phosphate and potassium solubilizing bacteria on mineral uptake and growth of pepper and cucumber. Plant soil and Environment, 52(3), 130.

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Cover article · 2020-05-06 · Cover article by Mohapatra et al. Chief Editor Volume 01, Issue 01 May, 2020 A monthly agriculture and allied sciences newsletter Dr. Padmaja Pancharatnam