National Research Centre for Integrated Pest Management

Stored-product insect pests constitute a major challenge to global food security due to their ability to infest stored seeds, leading to substantial economic losses and reduced seed viability. Biological control using parasitoids presents a more sustainable and environmentally friendly approach for pest management. Several beneficial natural enemies, including Xylocoris flavipes, Uscana sp., Anisopteromalus calandrae, Habrobracon hebetor, Theocolax elegans, Holepyris sp., and Pyemotes sp., were recorded from the collected samples of different stored seeds like cerelas, legumes and dried nuts in and around Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The parasitism efficiency of Uscana sp. was positively correlated with the number of adults released, achieving a maximum parasitism rate of 42% on Callosobruchus maculatus eggs. This was accompanied by a reduction in seed infestation from 100% (untreated control) to 78.67% at a release rate of 40 adults, along with the highest recorded seedling vigour index (1643.3) and germination percentage (82.33%). Besides, the emergence of A. calandrae significantly increased with the numbers of mating pairs, with mean adult emergence recorded as 4.6 (1 pair), 11.9 (2 pairs), and 23.8 (4 pairs), respectively. Similarly, H. hebetor emergence varied significantly with the larval instar of the host, showing mean emergence of 2.2, 11.2, 20.2, and 25.0 from the 1st to 4th instars, respectively, indicating that later developmental stages of the host provide superior resources for parasitoid development. These experimental findings highlight the potential of egg and larval parasitoids as effective biological control agents for suppressing stored-product pest populations. Furthermore, host developmental stage and parasitoid reproductive parameters were identified as crucial factors influencing parasitism success, providing valuable insights for the optimization of post-harvest integrated pest management strategies. Documentation of natural enemies associated with major seed-infesting pests under storage conditions. Parasitism efficiency varied across pest developmental stages, with the highest suppression observed at later larval or pupal stages. A positive correlation between parasitism rates and seed quality parameters, offering scope for integration natural enemies into seed storage IPM strategies.

Remote sensing is being increasingly used in agricultural stress management, offering real-time analysis of crop stress beyond what can be observed visually alone. Hopper burn, induced by brown planthopper (BPH, Nilaparvata lugens) is a significant challenge to rice production in India. This study aims to characterize the spectral reflectance of rice plants with different infestation levels of 2nd instar BPH nymphs across three varieties namely Pusa Basamti-1509, Pusa Basmati-1121, and TN-1 (susceptible variety to BPH). The differential infestation included 0, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 100, 200 number of nymphs. The spectral signatures of the crop were collected at 20 and 40 days after infestation (DAI). The results indicated a distinct change in reflectance pattern between healthy and infested rice plants across all three varieties in green (490-559 nm), yellow (560-584 nm), orange (585-639 nm), and red (640-699 nm) region of visible portion as affected by chlorophyll pigments and in NIR region (700-1800 nm) as affected by cell structure and in water absorption (1915 nm) region of SWIR portion. The specific wavelength band (470, 660,750, 1800, 1915 nm) showing a correlation above 0.8 with pest severity level, was identified as sensitive for assessing BPH damage. Analysis of reflectance changes across wavelengths highlighted that the first derivative has a strong correlation between BPH severity and reflectance in the green region (500-540 nm) and red edge position (680-760 nm). The amplitude of the red edge value decreased with an increase in the severity level of insects. This study identifies the sensitivity of visible and near-infrared regions in detecting and assessing BPH infestation severity.

To evaluate the efficacy of propolis and its combination products as an obturating material in comparison to Vitapex. Propolis collected from the primary source was extracted using organic solvents and laboratory bio-assayed against Enterococcus faecalis to evaluate its minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). For in-vivo studies, propolis efficacy was investigated in combination with zinc oxide and calcium hydroxide powder. Furthermore, pulpectomies were performed on 68 non-vital primary molars in the children of age group 4-8 years and were assessed both clinically and radiographically. The data were subjected to chi-square test for comparative analysis. Zinc oxide in combination with propolis resorbed at the same pace as that of the roots. MIC and MBC of laboratory-extracted propolis against E. faecalis were 289 and 579 μg/mL, respectively. Efficacies of different obturating materials were observed as ZnOP > ZnO{Ca(OH)2}P > Ca(OH)2P > Vitapex. A novel herbal obturating material with ideal properties for primary teeth has been developed.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-024-04059-7.

Decentralized education delivery has the potential to be more effective, represent local objectives better, promote involvement, and, ultimately, increase coverage and quality. Decentralization has the potential to boost efficiency, which appeals to governments with tight budgets in particular. Recently, mobile edge computing (MEC) has gained attention as a viable method for relieving resource-constrained mobile devices of computation-intensive activities. Edge computing technologies have developed as a result of the fact that traditional cloud computing cannot serve the varied data processing needs of today's intelligent society, a fresh approach to computing for performing operations at the edge of the network. It stresses proximity to the consumer and the data source, in contrast to cloud computing. For processing and storing local, small-scale data at the network interface, it is lightweight. By offloading workloads to neighboring MEC servers, devices can increase the quality of their computing experiences. Nevertheless, it is difficult to create and compute offloading policies to reduce the long-term average computation cost in terms of power consumption and buffering delay when a MEC system with numerous mobile users, stochastic task arrivals, and wireless channels is taken into consideration. Decentralization should instead be seen as a continuum that ranges from decentralization to devolution.

The pursuit of creating safe and efficient pesticides remains an ongoing aspiration. Recently, the potential efficacy of metal nanoparticles against diverse phytopathogens has come to light. Commonly used methods, viz. chemical and physical means of nanoparticle synthesis are associated with a range of drawbacks. Fortunately, the biological synthesis method ensures safe and non-toxic nanoparticles. The present study was carried out during 2022–23 at ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, which documented the successful synthesis of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) utilizing the supernatant of potent fungal biocontrol agents, viz. Trichoderma virens and Chaetomium globosum. The reduction in the size of copper was determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The change in colour of the reaction mixture confirmed the reduction in the size of particles. Characterization using TEM measured spherical CuNPs of the size range 8 to 100 nm depending on the CuSO4 concentration used. Furthermore, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) unveiled the presence of several functional groups that plays pivotal role in reducing and stabilizing particle size. The in vitro assay conclusively demonstrated the effectiveness of biosynthesized CuNPs, with significant inhibition at a concentration of 10 µg/ml in the case of Xanthomonas euvesicatoria and at 50 µg/ml in the case of Enterobacter cloacae. Our study marks the first instance of synthesizing CuNPs through the utilization of two aforesaid fungal species holding significant promise for antibacterial applications.

Rice is an important major staple food crop of the world which is affected by various biotic and abiotic stresses. Among biotic stresses, plant parasitic nematodes are considered as major constraints. However, of late, Meloidogyne graminicola has emerged as pest of International importance and it is considered as number one enemy of rice crop. Being a soil borne and hidden organism in rice causes a yield loss up to 80%. Due to its adaptation, distribution, broad host range and ability to survive under different abiotic factors especially physical and chemical properties of soil, such as soil pH, organic carbon, EC, nutrition, temperature, soil type, moisture, etc., The management is a challenging issue due to non-availability of nematicides and also effective management practices all these factors represents, Meloidogyne graminicola a serious menace for rice production. Considering the impact of this nematode in rice production a literature is mainly focusing on distribution, symptoms, biology, survival strategies and management practices.