A field investigation was conducted to study the characteristics and performance of some promising litchi cultivars (10 years old) grown under the semi-arid, subtropical, red and lateritic zone of Sriniketan region in Birbhum district of West Bengal during 2016-17. The cultivars were evaluated for various plant morphology, yield and physico-chemical characteristics of fruits. The pooled results of the two year experimentation revealed that ‘Bombai’ exhibited maximum tree height (5.18m), tree volume (79.11m), fruit yield (51.55kg/tree), fruit size (length: 3.61cm; breadth: 3.34cm), fruit weight (19.86g), fruit volume (18.05cm3) and minimum fruit cracking percent (2.15%). Whereas, the cultivar ‘Bedana’ exhibited maximum aril weight (15.40g), small seed size (1.55g), maximum aril/seed ratio (9.92), maximum TSS (19.28oB), minimum acidity (0.28%), maximum sugar/acid ratio (70.54), maximum ascorbic acid (51.49mg/100g) and maximum sugars content. Based on the plant morphology, yield and physico-chemical characteristics of fruits the cultivars Bombai and Bedana are superior in growth, yield and fruit quality and stand promising for the small family farming orchard in the red and lateritic zone of Birbhum district in West Bengal.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the periphyton quantity in different natural substrates for natural feed production in FRP tanks under freshwater. Experiments were conducted in outdoor FRP tanks (1500 litres) to observe periphyton quantity on three types of natural substrates such as split bamboo pole, coconut coir and coconut shell, which were placed inside the FRP tanks filled with freshwater for duration of 45 days. Observations were made in every 15th day for growth of periphyton both qualitatively and quantitatively on the three natural substrates. The mean value of periphyton quantity recorded for different substrates reared in freshwater showed highly significant positive correlation (p < 0.001) with days of culture. Student’s ‘t’ test analysis confirmed that mean values of periphyton quantity recorded in freshwater with duration showed significant differences (p < 0.05) between different substrates. From this study, it was observed that among the different substrates used for natural periphyton growth, split bamboo pole exhibited higher periphyton quantity than coconut coir and coconut shell.

Sorghum landraces collected from Dhadgaon and Akkalkua block of Nandurbar district were studied to assess the diversity among these landraces. An experiment was conducted at village level in-situ conservation center during kharif season of 2016 and 2017. Morphological characterization of 13 landraces of sorghum was undertaken for 25 characters as per DUS guidelines. Traits such as anthocyanin coloured coleoptiles (53.85 %), white coloured leaf midrib (38.46 %), yellow colouration on stigma (84.62 %), grayed orange coloured dry anther (53.85 %), yellow white colour of glumes (30.77 %), semi-compact density of panicle (53.85 %) symmetrical type ear (69.2 %) grayed orange coloured seeds (53.85 %) were dominant in studied landraces. The results of present study showed that panicle branch length was most diverse trait (22.93 %), followed by 1000 grain wt. (17.23 %) and stem diameter (19.71 %) whereas leaf width showed the lowest variation (6.16 %) among studied lines. Analysis of variance showed that all the characters were highly significant among the landraces.

Among the pulses, bengal gram (Chickpea) has been considered for the present study in the scenario of uncertain monsoon behaviour where it is an excellent crop benefiting the farmers since its ability to withstand drought condition with lesser rainfall. The present study was under taken intentionally to assess the trends in area, production, productivity and Efficient cropping zones (ECZ) of the emerging pulse crop (Bengal gram) of Tamil Nadu, to identify and analyse the factors influencing the area, production and productivity of bengal gram as well as to key note the available niches over the state (Tamil Nadu). The zones were identified for latest 10 year average (2005-2014). The trend analysis was carried out for 1950-2014, 1950-1979 and 1980-2009 and at decadal scale for state level. The results showed that the trend in area, production and productivity were increasing with the new technologies that could further extend the crop over the efficient cropping zones. The compound growth rate of 2.44 per cent per annum over Tamil Nadu during the time period of 1950-2014 could be achieved as a whole. Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Dindigul and Dharmapuri districts of Tamil Nadu during the latest ten years, 2005 to 2014 were found to be the efficient cropping zones for bengal gram from this study.

A study was conducted to explore the role of extension personal suggestions to mitigate the effect of climate change in agriculture. Study area was four districts from southern and northern zone of Haryana namely Karnal, Kurukhestra, Rewari and Bhiwani. The results showed that vast majority of respondents suggested about new technology like laser land leveler, zero tillage, seed treatment technique, water conservation technology, micro irrigation technology and poly house. Whereas, suggestions about enhancing the farmer knowledge about different subsidy plan guide about crop insurance, soil/water testing and advice to come in Kissan Mela were maximum to mitigate the impact of climate change. Data further revealed that maximum extension personnel agreed on that they suggest strategies like guidance about crop insurance, to lower down the input cost and for better adaptation to climate change.

Genetic diversity was studied in 40 ricebean germlasm accessions collected mostly from the different parts of NW Himalayas using Mahalanobis’s D2 statistics. In the present investigation with non-hierarchical Euclidean cluster analysis, 40 genotypes of ricebean were grouped into two clusters. While cluster II contained only one genotype i.e PRR-2007-2, all other genotypes were grouped into cluster I. The maximum contribution towards the genetic divergence was exhibited by pods/cluster (19.10%) followed by plant height (15.77%), seed yield/plant (15.00%) and days to flowering (15%). Lowest contribution towards the genetic divergence was exhibited by seeds per pod (0.13%). Cluster distance observed for cluster II was 10.36 followed by cluster I which was 3.23. Cluster 1 showed maximum cluster mean values for all characters viz., days to flowering, days to maturity, plant height, branches/plant, pods/plant, pod length, 100-seed weight, seeds/pod, clusters/plant, pods/cluster and seed yield/plant, while cluster 2 showed lowest values for all the characters studied. Based on present study, parents for hybridization programme for incorporation of earliness and determinate habit which is the major bottleneck in the popularization of this underutilized pulse can be selected from cluster II whereas for other traits parents can be selected from cluster I.