India is one of the leading countries in the world in production of a number of crops including rice, wheat, pulses, sugarcane, fruits and vegetables. In spite of this, there are two important bottlenecks like stagnant productivity and shortage of agricultural labour in agricultural production. Several studies suggest direct correlation between the increased agricultural yield and farm mechanization. It has been estimated that use of improved implements have potential to increase the productivity up to 30 per cent and reduce the cultivation cost up to 20 per cent.

Harvesting of wheat crop is commonly carried out manually. It is a high labour intensive method of harvesting. Harvesting is a highly time constrained resulting economic losses to the farmers, if it is delayed slightly. The performance of the machine effective over the prevailing of harvesting techniques. Various harvesting machines are available with farmers and custom hiring centers. These machines are very big for individual farmers. Harvesting losses are also very high in these machines on the basis of field capacity, field efficiency, fuel consumption, harvesting losses and cost of operation. Reaper binder was found suitable for harvesting of Wheat as its fuel consumption is less and loss of grain fodder is also minimum in compare to other mechanize harvesting methods.

This is brief article comparing genome information published for pepper and how it differs from the model crop of the Solanacea family tomato

Molecular markers could be appropriate choice to study and preserve the range in any germplasm. Molecular markers have diverse applications in crop improvement, particularly in the areas of genetic diversity and varietal identification studies, sequence tagging, disease diagnostics, pedigree analysis, hybrid detection, sex differentiation and marker assisted selection. The sequence of nucleotides in polymer of an individual is exclusive and so determines its identity. The ultimate distinction between people lies in the ester sequence of their polymer. These can be wont to diagnose the presence of the sequence while not having to attend for sequence effect to be seen.

In virus–plant interactions, one of the major mechanisms for plant antiviral immunity relies on RNA silencing. RNA silencing is a nucleotide sequence-specific process that induces mRNA degradation or translation inhibition at the post-transcriptional level (named PTGS in plants) or epigenetic modification at the transcriptional level, depended on RNA-directed DNA methylation (a process named RdDM in plants). RNA interference (RNAi) is a novel phenomenon that has the potential to become an extremely powerful tool for gene silencing in any organism.

The flowering plants, Phanerogams also parasitize the crop plants in addition to the microorganisms. They mostly belong to Loranthaceae, Convolvulaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Orabanchaceae, Lauraceae, Santalaceae and Balauophoraceae. Based on the habit and attachment of the parasite with the host, they are commonly grouped as stem parasite and root parasite. They are again divided into total or semi parasite depending upon their mode of parasitism.

Conservation agriculture (CA) permits management of soils for agricultural production without excessively disturbing the soil, while protecting it from the processes that contribute to degradation of erosion, compaction, aggregate breakdown, loss in organic matter, leaching of nutrients etc. CA is a way to achieve goals of enhanced productivity and profitability while protecting natural resources and environment, an example of a win situation. In the conventional system involving intensive tillage, there is a gradual decline in soil organic matter through accelerated oxidation and burning of crop residues causing pollution, green house gases emission and loss of valuable plant nutrients. When the crop residues are retained on soil surface in combination with no tillage, it initiates processes that lead to improved soil quality and overall resource enhancement. Benefits of CA have been demonstrated through its large-scale adoption in many socioeconomic and agro-ecological situations in different countries the over world.

Rice is the most important staple food for a large part of the world’s human population. Rice varieties with aroma quality, known as aromatic or fragrant rice, have earned a reputation and wide popularity. Aromatic rice constitutes a small but special group of rice which are considered best in quality. Aromatic rice is of different types: Short grain, medium grain and long grain aromatic rice. Majority of the Indian indigenous aromatic rice are small and medium-grained.

Plants are sessile organisms and are not able to move away from adverse environmental conditions and must response to an array of environmental and developmental cues. They heavily rely on high sensitivity detection and adaptation mechanisms to environmental perturbations. At the same time plants do not have immune system, but possess preformed and inducible defense resistance. These include programmed cell death, tissue reinforcement at the infection site, and production of anti-microbial metabolites. Activation of ‘local’ responses establishes secondary immunity throughout the plant (SAR), which is long lasting and effective against a broad spectrum of pathogens.

A biological agent that reduces the number or disease producing activities of the pathogen is called as antagonist or biocontrol agent. The important biocontrol agents used in plant disease management includes fungi, bacteria etc. Among them, fungal and bacterial antagonists especially species of Trichoderma, Gliocladium, Pseudomonas and Bacillus are most widely used against plant diseases. They act on the pathogen through one or more of the following mechanisms like competition, parasitism, antibiosis, lysis, etc.

It briefly introduces the topic synthetic biology with history of development with reference to structural as well as functional perspectives. DNA synthesis from oligonucleotides to whole genome has been traced at structural perspective. Ribozyme switches and SynNotch communication systems have been described from functional perspective.

The high fertilizer rate and labor requirement are common problems to traditional application of fertilizer. Fertilizer applicator was testing for wheat crop (Triticum aestivum) planted on bed cultivation system. Study included suitable measurement techniques for recording various field performances, parameters related to evaluation of machine. The machine was calibrated in the laboratory testing for different rate of fertilizer application and determination of coefficient of variation. The tractor operated fertilizer applicator resulted as compared to broadcast and foliar application. The field tests of machine were conducted on the wheat crop planted on bed.

It is an environmentally friendly method of using solar energy for controlling soil- borne plant pathogens by covering the soil with transparent plastics so that sun rays will increase the soil temperature to levels that kills the pathogen.

A bacterium that is clearly a living organism, as opposed to viruses and phages and is smaller than the prey, in contrast with protists. Bdellovibrio is a genus of Gram negative bacteria with the ability to parasitize and kill other Gram negative bacteria

Flooding, resulting in soil waterlogging and in many situations even complete submergence of plants, is an important abiotic stress in many regions worldwide. The number of floods has increased in recent decades and the severity of floods is expected to increase further in many regions of the world. Flooding reduces agricultural production, and floods shape many natural plant communities (e.g. floodplains, wetlands, salt marshes). Rainfed lowland and deep-water rice together account for approximately 33% of global rice farmlands (IRRI Social Statistics Database). Distribution of rice grown in upland, irrigated, rainfed lowland, and deep-water environments. Oftentimes, transient submergence is repeated or followed by a period of stagnant partial flooding. When partially or completely submerged, most rice varieties display a moderate capacity to elongate leaves and the portion of stems that are trapped underwater. This elongation growth leads to a spindly plant that easily lodges when floodwaters recede.

A cloning vector may be a small piece of DNA, taken from a micro-organism or from the cells of eukaryotes, that may be stably maintained in an organism, and into that a foreign deoxyribonucleic acid fragment is inserted for generating multiple copies of Dna. The vector thus contains features that allow the convenient insertion or removal of a deoxyribonucleic acid fragment to or from cloning vector, with a restriction endonuclease that cuts the deoxyribonucleic acid. Dna segments so generated contain either flush or protruding ends, and vector and foreign dna with compatible ends will then be joined together by ligation. When a deoxyribonucleic acid fragment has been cloned into a cloning vector, it should be further sub cloned into another vector designed for a specific use.

Stress is defined as mechanical force per unit area applied to an object. As plants are sessile, it is difficult to measure the exact force exerted by stresses and therefore in biological terms it is difficult to define stress. A biological condition, which may be stress for one plant may be optimum for another plant. The most practical definition of a biological stress is an adverse force or a condition, which inhibits the normal functioning and well being of a biological system such as plants.

Vegetable grafting is a relatively recent advancement made in India. It is a unique technique for mitigating the production problems imposed by abiotic and biotic stresses in vegetable production and can be referred as uniting of two living plant parts so that they grow as a single plant. The use of grafted vegetables is associated with enhanced resistance to biotic and abiotic stress. It can also increase yields without the presence of stress. But this technique is still in nursery stage in north eastern hill region of India. Identification of compatible disease resistant rootstocks with tolerance to abiotic stresses is the basic requirement for continued success of grafting in the region. This technique can be popularized amongst the farmers for increasing the productivity of major solanaceous vegetables grown in the region

In the recent years increasing emphasis has been given on organic farming system due to environmental degradation, high awareness of the health hazards caused by the consumption of contaminated food products etc. Diversification and adoption of underutilized vegetable crops in present cropping system can be an aid to success of organic farming system. Psophocarpus tetragonolobus, popularly known as Winged bean or Goa bean is a potential tropical underutilized legume crop. The present article will provide an insight into the nutritional value and cultural practices for the cultivation of this crop. The information generated from this article will pave the ways for prospecting this underutilized legume for its potential in organic farming system and also in delivering nutritional education about the crop to the farming community.

The bacteria causes indirect plant growth promotion or biological control. It is also used for sustainable agriculture, increase crop production and suppression of plant pathogens. PGPRs (plant growth promoting rhizobacteria) are associated with plants roots and increase immunity of plants against pathogens attack.