IMPACT : International Journal of Research in Applied, Natural and Social Sciences

13-20

Authors: ROCKY THOKCHOM, AMITA HANGLEM, S. ZIMISAI, THONGAM CHANU ANEL, Y. RANJANA DEVI, JENITA THOKCHOM & SANASAM SANJAY SINGH

Manipur has a very rich floral diversity and has been considered as one of the hotspots of global significance. The state falls under the Indo-Myanmar centre of biodiversity ranging from tropical to sub-tropical and temperate deciduous forests. More than 60% of the geographical area is covered under forests and almost all the ethnic groups have been directly or indirectly depending upon natural resources for food. The present investigation recorded 45 different species of wild plants belonging to 27 families and 40 genera from the state where flowers are consumed either as vegetables or used for medicinal purposes. The people also have a tradition of conserving flowers and edible plants in nature based on various religious beliefs and herbal healthcare. The present study reveals the importance of different plant species with special attention in order to maintain and improve this important source of food supply. There are still ample numbers of available wild medicinal and edible plants in this region which could be refocused in near future.

21-24

Authors: ROSHAN BAIG, K PRAVEEN KUMAR & G R K SHARMA

An ex-post-facto research was conducted to study the awareness of women livestock farmers on livestock management practices by administering a pretested structured interview schedule. The results revealed that farm women are more aware of practices like deworming, vaccination, housing and balanced feed. The research recommended a focus on conducting awareness programmes on teat dips, record keeping, enrichment of paddy straw and hydroponics as the urgent need for improvement of milk production and thus for the development of dairy women.

37-42

Authors: G.P. MAURYA, SANTOSH KUMAR & K.K. SINGH

Tomato is one of the most important solanaceous vegetable crops grown throughout the world. In India tomato is the third largest vegetable next to only potato and brijnal. The study has been conducted using the primary data collected from the sample farmers of the selected areas of Araji Line block of Varanasi district to study the existing farm structure, cost of cultivation, profit measures and resource use efficiency of tomato in the agricultural year 2010-11. Cobb Douglas production function was used to assess the resource use efficiency of tomato in study area. On an average cost of cultivation of tomato per hectare was observed highest on marginal farms (`50316.71) followed by large farms (`47256.55), medium farms (`42155.74) and small farms (`42010.50).

53-58

Authors: B. PRADHAN, S. P. SANGRAM SINGH, MISS PLABITA RAY, D. V. SINGH & T. BADJENA

Contract farming has provided alternative market for the small holders with substantial income. The study conducted with each of 80 contracted and non-contracted sugarcane growers in Nayagarh district of Odisha revealed that majority of the sugarcane growers were small farmers having varied socio-economic attributes. They had good perception towards benefit of the contract farming and knowledge about important practices in sugarcane cultivation. But, very poor facilities were availed by the respondents from the contracting sugar industry. No written agreement, insurance coverage, transparency in measurement, attempt for farm mechanization, clarification and understanding on suggested technologies, sale price not fixed over the production cost, produce not lifted in time and harassment in payment, cluster approach not followed and incompetent field staffs were the pertinent constraints stated by the respondents. Hence, the sugar industry officials have to analyze all these aspects and provide all possible supports for benefit of both the contracted growers and contracting firms as well as sustainability of the contract farming in sugarcane cultivation.

71-78

Authors: I.JYOTHI, S. & SUCHIRITHA DEVI

Generally pesticides are used in agricultural practices to minimize the different pests in crops. Pesticide is any chemical substance or mixture of substances used for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating the effect of any pest of plants and animals. They include herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, molluscides, nematicides, avicides, repellents and attractants used in agriculture, public health, horticulture, food storage or a chemical substance used for a similar purpose. It is also used as substances applied to crops either before or after harvest to protect the commodity from deterioration during storage and transport. This paper provides current information about pesticide residues of fruits and vegetables. In this paper Classification of pesticides, commonly used pesticides in vegetables, Current trends in analysis of pesticide residues, Effect of food processing treatments on pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables, Effect of prolonged exposure to pesticides on health are reviewed.

85-92

Authors: A.ADERIBIGBE & S. ABAYOMI AKINBODE

The perturbation equation of masseless fields for Kerr-de Sitter geometryare written in form of seperable equations as in [17] called the Angular Teukolsky equation. The Angular Teukolsky equation is converted to General Heun's equation with singularities coinciding through some confluent process of one of five singularities. As in [4, 16, and 17] rational polynomials of at most degree six are introduced. AMS Subject classification: 33XX.

99-112

Authors: SOMNATH MUKHOPADHYAY & SUBHANIL GUHA

Groundwater storage becomes an important phenomenon in the current century throughout the entire globe. Basically, groundwater is the water stored deep beneath the earth's surface in underground aquifers and it is less vulnerable to pollution than surface water. Thus, it is an essential source for drinking water. But today, severe decline in water table due to anthropogenic activities becomes a critical problem particularly in the metropolitan cities with high population density. This water storage capacity primarily depends on the balance between precipitaion and evapotranspiration (ET). Various meteorological parameters like temperature, wind speed, humidity, solar radiation etc. have considerable impact on the groundwater storage. It is extremely necessary to understand the ET of the region before town and country planning. Rainwater harvesting is a common practice for groundwater recharge. In urban areas, water bodies like ponds and lakes may play a crucial role for groundwater storage. The present study focused on the role played by a pond as natural water harvesting system in an academic institution in Kolkata. FAO56 Penman-Monteith method has been extensively used for estimating reference evapotranspiration for the study area from 2011to 2016. The results indicate higher ET0 during the summer season while higher water storage in the monsoon season. The months from June to September have considerably high water storage. 47.16 % of the total annual rainfall has been stored in the pond for the last five years continuously. It reflects a great potential of groundwater storage using natural rainwater harvesting system in the adjacent locality.

123-134

Authors: TEJASHRI TRIVEDI, V H PATEL & REMA S

Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) refers to the growth rate of a fetus that is less than normal for the growth potential. As one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity, intrauterine growth retardation has immense implications for the short term and long term growth of children. It is an important public health concern in developing countries. Various maternal, placental, neonatal, genetic and environmental factors lead to IUGR and babies with low birth weight. Maternal nutrition, pathophysiological and life style factors are leading causal factors of growth retardation in the uterine life of fetus which develops a bridge towards chronic diseases through an irreversible change in the programming during intrauterine life. These changes result in the distribution of cell types, hormonal feedback, metabolic activity and organ structure and ultimately lead to birth of infants with low birth weight. These infants are more likely to develop chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and neurodevelopment diseases in their adult life

143-152

Authors: G.R. SHARMA, V.D. VORA, P.D. VEKARIYA, J.T. PATEL, K.D. RAKHOLIYA & D.P.SANEPARA

The paper emphasises the importance of Ambient temperature trend analysis, distinguishing between current climate variability and future changes in climate especially in understanding the agro-economic impact of climate change on Indian agriculture. The long-term change in maximum and minimum temperature has been evaluated by Mann–Kendall rank statistics and linear trend. The significantly increasing trend in maximum weekly temperature was observed in MSW 8, 14-15 and 18, which is initial, pegging and pod formation/development stages of summer groundnut in irrigated agriculture, respectively. Whereas significantly decreasing trend in maximum weekly temperature was observed in MSW 28, which is initial growing/establishment stage of kharif groundnut, cotton, pearl millet and sesame crops and MSW 37- 39, which is pod development stage of kharif groundnut and grand growth stage of cotton crops in dry farming area of Saurashtra region. The weekly minimum temperature showed significantly increasing trend in MSW 44-45(Oct.-29 to Nov.-11), which is mid season of cotton and sowing stage of rabi season crops and 48th MSW, which is establishment stage of rabi season crops. This study may useful for management of kharif, rabi and summer season crops for agricultural community.

159-174

Authors: R. SURESHKUMAR, Y. ASHOKA REDDY & S. RAVICHANDRAN

Rice is grown mainly as a wetland crop by transplanting seedlings into puddled fields. Conventional transplanting is the most common practice of rice cultivation in South and South East Asia. Weeds grow profusely in the rice fields and reduce crop yields drastically. Normally the loss in yield ranges between 15-20%, yet in severe cases the yield losses can be more than 50%, depending upon the species and intensity of weeds. Weed flora under transplanted condition is very much diverse and consists of grasses, sedges and broad-leaved weeds causing yield reduction of rice crop up to 76 %. In this paper, we will summarize and review possible effect of weeds on rice and cultural, mechanical and chemical weed management methods on growth, yield, labour saving and economics of rice for future research.

181-184

Authors: PAUL MANSINGH, J, BIRUKSISAY DESULIE & BIRHANEANAGAW ABEBE

In Africa, agriculture provides a livelihood for most of the 75 percent of the people who live in rural areas. One of the causes of the low incomes in rural Africa is the low productivity of agriculture. Lack of technological and market information has been given as the major reason for the low productivity in African agriculture. Agricultural extension can play a critical role in the transformation process to transfer technology, support learning, assist farmers in problem-solving, and enable farmers to become more actively embedded in the agricultural knowledge and information system. Cyber extension systems in Agriculture involves effective use of ICT, local & international information networks, the internet, multimedia learning systems and computer experts to ameliorate information access to the rural farmers, extension workers, research scientists, universities etc. For the efficient delivery of information, the extension officers should have sufficient knowledge of and skill in using the cyber extension tools. Today’s students will be the future extension officers. Therefore, the final year students of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension were assessed on the awareness, knowledge and skill in using cyber extension tools. The 32 students of Rural Development & Agricultural Extension enrolled in the final year in the Department of Rural Development & Agricultural Extension, Ambo University, and Ambo, Ethiopia were selected as the respondents. The responses from 29 students were obtained. The responses were tabulated and frequency and percentage were used to analyse the data. Based on the need assessment study conducted it is concluded that majority of the students did not possess sufficient knowledge of and skill in using cyber extension tools. Therefore, it recommended that a training programme should be arranged on cyber extension in order to equip the students to face the requirements of the job industry. Also, it is recommended that the cyber extension should be built as a part of the curriculum in the future so that the students will be better prepared to meet the requirements of the job.

191-198

Authors: MUTHULAKSHMI P, NARESH S, RAJAMANICKAM S & PARTHASARATHY S

Melia dubia in Tamil Nadu were surveyed for the association of foliar and root fungal pathogens were recovered from infected plants. Cultural and microscopic characterization of Fusarium moniliformis, Phoma sp., Rhizoctonia solani Lasiodiplodia theobromae and Pythium sp, were obtained. Fusarium moniliformis produced basal cells of macro conidia with prominent and the length ranged from 19.631 μm to 20.624 μm, foot shaped and elongated micro conidia length ranged from 6.648 μm to 7.250 μm. Phoma sp produced grey in colour mycelium, septate branched, pycnidia is colour black and it produced the spores in concentric circle. The length of the pycnidia was 68.906 μm and breadth was 103.61 μm. Rhizoctonia solani showed complete full growth in Petri dish, initially the mycelium aggregated and form ball like structure later it changed brown colour sclerotia. Pythium sp Showed hyaline, non-septate with granular cytoplasm and oospores like bodies much in number and sporangia pores length was 7.18 μm. Lasiodiplodia theobromae showed a fast growth and attained full growth within five days after inoculation in 9cm diameter Petri plate. Aggregation of grey coloured mycelium and production of pycnidia in the centre of the colony were observed eight days after inoculation. Among the media tested, the potato dextrose agar medium supported the growth of all fungal pathogens in terms of mycelial extension, mycelial density and sporangia production compared to oat meal agar and malt extract agar medium.