The agriculture and animal husbandry practices in the tropics are diversified and change with change in the rainfall and soil. Livestock are considered as way of life rather than auxiliary occupation because of its immense importance on the different sphere of rural economy. The farmer in general, in most of the Asian countries does not understand and practice the nutrient requirement in ruminant animals. They feed their animal on the local feed resources available in their region. The main roughages available in the tropics are the crop residues, mature tropical grasses and the like. Shortage of quality forage is one of the limiting factors affecting adversely the health and productivity of livestock in the tropical environment. Therefore feeding system should be developed with the local feed resources with supplement of nutrient so as to achieve optimum production. Keeping this in view the present investigation was undertaken to garner information regarding the nutrient content of commonly available species of forage in the region of Rajasthan. Common vegetation such as Pennisetum Typholdenum, Cenchrus ciliaris, Cenchrus setigerus and Lasiurus Sindicus fig (I) from Jodhpur district of Rajasthan were analysed for their nutritional constituent. The Crude protein content ranged from 6.5 to 9.0%, Cellulose from 28.6 to 30.8%, Hemicellulose from 28 to 32.5%, Lignin from 6.9 to 7.9%, Crude Fiber from 30.43 to 31.9%, Neutral detergent fiber from 68.8 to 71.3% and Acid detergent fiber from 38.1 to 40.8% on dry matter basis. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis was also used to investigate the chemical structure and characteristic of Lignocellulose, Cellulose and Hemicellulose constituent present. This study will also help not only to understand the elemental and nutritional status of vegetation, but also a suitable fertilizer management for conservation of arid land and production of greens for live stock of Rajasthan.

Inoculation arabica coffee seedlings with a composite endomycorrhizal inoculum showed a good installation of mycorrhizal symbiosis on the inoculated seedlings. Root fresh weight, Aerial weight, Aerial Height, Stem diameter and leaves number were respectively 6.91 g, 4.1 g, 23.57 cm, 0.625 cm and 20.87 compared to control, 3.15 g, 1.2 g, 18.14 cm, 0.38 cm and 10.625. Mycorrhizal intensity, Arbuscular content, Vesicular content and Spores number of the mycorrhized coffee seedlings were respectively 91 %, 78 % 34% and 233 spores /100 g of soil, compared to control, 10.11 %, 15 %, 12 % and 21 spores/ 100g of soil. 100% of roots of the inoculated coffee ssedlings were mycorrhized and only 14 % of the roots of the non inoculated arabica coffee seedlings were naturelly mycorrhized. Extraction of spores from soil samples revealed the presence of thirteen spore morphotype, the genera of Glomus was the dominant (53.84%) followed by Acaulospora (30.76 %) and Gigagospora (15.38 %).

Acrostichum aureum L. is the only fern in the mangrove ecosystem of the Indian Coast. Anatomical adaptations of the fern in relation to its habitat has been studied. Epidermal cells on both surfaces of pinnae are sinuous walled with thick cuticle. Adaxial epidermal cells exhibited a greater density than abaxial surfaces. Stomata are anomocytic and hypostomatic, mesophyll with two layers of elongated closely set palisade cells followed by loosely-arranged spongy cells with plentiful lacunae. Leaf margin has lignified cells. Endodermis of the vascular bundles have casparian strips; sclerenchymatous bundle sheath is also present. Outer root cortex is aerenchymatous and inner cortex is sclerenchymatous. Rhizome sections revealed presence of starch granules. Sporophyll shows sporangia spread densely over the entire lower surface except over midrib, forming a reddish brown mat and are mixed with many peltate orange brown paraphyses. Anatomical results were analyzed considering the interaction of this fern with abiotic factors. The plant has hydrophytic and xerophytic anatomical adaptations.

The region of Tangier considered as an area that offers an important natural resource. Yet, the condition of its mycoflora is not utilized because of the lack of data. This fungal flora has a richness of 1192 species belonging to the Division Basidiomycota, divided into 20 orders, 70 families and 194 genera. The present catalog of fungal flora constitutes a large contribution to the knowledge of the biodiversity of fungi in the region of Tangier. The species are completed and updated with new science and arranged according to the main mycological classification.

The research work carried out on gene action and combining ability in respect of quantitative traits by crossing 8 diverse maize inbred lines in a half diallel mating design. Twenty eight F1 progenies along with their parents were planted in randomized complete block design with four replications in two environments in 2010. Combined analysis of variance showed significant mean squares of general combining ability (GCA) and specific combing ability (SCA) for days to silking (DS), plant height in cm (PH), ear height in cm (EH), 1000-kernel weight in gram(KW), Ear length in cm(EL), number of rows in ear(NR), number of Leaf (NL) and kernel yield(KY) in ton per hectare, indicating the importance of both additive and non additive genetic effects for these traits. However, high narrow-sense heritability estimates, low degree of dominance and the ratio of estimates of GCA to SCA effects for DS, KW, NR ,EL ,EH and NB indicated that additive genetic effect were more important for these traits. The crosses MO17 x L8, MO17 x L12 and L8 x L10 with 11.08, 9.847 and 8.65 t/ha kernel yield had high KY and were considered as good combinations for improving the trait .Most of the crosses with high mean of kernel yield had at least one parent (MO18 and L8) with significant GCA effect for this trait.SC704 (Check) had 9.386 t/ha kernel yield.

A field experiment was conducted at the Agricultural College Farm, Bapatla, during kharif 2012- 13 to find out the residual soil fertility and productivity of rice as influenced by different organic sources of nutrients viz., poultry manure, FYM, neemcake and vermicompost. The experimental results indicated that maximum yield of rice was recorded with recommended dose of fertilizers which was on a par with 50% RDN as basal +50% at 10 days before PI stage through poultry manure. Among different organic manure treatments, application of 100% RDN through FYM recorded highest amount of NPK in soil after harvest, followed by application of 50% RDN as basal +50% at 10 days before PI stage through FYM which were however, on a par with each other. The lowest amount of NPK in soil after harvest was recorded with the application of recommended dose of chemical fertilizers followed by 100% RDN through poultry manure.

A total of 40 antagonistic bacteria were isolated, out of which 20 bacteria were obtained from rhizosphere soil and 20 bacteria from root as root endophytes in chickpea against dry root rot. The bacterial isolates from rhizosphere soil were designated as CRB-1 to CRB-20 followed by root endophytic bacteria as CREB-1 to CREB-20. Among the 20 rhizospheric bacterial antagonists tested, the isolate CRB-13 showed the maximum inhibition (86.66%) and among the 20 root endophytic bacterial antagonists tested, the isolate CREB-13 showed the maximum inhibition (95.55%) of growth of Rhizoctonia bataticola. In compatibility studies using spectrophotometric method, the isolate CREB-16 was more compatible with validamycin (84.13%) followed by copper oxychloride (78.27%).

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2011 at the Student’s Farm, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad on red sandy loam soils to study the effect of nitrogen management in speciality corn under Pongamia + maize agri-silvi system. Post harvest soil available nitrogen was significantly higher in all the treatments than control. Where as, maximum available N and K in soil was recorded with 120 kg N ha-1. Though available P in soil observed under 120 kg N ha-1 was maximum, it was statistically at par with 90 kg N ha-1. Post harvest soil available nutrients (N, P & K) were found unaffected by the different types of corn. Similarly, the maximum nutrient uptake (N, P & K) was also registered at 120 kg ha-1, which was significantly higher than 60 and 90 kg N ha-1. Sweet corn recorded significantly higher nitrogen uptake than the other two types of corn. Likewise, P & K uptake was also maximum in sweet corn but statistically on par with baby corn regarding P uptake and with popcorn regarding K uptake. The nitrogen response decreased gradually with increase in levels of nitrogen from 60 to 120 kg N ha-1 in all the types of corn. The maximum nitrogen response was observed with 60 kg ha-1. Whereas, minimum nitrogen response was resulted with 120 kg ha-1.