Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), is an important arid legume with a good source of energy, protein, vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre. Sprouting of legumes enhances the bioavailability and digestibility of nutrients and therefore plays an important role in human nutrition. Improved varieties of grain cowpea viz. Pant Lobia-1 (PL-1) and Pant Lobia-2 (PL-2) and Pant Lobia-3 (PL-3) were examined for sprouting characteristics and associated changes in nutritional quality. Soaking time, sprouting time and sprouting temperature combinations for desirable sprout length of ¼ to ½ inch for cowpea seed samples were standardized. All the observations were taken in triplicate except soaking time, where six observations were taken in a completely randomized design of three treatments. Results revealed that optimum soaking time of PL-1 and PL-2 seed was 3 h whereas PL-3 required 9 h. Sprouting period of 24 h at 25 °C was found to be desirable for obtaining good sprouts. Significant improvement in nutritional quality was observed after sprouting at 25 °C for 24 h; protein increased by 9-12 %, vitamin C increased by 4-38 times, phytic acid decreased by 4-16 times, trypsin inhibitor activity decreased by 28-55 % along with an increase of 8-20 % in in-vitro protein digestibility.

Environmental contamination research has been quite interesting in bioindicators recently. The basic objective of bioindicator research is to find species that can reliably detect environmental disturbances and demonstrate how those disturbances affect other species or biodiversity as a whole. Since they frequently come into contact with the harmful substances found in soil, water, and air, insects are particularly valuable for evaluating how human activities affect the terrestrial ecosystem, the aquatic system, and the atmosphere. In this review article, we’ve emphasized the use of insects as a resource for assessing contaminants and monitoring environmental contamination. Insects have been our main focus since they are key indicators of changes in soil, water, and air quality. The majority of insects, including beetles, ants, honey bees, and butterflies are employed in this study as biological indicators since they are sensitive to even the slightest environmental changes and are also used to monitor different environmental toxins.

The field experiment was conducted during Rabi season of 2021-22, to study the   effect of combination of biofertilizer and different level of inorganic fertilizers on yield, quality, nutrient content & uptake of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) at pot culture farm of Department of Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry of Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture & Technology, Kanpur (U.P.). The experiment comprises of eight treatments T1 (Control), T2 (RDF 75%), T3 (RDF 100%), T4 (RDF 125%), T5 (Rhizobium), T6 (RDF 75% + Rhizobium), T7 (RDF 100% + Rhizobium), T8 (RDF 125% + Rhizobium) in randomized block design with four replications. The chickpea variety RVG-202 is grown by adopting various agronomic practices. The result revealed that among all the treatments, RDF 125% + Rhizobium (T8) treatment recorded maximum yield, highest nutrient content in terms of % N(3.58 %), % P (1.34 %) and % K (0.69 %) in grain % N(2.38 %), % P (1.35 %) and % K (0.86 %) in stover. Highest nutrient uptake viz. N (65.69 kg ha-1), P (24.58 kg ha-1) and (12.66 kg ha-1) in grain and N (61.14 kg ha-1), P (8.99 kg ha-1) and (47.78 kg ha-1) stover is also associated with the treatment T8 [RDF 125% + Rhizobium]. It is clearly identified that seed inoculated with rhizobium can increase yield, nutrient content and uptake values of chickpea crop.

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A field experiment was conducted in the Department of Horticulture, Janta College Bakewar, Etawah (C.S.J.M. University, Kanpur) during 2013-14, to evaluate the integrated effect of various levels of organic manures and inorganic fertilizers on growth, yield and yield attributes of Radish cv. Kalyanpur Safed. 10 treatments were taken up along with control. Plant height, number of leaves, length and width of leaves, leaf area at various growth stages increased with increasing levels of organic manures and inorganic fertilizers as compared to control. Length of root, diameters of root, weight of root and leaf, total weight plant-1, yield plot-1, yield q ha-1 were also increasing with increasing levels of organic manures and inorganic fertilizers.

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Present irrational crop and nutrient management practices have raised several concerns of high merit. The concerns include low factor productivity or nutrient use efficiency (NUE), declining crop productivity, farmer’s profitability, impaired soil health and ecological contamination. Site-specific nutrient management (SSNM), after considering indigenous nutrient supplying capacity of soil using plant and soil analysis, can feed the crop in synchrony with its nutrient requirement in different physiological growth stages. Besides, several modern geospatial techniques viz. remote sensing techniques, geographic information system (GIS), global positioning system (GPS), proximal sensing; information and communication technologies (ICTs) including decision support system, smartphone apps and web services can also assist in diagnosis of soil and crop nutrient status, fertilizer recommendation and its dissemination to users. Optical and thermal remote sensing can effectively detect crop stress including nitrogen (N) deficiency through several vegetation indices especially normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). GIS techniques with spatial data acquired by GPS, can create spatial variability map and management zone (MZ) for precise farm operations including variable rate fertilization. Proximal crop sensors viz. chlorophyll meter and Green Seeker can also recognize crop nitrogen status and promote fertilizer N use efficiency by synchronizing fertilizer N supply with crop requirement. Even proximal soil sensing using electromagnetic radiation and contact electrode can estimate soil properties like soil pH, electrical conductivity, major and micronutrient content. Several decision support systems such as QUEFTS based model, crop manager, nutrient expert® and smartphone apps like ‘crop doctor’ can suggest for precise application of agro-inputs to rural youths and farmers. Yield monitoring and mapping tool can generate historical GIS database for spatial variability of crop yield under farmers’ crop management practices and assessment of nutrient uptake. Variable rate machinery based on variability map and sensor technologies can also be used for fertilization under different management zones. Therefore, SSNM technologies can enhance NUE; improve and sustain crop productivity, profitability; avoid nutrient wastage; maintain good soil health and environmental safety.

Different tillage methods i.e. zero tillage, natural farming, reduced tillage and conventional tillage in combination with 3 rice varieties, viz. Sukara Dhan 1 (HPR 1156), Him Palam Dhan 1 (HPR 2656) and Him Palam Lal Dhan 1 (HPR 2795) were evaluated in terms of growth, yield attributes and yield of direct seeded rice at research farm of Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh during rainy (kharif) season of 2020 and 2021. The experiment, was laid out in split plot design with tillage options in main plot and cultivars in subplot and replicated thrice. Findings exhibits that the, conventional tillage recorded significantly higher grain, straw and biological yield followed by reduced tillage and zero tillage while significantly lower values of all these traits were observed in natural farming during both the years of experimentation. Significantly greater and lower yields recorded in conventional tillage and natural farming treatments were due to the significantly higher and lower values of different yield attributes including number of panicles/m2, number of grains/panicle, grain weight/panicle and 1000-grain weight, observed in the respective treatments. From the present investigation it can be concluded that conventional tillage resulted in higher yield attributes and yield as compared to natural farming while lower values of yield attributes and yield were recorded under natural farming. Among different rice cultivars Him Palam Lal Dhan 1 was found superior than Sukara Dhan 1 and Him Palam Dhan 1.