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Paddy is the major cereal crop grown under standing water condition in agricultural fields. Puddling operation is carried out to facilitate standing water condition by creating an impervious layer in the subsoil surface. Puddling is a land preparation practice that will decide the water requirement in field throughout the cropping period. Different puddling techniques like puddling with cage wheel, rotavator, cage wheel ? rotavator and power tiller operated rotary tool were evaluated in a silty loam soil with one and two passes to understand their effect on puddling quality in terms of puddling index, infiltration rate, penetration resistance and depth of puddling. They were measured using standard procedures. Infiltration rate in puddled soil was reduced with an increase in puddling index. Penetration resistance was increased with an increase in depth for all the puddling techniques. Highest depth of puddling of 18.75 cm was observed in cage wheel and rotavator combined operation. Power tiller operated rotary tool with two passes registered the highest puddling index of 70.91% and lowest infiltration rate of 6.5 mm d -1 . Puddling with rotavator was found to be optimum in terms of puddling index, infiltration rate, depth of puddling and penetration resistance. Hence, it was concluded that rotavator puddling is more suitable for silty loam soil.

Background: Coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) is a significant cash crop in the humid tropics of India. The quality, variety and types of coconut palm vary from one place to other. Nowadays, the lack of skilled climbers for tree climbing is a serious problem experienced by coconut farmers. The adoption of drone technology in coconut cultivation is considered to enhance the productivity of coconut. The current study aimed to study the biometrics of different varieties of coconut trees to design and develop a drone-based spraying and harvesting system which suits all types of coconut palms. Methods: The major parameters influencing drone spraying and harvesting design are crop, machine and meteorological parameters. The crop parameters for the palms were measured by using standard techniques. The prominent varieties include West coast tall, Coconut - ALR (CN) 1, Coconut - ALR (CN) 3, Chowghat orange dwarf, Chowghat green dwarf, Malaysian yellow dwarf, East coast tall and Chandra Kalpa were selected. The biometric data were observed from the randomly selected healthy coconut trees. Result: The eight major coconut varieties were selected and their biometric data was observed. It was concluded that the observations aided in deciding the design of the drone components as well as the spraying and harvesting mechanism suitable for coconut palms.