The Covid-19 has shifted the face of many markets including e-commerce and online business with many bottlenecks to be cleared. The last-mile delivery project has the greatest effect on all types of e-commerce companies because it has many consumer touchpoints as well as the Covid-19 pain points. Due to these interconnected issues, the delivery projects itself requires modern solutions. The purpose of this paper is to identify, analyse and categorize the major factors that affect the last mile delivery projects in e-commerce, food sector, retail sector and so on using total ınterpretive structural modelling approach during the Covid-19. Ten major factors are identified from literature review, and expert opinions are collected from multiple organizations that are involved in the last mile delivery projects. The results indicate that types of goods, achieving routing efficiency and meeting fulfilment timeline are the key factors for last mile delivery projects during the time of Covid-19. This study helps the managers to identify the key factors and to focus on these factors for the successful implementation of last mile delivery project.

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Improving yield and quality of fodder from forage sorghum is important, especially in the semi-arid tropics, where sorghum is a major source of fodder. The aim of this work was to understand the genetic basis of fodder yield and quality traits, and character associations, and to estimate combining ability of the parents. The experiment was carried out during 2 successive rainy seasons using 10 parents crossed in a half-diallel design. Significant differences among the genotypes for fodder yield, quality and cell wall constituents were observed. Important quality traits, crude protein and digestibility (IVOMD), were not correlated with fodder yield, indicating the potential to improve yield and quality simultaneously in forage sorghum. General combining ability and specific combining ability variances showed that, for almost all characters, both additive and non-additive gene effects were important, with a predominance of non-additive effects. Parental lines SEVS4, HC308 and UPMC503 were good general combiners for yield and quality. The brown midrib lines, EC582508 and EC582510, were good general combiners for low lignin and high IVOMD. Strategies for improving forage sorghum to suit animal and biofuel industries are discussed. ResumenEl mejoramiento del rendimiento y la calidad del sorgo forrajero (Sorghum spp.) es especialmente importante en zonas tropicales semiáridas, donde esta gramínea es un importante forraje. El objetivo de este trabajo fue entender la base genética de importantes características de rendimiento y calidad y sus relaciones, así como estimar la aptitud combinatoria de los genotipos parentales. El experimento se realizó en Hyderabad, India, durante 2 períodos sucesivos de lluvia utilizando 10 líneas parentales que se cruzaron en un diseño dialélico medio. Se observaron diferencias significativas entre los genotipos en rendimiento de forraje y calidad, especialmente en los constituyentes de la pared celular. No se encontró correlación entre el rendimiento de forraje y factores importantes de calidad (proteína cruda y digestibilidad in vitro de la materia orgánica), resultados que indican que en sorgo forrajero existe potencial para mejorar estas características del forraje en forma simultánea. Las varianzas de las aptitudes combinatorias general y específica mostraron que para la mayoría de las características en estudio, tanto los efectos aditivos de genes como los no-aditivos fueron importantes, con un predominio de estos últimos. Las líneas parentales SEVS4, HC308 y UPMC503 fueron buenos combinantes generales para rendimiento y calidad, mientras que las líneas Brown Midrib EC582508 y EC582510 fueron buenos combinantes generales para baja concentración de lignina y alta digestibilidad. En el trabajo se discuten estrategias de mejoramiento de sorgo forrajero para su adaptación a los requerimientos de producción animal y la industria de biocombustibles. Aruna, M. Swarnalatha, P.P. Kumar, V. Devender, M. Suguna, M. Blümmel and J.V. Patil www.tropicalgrasslands.info

Sorghum has unique advantage in terms of its climate resilience and its grain composition with beneficial bioactive compounds. It is a very good source of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols and antioxidants. Breeding efforts for end-use identity-specific genotypes are required for increased profitability to the farmers. In this study, total polyphenol content (TPC) and free radical scavenging activity (FRSA) were estimated in 60 genotypes, comprising of white and red sorghums, over three years each with two replications. TPC ranged from 55.6 mg/100 g to 553.1 mg/100 g with the highest value in IS 30508. The highest antioxidant activity, measured as free radical scavenging activity, was observed in IS 16151. Though in general TPC and FRSA are high in red sorghums, not all red sorghums have high TPC and scavenging activity. Significant effects of genotype and environment were observed for all the characters. Correlation studies indicated the possibility of developing a high yielding line with high antioxidant activity. The information generated aids in identifying donors to develop end-use specific genotypes that are suitable as functional foods.

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