Aerobic rice is a potential water-wise rice production system, but high weed infestation has threatened its sustainability, which demands an efficient and cost-effective weed management technique. Eight commercial herbicide products were applied singly or as tank-mix or in sequence to evaluate their efficacy, rice selectivity and cost-effectiveness in aerobic rice. The study was conducted under field conditions in Malaysia during 2010/2011 following a randomized complete block design. Most of the herbicide treatments provided excellent weed control, and produced much higher net benefit than weedy or weed-free check. None of the herbicides caused significant phytotoxicity to rice plants. Among the herbicide treatments, sequential application of Cyhalofop-butyl'Bensulfuron at early growth stage followed by Bentazon/MCPA at mid growth stage provided the highest weed control efficiency, productivity and net benefit. Application of Bispyribac-sodium at early growth stage followed by Bentazon/MCPA at mid growth stage performed very close to the above-mentioned treatments. Sequential application of Pretilachlor/safener just after seeding followed by Propanil/Thiobencarb at early growth stage also provided satisfactory results in terms of efficacy and economic return. Since manual weeding was not economic, herbicide rotation using the above chemicals may be recommended for effective weed management in aerobic rice.

Critical period of weed control is the foundation of integrated weed management and, hence, can be considered the first step to design weed control strategy. To determine critical period of weed control of aerobic rice, field trials were conducted during 2010/2011 at Universiti Putra Malaysia. A quantitative series of treatments comprising two components, (a) increasing duration of weed interference and (b) increasing length of weed-free period, were imposed. Critical period was determined through Logistic and Gompertz equations. Critical period varied between seasons; in main season, it started earlier and lasted longer, as compared to off-season. The onset of the critical period was found relatively stable between seasons, while the end was more variable. Critical period was determined as 7–49 days after seeding in off-season and 7–53 days in main season to achieve 95% of weed-free yield, and 23–40 days in off-season and 21–43 days in main season to achieve 90% of weed-free yield. Since 5% yield loss level is not practical from economic view point, a 10% yield loss may be considered excellent from economic view point. Therefore, aerobic rice should be kept weed-free during 21–43 days for better yield and higher economic return.

Grain legumes are important sources of proteins, essential micronutrients and vitamins and for human nutrition. Climate change, including drought, is a severe threat to grain legume production throughout the world. In this review, the morpho-physiological, physio-biochemical and molecular levels of drought stress in legumes are described. Moreover, different tolerance mechanisms, such as the morphological, physio-biochemical and molecular mechanisms of legumes, are also reviewed. Moreover, various management approaches for mitigating the drought stress effects in grain legumes are assessed. Reduced leaf area, shoot and root growth, chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance, CO2 influx, nutrient uptake and translocation, and water-use efficiency (WUE) ultimately affect legume yields. The yield loss of grain legumes varies from species to species, even variety to variety within a species, depending upon the severity of drought stress and several other factors, such as phenology, soil textures and agro-climatic conditions. Closure of stomata leads to an increase in leaf temperature by reducing the transpiration rate, and, so, the legume plant faces another stress under drought stress. The biosynthesis of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the most detrimental effect of drought stress. Legumes can adapt to the drought stress by changing their morphology, physiology and molecular mechanism. Improved root system architecture (RSA), reduced number and size of leaves, stress-induced phytohormone, stomatal closure, antioxidant defense system, solute accumulation (e.g., proline) and altered gene expression play a crucial role in drought tolerance. Several agronomic, breeding both conventional and molecular, biotechnological approaches are used as management practices for developing a drought-tolerant legume without affecting crop yield. Exogenous application of plant-growth regulators (PGRs), osmoprotectants and inoculation by Rhizobacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi promotes drought tolerance in legumes. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs), genomic selection (GS), marker-assisted selection (MAS), OMICS-based technology and CRISPR/Cas9 make the breeding work easy and save time in the developmental cycle to get resistant legumes. Several drought-resistant grain legumes, such as the chickpea, faba bean, common bean and pigeon pea, were developed by different institutions. Drought-tolerant transgenic legumes, for example, chickpeas, are developed by introgressing desired genes through breeding and biotechnological approaches. Several quantitative trait loci (QTLs), candidate genes occupying drought-tolerant traits, are identified from a variety of grain legumes, but not all are under proper implementation. Hence, more research should be conducted to improve the drought-tolerant traits of grain legumes for avoiding losses during drought.

Peat moss (PM) is the most widely used growing substrate for the pot culture. Due to diminishing availability and increasing price of PM, researchers are looking for viable alternatives for peat as a growth media component for potted plants. A pot study was conducted with a view to investigate the possibility of using spent mushroom waste (SMW) for Kai-lan (Brassica oleracea var. Alboglabra) production replacing peat moss (PM) in growth media. The treatments evaluated were 100% PM (control), 100% SMW, and mixtures of SMW and PM in different ratios like 1 : 1, 1 : 2, and 2 : 1 (v/v) with/without NPK amendment. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with five replications per treatment. Chemical properties like pH and salinity level (EC) of SMW were within the acceptable range of crop production but, nutrient content, especially nitrogen content was not enough to provide sufficient nutrition to plant for normal growth. Only PM (100%) and SMW and PM mixture in 1 : 1 ratio with NPK amendment performed equally in terms of Kai-lan growth. This study confirms the feasibility of replacing PM by SMW up to a maximum of 50% in the growth media and suggests that NPK supplementation from inorganic sources is to ensure a higher productivity of Kai-lan.

Clinacanthus nutans is a well recognized medicinal herb for its high phytochemical contents. Several aspects may contribute to the phytochemical contents, and thus determine the quality and efficacy of an herb. An experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design (CRD) with five replications, in a factorial arrangement of treatments. including two plant parts harvested at two different stages such as young leaves, young stems, matured leaves and matured stems, and four different storage durations such as 1, 2, 3 and 4 days. The study was aimed at determining how storage duration affects selected phytochemical contents of different plant parts of C. nutans at different harvesting stages. Total phytochemical content, total flavonoids content and DPPH radical scavenging activities are higher in young plants than in old plants, moreover, all those compounds are higher in leaves than in stems, and decrease gradually due to storage. Phytochemical, ascorbic acid and chlorophyll content of C. nutans differ among different plant parts and change due to storage. In general, young plant parts contain higher amount of phytochemicals, ascorbic acid and chlorophyll compared with matured parts confirming that phytochemicals content of C. nutans decreases when plants tend to maturity. Prolonged storage reduces phytochemical, ascorbic acid and chlorophyll content of C. nutans,which demands fresh use of this medicinal herb to avoid phytochemical losses. Further research focusing on the proper storage is necessary to minimize phytochemicals losses of C. nutans.

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Till now, herbicide seems to be a cost effective tool from an agronomic view point to control weeds. But long term efficacy and sustainability issues are the driving forces behind the reconsideration of herbicide dependent weed management strategy in rice. This demands reappearance of physical and cultural management options combined with judicious herbicide application in a more comprehensive and integrated way. Keeping those in mind, some agronomic tools along with different manual weeding and herbicides combinations were evaluated for their weed control efficacy in rice under aerobic soil conditions. Combination of competitive variety, higher seeding rate, and seed priming resulted in more competitive cropping system in favor of rice, which was reflected in lower weed pressure, higher weed control efficiency, and better yield. Most of the herbicides exhibited excellent weed control efficiency. Treatments comprising only herbicides required less cost involvement but produced higher net benefit. On the contrary, treatments comprising both herbicide and manual weeding required high cost involvement and thus produced lower net benefit. Therefore, adoption of competitive rice variety, higher seed rate, and seed priming along with spraying different early-postemergence herbicides in rotation at 10 days after seeding (DAS) followed by a manual weeding at 30 DAS may be recommended from sustainability view point.