The fast growing population of the world has led to an increased demand for protein rich food; this exerts great pressure on food and feed industries to produce sufficient quantities of protein to meet the high nutrient requirements of vulnerable populations (children and women). Single cell protein (SCP) has proven to be a sustainable approach since agricultural residues can be used for the production. In the present study, efforts were made to improve the growth support capacity of watermelon and pineapple fruit peels by submerged fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Fruit hydrolysate media supplemented with glucose and nitrogen recorded the highest concentrations of total carbohydrate (6.6 g/L) and crude protein (20 g/L) on the 16 th day of fermentation, as compared to that of the fruit hydrolysate media without supplementation which produced 3.6 g/L of total carbohydrate and 5.6 g/L of crude protein. Similarly, fruit hydrolysate media supplemented with nitrogen recorded higher content of total carbohydrate (5.4 g/L) and crude protein (20 g/L); while fruit hydrolysate media supplemented with glucose produced 5.1 g/L and 6.0 g/L of total carbohydrate and crude protein, respectively. Thus, S. cerevisiae produces higher amount of Single Cell Protein by submerged fermentation of pineapple peel hydrolysate (9.8%) as compared to watermelon peel hydrolysate (2.42%). It was also observed that, the combination of the two fruit peels produces higher SCP than watermelon but lower than pineapple fruit peels. However, supplementation with nutrients (Glucose and Ammonium sulphate) at 2% (w/v) greatly increased SCP production in all the fruit combinations. This suggest that microbial growth support capacity of fruit peels can best be improved by addition of nutrient supplements rather than combining different fruit peels. The findings in this study indicated that pineapple peels could serve as a good substrate for SCP production which is strongly influenced by glucose and ammonium sulphate supplementations.

A field trial was carried out to investigate the effect of seed priming on the productivity of late sown wheat during fall-2016. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with split-plot arrangement having three replications. Two factors (sowing dates and priming) were tested in the experiment. Sowing dates (29 th Oct, 10 th Nov, 24 th Nov, 10 th Dec, 26 th Dec and 10 th Jan) were assigned to main plots, while priming (non-primed and primed) was allotted to sub-plots. Wheat variety "SIRAN-2010" was sown in a plot size of 1.8m x 5m. Results showed that wheat crop sown on 29 th Oct resulted in early emergence (6 days), increased emergence m-2 (139) plant height (101.61cm), spikes m-2 (280), grains spike-1 (46.63), thousand grain weight (44g), biological yield (9770 kg ha-1) and grain yield (4038 kg ha-1). Late sown wheat in (10 th Jan) took lesser days (136) to maturity. In case of seed priming early emergence (11 days), more emergence m-2 (102), taller plants (85.19cm), more spikes m-2 (216), higher grains spike-1 (40.18), maximum 1000-grains weight (37g), maximum grain yield (3116 kg ha-1) and maximum biological yield (7630 kg ha-1) was recorded in plots sown with hydro-primed seed. However, dry sown seed took more days (163) to emergence. Hence it is concluded that sowing from 29 th Oct to 10 th Nov significantly increased yield and yield related components of wheat. Similarly seed priming is necessary for higher yield of late sown wheat.