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Jatropha curcas germplasm collected from peninsular region of India as well as germplasm augmented from various parts of the country was characterized for various agromorphological traits at 3 locations for 3 years. Variability was evident for 38 traits which included both qualitative and quantitative traits. Important yield influencing traits such as plant canopy, branching habit, number of primary branches, peduncle branching, peduncle length, inflorescence compactness, flower ratio, inflorescence abundance, flowering, fruits per cluster, 100-seed weight and oil content showed a wide range of variability in the germplasm under study. Number of leaf lobes also showed variation and accordingly were categorised as 0e2, 3e5, >6. The branching pattern varied widely and has been categorised as basal, intermediate, top and entire. The male to female flower ratio ranged from 10:1 to >20:1, and was categorized into three categories as 10:1, 11e20:1 and >20:1. The seed oil content which is of commercial importance in J. curcas also exhibited wide variability ranging from 17.5 to 41.6% and the descriptor has been categorized accordingly as 0e20, 21e30, 30e40 and !40%. Based on the variability observed in the traits, a set of 38 minimal descriptors has been suggested for characterization and evaluation of Jatropha.

Natural products derived from plants are emerging as potent biorational alternatives to synthetic insecticides for the integrated management of post harvest insects of maize. In this paper, effectiveness of botanicals including plant extracts, essential oils, their isolated pure compounds, plant based nano formulations and their mode of action against storage insects have been reviewed with special reference to maize. Plant based insecticides found to be the most promising means of controlling storage insects of maize in an eco friendly and sustainable manner. This article also throws light on the commercialization of botanicals, their limitations, challenges and future trends of storage insect management.

Indian spinach (Basella spp. L.) is an underutilized and underexploited indigenous leafy vegetable which has high nutritional and medicinal value and extensively used in the sub-continent. Landrace germplasm is endowed with rich genetic variability for various yield and quality traits. A total of six accessions collected through an exploration during 2010 were pre-bred by selfing during the October-January cropping season in 2011. These landraces were evaluated in a randomized block design with four replications in June-September, 2012 at Vegetable Research Station, Dr. Y. S. R. Horticultural University, Rajendranagar to assess the genetic diversity, variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and its components in the material. Multivariate analysis following Ward's minimum variance-method revealed distinct clustering pattern. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among all genotypes for all the studied traits indicating considerable variability among ecotypes for most of the measured parameters. There was significant variability for genetic potential of all genotypes for different traits under study. The highest variability at genotypic level was observed for stalk yield (73.95%) followed by leaf-stalk ratio (46.70%) and weight of tender shoot (41.25%). Low to high estimates of broad sense heritability were found in different traits. High estimates of heritability (>60%) coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean (>20%) for petiole length, internodal length, weight of tender shoot, stalk yield, leaf-stalk ratio and harvest index revealed that most likely the heritability is due to additive gene effects and selection may be effective.

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