A field experiment was carried out in Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal during the rabi season 2011-12 to study the effect of different doses of phosphorus on the growth and yield of different varieties of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under rainfed conditions in vertisols. The experiment was laid out in a Split plot design with three replications. There were four phosphorus levels viz., 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 and four varieties of chickpea viz., JG 16, JG 11, JG 315 and JG 218. Barring JG 11, application of phosphorus from 0 to 60 kg ha -1 resulted in a linear increase in yield and yield attributing characters in rest of the varieties. Although there was no significant difference in seed yield among the varieties, application of either 60 or 90 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 produced significantly higher seed yield over other doses of P. The application of phosphorus above 60 kg ha -1 has significantly increased the grain phosphorus content in all the four varieties but the interaction effect was not significant. A significant increase of grain phosphorus uptake with phosphorus nutrition was also observed in all the varieties.

ICAR-Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, India, has designed and developed a virgin coconut oil (VCO) cooker for the extraction of oil by the hot process. However, a number of VCO production processes being followed in India and elsewhere cause variations in the physicochemical properties, which in turn potentially affect the nutritional and medicinal properties of VCO. The physical and biochemical properties of VCO from the hot process (VCO-Hot), fermentation (VCO-Fer), expelled from dried gratings (VCO-EDG), centrifugation (VCO-Cen), and conventionally prepared copra coconut oil (CCO) were investigated in light of the design concept of the VCO cooker. The nutritionally important total phenolic content (mg GAE/100 g) and antioxidant capacity of all the VCOs were found to be in the range of 0.446 ± 0.041 (VCO-Cen) to 2.867 ± 0.152 (VCO-Hot) and 3.87 mM Trolox equivalent (TE) (VCO-Cen) to 11.31 mM TE (VCO-Hot), respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that quality attributes viz., total phenol, total flavonoid, and cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity of VCO-Hot defined by principal component 1. Hierarchical clustering showed that the VCO-Hot belonged to the group with high total phenolic and flavonoids content and strong antioxidant capacity. Comparative biochemical properties along with multivariate analysis differentiated the various VCO samples. Practical ApplicationsProduction of virgin coconut oil (VCO) by the hot process has been standardized by ICAR-CPCRI and the technology has been successfully adopted by several entrepreneurs. VCO has a tremendous export potential and hence has a greater demand in the international market. The quantum of VCO export from India has been 818 MT to various destinations such as the United States, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, and Middle East (https://www.coconutboard.in). The export earnings of VCO have reached over Rs. 260 million in 2015-2016. The consumers are not aware of the different VCO production methods and the resultant properties of VCO (Manikantan

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Conservation agriculture (CA) including reduced or no-tillage and crop residue retention, is known to be a self–sustainable system as well as an alternative to residue burning. The present study evaluated the effect of reduced tillage coupled with residue retention under different cropping systems on soil properties and crop yields in a Vertisol of a semiarid region of central India. Two tillage systems – conventional tillage (CT) with residue removed, and reduced tillage (RT) with residue retained – and six major cropping systems of this region were examined after 3 years of experimentation. Results demonstrated that soil moisture content, mean weight diameter, percent water stable aggregates (>0.25mm) for the 0–15cm soil layer were significantly (P<0.05) affected by tillage practices. Soil penetration resistance was significantly higher for RT than CT. Irrespective of soil depth, there was higher soil organic carbon (SOC) for RT than CT. The SOC fractions followed in the order: non-labile>moderately labile>less labile. At the 0–15cm depth, the contributions of moderately labile, less labile and non-labile C fractions to total organic C were 39.3%, 10.3% and 50.4% respectively in RT and corresponding values for CT were 38.9%, 11.7% and 49.4%. Significant differences in different C fractions were observed between RT and CT. Soil microbial biomass C concentration was significantly higher in RT than CT at 0–15cm depth. The maize–chickpea cropping system had significantly (P<0.05) higher soybean grain equivalent yield of 4.65 t ha–1 followed by soybean+pigeon pea (2:1) intercropping (3.50 t ha–1) and soybean–wheat cropping systems (2.97 t ha–1). Thus, CA practices could be sustainable management practices for improving soil health and crop yields of rainfed Vertisols in these semiarid regions.

Due to declining soil quality and increasing climate change, resource conservation technologies are often advocated for the food production system. Conservation agriculture (CA) is one of the technologies that increase soil nutrient status without jeopardizing the soil health and quality. The effects of conservation tillage, residue retention, and cropping systems on soil physical, chemical, and biological properties within the irrigated agricultural system are well established. However, scanty information is available on the combined impact of tillage, residue, and cropping system available on the major and micronutrient in the rainfed farming systems. Thus, a field experiment was conducted to measure the short-term effect of CA practices on soil properties and major (N, P, and K) and micro (Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu)-nutrients in a Vertisol of Central India. The field experiment was laid out in a split-plot design consisting of two tillage systems (TS), conventional tillage (CT) and reduced tillage (RT), as the main plots and six cropping systems (CS) as subplots. A total of 144 soil samples were collected after four crop cycles to assess soil properties and nutrient (major and micro-nutrient) status. Results demonstrated that in the surface soil layer (0-5 cm), the major and micro-nutrient concentrations were higher than subsurface layers, regardless of TS and CS. In the surface soils, soil organic carbon (SOC) varied from 0.58 to 0.60% under CT and from 0.60 to 0.62% under RT. Tillage and cropping systems had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on major available nutrients (N, P, and K) at 0-5-cm depth. The DTPA extractable Fe, Mn, Cu, and Zn concentrations exhibited decreasing trends with increasing depth.

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