The field trial conducted during October 2011 to January 2012 at TNAU indicated that SAAF @ 562.5 g a.i./ha (or 750 g/ha) dose can effectively control Leaf spot, powdery mildew and anthracnose or fruit rots diseases of chillies. This dose was at par with higher dose and resulted better yield than other treatments. No phytotoxicity was observed up to the dosage of SAAF @ 1125 g a.i./ha (1500 g/ha) i.e. double of the effective dose.
There is a need to ascertain the competitiveness of tea production in order to determine the level of its productivity. However, there is a dearth of information on the competitiveness of tea production. Therefore, this study investigated the competitiveness of tea production and the challenges in tea value chain on Mambilla plateau in Taraba State. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 136 respondents from 3 communities on the plateau. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents and the data retrieved from the information collected were analysed using descriptive statistics as well as Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM). The result of the analysis showed that 63.24% of the respondents were 40 years and below while 75.74% of the respondents had primary school education and above. The Private Profitability (PP) of tea production was positive and the Private Cost Ratio (PCR) was less than 1 showing that tea production in the study area was competitive. Lack of finance and fertilizer/pesticides, lack of market demand, lack of access to market and lack of modern equipment were identified as the problems affecting tea value chain in the study area. The study hereby recommended that government needs to assist the farmers financially in order to expand their farms.
Soybean is the important source of vegetable oil and proteins and cultivated on a large scale in all over the world. Several yield losses were reported which reduces quality and quantity of seed yield in soybean. Collar rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii is one of the most important disease of soybean and as the pathogen is soil-borne, it is difficult to control with fungicidal and bioagents application. Therefore, the present study was undertaken with 14 treatments of fungicides, bioagents, alone and in combination as seed treatment and soil application in randomized block design replicated thrice to know the effect of these treatments on germination, mortality and grain yield of soybean. The present studies revealed that, seed treatment with carbendazim + Trichoderma viride recorded significantly maximum seed germination (94.44%). Seed treatment with carbendazim + thiram reported minimum per cent mortality (3.33%) with highest per cent disease control (72.43%) while highest grain yield (1808 kg ha-1) was observed with the soil application of Trichoderma viride + Trichoderma harzianum.
Intra-population variation in reproductive potential offers scope for enhancing the parental stock in mass-reared insect bio control agents. Laboratory cultures of two cold adapted strains of Trichogramma chilonis, along with a local strain and T. pretiosum were studied for such variation in fecundity by evaluating randomly chosen iso-female lines. The indicative fecundity (in first 3 days of adult life) was compared among 10 iso-female lines each among the strains/species. The results showed considerable variation in fecundity among the iso-female lines in Nilgiris, Kodaikanal and local strain of T. chilonis, besides T. pretiosum, from such selective pooling as parental stock, there was enhancement in overall progeny production capacity by 37.3, 19.7, 28.0 and 21.0, (for five pairs of adults) in Nilgiris, Kodaikanal and local strains of T. chilonis and T. pretiosum, respectively.
The progeny from the top 3 lines for fecundity were selected for pooling as parental stock leading to enhancing the progeny production capacity by 26 and 15 per cent in the two cold adapted strains, besides 17 per cent for the local strain while for T. pretiosum such enhancement was 19 per cent. The utility of selecting among iso-female line within Trichogramma species/strains for parental stock improvement in commercial mass production is indicated. This initiative enabled the culturing of strains/ species with more robust genetic base for pursuing future studies on diapause induction in these strains/species.
Extrusion is one of the modern technologies used for the preparation of convenience foods. It is used worldwide for the production of expanded snack foods, ready to eat cereals, baby foods, pasta and pet foods. The present study focused on the use of oats flour for production of ready-to-cook vermicelli by extrusion technology. Oats vermicelli was developed from blends of oats flour and refined wheat flour at different level of incorporation. The nutritional properties namely, protein, fat, starch and dietary fibre of the oats vermicelli analyzed. The findings of the study revealed that oats vermicelli was on par with control vermicelli in all aspects of studied variables.
“Hidden hunger” is the cry of the day, which is nothing but micronutrient deficiencies. More than 70% of preschool children consume less than 50% RDA of iron, Vitamin A and riboflavin. Therefore the goal should be to ensure a balanced diet adequate in macro and micronutrients. This could be accomplished only by fortification with the bioactive components. On the contrary conversion of fruit waste into a fortifying agent is less costly. This definitely will pave way for more intakes of bioactive compounds. The food industry produces large volumes of wastes, both solids and liquids, resulting from the production, preparation and consumption of food. Mango is considered to be a fruit with tremendous potential for future. The waste materials such as peels, seeds and stones produced by the fruit processing industry can be successfully used as a source of phytochemicals and antioxidants. Recently, mango peels have attracted considerable attention in the scientific community due to their high content of valuable compounds, such as phytochemicals, polyphenols, carotenoids, enzymes, vitamin E and vitamin C, which have predominant functional and antioxidant properties and also a rich source of dietary fibre, cellulose, hemicellulose, lipids, protein, enzymes and pectin.
