<div>Background: The basic plant material consisted of 9 mungbean and 5 urdbean genotypes. 42 different crosses were made comprising 13 Vigna radiata x V. radiata, 4 V. radiata x V. mungo and 25 V. radiata x V. mungo crosses. Varying degree of success has been achieved in obtaining intraspecific and interspecific crosses having desired variability for yield and yield contributing traits along with MYMV resistance. 
 
Methods: The present investigation was done at Agricultural Research Farm, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, during Kharif, 2019 and Summer, 2020. 42 intra-specific and inter-specific cross combinations were initially examined for their crossability. Out of these, six promising crosses with higher crossability percent were further analyzed for hybrid pollen fertility, hybrid lethality and, evaluation of F1 and parents for different yield traits 
. 
Result: Crossability per cent found highest in intraspecific cross HUM 2 x IPM 02-3 (41.86%) in mungbean while, in urdbean cross NDU 1 x R3/12 (41.38%). In interspecific crosses, the maximum crossability per cent was found in SKAU M 365 x R3/28 (34.92%). Two mungbean genotypes (HUM 2 and HUM 26) and two urdbean genotypes (R3/12 and R3/28) can be further utilized for genetic improvement through inter-specific hybridization as there cross combinations are better performing on the basis of yield attributes along with MYMV resistance.</div>

​Comparative Study of Crossability Behavior in Intra-specific and Inter-specific Crosses of Vigna radiata and Vigna mungo

<div>Background: Information on gene action governing yield and yield component traits need to be studied for adoption of effective breeding procedure to wards development and isolation of high yielding promising lines from the cross with resistant to bacterial leaf blight, blast and tolerance to low soil phosphorous. The present investigation was taken up in this context to estimate the gene effects for yield and yield components of the cross, YH3 &times; AKDRMS 21-54, using five parameter model of generation mean analysis.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: The experimental material, P1, P2, F1, F2 and F3 generations, for the investigation was generated from Kharif 2019 onwards and evaluated at Agricultural College, Bapatla during Rabi 2021-22. Gene effects for grain yield and yield attributing traits were studied.&nbsp; 
 
Result: Mean effects of all traits studied were significant indicating the presence of sufficient variation for the traits. Significance of scaling tests revealed additive-dominant model as inadequate, indicating the presence of epistasis. Digenic non-allelic interaction model with five parameters, namely, m, d, h, i and l revealed that the epistatic interaction model was adequate to explain the gene action for the traits studied in the present investigation. Dominance x dominance gene interaction was pre-dominant for grain yield per plant and majority of yield component traits studied coupled with duplicate epistasis, indicating the importance of population improvement approaches, such as bi-parental mating and recurrent selection, followed by isolation of purelines in later generations of the cross for effective improvement of yield and majority of the yield component traits.&nbsp;</div>

Generation Mean Analysis for Yield and Yield Component Traits in Inter-specific Cross of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

<div>Background: In soybean yellow seed coat is preferred in the market, however, colored ones are currently gaining attention because of their medicinal and nutritive values; besides. Hence it is essential to breed varieties with desired seed coat colour.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: Twelve genotypes with six each having yellow and black seed coats were screened with fourteen primers linked to seed coat colour governing loci.&nbsp; 
 
Result: Out of them twelve primers showed polymorphism. Monomorphism was observed with both T loci specific and two of the three R loci specific primers. However I locus specific primers i.e. SM303, SM305 and TR showed polymorphism shared by their seed coat color. SM303 amplified a 180 bp sized band in yellow seed coated genotypes and a 130 bp band in black seed coated genotypes. SM305 amplified dual bands with a 200bp band being monomorphic and an additional band (192-216 bp range) present in only yellow seed coated genotypes, of which a 208 bp band was shared by four yellow seed coated genotypes. Cold induced seed coat discoloration specific TR primer generated bands of different size ranges in yellow seed coated (336-344 bp) and black seed coated genotypes (300-320), of which a 340 bp band was shared by four yellow seed coated genotypes.</div>

<div>Verification of Soybean Seed Coat Colour Specific Markers Reveals I Loci Specific Markers Capable for Distinguishing Genotypes Differing in Seed Coated Colour</div>

<div>Background: Indian vegetable oil economy is world&rsquo;s fourth largest after USA, China and Brazil. India was a net exporter of oilseeds and edible oils till 1960s but with stagnation in production and increasing demand for edible oils, India became net importer of edible oils by late-1970s. The government decided to achieve self-sufficiency in edible oilseeds through various policy/schemes such as NODP (1984-85), TMO (1986), OPDP (1991-92) was launched under the TMOP and ISOPOM (2004-05). Karnataka is the sixth largest state in area and production of oilseeds crops in India. Among the oilseed crops, sunflower accounts highest in area (36.71%) and production in state. Hence, the study was undertaken in Karnataka state with the objectives of assessing the growth and instability of sunflower production. 
 
Methods: The growth trends and instability analysis of sunflower was corrie out in Karnataka. The four divisions of the states viz., Bangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga with 30 districts were selected for the study. The data pertaining to area, production and yield of sunflower were collected from many secondary sources and analysed for the period I: 1975-1995 (Pre-WTO), Period II: 1995-2015 (Post-WTO) and whole period: 1975-2015 by using CAGR and CDI Index.&nbsp;</div>

<div style="text-align:justify"> 
Result: The growth pattern of sunflower showed a downward trend with respect of area, production and yield in all the four regions of the state during the period II than compared to period I. It might reflect the adverse effect of modern technology on production of sunflower in Karnataka state. The study indicated that the fluctuation in area, production and yield of sunflower were higher during post-WTO period when compared to pre-WTO period in across the districts and divisions. The mixed trend was observed during whole period with respect to growth and instability of sunflower production.</div>

<div>Growth Trends and Instability of Sunflower in Karnataka: An Inter-Districts and Inter-Divisional Analysis</div>

<div>Background: In developing countries such as Indonesia, the increasing demand for beef has not been matched by domestic beef production. The gap between beef demand and supply highlights the low competitive advantage of the beef industry, primarily due to partnership issues within the supply chain. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between supply chain partnerships and competitive advantage in the beef cattle industry. 
 
Methods: The research was conducted in key beef cattle regions of Indonesia, specifically in South Sulawesi, as the regencies of Bulukumba, Sinjai and Bone. A survey questionnaire was administered to 100 respondents. Spearman&rsquo;s correlation coefficient analysis was utilized to test the hypotheses. 
 
Result: The results indicated that strategic supplier partnerships had a significant and positive relationship with the competitive advantage of beef cattle. However, the sharing of market information and technological knowledge in beef cattle production was not significantly associated with the competitive advantage of the industry. Based on these findings, the study presents several theoretical and policy implications.</div>

Supply Chain Partnerships and Competitive Advantage of the Beef Cattle Industry: Evidence from Indonesia

<div>Background: Blackgram (Phaseolus mungo L.), a major pulse crop of Andhra Pradesh grown in an area of 3.52 lakh ha with a production of 2.93 lakh tons during rabi season (Anonymous, 2019). One of the major characteristics for selection of blackgram varieties for rabi season under conditions of receding soil moisture in black soils is their early vigour and good weed smothering capability. Early varieties due to their early growth habit can cover the land and thus can smother weeds better than late maturing varieties. Further some variations are observed to be more tolerant to post emergence herbicide application. Hence, there is need to evaluate the promising blackgram varieties for their weed competitiveness and tolerance to pre and post emergence herbicidal application. 
 
Methods: A field experiment was carried out at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, with an objective to find out the competitive ability of blackgram varieties to smother weeds during rabi season of 2015-16 and 2016-17 under upland conditions. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The treatments consisted of five methods of weed control as main plots, viz., pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha-1 PE, imazethapyr 50 g ha-1 PoE, pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha-1&nbsp;PE fb imazethapyr 50 g ha-1, PoE, manual weeding at 20 and 40 days after sowing (DAS) along with inter cultivation at 30 DAS and unweeded; four blackgram varieties, viz., GBG 1, PU 31, LBG 787, LBG 752, as sub treatments which were replicated thrice. 
 
Result: Weed dry matter recorded at 45 days was lower and weed control efficiency (WCE) was higher with pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha-1 PE fb imazethapyr 50 g ha-1 PoE and was on par with manual weeding with inter cultivation. All the varieties were comparable and equally effective in controlling weed dry matter. Yield of variety GBG 1 was higher due to higher yield attributes viz., no. of pods per plant and 100 seed weight. Among the weed control methods manual weeding treatment with inter cultivation recorded significantly higher yield followed by a combination of pendimethalin 1.0 kg ha-1 PE fb imazethapyr 50 g ha-1 PoE. Further, varieties GBG 1 and PU 31 performed better in manual weeding treatment with intercultivation and without any herbicide use.</div>

<div>Response of Blackgram (Phaseolus mungo L.) Varieties to Weed Competition and to Pre and Post Emergence Herbicide Application during Rabi</div>

<div>Promoters are cis-acting regulatory elements that are usually present upstream to the coding sequences and determine the gene expression. Deployment of tissue specific and inducible promoters are constantly increasing for development of successful and stable multiple transgenic plants. To this end, as a strategy for enhanced expression of cis or transgenes, promoter engineering of the native msg promoter from soya bean has been carried out for executing pod specific expression of genes. Cis regulatory elements such as 5&rsquo;UTR and poly (A) tract have been incorporated for imparting mRNA stability and translational enhancement to generate the modified 1.285 Kb pod specific promoter. Further to attain transcriptional enhancement the modified promoter has been cloned to generate Bi-directional Duplex Promoters (BDDP). The engineered msg promoter gene constructs can be deployed for high level tissue specific gene expression of cis/trans genes along with chosen terminator in chickpea. soybean and other legumes as well.</div>

<div>A modified pod specific promoter for high level heterologous expression of genes in legumes</div>

<div>Background: Adulteration of meat with their cheaper or inferior counterparts has become a common practice in the meat industry which threatens the feelings as well as the health of the people. Meat adulteration has issues relating to social, religious, economic, and public health. Therefore, it is important to develop simple and reliable techniques for the authentication of species of meat. Mitochondrial markers have been widely used in species identification and authentication as PCR of species-specific markers of mitochondrial origin is relatively rapid, accurate, sensitive and cost-effective as compared to other PCR based assays. The present study was carried out for authentication of raw and cooked meat from different species using PCR amplification of species-specific Cytb and D-loop markers of mitochondrial origin. 
 
Methods: In this study, detection of different raw meat viz. beef, carabeef, mutton, chevon, chicken, duck meat and dog meat as well as meat samples subjected to different processing temperatures was done using PCR of species-specific mitochondrial Cytb and D-loop markers. Samples of beef, carabeef, mutton, chevon, chicken, duck meat and dog meat were collected randomly from different locations of the North-Eastern region of India. The meat samples were subjected to heat treatment in hot water (80oC) to have 75oC core temperature. They were also 
cooked in steam to have the core temperature of 95oC. The samples were also subjected to autoclaving at a temperature of 121oC and 15 lb pressure.&nbsp; 
 
Result: The markers used in this study successfully amplified unique fragments for beef, carabeef, mutton, chevon, chicken, duck meat and dog meat. The sizes of the amplified products were 126 bp for beef, 226 bp for carabeef, 254 bp for mutton, 453 bp for chevon, 256 bp for chicken, 292 bp for duck meat and 100 bp for dog meat. The results were consistent in the meat samples which were subjected to different cooking temperatures ranging from 75-121oC. Consequently, these markers were validated for cross-amplification by checking them with other meat samples and no amplifications were observed in non-target species. The results suggested that all the markers were highly specific for the target species. The simplicity, sensitivity and stability of the assay indicated that this method could be very useful for meat authentication and thereby to detect adulteration.&nbsp;</div>

<div>A Method for Authentication of Meat by PCR Amplification of Species-specific Markers of Mitochondrial Origin</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) is one of the most important and primitive medicinal plants belonging to family fabaceae and is recognized as one of the most prominent seed spices. Development, identification and classification of entirely new set of SSRs are a very expensive and time consuming process for a crop like fenugreek. Instead, a novel set of SSRs can be achieved with ease in less expense by transferring the microsatellite loci of the related species in fenugreek. SSR&rsquo;s of two major crops, carrot and celery belonging to apiaceae family are available in public domain for cross-species and inter-family investigation. In the present study, we examined transferability of 100 carrot SSR loci in fenugreek of which 19% of SSR&rsquo;s amplified, where 5 primers were monomorphic. 14 SSRs were polymorphic in nature and the bands ranged between 2 to 5. GSSR-87, GSSR-92, GSSR-136 and BSSR-8 showed monomorphic bands and were specific for fenugreek genotypes and can be regarded as a dominant tool for fenugreek breeding and genetic studies. However, GSSR-81 and GSSR-96 were most polymorphic in nature and can be utilized further to distinguish fenugreek from other seed spices. The analysis, revealed optimum level of cross-species transferability (&gt;35.2%) in fenugreek, where no SSR resource is available till date, initiating cross transferability testing from the enriched SSR database of carrot.</div>

Identification and characterization of microsatellite markers in fenugreek: An inter-family amplification

<div>Background: Attitudes are learned, emotionally, predisposition to react in a consistent way, favourable or unfavourable to the situation of inter-cropping practices. The purposed of this finding was to find out the attitude of the adopter and non-adopter of inter-cropping in areca nut plantation in Ri-Bhoi District of Meghalaya. It is important to study the attitude of the respondents towards the inter-cropping practices as this can help to understand the reason behind the adoption or non-adoption of the practices in the study area. This study also helped in determining the relationship between the attitude and the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. 
 
Methods: This field survey was done during the year 2017 to 2019. Ex-Post Facto research design was used for this study. The sample study was selected through multistage sampling method in the selected study area of the respondents. Number of respondents was selected using a simple random method by using computer aided random selection based on the criteria of practicing areca nut plantation and those who practiced both areca nut plus inter-cropping. A survey of 310 adopters and 310 non-adopters of areca nut plantation were selected for the study. Collection of primary data was done using an interview schedule and appropriate statistical tools were used for interpretation of the data. Independent variables included in this were gender, age, marital status, educational level and type of house, family size, family type, social category, and annual income. 
 
Result: Based on the study it was observed that the attitude of the adopters and the non-adopters of Ri-Bhoi district were found to be favourable towards the inter-cropping practices but the attitudinal level among them were found to have been different based on some factors. The adopters were having most favourable attitude than the non-adopters. The findings of this study led to the conclusion that the attitudes of adopters and non-adopters differ depending on their educational status, annual income, land size and so on. The findings of this study can be used by the government to assist farmers in any way possible, so that non-adopters can also adopt inter-cropping practices because, according to the study, they have a favourable attitude toward this practice, but they require government assistance.</div>