<div>Background: Maize (Zea mays L.) is the most important staple food in the lowland of North Shewa, Ethiopia. However, the crop is less researched in this area. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the performance of improved open pollinated variety maize with the participation of farmers&rsquo; using their selection criteria for cultivation in the lowland areas of North Shewa. 
 
Methods: Fourteen open pollinated maize varieties including local were evaluated in the lowland of Eastern Amhara at Eferatana Gedim district, Yimlo research station in 2016 and 2017 main cropping season. The experiment was conducted in randomized complete block design (RCBD) in three replications. Five agronomic and yield traits were collected in both cropping years. In addition, maize small holder farmers were participated to evaluate and score varieties using the matrix ranking method based on the farmers&rsquo; selection attributes. 
 
Result: The combined analysis of variance across years showed that highly significant (p&lt;0.01) difference for days to anthesis, grain yield. The highest grain yield was obtained from Melkassa-4 (5243 kg/ha) and Melkasa-2 (5115 kg/ha) while the lowest yield was recorded from Rare-1 (3294 kg/ha). The overall yielding ability of Melkasa-4 was higher as compared with the tested varieties. In addition, this variety was highly appreciated by maize farmers in both cropping years. Based on farmer&rsquo;s selection and yield potential, therefore, Melkassa-4 has recommended for the lowlands of North Shewa and similar agro ecologies in Ethiopia. Support is needed to scale-up and deliver such improved variety through involving farmers in the selection and dissemination of varieties that are adapted to their needs, as it incurred income, good in crop rotation and animal feed.</div>

Participatory Variety Selection of Maize (Zea mays L.) Varieties in the Low Lands of Eastern Amhara, Ethiopia

Background: Varieties identification is essential for protecting seeds sold to farmers from counterfeiting. Currently, the grow-out test (GOT) is used for varieties identification. This test is constrained by its long assessment, environmental dependency and subjective nature. Alternative test/tests are needed. This study aimed to determine the utility of microsatellite markers as a complement to GOT in varieties identification. 
&nbsp; 
Methods: In this study, six varieties of commercial maize hybrids released in Tanzania, herein coded as H1, H2, H3, H5, H6 and H9, were selected as candidates. For morphological evaluation, a field experiment was laid out in a complete randomized block design, followed by the collection of phenotypic data. The qualitative data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA in SPSS v.20 software, while qualitative data were summarized in a frequency distribution table. On the other hand, by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR), seven microsatellite markers were used to fingerprint the varieties. The PCR results were manually scored and transferred to GenAIEX v.6.5 and DARwin v.6. software for genetic distance and clustering analysis, respectively. 
&nbsp; 
Result: Quantitative data showed significant variation in all the tested varieties at p&lt;0.05, whereas 15 qualitative traits out of 21 showed phenotypic variations among the tested varieties. Furthermore, two microsatellite markers, namely phi080 and umc1071, out of the seven markers used in this study, proved useful in the fast and timely identification of two varieties (H1 and H2) out of six varieties. Nei&rsquo;s genetic distance ranged from zero to four; the highest measure of genetic distance was observed in H1, followed by H2 and the least measure was observed in both of the four varieties. Neighbor Joining clustered the varieties into three different populations that distinguished each of H1 and H2 from the rest of the four varieties. This study shows that microsatellite markers are a promising complement to GOT in varietal identification.

Assessment of Microsatellite Markers for Varieties Identification: A Case of Six Varieties of Maize Hybrids Sold in Tanzania

By increasing crop output, genetic variety and environmental tolerance, composite and synthetic varieties have made a substantial contribution to modern agriculture. By combining seeds from many genetically distinct parent lines and permitting unrestricted interbreeding between them over the course of subsequent generations, composite varieties are created, producing genetically varied populations that are more resilient to environmental challenges. On the other hand, controlled hybridization of specific inbred lines is used to create synthetic varieties, which take advantage of hybrid vigor (heterosis) to increase yields and enhance stress tolerance. The Green Revolution showed that both synthetic and composite varieties were successful in increasing global food security, but there are still significant issues like genetic drift, loss of heterosis and environmental pressures. Future breeding efforts should incorporate advanced biotechnological tools, such as marker-assisted selection and gene editing, to improve breeding efficiency and develop climate-resilient varieties. This review examines the methods and mechanisms involved in developing and maintaining synthetic and composite varieties, highlighting their respective advantages, challenges and accomplishments. Maintaining the success of composite and synthetic varieties in a variety of agricultural systems requires enhancing availability to high-quality seed and fortifying participatory breeding techniques. 
&nbsp;

Composite and Synthetic Varieties Development, Maintenance, Merit and Achievements: A Review

<div>Background: Collar rot of lentil caused by Sclerotium rolfsii became a major problem for early sown lentil in North-eastern plain zones of India, as it associated with high yield losses every year. The disease cause huge loss in yield due to which, area under this crop is consistently decreasing. In global perspective, losses of 10-20 million dollars associated with S. rolfsii with yield depletion ranging from 1-60% in fields. The resistance and susceptibility of a potential host plant depends on the virulence of isolates of S.rolfsii. So the objectives of this study is to observe the potentiality of different isolates those were collected from major lentil growing districts of West Bengal and tested their virulence on three popular varieties of lentil. However the pathogenecity of S.rolfsii in this region never been tested before. This information could be a strong background for effective management of pathogen for future research. 
 
Methods: Collar rot infected samples were collected from different geographical locations of West Bengal during (Nov-Dec, 2018). And then the collected samples were isolated in Department of Plant Pathology, BCKV, Nadia, W.B. and were confirmed by their morphological characters.&nbsp; 
 
Result: The isolates from different geographical locations showed differences in their virulence. Among the all isolates SRC2 considered as most virulent as it causes highest diseases incidence as well as mortality percentage in all selected varieties of lentil. Two varieties, &nbsp;HUL-57 and BM-6 not so much popular among the farmers but can be consider as resistant to collar rot in case of early sowing condition.</div>

<div>Pathogenicity Study of Sclerotium rolfsii Isolates on Popular Lentil Varieties in Net House Condition</div>

<div>Background: Wheat is an important food crop of world. This crop has the wider adaptability due to its genetic makeup. The sowing environment and varieties interaction plays important role to enhance its productivity and optimum utilization of the resources. As this crop has wider adaptability so we planned our experiment to study the grain yield, heat use and water use efficiency of diverse wheat varieties which have been recommended in different wheat growing zones, sown at different environment in North-western India, to increase the varietal spectrum. 
 
Methods: The field experiment was conducted in 2017-18 and 2018-19 at the research farm of the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India. The experiment was conducted with four sowing dates (November 5, November 25, December 15 and January 5) in main plot and six wheat varieties (HS 562, HD 2967, HD 3086, HI 1544, MACS 6222 and WR 544) in sub-plot of split plot design with three replications. 
&nbsp; 
Result: The wheat crop sown on November 5 recorded the highest emergence count, plant height, heat use efficiency, normalized difference vegetative index, yield attributes, grain yield and water use efficiency than later sowing dates. Among the wheat varieties, HS 562 recommended for northern hill zone recorded heat use efficiency, helio-thermal use efficiency, at Leaf value, effective tillers, grains per earhead, grain yield and water use efficiency similar to HD 3086 recommended for North-western zone. The varieties recommended for other zones like HI 1544, MACS 6222 and WR 544 could not perform similar to the HD 3086.&nbsp;</div>

<div>Grain Yield, Heat use Efficiency and Water use Efficiency of Diverse Wheat (Tritcum aetivum L.) Varieties under Different Sowing Environments in North-Western India</div>

<div style="text-align:justify">Water is the most important commodity of this large ecological system. Looking to the scarcity/ rareness and importance of pure water, water is an intrusive and the most important factor for the genesis of all the living organism, flora and fauna. All lives are dependent on water. It is the priceless gift of nature and is present in a very limited quantity. Its use should be judicious considering the national development and conservation for future. Looking to the current data total water available from precipitation the country is about 4000 Billon cubic meter. The availability from surface water and replenishable ground water is 1869 BCM. Out of this only 60% of this available water i.e. 1122 BCM (Surface Water 690 BCM and Ground water 432 BCM) can be used and may be considered as available water resource of the country. One more point to be noted is that water is not available uniformly at all places and at all time. In India more then 50% of Urban and Industrial water supply, more than 85% of rural drinking water supply and more than 50% irrigation requirement is dependent on Ground water. In many parts of the country water is being taken out more rapidly from the water wearing formations as compared to the natural refilling which is called the ground water recharge. Water table in these places is falling constanty. Increasing rate of population growth and pressure of development are mainly responsible for this situation. For enhancing productivity and taking cash crops are resulting high tapping of the groundwater everywhere as well as in Madhya Pradesh also. Therefore water resource utilization of an area should be planned keeping in view the availability and demand. Such a planning is presented in this paper for Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh.</div>

Drinking Water Plan for Narsinghpur District

<div style="text-align: justify;">Lentil is an important cool season food legume of our nation and positions next just to chickpea. Pulses are generally known to produce higher vegetative part and less grain yield, consequently poor harvest index. Lentil is no exception to this, and produces excess vegetative growth and support lesser grains. Therefore, in present investigation attempt has been made to screen 36 lentil varieties for biomass and harvest index in macro-sperma and micro-sperma types. Ample amount of variability were recorded for both harvest index and biomass. 37.78-62.96 per cent and 3.38 g to 40.94 gm range was noticed for harvest index and biomass, respectively. At the end of present investigation, three lentil varieties viz. L 4147, IPL 406 and PL 234 were identified as high biomass and high harvest index varieties. These varieties may be used as an agronomic base in the future lentil improvement programme for evolving high yielding varieties.&nbsp;</div>

Variability for harvest index and biomass in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) varieties

<div>The official system of release of crop varieties in India has been in operation for more than six decades since October 1964. The Central Government decided to legalize this system and regulate the quality of seeds of varieties and enacted the Seeds Act on December 29, 1966. The Act came in to force in whole of India and State of Sikkim with effect from September 2, 1968 and May 8, 1987, respectively and October 1, 1969 only for certain provisions of some sections. The first Central Seed Committee and Seed Rules were formed in 1968. The Seeds Act, 1966 was amended in 1972 resulting in to the creation of first Central Seed Certification Board in 1984. The first set of 56 varieties was notified with effect from October 1, 1969 as per section 5 of the Seeds Act, 1966; for specific state/s and for 15 years, but, the bar of 15 years for notification of varieties was removed in 2006 since the notification of May 15, 1990. A total of 7326 high yielding varieties/hybrids having tolerance of biotic and abiotic stresses and enhanced nutritional quality of 96 field crops have been released and notified till 2024. Among them, 242 varieties were de-notified until cut-off notification of May 15, 1990. Another land mark policy decision during the last six decades was enforcement of Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers&rsquo; Rights Act, 2001 and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers&rsquo; Rights Rules, 2003 for protecting the rights of var ious stakeholders such as plant breeders, researchers and farmers initiating an era of Intellectual Property Rights in Agriculture and registration of 9210 varieties. The Central Government initiated regulating the price of Bt cotton since 2016-17. The future-regulating system of variety release and notification and seed quality through any legislation should address various issues like the plant variety protection regime including benefit sharing, development of varieties by utilizing new emerging technologies such as gene-editing, biotech crops and harmonizing Indian and international seed production/certification standards to cater the need of Indian farmers and also promote seed export.</div>

Transformation of Variety Release and Notification System in India- Six Decades of the Seeds Act, 1966: A Review

<div>Background: Light is one of the environmental factors that greatly affect the growth and yield of crops in general, including soybean plants. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of shade on yield and yield components of soybean varieties. 
 
Methods: The research method was a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The first factor was the kind of variety which consisted of two levels, i.e., Dena I and Anjasmara. The second factor was the level of shading, which consisted of four levels, i.e., 0, 10-20, 20-30 and 30-40%. 
 
Result: The results showed that shade decreased the number of filled pods, dry pod weight per plant, 100 seeds weight and seed yield ha-1. As the shade increases, the lower the yield and component of soybean yields increases. The decrease in seed yield ha-1 of Dena I variety at 10-20, 20-30 and 30-40% shade was 22, 14 and 50%, respectively, while the Anjasmara variety was 9, 49 and 59%. Shade decreases yields and yield components of Dena I and Anjasmara varieties. In the higher level of shade, the yield reduction will increase.</div>

Soybean Varieties Respond to the Shade of Teak Trees

<div>Background:&nbsp;Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers causes&rsquo; harmful impact on soil, environment and human being, hence demand of organic food products has shot up recently. Organic farming aims to optimization of crop productivity rather than its maximization through renewal and strengthening of ecological processes and functions of whole ecosystem. Limited varieties information is available on long term performance of pulse crop varieties under organic cultivation system so far. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to investigate the growth and yield performance of green gram varieties under organic production system. 
 
Methods: Eight varieties of green gram were studied under organic production system. Experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. The recommended dose of nutrients for green gram is 15:40:00 kg ha-1 and manures were applied on nitrogen equivalent basis through organic sources. The observations on growth and yield parameters of green gram were recorded at the time of harvesting. Soil and plant samples were collected at time of harvest and analyzed for available nutrients in soil and nutrient content in seed samples. 
 
Result: The maximum plant height at harvest (62.47cm), number of primary branches per plant (5.18), number of pods per plant (27.27), number of seeds per pod (11.27) with highest seed yield (809.80 kg ha-1) exhibited by variety MUM-2 followed by RMG-975 (802.47 kg ha-1) and lowest seed yield (617.80 kg ha-1) was found in the variety MSG-118. MUM-2 variety recorded highest plant nutrient status as compared to other varieties. Among eight varieties of green gram MUM-2 and RMG-975 found better for organic farming in terms of growth, seed yield and quality aspects.</div>