A field study was conducted during 2015 to investigate the effect of row spacing (30 cm, 45 cm and 60 cm) and nitrogen levels (50,100,150 and 200 kg/ha) on growth and yield of Japanese mint (Mentha arvensis L.). The result revealed maximum plant height, plant spread, branches, leaves per plant and higher fresh herbage yield per plant was recorded at 60 cm. Whereas, the highest fresh herbage yield per plot, yield per hectare was noticed at closer row spacing of 30 cm. Among different nitrogen levels application of 150 Kg N/ha recorded maximum plant spread, number of branches, leaves per plant, fresh herbage yield per plant, yield per plot and yield per hectare. Whereas, the maximum plant height was recorded with the application of 200 kg nitrogen per hectare.

A field experiment was carried out at Experimental farm, Department of Horticulture, Assam agricultural University during 2012-13 to evaluate three individual levels of drip and fertigation of nitrogen and potash with or without bi-layer polyethylene mulch in cauliflower. Significantly the highest curd yield of 706.33 g/plant (282.53 q/ha) was obtained with 100% supplementation of OPE through drip @ 24.96 liter/plant and fertigation of nitrogen and potash @ 125% of recommended dose/ha i.e. 100 kg N & 60 kg P2O5 and K2O with a crop duration of 61.67 days and B:C of 0.89. The plant height, days to fifty per cent curd initiation, days to horticultural maturity, curd weight, curd yield, shoot and root ratio, were significantly influenced by drip and fertigation level and mulching. The shelf life of curd was significantly more at mulched conditions. The same treatment combination without mulch gave an yield of 248.53 q/ha with B:C of 1.96.

Anthracnose of turmeric caused by Colletotrichum capsici (Syd.) Butler and Bisby, is attaining more severe form recently in major turmeric growing areas of Belgaum district. The variety Salem is popular for its rhizome yield but this is more susceptible to anthracnose disease. In the studies on screening for disease in turmeric mutants to culture filtrate of C. capsici. The mutants of 5 and 10 Gy, showed least effect on growth and survivability of turmeric shoot clumps, but shoots without irradiated had detrimental effect. Molecular markers as advanced tool confirmed that the resistant and susceptible mutants made were true with two RAPD primers, OPD-07 and OPD-08.

Soybean (Glycine max L.) plants showing witches’-broom symptoms typical of phytoplamas were observed from different locations of Vidarbha region, Maharashtra. Symptoms observed under field condition include phyllody, stunting growth, proliferation of auxiliary shoots resulting in a witches-broom appearance and deformed pods if any. PCR detection of soybean phytoplasma by using phytoplasma-specific universal primer pairs (P1/P7) produced an amplified product of 1.8kb lengths when DNA extract from symptomatic samples was used as template. Asymptomatic plant samples yielded no amplification. On mechanical inoculation none of the test plants inoculated showed any visible symptoms even after 120 days after inoculation

The study was aimed to investigate the interdependence and distribution of subclinical mastitis (SCM) and intra-mammary infection (IMI) among udder quarters in Jersey crossbred cows reared in hot-humid environment. Total 366 quarter wise morning milk samples were collected aseptically after performing California mastitis test (CMT) at milking byre itself to evaluate the incidence of infection in experimental cows maintained at cattle yard, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Eastern Regional Station, Kalyani, West Bengal and subjected to microscopic method of somatic cell count to estimate the level of intra-mammary infection. The overall quarter wise incidence rate of IMI and SCM in Jersey crossbred cows was 54.65% and overall arithmetical mean (±SE) of test day SCC (logarithmic) was 5.377 ± 0.039. The percent incidence of SCM in different quarter was 51.14, 59.79, 48.94 and 58.70 in left fore (LF), left hind (LH), right fore (RF) and right hind (RH) quarters respectively. The higher incidence was observed in hind (59.23%) as comparison to fore (50%) quarters while incidence was found to be slightly more distributed in left (55.56%) than right side (53.76%) quarters. Further, the analysis of variance showed that there was no significant effect of quarter on the log 10SCC level. However, the mean Log 10SCC was found higher for hind and right quarters numerically only. The trend of subclinical mastitis incidence obtained in the current study point out that, the rate of incidence of SCM in different quarters was not similar and was higher in hind quarters and therefore, hind and right side quarter required attention during different udder health management programmes