PG Thesis
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Item Economic analysis of rice based integrated farming system models in Kuttanad(Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, 2021) Nanda Baiju; Prema AIn any developing economy, in order to attain pro-poor growth and economic development, it is necessary that the agriculture sector flourishes, along with improvement in farmers’ income. According to Agricultural Census of 2015-16, the average operational land holding in Kerala was found to be 0.18 ha. Hence, the scope of horizontal expansion is limited and the only possible alternative is vertical expansion. Integrated Farming System (IFS) is a resource management strategy that ensures year round income to the farm families with the integration of appropriate subsidiary enterprises. It helps in meeting the diverse requirements of the farm household, ensures employment generation and sustainable livelihood of small and marginal farmers along with minimizing the risk associated with monocropping. Rice farmers in Kuttanad have taken up subsidiary enterprises like duckery, fish, dairy and poultry to ensure additional returns. The different IFS models identified among the 100 sample farmers from the study area were Rice+ Duckery, Rice+ Fish, Rice+ Dairy, Rice- Fish sequential farming, Rice+ Fish+ Poultry, Rice+ Fish+ Duckery, Rice+ Fish+ Dairy, Rice+ Fish+ Poultry+ Duckery, Rice+ Dairy+ Poultry, Rice+ Dairy+ Fodder and Rice+ Banana+ Dairy+ Duckery. The predominant models in the study area were Rice+ Duckery which was followed by Rice+ Fish and Rice+ Fish+ Poultry+ Duckery. The economic analysis of the rice based IFS models were carried out to identify the most profitable models. It was observed that fish and duckery enterprises were profitably integrated with rice among the farmers in Kuttanad. The model Rice+ Fish and Rice+ Fish+ Duckery showed a high B-C ratio of 2.52 at Cost A1. Rice+ Duckery was the next most profitable model at a B-C ratio of 2.42. At Cost C, Rice+ Fish showed the highest B-C ratio of 1.45 followed by Rice+ Duckery and Rice+ Fish+ Duckery at B-C ratios 1.32 and 1.26 respectively. The models involving dairy showed significantly lower B-C ratios attributing to the labour intensive nature of the enterprise and high cost of dairy concentrates. Rice–Fish sequential farming showed highest employment generation of 348 Person Days/yr. Economic sustainability of the IFS models were analysed using Sustainable Value Index (SVI) and System Economic Efficiency (SEE). The highest economic sustainability was obtained for the model i Rice+ Banana+ Dairy+ Duckery at an SVI of 0.73 and SEE of ₹1133/day and the lowest was observed for the model Rice+ Dairy+ Poultry at SVI and SEE of -0.14 and ₹147/day respectively. Analysing the resource use efficiency of rice under IFS in Kuttanad revealed that the wetland area was underutilized, and hired human labour was over utilized. The rice based IFS model developed by The Integrated Farming System Research Station, Karamana was analysed for its profitability. The model included dairy, duckery, fish, vegetable cultivation on the dykes and allied activities like vermicomposting. The model was found to be profitable at a discounted B-C ratio of 1.03, NPW of ₹47,617 and IRR of 20 percent. Components of the model like cultivation of vegetables on dykes and construction of duck shelter over the fish pond could be well adopted by farmers in Kuttanad. Constraints in adoption of the IFS models by the farmers were studied using the Garrett ranking technique and the agreement between the respondents in ranking the constraints was studied using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance. The most important constraint that prevents farmers from adoption of the IFS models was unfavourable weather conditions. This corresponded to the fact that the farmers in Kuttanad face severe hardships as the area gets flooded during the monsoon making it difficult for them to raise cattle, poultry and duckery. Although farmers have come up with coping strategies like constructing cattle shed on raised platforms, these have not received widespread acceptance. The other important constraints were labour scarcity, avian diseases, soil acidity and salinity, high input cost, crop pests and diseases, lack of technical knowledge, lack of proper extension support, lack of improved variety/breeds and poor storage facilities. The Kendall’s W statistic of 0.63 indicated that there was general agreement between the farmers in ranking the constraints. Increasing the awareness of the farmers regarding the benefits of IFS through trainings, capacity building programmes for a more skilled labour force, localised weather forecasting and warning systems, strengthening of risk minimising strategies like insuring the crops and livestock and support for taking up allied activities like mushroom cultivation have been suggested.Item Pedigree breeding in early segregating generations of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp)(Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2017) Sunil, R; Jiji JosephPulses represent an essential component of agricultural food crops and considered as an important crop to meet food and nutritional security. They complement cereal crops in terms of dietary requirement as a source of protein and minerals. In several countries of the tropics and sub-tropics, cowpea serves as an important food legume. It plays an essential role in enrichment of daily diet, mainly as a grain and green pods. In general, cowpea seeds contain 23.4 per cent protein, 60.3 per cent carbohydrates and 1.8 per cent fat. It also provides considerable amount of vitamins and phosphorus. The protein availability in cowpea seeds and green pods is almost double/ triple the amount of available cereal protein. The average grain yield of cowpea is still low and no single variety is adaptable for all growing conditions. Exploiting genetic variability is an essential method, to overcome the complex nature of cowpea breeding and to identify an elite high yielding genotype. Selection of best lines with high yield and other associated characters, in segregating generations paves a way to develop new varieties. The present study aimed to evaluate the F2 and F3 generations for high yield and protein content in two crosses (H 10 and H 11), involving Anaswara, PKB 3 and PKB 4 as parents. In general, the F2 families of both the crosses showed high mean performance and variance over the parents. Grain yield showed very low phenotypic coefficient variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient variation (GCV). All other characters showed a moderate PCV and GCV values in segregating generation expect for days to first flowering, days to first harvest and days to last harvest. Most of the characters showed high heritability (h2) in F2 generation. In F2, the lowest value for h2 was observed for single pod weight in H 10 family and for grain yield in H 11 family. Similarly, High genetic advance over mean (GAM) was exhibited by 100-seed weight in H 10 family and number of pods per plant in H 11 family. Selection based on characters with high h2 and high GAM will be highly effective. In F2 generation of H 10 family, single pod weight showed significant and positive correlation with hundred seed weight and grain yield per plant. Days to first harvest and days to last harvest had a significant negative correlation with grain yield per plant. Days to first flowering, days to last harvest and single pod weight had significant negative correlation with protein content. In F2 generation of H 11 family, days to last harvest and number of pods per plant showed significant and positive correlation with grain yield per plant. Number of pods per plant showed a significant positive correlation with protein content. Days to first harvest showed significant negative correlation with grain yield per plant and days to first flowering with protein content. On path analysis, plant height, days to first harvest, pod length and hundred seed weight showed a positive direct effect on grain yield. Negative direct effect was exerted by protein content towards grain yield. A selection criteria was fixed based on number of pods per plant, grain yield per plant and protein content for selecting best lines to be forwarded to F3 generations. Eight lines from F2’s of H 10 family and fifteen lines from F2’s of H 11 family were identified to be the best and forwarded to next generation. F3 family of both H 10 and H 11 followed a general trend for mean, variance, GCV, PCV, h2 and GAM. Mean and variance were high for most of the characters and GCV and PCV values were moderate except for days to first flowering, days to first harvest, days to last harvest, 100-seed weight and grain yield, where it was low. F3 families showed high heritability and moderate GAM, for most of the characters. In F3 generation of cross H 10, days to last harvest had significant positive correlation with grain yield per plant. There was no significant positive correlation with the characters towards grain yield, in the F3 generation of cross H 11. Significant and negative correlation, showed by days to first harvest with grain yield per plant and days to first flowering with protein content in family H 10. Whereas, in family H 11 hundred seed weight showed significant negative correlation with protein content. On path analysis, days to first flowering showed very high positive direct effect followed by single pod weight, plant height and 111 number of pods per plant. Very high negative direct effect showed by days to first harvest through days to first flowering towards grain yield. Nine lines each from F3’s of H 10 and H 11 with high yield and protein content was selected and shall be forwarded for next generation evaluationItem Combining ability in grass cowpea [Vigna unguiculata var- sesquipedails](Department of Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1992) Rejatha, V; Ramachandra Nair, NTwo lines, six testers and twelve bybrids of cowpea were evaluated in the partially shaded conditions of coconut garden of Vellayani for combining ability and gene action. The lines and testers were selected based on their previous performance and crossed in line x tester manner to get twelve hybrids. Observations were made on sixteen characters of which twelve characters showed significant differences among the twenty treatments. Combining ability analysis was carried out as suggested by kempthorn (1957) suggested the importance of specific combining ability for all the characters except for length of pod and days to flowering. It was seen that the varieties chharodi – 1, Culture – 9, V – 26 and GC – 82 – 7 were the best general combiners and the cross combinations Chharodi – 1 x V – 26, Chharodi – 1 x Kanakamani and Culture – 9 x V – 322 were the best specific combinations for yield and yield attributes under partially shaded upland conditions. The yield and important yield attributes were under the control of non – additive gene actions except days to flowering and length of pod. The varieties Culture – 9, GC – 82 – 7,Chharodi – 1 and V – 26 and the cross combinations Chharodi–1 x V–26, Chharodi-1 x Kanakamani and Culture –9 x Kanakamani can be further exploited through selection.Item Nutrient budgeting in rice based farming system(Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2017) Reshma, M R; Shalini Pillai, P