Leaves of 54 host plants were provided as feed to 4th instar larvae of Mythimna separata (Walk.). Sorghum, maize, rice and ‘khabbal’ grass were consumed the maximum levels, followed by sugarcane and deela. Maximum coefficient of utilization values were recorded in sugarcane, maize, and rice followed by ‘khabbal’ grass, ‘baru’ grass and sorghum. The least preferred host plants were ‘Aksin’, ‘desi’ sarson, ‘dib’, ‘lehli’, jute and ground nut which were consumed at minimum levels while cotton, gourd, methi, onion, spinach, ‘ak’, ‘aksin’, ‘datura’, ‘jangli spinach’, ‘korbooti’, water grass, mash, mung and gram were utilized the least. No plants were found to be completely immune to M. separata.

Twenty four isolates of Fusarium oxysportum f. sp. ciceri (Padwick) Snyder and Hansen, a causal agent of wilt disease of chickpea, were collected from seven states of India. They were tested for pathogenic variability on a set of differential lines. Foliar symptoms including sudden drooping of terminal leaves, chlorosis of leaflets and internal discolouration of root tissues were observed on the inoculated chickpea differential lines. Minimum days were required to manifest foliar symptoms such as the sudden drooping of terminal leaves followed by cholorosis of leaflets with drooping and chlorosis of leaflets without drooping. Sudden drooping of terminal leaves proceeded by early wilting while late wilting was preceded by leaf chlorosis. Internal root discolouration commonly prevailed in all inoculated differential lines irrespective of wilting. Based on disease reactions displayed by eleven standard differential chickpea lines, at least ten pathogenic groups were seem to be existed among the test isolates of chickpea wilt Fusaria.

A pot experiment was conducted in the presence and absence of nitrogen in order to evaluate the influence of Azospirillum lipoferum on grain filling rate and nutrient uptake of rice. Soil samples were collected from the Dhamrai series of Young Brahmaputra Floodplain soil. The bacterial strain Azospirllum lipoferum was isolated from the rice rhizosphere of the same soil. Each pot contained 10 kg well sieved soil and four hills of rice plant in the each pot were transplanted. In inoculated treatments, each rice grain was treated with 10⁶ cells of Azospirillum lipoferum before being sown in the seedbed. Once more each seeding was treated at least 10⁶ cells of bacteria before transplantation. Nitrogen as urea was applied at the rate of zero nitrogen (0 kg/h), 45 ky/h and 90 kg/h. Phosphorus, potassium and sulphur were applied at the rate of 60 kg/h, 40 kg/h and 10 kg/h, respectively as the basal doses. The grain filling rate, uptake of N, P, K and rice yield increased remarkably due to inoculation with Azospirillum lipoferum.

A pot experiment to investigate uptake behavior, interactions with nutrient elements and growth of rice plants was conducted under controlled conditions using simulated nutrient culture solution with different chromium (0.0, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0, and 2.0 ppm) and copper concentrations (0.0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8 and 1.0 ppm). Fresh and dry weight of root and shoot showed significant (P=<0.001) decrease with increases in concentrations of Cu and Cr in the nutrient solution. At the highest concentration of Cu (1.0 ppm) and Cr (2.0 ppm), the decrease in dry root and shoot produced values of 73% and 62% for Cu and 88% and 77% for Cr, respectively. Threshold value of the which concentration of dry weight of rice plant showed significant (P=<0.001) decrease at 0.5 ppm for both Cu and Cr. Adverse effect of application of Cu and Cr also showed antagnostic effects against the uptake of N, P and K. The threshold value of the uptake of N, P and K was 0.5 ppm for Cr and 0.2 ppm for Cu, respectively. Rice plants grown in higher concentrations than 0.5 ppm of Cu and Cr nutient solution accumulated significant amounts of Cu and Cr in both roots and shoots of rice plants.

Effects of 7 pesticides on Trichogramma chilonis adults were tested. Of all, two pesticides (Batillus thuingiensis and Oxadiazine) caused 10% and 20% mortality after 6-hour treatment and 95% and 75%, respectively, after 24-hour treatment. These were classified harmless for the first 6 hour period of exposure to pesticide but were categorized harmful and slightly harmful after 24 hours and fell into toxicity classes 4 and 2 respectively. All other preparations (Abamectin, Chlorfenapyr, Endosulfan, Profenofos and Spinosad which caused 100% mortality after 24 hours), were selected for further testing.

The phylogenetic relationships among 102 lablab bean accessions were investigated using RAPD markers. One hundred and one RAPD fragments were generated using 11 single 12 mer primers of arbitrary nucleotide sequences. Two primers, CMN-A22 and CMN-A31 generated robust and easily interpretable markers between wild and cultivated accessions. A dendrogram constructed based on genetic similarity clearly separated wild type accessions from cultivated accessions. Small values of genetic dissimilarity between and among wild and cultivated accessions and diversity of cultivated accessions without relating to geographical distribution suggest the short history of breeding works in the crop.

The past studies have shown that productions in intercropping fields are affected by planting density of component crops. Because of the formation of short-wave radiative environment in an agricultural field is influenced by the spatial structure of vegetation, the water consumption may be affected by planting density. In this study, the solar radiative environment of the intercropping system is estimated using the solar radiation transmission model. The temporal change of the position of the sun is expressed with the change of altitude angle and azimuth angle of the sun. The profile of a canopy is assumed to be uniform in the direction of crop rows, and a whole crop community is expressed as the gathering of rectangular tubes of an infinite length. The amounts of two phases of solar radiation, one is intercepted by a tube and the other reaches to the ground passing through a tube, are calculated using a leaf area density and an extinction coefficient of the tube and the transmission length. The results of prediction of the solar radiative environments of the maize-mungbean intercropping systems, which are different in the planting density of maize, show the amount of solar radiation intercepted by mungbean comes to be larger with decreasing of planting density of maize.

A field experiment was conducted on maize-mungbean intercropping to find out suitable mungbean variety (Kanti and BARI-mung-5) and its sowing systems in intercropping and to analyze the yield improvement from the viewpoint of growth process with the consideration of canopy structure and light interception. Maize yield did not differ significantly due to intercropping. On the mungbean monoculture BARI-mung-5 yield was higher than Kanti but on the intercropping BARI-mung-5 yield was reduced more than Kanti. The yield reduction of BARI-mung-5 was 73% and that of Kanti was 35-44%. The reason why Kanti has the tolerant co shading condition might come from smaller k value and higher NAR on later growth stage. There was no significant difference between the yield of 1 row and 2 rows sowing systems of munghean in intercrop treatments for both of the mungbean variety. Land equivalent ratio (LER) of plots intercropped with both varieties increased due to intercropping. The highest LER (1.58) was observed in intercropped with Kanti.