The Indian livestock population is huge. Most (99%) of the livestock owners still follow traditional animal husbandry practices and graze their livestock, especially small ruminants, on natural pastures where no pesticides are used. In order to feed the ever-increasing livestock population, efforts are being made to increase quality fodder productivity from limited land resources. In such situations, pesticides play an important role by minimizing the loss of green fodder due to disease and pest attack. In countries such as Canada, Israel, the UK, and other European countries, pesticides have been registered for forage crops; in India, however, although pesticides have been registered for cultivable grain, horticultural and cash crops, etc., there are no registration guidelines or authenticated information regarding pesticide use with regard to forage crops. Hence, there is a need to take necessary steps in this direction, keeping in view the importance of fodder and livestock in the country. In this review, detailed aspects of the status and use of pesticides in forage crops in India are discussed. View full abstract

Strigolactones (SLs) are a series of sesquiterpene lactones that serve as plant hormones to regulate plant growth and development, such as shoot branching, lateral root formation, and root hair elongation. Recently, SLs have been reported to accelerate the leaf senescence, which is also regulated by sugar signals. In this study, we utilized segments of a bamboo leaf to observe leaf senescence and confirmed that SL accelerates leaf senescence and triggers cell death under a dark condition rather than under a light condition. Further studies showed that the co-treatment of sugars suppressed SL-induced leaf senescence and cell death under dark conditions, suggesting a crosstalk between SL and the sugar signal in regulating leaf senescence. View full abstract