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Showing 2 results for BHATTACHARYYA
Volume 26, Issue 3 (5-2024)
Abstract
The agricultural extension system of India has various kinds of service providers like state agriculture departments, universities, research institutes, Farm Science Centers and private players. This study was conducted in 2020 and attempted to explore the association between average annual net income earned from citrus cultivation and the source of availing citrus extension services through Correspondence Analysis (CA) method of 300 citrus farmers selected from three districts in Maharashtra, India. The farmers with high income (1808.31USD to 2411.09USD/ha) received advisory services of the public research institute ICAR-Central Citrus Research Institute (CCRI) through either personal contact or electronic platforms. Awareness about CCRI services, source of seeking citrus cultivation related information, source of purchasing citrus planting material, using CCRI mobile app and website for citrus advisories, and contacting CCRI scientists for solving citrus farming related issues was found to have significant (P< 0.05) positive relationship with net income from citrus farming through Pearsons’ correlation coefficient, while cost of cultivation and orchard age had negative significant relationship. The multi-linear regression analysis, depicted cost of cultivation, awareness about CCRI services, source of seeking citrus advisories, and source of purchasing planting material had significant association with net income. The findings of correlation and regression thus emphasized the positive significant association of CCRI’s extension services to income from citrus farming. Identifying homogenous target groups of citrus farmers through Classification and Regression Tree (CART) method can serve as policy implication for extension service providers to deliver customized need-based advisories to target clientele.
Volume 27, Issue 3 (3-2025)
Abstract
The present research was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of six different entomopathogenic fungi and bacterial formulation against the third-instar grubs of a subterranean biennial white grub species, Lepidiota mansueta. All treatments proved effective, recording over 55% mortality of white grubs compared to the untreated control at 30 Days After Treatment (DAT). However, the highest cumulative mortality (76%) was observed in Beauveria bassiana (KR855715), followed by 72% in Beauveria brongniartii (BbUASB16) and 70.67% in Bio-Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) treated grubs. Metarhizium anisopliae-based formulation (Bio-Meta) exhibited the lowest mortality rate (58.67%). Overall, B. bassiana (KR855715) and B. brongniartii (BbUASB16) demonstrated higher virulence towards L. mansueta grubs, indicating their potential as biological control agents against these pests. The LT50 values varied from 12.15 to 23.05 days when L. mansueta grubs were treated with different entomopathogenic treatments. In case of KR855715 strain, the LT50 value recorded was 12.15 days (FL 11.15-13.11), which was the lowest, and in Bio-Meta, the LT50 recorded was 23.05 days (FL 19.24-30.33), which was the highest. In conclusion, as chemical pesticides are not always the best option for controlling scarabs, entomopathogenic fungus can be incorporated into Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies as biological control agents. This is especially useful for managing populations of early-season white grubs. Therefore, to keep the pest population in an environmentally balanced level and to provide long-term control for the grubs, these tested entomopathogens may serve as possible biocontrol agents against L. mansueta grubs.