Soft rot is one of the destructive diseases of vegetables and occurs worldwide wherever fleshy storage tissues of vegetables and ornamentals are found. It causes a greater total loss of produce than any other bacterial disease. The disease can be found on crops in the field, in transit, in storage and during marketing; resulting in great economic losses. It is primarily caused by Erwinia carotovora sub-sp. carotovora and sometimes by Erwinia carotovora sub-sp. atroseptica. The soft rot disease has a very wide host range infecting vegetable species belonging to all families. Name of the disease aroused from the characteristic soft decay of fleshy tissue which terminates into watery or slimy mass. The bacteria enters the host tissue through injuries. The decay is aggravated when high humidity is coupled with high temperature which results in fast rate of multiplication of the pathogen. For this reason much of the loss due to this disease occurs during middle of the summer. Increased amounts of pecteolytic enzymes released by the pathogen results in maceration of tissue and are of great significance to the pathogenesis of the disease. Control of the disease which includes sanitation of packing house, lowering of storage temperature and humidity, host resistance and other physical and chemical measures are discussed in detail.

Cotton is a wide spaced and initial slow growing crop and therefore offers scope for intercropping green manure. Intercropping and incorporation of green manure supply nitrogen and increase the nutrient use efficiency and yield of cotton. Incorporation of leguminous green manure crops has the beneficial effect on soil fertility also. Green manure intercrop serves as plant protectant too. To start with green manures effect on the associate cotton growth and yield are reviewed hereunder followed by their effect on soil fertility, pest and weed control on the principle crop.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of waterlogging on morphological and physiological traits of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) cultivars. Four sorghum cultivars, cv. Wray, Keller, Bailey (sweet cultivar) and cv. SP1 (forage cultivar) at five expanded leaf stage were subjected to 20 days of waterlogging and drained pots were kept as the control. Twenty days of waterlogging did not cause a significant difference in shoot and root biomass among cultivars. Flooding reduced leaf area (69%), plant height (30%) and youngest leaf expansion rate of all cultivars but severely reduced in SP1 (35-80%). Flooding promoted leaf senescence of all cultivars and biomass allocation to shoot (increase in shoot/root) in Wray, Keller and Bailey, but increased biomass partitioning to root in SP1. The initiation of new nodal root was noted in SP1, whereas the ability to maintain root surface area by increase in longest root length and nodal root development near soil surface was found in Wray. Photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate were severely reduced under waterlogging conditions of sweet cultivars (65-78%), but enhanced over the control in forage cultivar (56%). The ability to conserve root surface area, allocate more biomass to shoot during waterlogging and develop root near soil surface may support new growth in Wray, whereas the ability to maintain leaf gas exchange parameters in SP1 was due to the active nodal root growth. Nevertheless, there was no relationship between photosynthetic rate and shoot growth of sorghum under anaerobic conditions.

Plant growth regulators are chemical substances and when applied in small amounts, they bring rapid changes in the phenotypes of the plant and also influence the plant growth, right from seed germination to senescence either by enhancing or by stimulating the natural growth regulatory system. Plant growth substances are known to enhance the source-sink relationship and stimulate the translocation of photo-assimilates thereby helping in effective flower formation, fruit and seed development and ultimately enhance the productivity of crops. An attempt is made to review the influence of some of the important growth substances like salicylic acid, boric acid, panchagavya and pink pigmented facultative methilotrophs on growth and productivity of the crops.

Traditional systems of medicine like ayurvedic system have major treatment across globe. Tannins play an important role and has wide applications. Tanninsare water-soluble polyphenols that are present in many plant foods. They have been reported to be responsible for decreases in feed intake, growth rate, feed efficiency, net metabolizable energy and protein digestibility in experimental animals. Therefore, foods rich in tannins are considered to be of low nutritional value. However, recent findings indicate that the major effect of tannins was not due to their inhibition on food consumption or digestion but rather the decreased efficiency in converting the absorbed nutrients to new body substances. The anticarcinogenic and antimutagenic potentials of tannins may be related to their antioxidative property, which is important in protecting cellular oxidative damage, including lipid peroxidaton. The antimicrobial activities of tannins are well documented. The growth of many fungi, yeasts, bacteria and viruses was inhibited by tannins. We have also found that tannic acid and propyl gallate, but not gallic acid, were inhibitory to foodborne bacteria, aquatic bacteria and off-flavor-producing microorganisms. Their antimicrobial properties seemed to be associated with the hydrolysis of ester linkage between gallic acid and polyols hydrolyzed after ripening of many edible fruits. Tannins in these fruits thus serve as a natural defense mechanism against microbial infections. Tannins have also been reported to exert other physiological effects, such as to accelerate blood clotting, reduce blood pressure, decrease the serum lipid level, produce liver necrosis and modulate immunoresponses.

Utilization of poultry litter has been a common practice in India since long time as manure. Poultry manure is rich organic manure since solid and liquid excreta are excreted together resulting in no urine loss. In deep litter manure, the litter absorbs moisture and helps keep the manure friable. In recent years, the problem of poultry waste utilization in concentrated areas has been augmented by confined feeding operations as much of the manure produced now contains no litter. Litter is not used when birds are reared in cages. The nutritional value of fresh poultry manure deteriorates rapidly. Hence, the immediate processing of poultry manure to prevent its rapid decomposition and save its nutrient properties is, thus essential. In addition, increased public consciousness of environmental pollution has challenged the animal and agricultural scientists to expand and to improve the disposal system, recycling the waste nutrients effectively, wherever feasible. Now-a-days composting poultry manure has been shown to be useful in providing a stable end product without much loss to the nutrients per se. In this context, the characteristics, types of poultry manure, the effect of poultry manure on soil properties, yield and quality of crops, nutrient availability, residual effects and the method of composting and its effect on crops are reviewed in this study.

The main aim of this study is to detect the effects of NaCl, NaHCO₃
and sea salt on seed germination, seedling growth and seedling cation contents
of two Suaeda species. Three germination experiments of S.
corniculata and S. salsa seeds were conducted in growth chambers. The
seeds were placed at three types of salt at concentrations: 0, 25, 50, 75, 100%
seawater; 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 mM NaCl and 0, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 mM
NaHCO₃, separately. The two species varied in their salt tolerance
for germination rates and percentages and showed higher germination percentage
at higher salt stress (500 mM NaCl, NaHCO₃ and 100% seawater). Some
un-germinated seeds were recovered after being transferred to distilled water.
The Na⁺ content in seedlings increased with the increase in stress
intensity. While K⁺ content and K⁺/Na⁺ ratio
decreased under NaCl and NaHCO₃ stress. K⁺ content
increased in seawater treatment while reaching higher salt concentrations, due
to the extra K⁺ in seawater, but there was no significant difference
among the treatments with varied seawater concentrations (p<0.001). These
results suggested that S. corniculata and S. salsa could be used
as pioneer plants for ecological recovery and exploitation of saline and sodic
soils.