This study was undertaken to address how near-surface soil water content (SWC) patterns have varied across diverse agroecological regions (AERs) of mainland India from 1979 to 2022 (44 years) and how these variations relate to environmental factors. Grid-wise trend analysis using the Mann–Kendall (MK) trend test and Sen’s slope was conducted to determine the trends and their magnitudes. Additionally, we used Spearman’s rank correlation (ρ) to explore the relationships of ESA CCI’s near-surface SWC data with key environmental variables, including rainfall, temperature, actual evapotranspiration, and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The results revealed significant variations in SWC patterns and trends across different AERs and months. The MK trend test indicated that 17.96% of the area exhibited a significantly increasing trend (p < 0.1), while7.6% showed a significantly decreasing trend, with an average annual Sen’s slope of 0.9 × 10⁻⁴ m³ m⁻³ year⁻¹ for mainland India. Areas with the highest decreasing trends were AER-16 (warm per-humid with brown and red hill soils), AER-15 (hot subhumid to humid with alluvium-derived soils), and AER-17 (warm per-humid with red and lateritic soils). In contrast, increasing trends were the most prominent in AER-5 (hot semi-arid with medium and deep black soils), AER-6 (hot semi-arid with shallow and medium black soils), and AER-19 (hot humid per-humid with red, lateritic, and alluvium-derived soils). Significant increasing trends were more prevalent during monsoon and post-monsoon months while decreasing trends were noted in pre-monsoon months. Correlation analysis showed strong positive correlations of SWC with rainfall (ρ = 0.70), actual evapotranspiration (ρ = 0.74), and NDVI (ρ = 0.65), but weak or negative correlations with temperature (ρ = 0.12). This study provides valuable insights for policymakers to delineate areas based on soil moisture availability patterns across seasons, aiding in agricultural and water resource planning under changing climatic conditions.

Aim of the study: To develop a method to optimize the pesticide dose considering the combined influence of plant, pest, pesticide, and spray equipment on bioefficacy. Area of study: Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India. Material and methods: A controlled droplet applicator generated droplets from 200 to 50 μm. The target leaf's deposition density of a preset droplet size can be controlled by timing the spray. A sequence of bioassays was performed at various droplet densities at each pesticide (imidachloprid 17.8% SL) dose and droplet size to determine the mortality of cotton aphids (Aphis gossypii) and jassids (Amrasca biguttula) feeding on immature cotton plants. Calculating the number of droplets per target area needed to cause 50% and 90% mortality (LN50 and LN90) yielded a series of model curves. Field tests were done on the computed optimal doses of the pesticide for a spray apparatus (electrostatically charged spray) to assess the spray's bioefficacy against A. gossypii and A. biguttula. Main results: In comparison to uncharged mist blower spray, which had a bioefficacy of 91% for an LN90 dose of 110 g a.i. L-1, the spray had an 89% bioefficacy on A. gossypii. Using the electrostatic spray, it was 91% effective against A. biguttula and 98% effective against an uncharged mist blower at a dose of 110 g a.i. L-1 of LN90. Research highlights: This generalized method of modelling could effectively compute the optimal pesticide dose for any plant, pest, pesticide, and spray equipment combination.

The present investigation evaluated the effect of continuous application (>43 years) of organic and inorganic fertilisers on soil aggregate stability, aggregate size distribution, aggregate-associated carbon and its fractions, and total macro-nutrient content under the soybean–wheat cropping system in vertisols of the semi-arid region. Seven contrasting treatments consisted of T₁ (50% NPK), T₂ (100% NPK), T₃ (150% NPK), T₄ (100% NP), T₅ (100% N), T₆ (100% NPK + FYM) and T₇ Control (crop raised without addition of any nutrient). The highest and lowest percentage of large macroaggregates (11.3%) was found in T₆ and T₇ treatments. The NPK + FYM (T₆) treatments substantially increased the proportion of the macroaggregate fractions (>2 mm and 2–0.25 mm) than other treatments. However, different manure and fertilisation treatments did not affect the proportion of silt + clay aggregates. Long-term application of 100% NPK + FYM increased mean weight diameter (MWD) and stable water aggregates (WSA) by 35.7 and 6.01% over control. The aggregate-associated SOC followed the trend of large macroaggregates > microaggregates > small macroaggregates > silt + clay fractions. Application of long-term manure plus inorganic fertiliser (T₆) has also increased Walkley Black soil organic carbon (WBSC), permanganate oxidisable carbon (KMnO₄-C), soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC), carbon mineralisation (CM), total soil carbon (TSC), total soil N (TSN), total soil phosphorus (TSP) and total soil potassium (STK) by 82.1, 71.6, 182, 42.4, 23.9, 41.6, 117 and 18.4%, respectively, over control (T₇). The lowest metabolic quotient (MetQ) value of 5.13 mg CO₂–C mg⁻¹ MBC h⁻¹ was obtained in the control treatment (T₇). The lowest MetQ was recorded in the integrated application of manure + inorganic fertiliser, i.e., 100% NPK + FYM (T₆). Similarly, microbial quotient (MiQ) was also higher in treatment T₆ (100% NPK + FYM) and lower in T₇ (control). It is concluded that the application of inorganic fertiliser alone is insufficient to maintain soil health and sustainability so, combined application of manure plus inorganic fertilisation is the most important nutrient management practice for long-term soil sustainability because it maintains SOC levels in soils for long periods and ultimately ensures the soil health of soybean–wheat cropping systems in the vertisols of semi-arid regions.

Conventional air-blast sprayer applies chemical at a constant rate without any consideration to canopy characteristics, which results in excessive application of chemicals. The variable rate spraying system allows farmers to tailor the application of chemicals based on the specific requirement of the crop and results in reduced loss of chemical to environment. However, there is a lack of accurate and useful criteria for regulating spray volume according to the canopy characteristics. Therefore, a variable rate sprayer was developed and tested to optimize the spray volume to be applied in relation to canopy volume (i.e. specific spray volume) for pomegranate orchard. The experiments were conducted to optimize specific spray volume in three pomegranate orchards (cv. Bhagwa) of 2, 4 and 8 years old having average canopy volume per tree of 4.70, 7.73 and 9.61 m³, respectively, two spray control parameters i.e. nozzle flow rate (1.6, 2.1, 2.6 L min^− 1) and forward speed (0.43, 0.71, 0.95 m s^− 1) under field standardized conditions. According to the ANOVA results, both the nozzle flow rate and forward speed had a significant effect (p < 0.01) on Spray coverage, Droplet density and Spray deposit. The response surface (RSM) technique was applied to optimize specific spray volume by using Design Expert software. The highest spray coverage, droplet density, and spray deposit were observed at higher nozzle flow rate and at lower forward speed and vice versa. Overall, spray coverage, droplet density and spray deposit were observed to be lower at inner canopy zone than the outer canopy zone. Based on the numerical optimization, specific spray volume was observed in the range of 0.077–0.093 L m^− 3 for spraying 2–8 years old pomegranate orchards for the optimal spraying. Additionally, reduction in spray volume was observed in the range of 50.2–60.1, 37.6–44.7 and 38.1–43.4% for orchard I, orchard II, orchard III, respectively.

"The objective of this paper was to assess the current status of farm machinery manufacturers in Madhya Pradesh along with farm machinery market size, production potential and demand of farm machinery using primary data. To achieve the goal, primary data were collected through pre-tested and wellstructured proforma in 2017-18 adopting post-stratified random sampling technique. The market size of farm machinery manufacturing sector was estimated to be INR 7.56 (±0.21) Billion. There were 53% manufacturers with an annual turnover less than INR 10 Million and only 3 % manufactures had annual turnover more than INR 150 Million. High coefficient of variation for advance tools like vertical milling centre (660%) and CNC (Computer numeric control) machine (358%) indicated non uniform utilization of advance tools which affects the quality of manufactured farm implements. The survey conducted in the study region had manufactures producing around 45 different farm implements for agriculture. Investigation revealed that the production of the implements like rotavator, laser land leveler, reaper, combine harvester, chaff cutter and spray were less than its demand, which prompted the users to import these implements from neighboring States like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab. The study showed that 43 % of the total manufacturers were integrated with Madhya Pradesh Government subsidy scheme. The manufactures of Madhya Pradesh also exported farm implements like reversible Mould Board plough to South Asian country and other developing country"

Electrostatic spraying is an effective way to regulate, transmit, penetrate, and deposit pesticides on both the upper (adaxial) and lower (abaxial) surfaces of plant canopies. The charge-to-mass ratio (CMR) must be accurately measured in order to evaluate the spray-charging system’s performance. In this work, a computerized instrumentation system was created to determine the chargeability of spray droplets. The spray-charging method produced a CMR of 4.5 mC kg⁻¹ at a flow rate of 100 ml min⁻¹ and 1.6 mC kg⁻¹ at 400 ml min⁻¹. In addition, MATLAB-based software was developed to measure several characteristics such as Volume Median Diameter (VMD), Number Median Diameter (NMD), and percent coverage of spray droplets, taking into account the impacts of operational and crop parameters on both charged and uncharged drops. The deposited droplet diameters on the adaxial and abaxial surfaces were 110 microns for charged droplets and 160 microns for uncharged droplets. This technology offers a comprehensive solution for optimizing pesticide application and increasing agricultural yield.