Standard unit operations/equipment have not evolved for the traditional rice varieties of the Cauvery Deltaic region of Tamil Nadu. The fame of traditional rice is increasing nowadays owing to its health benefits. Non-standard unit operations may cause rice grains to crack during milling, accumulating more broken rice and yields in products of inferior quality. As a result, research into the physical properties of rice is crucial for the development of rice processing equipment that minimizes post-harvest losses during milling. Hence, an assessment was made to evaluate 30 traditional rice cultivars on their Physical (grain length, width, thickness, shape, and size), gravimetric (bulk, true, tapped density, porosity, Carr’s index, and Hausner ratio), and engineering characteristics (equivalent, arithmetic, square mean, and geometric mean diameter) using standard protocols, with the goal of reviving and preserving older varieties. The results from the analysis showed significant variations (p < 0.05) between all properties that were evaluated. According to length, a substantial amount of traditional rice varieties were long grain (76.7%), whereas (16.7%) belonged to the medium type and (3.3%) were short-grain types, respectively. There were variations among the three different categories of local rice grains when it comes to size, ranging from 3.26 to 4.69 mm for arithmetic mean diameter, 2.84 to 4.00 mm for geometric mean diameter, and 3.02 to 4.28 mm for square mean diameter, respectively. Sphericity, aspect ratio, and surface area measurements of the samples varied from 37.7% to 81.2%, 0.26 to 1.00, and 25.4 to 50.1 mm², respectively. Of the 30 varieties, 28 were under the high amylose category, and 2 belonged to the intermediate type. The Pearson correlation was established to study the interrelationships between the dimensions and engineering properties. Principal component analysis (PCA) reduced the dimensionality of 540 data into five principal components (PC), which explained 95.7% of the total variance. These findings suggest that it is possible to revive old landraces through careful selection and analysis of these properties. The superior characteristics of these traditional varieties can be further evaluated for breeding programs in order to improve the cultivation of these cherished rice landraces to enhance nutritional security.

Studies were taken up to estimate the morpho-physiological changes in cowpea due to a multiaction bioinoculants (TagTeam) as seed treatment. Seed treatment with TagTeam @ 8.1g/kg showed significant increase in plant height, root length and number of nodules as compared to control. Physiological parameters such as leaf area, total dry matter accumulation, photosynthetic rate and chlorophyll index were also found higher in seed treatment with TagTeam @ 8.1g/kg. Co-inocultion of Rhizobium and Penicillium (TagTeam) @ 8.1g/kg enhanced the uptake of NPK in cowpea. Available NPK was found non significant with initial soil sample and found maximum with control and lower content in TagTeam seed treatment @ 8.1g/kg. Seed treatment with TagTeam @ 8.1g/kg increased the yield by 13.36 per cent over control and improved yield components and seed protein content in cowpea.

Soybean is a vital global legume crop, yet its productivity is often constrained by nutrient limitations, suboptimal physiological efficiency, and limited access to growth-enhancing technologies. Although plant growth regulators (PGRs) and nutrients individually improve growth, their combined effects on soybean physiology and yield remain poorly understood. Hence, there is a critical need to evaluate integrated PGR–nutrient strategies to enhance soybean productivity and sustainability under field conditions. This study evaluated the synergistic effects of foliar-applied plant growth regulators (PGRs) viz., Gibberellic acid (GA₃) and melatonin, and/or combined with a micronutrient-enriched spray (DAP, MnSO₄, FeSO₄, and ammonium molybdate) on soybean performance under field conditions in Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during Kharif season of 2023. Six foliar treatments including control, nutrients, GA₃, nutrients with GA₃, melatonin, and nutrients with melatonin were applied at 30 and 40 DAS and evaluated in a randomized block design to assess growth, photosynthetic efficiency, biochemical traits, and yield components. The combined application of melatonin and nutrients (T6) significantly enhanced plant height, leaf area, chlorophyll content, nitrate reductase activity, and seed yield per plant (19.6 g), outperforming the other treatments. Melatonin alone (T5) yielded the highest seed protein content (37.58 mg/g), thereby highlighting its role in nutritional enhancement. The results demonstrate that integrating PGRs with nutrient optimize soybean metabolism, reproductive success, and seed quality offering a scalable strategy for sustainable legume intensification.

Backgroud: Pigeon pea, being a rainfed crop, suffers water scarcity to a greater extent. The reduction in yield is due to a reduction in photosynthetic rate and the source-sink relationship. The reduction in photosynthesis occurs due to enzyme degradation and also antioxidant production reduction. Methods: Thus, screening of pigeon pea genotypes (18no.) based on the accumulation of proteins, enzymes and antioxidants will be easy to identify drought tolerant species and susceptible species. Result: Among 18 genotypes selected for screening, COPH 2, ICPL12755 and ICPL12974 genotypes are high in proline, epicuticular wax, scavenging enzymes like peroxidase and catalase especially during drought condition than control. The same genotypes were proved with remarkable increase in yields. There are few varieties that show lower amounts of the enzymes along with lesser yield such as CO5, ICPL4777 and ICPL6997. This shows that antioxidant activity and proteins are directly involved in improving yield along with tolerance towards drought condition.

Agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy consumption due to the intensive use of synthetic chemicals, posing serious threats to the environment, soil and human well-being. This issue is particularly important in tomato-growing regions of Tamil Nadu, where high-input farming practices are widely adopted. Therefore, identifying a sustainable nutrient management strategy is essential for developing climate-resilient and resource-efficient systems in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2, SDG 7, SDG 12 and SDG 13). A field study was conducted in a tomato–green gram cropping system to evaluate four nutrient management (NM) regimes, namely Integrated (INM), Conventional (CNM), Organic (ONM) and Farmers’ Practice (FNM). The results indicated that the ONM system recorded the highest system productivity (26.4 t ha⁻¹), energy output (200,110 MJ ha⁻¹), energy productivity (0.99 kg MJ⁻¹), energy profitability (8.94), non-renewable energy use efficiency (18.8) and benefit–cost ratio (4.28), while INM is associated with relatively higher nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions. The major contributor to total energy was fertilizers (38.7%). The INM and CNM systems had the highest carbon footprint (0.10 kg CO₂e per kg) while the ONM system had the lowest. The ONM system had considerably increased eco-efficiency in terms of energy use (INR 20.1 MJ⁻¹ and INR 226 per kg CO₂e) over other regimes. Furthermore, ONM improved the carbon efficiency (80%) and carbon sustainability index (94%) compared to INM. Overall, the findings demonstrate that ONM is a viable, eco-efficient and climate-smart practice that enhances productivity and profitability, improves energy efficiency, and reduces the carbon footprint in vegetable–legume systems.