To meet the growing international demand for aromatic rice, this study, conducted at Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya in Cooch Behar, West Bengal, aimed to enhance the yield and quality of the ‘Tulaipanji’ rice cultivar through advanced establishment methods and the use of organic nutrients over two years. The research tested three planting techniques: mechanical transplanting, wet direct seeding (using a drum seeder), and traditional methods, alongside four nutrient management strategies: vermicompost, farmyard manure, a mix of both, and conventional fertilizers. Findings revealed that mechanical transplanting significantly increased yield by over 31.98% and 71.05% compared to traditional methods and wet direct seeding, respectively. Using vermicompost alone as a nutrient source not only boosted yields by 21.31% over conventional fertilizers but also enhanced the rice's nutritional value and cooking quality. Moreover, soils treated with vermicompost showed higher dehydrogenase activity, indicating better soil health. Economically, mechanical transplanting with vermicompost was the most beneficial, yielding the highest net returns and benefit–cost ratios in both years studied. This approach presents a viable model for improving the sustainability of aromatic rice production globally, emphasizing the economic and environmental advantages of adopting mechanical planting techniques and organic fertilization methods.

Conventional rice transplanting methods are laboured exhaustive and involves drudgery. On an average only transplanting operation takes one fourth of the total labour requirement of rice production under traditional system. Shifting of agricultural labourer towards urban areas for better remuneration creates labour shortage during peak time of transplanting. Lower plant density compared to desirable level under traditional transplanting method habitually farmers force to apply higher amounts of agro-input to compensate as result cost of cultivation has increased considerably and eventually get lesser grain yield. Under such circumstances, a cheap and labour redeemable way of rice transplanting without compromising grain yield is the need of the time. The mechanical rice transplanting is an alternative and encouraging choice for ensuring timely transplanting and also contributes to higher grain yield. Mechanical transplanting of rice is profitable over traditional methods and easy to operate. In spite of having superiority over the conventional transplanting, acceptance in the field level is stumpy due to high preliminary investment and dearth of awareness in growing mat type nursery. Divulging technical skill, confirming timely accessibility and boosting custom hiring may be some of the practical solutions for increasing the adoption rate of mechanical transplanting among farmers. This review focused on the positive and negative impact of mechanical transplanting on productivity and profitability of rice production.

A field experiment was conducted during pre- kharif seasons of 2008-09 to study the effect of organics on yield and quality of groundnut ( Arachis hypogaea L.) under terai region of West Bengal. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with 12 treatments and replicated thrice. Results revealed that poultry manure 2.5 t/ha + neem cake 2.5 t/ha + vermicompost 2.5 t/ha + phosphocompost 2.5 t/ha gave 2.08 tonne pod yield/ha, which was 9.47% higher over recommended dose of chemical fertilizer. Combined application of vermicompost 2.5 t/ha + phosphocompost 2.5 t/ha + poultry manure 2.5 t/ha + neem cake 2.5 t/ha brought about significant improvement in N, P and K uptake by groundnut. Application of organic manures resulted in the improvement of soil organic car- bon, available soil N, P and K compared to either recommended dose of fertilizers or control. Among the organic treatments, phosphocompost 5 t/ha recorded highest values of oil (46.7%), crude protein (22.4%), soluble protein (10.5%), total sugar (13.1%), starch (14.8 %), calcium (143.92 mg/100g) and phosphorus (836.6 mg/100g) dur- ing both the years.

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN:2319-7692(Print), ISSN:2319-7706(Online) is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal with reputable academics and experts as members of its Editorial Board. The Current Microbiology aims to publish all the latest and outstanding research articles. Review and letters in all areas of major importance to techniques of microbiology and applied research with publishes high quality of review and research articles on novel aspects of Microbiology including Environmental, Food, Agricultural, Medical, Pharmaceutical, Veterinary, Soil, Water and Biodeterioration.

A field experiment was conducted at Cooch Behar, West Bengal during the Pre-Kharif seasons of 2008 and 2009 in a randomized complete block with twelve treatments to study the effect of organic sources of nutrients on physiological characters, yield attributes and pod yield of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). The results showed that groundnut can be organically produced, provided adequate phosphorus is applied as phosphocompost. The highest yield of groundnut obtained with combination of phosphocompost, poultry manure, neem cake and vermicompost. FYM, vermicompost, neem cake and poultry manure applied alone was not able to adequately supply plant nutrients specially phosphorus and gave low yield of groundnut. Net photosynthesis rate recorded the highest correlation coefficient (0.948) with pod yield of groundnut.

A field experiment was conducted during the winter (rabi) season of 2018 and 2019 at instructional farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, India, to find out a cost-effective method of zinc application for improving productivity and profitability of maize cv. Kaveri 2018 cultivation in randomized block design with 8 treatments and 3 replications. Soil application of 10 kg Zn/ha resulted in significantly tallest plant, maximum leaf-area index (LAI) and dry-matter accumulation. Yield attributes, viz. cob length, cob width, grains/row and grains/cob, were found highest with the application of 10 kg Zn/ha and showed 23.98 and 19.80% yield advantage over the control, which was followed by soil application of 5 kg Zn/ha, seed priming with 2% Zn solution and seed priming with 1% Zn solution + foliar application of 0.5% Zn at tasseling stage.