Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute

About: Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute is a facility organization based out in New Delhi, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Small area estimation. The organization has 454 authors who have published 870 publications receiving 7987 citations.

Disparity in rainfall trend and patterns among different regions: analysis of 158 years’ time series of rainfall dataset across India

Abstract: Rainfall anomaly during crop-growing season can have large impact on the agricultural output of a country, especially like India, where two-thirds of the crop land is rain-fed. In such situation, decreased agricultural production not only challenges food security of the country but directly and immediately hits the livelihood of its farming community. In a vast country like India, rainfall or its anomalies hardly follow a specific pattern, rather it is having high variability in spatial domain. This study focused on the trends of national and regional rainfall anomalies (wetness/dryness) along with their interrelationship using time series data of past 158 years. The significant reducing wetness trend (p < 0.05) over north mountainous India was prominent with an increasing trend over southern peninsular India (p < 0.10). However, long-term annual wetness was increasing over entire peninsular India. The results of change point tests indicate that major abrupt changes occurred between early to mid-twentieth century having regional variations. The regional interrelationship was studied using principal component, hierarchical clustering, and pair-wise difference test, which clearly indicated a significantly different pattern in rainfall anomalies for north east India (p = 0.022), north central India (p = 0.022), and north mountainous India (p = 0.011) from that of the all India. Result of this study affirmed high spatial variability in rainfall anomaly and most importantly established the unalike pattern in trends of regional rainfall vis-a-vis national level, ushering towards paradigm shift in rainfall forecast from country scale to regional scale for pragmatic planning.

Dissipation of chlorpyrifos in two soil environments of semi-arid India.

Abstract: The dissipation of chlorpyrifos (20 EC) at environment-friendly doses in the sandy loam and loamy sand soils of two semi-arid fields and the presence of pesticide residues in the harvested groundnut seeds, were monitored. The movement of chlorpyrifos through soil and its binding in the loamy sand soil was studied using 14C chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos was moderately stable in both loamy sand and sandy loam soils, with half-life of 12.3 and 16.4 days, respectively. With 20 EC treatments the dissipation was slower for standing crop than seed treatment, indicative of the high degradation rates in the bioactive rhizosphere. In soil, 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP) was the principal breakdown product. Presence of 3,5,6-trichloro-2-methoxypyridine (TMP), the secondary metabolite, detected in the rhizospheric samples during this study, has not been reported earlier in field soils. The rapid dissipation of the insecticide from the soil post-application might have resulted from low sorption due to the alkalinity of the soil and its low organic matter content, fast topsoil dissipation possibly by volatilization and photochemical degradation, aided by the low water solubility, limited vertical mobility due to confinement of residues to the upper 15 cm soil layers and microbial mineralization and nucleophilic hydrolysis. Contrary to the reports of relatively greater mobility of its metabolites in temperate soils, TMP and TCP remained confined to the top 15 cm soil. The formation of bound residues (half-life 13.4 days) in the loamy sand soil was little and not "irreversible." A decline in bound residues could be correlated to decreasing TCP concentration. Higher pod yields were obtained from pesticide treated soils in comparison to controls. Post-harvest no pesticide residues were detected in the soils and groundnut seeds.

Recycling of Organic Waste through Four Different Composts for Disease Suppression and Growth Enhancement in Mung Beans

Abstract: Compost is beneficial for agriculture fields in many ways such as soil conditioner, fertilizer, and natural pesticide and above all it helps to manage organic wastes and adds vital humic acids to soil. Four indigenous composts prepared from readily availableorganic wastes viz.vermicompost,banana, NADEP, andCalotropiswere used in the present investigation for growth and disease suppression in mung beans. The composts were amended with Trichoderma viride in the concentration of 0.1 and 0.2% to determine their influence on length and weight of roots and shoots, disease incidence, soil moisture, and soil microflora in plants. The best results were observed in the treatment with T. viride (0.2%), followed by T. viride (0.1%) in vermicompost, while the treatment T. viride (0.1%) with Calotropis compost showed little growth and suppression of disease. All composts enhanced the soil moisture content and microbial populations in amended soil resulting in the reduction of disease incidence. Among T. viride enriched composts, the counts of fungi, bacteria, and actinomycetes were higher in the vermicompost and banana compost-amended soils. Thus, preparing these composts from readily available organic wastes and amending soil with T. viride enriched composts hold a great promise for improving soil fertility and suppressing the soilborne plant pathogens for sustainable agriculture.