Journal of Research and Development

Centre of Research for Development

University of Kashmir

Print ISSN: 0972 - 5407 Online ISSN: 0972 - 5407

The study analyses economic parameters and margin- price spread analysis of saffron growers in Pampore vital for enunciating and offering comebacks to the economic and financial problems in research in agricultural sciences in general and business economics in particular. Accordingly, income and production of the growers in relation to the size of land holdings have been analyzed. In the three protuberant saffron growing villages of Pampore namely Letpora, Ledhu and Konibal the primary data was collected which was based on the interview. For the selection of the respondents, Purposive-Stratified-cum-Proportional sampling framework was followed. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the relationship between saffron income and size of landholdings on the one hand and the relationship between saffron production and size of landholdings on another hand. The tabular method and percentage analysis were carried out to examine marketing cost, marketing margin, and price spread. The statistical treatment to the data uncovers the fact that there is a positive relationship between saffron income and the size of land holdings on the one hand and saffron production and the size of land holdings on another hand. Furthermore, we come to know that in all marketing channels except channel III, where firm enjoys the maximum share in consumer’s rupee (15.38%), it is the retailer who enjoys the maximum share in consumer’s rupee.

Temporal and geographical analysis of disasters in Bangladesh was the aim of this study. The collected data showed that, during 1998 to 2017, Bangladesh had experienced various disasters and flood was the most occurring events at that time. The data also showed that, among the disasters which occurred during last twenty years, about 46.26% was flood and flash flood followed by 31.34% was tropical cyclone/storm, 10.44% was landslide, 7.46% was cold wave, 2.98% was tornado and 1.49% was heat wave. Floods mostly occurred in the month of June and July and affect the northern part of this country and most of the flash flood occurred in the month of June and frequently affected the Haor areas. May was the most cyclone occurring month which affected the coastal zone, mangrove area, inshore and offshore. The data again showed that, the June, July and August was the landslide occurring month in Bangladesh and affected the hilly areas of the country. The secondary sources were used for conducting this study.

Singlet oxygen (1O2) photooxygenation of ∆9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (∆9 -THC, 1) afforded products that are intermediates in a proposed pathway for decomposition of 1 to the thermodynamically more stable cannabinol (CBN, 7). Some of these intermediates have previously been detected by GC-MS or were isolated from cannabis; however, their structures were not fully elucidated. Three key intermediates of the suggested mechanism, namely 9,10- epoxy-∆ 6a(10a) -THC (4), (+)-9,10-dihydroxy-∆ 6a(10a) -THC (5) and (-)-10-ethoxy-9-hydroxy- ∆ 6a(10a) -THC (6), and the end product 7 have been purified from the reaction mixture and characterized by spectroscopic analysis (4 and 5 as their acetates). Compound 8 was later purified and identified as its tosylate.

During the study conducted on fresh water fishes of Jammu and Kashmir, a total of 1,249 fishes belonging to 4 genera were examined for the presence of myxozoan parasites. These included native cyprinid fishes belonging to the subfamily schizothoracines commonly called snowtrouts i.e Schizothorax niger, S. esocinus, S. curvifrons, S. richardsonii and an Indian major carps such as Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala and an exotic carp, Cyprinus carpio. Gills were found infected in 140 fishes with 11.20% of infection rate. As many as 12 species of myxozoans representing 2 genera, namely, Myxobolus (11 species), Thelohanellus (01species) were collected and identified. The infection rate was highest in L. rohita (18.62%) followed by 15.27% in Schizothorax curvifrons,13.49% in Schizothorax niger, 12.35% in Cirrhinus mrigala,11.76% in S. richardsonii and 6.28% in S.esocinu

The current paper highlights the role of conventional institutions in the conservation and management of plant diversity in Meghalaya, Northeast India. In the state, conventional institutions have developed an effective way of managing and conserving the plant diversity by classifying their forests into different categories such as, private forests, village forests, sacred forests and reserve/restricted forests. The management practices and use regime in each forest type varies and ranges from a higher degree of protection to low level of protection. These patches of forests are in vogue since times immemorial, are very rich in diversity and contain many primary species due to their antiquity in origin. This management system has helped in conservation of 3128 flowering plants of the state, of which 548 species are endemic and 834 are used in traditional herbalism. These forests are home to about 363 rare and threatened plant species and are possibly the last refuge for those vulnerable species. This system of management has not only helped in conserving the plant diversity, but has also ensured its sustainable use and has been regarded as a source of common good and safety net for the local people. During last few years, the changes in socio-cultural and religious attitude in local communities has led to shrinking of these forests which has put a major challenge to management institutions for the effective conservation of these forests.

Nipah virus, an emerging zoonotic virus that causes severe and often lethal respiratory illness and encephalitis in humans has been in limelight due to the recent outbreak in India in the year 2018. It is a member of the family paramyxoviridae and belongs to genus Henipavirus. It causes a range of illnesses in humans ranging from asymptomatic infection to fatal encephalitis. As this virus has a potential to cause morbidity and mortality in humans and has major economic and public health impacts, the World Organisation for Animal Health has made it a notifiable disease of importance for international trade. The natural hosts of this virus are fruit bats of pteropodidae family. This virus can be transmitted to humans from animals (bats, pigs), and also human to human transmission is reported. Because of its potential to cause a public health emergency and the absence of efficacious drugs and/ or vaccines, it has been added by WHO to the list of blueprint priority diseases.

The present study was aimed to isolate and characterize the selected phosphorus solubilizing bacteria from rhizospheric regions of Apricot and Peach. Apricot and Peach rhizospheric region samples were collected from the different sites of district Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Each sample was enriched in Pikovskayas’s solid medium (pH 7.5 at 30°C for 5 days). Out of 35 isolates, 7 isolates showed highest zone of clearance on Pikovskayas’s medium and were morphologically and biochemically characterized. These 7 isolates belong to genus Bacillus (PSB3, PSB9, PSB13, 14), Pseudomonas (PSB10, PSB11) and Micrococcus (PSB12)

Congenital anomalies are important cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. It can be defined as structural and functional abnormality including metabolic disorders present at birth. It is the major health problem after infection and deficiency disease that cause remarkable proportion of mortality and morbidity in newborns. This hospital based prospective study was conducted for the period of two years from 1st June 2017 to 30 May 2019. During the period of two year there were total of 686 neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for various reasons with the ratio of 1.34: 1 male and female. From the total six hundred eighty six neonates admitted, twenty nine neonates had congenital anomalies with percentage of 4.22%. The distribution of congenital anomalies include congenital anencephaly, clubfoot, multiple congenital anomalies, congenital heart disease, multiply bone deformities, cleft lip with or without cleft palate, metabolic disorder, Pierre robin syndrome. In this study, it was observed that female babies were more affected by congenital anomalies than male infants. The three most common types of anomalies detected in the study were cleft lip with or without cleft palate (27%), clubfoot (17%) and anencephaly (13%)

Potassium (K) is the third important plant nutrient after nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P). It helps in growth and metabolism of plants. The proportion of soluble potassium in soil is generally low and more than 90% of potassium in soil is available in insoluble rocks and silicate minerals. Rhizospheric microorganism especially bacteria are having potential to solubilize insoluble form of potassium minerals into soluble form, that plants can easily uptake. Potassium availability in soil is about 90-98%, but whole portion is in unavailable mineral form this deficiency leads to unhealthy development of plants. Application of chemical fertilizers also causes severe damage to soil microflora and on totality soil health and crop yield. Utilization of microorganisms e.g., bacteria as bio-solubilizers of potassium is best alternative to overcome all commencing problems. With the application of biofertilizers soil health, crop yield, mineral solubilzation and their availability to plants will get enhanced. Different bacterial species are known to solubilize fixed form of potassium, there bioformulation not only makes potassium available to plants but also maintains soil health, crop yield and soil structure. Application of potassium solubilizing bacteria to agriculture crops will help in avoidance of chemical fertilizers that are highly hazardous to environment. This review provides an overview of potassium solubilizing microorganism and there utilization as biofertilizers, a concept of alternative technology to chemical fertilizers. Keywords: Potassium, microflora, solibilizers, biofertilizers

Wood specific gravity, which is a way of expressing how much wood substance is present per unit volume, is the most important within species wood characteristic because knowledge about it allows the prediction of a greater number of properties than any other trait. Some wood properties that are closely related to wood specific gravity are: strength, dimensional stability with moisture content change, ability to retain paint, fibre yield per unit volume, suitability for making particleboard and related wood composite materials and suitability as a raw material for making paper. This work throws light on the variation of wood specific gravity within and among trees.

Conservation of wildlife species and their habitats is crucial in the present scenario of global climate change. Efficient management plays a key role towards achieving this goal provided it is based on reliable ecological information. Baltal-Thajwas Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) located in the Kashmir Himalaya represents one such wildlife habitat where proper management plan was not yet designed. Here we present a preliminary scientific report on the wild fauna, livestock and its threats in the area. Our results validate the ecological significance of the area in terms of its faunal assemblage and biogeography, but also highlight certain issues like livestock grazing and depredation, presence of permanent yatri camps, and nomadic human settlements. We therefore recommend long-term research and monitoring in the area supported by efficient protection, conservation, and management of this unique landscape