The study is of great relevance with present day pandemic era where mushrooms have immunity enhancing properties and they convert agro-wastes into protein rich food. India is having a youth population of about 750 million and mushroom cultivation has good potential to contribute in national income as well as enhanced immunity. The key aspects undertaken during research were the spawn production, cultivation methodology, and the suitability of various factors affecting the production and yield attributes of Pleurotus eryngii under ambient conditions in subtropical areas. Study includes yield enhancing substrate, sterilization method, spawn and substrate quantity in the growing of King Oyster i.e. Pleurotus eryngii in subtropical zones. Paddy straw was found to be the best substrate giving the highest biological efficiency and producing maximum number of fruiting bodies which is otherwise burnt by farmers in India and it is a major cause of air pollution. Whereas, maize straw showed fastest spawn run and pin head emergence out of six tested substrates and supplements. But, due to the unavailability of paddy straw in this region, the other straws resulting in optimum yields are to be recommended. Chemical steeping of substrate with chlorine water at 0.4% + carbendazim at 2% + dichlorovos at 0.1% of water used for soaking showed best results in terms of biological efficiency whereas, water and aerated steam treatment of substrate at 85 °C-90°C for about 60–90 min supported the results in leaching of nutrients and thus, biological efficiency gets lower. Out of four spawn rates used, spawn rate of 5% was found significantly best resulting in maximum biological efficiency, fastest mycelial run, primordial initiation and highest average fruit body weight. All the experiments were found statistically significant except the experiment that was performed for evaluating the optimum quantity of substrate for bag preparation. There was not much difference in the obtained yields with respect to increase in the amounts of substrate. So, growing this mushroom from the obtained best results will result in better production with higher income even for the marginal farmers in subtropical zones of world.

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Fipronil is a phenyl pyrazole insecticide, which is used as broad spectrum insecticide to control pest such as diamondback moth, thrips, stem borers, leaf folder, termites, borers, jassids, and bollworms.  A study was undertaken at Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute, Durgapura, Jaipur during Rabi, 2020 to find out the persistence of fipronil  residues in the soil of cabbage field, when sprayed at its recommended dose (5%  SC, 40 g. a. i. ha-1) and double of the recommended dose (5%  SC, 80 g. a. i. ha-1). The samples were extracted with acetonitrile and cleaned up using a modified QuEChERS method and the residues were analyzed by Gas Chromatography. The residue level of fipronil  in cabbage field soil collected at harvest time of cabbage crop were below the detectable level (BDL) at the recommended dose and double of the recommended dose, respectively.

The aim behind this experiment was to know the suitability of months that gives better Biological efficiency and its sustainability with respect to yield. This research work was accomplished at the project of AICRP on medicinal mushroom unit in Department of Plant Pathology, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur during the months of November to April in the natural climatic conditions, where the temperature and the relative humidity of cropping room ranged between 9-24°C and 60-80%, respectively. This work tells you about the best time for spawning to standardize the cultivation technology of Pleurotus eryngii in Zone IV a (Udaipur region) as well as in Rajasthan. Out of four different months (November, December, January and February) tested for spawning, the fastest mycelial run and pinhead initiation occurred in December and January months whereas, maximum B.E.% was observed in the month of December followed by November. Hence, it clearly indicates that the best suited time for cultivating King Oyster (Pleurotus eryngii) Mushroom is during winter months of the year.

The present study was on management of Alternaria leaf spot caused by Alternaria alternata in Asalio. The disease was found to be very severe in all Asalio growing areas causing heavy destruction. The main aim of this investigation was to find out effect of age of the host, inoculum density in Alternaria leaf spot disease development and molecular identification of pathogen. The result shows that the susceptibility in Asalio increased with increase in age on inoculatios of A. alternata. Maximum disease was obtained in the plants ageing 40 DAS with PDI 55.60 per cent. Among the variously examined levels of inoculum concentrations. The two lower concentrations 1 × 101 and 1 × 102 conidia ml-1 exhibited significant difference in the PDI (20.00 and 31.20 respectively) within each other. 1 × 103 and 1 × 104 conidia ml-1 inoculum levels were found to be significantly at par to each other with PDI (39.20 and 40.80 respectively). 1 × 103 conidia ml-1 inoculum concentration was optimum for causing highest level of disease. After inoculation of inoculum 1 × 103 conidia ml-1, typical leaf spot symptoms were observed on the leaves of Asalio plants. Disease severity according to the scale was 39.20%. For molecular identification, 650 bp internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions (ITS1, 5.8s and ITS2) were amplified through polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The nucleotide sequences from ITS regions of the isolates were submitted to NCBI with GenBank accession numbers MA585375.