A study was conducted covering eight development blocks of Sivasagar district to know the major constraints perceived by small scale pig farmers. Fifteen numbers of farmers from each block, thus, a total of one hundred twenty numbers of farmers were selected randomly on the basis of their experience in pig farming. Among the breeding factors, the highest mean score (68.98) was found in case of non-availability of improved breed and was ranked first. It was revealed that lack of knowledge of feeding balanced ration was the most important constraints with a mean score of 74.21 and was ranked first among feeding factors. The higher mortality of pig due to unidentified contagious diseases was the most serious constraints faced by the small scale pig farmers with a mean score of 67.33. Another important constraints faced by the farmers was lack of organized marketing facility with a mean score of 73.63. The social unacceptance of pig farmers (57.29) was also one of the major constraints faced by the pig farmers.

No abstract

The plant-parasitic nematodes are dominant species in the nematode world and it comprises of 4100 species of plant-parasitic nematode (PPN) (J3wqones et al., 2013). Among them, the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita attack not only more than two thousands of plant species but they also caused five per cent of global crop loss (Hussey and Janssen, 2002). These microscopic species are the hidden enemy of farmers and may not cause considerable crop loss or symptom development as other pests

An experiment was conducted to study the nematicidal toxicity of native antagonists against Meloidogyne incognita. For this the native antagonists viz., Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus megaterium, Azotobacter sp., Rhizobium sp., Purpureocillium lilacinum and Pochonia chlamydosporia were screened against Meloidogyne incognita under in-vitro conditions. For this, four different concentrations of culture filtrates viz., 25, 50, 75 100 percent were tested against M. incognita through egg hatch inhibition and second-stage juvenile's mortality at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hrs of exposure time for each antagonist. The entire antagonists were also found to be effective in causing mortality of J 2 with varying degrees at different concentrations of culture filtrates and at different exposure time. The relationship among the antagonists, concentration and time showed that all the tested antagonists were able to cause significant mortality of M. incognita J 2 with increase in the concentrations of filtrates and time of exposure. The result of in-vitro test reveals that all the tested antagonists showed varied nature of egg hatch inhibition and juvenile mortality of M. incognita. However, among the tested antagonists P. fluorescens was found to be most effective in causing the highest egg hatch inhibition and J 2 mortality of M. incognita in 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent concentration of culture filtrates at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hrs of exposure time. Further, probit analysis showed that culture filtrate of P. fluorescens exhibit either low LC 50 values or less LT 50 values against J 2 of M. incognita in 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent concentration of culture filtrates at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hrs of exposure time as compared to the others antagonists and found to be best native antagonists against M. incognita.

Pulses are the important sources of proteins, vitamins, minerals and are popularly known as -Poor man's meat‖ and -rich man's vegetable‖, contribute significantly to the nutritional security of the country. In pulse crops, black gram or urdbean (Vigna mungo L.) is one of the most important pulse crops belonging to the family Leguminosae and subfamily papilionaceae. This crop is grown in cropping systems as a mixed crop, catch crop, sequential crop besides growing as sole crop under residual moisture conditions after the harvest of another summer crop. Its seeds are highly nutritious with protein (25-26%), carbohydrates (60%), Fat (1.5%), minerals, amino acid and vitamins. Seeds are used in the preparation of many popular dishes like dosa, idli, vada etc. In India, the production of