Bhagalpur to study the effect of biofertilizers on growth, yield and economics of rice. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three treatments and ten replications. Rice crop was significantly higher value of plant height, number of tillers, number of grain per panicle, test weight (g), grain and straw yield (qha-1), benefit cost ratio. Maximum grain yield 65 qha-1 was recorded with 150 kg N + 60 kg P 2 O 5 + 40 kg K 2 O with Azotobactor + PSB @ 5kg ha-1. There was significant improvement in yield attributes and economics of rice due to application of NPK @ 150+60+40+ Azotobactor and PSB 5 kg ha-1 .

: India is bestowed with a wide range of soil and agro-climatic conditions. Therefore, almost all types of fruit can be grown in one or the other parts of the country. China is the largest producer of fruits followed by India which now accounts for about 10 per cent of world production. Passion fruit belongs to the family Passifloracea, distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. There is need to improve and standardize the nutrient doses by which we increase the production of this fruit. Keeping with these views, the experiment was conducted in the experimental farm, Department of Horticulture, BAU, Ranchi. This experiment consisted of ten treatments including control. The treatments were NPK (300: 150:150 g/vine), NPK (250: 125:125 g/vine), boron 1.2 g/vine, sulphur 24 g/vine, the next four treatments were combination of NPK with boron and sulphur, and two controls. Thus, there were ten treatments, replicated thrice in Randomized Block Design. In all the treatments 2 kg of vermicompost and 0.5 kg of lime were applied as basal dose except absolute control. All the treatments exhibited better results over untreated control and absolute control. Highest yield (56.65 q/ha) was obtained by NPK (250: 125:125 g/vine) + boron 1.2 g/vine which was at par with, NPK (300: 150:150 g/vine) + boron 1.2 g/vine (49.15 q/ha) and NPK (250: 125:125 g/vine) + sulphur 24 g/vine (52.48 q/ha). Thus, NPK (250: 125:125 g/ vine ) + boron 1.2 g/vine appeared to be the best treatment in vegetative character, reproductive characters, fruit characters and yield followed by NPK (250:125:125 g/ vine) + sulphur 24 g/vine.

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Aims: To design a mechanical transplanting mechanism for tissue culture banana plantlets, physical and mechanical properties such as mass, height of plantlet, pseudostem height from tray to first leaf, pseudostem diameter between root plug and first leaf, root plug dimension, moisture content of root plug, pulling force and compression resistance are needed. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, AEC&RI, Kumulur, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, AEC&RI, Coimbatore and Post-Harvest Technology Centre, Coimbatore between August 2019 to December 2019. Methodology: For three local varieties used by the farmers to culivate tissue culture banana namely ‘Grand Naine-G9’ (AAA), ‘Red Banana’ (AAA) and ‘Nendran’ (BAA), physical and mechanical properties were studied. Results: ‘G9’, ‘Red Banana’ and ‘Nendran’ were 120.5±12.3, 117.2± 9.0 and 113.5±9.0 g mass and 379.3±21.72, 360±26.23, 467.6±13.06 mm height, pseudostem diameter near root plug was observed as 10.7 ± 1.0, 10.2 ± 0.8 and 10.9 ± 1.4 mm respectively. The height of pseudostem till the first leaf was minimum for ‘Red’ variety (37.1±4.3 mm), maximum for ‘Nendran’ (102.1±2.3 mm). The pulling force for three varieties were observed as 4.96±2, 4.97±1.1 and 5.05±1.6 N with little difference in-between them. The minimum compressive resistance offered by the three varieties are 47.16 ± 3.08, 46.42 ± 5.43 and 38.55 ± 1.86 N near the base and 44.07 ± 2.55, 37.89 ± 6.6 and 32.36 ± 1.58 N at 25 mm above root plug for ‘G9’, ‘Red’ and ‘Nendran’ respectively. Conclusion: The maximum plantlet weight was observed as 132.8 mm for ‘G9’ variety and plantlet height as 480 mm for ‘Nendran’ variety. The minimum height of pseudostem till the first leaf was 31 mm for ‘Red’ variety and picking gripper height should be less than 30 mm. The minimum pulling force should be 7 N to remove the plantlet from the pro-tray and force applied by the gripper to hold the plantlet on pseudostem shouldn’t exceed 30 N.

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