Polythene mulches have been practiced for soil solarisation during winter months in various vegetable crops and have been found superior over other types of mulches, but plastics is create environmental problems. With this in view the present study has be undertaken on clay loam soil at Raipur, Chhattisgarh for Rabi onion. The aim of the experiment was to study the hydraulic performance of existing drip irrigation system under different operating pressure and prepare used plastic based mulching sheet to evaluate their performance in terms of change in micro-climate. In this study eight different types of mulching conditions were considered viz. black plastic mulch (BPM), silver plastic mulch (SPM), used reddish rice bag mulch (RBM), used whitish wheat flour bag mulch (WFBM), used yellowish cement bag mulch (CBM), Paddy straw mulch (PSM), soil mulch (SM) and without mulch (WM) (control) and comparison was done among them in micro-climatic condition. The main micro-climatic parameters like soil temperature, soil moisture content, soil moisture depletion were studied with randomized block designed in three replications. In Hydraulic performances of drip irrigation system were studied for 2.4 l h -1 inline emitters at 1, 1.2 and 1.5 kg cm -2 pressures, discharges from drippers were found to be 1.99 l h -1 , 2.22 l h -1 and 2.33 l h -1 , coefficient of variation 0.061, 0.044 and 0.029 were found and emission uniformity 95.59%, 96.54% and 96.69% were found, respectively. Also, from this study, it was found that during forenoon soil temperature increases with increasing soil depth but in afternoon the trend was vice-versa. The maximum soil moisture content (27.89%) was found under BPM and minimum soil moisture content (21.52%) was found under used WM. Similarly soil moisture depletion was found minimum in BPM (0.31 mm) and maximum under WM (3.08 mm) under all eight types of mulches. The study concludes that the hydraulic performance of drip irrigation system was found good and needs to be operated at 1.2-1.5 kg cm -2 pressure for 2.4 lh -1 inline emitter. At a particular spacing, the emission uniformity, uniformity coefficient and irrigation efficiencies increases when operating pressure is increased but coefficient of variation and emitter flow variation decreases when operating pressure is increased. Mulching roll can be prepared from used plastic bags which are available with the farmers in plenty and can be reused as mulching material satisfactorily by small and marginal farmers.

The engineering properties of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) were determined at moisture content of 11.75% and 12.52% (db). The mean values obtained for length, width and thickness were 5.56 mm and 10.15 mm, 5.05 mm and 8.11 mm, 3.56 mm and 4.22 mm, respectively. The average value for geometric mean diameter, sphericity, bulk density, true density and porosity were 4.64 mm and 7.03 mm, 0.83 and 0.69, 814.62 kg/m3 and 726.34 kg/m3, 1455.44 kg/m3 and 1211.79 kg/m3, 0.44% and 0.40% respectively. The angle of repose mean value was 40.50° and 45.52°. The co-efficient of static friction on three types of structural material were found to be 0.21 and 0.51 (steel), 0.31 and 0.52 (galvanised iron sheet) and 0.26 and 0.4 (wooden).

The study was carried out in VNR Seeds Pvt. Ltd., in village Gomchi near Nandanvan of Raipur district in Chhattisgarh. Different substrates used are 100% cocopeat, 100% peatmoss, Mixture of 50% cocopeat and 50% peat moss and mixture of 60% cocopeat and 40% vermiculite. After 25 days of seed sowing growth of seedlings in tray with 100% cocopeat we found that the average stem width 3.33 mm, stem length 108 mm, leaf width 42.33 mm, and leaf length 56.66 mm. In cocopeat the sturdy plant development is found. In 100% peat moss the result found is average stem width 3 mm, stem length 91.33 mm, leaf width 33 mm and leaf length 53.33 mm and in mixture of 50% cocopeat and 50% peat moss, average stem width is 3.16 mm, stem length 100.33 mm, leaf width 42.33 mm and leaf length is 49.66 mm. In mixture of 60% cocopeat and 40% peatmoss, average stem width is 2 mm, stem length 64 mm, leaf width 35.66 mm and leaf length is 48 mm. These observation shows that growth of seedlings in tray with cocopeat is better in comparison to other substrates, therefore we considered as better growing substrate among all substrates we used.

No abstract