A field experiment was conducted during 2012-2013 at farmer's field of Jorhat district to investigate the effect of different organic nutrients on growth, yield and economics of turmeric cultivation. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with four treatments and five replications. Application of different combinations of organic manure, vermicompost and neemcake influenced the growth and yield of turmeric variety Megha Turmeric-1. The results revealed that the combined applications of FYM + vermicompost + neemcake i.e. T 4 increased plant height, number of fingers, girth of rhizome, weight of rhizome and rhizome yield. While minimum of these were observed in the absolute control i.e. T 1. Highest rhizome yield (20.48 t ha-1) with maximum benefit-cost ratio (3.6) was obtained in the treatment combination T 4 and the lowest yield (12.50 t ha-1) was obtained in the treatment T 1 with minimum benefit-cost ratio (3.1).

: A field experiment was conducted at farmer's field during Rabi season of 2011-12 in Jorhat district to study the effect of different combinations of organic sources of nutrients viz., vermicompost, FYM, rock phosphate along with bio-fertilizer on different growth parameters, yield and profitability of French bean cultivar Arka Anoop. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with four treatments and five replications. In this investigation, the results revealed that application of vermicompost + FYM + Rhizobium + rock phosphate (T 2 ) significantly increased the germination percentage (87%), growth parameters and yield of the crop viz., plant height (37.50 cm after 60 days of sowing), number of branches plant -1 (6.48 after 60 days of sowing), green pod length (12.16 cm), green pod number plant -1 (20), green pod weight (300.05 g plant -1 ), dry weight of plant (18.74 g), number of seeds pod -1 (6.08) than the remaining three treatments. There was no significant difference in days to 50 per cent flowering among different treatments. However, nodulation was maximum in the treatment T 4 (41.88) and minimum in T 1 (38.20) . Nodules plant -1 in the treatment combinations T 2 and T 3 were at par. Highest yield (14 t ha -1 ) with maximum benefit : cost ratio (3.35:1) was obtained in the treatment combination T 2 and the lowest (7.00 t ha -1 ) was obtained in the treatment T 1 with minimum benefit : cost ratio (2.50:1). Though the yield was higher in the treatment T 3 than T 4 , yet the benefit : cost ratio was more in the treatment T 4 . It may be due to high cost of vermicompost than FYM.KEY WORDS : Vermicompost, FYM, Rhizobium, Growth, Yield, French bean HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE : Sarma, I., Phukon, M., Borgohain, R., Goswami, J. and Neog, M. (2014). Response of french bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to organic manure, vermicompost and bio-fertilizers on growth parameters and yield. Asian J. Hort., 9(2) : 386-389.

A field experiment was conducted at farmer's field under on farm trial during 2011-12, in Jorhat district of Assam, to study the impact of post shooting application of urea and sulphate of potash on the improvement of bunch weight of banana cultivar Borjahaji. The denavelled distal stalk end of the bunch was fed with urea, sulphate of potash blended with fresh cowdung soon after the fruit set. The results showed that when the bunch was fed with urea (7.5g), sulphate of potash (7.5g) blended with 500 g fresh cowdung (T 4) all the yield attributing characters viz., length of fingers, weight of fingers of first hand, weight of fingers of last hand, girth of fingers, weight of first hand, weight of last hand and bunch weight were maximum as compared to denavelling and application of cowdung only (T 2) and application of urea and cowdung at denavelled distal stalk end (T 3). The minimum of all these characters and bunch weight were obtained in control(T 1) where male bud was retained till harvest. The results revealed that the nutrients moved from the blend into the bunch and significantly enhanced the weight of fruits and bunch. When the bunch was fed with urea 7.5 g, sulphate of potash 7.5 g blended with cowdung 500 g (T 4) the response was 34.77 per cent, 11 per cent and 5.9 per cent increase in weight of bunch over the treatments T 1 , T 2 and T 3 , respectively.

District level rice yield forecast models were developed for 13 districts of the Brahmaputra valley of Assam using yield data and weekly weather data during 1990-2012 at vegetative (F1) and mid-season (F2) stages of rice crop through modified Hendrick and Scholl technique. The models were validated using independent data set of three years (2013-15). Stepwise regression technique was used for fitting the model and decided best by highest R2 and lowest percent error. The coefficient of determination (R2) ranged from 0.32 (Jorhat) to 0.88 (Kamrup) in F1 stage and 0.29 (Sonitpur) to 0.92 (Kamrup) in F2 forecast. In general, F2 forecast models were found comparatively better in forecasting rice yields than F1 models. Inclusion of BSSH along with temperature (maximum and minimum), rainfall and relative humidity (morning and afternoon) increased the accuracy of the yield forecast models, compared to the model developed without BSSH. Maximum temperature and relative humidity were the major weather parameters in determining rice yields in most of the districts located in central and upper part of the valley. On the other hand, rainfall in combination with maximum temperature and relative humidity were found relatively more important in the districts located in the lower part of the Brahmaputra valley.