The Nilgiri mountain range in south India is an unique ecosystem and of considerable importance to anthropologists, geologists, climatologists, botanists as well as tourists. After the 19 th century the Nilgiris and its popular hill stations emerged as favourite places for rest and recuperation, game and for raising commercial plantations. Land cover refers to the natural vegetative cover types of particular region. Land use is the term that is used to describe human uses of the land or converting natural land cover for agriculture or settlement. The assessment of changes of land use pattern is necessary for estimating the land degradation rate and planning for sustainable land use. In this study the remote sensing data for land cover and land use of Nilgiris district is utilized for assessing the dynamics of land use and classification as use, misuse and abuse of land use pattern for the past decade and it was observed that there is a considerable increase in the built up area and decrease in forest cover in the recent years. The fallow land cover also increased concluding that the abuse (built up) and misuse of the land (fallow land) is in an increasing rate compared to proper usage of land (forest and agriculture).

This study aimed to optimize irrigation scheduling for maize (Zea mays L.) using the crop water stress index (CWSI) to improve water use efficiency and yield. The study was conducted in the South farm of the School of Agricultural Sciences, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore during the Kharif and Rabi seasons of 2022. A randomized block design was used with seven treatments, including a control T1 no irrigation). Irrigation at all critical stages (T2) and other five irrigation treatments (T3 to T7) based on different CWSI values ranging from 0.2 to 1.0. Infrared thermometry was used to measure canopy temperatures for estimating the CWSI. The results showed that irrigation at 0.2 CWSI (T3) had a significant positive effect on kernel and stover yield when compared with all the other treatments during both the seasons, with the highest kernel yield of 7138.83 Kg ha-1 and 8014.8 Kg ha-1, stover yield of 11134 Kg ha-1 and 12765 Kg                 ha-1, respectively and lowest kernel yield of 2267 Kg ha-1 and 2325 Kg ha-1, stover yield of 8156 Kg ha-1 and 6491 Kg ha-1, respectively. The other treatments had intermediate values and did not show any consistent pattern. Irrigation at 0.2 CWSI resulted in the highest water use efficiency (WUE) of 14.7 Kg ha-cm-1 and 17.6 Kg ha-cm-1, and irrigation usage of 31.73% and 22.26% during the Kharif and Rabi seasons of 2022, respectively and the lowest water use efficiency (WUE) of 7.72 Kg ha-cm-1 and 17.6 Kg ha-cm-1 was found in T7 during the Kharif and Rabi seasons of 2022, respectively. The results suggest that irrigation at 0.2 CWSI could be a promising option for achieving higher kernel and stover yields with minimal water use and maximum WUE and IUE.

Background: Soil nutrients are the major source of plant nutrition that helps for the plant growth. Soil resource is currently facing threats due to various soil nutrients deficiency. Assessing the spatial variability of soil nutrients quality is necessary for agriculture. Quickly and efficiently monitoring soil nutritional status using remote sensing technology is of great significance for farmland soil productivity, food security and sustainable agricultural development. Methods: The present study focuses on spatial variability of soil quality. Current research has been conducted to estimate and map soil nutrient contents in large areas using GIS technology and other related maps were prepared from remote sensing data in ArcGIS 10.1. 288 soil samples were collected for the study from different Blocks of the Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu. The Organic carbon, N, P, K, pH and EC status of the soil were analysed and reported. Result: The organic carbon status of the soil is very low in most of the parts of Coimbatore and the pH status is slightly alkaline. The primary nutrients N, P and K were found to be low and found to have micronutrient imbalance which is highly influenced by the changes in pH.