Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) is a used for indirect selection of superior breeding animals. MAS depend on identifying association between genetic marker and linked Quantitative traits loci (QTL).The association between marker and QTL depend on distance between marker and target traits. As soon as markers linked to QTL have been identified, they can be used in selection programme. This use of marker in selection is called Marker-Assisted Selection. MAS is beneficial when the traits are difficult and expensive to measure and low heritability and recessive traits. MAS facilitate the exploitation of existing genetic diversity in breeding populations and can be used to improve desirable traits in livestock. Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) is the most widely used application of marker systems in breeding.

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The present study was carried out during 2014-15 in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, which is situated between 31º52’00” to 31º58’00” North latitude and 76º13’00” to 77º44’00” East longitudes.The cumulative chill units hours available for apple crop were calculated by using UTAH model for the period of 1986 to 2015 and a decrease of 6.38 chill units(CU) hours per year was recorded at Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh. Chill units for the last three decades i.e. 1986-1995, 1996-2005 and 2006-2015 also revealed a decreasing trend of the order of 63.79 CU decreased per decade.Monthly accumulation of chill unit hours during the same period for each winter month (November, December, January and February) revealed maximum decrease of 2.186 CU per year was observed for the month of February. Trend analysis of last five years 2011-2015 showed there was a huge decrease of 14.98 chill units per year. Data on apple productivity in Kullu district for last decade (2005-2014) showed a decreasing trend of the order of 0.183 tons/ha /year as per the regression equation y = -0.183x + 5.745. Thus the climatic conditions for apple cultivation in the Kullu district will be becoming unfavorable in the coming years.

Natural farming, popularly known as zero budget natural farming, is an innovative farming approach. It is low input based, climate resilient, and low cost farming system because all the inputs (insect repellents, fungicides, and pesticides) are made up of natural herbs and locally available inputs, thereby reducing the use of artificial fertilizers and industrial pesticides. It is becoming increasingly popular among the smallholder farmers of Himachal Pradesh. Under the natural farming system, 3 to 12 crops are cultivated together on the same area, along with leguminous crops as intercrop in order to ensure that no piece of land is wasted and utilized properly. This article focuses mainly on the different cropping systems of natural farming and comparing the economics of natural farming (NF) with conventional farming (CF) systems. Study shows that farmers adopted five major crop combinations under natural farming system, i.e., vegetables-based cropping system (e.g., tomato + beans + cucumber and cauliflower + pea + radish), vegetables-cereals-based cropping system, and other three more cropping systems discussed in this article. The results indicated that a vegetable-based cropping system has 19.68% more net return in Kharif season and 24.64% more net return in Rabi season as compared to conventional farming vegetable-based monocropping system. NF maximizes land use and reduces the chance of crop yield loss. NF has resulted in increased returns especially in the vegetable cropping system where reduction in cost was 30.73 per cent (kharif) and 11.88 per cent (rabi) across all crop combinations in comparison to CF. It is found in study that NF was cost savings from not using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as higher benefit from intercrops.

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