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Background: Pulses are nutritious edible seeds of leguminous plants, have become an essential part of the human diet. Among the pulses, blackgram (Vigna mungo L.) is an important legume crop cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Even though there are so many factors responsible for the lower yield of blackgram, weeds play a major role. Sulfentrazone is a broad spectrum herbicide belongs to the family of phenyl triazolinone. Sulfentrazone has high persistence and mobility with mean partition coefficient Koc = 43 and sorption coefficient Kd less than 1 and also has high horizontal and vertical leaching potential. Even though generally used herbicides in blackgram like pendimethalin, imazethapyr and quizalofop-ethyl are helpful in managing weeds, they have to apply multiple times or have to integrate with other methods of weed management which is expensive. So as to reduce the usage of multiple herbicides, to avoid manual weeding and to achieve season long weed control without affecting the environment the nano-encapsulated sulfentrazone is the better alternative and it gives better solution for the above constraints besides increasing the productivity.Methods: Laboratory and field experiments were conducted in the Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore during 2019-2020. Laboratory experiment was conducted to prepare nano-encapsulated sulfentrazone herbicide using solvent evaporation method. Screening trial was conducted in field with 17 treatments in randomized block design. Main trial was conducted with nine treatments of randomized block design by selecting the best performing treatments in screening trial. A confirmatory trial was also conducted by using same treatments.Result: The encapsulated sulfentrazone particles were characterized in SEM (Scanning electron microscope) and also analysed with EDAX (Energy dispersive X-ray analysis) for elemental analysis, which is followed by particle size analysis and zeta potential to know the size and stability respectively. All these tests concluded that the sulfentrazone particles were encapsulated correctly and might be useful for slow release of the particle and also for reducing vertical and horizontal leachability. The field trials revealed that sulfentrazone @ 0.30 kg a.i. ha-1 with encapsulation applied at 1 DBS is better alternative for the season long weed management in blackgram without affecting the soil and ground water, as well as increasing the productivity.

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is caused by SARS-CoV2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2). It primarily targets lung epithelial cells of human respiratory system. The original strain of coronavirus was first identified at the end of December 2019 and emerged during an outbreak in Wuhan, China. The SARS-CoV-2 infection is mostly seen in the people with weak immune system. There are different ex-situ approaches to prevent the infection of corona virus viz., use of masks, sanitizing body and surfaces and maintaining social distance. But apart from them, in-situ prevention approaches like inclusion of nutrient rich healthy foods and herbs in daily diet helps to protect the body from inside by strengthening immune system. Thus, to strengthen immune system from inside we need to take immunity boosters, apart from normal healthy diet. These immunity boosters are prepared from leaves, roots, stems, flowers, barks and some other parts of medicinal and spice crops. These contain a mixture of proteins and other organic chemicals and carbohydrates, which include alkaloids, flavoids, glycosides, saponins, and terpenes. Kabasura kudineer, Nilavembu kudineer, Immuplus, Echinacea liquid, Immusarc, Septilin and immunity plus are some of the important immunotonics to strengthen and to protect body from infections and safeguard health. In this context we have to supplement our body with these immunity boosters to fight against not only COVID-19 but also other diseases.

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An analytical study was made in the Department of Agronomy, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore. The study was conducted for finding the identification of potential district of maize in Tamil Nadu based on the area, production, productivity data collected from 1998-1999 to 2015-2016. Based on the data relative spread index (RSI) and relative yield index (RYI) were calculated. The results showed that among 32 districts of Tamil Nadu five districts such as Ariyalur, Coimbatore, Erode, Theni, Tiruppur are very potential districts for cultivating the maize crop. From the analysis, parameters like RYI and RSI are high and these are potential districts and some districts are having RSI more but RYI less which indicates that non-suitability of the crop to that area.