<div style="text-align:justify">Humans around the world suffer from micronutrient deficiency due to an inadequate intake of essential micronutrients in the daily diet. Agronomic biofortification offers the easiest and the quickest way for biofortification of cereal grains with zinc, iron or other micro mineral nutrients in developing countries especially Asia and Africa, where cereals form the staples. It is the only approach to reach the poorest of the poor rural masses, who can&rsquo;t afford to buy mineral supplements nor can afford animal by-products. From the agronomic biofortification viewpoint, foliar application is better and requires lesser amount of zinc and iron fertilizers than their soil application. Even when cultivars or GM crops with higher zinc and iron content in grains are developed, adequate zinc and iron fertilization will be necessary. Thus, for the long term, agronomic biofortification is a complimentary approach to plant breeding as well as modern biotechnology for increased micronutrients in the food basket.</div>

Agronomic biofortification of major cereals with zinc and iron- A review

<div>Pulses are an important protein source for vegetarian people across the world and they have a great potential to improve the human health, contribute to global food and nutritional security. Variety of pulses were grown in India with 25% of global production and 27% of global consumption. Though India is the largest pulses producer in the world, it imports around 3.5 million tons annually to meet the ever-increasing requirement. Less adoption of improved Agro techniques, low fertile soils and unpredictable environment conditions are major factor for low production of pulses. As a results of increasing population, the projected pulses requirement will be 32 million tons by 2030 which necessitate annual growth rate of 4.2%. With adoption of suitable agronomic strategies, the productivity has to be enhanced to meet the demand. This review work was done at Department of Agronomy, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Collected review and research papers were screened from various data base like TNAU e library, ARCC journals, google scholar, research gate and scopus used to write this paper. This review article documented information gathered on importance of pulses, area, production and productivity of pulses. Nipping is important agronomic practices that removes the apical bud dominance and promotes the lateral growth which turn better maintenance of source and sink relationship and enhance the pulses yield. Influence of nipping on growth and yield of various pluses crops has been discussed here.</div>

Nipping-Agronomic Approach for Enhancing the Pulses Production: A Review

<div>Background: Redgram is an important food legume which is largely cultivated under rainfed condition. In India rainfed agriculture contributes 80% of the total pulses production and the projected requirement will be 39 million tons by 2050 which necessitates an annual growth rate of 2.2%. The productivity has to be increased from the present level of 834 kg ha-1 to 1200 kg ha-1. With adoption of suitable agronomic management strategies the productivity could be increased to meet our demand and achieve self sufficiency in production. Hence the current study was carried out to increase the productivity of redgram under rainfed condition. 
 
Methods: Field experiment was conducted in farmer&rsquo;s field in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu during North East Monsoon season of 2019 to study the effect of improved agronomic manipulations on growth and yield of redgram under rainfed ecosystem. Agronomic management approaches viz., nipping of primary branches at 45 and 60 days after receipt of soaking rain, high density planting at 30 cm &times; 30 cm in addition to recommended spacing of 60 cm &times; 30 cm and foliar application of 1% PPFM spray were compared with farmer&rsquo;s practice in the redgram variety Co (RG) 7. Pre monsoon sowing has been taken up and the rainfall received during the cropping period was 521.7 mm received in 31 rainy days. 
 
Result: The field experimental results revealed that adoption of agronomic manipulation at the appropriate stage of the crop has increased the productivity of redgram. Nipping of primary branches at 45th day of the crop significantly increased the total number of productive branches, number of pods plant-1 and recorded the maximum seed yield of 1512 kg ha-1 (72 per cent increase over farmer&rsquo;s practice) under rainfed condition.</div>

<div>Effect of Improved Agronomic Approaches on Growth and Yield of Redgram [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] under Rainfed Ecosystem</div>

<div>Background: Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a valuable source of starch, proteins and minerals in the human diet. Starch, a major component of bean seeds, is composed of amylose and amylopectin and the content of amylose is important for affecting the quality of bean-derived food products. However, limited information is available on amylose assessment in bean. 
 
Methods: In this study, for a total of 300 bean landraces, we evaluated the seed amylose content and characterized twenty agronomic traits and analyzed the granule-bound starch synthase 1a (GBSS1a) gene haplotypes, which are likely to be associated with amylose content. Also, the correlation of amylose content with agronomic traits and GBSS1a gene haplotypes were determined. 
 
Result: Bean landraces showed diverse phenotypes, highly variable amylose content (39.95-63.57%) and three GBSS1a haplotypes (YP, YQ and NP). Correlation analysis revealed that seed size and seed weight were significantly correlated with amylose content and NP-type beans contained more amylose than YQ-type beans. Although these correlations could not fully explain the tremendous amount of variation in seed amylose content in bean germplasm, information on starch composition-related GBSS1a haplotypes and agronomic traits would facilitate genetic analyses and breeding research targeted toward improving the composition of bean starch.</div>

Association of Seed Amylose Content with Agronomic Traits and GBSS1a Haplotypes in Common Bean Landraces

<div style="text-align:justify">Background: Hulled barley has been extensively cultivated in Algeria. While naked barley was neglected in terms of research and genetic improvement. But it is now receiving renewed interest due to the potential health and agronomic benefits. Therefore, the aim of this research was to evaluate the agronomic performance of naked and hulled barley landraces collected from main production areas in the East of Algeria.&nbsp; Methods: The field experiments were conducted under rain-fed conditions, in 2018 and 2019 cropping seasons, in semi-arid zone of eastern Algeria. Both populations of plants were characterized agronomically, taking into account for nine quantitative traits.&nbsp; Results: Hulled barley cultivars outperformed the naked barley and from the results of Principal Component Analysis, it was found that the most important variables for the classification of barley cultivars are high grain yield, high straw yield and high biological yield. Hulled barley varieties showed the best yield performance, contrary to naked barley, which showed the poorer yield performance.</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Agronomic Traits and Yield Performance Variation in Hulled and Naked Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Varieties for Adaptation in East Algeria</div>

Livestock is the backbone of agriculture, in spite of that, its performance is poor with low productivity, the reason is lack of nutritious fodder in sufficient quantities that reduces milk production in cattle and causes health issues. The nutritional quality and yield of fodder crops can be improved by using appropriate agronomic practices such as adequate tillage operations, proper/timely water management, weed management, nutrient management, sowing at the right time with the right seed rate, timely harvesting and so on. In this review paper, several research and review papers have been studied to understand the impact of different agronomic practices on quality and productivity of fodder crops. When compared to zero tillage, the use of tillage operations such as primary, secondary, conventional and deep tillage increases dry matter and green fodder yield. Irrigation at critical phases and on a frequent basis boosts the organic matter (OM) content and dry matter of feed. In comparison to late harvesting, early harvested forages have higher DMD (Dry matter digestibility) and CP (crude protein) content. Nitrogen application certainly fostered crop growth and development resulting in higher green fodder yield with improved fodder quality. When it comes to raising the DMD % of fodder crops, intercropping is crucial. DMD % in intercropping of Maize + cowpea (2:1) is higher as compared to sole maize and sole cowpea. Fodder yield and quality are reduced as a result of late sowing. Therefore, we conclude that agronomic interventions have a significant impact on the primary and secondary quality characteristics of fodder crops. As a result, proper methods for improving nutritional quality and overall crop productivity should be implemented in the fields.

<div>Impact of Agronomic Management Practices on Quality and Productivity of Fodder Crops: A Review</div>

<div>This study was done with the aims to determine: (i) the correlation between agronomic traits and yield and (ii) the direct and indirect effects of agronomic traits on salt-tolerant rice yield. The field experiment was conducted directly on moderate salinity level of EC= 6.35 dS m-1 during the 2017 winter-spring cropping season in Central Vietnam. Ten salt-tolerant rice cultivars were studied. Results showed that yields of salt-tolerant rice cultivars had a positive correlation with traits of plant height, panicles per plant, panicle weight, and dry biomass, r = 0.3624*, 0.7019***, 0.4530** and 0.7837***, respectively. Total panicles per plant, panicle weight, and the number of grains per panicle directly affected rice yield with coefficients of dC = 0.5524, 0.8294 and 0.4355, respectively. Therefore, these traits should be used as good indicator traits for selecting salt-tolerant rice cultivars for the moderate salinity soil in Central Vietnam.</div>

<div>Path analysis for agronomic traits and yield of salt tolerant rice cultivars under moderate salinity condition in Central Vietnam&nbsp;</div>

Background: Moth bean is a very nutritive and hardy crop, especially for resource poor-arid agriculture. The limited use of cultivars in moth bean breeding resulted into narrow genetic base. This study aimed to diversify the conical genetic base and developimproved cultivars, through molecular (RAPD) and morpho-agronomic characterization of commercially elite moth bean cultivars.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: Elite moth bean cultivars (15) were evaluated for 11 morpho-agronomic traits. Eleven RAPD markers were used to amplify genomic DNA and perform molecular characterization.Clustering approach was used for grouping of the cultivars.&nbsp; 
 
Result: RAPD markers revealed high polymorphism in 15 elite moth bean cultivars. The polymorphism information content (PIC) values varied within the range of 0.45 to 0.88, with an average of 0.77. The number of alleles at different loci ranged from 4 to 16, with an average of 10 alleles per locus. When employing UPGMA-based cluster analysis, utilizing 11 morpho-agronomic traits, the cultivars were grouped into four clusters. However, when RAPD markers were used, the cultivars were grouped into five clusters. The Jaccard&rsquo;s similarity coefficient and Manhattan dissimilarity coefficient fell within the ranges of 0.18 to 0.70 and 0.02 to 0.42, respectively. These values signify the degree of genetic variability within the cultivars. Furthermore, a Mantel test was conducted to examine the correlation between agronomic traits and the RAPD-based matrix. The results showed a negative correlation, but it was not statistically significant.The high PIC values and the successful amplification of multiple loci demonstrate the efficacy of RAPD markers in assessing genetic diversity in moth beans. The study revealed enormous genetic variation among cultivars and crosses can be attempted between cultivars of different groups to create better recombinants in moth bean breeding programmes.

Genetic Relatedness in Elite Cultivars of Moth Bean using Morpho-agronomic and Molecular Markers

Malnutrition and undernourishment are the major health problems in India with 16 per cent of the population are undernourished and 53 per cent of the women being anaemic. The millet grains called &lsquo;nutricereals&rsquo; are best alternative to address the nutritional deficiencies such as iron, protein, calcium and magnesium prevalent among population. Millets are drought tolerant, photo-insensitive and highly climate resilient crops. Henceforth, Millets are increasingly becoming an alternative source of food, both worldwide and in India. While there has been recent attention on using micronutrient supplements and fortifying foods industrially to assist vulnerable populations, the enduring and environmentally sound effects can truly be realized through fortifying crops with micronutrients during their production stage. Biofortification involves enhancing the levels vital nutrients in the edible portions of crop plants by either modifying agricultural practices or selecting plants improved genetic traits. Agronomic biofortification is an easiest short-term approach for biofortification. It involves the use of fertilizers enriched with micronutrients, which is a straightforward method to improve the nutritional quality of crops. Consuming such fortified crops can lead to improvements in human nutritional status. India is the leading millet producer with 80 per cent of Asia&rsquo;s share making 20 per cent of the global production. Millets, which were long thought of as poor man&rsquo;s diet, are now quickly becoming included in the food baskets of the wealthy as well as a natural remedy for health. The micronutrient content in millets can be explored by various agronomic biofortification methods. These include soil application of micronutrient enriched fertilizers for plant uptake, foliar application of fertilizer, seed primingand soilless cultivation, which are the primary techniques.

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Agronomic Biofortification in Millets- Key to Nutritional Security: A Review

<div>Background: Pulses are wonderful gift of the nature to agriculture. They provide nutrition to human beings and animals as food and feed respectively. Among the pulses, chickpea is an important rabi season crop with high acceptability and wider use in nutritional food basket. A field experiment was carried out on medium black calcareous soil at Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, Gujarat during rabi season 2017-18 under saurastra condition to evaluate agronomic biofortification of zinc in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) varieties through seed, soil and foliar application. 
 
Methods: The experiment was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications. The treatment combinations comprised two varieties viz., GG 1 (V1) and GJG 3 (V2) and six zinc fortification treatments viz., control, seed treatment ZnSO4 @ 3 g kg-1 seed, 0.5% ZnSO4 foliar spray, seed treatment ZnSO4 @ 3g kg-1 seed + 0.5% ZnSO4 foliar spray, soil application ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1 and soil application ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1 + 0.5% ZnSO4 foliar spray. The chickpea was grown with standard package of practices. 
 
Result: The results revealed that a significant improvement in 100-seed weight, seed yield, stover yield and biological yield were observed with chickpea variety GJG 3 over GG 1. Significantly higher numbers of pods per plant (45.83) was recorded with variety GG 1. Significantly, chickpea variety GJG 3 was found superior in zinc content and uptake in seed and stover. Under agronomic strategy, zinc fortification through soil application ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1 + 0.5% ZnSO4 foliar spray at flowering and pod filling stages significantly improved yield attribute and yield viz., pods per plant (55.17), seed yield (2288 kg ha-1) and stover yield (3553 kg&nbsp; ha-1) and quality parameters viz., protein content in seed (22.89%) and protein yield (523 kg ha-1), zinc content and uptake in seed and stover (45.98 and 37.51 ppm and 104.87 and 133.35 g ha-1, respectively) over all other zinc biofortification treatments.</div>