<div>Background: Tannia is one of the six most important root and tuber crops grown world-wide. Tannia possess good keeping quality compared to other vegetables. The tubers are considered more nutritious than colocasia and potato. But the crop is still under-exploited compared to other tuber crops. Hence the study was undertaken to identify the effect of tillage and nutrition on quality characters of tannia. 
 
Methods: A field experiment was conducted at College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Kerala during 2014-15 to study the effect of organic nutrition on quality characters of tannia. The design used was split plot design with four replications. The treatments consisted of tillage and planting methods as main plot treatments (L1- conventional tillage followed by pit system, L2- conventional tillage followed by mound system, L3- deep tillage followed by pit system and L4- deep tillage followed by mound system). The sub plot treatments were combinations of soil conditioners (S1- control, S2- coir pith, S3- rice husk) and two nutrition systems (N1- integrated nutrient management (INM) and N2- organic nutrition). 
 
Result: Results of the experiment revealed that the quality characters of tannia was improved by deep tillage to a depth of 30 cm followed by pit system of planting, application of coir pith as soil conditioner @ 500 g plant-1 and organic nutrition (FYM @37.5 t ha-1 + wood ash @ 2 t ha-1).</div>

​Quality Characters of Tannia [Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L.). Schott] as Affected by Tillage, Planting Methods, Plant Nutrition and Application of Soil Conditioners

<div>Mining bees (Andrenidae) are solitary, ground-nesting, smaller to medium in size, mostly found in the temperate agroforestry and arid ecosystems. These bee&rsquo;s builds their nest in soil mounds and burrows in the soil that&rsquo;s why they are called mining bees. These bees are very efficient pollinator in agricultural crops, fruits, fodder, pulses and other economically important plants. Most of the pollinators including mining bees enhance agricultural productivity at a large commercial level and appear in the beginning of the spring season. Due to their hairy body, scopae, smoky wings, with short and spikey tongue and chewing-lapping type of mouthparts, these adaptive structures are very favourable for the pollination. Our review is based on the importance of mining bees and their role in pollination in different agroforestry ecosystem in India. Besides, the literature pertaining to their pollination mechanism and different activities performed by different species of mining bees has been placed in a single roof for further studies. Family Andrenidae is represented by single genus (Andrena) from India and distributed under 54 species. Very elaborate and comprehensive information about mining bees from the region is presented in this paper.</div>

​Quality Characters of Tannia [Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L.). Schott] as Affected by Tillage, Planting Methods, Plant Nutrition and Application of Soil Conditioners

Role of Mining Bees (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae) in Pollination Ecology in India: A Review

Quality Characters of Tannia [Xanthosoma sagittifolium (L.). Schott] as Affected by Tillage, Planting Methods, Plant Nutrition and Application of Soil Conditioners