Diversification Options in Sugarcane-Based Cropping Systems for Doubling Farmers' Income in Subtropical India.

Crop diversification provides an opportunity for farmers to maximize their profits, fulfilling multiple needs, avoid monsoon threats, and make the crop production system sustainable. Inclusion of various pulse/oilseed/vegetables/cereals/medicinal/aromatic crops with sugarcane brings forth cultivation of these crops in irrigated agro-system and improves the yields of component crops. Besides, the component crops improve soil fertility and create a favorable environment for the further growth of sugarcane crops. Sprouting in winter-initiated sugarcane ratoon could be enhanced by adopting fodder legumes such as Indian clover and Egyptian clover. Intercropping vegetables provides an ample opportunity for mid-season income generation and improves profitability. Besides, high-value medicinal and aromatic crops such as tulsi (holy basil), mentha could also be included in the sugarcane-based system. Crop residue management has been recognized as a critical issue in managing the crops in the various cropping systems. Including multiple bio-agents for fast decomposition of crop residues provides scope for managing soil organic carbon through crop residue recycling in the system. Resource use efficiencies, nutrient use, water use, and weed control could be increased by adopting suitable crops in intercropping systems. An integrated farming system involving crop, livestock, and fisheries options could improve farmers' profit besides employment generation in rural India. Recycling of bye products and co-products of other enterprises influences the viability and farmer's profitability of the system. Trash, press mud cake, vinasse, composted bagasse, rhizodeposition of stubble play a significant role in sustaining soil fertility and increasing crop productivity. New emerging crop diversification options, viz., intercropping of rajmash, winter maize, and garlic in autumn cane generate mid-season income and enhance the system's profitability for small and marginal cane growers. Dual-purpose legumes, viz., cowpea, and green gram as intercrops with spring-planted cane increase the pool of soil microbial biomass nitrogen capitalize allelopathic effects and sustain soil health. In the present paper, these issues have been discussed. Due to the adoption of location-specific and farmers-centric systems, farmers' profitability could be increased, providing sustainability to the sugarcane-based systems.

Sugar Beet Cultivation in India: Prospects for Bio-Ethanol Production and Value-Added Co-Products.

Sugar beet is an important crop in the advent of COVID 19 as it has a high potential for ethanol production in less growth span. The life cycle of this crop is of five to six months with a root yield of 60-80 t ha-1 and sugar content of 15-17%. Sugar beet is known as a temperate crop of short duration grown in the month of September to October and harvested in April and May, but successful efforts have been made in establishing this crop for Indian agro-climatic conditions. India stands to gain from capitalizing on the potential of sugar beet for sugar, ethanol, and fodder. It offers the increment in the farmer's income especially hill farmers with respect to seed production of this crop in India The crop has been bestowed with a natural endowment of reclaiming saline soils which will help in cultivating the Indian saline areas. The crop is full of carbohydrates content which is being used for multiple purposes giving value addition to the crop. The green top and, wet and dry pulp are a good source of fodder material for lactating animals like cattle. Beet pulp is another good source as silage feed and as an adhesive in beauty products as well as in printing ink. An amount of 5250 L of ethanol per hectare crop can be produced. Due to 30% galacturonic acid content, the dry beet pulp can also be used as a source of Vitamin C. Lactic acid is also being produced from the juice of sugar beet through fermentation. The pectin content of this crop is useful in paper and board manufacturing industries as a raw material and also in dishwashing detergents and leather production. The fiber content works as dietary fibers which are used in meat and baking industries as important ingredients in food commodities. The vinasse produced as an industrial by-product is useful as a fertilizer. Sugar beet tails and other parts have also been used in biogas production in some countries. Intercropping of this crop with other crops is an added benefit of this crop. New prospects are also available for this crop in pharmaceutical industries and material sciences in times to come.

Soil quality parameters vis-a-vis growth and yield attributes of sugarcane as influenced by integration of microbial consortium with NPK fertilizers.

Intensive agriculture involving high crop intensity, unavailability of organics, and higher use of straight fertilizers causes imbalanced use and deficiencies of several other macro and micronutrients. Nutrients supply through the integration of microbial consortium containing Gluconacetobater diazotrophicus, Trichoderma harzianum, and Pseudomonas fluorescens can reduce the requirements on the one hand and can also increase the response of chemical fertilizers. Thus we had planned the present experiment with the objectives (i) to determine the effect of integrated application of microbial consortium (MC) and NPK fertilizer on soil quality parameters and crop growth and yield attributes and (ii) to assess the effect of integration on agronomic efficiency of N, P and K and find out the possibilities for reduction in applied doses of NPK, if any. Five treatments viz., T1; N0P0K0; T2: N75P13K25; T3: N150P26K50; T4: N75P13K25 + microbial consortium and T5: N150P26K50 + microbial consortium containing new strains of Trichoderma harzianum, Gluconcetobacter diazotrophicus, and Pseudomonas fluorescens (CFU 109-10 per ml liquid culture) were evaluated under four replications in a randomized block design (RBD). Experimental results indicated that integrating microbial consortium and NPK fertilizers' application proved effective in improving soil organic carbon, soil microbial population, microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, and soil respiration. Integrated use of microbial consortium with NPK also improved the cation exchange capacity of soil and roots. However, the growth and yield attributes, nutrients uptake, sugarcane, and sugar yields also revealed a positive effect of microbial consortium's integrated application with NPK. The integration of MC and NPK also improved the agronomic efficiency of applied nutrients (NPK). Reduction of 50% NPK with these microbial consortia (Trichoderma harzianum, Gluconcetobacter diazotrophicus, and Pseudomonas fluorescens) was found better than the application of full NPK through chemical fertilizers. Thus application of N150P26K50 with microbial consortium can sustain soil fertility besides improving sugarcane and sugar yields in subtropical Indian conditions.

First-Principles Study of Chemical Mixtures of CaCl2 and MgCl2 Hydrates for Optimized Seasonal Heat Storage.

Chloride-based salt hydrates form a promising class of thermochemical materials (TCMs), having high storage capacity and fast kinetics. In the charging cycles of these hydrates however hydrolysis might appear along with dehydration. The HCl produced during the hydrolysis degrades and corrodes the storage system. Our GGA-DFT results show that the enthalpy charge during proton formation (an important step in hydrolysis) is much higher for CaCl2·2H2O (33.75 kcal/mol) than for MgCl2·2H2O (19.55 kcal/mol). This is a strong indicator that hydrolysis can be minimized by appropriate chemical mixing of CaCl2 and Mg Cl2 hydrates, which is also confirmed by recent experimental studies. GGA-DFT calculations were performed to obtain and analyze the optimized structures, charge distributions, bonding indicators and harmonic frequencies of various chemical mixtures hydrates and compared them to their elementary salts hydrates. We have further assessed the equilibrium products concentration of dehydration/hydrolysis of the chemical mixtures under a wide range of operating conditions. We observed that chemical mixing leads to an increase of the onset hydrolysis temperature with a maximum value of 79 K, thus increasing the resistance against hydrolysis with respect to the elementary salt hydrates. We also found that the chemical mixing of CaCl2 and MgCl2 hydrates widens the operating dehydration temperature range by a maximum value of 182 K (CaMg2Cl6·2H2O) and lowers the binding enthalpy with respect to the physical mixture by ≈65 kcal/mol for TCM based heat storage systems.