Is Organic Rice bean (Vigna umbellata) Farmers Economically better Off? AnEmpirical Analysis

The study was conducted in North Eastern Hill (NEH) region of India during 2018-2020.Multistage sampling technique was adopted. Sikkim was selected purposively as the controlstate and Nagaland was selected based on the highest area and production under pulses. 60respondents each from organic adopter and non-adopter were selected making a total samplesize of 120. The growth rate in area, production and productivity at the world, India andNEH states were found to be positive. However, higher growth rate were observed forthe NEH region. Significance difference was observed only on cost of fertilizers. The totalcost of rice bean cultivation was lower in organic adopter by 1.71 per cent. The averageyield was significantly higher for the organic adopter. The gross income and net incomewere also higher for the organic adopter. Organic farming was found to be more profitableand it can enhance the farmer’s income. Allocative efficiency indicates that all the resourcesused in the region need to be increase so as to achieve the maximum potential yield andhenceforth increase the returns.

Pollen viability and incompatibility in indigenous rice bean (Vigna umbellata (Thunb.) Ohwi & Ohashi)

Pollen viability, germination and compatibility are essential in determining the success of pollination and seed setting of high-valued crops. Rice bean (Vigna umbellata (Thunb.) Ohwi & Ohashi) is an underutilized and unexplored indigenous legume with high potential for commercial production. In this study, pollen quality, viability, germination rate and incompatibility among selected six rice bean (V. umbellata) accessions from Barili, Cebu, Philippines were evaluated to determine the barriers and effective pollination habit for increased productivity while retaining the important traits, including high tolerance in poor soils, superior climatic resilience and resistance to pest and diseases. Results of acetocarmine calorimetric assay showed that rice beans’ (V. umbellata) pollens are highly viable, with accessions VU 004 (56.33 ± 4.91%) and VU 007 (54.34 ± 4.53%) having the optimum viability rate. Brewbaker and Kwack medium treated with 0.2 g.l-1 and 0.3 g.l-1 boric acid (H3BO4) enhanced the germination rate in vitro (11.56 ± 5.53% and 9.47 ± 6.50% respectively). Bud (14.96 ± 1.53%) and post-anthesis pollens (10.28 ± 0.94%) have optimum germination rate in 0.2 g.l-1 boric acid media, while anthesis pollens are suitable in media supplemented with sucrose and boric acid alone (12.20 ± 1.50%) and with 0.1 g.l-1 myo-inositol supplementation (8.49 ± 1.86%). Pollination test revealed that rice bean accessions have high self-compatibility (50.76 + 3.45%) and low cross-compatibility (26.57 + 2.49%). The findings provide an important background in understanding the pollen quality and intraspecific interaction among indigenous rice bean (V. umbellata) accessions in Barili, Cebu to improve production and hybridization.

​Antioxidant Responses of Ricebean [Vigna umbellata (Thunb.) Ohwi and Ohashi] Seedling under Iso-osmotic Potential of Salinity and Drought Stress

Background: Salinity and drought are the major abiotic stresses and both can cause osmotic imbalances. Drought stress directly results in osmotic stress whereas salinity problem firstly disrupts the water balance and eventually induces ion toxicity which results in cyto-toxicity, metabolic impairment, nutrient imbalance and finally poor crop growth and yield. The co-ordinated up-regulation or constitutive expression of antioxidative system in plants is the main defense in plant against these stresses and thus the present experiment was undertaken to study the antioxidant responses under drought and salinity stress at seedling stage in ricebean (Bidhan 1). Methods: For studying the effect of iso-osmotic potential of salinity and drought stress solutions of NaCl and PEG 6000 with -0.2 MPa (50mM NaCl and 10% PEG), -0.4 MPa (100 mM NaCl and 12% PEG) and -0.8 MPa (200mM NaCl and 18% PEG) osmotic potential were used. The experiment was done in the laboratory of Department Plant Physiology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV), Mohanpur, Nadia and West Bengal in the year 2017-18 and 2018-19. Result: Under moderate to high intensity of osmotic stresses the leaf proline content decreased. The mild and medium stress treatments induced much higher activity of GPOX and APX in the leaf which then decreased somewhat as the intensity of stress increased. The experiment showed that drought stress was found to produce more drastic effects on seedling growth in ricebean as compared to the salinity stress at iso-osmotic potentials.

Predictive structure and protein-ligand interface of novel lectin from rice bean (Vigna umbellata)

Lectins are an important group of multivalent glycoproteins having the property of selectively recognizing and precipitating glycoconjugates. Although lectins have been reported from diverse biological sources, legume lectins is the best-characterized family of plant lectins. We have successfully cloned and sequenced the RbL ORF of 843bp from immature rice bean seeds (Vigna umbellata). We report the results of in silico analysis of novel lectin precursor of 280 amino acids from rice bean. BlastP analysis revealed more than 90% sequence similarity of RbL protein with Vigna angularis lectin and Vigna aconitifolia lectin. ProtParam analysis revealed acidic, stable and hydrophobic nature of RbL protein. Template based 3D structure of RbL protein was modeled using I-TASSER tool and validated as good quality model. Structural analysis revealed the presence of β-sandwich (Jelly roll fold or lectin fold) in modeled RbL structure. RbL protein was functionally annotated as a plant defense protein. Molecular docking was performed to analyze interactions of RbL protein with predicted ligands (N-acetyl-D-glucosamine β-galactose, Lactose and Adenine) and two selected ligands (Glucose and Mannose). Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of RbL-ligand complexes confirmed robust hydrogen bonding interactions between ligands and RbL protein. The novel information generated in the study would be useful in exploring RbL protein for different biomedical and biotechnological applications.

Effect of Potassium and Iron Levels on Growth and Yield of Kharif Rice Bean (Vigna umbellata L.)

Background: Rice bean (Vigna umbellata L.) has recently been notified as a promising pulse crop. It is grown for green manure, green fodder and pulses. Potassium plays a major role in increasing the legume yield and yield components, besides provides tolerance to stress such as high-low temperature and drought. Similarly, iron is important for chlorophyll synthesis and is a key component of the nitrogenase enzyme, which is important for nitrogen fixation.Methods: A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2020 at Crop Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj (U.P). India. Study the ‘‘Effect of potassium and iron levels on growth and yield of kharif Rice bean (Vigna umbellata L.)”. The present experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD).Result: The results revealed that the application of 20 kg K2O/ha + 15 kg Fe/ha recorded maximum plant height (111.17 cm), branches per plant (23.40), nodules per plant at 60 DAS (35.67), plant dry weight (41.33 g/plant), pods per plant (26.20), seeds per pod (7.93), seed yield (1.67 t/ha), stover yield (3.95 t/ha), harvest index (29.69%), net return (Rs 81,155.6/ha) and B: C ratio (2.43). It can be concluded that 20 kg K2O /ha + 15 kg Fe/ha was found more productive as well as economic for Rice bean.