Sunil Dalvi

Vasantdada Sugar Institute | VSI · Agri. Sci & Tech

Chickpea is the widely consumed dietary legume contributing 18% of global pulse production. Ongoing climatic changes impose several abiotic and biotic stresses on the yield and productivity of chickpeas. Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris (Foc) is a major soil‐born pathogen which causes up to 100% yield loss. Among the biocontrol strategies to manag...

Increasing food demand by the ever-growing population imposes an extra burden on the agricultural and food industries. Chemical-based pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers, and high-breeding crop varieties are typically employed to enhance crop productivity. Overexploitation of chemicals and their persistence in the environment, however, has detrimen...

Phytopathogens pose severe implications in the quantity and quality of food production by instigating several diseases. Biocontrol strategies comprising the application of biomaterials have offered endless opportunities for sustainable agriculture. We explored multifarious potentials of rhamnolipid-BS (RH-BS: commercial), fungal chitosan (FCH), and...

β-Glucan is an eco-friendly, biodegradable, and economical biopolymer with important roles for acquiring adaptations to mitigate climate change in crop plants. β-Glucan plays a crucial role in the activation of functional plant innate immune system by triggering the downward signaling cascade/s, resulting in the accumulation of different pathogenes...

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum)-a prominent cash crop accounts for around 80% production of sugar worldwide. However, the productivity of sugarcane is declining (~40%) due to the attack of a perilous fungus-Fusarium moniliforme responsible for pokkah boeng (PB) disease. Presently, chemical methods are incisive where their harmful effects on livin...

Large scale sugarcane micropropagation techniques ensure production of millions of plantlets to different agricultural sectors. However, several abiotic and biotic factors affect the micro plants, during the micropropagation process viz. microbial contamination in vitro, browning of media, hyperhydricity, poor light efficacy, insufficient gaseous e...

Climate change has severe impact on the incidence of erratic, extreme weather events leading to substantial effects on the world's ecosystems. Efforts are therefore required for enhancing crop resilience and adaptation to climate change for sustainable production, food and nutrition security. Multiple adaptation strategies are advocated for climate...

Chitosan (CSN) and its derivatives are being exploited for their potential role in agriculture in mitigating environmental stress factors. The present study was aimed to enhance the synthesis of chitosan (CSN)-based silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) using γ-irradiated chitosan (IR-CSN) and to study the antimicrobial activity of IR-CSN–Ag NPs. The chito...

Purpose: This study was carried out to assess the effect of irradiated chitosan as an elicitor on the biochemical traits associated with resistance to purple blotch disease in onion . Materials and Methods Chitosan was electron beam irradiated at 100 kGy dose to obtain low molecular weight chitosan. Irradiated chitosan at 20 and 40 ppm concentrati...

Induced mutagenesis offers a useful method to improve desirable characters in sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids). In this study, eleven Ethyl Methyl Sulfonate (EMS)-induced mutants of the Indian sugarcane cultivar CoC 671 were evaluated for smut disease resistance along with agronomic and quality traits viz. early maturity, high sucrose, high cane...

Whey protein isolate (WPI) hydrolysates have higher solubility in aqueous phase and enhanced biological properties. Hydrolysis of WPI was optimized using operating pressure (ΔP, bar), number of passes (N), and WPI concentration (C, %) as deciding parameters in hydrodynamic cavitation treatment. The optimum conditions for generation of WPI hydrolysa...

Purple blotch (Alternaria porri (Ellis) Cif) is one of the severe onion diseases in Maharashtra causing higher yield losses. Oligochitosan is obtained by gamma irradiation of chitosan and attempted to explore its effectiveness against the pathogen in vivo as well as in vitro. Present study indicated that the fungicide mancozeb @ 0.2% inhibited maxi...

Chitosan, being one of the most promising biological macromolecules, has an immense scope in agriculture to boost crop growth and defense responses. In this study, chitosan was exposed to gamma rays in order to obtain a low molecular weight derivative. Viscometric characterization showed a sharp decrease in molecular weight and FTIR based analysis...

Maharashtra ranks first in production of onion. Purple blotch [Alternaria porri (Ellis) Cif] is one of the severe onion diseases in Maharashtra causing higher yield losses. Chemical fungicides are effectively used to manage it, are responsible for environmental hazard and fungicidal resistance in the pathogens and sustainability of onion production...

Oligo-chitosan (82.20 kDa) was prepared from chitosan (337.73 kDa) by application of 100 kGy γ-irradiation. UV–vis spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD, DSC and TGA analyses showed typical properties of chitosan with slight variations after γ-irradiation. Degree of deacetylation of chitosan and oligo-chitosan was 82%, while 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrzyl and 2,2′...

Chitosan, a functional biopolymer, was irradiated with 100 kGy gamma irradiation and used to access its physical, antioxidant, plant growth promoting and antimicrobial properties. The molecular weight of chitosan reduced to 82.2 kDa from 337.7 kDa after irradiation. UV–Vis spectroscopy and FTIR results revealed slight changes in chitosan skeleton a...

Sugarcane is one of the most important cash crops of India. The production and productivity of sugarcane crop are severely hampered due to lack sufficient irrigation water besides erratic climatic conditions. Recently, chitosan, a second most abundantly available polysaccharide, has been utilized in agriculture as a bioregulator or biostimulator to...

Potato is a potential food crop but disease management and yield improvement are globally targeted as the major challenges. Alternaria solani, causing early blight, is a devastating disease in potato. Although chemical control through the application of huge amount pesticides is available, this poses concern due to persistence of pesticide residues...

Sugar industry seen as a multi product industrial complex, manufactures not only sugar but also industrial /potable alcohol, fuel ethanol, electricity and bio-gases as an equally valuable activity. Sugar manufacturing, besides its contribution to GDP is also a source of substantial rural/semi-rural employment. Further it can potentially contribute...

Rubia cordifolia L. is well known for its various medicinal properties. Its roots are the major source of its medicinally active ingredient Alizarin, an anticancer compound. For commercial extraction of useful compounds hairy root induction has been proven to be an efficient means of producing secondary metabolites that are normally biosynthesized...

Genetic improvement of sugarcane variety CoC 671 was carried out through somaclonal variation. The somaclones were obtained by developing callus on 0.8M EMS and 13.57M 2–4.D containing medium. All the 310 regenerated plants were hardened in green house and planted in field for preliminary selection. On the basis of biometric and biochemical paramet...

Genetic improvement of sugarcane variety CoC 671 was carried out through somaclonal variation. The somaclones were obtained by developing callus on 0.8M EMS and 13.57M 2–4.D containing medium. All the 310 regenerated plants were hardened in green house and planted in field for preliminary selection. On the basis of biometric and biochemical paramet...

Genetic improvement of sugarcane variety CoC 671 was carried out through somaclonal variation. The somaclones were obtained by developing callus on 0.8M EMS and 13.57M 2–4.D containing medium. All the 310 regenerated plants were hardened in green house and planted in field for preliminary selection. On the basis of biometric and biochemical paramet...

Potato quality seed is supplied through minitubers produced by micropropagation technique. Lowering cost of production without loosing the quality is the major bottleneck in potato micropropagation. Agar is most widely used gelling agent in plant tissue culture. Agar as gelling agent not only limits the growth and cause vitrification of cultures bu...

Sugarcane variety Co 94012 is a new variety released in India through the use of somaclonal variation. Significant differences were found in quantitative and qualitative agronomic characters. Another somaclone VSI 434 is an extra early maturing variety with significant difference in morphological and qualitative characters over the parent CoC 671....