In this book, an attempt has been made to study the response of manures, inorganic fertilizers and micronutrients on nodulation, growth and yield of Soybean (Glycine max. L. Merrill) as well as to examine the influence of FYM, vermicompost, vermiwash and inorganic inputs (NPK) on soil properties. The results from two field experiments conducted at the Crop Research Centre of GBPUA&T, Pantnagar (India) during kharif 2006 and kharif 2007 has been presented and discussed here.

Carbon-dioxide is one of the most abundant gasses in the atmosphere. Due to human induced anthropogenic activities, the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere has been rising extensively during the last 150 years. Present investigation was carried out to assess the carbon dioxide concentration in ambient air of Tarai region of Uttarakhand. The online monitoring of CO2 concentration from ambient air was carried out with the help of a Non-dispersive Infra-red (NDIR) gas analyzer at one minute time interval. Simultaneously, air samples were collected from various sampling sites starting. The ambient air CO2 concentration at Pantnagar has shown a large fluctuation that varied in the range of 306 ppmv to 427 ppmv with an average concentration of 350.82 ppmv. Among different sites of sampling, the highest concentration of surface air CO2 was found at the vehicular sites followed by Industrial site. Higher CO2 concentration values were found near the ground and a decreasing pattern was observed with the increase in height. In general, CO2 concentrations were higher during winter and lowest during summer season.

In this book, different empirical methods were compared with the objectives for quantifying total water loss through evapotranspiration by chickpea crop in mollisol of Uttarakhand. Evapotranspiration of chickpea was measured with weighing type lysimeter. Data on pan evaporation measured with USWB class A pan evaporimeter and chickpea parameters for the corresponding period were collected from Meteorological observatory. Evapotranspiration from chickpea was also estimated by using mathematical methods of Thornthwaite, Turc, Stephens-Stewar, Jensen-Haise, Blaney-Criddle and modified Penman. Higher growing degree days 1810.4 was observed during 2005-06. Evapotranspiration of chickpea during 2005-06 and 2006-07 were about 416.5 and 475.6 mm, respectively. As the pan evaporation did not give accurate estimate of ET, both on seasonal and as well as weekly basis. Thus, the pan evaporation does not seem to be good criterion for the estimation of ET. Modified Penman method was found to be most very suitable for estimation of ET in tarai region of Uttarakhand.