In semi-arid areas, the yield of post-rainy (rabi) sorghum is significantly limited by the combined impact of terminal drought and key biotic stresses, such as stem borer, aphid, shoot bug and rust. This study assessed the success of conventional backcross breeding in enhancing yield and related traits by specifically introducing multi-stress tolerance into elite rabi sorghum varieties. Nineteen advanced backcross-derived lines (BC2F4), developed using six recurrent parents and seven trait-specific donor parents, were evaluated along with their respective parents during the Rabi 2024–25 at the Centre on Rabi Sorghum, ICAR–Indian Institute of Millets Research (ICAR-IIMR), Solapur, India, using a randomized complete block design with three replications. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among genotypes for all agronomic and physiological traits, indicating substantial genetic variability generated through backcross breeding. Grain yield per plant ranged from 19.04 to 57.93 g with a population mean of 39.41 g, while panicle weight varied from 24.55 to 73.40 g. In the BC2F4 lines, several surpassed their recurrent parents, with the line BC2F4-4 {(BJV-44 × SLR-31) × BJV-44} achieving the highest grain yield of 57.93 g, representing an approximate 37.7% increase over its recurrent parent, which produced 42.07 g. Similarly, BC2F4-14 {(SPV-2217 × SLR-10) × SPV-2217} (52.01 g) and BC2F4-8 {(CSV-29R × SLR-10) × CSV-29R} (50.17 g) showed yield advantages of approximately 42.0% and 4.4%, respectively, over their corresponding recurrent parents. The harvest index ranged from 37.63% to 54.92%, with the superior lines exhibiting improved assimilate-partitioning efficiency. Physiological traits also showed significant variation, with relative water content ranging from 54.62% to 82.19% and SPAD values from 35.49 to 67.68. Lines such as BC2F4-18 {(Parbhani Jyoti × RNTT- 8-32) × Parbhani Jyoti} and BC2F4-19 {(BJV-44 × RNTN-13-37) × BJV-44} maintained a higher RWC (>77%) and stable chlorophyll content, indicating enhanced drought adaptive capacity. The superior performance of the selected BC2F4 lines, surpassing both recurrent and donor parents in terms of yield and physiological efficiency, indicates transgressive segregation and successful recombination of favorable alleles. Overall, this study demonstrated that conventional backcross breeding is an effective approach for improving the yield potential and stress resilience of rabi sorghum. The identified superior backcross-derived lines are promising candidates for near-isogenic line development and multilocation evaluation of varietal release.

In order to investigate the “effect of varying temperature on growth and yield attributes of safflower” a total of 75 accessions was sown through normal sowing (N) and late sowing (L) at ZARS farm, AICRP on Safflower, Solapur during the year 2024-2025. These lines were evaluated alongside three national checks viz. A-1, PBNS-12, ISF-764 with main objective to identify the accessions suitable for normal as well as late sowing with least variation in the yield. The results showed that some entries exhibited more than 50% yield reduction, some entries showed more than 20% yield reduction. A total of six accessions recorded stable seed yield, with yield decrease of 1.30% – 14.80 % due to delayed sowing (16/11/2024) as compared to normal sowing (9/10/2024) and remaining all other accessions showed more than 15% yield reduction. Whereas the best check (ISF-764) recorded 14% decrease in seed yield. The variability in other yield attributing traits viz. Days to 50% flowering, Days to maturity, Plant height (cm), No. of capitulum/plant, No. of seeds/capitulum, 100-seed weight (g), Seed yield/plot was also studied. At normal sowing following accessions such as GMU-7886 & GMU-7909 showed 50% flowering at 70 Days, GMU-7521 and GMU-7519 matured at 121 days, GMU-7514 recorded 33.33 number of capitulum/plant. GMU-7869 showed maximum number of seeds/capitulum, GMU-7914 showed 100-seed weight of 6.38 gram. At Late sowing following accessions such as GMU-7886 & GMU-7909 showed 50% flowering at 70 Days, GMU-7521 and GMU-7519 matured at 121 days, GMU-7514 recorded 33.33 number of capitulum/plant. GMU-7869 showed maximum number of seeds/capitulum, GMU-7914 showed 100-seed weight of 6.38 gram. At late sowing, the least days to 50% flowering was recorded by GMU-7879 (53 days), GMU-7553, GMU-7885 and GMU-7873 matured in 113 days. Also, the highest number of capitulum per plant was 31 produced by GMU-7553, the highest number of seeds per capitulum of 33.33 was produced by GMU-7867, and the highest 100 seed weight of 7.3 g was produced by GMU-7877. From the study it can be concluded that, six accessions performed best among all other accessions in both normal as well as late sowing. With further study it can be recommended for late sowing.

A field experiment was conducted during 2022-23 and 2023-24 to evaluate the influence of integrated micronutrient nutrition through soil application on fruiting dynamics of mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Langra at Matawala Bagh, School of Agricultural Sciences, Shri Guru Ram Rai University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Block Design with three replications comprising fifteen treatments. The treatment combinations included M₁: Control (RDF only); M₂: RDF + Boric acid @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₃: RDF + Zinc sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₄: RDF + Copper sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₅: RDF + Ferrous sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₆: RDF + Boric acid @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Zinc sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₇: RDF + Boric acid @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Copper sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₈: RDF + Boric acid @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Ferrous sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₉: RDF + Zinc sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Copper sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₁₀: RDF + Zinc sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Ferrous sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₁₁: RDF + Copper sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Ferrous sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₁₂: RDF + Boric acid @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Zinc sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Copper sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₁₃: RDF + Boric acid @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Zinc sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Ferrous sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹; M₁₄: RDF + Boric acid @ 150 g tree⁻¹ + Zinc sulphate @ 150 g tree⁻¹ + Copper sulphate @ 150 g tree⁻¹ + Ferrous sulphate @ 150 g tree⁻¹; and M₁₅: RDF + Boric acid @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Zinc sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Copper sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹ + Ferrous sulphate @ 250 g tree⁻¹. The results revealed that soil application of micronutrients significantly influenced fruiting dynamics of mango cv. Langra. Among all the treatments, M₁₅ consistently performed best and recorded the highest number of fruits per panicle (10.34), fruit set per panicle (18.20%), number of fruits at the initial stage (16.00), number of fruits at the marble stage (5.34) and number of fruits at the pre-harvest stage (2.33). The treatment also recorded the lowest fruit drop per panicle (75.90%) indicating superior fruit retention and reduced fruit abscission.