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Over the years, a crop variety grown on the commercial scale and under different conditions becomes vulnerable to various kinds of issues involving both biotic and abiotic plant stresses, alone or in combinations. This demands their substitution with new and improved genotypes possessing higher productivity and inherent resistance/tolerance against yield-limiting stresses. In this context, this editorial reports the development of a new chickpea kabuli variety "Noor-2019". This cultivar has improved yield potential, dietary elements (proteins, fat, ash), and more importantly, resistance against fusarium wilt and ascochyta blight compared to the existing varieties. The evolution of this strain commenced in 2002-03 cropping season by crossing K-90399 as a female parent with K-52582 as a male parent. The female parent had high yield potential, whereas the male parent had wilt resistance and was developed through introgression breeding using ILWC-126, an accession of Cicer reticulatum. Henceforth, the genetic variability was created to select for high yield and wilt resistant recombinants in subsequent generations. Resultantly, a uniform and high yielding progeny line PCK-09012, later designated as "Noor-2019" was selected and evaluated for yield, agronomy, and insect pests. This cultivar revealed a potential yield of 2882 kg ha-1 in testing phase and outperformed standard checks by producing 78.2%, 13.1%, and 28.8% higher grain yield in station, adaptation and national uniform yield trials, respectively. The plants of Noor-2019 are 60-65cm tall, semi-erect, and medium in canopy spread. Its grains are light brown, ram-headed, medium in size with a 100-seed weight of 25 g. Adoption of this cultivar across different climatic regions of Punjab, and other provinces could contribute in attaining self-sufficiency in local chickpea production as well as plummeting import bill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weeds are serious pests in rice sown under direct-seeded rice (DSR) technology. Herbicide-based weed management is becoming increasingly popular, but there is a dire need to choose appropriate herbicides and their effective dose for controlling weeds in DSR fields. A field trial was conducted to appraise the comparative efficacy of three post-emergent herbicides applied at different doses [Clover 20% EC (bispyribac sodium) at 39.54, 59.30, and 79.07 g a.i. ha-1, Pyranex Gold 30% WDG (bispyribac sodium + bensulfuron methyl) at 74.13, 111.20, and 148.26 g a.i. ha-1, and Puma Super 7.5% EW (fenoxaprop-p-ethyl) at 46.33 and 92.66 g a.i. ha-1] at 20 days after sowing (DAS) for weed control and paddy yield performance under DSR system. A weedy check was retained as control. Results revealed that Clover and Pyranex Gold applied at either dose significantly (p≤0.05) reduced the population and growth of Cyperus iria (90-97% weed density and 93-97% weed dry biomass) and Echinochloa colona (94-97% weed density and weed dry biomass) weeds over control, while Puma Super proved efficient in suppressing Leptochloa chinensis and Echinochloa colona weeds. Among all the tested treatments, application of Puma Super at 92.66 g a.i. ha-1 furnished the highest number of tillers (137.3 in 2014 and 141.3 in 2015), grains panicle-1 (77 in 2014 and 79 in 2015), final paddy yield (1983.8 and 1570 kg ha-1 in 2014 and 2015, respectively), and net economic returns (Rs. 95915 ha-1), followed by the use of Puma Super at 46.33 g a.i. ha-1 which offered the next best economic benefits (Rs. 81906 ha-1). Thus, applying Puma Super at 92.66 g a.i. ha-1 is appeared viable approach to control grassy weed flora and ensure higher paddy yield with higher economic returns when rice is sown under DSR technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]