Browsing by Author "S. Vijayakumar"

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Biochar as a Novel Feed Additive for Ruminants
(Springer Singapore, 2024) Sudhir Kumar Rajpoot; Ph. Romen Sharma; Jayesh Singh; Adarsh Kumar; S. Vijayakumar; Richa Chaudhary; Dinesh Kumar
Prosperity of animal husbandry depends on good husbandry practices including scientific feeding, encompassing macro-and micronutrients as well as additives/supplements. Biochar is a novel, relatively less-explored additive, produced through pyrolysis of biomass at temperatures of around 700 °C with no or low oxygen levels. The quality of biochar is determined by its primary biomass source, residence duration, and temperature during pyrolysis that ultimately affect its physico-chemical properties such as elemental composition, surface area, porosity, retention capacity, and overall applications. Of late, biochar, when included as feed additive, has shown the potential to improve the production performance and health of ruminants. In many studies, usage of biochar in ruminant rations at 0.5–3% has demonstrated to improve feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, immune response, carcass attributes, and overall quality of animal products. The mechanisms underlying these effects are based on the adsorption abilities in detoxifying mycotoxins in feed raw materials, regulating plant-produced toxins, having a high affinity for pollutants, and improving the populations of beneficial gut microorganisms in ruminants. Nevertheless, it appears that more research on the usefulness of biochar in animal production is needed due to some inconsistent findings in the published literature along with a focus on safety aspects and cost economics. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.
Extreme temperature and rainfall event trends in the Middle Gangetic Plains from 1980 to 2018
(Indian Academy of Sciences, 2023) S. Vijayakumar; Sudhir Kumar Rajpoot; N. Manikandan; R. Jayakumara Varadan; J.P. Singh; Dibyendu Chatterjee; Sumanta Chatterjee; Santosha Rathod; Anil Kumar Choudhary; Adarsh Kumar
Regional-level studies aimed at identifying and assessing various types of extreme weather events and comprehending their effects on various sectors are crucial. In the present study, we have utilized the RClimDex software to compute the trend in temperature and precipitation extreme events in the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh, India, from 1980 to 2018. We employed both Mann–Kendall test and linear regression to test the statistical significance of the computed trend. Out of 13 temperature indices, 8 showed a significant trend while the remaining showed a non-significant trend. The annual mean maximum temperature, warm days, diurnal temperature range and a monthly minimum of maximum temperature had decreased significantly by 0.029ºC, 0.159 days, 0.032ºC and 0.122ºC/yr respectively, whereas cool days and cold spell duration had increased significantly by 0.264ºC and 0.372 days/yr respectively, indicating an increased cooling effect over the study area. Similarly, out of the 11 rainfall indices, only two showed a significant trend, while the remaining showed a nonsignificant trend. The increasing drought over the study area is evident as the number of rainy days and consecutive wet days have decreased significantly by 0.262 days and 0.058 days/yr respectively, with a non-significant increase in consecutive dry days during the same period. The weak negative non-significant trend of a maximum of five consecutive days of rainfall, very heavy rainfall days and total annual precipitation indicate the decreasing trend of floods. This study stresses the development of adaptation plans to overcome the adverse consequences of extreme weather events in Varanasi district. © 2023, Current Science. All Rights Reserved.