eChapters

Introduction

Eggplant or aubergine {Solanum melongena L. Solanaceae), is indigenous to a vast area stretching from northeast India and Burma, to Northern Thailand, Laos, Viet nam and Southwest China and wild plants can still be found in these locations. There is a wealth of eggplant common names. Eggplant is a major fruit vegetable with world production exceeding 31 million tonnes (Mt). Leading producers are China (17 Mt) and India (8 Mt), Egypt (1 Mt), Turkey (0.9 Mt), Japan and Italy (0.4 Mt). Eggplant is particularly favoured in Asia where it has been cultivated for millennia, and in India it is considered King of Vegetables. Brinjal, native to India, shares 31 % area (5.1 × 10⁵ ha) and 28% production (82 × 10⁵ t) of the world (Anon., 2003). It contributes 9% of the total vegetable production in the country. Three states/provinces viz. Orissa (1.41 × 10⁵ ha), West Bengal (1.29 × 10⁵ ha) and Bihar (0.72 × 10⁵ ha) cover 67% of total brinjal area in India (Anon., 2006). It is widely adaptive and highly productive (17.78 t/ha) crop of tropical and sub-tropical regions. It is comparable with tomato for nutritional values like vitamin C, iron and fiber, thereby, can play an important role in combating malnutrition in under-nourished regions (Singh et al., 2001). However, genetic improvement, production technology, post harvest handling and plant protection measures are important for increasing the production, productivity and consumption of brinjal.

Frequency Distribution: A tabular presentation of the data in which the fre- quencies of values of a variable are given along with them is called a frequen- cy distribution. Two types of frequency distribution are available

1. Discrete Frequency Distribution or Ungrouped Frequency Distribution
2. Continuous Frequency Distribution or Grouped Frequency Distribution

Objective (a): Prepare a discrete frequency distribution from the following sentence in English: “Today there is hardly a phase of Endeavour which does not find statistical devices at least occasionally useful.”

Theory: This problem relates to discrete frequency distribution i. e. a frequency distribution which is formed by distinct values of a discrete or continuous variable.

Objective: The distribution of age of males at the time of marriage was as follows

FOR GROUPED DATA

Objective: Data regarding lives of two new models of refrigerators collected in a recent survey are

REGRESSION

Regression means to revert or return back. The term was first introduced by Sir Francis Galton in1877. Regression technique is applicable in all those fields where two or more relative variables have the tendency to go back to the mean. Regression analysis refers to the methods by which estimates are made of the values of a variable from the knowledge of the values of one or more other variables and to the measurement of the errors involved in this estimation pro- cess.

In statistical modeling, regression analysis is a statistical process for estimat- ing the relationships among variables. It includes many techniques for mod- eling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. Regres- sion analysis helps one understand how the typical value of the dependent variable (or ‘criterion variable’) changes when any one of the independent variables is varied, while the other independent variables are held fixed. Most commonly, regression analysis estimates the conditional expectation of the dependent variable given the independent variables – that is, the average value of the dependent variable when the independent variables are fixed.

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is a hypothesis-testing technique used to test the equality of two or more population (or treatment) means by examining the variances of samples that are taken. ANOVA allows one to determine whether the differences between the samples are simply due to random error (sampling errors) or whether there are systematic treatment effects that cause the mean in one group to differ from the mean in another.

Most of the time ANOVA is used to compare the equality of three or more means, however when the means from two samples are compared using ANOVA it is equivalent to using a t-test to compare the means of independent samples.

ANOVA is based on comparing the variance (or variation) between the data samples to variation within each particular sample. If the between variation is much larger than the within variation, the means of different samples will not be equal. If the between and within variations are approximately the same size, then there will be no significant difference between sample means.

The two-way ANOVA compares the mean differences between groups that have been split on two independent variables (called factors). The primary purpose of a two-way ANOVA is to understand if there is an interaction be- tween the two independent variables on the dependent variable. For example, you could use a two-way ANOVA to understand whether there is an interac- tion between gender and educational level on test anxiety amongst university students, where gender (males/females) and education level (undergraduate/ postgraduate) are your independent variables, and test anxiety is your depen- dent variable. Alternately, you may want to determine whether there is an in- teraction between physical activity level and gender on blood cholesterol con- centration in children, where physical activity (low/moderate/high) and gender (male/female) are your independent variables, and cholesterol concentration is your dependent variable.

The interaction term in a two-way ANOVA informs you whether the effect of one of your independent variables on the dependent variable is the same for all values of your other independent variable (and vice versa). For example, is the effect of gender (male/female) on test anxiety influenced by educational level (undergraduate/postgraduate)? Additionally, if a statistically significant interaction is found, you need to determine whether there are any “simple main effects”, and if there are, what these effects are (we discuss this later in our guide).

1. FRUITS

Fruit is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, mainly one or more ovaries.

1.1. Types

1.1.1. Fleshy

1.1.1.1. Simple fleshy fruits

Develop from a flower with a single pistil.

1. VEGETATIVE PROPAGULE

Vegetative propagation or asexual propagation is the method of propagating plants with the use of organs other than the seed and spore. In contrast to sexual propagation, the union of the male and female sexual gametes (fertilization) is not a requisite to the production of new plants. Hence the word “asexual”, which means “without sex” or “not sexual”.

1. APOMIXIS

Development of seed without fertilization. When the seed formation occurs without sexual fusion, the process is known as apomixis. This occurs by several mechanism, however all apomitic seed have genetic material only from the female plant Apomixis may or may not require pollination and pollen tube germination to initiate seed formation, however sexual union.

1. DEFINITION

Artificial seed technology involves the production of tissue culture derived somatic embryos encased in a protective coating. Artificial seeds have also been often referred to as synthetic seeds. However, the term ‘synthetic seed’ should not be confused with commercial seeds of a synthetic cultivar which is defined as an advanced generation of an open pollinated population composed of a group of selected inbred clones or hybrids. The concept of artificial or synthetic seed is shown in Figure 1.

1. INTRODUCTION

Seed is the most important determinant of agricultural production potential, on which the efficacy of other agriculture inputs is dependent. Seeds of appropriate characteristics are required to meet the demand of diverse agro-climatic conditions and intensive cropping systems. Sustained increase in agriculture production and productivity is dependent, to a large extent, on development of new and improved varieties of crops and an efficient system for timely supply of quality seeds to farmers..

1. SEED

It is a matured ovule usually developed after fertilization. Seed can also be defined as the embryonic plant in resting stage, usually supplied with food reserves in the cotyledons or endosperm or in perisperm with the protective structure called seed coat. In a nutshell, it is a dry dispersal unit of a plant. It develops into an individual similar to the one that produced it

1. HAND EMASCULATION AND POLLINATION

The male part of seed parent is removed by hand before anthesis to check the self pollination from the crop plants with bisexual flower having fertile male and female part. This process is known as emasculation. These emasculated flowers are then pollinated by the pollens collected from pollinator parent to produce hybrid seed (Fig. 1). Eg. Cotton, tomato, brinjal.

1. LAND REQUIREMENTS

1. FORAGE LEGUMES

1.1. Isolation

1. SEED FORTIFICATION

It is process of enriching the seeds with bioactive chemicals for improving the germination and seedling vigour. To the known volume of seeds, one third volume of the nutrient solution is added and allowed to imbibe for short duration. The imbibed seeds should be dried under shade. The fortification treatments recommended for different crops are depicted

1. MIXING AND DIVIDING

The main objective of mixing and dividing of seeds is to obtain the representative homogenous seed sample for analysis by reducing the submitted sample to the desired size of working sample.

2. TYPES OF MECHANICAL DIVIDERS

2.1. Boerner divider

The principle involved in mixing and dividing in gravitational force. It consists of a hopper, a cone and series of baffles directing the seeds into 2 spouts. The baffles are of equal size and equally spaced and every alternate one leading to one spout. They are arranged in circle and are directed inward. A valve at the base of the hopper retains the seeds in the hopper. When the valve is opened, the seeds fall by gravity over the cone where it is equally distributed and approximately equal quantity of seeds will be collected in each spout. A disadvantage of this divider is that it is difficult to check for cleanliness (Fig. 1).

1. SEED MOISTURE

Seed moisture is one of the most important deciding factors of seed viability and quality during storage. Hence, determination of seed moisture content and drying to the safe moisture content is utmost important before transit and storage.

According to ISTA (1985), moisture content of the sample is defined as that loss of weight when it is dried in accordance with the rules or the amount of water collected when it is distilled. It is expressed as percentage of the original weight of sample (wet basis).

1.1. Principle

Moisture present in the seed is removed completely as much as possible without oxidation or decomposition or loss in other volatile substances by applying heat. The weight loss due to drying is estimated and the moisture content is calculated.

1. DEFINITION

Seed deterioration is defined as deteriorative changes occurring with time that increase the seed’s vulnerability to external challenges and decrease the ability of the seed to survive

1. SEED TREATMENT

It refers to the application of pesticides (fungicides, insecticides or a combination of both) to seeds before sowing and/or storage in order to protect the seeds and young seedlings from soil borne pathogens and/or storage pathogens and insects. Seeds are thoroughly mixed with required quantities of chemicals namely bavistin (carbendezim) @ 2-4 g/kg of seeds.

1. INTRODUCTION

Seed health refers to the health status of a seed. Sowing healthy seeds of high quality is our concern to improve crop yields, thus increasing food production. It has a great concern to farmers and seed producing agencies where the disease is high and average yields are low and where more food is needed to feed the ever-increasing population. So, it is important to test the seeds for disease organism before they are sown in the field and to avoid harmful organisms traveling from infected to non-infected areas within a country or across international boundaries.

1. PPV & FR ACT

With the signing of TRIPs agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO), India has agreed to provide protection to plant varieties. The Government of India, therefore, enacted “ The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act (PPV&FR Act)” in 2001 and the Regulations for implementing the Act were formulated in 2003.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, has been identified as the nodal agency for implementing the PPV& FR Act through an Authority known as “The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer Rights Authority”. The Authority came into force in November, 2005.

PPV & FR act has 11 chapters, 4 schedules and 97 sections.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

Rationale of the Programme

A vast majority of the poor people in rural areas of the country depend mainly on the wages they earn through unskilled labour. They are often on threshold levels of subsistence and are vulnerable to the possibility of sinking from transient to chronic poverty, in the event of inadequate labour demand or in the face of unpredictable crises that may be general in nature like natural disaster or personal like ill-health, all of which adversely impact their employment opportunities. In a context of poverty & unemployment, wage employment programmes provide unskilled manual workers with short-term employment. The wage employment programmes provide income transfers to poor households during critical times and so also enable consumption smoothing specially during slack agricultural seasons or years. Durable assets created under these programmes have the potential to generate sustainable livelihood.

1.1. Agriculture

Derived from Latin word; Ager-soil and culture-Cultivation.

An art: Governs the knowledge to perform the operations of the farm in a skillful ways.

A science: Uses technologies including breeding, production technologies, crop protection, economics etc., to maximize the yield and profitability of the farmer.

A business: Way of life for a rural population.

Involves management of labour, water and capital, and employing technologies for production of food, fibre, feed and fuel through mechanization to achieve maximum returns.

As per Agricultural act 1947, agriculture includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, livestock breeding, grazing land, meadow land, market gardens and nursery gardens.

4.1. Role of soil microorganisms

Soil N utilization by plants.

Dead organic matters decomposed.

Nutrient transformation.

Physical and chemical properties of soil.

CO₂ content.

Soil formation.

5.1. Organic matter

In sandy soil, the sticky and slimy organic materials cement the sand particles together to form aggregates.

In clayey soil, it modifies the properties of clay by reducing its cohesiveness and making clay more crumby.

8.1. Classification of essential nutrients

8.1.1. Based on the amount required by the plant

Major nutrients-Required in large quantities eg. N, P, K.

Secondary nutrients-Required in lesser quantities compared to major nutrients eg. Ca, Mg, S.

Micronutrients-Required in trace quantities eg. Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Mo.

9.1. Nutrient deficiency of corrective measures

9.1.1. Major and secondary nutrients

14.1. Soil fertility

Ability of the soil to supply essential plant nutrients during growth period of the plants

Crop producing capacity of the soil

2.1. Definition

Land which is presently lying unused or which is not being used to its optimum potential due to some constraints

1.1. Cropping pattern

Yearly sequence and spatial arrangement of crops or crops and fallow on a given area.

1.2. Cropping seasons in India

1.2.1. Kharif season: Southwest monsoon

Crops - Rice, cotton, jute, jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet) and redgram (Pigeon pea).

5.1. Irrigation requirement of field crops

14.1. PPVFR Act

TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement of WTO (World Trade Organization) was signed.

Enacted PPVFR act in 2001.

Regulation formulated in 2003.

Term Biotechnology was first coined in 1919 by Karl Ereky which means products are produced from raw materials with the aid of living organisms.

Bio means life.

Technology means application of knowledge for practical use.

2.1. Seed

Defined as a mature ovule or a reproductive unit formed from fertilized ovule, consisting of an embryo, reserve food and a protective cover.

4.1. Seed policy

4.1.1. Seed policies formulated for governing seed quality control system

6.1. Genetic principles

6.1.1. Maintenance of genetic purity during seed production

1. Steps suggested by Home (1953)