eChapters

9.1. Plant quarantine

Legal restriction of movement of plant materials between countries and between states within the country to prevent or limit introduction and spread of pests and diseases in areas where they do not exist.

Plant quarantine regulatory measures are operative through the Destructive Insects & Pests Act, 1914 (Act 2 of 1914) in the country.

12.1. Sprayers

Atomizes spray fluid into a small droplets and eject it with little force for distributing it properly.

Regulates amount of pesticide to avoid excessive application that is wasteful or harmful.

2.1. Principles

Six basic principles.

2.1.1. Principle of variable proportions or laws of returns

Helps in deciding optimum amount of an input needs to be applied for cultivation of a particular crop or enterprise.

Law of diminishing returns will operate.

5.1. Cost concepts

Cost refers to the money value of effort extended or sacrifice made in producing an article or rendering a service or achieving a specific purpose.

Expenses incurred in organizing and carrying out production process.

Includes outlays of funds for inputs and services.

Total costs: Money value of all inputs used in the production process.

2.1. Recommendation of expert committees

Commercial banks tended to concentrate more on industrial sector than agricultural sector.

Indian Central Banking Committee (1931), Agricultural Finance Subcommittee (1945), Rural Banking Enquiry Committee (1950), All India Rural Credit survey committee (1951), All India Rural Debt and Investment Survey (1961-62) and Informal Group on Institutional Arrangements for Agricultural Credit (1964) suggested that financing agriculture by commercial banks was not significant (Until 1950).

4.1. Area approach

National Credit Council was set up in December, 1967

Study group in October, 1968 under chairmanship of Prof. D R Gadgil found that Commercial Banks had penetrated only 5000 villages as of June, 1967 and its share was 1% compared to co-operatives.

Recommended the adoption of an area approach for bridging the spatial and structural credit gaps.

All India Rural Credit Review Committee 1969 also endorsed the view the Commercial Banks should increasingly came forward to finance activities in rural areas.

RBI accepted recommendation and formulated Lead Bank Scheme (LBS) in December, 1969

Each district had been assigned to different banks (Public and private) to act as a consortium leader to coordinate branch expansion and credit planning.

Nationalization of 14 major Commercial Banks in July 1969 (Another 6 banks in 1980), paved the way for branch expansion network in unbanked rural and semi urban areas.

5.1. Emergence of Service Area Approach

During the five years ended 1985-86

Gross value added in agricultural sector: 2.70% per annum.

Share of agriculture in total net domestic product declined from 39.80% to 35.40%.

Food grains production increased from 133.30 million tons to 150.50 million tons by 18%

In contrast, there was 41% increase in outstanding level of credit for agriculture from rural lending agencies viz., Co-operatives, RRBs and CBs between June 1981 and June 1986.

Share of Haryana, Punjab and U.P. in total food grains production was around 38% accounted for 75% increase in food grains output.

However, their share in the total institutional credit was 22% only.

6.1. Principles of farm finance

6.1.1. Five Cs’

7.1. Crop insurance

Helps in stabilization of farm production and income of farming community.

Helps in optimal allocation of resources in production process.

Crop insurance is sold and bought in a market.

Has a limited role in risk management in farming.

Any limitations to scope for effective and economic crop insurance can change over time.

Speculation and hedging are important ways of minimizing price risk in business.

Speculation: Risk is taken by person specializing in business without much consideration of business trends.

Hedging: A calculated risk is taken.

7.1. Marketing institutions

Business organizations which have come up to operate the marketing machinery.

Individuals, corporate, co-operative and government institutions are operating in agricultural marketing.

12.1. Agribusiness

Concept was born in Harvard University in 1957.

John David and A. Goldberg wrote a book ‘A concept of Agri-business’.

In early 1966, University of Philippines offered an Agri-Business Management (ABM) UG program.

In 1969, first Advanced Agribusiness Management seminar held in Manila.

13.1. Forms of business organisations

Factors to be given weightage for choice of a suitable form of organization

Type of business - service, trade, manufacturing.

Selection of industry and area of operation.

Scope of operations, volume of business and market size, including its expected growth potential.

Amount of capital funds required – initial capital, working capital.

11.1. Definition

Jones: Variations or modifications of any aspect of social process, social patterns, social interaction or social organization.

Gillin and Gillin: Variations from the accepted modes of life; whether due to alteration in geographical conditions, in cultural equipment, composition on the population or ideologies and whether brought about by diffusion or inventions within the group.

Davis and Mac Iver: Change in the relationships.

Analytical chemistry is a branch of chemistry dealing with the determination of constituents of a substance or mixture of substances.

1.1 Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative analysis deals with the identification of the constituents of a substance, mixture of substances, or solutions and the way in which component element or a group of elements are constituted.

1.2 Quantitative Analysis

Quantitative analysis is concerned with the determination of quantitative contents of individual element or group of elements or compound present in the substances. This branch of analytical chemistry is of enormous scope and importance in science, industry and agriculture. The quantitative analysis can be divided into several categories based on the different methods employed for their quantitative measurements such as:

2.1 Beakers

Beakers are the one of most important vessels used in laboratory which is made up of heat resistant glass.

They are available in various capacities ranging from 10 to 3000 mL.

For convenience of pouring solution, spout is provided in the beaker.

They are used to perform titrations & for boiling solutions, etc.,

Beakers are constructed in tall and low forms.

(International/Robinson’s Pipette Method)

Principle

This method is based on Stoke’s law. According to this law, the rate of fall of a particle in liquid is directly proportional to the square of its radius.

[Bray’s Method (Bray and Kurtz, 1945) – Acid Soils]

Introduction

The term available phosphorus (P) refers to the inorganic form, occurring in the soil solution, which is almost exclusively ‘orthophosphate’. This orthophosphate occurs in several forms and combinations, and only a small fraction of the total amount present may be available to plants, which is of direct relevance in assessing the P fertility level.

The phosphate concentration in solution is governed by heterogeneous equilibria in which it takes part. This situation can be represented as follows:

P adsorbed in solid phase ↔ P in the soil solution ↔ P precipitated

The phosphorus absorbed by plants from soil solution comes from the soil solution in which it exists as inorganic orthophosphate ions viz., H₂PO₄ ^–, HPO₄ ^2– and PO₄ ^3–. The most accessible ion is H₂PO₄ ^–, with the greatest activity coefficient, followed by HPO₄ ^2–. The quantity of P accessible to the plants is influenced by a series of soil properties. The relative abundance of these ions is, however, relatively dependent on the soil pH. For soils having a pH between 4.5 and 7.5, ions of H₂PO₄ ^– as well as HPO₄ ^2– exist in soil solution. At a pH of 7.2, H₂PO₄ ^–and HPO₄ ^2– ions have an equal activity, and, when the pH is strongly alkaline (>8.3), ions of HPO₄ ^2– predominate in solution. Above pH of 9.0, the trivalent ion (PO₄ ^3–) becomes more important than H₂PO₄ ^–, but even at a pH of 12, the HPO₄ ^2– concentration is still greater than that of PO₄ ^3–. Soluble phosphorus may be adsorptively retained at the surface of colloidal particles. This retention is more marked when the higher amounts of clay and sesquioxides are present. Relatively, the available inorganic P tends to accumulate in its most stable state under prevailing conditions, thus, in calcareous soils, the available inorganic P would be acid-soluble, whereas, in acid soils the adsorbed P would be more available. In flooded soils, with low oxidation potential, certain forms of P, normally considered as unavailable, for example, iron and phosphate, can be regarded as available. In most soils, the main source of orthophosphate is organic matter unless, of course, direct fertilization, with soluble phosphate, has been made.

[Williams and Steinbergs (1959) Method]

Introduction

Sulphur (S) occurs in numerous forms in soil, viz., sulphites, sulphates, sulphides and in organic compounds. It is considered that the most accessible form is ‘sulphate’ (SO₄ ^2–). The organic forms of S compounds become assimilable, especially following, microbiological transformation into SO₄ ^2–. The mineralization of organic S in a soil depends primarily upon the N:S ratio, and any SO₄ ^2– formed may be fixed against extraction, particularly if much Fe or Ba is present or if the soil is very acid. Despite the fact that the plants absorb S almost exclusively as SO₄ ^2–, mobility of SO₄ ^2– in soil may not always yield satisfactory results in accordance with the time of sampling, while assessing SO₄ ^2– availability.

Mould growth in raw materials or finished feeds result in production of mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are a large group of toxic chemicals causing wide range of pathological and physiological effects in animals. Symptoms depend on the amount of toxin present in the feed, the period for which the feed is ingested, the nutritional status of the feed and the susceptibility of the animal. Feed efficiency, growth rate and production are affected in animals consuming sub-acute doses.

Ruminants are generally considered less susceptible to mycotoxins than monogastric animals because of degradation of mycotoxin in rumen by rumen microorganism. However, certain mycotoxins resist rumen degradation and cause clinical mycotoxicosis. In high yielding dairy animals, during transition period, animals who are in negative energy balance (NEB), low body condition score and decreased resistance to infectious agents cause adverse effects in animal health with exposure of mycotoxins present in animal diet.

Effect of mycotoxin in ruminants

In cattle during metabolism, mycotoxin present in stored or ensiled feeds produce microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) which are responsible for mouldy odour, reduced feed intake and increased feeding times. This insufficient feed intake further produces negative energy balance (NEB).

Introduction

A sustainable approach to managing pests by combining biological, cultural, physical and chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health and environmental risks. The objective for IPM practitioners is to minimize risks to human health and the environment from the pest management actions implemented. IPM is a holistic approach that seeks to manage pests by using methods that are effective, economically sound, and ecologically compatible. IPM practitioners base decisions on information that is collected systematically as they integrate economic, environmental, and social goals. IPM promotes the use and integration of biological control agent as one of the strategies for pest and disease management. Because, biological control of plant pathogen is a potential alternative to the use of environment harming chemical pesticides in agriculture.

Bacteria are by far the common type of soil microorganisms, possibly because they can grow rapidly and have the ability to utilize a wide range of substances as either carbon or nitrogen sources. The bacteria that provide some benefit to plants are found near, on (or) even within the roots of plants (Kloepper et al., 1980) to protect the plants from pathogen attack called as antagonistic organism. Among the many potential bacterial antagonists associated with the plant roots the fluorescent pseudomonads have received prominent attention due to their abundance in plant rhizosphere and their ability to colonize roots of a wide range of crop plants. Pseudomonas fluorescens is a Gram negative, non spore forming, rod shaped bacteria producing pigments which are greenish, fluorescent and water soluble. It is found to be effective against the following fungal pathogens viz., Rhizoctonia solani, Macrophomina phaseolina, Fusarium udum, Pyricularia grisea, Fusarium oxysporum fsp. cubense. It is capable of surviving in the spermosphere, rhizosphere and phyllosphere of plants. The mechanisms of biological action exhibited inovles antibiosis, competition, lysis and induced resistance. Pseudomonas have an exceptional capacity to produce a wide variety of metabolites, including antibiotics, that are toxic to plant pathogens.

Many Bacillus species are capable of producing a wide variety of secondary metabolites that are diverse in structure and function. The production of metabolites with antimicrobial activity is one determinant of their ability to control plant diseases. The activity is determined using PCR. PCR consists of an exponential amplification of a DNA fragment, and its principle is based on the mechanism of DNA replication in vivo. dsDNA is denatured to ssDNA, duplicated, and this process is repeated along the reaction according to the following formula

Although the Rhabditids have been studied from last one century, the field level use of Entomopathogenic nematodes the members of Rhabditids for the management of insect pest was followed only after Dutky who practically used EPNs in 1937 on Apple Codling moth.

The taxonomy of Entomopathogenic nematodes of the order Rhabditidae is discussed in this lecture.

I. In vivo culturing technique

In vivo culturing means culturing of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) in the host. Generally rice meal moth, Corcyra cephalonica and greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella are used as insect hosts for rearing EPNs.Insect hosts such as Spodoptera, Helicoverpa and Bombyx mori are also used for culturing Steinernema and Heterorhabditis but these insects need plant host especially leaves for culturing. Corcyra can be grown in broken cumbu grains and Galleria in honey comb or artificial diet.

Introduction

Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) viz., Heterorhabditis, Neosteinernema and Steinernema have been recovered from many regions of the world and have been used commercially as biocontrol agents of insect pests. They are associated with mutualistic bacteria in the genus Xenorhabdus for Steinernematidae and Photorhabdus for Heterorhabditidae. The infective juvenile nematodes enter their host insect through natural openings (mouth, anus or spiracles), they release bacteria into the insect and cause rapid death of insect host (24-48 h). EPNs were used against many insect pests viz., rice leaf folder, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Srinivas and Prasad, 1991); tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura (Rajkumar et al., 2003); brinjal fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis (Hussaini et al., 2002) diamond back moth, Plutella xylostella (Singh and Shinde, 2002); Diaprepes abbreviates (Jenkins et al., 2007); Bemesia tabaci (QiuBaoli et al., 2008) and sugar beet beetle (Saleh et al. 2009).

During the 19^th century various hypotheses were advanced about the origin of earth. These hypotheses can be grouped into two general classes:

1. Monistic hypotheses: The pioneers of this hypotheses believed that only one mass or body was responsible for the creation of the solar system. The representative of this theory is Nebular hypothesis. The advocates of this hypothesis were Kant and Laplace.

2. Dualistic hypotheses: The advocates of this hypothesis believed that two separate masses or bodies were responsible for the creation of the solar system. The representatives of this hypothesis are Planetesimal hypothesis and Tidal hypothesis. The pioneer of Planetesimal hypothesis was the great English scientist T. C. Chamberlain. The Tidal hypothesis was advocated by another English geographer named James Jeans.

Soil formation takes place in two consecutive stages:

1. The weathering of rocks into regolith

2. The formation of true soil from regolith

The evolution of true soil from regolith takes place by the combined action of soil forming factors and processes. The first step is accomplished by weathering (disintegration and decomposition) and the second is associated with the action of soil forming factors which are known as pedogenic factors.

The pedogenic processes are dynamic and extremely complex involving several chemical and biological reactions, usually operating simultaneously in a given area. One process may counteract another, or two different processes may work in tandem to achieve the same result. Different processes or combination of processes operate under varying natural environments. The combined interaction of various soil forming factors under different environmental conditions set a furtherance to certain recognized soil forming processes. Pedogenic processes include:

Soil colour is the most obvious characteristic of soil. It has no direct effect on plant growth; however, it has indirect effect through temperature, moisture. Soil colour can indicate the climatic conditions under which it has developed and can be related to its parent material. It can also reflect upon its age, and the temperature and moisture characteristics of the climate. Thus, cooler regions tend to have grayish to black topsoils, due to the accumulation of humus. In moist warm regions, soils tend to be more yellowish-brown to red. Arid soils tend to be light in color (due to low organic content) and primarily express the color of their mineral content. Practically all colours occur in soils - white, red, brown, gray, yellow, black, etc. Predominantly soil colours are not pure, but mixtures. Frequently two or three colours occur, called as “mottling”.

Water can move in the liquid and gaseous phases:

1. Liquid water

i) Saturated flow: Most pores are filled with water; water in this condition is tension free

ii) Unsaturated flow: Pores are partially filled with air; the water is under tension.

2. Water vapour

i) Diffusion: Water vapour moves by diffusion as a result of vapour pressure differences (partial pressure)

ii) Mass flow: Water vapour flows in a mass with other gases of the system in response to differences in total pressure.

Soil Colloids

A colloidal system is a two-phase heterogenous system in which one material in a very finely divided state is dispersed through the second phase. Solid in liquid (dispersion of clay in water) and liquid in gas (fog or clouds in atmosphere) are examples. The clay fraction of the soil contains particles less than 0.002 mm in size. Particles less than 0.001 mm size possess colloidal properties and are known as soil colloids.

Structure of Crystalline Clays

Soil clay minerals are of two types: crystalline and amorphous. Crystalline clays are made up of sheets of octahedra and tetrahedra of O and OH. Clays with alternating sheets of aluminium octahedra and silicon tetrahedra, are called, “1:1 clays” or “diphormic clays”. A sheet of octahedra is sandwiched between two sheets of tetrahedra in 2:1 clays which are called as, “triphormic clays”.

The building blocks of clay crystals are called “unit cells”. The geometry of octahedra has 3 voids in each half unit cell, equivalent to 6 negative valences. In order to nullify these 6 negative valences, 6 positive valences are needed. The 6 negative valences can be nullified by 3 divalent cations, one each in the three voids, or by 2 trivalent cations, leaving the third void empty. When trivalent cations such as Fe³+ and Al³+ fill two of the three voids, the clays are called, “dioctahedral clays”. When three divalent cations such as Fe , Mg and Mn fill up all the three voids, such clays are called, “trioctahedral clays”.

Ion Exchange Defined

By ion exchange is meant “the reversible process by which cations and anions are exchanged between solid and liquid phases, and between solid phases, if in close contact with each other”. For exchange of cations the term “base exchange” is exclusively used.

To millions of different organisms around the world, soil is the habitat. A handful of soil can contain billions of soil micro-organisms. One gram of a fertile soil can harbour up to one billion bacteria. Only 5% of what is produced by green plants is consumed by animals, but 95% is consumed by microorganisms. Soil organisms are generally grouped into microfauna/microorganisms and macrofauna. The main soil microorganisms are bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. The macro-fauna includes oligochaeta, arthropods, mollusks and nematodes. These organisms play an essential role in soil formation and soil environment.

27.1. Bacteria

Bacteria are the major single-celled microorganisms in the soil ecosystem that are responsible for many important processes. There are many different types of bacteria and most of them are aerobic, requiring oxygen from the soil atmosphere. However, there are bacteria that live without oxygen and other types can live both with and without oxygen. The growth of these bacteria is limited by the food that is available in the soil. They decompose plant materials as well as other organisms’ wastes that contain plant nutrients in an unusable form and convert them into a form that can be used by plants. One such essential nutrient that is converted by bacteria is nitrogen. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are able to use the nitrogen (N₂) that exists in the atmosphere and convert it through cellular processes into ammonia (NH₃). Nitrifying bacteria mix ammonia with water to create ammonium ion (NH₄+) and nitrate (NO₃^-), which can be used by other organisms.

Soil quality is the capacity of the soil to function, within its natural or managed ecosystems, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, support human and animal health and habitation. This is not limited to agriculture, though most work and evaluation has occurred on agricultural lands.

Soil health refers to the condition of the soil and its potential to sustain biological functions, maintain environmental quality and promote plant and animal health. Healthy soils are the key to food security and sustainable future. They support sustainable food production, mitigate and adapt to climate changes, filter water, enhance resilience to floods and droughts and so much more.

India is endowed with varied types of soils and this could be attributed varied relief features, landforms, climatic realms and vegetation types in the subcontinent. In ancient times, soils used to be classified in India into fertile and sterile soils. Later, the inherent characteristics and external features of soils such as texture and colour, were used to classify the soils. Based on texture, soil types were identified as sandy, clayey, loam, etc. In terms of colour, they were red, yellow, black, etc.

Scientific surveys of soils in India have been conducted by various agencies since independence. All India Soil Survey Organization, established in 1956, carried out detailed soil surveys in the catchment areas of major river valley projects like the Damodar Valley. Later, the National Bureau of Soil Survey and the Land Use Planning (NBSSLUP) ofthe Indian Council of Agricultural Research, established in 1976, made extensive studies on Indian soils and classified them as per the USDA SoilTaxonomy

The Horticultural crops show wider adaptation and therefore exact delineation of the agro-climatic areas specific to each crops is not possible, except for the typical temperate and tropical species. However, our country can be broadly divided into seven zones for horticultural crops as indicated below:

1. Temperate Northern Region

Comprising of states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Hilly areas of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Temperate fruits, cool season vegetables are the important horticultural crops in the zone.

2. North Western Arid Region

Comprising ofthe entire Rajasthan state, Gujarat and parts ofPunjab & Haryana. Arid fruit crops like ber, pomegranate, amla, date palm, wood apple and seed spices like coriander, cumin, fennel occupy major area in this zone.

3. North Eastern Sub-tropical Humid Region

Comprising of states and union territories like Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Fruit crops like banana, pineapple, citrus, jack besides plantation crops like tea and large cardamom are also grown here.

The Government of India has established boards for important crops. The boards are statutory bodies which help in guiding the production and export. The main objectives for setting up the boards are -

To monitor and promote the export of primary items.

To empower the producers by providing trainings and close guidance.

To conduct research to improve the commodity, e.g. Central Coffee Research Institute, Coir Research Institute etc.

To advise the government on policy matters such as price fixing, fixing quota for export and signing trade agreements.

To promote the commodity by opening offices and outlets in India and abroad.

To showcase the commodity by participating in trade fairs and exhibitions.

A number of tools, implements and machineries are used in cultivation of horticultural crops to make every operation easy and efficient. There are a number of operations involved in cultivation of horticultural crops, like making of nursery, propagation of plant material, field ploughing, breaking of clods, levelling, making bunds, sowing and planting, plant protection, training, pruning, harvesting, lawn mowing etc. All these operations are physically taxing and cannot be carried out efficiently without proper tools, implements and machineries. Following are some important tools -

1. Bill hook: To cut and remove big sized unwanted branches of trees.

2. Buckets and plastic pots: used in the orchard for spraying, transport water, carry harvested produce etc.

3. Budding and grafting knife: The budding and grafting operations in propagation of many horticultural plants are carried out using budding and grafting knife.

4. Country plough: Used in field preparation for ploughing the soil, incorporation of organic manures into the soil at the time of last ploughing, summer ploughing in conserving of soil moisture.

5. Crow bar: Used to loosen the soil, digging and deepening the pits and channels.

6. Dibbler: Used to make holes and sow the seeds in the nursery as well as in the main field.

7. Digging fork: It is of a great use in harvesting the tuber crops without damaging the produce.

Water is an extremely essential component in plant growth and development. It is of utmost importance for photosynthesis, cell division, cell growth / elongation, respiration, nutrient uptake, mineral utilization and much other metabolic process, which directly affect the quantity and quality of the produce. Hence quantity and quality of water play a vital role in performance of a crop. A well distributed water supply, throughout the growth of plant is essential. Rainfall is the major source of water for the crops. Rainfall recharges the surface water resources such as rivers, streams and ponds and also the ground water resources like wells.

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) is a subtropical evergreen fruit tree belongs to family Rosaceae and subfamily Pomoideae (Lindley, 1982). It flowers in early winter and fruits ripen in mid march and may where there is scarcity of fruits. It is native to southeast China and has been cultivated in China for over 2000 years and many species occur there in wild state (Lin et al. 1999). Loquat is introduced in India under the name of Japanese medlar or Java plum. In India, it is commercially cultivated in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and hills of southern states. Among different states Uttar Pradesh occupies the first position under loquat production.

Loquat is delicious fruit known for their mild, subacid and sweet taste. It contains 60 to 70 per cent pulp depending upon the cultivar and 15–20 per cent seed. In addition to 88% water pulp is composed of 55% vitamins and 0.5% minerals, 0.6% proteins, 9.6% carbohydrates and 1.0% fibre. Loquat fruit is also rich in phenolics and carotenoids.

Robots can replace human efforts in the future. Discovery of robots in agriculture is going to accelerate the growth of agriculture 4.0. Nursery planting needs robust and profitable solutions. Nursery plants deals with the direct consumer, which is the primary stage of agriculture. An intensive care is required to look after the nursery plant before going to be planted. Now a days robots are used to monitor the plants, essentially to maintain the health standard of a plant. This chapter illustrate the applications of the robots in nursery planting.

6.1 Introduction

Nursery is the primary stage where seeds are grown in to the young plants. Nursery planting involves many activities like seeding, potting and monitoring. The process required high attention to look after at this stage [1]. As the food demand is increasing day by day, it is necessary to adapt unconventional way of farming. Bringing robots in to the farming will bring a lot of changes in the traditional agriculture. The robotics in agriculture is not new, it has started with evolution of autonomous vehicles [2]. The usage of robots are increasing exponentially. So the researcher and scientist also started use of robots in agriculture. They found a phenomenal result in term of easy to handle the agro tasks, seeding, weeding, automatic irrigation and harvesting. It draws the farmer attention down the line [3].

Agriculture is the backbone of India. Evolution in technology is bringing new dimensions of conventional agriculture. Looking towards the current food demands it is very crucial to maintain the food supply. According to UN (United Nations), by 2050 the world population will be increased to around 9.3 billion which increases the food need. As the technology in agriculture evolving it seems that we could be able transform conventional farming to unconventional and traditional to modernization by the help of agriculture robots. Agri-bots can be autonomous with human intervention that could perform the task precisely. Chapter illustrates the applications in agriculture seeding. These robots are efficiently used in crop seeding.

7.1 Introduction

The very first agriculture robots were used in the early 1920s along with autonomous vehicle development.

Agro robots are becoming an ongoing pattern in farming with lots of research advancement and business models [1]. Agrarian robots have huge focal points as far as adaptability, flexibility and ecological advantages contrasted with customary horticultural apparatus and speak to an extraordinary resource for cutting edge precision agribusiness. Numerous advances in machine vision with imaging and otherworldly cam-periods for distinguishing weeds, vermin and infections, supplement inadequacies in soil or plant leaves have given profound applications to be mounted on independent vehicles for exploring soil and crops and for additional downstream choice help and control [2]. The mechanical network has additionally made earth shattering upgrades and advancements as far as utilizing a far reaching working framework, the Robotic Operating System (ROS), just as applying strong stages and route calculations.

Comparable to horticultural robots, the attributes of the central framework of robots are the lightweight, little size and lively self-governance [3]. Lightweight implies that the vehicle requires lower impetus vitality and incites less soil compaction while simultaneously the vehicle must be little for security reasons, for accomplishing more noteworthy accuracy during execution of assignments and having more maneuverability inside the field to limit turning delays.

Precision Agriculture is fulfilled by adapting suitable monitoring and analysis mechanisms. Autonomous monitoring is getting a new dimension using robots. Agriculture is the trending area to attract new professionals, investors and new companies. The technology in agriculture is not only increasing the yields but the time and labour. This chapter illustrates the use of robotics in crop monitoring and analysis.

8.1 Introduction

Monitoring of agriculture farm enhance the productivity. Evolution in technologies in the era of agriculture brought a lot of innovations. Among these innovations robots are one of them to be implemented in agriculture to enhance profitability and reliability with minimum human resource. At the same robots were deployed to monitor the farming land from weeds and try to remove these. Due to which uses of agrochemicals reduced down the time line. When precision farming came in to the pictures robots are the best use cases. In fig. 8.1 autonomous mechanical robots are shown, which are used to remove the weed from farming land. Robots are equipped with sensor modules, actuators and IoT enabled which makes the things very easy to control from remote area with commands.

Agriculture irrigation is a crucial part of precision farming. An irrigation system required a lot concentration to grow the plant healthy. A smart irrigation system in an agriculture farm leads to maximum profits in terms of yield. Integrating technologies like IoT (Internet of Things), AI (Artificial Intelligence) in irrigation accomplish to the human efforts. Controlling of water pumps, sprinklers seamlessly draws the kind attention of farmer to adapt these technologies in their day today farming schedules. This chapter illustrates a wide variety of robots used in irrigation to achieve maximum yield and minimizing water loss. The high scalability and reliabilities of these autonomous robots replicates the potential of agriculture 4.0 in coming future. Advanced robots deployed on the field to monitor the land and pass the information to the controllers and further to the water pumps. Here case study of robots is highlighted to reduce water losses by using nozzles mechanisms.

9.1 Introduction

Agriculture faces many environmental challenges. As far as the irrigation in agriculture is concerned it is very essential to maintain soil hydrated and water level in the field. Robotic irrigation enables autonomous irrigation from remote access [3]. Smart irrigation technique enables a lot of water saving. So robotic in agriculture plays a very crucial role in it [2]. In order to avoid water losses agro robots adapt smart irrigation techniques like droplet irrigation and sprinkling. To maintain sustainability, water resource management is required. Technologies like drones, smart sprinkler based on IoT, smart droplet irrigation used across the globe. These technologies have the greatest impact on productivity and sustainability of the environment as well. As far as the country India is concerned, due to diversity in geographical infrastructures rainfall changes from state to states. So, a wide range of water diversity is found to grow agricultural foods. For example northeast and southern part of India due to heavy rainfall paddy cultivation is preferred since it requires a lot of water. Whereas the northern part of India observe a moderate rainfall, so vegetables and other agriculture foods get cultivated. At the same there are certain states like Rajsthan, Gujrat where very less rainfall occurs through varieties of crops related to dal.

In the wild (forests) plants grow by their own, but in agriculture because of limited space they don’t have freedom to grow in a much natural way. This can lead to structural irregularities in their growth, and can hamper the overall plant’s development and this will impact the produce or crop yield. To deal with such constraints and to boost the crop production, the methods of thinning and pruning provide efficient ways to train the growth of young plants and maintain the health of grown-up plants.

11.1 Introduction

In agriculture, thinning means the removal of some plants or some parts of plants that show inconsistent growth and or are damaged by some pest or disease, without removing the whole tree or plant. The selective removal of branches, buds or roots is termed as pruning [1]. If the plants are overcrowded in a confined space, the overall health of the crop decreases due to the competitive stress from the neighbouring plants. Thinning and pruning is done to improve the growth rate or health of the plants by decreasing the competitive stress. Thinning and pruning in agriculture is the sensible removal of plant parts such as flowers, shoots, its branches or other parts to correct or maintain that structure of the tree and control be directed growth of the crop. This practice covers the precise removal of the unhealthy and obstructive part of the plant branch, leaves, fruits, buds, fruits, etc. Pruning improves the quality and longevity of the crop, leading to quality produce and increased yield of the field. This also helps in increasing the size of the fruit as it increases the availability of nitrogen required for growing and stimulating growth of the crop. There are several factors that influence the amount of pruning to be done, i.e., age of the plant, condition of the bark and wood, growth characteristics, whether cup crop/plantation is permanent or seasonal [2]. Pruning is done for controlling the size of the plant, controlling the structure makeup of the plant, controlling and improving the light distribution of the plants by the selective removal of leaves to improve the quality of the fruits, removing the diseased parts of the plant and to regulate the fruit crop and increase the life of the tree.