eChapters

Introduction

The Arecanut palm is cultivated primarily for its kernel obtained from the fruit, which is chewed when it is tender, ripe or processed. Despite being native to the Malayan Archipelago, the Philippines, and other East Indian Islands.Only in India is it under scientific cultivation. India is the world’s largest producer of arecanut, contributing nearly 74 % of world production. India is the world’s largest consumer of arecanut (accounting to 89 % of world production). Other uses for arecanut other than chewing are negligible. Its export prospects are also very limited. Therefore, the present policy is not to expand the area under arecanut but to adopt intensive cultivation and take up replanting of the aged and unproductive gardens. Inter and mixed cropping in arecanut gardens is advocated to augment the income from the existing arecanut groves. Alkaloids present in arecanut, Arecoline is the main and physiologically most active alkaloid present to an extent of 0.07 to 0.1 per cent.

Introduction

Cashew is native to South Eastern Brazil, from where it was introduced to the Malabar coast of India in the sixteenth century to cover bare hills and for soil conservation. It gained commercial importance in 1920. African countries produce large quantities of cashew nuts, but they are not processed into consumable products because of difficulties in organizing the native labour. India imports raw cashew nuts which are processed and converted into cashew kernels and cashew shell liquid and re-exported to countries like the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Russia. The cashew kernel of India is of the highest quality in the world. India is the largest producer and exporter of cashews in the world. India stands first in area and production in the world. Indian cashew export: 63 per cent of global cashew trade. The national average is 835 kg per ha (i.e., around 5.50 kg per tree) and this is far less than the achievable level of 2000 kg per ha (i.e., around 12.50 kg per tree). Maharashtra state is having the highest productivity of about 1337 kg per ha (mainly due to adoption of drip irrigation and mulching techniques), while productivity in West Bengal has come down (1140 kg/ha), mainly because of old plantations. Due to its nutritive value and commerce, it is designated as “zero cholesterol nut or white gold”. The cashew nut is a unique combination of fat (47 %), protein (21 %), carbohydrates (22 %) and vitamins (10 %). India contributes about 65 % of the world’s exports. The USA is the largest importer of cashew kernels.

Introduction

The Greek names Theos and Broma mean “Gods” and “Food,” respectively. Cocoa consumption is in temperate countries. Cocoa is a beverage crop introduced for cultivation in India in the early 1965. The cocoa plant is a perennial dicotyledonous which has been under cultivation since pre-historic times. shade-loving and evergreen trees. It is native to the Amazon valley of South America and is now cultivated largely in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Indonesia, Peru, Sierra Leon Cameroon, Equator, West Indies and Malaysia. In India, cocoa is mainly grown in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and. It is a rich source of fat (37%) and protein (7%). It also produces theobromin. Cocoa is used in manufacturing chocolate, cocoa powder, cocoa butter and other nutritious foods.

Introduction

Oil palm is recognized as the highest and cheapest edible oil-yielding crop. Palm oil is extracted from the fruit’s fleshy mesocarp, which contains 45-55 percent oil. The crop is unique in producing 2 distinct types of oil palm oil and palm kernel oil, which are used for culinary and industrial purposes. Being rich in beta carotene, palm oil contributes substantially to the nutritional and energy requirements of the masses. It is also grown in India Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mizorum, Orissa.

Introduction

The rubber tree is the most important commercial source of natural rubber, an industrial raw material of strategic importance, recovered from its latex. Hevea was first used as a source of rubber by the French. The name rubber is derived from the quality of material in rubbing pencial marks. It was introduced to tropical Asia in 1876 through Kew Garden in the UK with seeds brought from Brazil by Sir Henry Wickham. It is now distributed in the tropical regions of Asia, Africa and America. The major rubber-growing countries are Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cote d’Ivoire, China and India Thailand has the maximum area under rubber, but China has taken the credit for maximum rubber production. India is the second largest producer and consumer of natural rubber in the world. In India, rubber is grown over an area of 7.57 lakh hectares with a production of 12.57 lakh tonnes, 9% of the total world natural rubber output. In India, Kerala is the predominant rubber-growing state. International Rubber Research and Development Board (IRRDB), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

• Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII-1955) is located at Kottayam, Kerala

The Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is not a disease; it is multi-factorial syndrome which causes massive losses of honey bee in the USA and elsewhere. It is recorded that in European honey bee (Apis mellifera). The adult worker bee population of the colony demean through catastrophic effects of CCD. The dwindling of adult worker bees in colonies and the lack of noticeable symptoms leads to the nebulous label of CCD. In this syndrome, dead worker bees cannot be found in the colony and their vicinity of bee hive, and stored food (honey and pollen) are not touched by robbers bees and combs remain as such for several weeks even after the collapse. Some scientists; Aizen and Harder, also reported this disorder is not universal and, in fact, global populations of honey bee (A. mellifera) populations are increasing. In the spring of 2007, beekeepers in the US reported a rare kind of bee colony disease where they die off and numerous colonies left their hives and disappeared without a trace. The plight of honey bee in USA has caused concern and attracted great attention of scientists to delve and provide explanations of this mystery and preventive measures. In US, it is also christened “Honey bee AIDS” by some popular media. Indeed, honey bee colonies can die in many ways and CCD is just one of them. Finally, since both honey bee host and pathogens are genetically diverse, the symptoms and causes of colony losses may well be different in varrious regions.

Introduction

The main function of the respiratory system is to exchange O₂ and CO₂ between the atmosphere, blood, and cells, which are necessary for animal survival. The circulatory and respiratory systems work together to provide oxygen to cells while eliminating CO₂. O₂ consumption and CO₂ production are determined by cell metabolic activity.

Respiratory volumes or lung volumes refer to the volumes of gas in the lungs at any given point during the respiratory cycle. These volumes vary according to the animals’ physiological state, ambient factors, and health status. This is why; measurements of lung volumes are helpful in understanding the pathophysiology of the respiratory system.

Observation recording: The students are advised to visit the different forests areas and identify various insects and pests damaging trees in various ways like leaf feeding (defoliator), stem boring (stem borer) damaging seeds (seed borer) etc and various pathogens.

Observation recording: Students are advised to visit the nursey and forest plantation to record the various tending operations which are adopted by the forest department or Plantation Company.

Age old practice of photography was taken with still camera in parallel direction, not aerially scan or snapping which really present wider prospective of any object or places in rearranging or planning skilfully in two dimensional working. Earlier aeroplane played a important role in over head condition to capture snaps but again accuracy and angle of camera limited the works because these photographs were diagonally or trigonally not matched the reality of ground.

The goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet society’s food and textile needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Practitioners of sustainable agriculture seek to integrate three main objectives into their work: a healthy environment, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. Every person involved in the food system—growers, food processors, distributors, retailers, consumers, and waste managers—can play a role in ensuring a sustainable agricultural system.

Climate change is a long-lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather pattern triggered by greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. It is caused by natural factors like continental drift, volcanoes, earth’s tilt, and ocean current or manmade factors like urbanization, industrialization, burning of fossil fuel, deforestation and faulty agricultural practices.

Harvesting is a complex operation that can be divided into three major parts, as follows:

Driving and concentrating the fish stock to the catch basin;

Lifting the fish out of the catch basin and placing them on a sorting table;

Sorting the fish and loading them on the transporting vehicle.

All across the world, the dairy industry is facing numerous problems and changes. Dairy development has received a considerable boost from factors including access to technical advancements, improvements in infrastructural facilities, and the development of modern marketing insights. It is interesting to see how the dairy sector is changing globally.

Dairy farmers are faced with a number of fundamental inquiries. The first inquires as to what dairy animal he needs to keep. Is the breed with the best production performance the one that has adapted to the local environment the most? What animal is the best, asks the second? Is it the one with a showwinning conformation or the one with a strong ancestry? Is the ideal dairy cow one that produces the most milk, has the best feet, legs, and udder support, or combines the performance of these characteristics in the best possible way?

In terms of their contribution to human nutrition, the dairy industry is very important. Since dairy farming has the ability to offer meaningful selfemployment and stable income, it is a dependable source of subsistence for the rural poor. Additionally, it requires less labour and cash to maintain. Dairy cattle feeding directly affect the animals’ ability to reproduce and produce. Therefore, the addition of a mineral mixture is necessary to maximize the animal’s productivity and milk output.

Physical ergonomics is concerned with human anatomical, anthropometric, physiological and biomechanical characteristics as they relate to physical activity. This is the ergonomics domain we are most concerned with in the workplace, and most of the content on this site is very much focused on workplace ergonomics.Physical ergonomic principles have been widely used in the design of both consumer and industrial products for optimizing performance and to preventing / treating work-related disorders by reducing the mechanisms behind mechanically induced acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries / disorders.

The rate of consumption of time and energy in task completion is affected by the work area. The work area is composed of the height, available space of the work surface, the location of the equipment, materials, and supplies being used. The work surface should be at the optimum height for the position you assume in task completion. This means if you are standing, the surface height should be slightly below your waistline.

Work simplification is the conscious seeking of the simplest, easiest, and quickest method of doing work. It describes the making of daily tasks easier in order to reduce strain or to decrease the amount energy required to complete an activity. Work simplification research consists of making motion and time studies of the work as it is being done, analyzing the work methods, developing the easiest and most effective way to do the task and putting the new method into use. Time and energy are closely related and if these are blended properly the work of the housewife will be much simplified.

Pressure cookers are pans made of Aluminum or stainless steel. They are available in different sizes. The pressure cooker was invented in the seventeenth century by the physicist Denis Papin, and works by expelling air from the vessel, and trapping the steam produced from the boiling liquid inside. This raises the internal pressures and permits higher cooking temperatures. This, together with high thermal heat transfer from the steam, cooks food far more quickly, often cooking in between half and a quarter the time for conventional boiling. After cooking, the steam pressure is lowered back to ambient atmospheric pressure, so that the vessel can be opened safely.

Cookware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots and pans, used in kitchens. There are several different types of pots and pans- nonstick, ceramic, stainless steel, cast-iron and more. If you’re only going to buy one, we suggest a heavy-duty, try-ply or multi-clad stainless steel pan. They’re expensive, but they’ll last a lifetime with proper use.

The toaster is a kind of equipment used to toast bread in order to make it crisp. It has two slots which can hold two or four slices of bread. The electrical element produces the heat needed to make the bread hot and crisp. The toaster is a little apparatus intended to toast numerous sorts of bread items. Created in Scotland in 1893 and persistently created from that point forward, the most well-known family unit toasting machines are presently the pop-up toaster and the toaster broiler. Pop-up toasters make toast from bread in 1 to 3 minutes by utilizing warmth components.

A vacuum cleaner, also known as a sweeper or hoover, is a device that uses an air pump (a centrifugal fan in all but some of the very oldest models), to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt from fl oors and from other surfaces such as upholstery and draperies.The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal. Vacuum cleaners, which are used in homes as well as in industry, exist in a variety of sizes and models—small battery-powered hand-held devices, wheeled canister models for home use, domestic central vacuum cleaners, huge stationary industrial appliances that can handle several hundred litres of dust before being emptied, and self-propelled vacuum trucks for recovery of large spills or removal of contaminated soil.

A washing machine laundry machine, clothes washer, or washer) is a device used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids, and is performed by specialist businesses) or ultrasonic cleaners. The user adds laundry detergent which is sold in liquid or powder form to the wash water.

A solar cooker or solar oven is a device which uses the energy of sunlight to heat food or to cook it or sterilize it by means of reflective panels that concentrate the light on to a dark coloured pot in an insulated box.

It is believed that efforts to combat poverty and advance sustainable development must include both the development of livestock and energy-related activities The relationship between energy and livestock in alleviating poverty is less clear and has just recently grown increasingly significant, despite the fact that each of these issues has been identified separately(Steinfeld et al., 2006).

Disease in plants defined as the series of invisible and visible responses of plant cells and tissues to a pathogenic organism or environmental factor that result in adverse changes in the form, function, or integrity of the plant and may lead to partial impairment or death of plant parts or of the entire plant.

Decisions need to be taken by the farmer as to how to implement disease management in the most effective and economic manner. Many of these decisions are taken a long time before any diseases appear, such as the crop rotation, time of planting, amount of fertiliser, etc. During the growing season, however, continual decisions need to be made regarding disease management.

Pesticides have a direct impact on agricultural economy and food security. The presence of spurious, fake, illegal or duplicate pesticides in the market result in losses of yield and farmers’ income. Over 30% of plant protection chemicals sold in India are not registered, fake, sub-standard, misbranded, counterfeit, unapproved and illegitimate pesticides, bio pesticides and bio-stimulants. They are developed by passing regulations and field trials.

In order for a plant to become diseased, three conditions must be present: (1) a pathogen, (2) a favorable environment and (3) a susceptible host. All the strategies we use to manage plant diseases work to remove or limit one of these factors, thus breaking the plant disease triangle. The key to sustainable plant disease management is to establish an agro- ecological system that is favorable to plant growth and development at the population level and adverse to pathogen evolution and epidemic development based on interactions among plants, pathogens, vectors and environment.

Of late, there has been a growing trend for individuals and companies to “Go Green” or be more environmentally friendly. There has also been a opinion that natural and organic products are healthier or safer. The pest control industry has responded to these changes in our culture and business markets with innovations in products, materials, and methods. Requests for “organic” based services have grown to a point where most pest control providers offer services that use only natural pesticides.

India has successfully reduced pesticide consumption without adversely affecting the agricultural productivity. This was facilitated by appropriate policies that discouraged pesticide use and favored IDM application. Despite it, adoption of IDM is low owing to a number of socio –economic, institutional and policy issues. 

Physical Properties of milk
Procedure: Collect different types of market milk samples and study the  properties of milk. Boil the milk and note down the properties given in table 1 and record the observations

Drying is one of the oldest methods of preserving food. It is usually accomplished by the removal of water. Dried foods are preserved for long storage time because the available moisture is very low, so that the micro organisms cannot grow and enzyme activity is controlled. It is done by many methods. 1. Sun drying 2. Using mechanical dryers.

The RTS beverage was prepared by using freshly prepared carrot juice, sour orange juice, water and sugar as per FPO specification.

While circulation is a measure of tendency of fluid rotation, vorticity is the same property of fluid for an infinitely small area.

P.C. Method of factor analysis: Principal-component’s method or simply P.C. Method of factor analysis, was developed by Hotelling. This \method searches to maximize the sum of squared loadings of each factor extracted. Accordingly P.C. factor determines more variance than would the loadings obtained from any other method of factoring.

Random design: In a random design, the study population groups as well as the experimental treatments are not predetermined, but randomly assigned to become controlling or experimental groups. Random assignment in experiments means that any individual or unit of the study, the population has an equal and independent chance of becoming a part of the experimental or control group or, in the case of multiple treatment modalities; any treatment has an equal and independent chance of being assigned to any of the population
groups.

Mentzer et al. (2001) defined SCM as ‘the systematic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions within a particular organization and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purposes of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole’. According to Walters and Lancaster (2000), supply chain management is the management of the interface relationships among key stakeholders and business functions that occur in the maximization of value creation which is driven by customer needs satisfaction and facilitated by efficient logistics management.

1. Government is concerned with the marketing system for

a) The quality of commodities at the lowest price

b) Maximum price for surplus produce

c) Steady income from marketing of commodities

d) Safeguard the interests of the groups associated in marketing

2. Which of the following statements are correct ?

i) The Jute Corporation of India is providing minimum price support that assists jute cultivators in all the states of India.

ii) The company purchases jute at the fixed minimum price when market prices declined and later sells to jute mills.

iii) The jute industry suffers from wide fluctuations in supply and price due to changes in the cultivated area and due to the effects of the factors associated with weather.

a) i and ii only

b) i and iii only

c) ii and iii only

d) All of the above

Globally there is growing demand for small ruminant production especially, goats for meat and milk purposes to feed the ever-increasing human population. As per 20^th Livestock Census released by Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, the Goat population in the country in 2019 is 148.88 million showing an increase of 10.1% over the previous census Out of 148.88 million Indigenous Goats (Including Non-descript), 27.4% are pure breed, 9.1% are graded breeds and the remaining 63.5% are non-descript breeds. The goat population has increased at a faster growth rate in India and varied from 0.94 to 5.10% with an average of 3.05% during 1951-2013 in spite of about 41% slaughter and about 15% natural annual mortality. India produced 21.71% of the milk, 10.47% of the meat and 13.15% of the fresh skins of the world goat production worth of Rs. 1,06,335 million per annum. The goat husbandry also generates about 4.2% rural employment over 500,000 remote villages. It contributes nearly 8.5% of the total GDP from livestock sector to Indian agriculture production system. So, to increase the productivity per goat, we need to improve the breed quality scientifically.

• In male animals, endocrine regulation of reproduction is mainly controlled by pituitary gonadotrophins and gonadal androgens. It is not same as in females as there is only negative feedback controls in case of male while it is positively as well as negatively feedback control in females. In other words the synchrony of pituitary gonadotrophins with gonads in male is non cyclic while in female it is cyclic i.e. after castration the pulse frequency of LH and FSH is retained
• Sex Hormones are sex specific e.g. estrogen and progesterone works primarily in females and testosterone in males but sex specificity is limited as far as sexual behaviour is concern. As estrogen injection in castrated buck recovers the maleness while testosterone injection in ovariectomized female maintain the receptivity for male up to certain extent.
• Hypothalamus acts as interface between nervous system and endocrine system. GnRH synthesized in neurons in hypothalamus, released at nerve endings episodic manner and transferred via hypophyseal portal system to anterior pituitary to stimulate the secretion of gonadotrophins.

India is the largest goat producing countries in the world exhibiting rich diversity between and within goat breeds. The implementation of a genetic improvement programme requires a clear breed-based breeding objectives and selection criteria, tailored to the needs of goat farming community. Indigenous goat breeds bear a great degree of adaptability for climatic stress, tropical diseases and low quality feed resources, require low inputs for enhancing productivity, thus, little investment along with use of high merit bucks bring a great change in the economy of the farmers. There are currently 37 recognized goat breeds in the country which are kept mostly in small herds on extensive or partial semi-intensive feeding system. Productivity of Indigenous goats, however, observed less than their actual genetic potential and attributed to low input system, lack of suitable breed specific structural genetic improvement programme and poor adoption of technologies. A buck is the most important animal in the herd. A breeding male or buck contributes 50% of the genetic merit of the herd and also determine the future improvement rate.

The goat rearing on extensive rearing system has been practiced since ancestry for livelihood and nutritional security of poor, landless and marginal farmers of our country with the flock size ranging from 2-10 goats. However, in the recent past, goat rearing is shifting towards semi-intensive and intensive rearing systems for commercial purposes with flock size ranging from 25 to 500. The goats reared in small flocks needs minimal housing facilities following the scientific principles with low-cost structures. On the other hand, elaborate housing is generally recommended for goats raised under large scale commercial production systems. Separate housing arrangements for different categories of animals viz. growers, pregnant females, lactating females, breeding males, etc. are to be ensured for rearing goats scientifically for harnessing maximum output sustainably.

Nutrition is the key factor affecting the production as well as the reproduction efficiency in all the animals therefore proper and balanced nutrition is the prerequisite to attain and utilize the full reproductive potential of the animals. All the nutrients like energy, protein, minerals and vitamins need to be properly balanced in the diet of animals. Energy and protein are the major nutrients required in the greatest amounts and should be in the topmost priority in order to optimize reproduction. Although minerals and vitamins are required in low amount, but very much essential as a cofactor and coenzymes in the reproductive process of the animals and deficiency of these nutrients might affect the overall reproductive efficiency of the animals.

The following objectives are accomplished by semen dilution/ extension

• Preservation of semen potential over a long period of time.
• Increase in the number of services per ejaculate. Ideally approximately 40 does can be inseminated from diluted/ extended semen of a single ejaculate.
• Extenders provide the spermatozoa with a medium in which they are able to remain viable and fertile for a prolonged time period. An ideal extender should be able to provide a conducive environment to facilitate sperm survival and modify the sperm structure to prepare them for freezing through the following properties:
• It should be isotonic with blood and should maintain this during preservation.
• It should have capacity of maintenance of pH (6.6-6.8) with high buffering capacity in that range.

The semen evaluation is of great importance in predicting fertility of the male. There are several parameters to evaluate the semen quality. Usually bucks with good semen samples have good fertility and bucks with poor or very poor semen samples are invariably infertile or sterile. A single test is never sufficient to assess the semen quality and the examiner should be acquainted with several tests to evaluate the semen. The semen should be examined with in a shortest possible period after ejaculation and the ejaculate must be properly protected and handled until examination. Semen can be evaluated by following methods

1. Macroscopic test
2. Microscopic test
3. Metabolic test

The selection of breeding bucks in relation to maximizing the reproductive efficiency depends upon males. AI permits intense selection of sires with exceptional merits and provides opportunity to exploit the value of superior sires. Young males can be trained for exhibiting sexual behaviors and semen collection through the uses of male, anoestrus doe or oestrus doe as dummy. Successful AI depends on precise management of semen collection, its frequency and use. The semen collection implies mounting a teaser doe or a dummy. Artificial vagina (AV) and electro-ejaculator (EE) are the two methods for semen collection in bucks. AV method is being used as universal method for routine semen collection whereas electro-ejaculation is generally used for collecting semen from untrained and valuable sires incapable of service. Moreover, this method of collection is painful for the animals. Semen evaluation should be rapid and effective so that collected semen samples can be processed for initial quality which ultimately affects the fertility. There are several tests for the assessment of semen quality but no single test is reliable to give definite prediction of the fertility.

Artificial Insemination (AI) is one of the most popular first generation assisted reproductive technology as well as a breeding tool, ever evolved for the genetic improvement of cattle and buffalo industry throughout the world. The advent of frozen semen has further revolutionized this technique. Presently, use of sex- sorted-semen in cattle breeding is also coming into vogue. Contrary to cattle and buffalo, use of AI in small ruminants has not gained such impetus.

It has been reported that lower pregnancy rates were obtained when ewes and does are bred with frozen or extended liquid semen using intra-vaginal or intracervical technique of insemination. The reason being anatomy of the cervix of sheep and goats; cervix is long and tortuous with presence of 4-7 cervical rings. Furthermore, these cervical rings are directed caudally hindering the lumen of the cervix thereby causing hindrance (more prominent in sheep) while passing the AI gun during intra-cervical or trans-cervical AI (TCAI). There are several reports which support the fact that, as the depth of semen deposition into the cervix increases, the pregnancy rates also improve due to availability of a greater number of motile sperms for fertilization.