eChapters

Introduction

Some historians of agriculture believe that it was women who first domesticated crop plants and there by initiated the art and science of farming. While men went out hunting in search of food, women started collecting seeds from the native flora and began cultivating those of interest from the point of view of food, feed, fodder, fiber and fuel. This view is strengthened by the fact that women have been traditionally seed selectors. Even today this tradition has continued in many parts of the developing world. Women have played and continue to play a pivotal role in the conservation of basic life support system such as land, water, flora and fauna. They have protected the health of the soil through organic recycling and promoted crop security through the maintenance of varietal diversity and genetic resistance. In many remote areas agriculture is largely in hands of women. Men tend use to go to towns and cities in search of salaried jobs for fulfillment of family income. Therefore, without total intellectual and physical participation of women, it will not be possible to popularize alternative systems of land management for shifting cultivation, arrest gene and soil erosion, and promote the care of the soil and the health of economic plants and farm animals. Women also tend to look at problems in their totality from the sowing of the crop to its ultimate utilization either as food, feed or raw material for industry. Since they are usually incharge of marketing, they generally possess a clear understanding of market preferences and prejudices. Therefore, for an economically and ecologically sustainable agriculture the involvement of women farmers and farm women (agriculture farmers with and without assets) in the process of modernization of farming practices and village industries is absolutely essential. Horticulture is a major part of Indian agriculture, natural foods of man, fruits and vegetables provide protective nutrients like vitamins and minerals besides, some high quality sugars, proteins, oils and fats. Although belated, their importance has now been recognized in India not only to provide the much needed balanced nutrition and gainful occupation to our populace but also to develop viable internal and export trade. Fruits like banana, mango and minors fruit like mahuva, chironji, rayan etc. vegetables like potato being energy rich are considered prominent food crops e.g. banana can produce as high as 37 million calories per hectare. Unfortunately the component of fruits and vegetables in Indian diet is hardly six percent which should be raised at least five times so that the per capita per day consumption becomes 85 g. fruits, 75 – 125 g. leafy vegetables 85 g. other vegetable and 85 g. roots and tubers. To achieve this present production of fruits and vegetables would need to be pushed up considerably by increasing production levels and the area under fruits and vegetables would need to be pushed up considerably by increasing production levels and the area under fruits and vegetables (Lata and Singh, 2010).

ABSTRACT

Traditionally, the rural communities of Trivandrum have been preserving small tracts of virgin forests or small groves since time immemorial due to strong religious beliefs anointed with the groves. These forest patches are biodiversity rich communities and a large number of medicinal plants of the region are confined to these groves only. The indigenous people use the plants for medicinal as well as religious purposes. Over the years, such forests have been attributed as a treasure trove of threatened species and dispensary of medicinal plants. During the investigation, 132 medicinal plants belonging to 63 families and 119 genera were recorded from 25 miniature sacred forests of Trivandrum district. This study was based on medicinal plants used in traditional health care by local and indigenous people. About 80% local people use different parts of plants for various ailments. The present finding revealed that most of the plants are used for skin diseases, cold, cough and fever, etc. Leaves are predominantly used than the other plant parts. Important families within the groves were Apocynaceae, Papilionaceae, Urticaceae, Combretaceae and Euphorbiaceae. Presence of a large number of monospecific families indicates immediate need of a conservation measure to secure sustainable utilization of medicinal plants of sacred groves of Trivandrum district.

ABSTRACT

Our country is well known for developing into rich and ancient traditional system of medicines based on plants. For centuries, these ancient cultures and professional practicing on traditional system viz. Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha could remain in house hold and pass through generations to generation. India is being a developing country, of late uses bioactive natural products (secondary metabolites) using in vitro culture technology of the medicinal plant species. Recently, commercial utilization of these compounds using modern techniques is in good progress. The developed western affluent world has to now depend on these compounds mostly in drug and pharmaceutical industry in recent years. Orchids as medicinal herbs, details on plant medicinal potentialities, traditional medicinal systems viz. Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha have been described.

ABSTRACT

The Kolanthamamalai hill an offshoot of Kalakadu Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve of Southern Western Ghats is one of the important forest reserves of Tirunelveli District. The physiography of this range differs much from the adjacent portions of Southern Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu state due to its discontinuity, varying altitude, ridges and their height and breadth. The altitude of the hilly rugged terrain ranges from 150 to 300m, with the highest peak being Kolanthamamalai. Field visits were made in the study area to survey and to gather information on medicinal flora. The vegetation of Kolanthamamalai hill is a mixed dry deciduous type characteristic of the high and low altitude of the mountains respectively. Lowland vegetation girdles the base of the mountain on the eastern and southern side of the hills. Along the foot hills vegetation is an open scrub with occasional trees. The low-lying areas and the seasonal watercourses are densely vegetated. The natural barriers, habitat diversity, climate and moderate rainfall have resulted in the development of unique plant diversity.

The prosperity of any country depends upon the prosperity of its people. Food, clothing, shelter, health, education, security, roads, electricity and drinking water are the today’s basic needs. Farmers produce food. About 70 % of Indian population is engaged in farming. Therefore, prosperity of India would depend upon the prosperity of its farmers. This in turn depends upon the adoption of improved technology and judicious allocation of resources (land, labour, capital, machinery etc). Human race depends more on farm products for their existence than anything else since food and clothing – the prime necessaries are products of farming. Even for industrial prosperity, farming forms the basic raw material. To sustain and satisfy as many as his needs, the farmers include crop production, livestock, poultry, fisheries, beekeeping etc. in their farms. Earlier subsistence was the important objective of farming. Farmers took many activities such as planting of fruit trees in their farms or on the common lands just for the welfare of mankind without expecting anything in return. The kind of farming where subsistence and welfare of mankind were the main objectives is designated as mixed farming. Farming today is also a mix of enterprises. However, higher profitability without altering ecological balance is important in farming. A set of agricultural activities organized while preserving land productivity, environmental quality and maintaining desirable level of biological diversity and ecological stability is designated as “Farming System”. Here the emphasis is mainly on a system rather than on gross output.

In other words “farming system” is a resource management strategy to achieve economic and sustain agricultural production to meet diverse requirement of the farm household while preserving the resource base and maintaining high environmental quality. The farming system in its real sense will help to lift the economy of agriculture and standard of living of the farmers.

Agriculture has been the base of subsistence for human settlements on the planet earth. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), people in the developing world where the population increase is very rapid, may face hunger if the global food production does not increase by 50–60%. Contribution from developing countries and developed countries to world production in 1975 was about 38% and 62%, respectively. If yield increase is keeping pace with increasing population, mass hunger can escape. In the preindependence period, Indian agriculture was usually described as a gamble with monsoons and their failures resulted in widespread famine and misery. In the last few decades, Indian agriculture has made a remarkable progress even with increased population and decreased per capita availability of agricultural land. World population is projected to be over 8 billion by 2025 and nearly 10.5 billion by the end of next century. To maintain the status quo, food production needs to be doubled. Estimates by the FAO and WHO (1992) and the Hunger Project (1991) suggest that around 1 billion people in the world have diets that are ‘too poor to abstain the energy required for healthy growth of children and minimal activity of adults’. The causes are complex and it is not entirely the fault of overall availability of food. Modern agriculture begins on the research farm, where researchers have access to all types of inputs for crops at all the appropriate times. But, even the best performing farms cannot match the yields of researchers. For high productivity, farmers need to have access to the whole package – improved seeds, water, labour, capital or credit, fertilizers, pesticides and other developed technology. Many poorer farming households simply cannot adopt the whole package. Very often delivery systems are unable to supply them on time.

Banana is one of the oldest fruits and second largest growing fruit crop in the world. It is also known as the Adam’s Fig and Apple of Paradise. Unlike other fruits banana is an herbaceous fruit plant. Banana breeding started in Trinidad, West Indies in 1922 and in Jamaica in 1924 (Shepherd, 1994). The driving force for this breeding programme was to develop improved Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum F. sp. Cubense) resistant banana for export trade (Buddenhagen, 1990). In 1960 both the programmes were combined under the Jamaica Banana Board. United Fruit Company also started a small breeding programme in Panama in 1920s. In India hybridization work was started at Central Banana Research Station, Aduthurai, Tamil Nadu in 1949. Important banana growing states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. Now a days in some districts of Uttar Pradesh, Harichal cultivar of banana is cultivated at commercial scale. In South India banana is extensively used in all auspicious occasions such as wedding, festival and worship. Banana is a good table fruit, besides, the cultivar Nendran is used for cooking, it is also used for preparation of halwa, sweet and chips etc. Main bud or heart of banana bunches is also used as vegetable in India, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Musa textiles is known for strong fibre quality.

Fruit is a structure which arises from an ovary or fusion of several ovaries after fertilization and may or may not carry associated floral parts. Fruit formation is an evolutionary mechanism designed to support and dispersal of seed by various agencies.With few exceptions e.g. banana, it is necessary for the flowers to be fertilized to set fruit. Fruit set succeeds the process which involves fusion of male and female gametes inside the ovary and is called fertilization. Fruit setting has long been remained a major problem as is evident from the old Greek literature and wall paintings where male panicles of date palm were being rubbed against the female flowers to get good fruit set.Lack of pollination with compatible source leads to the flowers drop except the flowers which set parthenocarpically. Further if fertilization is affected even then the flower drop and this decision depends upon the internal hormonal levels of the plant and prevailing climatic conditions.On the basis of pollination requirement fruit plants can be autogamous, allogamous or geitonogamous. In case of fruit plants like grape, peach where pollen produced by the same flower affect the fertilization are called autogamous and fruits like apple, kiwi, pistachio necessarily require pollen produced on some other plant or cultivar which are compatible can affect fertilization are called allogamous. Another condition exists where pollen grains from the same plant affect fertilization in flower at different part of the plant e.g. Walnut, pecan nut and is called geitonogamy. Similarly on the basis of compatibility between pollen and stigma, plants can be self unfruitfull, partially self fruitfull and self fruitfull.Self fruitfulness indicates that fruit species or cultivars produce abundant viable pollen grains whose shedding coincides with the receptivity of stigma, pollination is effective and there are no pre and post fertilization barriers. However, partial self fruitfulness and self un-fruitfulness exhibits number of causes. In case of fully self fruitfull types, a solid block of a single cultivar can be raised without making any provision for cross pollination, however it has been reported that provision of cross pollination in autoganmous crops increases the fruit-set. In case of self unfruitful and partially self unfruitful types, provision of cross pollination is necessary to get the fruits. Proper selection of the cultivars is therefore important from the point of fruit yield for which besides overlapping of blossoming season over long periods, the time of maturity, productiveness, market values etc. are of importance. Pollenizer must be a heavy pollen producer to ensure better chances of cross fertilization. Although pollenizers are desirable, their number must be restricted so that these do not become uneconomical because the pollenizer trees occupy space, consume nutrition and take away attention of the fruit grower without any return in yield, which would have otherwise been diverted to the trees capable of bearing fruits. Numerous environmental, edaphic, plant characters affect the fruit set and are discussed as under:

Fruit crops can be classified into many groups or categories based on certain criteria, which may vary according to climatic and soil requirements, growth habits and of late with consumer rating. Horticultural and botanical classifications are two important types of classification followed in fruit plants. Classification often helps to identify the names and to group the plants. It also gives an account about relatedness among them which further suggest the breeding possibility and grafting compatibility. Different types of classifications followed are discussed here:

CLASSIFICATION BASED ON CLIMATIC REQUIREMENT

Fruit plants are classified based on their climatic adaptability and it is also known as ecological classification. In horticultural point of view, this classification has got much significance. Fruit growers can select crops suited to a particular region by following the demarcations given here. Fruit plants are categorized into the following groups in this classification.

Temperate fruits

Fruit crops need exact climatic requirements for their growth and development, flowering and fruiting. These plants are grown only in places where winter is distinctly cold, they are deciduous and become dormant during this season. Plants should be exposed to specific chilling temperature for certain period for flower induction. These plants are suitable to higher elevations and they can withstand frost. eg. Apple, plum, peach, pear, almond, walnut.

INTRODUCTION

Plants are rich source of nutrients for most of the organisms including microbes' arthropods and vertebrates. There are various biotic viz. insects, weeds and pathogens and abiotic factors viz. temperature, humidity, salinity etc. that causes harm to plants. For yield loss due to pest EIL (Economic injury levels) calculation is important (Stern et al, 1959). EIL calculation will define economic damage (yield losses equal to management costs) in calculable terms. Since plants are sessile they cannot move to avoid the menace of these factors, but they have developed a unique way of structural, chemical, and protein-based defences which are specifically designed to detect and inhibit invading organisms before they are able to cause extensive damage. In response to the incitations by the pathogens some genes are activated which in turn codes for defence proteins (Grennan, 2006). Understanding how plants defend themselves from pathogens and herbivores is essential in order to protect our livelihood and nutritional security. In addition to proteins, plant anatomy and some of the ecological relationship also plays an important role in plant defense mechanism. Induction of plant resistance against fungi and bacteria was reported in 1900.

INTRODUCTION

Scientists have known that certain animals can regenerate missing parts of their bodies. But we can not replace a missing leg or a finger; our bodies are constantly regenerating blood, skin and other tissues. The identity of the powerful cells that allow us to regenerate some tissues was first revealed when experiments with bone marrow in the 1950’s established the existence of stem cells in our bodies and led to the development of bone marrow transplantation, a therapy now widely used in medicine. Stem cell therapies are one of the most promising areas of medicine, and many such therapies are now in development by industrial and academic groups. The first successful allogenic stem cell graft in humans using donor bone marrow was undertaken in the USA in 1968 and bone marrow transplantation continues to provide the best example of the clinical use of adult stem cells. Currently, cell therapies are regulated under the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Good Tissue Practices Final Rule, which uses a tiered system based on the level of risk associated with the cell product. Scientists were able to extract embryonic stem cells from mice in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until 1998 that a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison became the first group to isolate human embryonic stem cells and keep them.

ABSTRACT

Nanomaterials will potentially play an important role in water quality. Production and applications of nanomaterials in industry are increasing. Furthermore, there are a handsome number of marketed nanomaterial-based consumer products. Therefore, how nanomaterials diagnose and function and how they perturb normal biological systems all become a top concern. In recent years, researchers are actively engaged in such investigations and discussions. At the same time, technologies and methods are developed to make more targeting nanoparticles for use in water.

Key words: Nanomaterial, Applications,Water quality

1. INTRODUCTION

Water is the source that upholds every part of life on earth and is a key element of sustainable development. It is essential to the survival of healthy and safe lives of mankind. Ecosystems are inevitably linked with water. Lack of access to ample and safe drinking water is a serious setback among human population. Noxious substances from industries when enter into lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, and other water bodies, they get dissolved or lie suspended in water or get deposited on the bed. This results in the pollution of water whereby the quality of the water deteriorates, affecting aquatic ecosystems.

The strain of escalating population, growth of industries, urbanization, energy intensive life style, loss of forest cover, lack of environmental awareness and implementation of environmental rules and regulations, environment improvement plans, untreated effluent discharge from industries and municipalities, use of non-biodegradable pesticides/fungicides/herbicides/ insecticides, use of chemical fertilizers instead of organic manures, etc are basis of water pollution. The pollutants from industrial discharge and sewage, besides finding their way to surface water reservoirs and rivers are also percolating into ground to pollute ground water sources, threatening food security, access to safe drinking and bathing water and providing a major health and environmental management challenge. Contaminated water from inadequate waste water management provides one of the greatest health challenges restricting development and increasing poverty through costs to health care.

Water pollution is a sensitive problem all over the world. In the wake of increasing urbanization and industrialization, the pollution potential is gaining thrust day by day. Monitoring of waste water quality parameters is currently a subject of growing concern globally. Oxygen, although poorly soluble in water, is fundamental to aquatic life. In the absence of free dissolved oxygen, aquatic systems become inhabitable to most aquatic flora and fauna. Because the solubility of oxygen in water is so low, even little decrease in dissolved oxygen levels can compromise the health of natural water systems. Organic pollutants requiring oxygen for their decomposition exert a rapid and direct influence on the ecology of these environments. Therefore it is required to monitor the load of organic pollutants in the waste water.

INTRODUCTION

Functional genomics is the science where genes are employed to determine their function. The gene expression is an approach to analyze the functional changes in the genes. The expression level for a gene across different experimental conditions are cumulatively called the gene expression profile and the expression levels for all the genes under an experimental condition are cumulatively called the sample expression profile. Different techniques for gene expression analysis have been used so far. cDNA-AFLP (Bachem et al., 1996), SAGE (Serial Analysis of Gene Expression) (Neto, Neto & Costa, 2012) and MPSS (Massive Parallel Signature Sequencing) (Brenner et al., 2000) are the techniques for expression analysis where the genomic or transcriptome sequence of the organism is not needed. Some advanced and largely used techniques are Microarrays (Schena et al., 1995) and Real-time PCR (Higuchi et al., 1993) where the previous knowledge of the sequence is required. These two techniques are most frequently used for gene expression analysis (Perez-Torres et al., 2009). DNA microarray technology has made it possible to simultaneously monitor the expression levels of thousands of genes during important biological processes and across collections of related samples (Jiang, Tang & Zhang, 2004).

1. INTRODUCTION

The concept of product management in market research is all about tradeoffs. Whether the objective is to increase market share, profit margin or revenue, every product manager makes trade-offs—quality vs. cost, time to market vs. breadth of features, richness of the offering vs. ease of use, etc. So, how does anybody know what the market wants? What market segments exist? What those segments prefer? What will they pay? or what trade-offs to make? The answer is to get the market to make the trade-offs. The conjoint analysis is the tool to measure the trade-off i.e. to understand customer preferences, values and choices. Conjoint analysis is used for many marketing decisions, including new product development process, selecting among alternative product designs, targeting, and pricing. It is also used to predict their choices for future products and services. Conjoint Analysis assumes that a product can be “broken down” into its component attributes. For example, a car has attributes such as colour, price, size, miles-per-gallon, and model style. Using Conjoint Analysis, the value that individuals place on any product is equivalent to the sum of the utility they derive from all the attributes making up a product. Further, it assumes that the preference for a product and the likelihood to purchase it are in proportion to the utility an individual gains from the product. It is generally inappropriate for products which are evaluated by consumers on the basis of their “image”, such as beer or cigarettes, rather than on the basis of their constituent attributes. It is so widely used in market research that helps to understand the market’s preferences including product development, competitive positioning, pricing, product line analysis, segmentation and resource allocation.That gives the better insight to the market revenue, share, profit which in turn helps to provide the better market intelligence. The present chapter deals with the genesis, usefulness and analysis procedure of conjoint analysis in different software with example.

In today’s technology driven 21^st century, software has become an integral part of our day to day work. Starting from checking day’s schedule in tablet after waking up in the morning till setting up alarm before going to bed at night, we are using numerous software applications in a day without even realizing the efforts spent to make those applications work perfectly every time we use it. If we look deeply, each software application in computer or in any electronic/computer controlled device go through multiple rigorous cycles of testing to ensure that it is working as intended after it was built by developers and before it was launched in market for public use. In software industry, this process is termed as software quality assurance (QA) or software testing which is being considered as one of the most flourishing verticals of IT software services sectors in 21^st century.

Software testing is one of the most important phases of software development life cycle and it consumes anything between 10% to 45% of project budget depending on the type of the software and methodology followed in the development and testing life cycle. There are different types testing e.g. unit testing, integration testing, system testing, user acceptance testing, alpha, beta testing which are exercised during the testing phase and QA team needs to provide the sign off before any product is released and implemented in production or in consumer market. With the ever increasing complexity of today’s software products along with the competitive market due to easy availability of multiple product options/vendors, the importance and awareness of software quality assurance has increased over years. Consequently, various software testing methodologies have been evolved in last two decades in order to perform testing in more structured and controlled manner. In addition, there is a continuous urge for improving the operational efficiency of the testing process in the organizations in order to produce better quality software at less cost.

Rainfed farming has a distinct place in Indian Agriculture, occupying 67% of the cultivated area, contributing 44% of the food grains and supporting 40% of the human and 65% of the livestock population. It is characterized by resource poor farmers, poor infrastructure and low investment in technology inputs (Singh, 1999). The land use in rainfed areas is quite diverse with a variety of crops, cropping systems, agroforestry and livestock farming. The productivity levels have remained low over the years and the share of rainfed crops in the total food grain production has been declining. The rainfed ecosystem suffers from the problems of (i) frequent droughts due to high variability in the quantum and distribution of rainfall, (ii) poor soil health due to continued degradation and inadequate replenishment of nutrient exhaustion, (iii) low animal productivity due to an acute scarcity of fodder and (iv) low risk bearing capacity of farmers due to poor socio-economic base, credit availability and infrastructure.

4.1 Introduction

There is no widely accepted methodology for evaluation of IPM programmes. It would be fair to say that commonly accepted methodology for evaluation of the IPM programmes is still under development. Three international workshops supported by the Global IPM Facility were held to discuss and review progress in the development of methodologies and guidelines for the evaluation of IPM, particularly of those programmes/projects using the FFS approach (van den Berg and Jiggins, 2007). The need to combine economic and social science approaches was identified by the participants as a major challenge (Waibel et al., 1999). The recommendations of these workshops are:

“Firstly, the methods of impact assessment and evaluation presented by experts from different fields revealed that despite for the many definitions’ about IPM, there was broad consensus that IPM is about avoiding pesticides dependence and about achieving a socially defined level of pesticide use even though there are many types of IPM intervention. They range from ordinary farmer training to sophisticated ‘Farmer Field School’ approaches. Effective communicated research results that challenge existing paradigms and case studies that draw the attention of politicians and civil society can be subsumed under IPM intervention.

Secondly, need for a document that outlines good practices for IPM evaluation is urgent, because of the diversity of IPM intervention that already exist and that can be further expected. Virtually all groups involved in crop protection, including the chemical companies, label their own concept of IPM as it is a free good that can be taken, reproduced and modified by anyone. Hence, IPM can only be measured by its results and no longer by its inputs.

Thirdly, the different groups who participated in the workshop advocated different approaches to evaluation. There were those who see cost-benefit analysis (CAB) as the major tool of evaluation and wanted to refine this tool by adding economic evaluation of environmental impacts and by applying contingent valuation methods and willingness to pay concepts. Others believe that evaluation should not be a checking procedure but should be designed in the spirit of a joint learning experience. Thus, there was a difference of opinion among the economists on the one hand and anthropologists’ and extension specialists on the other hand. But, lastly, it was concluded that there is a need to set standards which must be met if CBA is going to provide the information that facilitates decision-making.

8.1 Introduction

There are many theories that deal with the generation of innovations, their diffusion and adoption or non-adoption by the end users. Such theories include actor-network theory, knowledge systems and network theory, strategic niche management theory and adoption and diffusion of innovations theory (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971; Rogers, 1983, 1993, 2003). Among the different theories, the diffusion and adoption theory has achieved a prominent position in the field of anthropology, sociology, public health, medical sociology, communication, marketing and management, economics, public administration, industrial engineering, geography and many other disciplines all over the world for more than half a century. The main elements of diffusion of innovation as identified by Rogers (1962) are: i) An innovation, ii) Communication channels, iii) Time and iv) Social system. This shows that diffusion of any innovation will take place only if a new idea or practice exists which is accepted by an individual or a group of people over a period of time. The rate of diffusion depends upon the availability of communication channels and structure of the social system. But, in 1966, Fliegal and Kivlin complained that the diffusion of innovation has the status of a basted child with respect to parent’s interest in social and cultural change: Too big to ignore but unlikely to give full recognition.

The sustainable agricultural practices include integrated pest management (IPM), integrated nutrient management (INM), soil conservation and water management. However, there is not a single technological innovation were the innovator/company that commercializes a technology is not interested whether it is adopted/purchased by the consumer.

PLANT EXPLORATION AND GERMPLASM COLLECTION OF PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES

Plant exploration and collection activities have been undertaken for a wide range of needs - by naturalists, travelers and plant hunters over the past several centuries in the quest for new and better economic plants in the southeast Asian region, ornamentals in the Himalayas and many others; by taxonomists for working out plant diversity and delineating phyto- geographic differences, and providing a basis for pinpointing areas with high species diversity and changes over time; world-wide collection, augmentation and characterization of crop plant diversity by Vavilov and co-workers (1926) for understanding the patterns of crop plant diversity and delineating centres of diversity; search for wild forms of species, and wild relatives of crop plants for working out primary centres of origin and crop genepools; biosystematic study, survey and in situ study and collection in protected areas for determining patterns of diversity build-up in crop and wild species. Concept of centres of origin of crop plants, importance of the wild genepool of crops, dependence on wild plants as a source of edible and otherwise useful species ensuing from these efforts provide the basis for systematic exploration and collection of plant genetic resources.

Intellectual property: It can be defined as creations of intellectual brain which has value, utility/application in the society and can be traded in commerce for economic benefits.

Significance of Intellectual Property: The significance of protection of Intellectual Property has been realized for wealth and value creation in a knowledge-based economy. The agricultural scientists are comparatively little aware of IPR issues because their primary mandate has always been the free delivery of technology to the end users particularly the farmers. After the implementation of TRIPS Agreement during 1995, the worldwide focus of scientists and planners was shifted on the development of time appropriate technologies, protection of inventions/ technologies and real time technology transfer through licensing for industrial and agricultural growth leading to overall economic development. Under the changing scenario of global trade, where national governments are entering into bilateral agreements for tackling IPR issues to promote trade, agricultural scientists must also look for managing their intellectual properties in tune with the existing IP legislation of the country.

INTRODUCTION

Genetic engineering (GE) and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) provide powerful tools for sustainable development in agriculture, healthcare and many other industries. GMOs are those which were genetically engineered in a laboratory by incorporating a small foreign DNA fragment carrying a gene of interest into the native DNA of the organism. The foreign gene is attached with the necessary regulatory elements to help its expression in the new genetic environment. Genetically modified (GM) crops currently account for some 16 percent of the world’s land planted with soybean, maize, cotton and canola. The global demand for food is increasing because of the growing world population and decreasing arable land. At the same time food and agricultural systems have to respond to several changes such as increasing international competition, globalization and rising consumer demands for improved food quality, safety, health enhancement and convenience. Modern biotechnology involving the use of rDNA technology/genetic engineering has emerged as a powerful tool with many potential application for improving the quantity and quality of food supply. Foods derived from genetically modified crops, commonly referred to as genetically modified food and food ingredients have already become available worldwide with aim of enhancing productivity, decreasing the use of certain agricultural chemicals, modifying the inherent properties of crops, improving the nutritional value or even increasing shelf life. Results of DNA modification may not be limited only to the particular characteristics of the replaced gene. It is therefore important to ensure that when these organisms are released into nature they do not harm the environment or human health [EFSA, 2006]. Such concerns have led to broader interests in the theme of risk assessment in the release of GMOs. A cautious approach is necessary to assess environmental risks which may occur due to introduction of recombinant organisms in the natural environment [Johnson et al., 2007].

Abstract

Worldwide trend in fruit crops has shifted to high density or meadow orcharding to manage tree size for desired architecture to allow better light interception and easy in operations such as pruning, pest control and harvesting. The meadow orcharding facilitates increase production as well as quality of fruits. High density planting (HDP) is one of the recent and novel concepts of increasing the productivity without affecting the quality of fruits. The HDP has been successfully demonstrated in fruit crops such as apple, mango, citrus, banana, pineapple and guava. However, for more location specific benefit research must continue on appropriate plant canopy, integrated nutrient management suitable varieties, ageing of orchard and tree replacement. HDP accommodates more number of trees per unit area ranging from 500-10,000 plants/ha depending on the type of fruit crop and the level of density such as medium high density 500-1500 plants/ha, optimum high density 1,500-10,000 plants/ha ultra-high density 10,000-1,00,000 plants/ha. High density orcharding is a highly technical entrepreneurship where nutrient management, irrigation and canopy management practices widely vary from traditional orchards hence growers must have full execution knowledge of this technology in present as well as future perspective. Post harvest, storage and marketing are closely associated with the success of HDP technology. Fruit yield increases 2 to 4 times vertically enhancing income of fruit growers.

Abstract

Biochar is the product of thermal degradation of organic materials in the absence of air (pyrolysis), and is distinguished from charcoal by its use as a soil amendment. Biochar is generally alkaline in pH and may increase soil pH with greater increase observed in sandy and loamy soils than in clayey soils. Biochar addition can increase cation exchange capacity, base saturation, exchangeable bases and organic carbon content as well as decreases in Al saturation in acid soils. Biochar enhances soil productivity by improving the physical, chemical and biological soil conditions. Improvement in soil structure increase soil water retention. A comparative study of soil fertility and leaching losses of nutrients between an Anthrosol and an adjacent unamended Ferralsols revealed that the Anthrasol had significantly higher P, Ca, Mn and Zn availability than the Ferralsol, and an increased biomass of both cowpea and rice by 38–45% without fertilization. More experimentation is needed to substantiate multiple benefits of biochar application in relevant soil-environment-climate-management factors and minimize any possible drawbacks in Indian perspective. Efficient use of biochar in agricultural system is one viable option that can enhance natural rates of carbon sequestration in the soil, reduce farm waste, enhance crop yield with concomitant improvement in soil quality.

7.1 INTRODUCTION

Gardening is a practice of growing different kinds of horticultural crops in a particular land area as a part of horticulture either for consumption or sale, export, beautification etc. Basing on the crops grown, gardens are named accordingly, e.g., for raising vegetables, it is vegetable gardens; for fruit crops, it is orchard; for plantation crops, it is estate plantation; for ornamental plants, it is gardening and landscape etc. The history of gardening is not new. In ancient time kings, emperors, rulers, sages were establishing different types of gardens for different purposes.

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that variability in rainfall represents a significant variability of agriculture production. But urbanization of the cities on one hand and climate change on theother hand areaffecting the agriculture. Surprisingly, there have been very few analyses exploring the link between rainfall variability and urbanization on agriculture production. Therefore an attempt is made in this paper to know the affect of rainfall variability and urbanisation on the cropping area. For this purposeNDVI analysis is carried out in the catchments of Osmansagar and Himayathsagar Reservoirs by using the medium to high spatial resolution multi spectral data provided by remote sensing satellites, such as Landsat TM, IRS-1C/1D LISS-III and IRS-P6 LISS-III has been used for the years1989, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2008 for Kharif season, 1975, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2003 and 2008 for rabi season which is collected from NRSC (National Remote Sensing Centre). From this analysis it is found that the increment is more in rabi season compared to kharif season due to the increment of non-monsoon rainfall intensities and ground water withdrawal structures. The increased utilization of the groundwater is causing the reduction of inflows to the reservoirs in the recent years because whatever the rainfall that occurs in the catchment, first utilised for meeting the depleted soil moisture and ground water consequently reducing the surface runoff.

Keywords : Climate change, Urbanisation, Inflows, Cropping area, NDVI

Abstract

Runoff from rainfall is an important component of the hydrological cycle. Estimation of runoff is critical for the design of hydrological structures and drainage systems in watersheds. Different soils, land use, and water management practices affect runoff differently. In real watersheds, land use, soils and weather conditions vary spatially over the geographical area of the watershed leading to spatial variations in runoff. Also, most watersheds form a part of larger drainage basin or a large watershed consisting of several such subwatersheds. Each subwatershed is hydrologically connected to the other subwatersheds of the basin. A comprehensive GIS based decision support system (DSS) for estimation of runoff that includes the spatial variations in rainfall and natural resources is presented. The DSS is developed as a deployable application by integrating independent GIS layers of watershed features created in ArcGIS with MapObjects in VB, for a case study watershed - the KK3 watershed in Mahbubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The DSS generates thematic maps of spatial variations in runoff on individual rainy days for the subwatersheds.

Keywords : GIS, GUI, Land use, Rainfall, Remote Sensing, Runoff, Soil, Sub-watershed, Watershed 228 Geospatial Technologies for Natural Resources Management

Abstract

Higher temperature and altered rainfall patterns accompanied by extreme weather events are being considered indications of climate change. These factors impact vegetation growth in natural forest, open scrub and in agriculture land. Vegetation index based on satellite data was used to analyse agricultural vulnerability in India to understand impact of rainfall variability. Time-series Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data products obtained from AVHRR (1982 to 2006) and MODIS (2000-2011) were analyzed to assess spatial and temporal variability. Coefficient of variation of maximum NDVI was assessed for the study period and results were corroborated with Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) instead of actual rainfall. Resolution of AVHRR time-series data facilitated study at regional-scale while MODIS datasets with 250m pixel resolution helped in identifying vulnerability at district-level. Study indicated that over 241 Mha areas in the country may not be vulnerable to rainfall variability induced climate change while over 81.3 Mha in arid, semi-arid and dry sub- humid regions may be vulnerable. Study indicated that over 12.1 and 1.81 Mha of Kharif cropland would be mildly and severally vulnerable while 6.86 and 0.5 Mha of Rabi cropland may be adversely affected in a similar manner. Study indicated that length of cropping season was decreasing due to delay in start of season. The paper also presents analysis of variations in SPI and resultant NDVI in typical drought and flood years in the country.

Keywords: MODIS, AVHRR, NDVI, Rainf ed Agricul ture, Vulnerability, Climate Change

In recent times, the interpretations cover a wide spectrum of soil uses, both for agricultural and non agricultural (sewage and human waste disposal, high way construction, water and gas supply, recreation, wild life, urban and industrial structures) and many specialized uses. Soil survey if correctly carried out according to scientific principles, can provide the data base for various interpretations. This is because the same soil properties determine the behaviour of a soil for a variety of different uses. For instance, the content of clay, silt and sand, the shrink and swell behaviour, the permeability of soil to water and air, content of calcium carbonate, salts, organic matter, gypsum, soil depth, depth of ground water, hard pan formation, co-efficient of linear extensibility, water holding capacity etc. are examples of such properties that are important to plant growth and these properties also strongly influence non farm uses. Some examples in support are

A hard or petrocalcic horizon or other slowly permeable layer (clay-pan) in a soil restricts the movement of air and water, thus adversely affecting the plant root growth. Such a layer limits the soils suitability for septic tanks and other onsite waste disposal. It also makes a poor sub grade for high way construction.

A soil high in soluble salts is a poor medium for plant growth; it is also corrosive to iron and steel structures, such as pipelines and fences, causing high maintenance and repair costs.

High organic matter content is generally favourable to plant growth, but it is a limitation for road construction.

The strongly gypsiferous soils (gypsum content >10%) are considered unsuitable for arable crop cultivation because of its dissolution under irrigated or even moderate rainfall and making the surfaces uneven through the developments of sink holes. Such soils are unsuitable for irrigation and drainage canal networks and also for construction of roads, bridges etc.

The shrink- swell soils of India (vertisols) because of summer monsoon rains are suitable for growing a “kharif” crop but are very dangerous for construction of roads, air strips, buildings, laying gas, water pipelines which get distorted, develop cracks and lead to sunken floors etc.

West Bengal is the fifth largest state in terms of (GSDP) Gross State Domestic Product after Maharastra, UP, TN and AP and is the third largest contributor in agriculture sector of real GDP. West Bengal has 3% of India land mass and 8% population with population density of 1029 per km².

Agriculture accounts for about 17% (2013-14) GSDP and provides employment to over 55% of workers. About 64% of the geographical area of West Bengal is under cultivation. There is little scope for further increase the current cultivable area. Because it is difficult to maintain the growth rate in the absence of adequate infrastructure support, crop diversification and market access.

Food production remained stagnant as the green revolution by-passed the state. However, there has been a significant increase in food production since 1980’s and the state is now one of the few Indian states with a surplus in food production, producing nearly 20% of the rice and 33% of potato. Agriculture accounts the largest share of the labour force. Rice, potato, jute, sugarcane and wheat are the top five crops of the state, while other major food crops include maize, pulses, oilseeds, wheat, barley and vegetables. In recent years, significant changes have occurred in maize production and utilization due to increasing commercial orientation of maize crop and rising demand for diversified end users, specially for feed and industrial uses. A sizable number of districts in West Bengal have potential for growing winter maize. Though maize favourably responds to better crop management both in Kharif and Rabi season, the erratic rainfall pattern of the south-west monsoon comes in the way of timely field operations of Kharif season. In absence of any major environmental impediments in Rabi, the desired field operations can be planned and executed at the most desired time. Moreover, the various environmental factors including absence of any major disease and insect pests in this season, helps in realizing the better profits from every additional unit of monetary inputs. Hence, future of Rabi maize in West Bengal is bright.

Maize ranks fourth after rice, wheat and bajara with respect to area and production, and grown on 4.23 lakh ha average with 6.72 lakh tones production and yield 1589 kg/ha in the Gujarat (2014-15). The state has 38.0% lower than national yield. It mainly grown in Panchmahal, Dahod, Mahisagar, Vadodara, Chhota Udepur, Kheda, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha and Aravali districts as rainfed Kharif and irrigated winter/Rabi crop for food, feed and industrial raw materials.

It is staple food and feed of tribal and grown as sole and intercrops with pigeon pea, black gram and soybean in Kharif season. The white and yellow flints to semi-flint maize are preferred to prepare bread and other food preparations

Foodgrains are a fine example of diversity of nature with many varieties and varied features. They are storable food commodities and lend themselves to numerous processing manipulations. Nutritionally foodgrains are rich source of almost all known nutrients and several phyto-chemicals. The increasing incidence of metabolic diseases are attributed to unbalanced energy rich diets lacking in fiber and protective bioactive compounds such as micronutrients and phyto-chemicals (Prakash, 2013). Cereals along with pulse combinations constitute an important part of human diet in many parts of the world because of easy availability, low cost, long shelf life and nutritional balance. During recent past, India has made significant progress in improving the food security of its masses. The green revolution of 60’s helped the country in achieving the food security by improving the availability and access components (Kaul et al., 2016). However, surplus quantity of food produced is not uniformly distributed and the quality component is not addressed properly which has a direct impact on nutrition. In spite of surplus production of foodgrains still malnutrition persists. However, it can suitably be overcome by combining cereals with good quality pulses and other value addition techniques which will go long way in solving the problem of malnutrition. Even though country is producing large quantity of coarse grains particularly maize but its utilization for direct consumption is very low which is mainly due to poor quality of protein. Although maize contains higher proportion of protein (10-12 %), its quality is poor as compared to that of protein in rice due to presence of high concentration of alcohol soluble protein fraction ‘prolamine’ also known as ‘Zein’ in the endosperm. Zein is very low in some essential amino acids, mainly lysine and tryptophan which contribute to more than 50% of the total protein. On the other hand, very high amount of leucine and imbalanced proportion of isoleucine contribute to poor quality of protein in normal maize. To overcome such deficiencies, scientists developed Quality Protein Maize (QPM) where the quality of protein is not only higher than the common maize, but also significantly higher than that of other cereal grains. In the recent past QPM has got special distinction among the cereals due to presence of high amount of essential amino acids like lysine and tryptophan. QPM can be utilized for diversified purposes in food and nutritional security as infant food, health food, convenience food, specialty food and emergency ration. In India maize is consumed mainly in the form of boiled corn or roasted as pop corn. In order to increase the proportion of maize for direct consumption, several traditional food-processing and preparation methods can be used at household level to enhance the bioavailability of micronutrients in maize based diets. These methods include alkali cooking, thermal processing, mechanical processing, soaking, germination/ malting and fermentation. In countries like Central America and Africa, it is converted into food products by grinding, alkali processing, boiling, cooking and fermentation (Srilakshmi, 2008).

Significant achievements have been made in the food availability throughout the world over the last few decades. The estimated number of people in developing regions suffering from chronic malnutrition has declined (from 946 million people in 1969-71 to 870 million people in 2010-12), as the proportion of malnourished people from 36 percent to 20 percent, even though the world population has increased. Global food supplies (if distributed according to individual requirements) are sufficient to fulfill the energy needs. An estimated 20 percent of the people in developing world are chronically under nourished, consuming too little food to meet even the minimal energy needs. Approximately 192 million children under the age of five years suffer from acute or chronic protein energy malnutrition. According to WHO, 6.9 million children under the age of five died in 2011, from direct or indirect result of hunger and malnutrition. Moreover, more than 2 billion people, mostly women and children are deficient in one or more micronutrients, babies continue to be born mentally retarded as a result of iodine deficiency, children go blind from vitamin-A deficiency and enormous number of women and children are adversely affected by iron deficiency.

The overall growth in food availability resulting from the green revolution over the last two decades has eliminated the threat of famine for India’s entire population. Country’s production of food grains has reached over 257.07 million tonnes. However, malnutrition is still a serious problem in this region. Evidences suggest that micronutrient deficiency is far more prevalent in the area than protein energy malnutrition. The International Food Policy Research Institute has reported a rising trend in micronutrient deficiencies, which is becoming more serious than malnutrition from lack of major nutrients. Thus, the emphasis is now shifting from supply of basic food (calories & protein) towards supply of balanced diet (calories, protein & micronutrients which includes vitamins and minerals).

Improved Varieties of OKRA (Bhindi)

Electrophoresis is a method of separating out large molecule ( DNA or protein). An electric current is passed through a medium containing the molecules, and each molecule travels at a different rate depending on its electrical charge, size and shape. Separation by electrophoresis is based on these differences. In electrophoresis, agarose and acrylamide gels are used for electrophoresis of nucleic acids and proteins.

What is Gel Electrophoresis?

A gel is a solid form. The term electrophoresis describes the migration of charged particle under the influence of an electric field. Electro refers to the energy of electricity. Phoresis, from the Greek verb phoros, means “to carry across.” Thus, gel electrophoresis refers to the technique in which molecules are forced across a span of gel, motivated by an electrical current. Activated electrodes at either end of the gel provide the driving force. A molecule’s properties determine how rapidly an electric field can move the molecule through a gelatinous medium.

Forage crops are plant species used to feed domestic animals (such as cattle, sheep, goat, pig, and poultry). Both cultivated and wild plants can serve as forage. The domestic animals feed on forages either by grazing or stall feeding (cut fodder eaten in stalls).

Grazing, that is pasturing of animals, is cheaper and allows production of both livestock and dairy produce at a lower cost because no expense is involved in growing, cutting, transporting or feeding. In North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and in many other temperate countries pastures are widespread and popular because sufficient land is available. While land is cheap and plentiful, labour is scarce and expensive; hence management of natural, and in recent years sown pastures has received much attention.

Until about fifty years ago, the natural grasslands in the Western countries met the minimum needs of the farmers and grassland management was operated at a level comparable to subsistence agriculture of many developing countries. In other words, emphasis was laid on exploitation of natural productivity of the grassland, using a low level of management based on minimum use of inputs like chemical fertilizers. However, it was soon realized that productivity of native grasslands will have to be greatly improved if the high demands for meat and milk were to be adequately met.

In India, however, out of a total cultivable area of about 131.11 million ha less than 2 per cent is utilized for forage crops because feeding the large human population takes the first preference for land use to produce grain and cash crops. It is, therefore, necessary to intensify efforts, particularly in over-populated countries, for a more efficient production of high yielding forage crops to get maximum return out of minimum land.

Unsupervised classification is the technique of classification of raster data in which no prior information is provided by the user. Raster data is classified based on their spectral characteristics such that the pixels having similar spectral properties in the multispectral feature space are grouped together in one class. Unsupervised classification is mainly performed by clustering algorithms. The purpose of these algorithms is to minimize within cluster variability and maximize between clusters variability. The user must interpret and label the classes after performing unsupervised classification. This method of classification requires minimum data which makes it easy and quick, but user has toput efforts in identification of the classes. This method could be useful when user doesn’t have any prior knowledge about the study area. This method removes subjectivity and enables us to get the unique classes which might be unrecognized by the user. K-means is the most commonly used method for performing unsupervised classification. In this chapter, we have discussed K- means, CLARA and unsupervised random forest method for classification of raster data in R.

Weed is a plant that is growing in the wrong place. Weeds have many mechanisms and characteristics that enable them to compete, having thick waxy cuticle leaves that can be resistant to some chemicals, fast reproduction methods, the ability to reseed in 6 week cycles and deep tap roots enabling the weed to survive in compacted dry ground conditions.

There are many reasons to control weeds in annuals/biennial and perennial ornamentals. Weeds compete with the plants by absorbing essential nutrients and water, or by blocking light or air circulation. Weeds dramatic reduce the growth of the plants. The greatest damage is often done when the weeds and ornamental plants are small. Weeds also interfere with harvesting by physically hindering. They lower flower quality further by harbouring insects, such as whiteflies, thrips mites, slugs, snails and/or diseases.

Growing under optimal conditions for the flower will reduce the ability of weeds to compete against the crop. Controlling humidity/ventilation, water, light, pH, nutrients and temperature all figure prominently in providing flower optimal conditions. A plant health strategy to greenhouse weed control contains three principal elements, prevention/sanitation, evaluation of water quality and using all controls available physical, cultural and chemical. Prevention and sanitation can include the use of mulches in orchidhouse weed control. Rice hulls, perlite, pumice, corn gluten meal bark, Penn Mulch - pelletized recycled paper and human hair have all been used for this purpose. Prevention also includes, eliminating air borne weed seeds from entering the greenhouse by screening vents and other openings and preventing perennial weeds from growing under foundations. A 1-3 meter weed free zone should be maintained immediately adjacent to the greenhouse.

Pruning is a regular part of plant maintenance involving the selective removal of specific plant parts. Although shoots and branches are the main targets for removal, roots, flower buds, fruits and seed pods may also be pruned. Pruning wounds plants, but plants respond differently to wounding than do animals. In plants, damaged areas are covered by callus tissue to close wounds. Another response to pruning occurs inside plants. Chemical boundaries form around wounded areas, walling off or compartmentalizing the wounds. Compartmentalization limits any decay that results from wounding, or from the natural death of branches. Use pruning techniques that minimize plant wounding and speed wound closure.

Lawn

The lawn is a plot of closely mowed grasses. It is composed of thousands of individual plants crowded and forced into a very unnatural growth habit. It is an integral part of the garden. It is basically an area of land planted between gardens covered with grass and other low lying plants.

Lawn is one of the most important features of a garden. A well kept lawn makes a garden look extremely beautiful. It looks like a beautiful green carpet amidst colourful flowers in a garden. Lawn can be called as turf, pitch, field or green depending upon its plantation and usage. Selection of lawn grass depends upon it usage and its season of plantation. Though a well maintained lawn requires a little of patience and care, the final results are always very beautiful and soothing. Scientific reports say that lawns reduce energy consumption through it soothing effects and the green grass prevents soil erosion as well as cut down noise pollution in the urban areas.

Any substance or mixture of substances intended through physiological action, for accelerating or retarding the rate of growth or maturation, or otherwise altering the behaviour of plants or the produce thereof are known as plant growth regulators. It does not include plant nutrients, trace elements, nutritional chemicals, plant inoculants and soil amendments.

Plant hormones are organic compounds other than nutrients, synthesize by plants and regulate plant growth and development. They are active in very low concentrations, produced in certain parts of the plants and are usually transported to other parts where they elicit specific biochemical, physiological and morphological responses. They are also active in tissues where they are produced. The term plant growth regulator is usually used to denote a synthetic plant hormone, but most of the synthetic compounds with structures similar to those of the natural hormones have also been called hormones. For instance, the synthetic cytokinin, kinetin is considered a hormone.

Estimation of organic carbon in soil (Walkley and Black, 1934)

Principle: Soil organic carbon is oxidized to CO₂ by heat of dilution obtained when a known amount of soil is treated with excess of standard K₂Cr₂O₇ in the presence of concentrated H₂SO₄. The excess of K₂Cr₂O₇ not reduced by the organic matter is back titrated with standard ferrous ammonium sulphate in the presence of phosphoric acid or sodium fluoride using diphenyl indicator. At the point colour changes from violet to blue or bright green.

Apparatus: 500 ml conical flasks, Pipettes of 10 and 20 ml, Burette, Balance, Measuring cylinder, Asbestos sheet.

The brain, (Figure 2-7 A) a command centre of the body, is a complex organ. The substance of the brain is made of the grey matter and the white matter. The grey matter is often identified as cerebral cortex but other parts of the brain also contain the grey matter. Inside the brain, the grey matter is organized into large accumulations of neurons which are called the nuclei of the brain. Each nucleus is associated with a specific function. In addition to neurons, there is other type of cells the glial cells called neuroglia. The neurons are responsible for sending and receiving impulses or signals. The glial cells are nonneuronal and provide support and nutrition to neuronal cells, form myelin and facilitate signal transmission in the nervous system. The white matter is made of millions of nerve fibres that are coming from neurons and are going to establish communications with different parts of the brain and spinal cord. Since these nerve fibres are coated with myelin sheath around them these appear white and the area occupied by these nerve fibres become the white matter of the brain. The brain has three basic components, the forebrain, midbrain and the hindbrain.

Fore brain: The forebrain (Prosencephalon) is the rostral portion of the brain. It consists of cerebrum (Telencephalon) and the thalamus, hypothalamus and pineal gland together constituting the interbrain (Diencephalon).

Mid brain: The midbrain (Mesencephalon) is the middle portion of the brain. It is in the centre lying between the interbrain and hindbrain. It consists of a cranial part of brain stem.

Hind brain: The hindbrain (Rhombencephalon) is the caudal most portion of the brain. It consists of remaining (caudal) part of the brain stem, the medulla oblongata (Myelencephalon) and the cerebellum and pons (Metencephalon).

Zoonoses

Zoonoses are those diseases and infections which are transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans under natural conditions. The emergence of a pathogen into a new host species is called disease invasion or “disease emergence”.

Anthrax is a notifiable disease and primarily occurs in herbivores but it is a type of bio-terrorism agent and called as malignant pustule, malignant edema, woolsorters disease, ragpickers disease, maladi charbon, splenic fever etc. Causative agent is Bacillus anthracis contains vegetative spore and lethal dose is 2,500 to 55,000 spores.

Brucellosis is one of the world’s most widespread zoonoses caused by the genus Brucella. In human it is called Malta fever, Undulant fever, Mediterranean fever, Rock Fever of Gibraltar and Gastric Fever while in animals it is called Bang’s disease, Enzootic abortion, Epizootic abortion, Slinking of calves, Ram epididymitis and Contagious abortion etc. it is also called occupational disease.

Leptospirosis is a disease of animal sand humanbeings caused by genus Leptospira and called as Weil’s syndrome, Canicola fever, Canefield fever, 7-day fever, Rat Catcher’s Yellows, Autumn fever, black jaundice). Fletcher’s EMJH media is used to culture the organism.

Abstract

Political participation of women, on equal terms with men, at all levels of decision-making is essential to achieve the principles of equality, sustainable development, peace and prosperity. Participation is a development approach, which comprises the involvement of disadvantage segments of population in the design and implementation of policies concerning their wellbeing. To achieve gender equality by 2030 requires urgent action to eliminate the many root causes of discrimination that still curtail women’s rights in private and public spheres. Discriminatory laws need to be changed and legislation adopted to proactively advance equality. 49 countries still lack laws protecting women from domestic violence, while 39 bar equal inheritance rights for daughters and sons. Based on data from 87 countries, 1 in 5 women and girls under the age of 50 will have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner within the last 12 months. International efforts through UN are being encouraged throughout the world but are constrained by lack of national policy, cultural factors, social factors, religious factors, economical factors and role of gender base patriarchy. Secular and sustainable democracy prevails only when women experience benefits equally with their male counterparts. Creating adequate space in politics for women participation is essential to sustain real democracy and oblige mothers, wives, daughters and sisters and Gender Responsive Governance is the best strategy for this which embodies measures, attitudes and practices of different stakeholders, both men and women, at different levels of governance with a clear purpose to impact issues that foster women’s empowerment and promote gender equity and social justice. It is a process that promotes and sustains the ability of women to fully participate in the governance and development process, enhances their ability to raise critical questions about inequality and violence against them without fear and pressure.

Abstract

Women work two-third of the world’s working hours, produce half of the world’s food yet 60% of the world’s hungry are women. They earn only 10% of the world’s income and own less than one per cent of the world’s property. It reveals deep-rooted gender disparity in human society. But I perceive the secondary agriculture an emerging area with vast opportunities for socio-economic transformation and women empowerment across the globe in a way that conventional agriculture doesn’t have. Secondary agriculture is less affected by climatic factors, relatively stable and more amenable to feminization because of off-field nature. If properly supported it could be an effective tool to promote women empowerment and narrow down gender disparity in rural areas. Secondary Agriculture is not a Secondary Sector economic activity and it broadly embraces to product development through agro-processing (food and nonfood), within the all enterprise classes of small or medium or large scale industry. Being entrepreneurial in nature it assures better remuneration and socio-economic security than primary agriculture. An orientation from production agriculture to product development is an essential pathway to sustainable women empowerment as it will lead to shift from subsistence farming to business farming. Later has the potential to contribute to a range of social and economic developments such as employment generation, income generation, poverty reduction and improvements in family nutrition, health and overall food security to the persons engaged in agri-business farming.

1. Introduction

This information is collected and complied by the authors from various websites for the motivation of readers particularly women. In no way it is exclusive and we do not claim accuracy of facts described here. Mere purpose is to disclose the fact that miracles do not happen but they are conditioned to manifest when determinations are reinforced by confidence. Live not to spend the time but to use it to spread your manifestations the world over.

Abstract

Women Technology Park is a technology modulation and a training centre to show case livelihood technologies for women. The aim of Women Technology Park is to create awareness among rural farming community and give trainings of proven technology to reap maximum benefits from their existing resources. Its objective is to make them aware about “processing” that can enhance their income in multiple times. In this direction, the first ever Women Technology Park (WTP) of Jammu and Kashmir was sponsored by SEED division of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and endorsed by Livestock Products Division FVSc, SKUAST-Jammu. It was inaugurated by Vice chancellor of SKUAST- Jammu at Deoli Village of Bishnah Block, Jammu and Kashmir. 12 groups of women were screened out and trainings were imparted to them for a week. More than 75 training cum awareness programs have been organized with more than 1500 beneficiaries. There are more than 50 beneficiaries who received start up grant in the form of goods essential for preparing livestock products and started up their own micro-enterprises and became self-reliant and set an example for other women to come up and take up processing of livestock products as profession to earn their livelihood.

Historically the first and still the most conclusive evidence for the existence of genes comes from the phenomenon of segregation of traits observed in the offspring of hybrids between individuals or strains that differ in some recognizable respect. The principle of segregation was formulated by Gregor Johann Mendel in 1866 under such peculiar circumstances that the scientific world failed to recognize it until after a lapse of 34 years. In the first place Gregor Mendel was not primarily a biologist but a Monk in the Augustinian monastery at Bruenn, Austria (now Brno, Moravia in Czech Republic). During his childhood, Mendel worked as a gardener and studied beekeeping. He became part time monk because it enabled him to obtain an education without having to pay for it himself. From 1840 to 1843 he studied Practical and Theoretical Philosophy and Physics at the Philosophical Institute of the University of Olomouc. Upon recommendation of his teacher, Mendel entered the Augustinian St. Thomas Abbey in Brno and began his training as a Priest. Born Johann Mendel, he took the name Gregor upon entering religious life. Mendel worked also as a substitute High School teacher. In 1850, he failed the oral part of his examination and could not become a certified High School Teacher. In 1851, he was sent to the University of Vienna to study further so that he could get formal education. Mendel returned to his Abbey in 1853 as a Physics teacher. In 1856, he took the examination to become a certified teacher but again failed the oral part.