eChapters

Ethnopharmacology and Traditional medines use natural resources as medicines. They have developed the knowledge of this through the generations of traditions and experiences. Therefore the protection of this knowledge and protection of natural resources both remain critical. Bioprospecting involves sustainable, ethical and legal processes to access natural resources and use them judicially so that the business needs do not pose any threat to nature and to people.

One important consideration is assuring the preservation of traditional knowledge, particularly oral knowledge, within communities, for the potential benefit of others. Developing mechanisms to document traditional knowledge, such as national inventories, can be beneficial in identifying cases where conservation or cultivation is needed, based on an understanding of existing natural resources used for medicinal purposes. Decisions about access and ownership of information can also be made (including those relating to intellectual property rights, where appropriate) once methods have been found to collect and preserve traditional knowledge. On the other hand, the livelihood of traditional healers may depend on maintaining the secrecy of their healing methods - one argument for consulting with traditional healers as part of the process of planning and executing the collection, storage and testing of traditional medicines.

Extending some form of intellectual property protection to traditional knowledge, of which traditional medical knowledge is a significant part, is being actively debated in WIPO and other international forums. Existing intellectual property regimes can offer protection for purified compounds (produced by scientists and companies) isolated from a natural medicine. But traditional medicines, whose method of action may not be well understood, and which often consist of mixtures of different active substances, may not meet criteria for patentability. The principal impetus for international debate is a desire to compensate the holders of traditional knowledge appropriately for the use of their knowledge by others, or to prevent so-called “biopiracy” where knowledge or genetic materials are used without the consent of the holder. China and Kenya are examples of countries that have modified their laws in an effort to accommodate traditional medicine. It is not intended that the Commission should enter into this debate, except in so far as aspects of it may be relevant to its terms of reference, in particular stimulating innovation in traditional medicine with the purpose of expanding access to affordable medicines.

The development of a new drug begins typically in the chemistry laboratory and is followed by a wide range of biological studies in vitro (cells/tissues) and in vivo (animals), which forecast what the agent would do in humans. The focus of these studies moves from evaluating the safety of a drug for use in humans to looking at its clinical relevance. Pharmacodynamics involves a set of biological studies both in vitro and and in vivo to get a better understanding of the mechanism of action of a drug. Preclinical studies mainly include safety and toxicity to ensure its safety for use in humans. Typically, preclinical in vitro, in vivo, and Phase I testing may not be necessary if preliminary data on safety are available. However, preclinical data or clinical observations are still necessary to justify a rationale for use and safety in initial clinical studies.

Three main screening approaches are generally used in drug development. Simple Screening evaluates substances that have a particular property by one or two tests. There is no need for a series of tests in which the interpretation of results of one test may depend on others. Blind Screening is used for a new plant extract where no adequate pharmacological information is available. Blind screening may give clues for potential activity and worthiness to probe further for pharmacological activities. Programmed screening involves a new plant extract or substance with known pharmacological effects and results in more precise information.

Review of Health Claims

Regulators of different countries have different procedures and views to review health claims of traditional medicine, herbal medicines, botanicals, functional foods, nutraceuticals, health products, diatory supplements and such other natural forms of materials intended to use for health promotion. However, if such products carry any therapeutic or health benefit claims then the regulators may provide general guidance and demand for sufficient evidence base in support of such claims. For instance, U. S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) provides general guidance to review of health claims in functional foods and dietary supplements. Ethnopharmacological preparations involving herbal medicine and traditional medicines prepared from natural ingredients also will need similar process. The scientific review process for health claims of such products is comprehensive and mainly focuses on review of individual studies³²⁴

Wilt

Fusarium udum

Economic Importance

• Wilt is widely prevalent throughout the world but more important in India and in eastern Africa.
• Wilt is the worst disease of red gram in India, causing severe damage wherever the crop is grown, especially in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu.
• The disease is reported to cause 30-100% loss in grain yield and may cause 100% yield losses in susceptible genotypes.
• The annual losses due to wilt have been estimated at $71 million in India.

Powdery Mildew

Erysiphe polygoni

Economic Importance

• Powdery mildew can be a serious disease of peas grown in India.
• It appears in epidemic form in the plains almost every year when the pods are formed in January-February.
• Since the disease occurs more frequently and covers a large host surface, it proves much more destructive than the downy mildew disease of the same crop.
• It is worst in dry weather as against the downy mildew, which flourishes in moist weather.
• Severe infections can reduce yield by 10–20%.
• Severe pod infection can lead to poor seed quality.

Tikka or Leaf Spot

Cercospora arachidicola/ Phaeoisariopsis personatum

Economic Importance

• Tikka disease of ground nut is regarded as the most important fungal disease of this crop.
• The infection appears when the plants are one to two month old; one can see this disease in the month of September in the plains of our country.
• Losses due to this disease may go up to 15-50%.

Introduction

Over centuries, spices have been used as an important addendum for colour, flavour and preservation of foods. In addition, their medicinal and cosmetic utilities have been widely recognized (Purseglove et al., 1981; Srinivasan, 2005). All these benefits made them extremely desirable with an ever growing demand in the international market. India holds the title of the largest producer and exporter of spices with major share for pepper, capsicum, turmeric, ginger cardamom, seed spices, curry powders, spice oils and oleoresins. The other primary producers of spices includes China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Turkey Brazil and Mexico while USA, Europe, Japan, East Asian and Middle East countries are their major importers.

Spices are made from diverse plant parts viz. rhizomes, barks, leaves, fruits and seeds and hence its processing methods vary depending on the raw material. However, the basic unit operations namely harvest, pre-treatment, drying, cleaning, particle size reduction, packaging and microbial decontamination in sequence remains common for the production of most of the spices. Inappropriate conduct of basic unit operations often lead to high microbial load, aflatoxin contamination, losses of valuable compounds, change in sensory characteristics, physical damages and incorporation of contaminants in spice products (Table 1). Moreover, spices being natural products, they may be fraught with a large number of microorganisms including several pathogenic species of bacteria and fungus depending on the prevailing conditions in their cultivation areas. In addition, poor food sanitation awareness and practices in spice producing countries may worsen their microbiological safety. Although spices are nonperishable in nature due to their low moisture contents after drying, they may act as a source of microbial populations upon contact with moist food products with no further thermal treatment. The outbreak of ‘salmonellosis’ in Germany (1993) due to contaminated paprika and paprika-powdered potato chips is an example. The aforesaid disadvantages related to conventional spice production may confound their international trade unless desired objectives of food safety management schemes such as International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) are met. Moreover, international agencies have set standard to guarantee safe spices and augment business interests of their adherents. For example, both the European Spice Association (ESA, 2015) and American Spice Trade Association have set a maximum level of 1% w/w extraneous matter in spices (ASTA, 2017). These challenges associated with the conventional production system may be effectively addressed by preventive risk management strategy by which suitable control measures are enforced at earlier phases of food chain prior to consumption. The control measures must guarantee that the level of contamination has not exceeded the maximum permissible limit at every phase of spice production from farm to table.

Birds possess great intrinsic interest, they are certainly among the most attractive population of all wildlife groups. Moreover, it is widely recognised that birds can act as valuable indicators of the quantity and quality for wildlife. The studies on avian communities attracted great attention over the past several years all over the world. Much of the early efforts emphasized on the patterns and processes in the avian communities and the listing of species. Previous workers mainly concentrated on the narrow perspectives and focused on single variables, but the recent studies have emphasised the necessity of multi- scale, multi-factor approaches and the inclusion of both short term and long-term temporal variables. The difficulties of assessing numerous variables and several scales, both temporal and spatial, seem to have discouraged the contemporary ecologists from embarking on studies on avian communities.

The Western Ghats is well known for the wealthy and unique assemblage of flora and fauna and is one among the 25-biodiversity hot spots identified on the earth. Arising gradually from the narrow Konkan and Malabar coasts, these mountains run 1,600 km north south between the River Tapti in Gujarat and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu covering an area approximately equal to 1,60,000 km². Kerala State, located between 8° 4’ and 12° 48’ N and 74° 52’ and 77° 37’ E is known for rich biological resources on account of availability of a variety of ecological niches and habitats ranging from lush tropical forest, valleys, plains and coastal areas.

In this chapter the data collected in Silent Valley and Mukkali on the abundance of birds are discussed. Species abundance relations of the community is also prepared and presented in this chapter.

METHODS

Abundance : Total number of birds seen in each month and seasons (summer and monsoon) were calculated using the census data.

Density : Density of birds in each month, in two seasons and individual density of selected species were also calculated. The density was estimated using the line transect method (Burnham et al., 1980). The Fourier series method, which is used for analysis, is not dependent on specific distribution assumptions about the detection probability of birds at various perpendicular distances from the transect line. In this method density is computed from ungrouped, perpendicular distances from transect.

Foliage diversity of a forest stand has an important role in providing food for tropical forest birds. This feature adds to the ability of tropical forests to harbour high bird diversity. Studies on forest bird communities mainly examined the parameters like structure of forest bird communities (Nilson, 1983); distributions (Howe et al., 1981) and community organisation (Landers and Mac Mohan, 1980). The pioneering, studies of Mac Arthur and Mac Arthur (1961) established the relationship between bird diversity and foliage density. Mac Arthur et al. (1962) and Mac Arthur et al. (1966) supported the above hypothesis. Some studies have showed negative relationship also (Wiens, 1983). Other vegetation characters, which have significant effect on bird diversity are foliage volume, percentage vegetation cover (Karr and Roth, 1971), percentage canopy cover (Crawford et al., 1981; Wiens and Rottenberry, 1981; James and Wamer, 1982). In India Ramakrishnan (1983) examined many bird community parameters at Silent Valley. Diversity and structure of birds were also studied by Johnsingh et al. (1987), Katti (1989), Daniels (1989), Sundaramoorthy (1991), Johnsingh and Joshua (1994), Gokula and Vijayan (1996). Even though many studies have been reported on the forest bird communities from South India, relation between foliage abundance and bird diversity have not been dealt in detail. The correlation between the abundance of birds in different height classes of tropical forest canopy with foliage abundance is reported in this chapter. The study forms part of a major investigation (Jayson, 1994), which determined many ecological aspects of two bird communities. Seasonal changes in these bird communities were reported earlier (Jayson and Mathew, 2000).

Introduction

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) is the most widely grown type of millet and it is an important staple food grain crop for millions of people in arid and semi arid regions of the world. Pearl millet is very well adapted crop to growing areas characterized by drought, low soil fertility, and high temperature. It is also performs well in soils with high salinity or low pH. Because of its tolerance to difficult growing conditions, it can be grown in areas where other cereal crops, such as wheat or maize, would not survive. Physiologically, it is a C₄ plant which imparts it potential to grow under hot and dry climatic conditions. Among cereals, it is highly responsive to fertilizers and has highest water use efficiency. Pearl millet is being grown as dual purpose crop for both grain and fodder in dry areas like Rajasthan where animal production is complimentary with crop production. Pearl millet is also a good source of important essential minerals for human health like Fe and Zn hence it is useful to alleviating malnutrition.

Introduction

Drought is the most important abiotic factor that adversely affect growth and crop production. Drought stress can altered the normal physiological processes that influence one or a combination of biological factors for yield and yield attributing traits (Ashraf, 2010). The abnormal metabolism due to stress may reduce plant growth (Claves et al., 2002). Production is limited by environmental stresses, according to different scholar estimates, only 10 per cent of the world’s arable land is free from stress, in general, a major factor in the difference between yield and potential performance, environmental stresses. Drought is one of the most common environmental stresses that almost 25 per cent of agricultural lands for agricultural farm products in the world are limited (Loresto, 1976; Chaves, 2002). Drought occurrence in India is also very frequent. Drought occurred in past 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1974, 1979, 1987, 2002, 2009 and had considerable impact on food grain production. For example, the drought of 1966-67 reduced overall food grains production by 19%. The drought of 1972-73 reduced the food grains production from 108.95 million tonnes to 95 million tonnes, causing a loss of about $ 400 million $. The 1987 drought in India damaged 58.6 million ha of cropped area affecting 285 million people (Ray et al., 2015). Drought in 2002 has reduced food grains production to 174 million tonnes from 212 million tonnes resulting in decline of 3.2% GDP (Rathore et al., 2009; Ray et al., 2015).

The water deficit reduces crop yield due to decrease in photosynthetic area, decreased radiation use efficiency and harvest index (Earl and Davis, 2003). Drought stress affect the water balance and plant metabolisms. Plants under drought conditions use various changes to tolerate stress conditions and increase drought tolerance which includes changes in whole plant, tissue, at physiological and molecular levels. Appearance of a single or a combination of inherent changes determines the ability of the plant to stand under aridity conditions. Tolerant plant adjusts its water balance by osmotic adjustment, deep root systems and by transient leaf rolling.

Introduction

Soil, a dynamic living matrix, is an essential part of the terrestrial ecosystem. It is a critical resource not only to agricultural production and food security but also to the maintenance of most life processes. Soils contain enormous numbers of diverse living organisms assembled in complex and varied communities ranging from the myriad of invisible microbes, bacteria and fungi to the more familiar macro-fauna such as earthworms and termites. The diversity in soils is several times higher than that above ground. Each hectare top soil contains approximately 1,000 kg of different fungi, 500 kg of bacteria, 750 kg actinomycetes and 150 kg of algae and many protozoa (Table 1). These diverse micro-organisms interact with one another and with the plants and animals in the ecosystem forming a complex system of biological activity. Environmental factors, such as temperature, moisture and acidity, as well as anthropogenic actions, in particular, agricultural practices affect soil biological communities and their functions to different extents. Diversity of soil micro-organisms has emerged in the past decade as a key area of concern for sustainable soil health and crop production. Besides, the well-being and prosperity of earth’s ecological balance, the sustainability of agricultural production systems directly depends on the extent and status of microbial diversity of soil.

Origin of fruit culture can be traced back to 8000-5000 years ago and the horticultural practices like irrigation, vegetative propagation, selection etc. developed about 5000-3000 years back. The sophisticated fruit culture might have originated before 3000-2000 years. Basically all the cultivated fruits are the gift of diversity and not results of systematic breeding. Most of them have spread to different parts of the world through various media from the primary centres of origin.

Centres of origin of major fruit crops are as follows:

Mediterranean basin : datepalm, fig, grape, olive, pomegranate

East Asia : banana, citrus, mango, peach, kiwi fruit, persimmon

Central Asia: pome fruits, apricot

Europe : plum, raspberry

North and South America: avocado, black berry, papaya, pineapple, strawberry

Introduction

Fresh and processed products derived from fruit crops provide vital contributions to human nutrition, health, and well-being, and collectively their production constitutes the economic backbone of many rural communities worldwide. Rapid development and distribution of new cultivars with improved characteristics which meet the industry, market (both domestic and export), and consumer preferences is the need of the day. Conventional methods of perennial fruit crop improvement have almost exclusively relied on traditional breeding techniques. These techniques are expensive, time consuming and space requiring, especially for tree species due to the need of a large population of seedlings from which only a few promising ones are selected. The juvenile period of tree crops may last three to five years before onset of fruits so that 20 years or more are common before the successful introduction of a gene of interest (Baird et al., 1996). Therefore in this context, molecular tools recently made available for breeders have become tools of choice because they permit to reduce cost by fastening the selection process of woody fruit plants. Further, traits of importance like fruit quality, resistance to diseases, high yield etc. are polygenic in nature for which classical breeding is generally not suitable for detection and selection of traits. A quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis with help of markers and linkage maps may be more appropriate for detection of such traits of interest. Also, molecular markers are being used for maintenance of core collections, for the assessment of genetic diversity between genotypes and fingerprinting.

Banana is one of the most important major fruit crops grown in India and is as old as Indian civilization. It seems that it is one of the earliest fruit crops grown by mankind at the dawn of civilization. In India, bananas are so predominant and popular among people that it is liked both by poor and rich alike. It is the cheapest among all other fruits in the country. Considering the year round availability of fruits, unlike the seasonal availability of other tree fruits, it has become an inevitable necessity in any house hold in India, for all cultural occasions.

The bananas were grown in Southern Asia even before the prehistoric periods and the world’s largest diversity in banana population is found in this area. Hence, it is generally agreed that all the edible bananas and plantains are indigenous to the warm, moist regions of tropical Asia comprising the regions of India, Myanmar, Thailand and Indo China. Historical evidences show that the Arabs have introduced the banana from India to Palestine and Egypt perhaps in seventh century A.D. (Hayes, 1953). It soon became popular in those areas and later spread to East coast of Africa at a very early date and subsequently spread throughout the African continent. Bananas were reported to have introduced to Central America in 1516 A.D., where it spread rapidly and attained commercial significance. The spread of bananas to West Indian Islands was through Christian missionaries and wherever it reached it assumed economic importance due to its greater adaptability and commercial value.

Indian jujube (Ber) belongs to the genus Zizyphus and family Rhamnaceae having more than 600 species. The family includes trees with spine, shrubs and climbers. The original home of Ber is Myanmar and India. Many workers have tried to classify it on the basis of leaf, flowers and fruits characteristics. Some tried to divide into two groups i.e. having smooth leaves on both surfaces and having leaves downy beneath. Ber as a tree has been described it as small, much branched or a large shrub with dense spreading habit, bark dark gray, branches elongated, leaves with glabrous shining upper surface densely covered beneath with whitish hairy growth.

Ber has attracted sustained breeding attention owing to its wide adaptability, good quality and nutritive value. However, problems like poor shelf life, incidence of powdery mildew disease, fruit fly and fruit borer have hindered the extension of the area under this crop. In Chinese jujube, the problem of fruit cracking and ‘witches broom’ disease are the major hindrances in its cultivation. There are two major cultivated species viz., Ziziphus mauritiana and Ziziphus jujuba, which are widely distributed covering vast regions in Asia. The wild population found is heterozygous and extremely variable. As a result, many local selections were made, some of which have become widely recognized as cultivars. The success of any breeding programme depends on the extent of genetic variability in the source population. The assessment of variability is therefore a basic requirement of breeding programme. Since most of the plant characters of economic importance are governed by the group of genes and are highly influenced by environmental variation, it is difficult to judge whether the observed variability is heritable or due to environment. This necessitates optimizing of phenotypic variation into its heritable and non heritable components, so that the selection of parents

Jamun is an evergreen tree commonly known as Java plum. It has its origin from Southeast Asia, India, Myanmar and East Indies. It belongs to the family Myrtaceae (which has flowers consisting of characteristic numerous stamens) and species Syzygium cuminii (L.) Skeels. Closely related to an important spice Syzygium aromaticum “Clove”. It is cultivated in tropics as an evergreen tree with dense foliage and can provide lot of shade. It is a very popular avenue tree. A unique fast growing tree, known to be tolerant to high rainfall and also to water deficit conditions, it is present in both moist and dry situations, occurring in the tropical wet evergreen forests, tropical semi-evergreen forests, tropical moist deciduous forests, littoral and swamp, tropical dry deciduous, tropical dry evergreen, subtropical broadleaved hills, and subtropical pine forests. The tree favours moist, damp or marshy situations, where it tends to form gregarious crops. It tolerates prolonged flooding, and once established it can tolerate drought.

Introduction

Most of the technological advances in the recent past in Indian Horticulture have been done for favourable agro-climatic regions. However, the vast and diverse land-scape of hot desert, arid, semi-arid and tribal area is not yet receiving logical thought for resource based horticultural development (Samadia and Haldhar, 2017). Although, the semi-arid regions of the country have now became potential hub for aonla, bael, ber, pomegranate, jamun, guava, fig and custard apple. There has been a steady increase in area and production of these fruits particularly under aonla, ber, custard apple and pomegranate in the country as a result of identification and development of suitable varieties and production technologies. The average productivity of these fruits in India is, however, low as compared to many developed countries. The main reasons for low productivity are old and senile orchards, low yielding varieties, poor orchard management and inadequate technological up-gradation and adoption by the growers. Presently, the continuing decline in the availability of cultivable land, rising energy and land costs together with the increased demand of fruit and fruit products, have given thrust to the concept of high density planting (HDP) in fruit crops. High density planting gives earlier production and return per unit area, shortens juvenility, eco-friendly, provides efficient land use and better use of resources like light, water and fertilizers, efficient pesticides application, besides, in this system the harvesting becomes easy(Mishra and Goswami, 2016). Among the factors such as cultivar, rootstock, quality of planting material and cultivation practices contribute to high yield of fruit trees, however, the number of trees^-1 is the most important factor which brings about radical increase in fruit production. Therefore, high density planting has great potential for increasing productivity in fruit crops (Mishra et al., 2003). The success of this technology in most of the fruit crops is dependent on the use of methods to control shoot growth and maximize light interception as the trees begin to bear fruit. The main aim of HDP is to achieve the twin requisites of productivity by maintaining a balance between vegetative and reproductive growth without impairing the plant health and fruit quality. The underlying principle of HDP is to make the best use of vertical and horizontal space per unit time and to harness maximum possible return per unit of inputs and natural resources.

1. GENERAL INFORMATION!

Major constraint of medicinal plants: Lack of genuine planting material.

Maximum number of medicinal plants belong to family Asteraceae.

Maximum demand in world market: 1. Senna leaves 2. Isabgol seeds 3. Cassia tora seeds.

India is largest producer of 1. Kewada oil 2. Senna 3. Davana oil 4. Isabgol.

India is 2^nd largest producer of 1. Opium latex 2. Jasmine concrete 3. Tuberose concrete

India is 3^rd largest exporter of periwinkle.

Thailand is largest exporter of sarpagandha leaves.

China is largest producer of 1. Geranium oil 2. Citronella oil.

ABSTRACT

Purine Nucleoside Phosphorylase (PNP) is an enzyme that functions in the purine salvage pathway by catalyzing the phosphorolysis of purine nucleoside thereby releasing the purine bases and phosphorylated sugar. Interest in PNP as a drug target arises from its role in T-cell proliferation and T-cell mediated autoimmune diseases. Recently, we have isolated the compound, coixol, from the plant Scoparia dulcis L. and its three-dimensional structure has been elucidated. As the structure of the coixol mimics the structure of PNP inhibitors, we have undertaken the molecular modeling studies of this compound with Human PNP, as a screening test for further in vivo studies. Generally PNP inhibitors have been synthesized with a ribose sugar moiety attached to them. As the plant Scoparia dulcis L. contains glucose and rhamnose (six membered ring), these sugar moieties are also included along with ribose in the presen study. In order to understand the binding mode and interactions of the isolated compound attached with different sugar groups, we have carried out the docking studies with Human PNP. The interactions between the ligand molecules and active site residues of Human PNP are similar to those of solved complexes and the energy values are also comparable, which clearly indicate that these ligands may act as inhibitors.

ABSTRACT

Medicinal plants are known to contain innumerable bioactive compounds that play an important role in conventional as well as western medicine. These bioactive molecules occur in plants as secondary metabolites, which have pharmacological relevance and aid in defense mechanism. In India, herbal medicines have been the basis of treatment and cure for various diseases. Conventionally, natural products have been tested as crude extracts containing complex mixtures of compounds, which if showing a desired activity, require a process of purification and identification of the active components, which can be lengthy and efficient.

In order to understand the function of these active compounds, X-ray crystallographic studies are carried out.

The present study involves the three dimensional structure analysis of purified compounds from the plants Phyllanthus amarus, Sphaeranthus indicus, Scoparia dulcis and Mangifera indica and Leonotis nepetaefolia.

Conservation agriculture (CA) defined as minimal soil disturbance (no-till) and permanent soil cover (mulch) combined with rotations is a recent agricultural management system that is gaining popularity in many parts of the world. Cultivation is defined by the Oxford English dictionary as “the tilling of land”, “the raising of a crop by tillage” or “to loosen or break up soil”. Other terms used in this dictionary include “improvement or increase in (soil) fertility”. All these definitions indicate that cultivation is synonymous with tillage or ploughing.

The other important definition that has been debated and defined in many papers is the word “sustainable”. The Oxford dictionary defines this term as “capable of being borne or endured, upheld, defended, maintainable”. Something that is sustained is “kept up without intermission or flagging, maintained over a long period”. This is an important concept in today’s agriculture since the human race will not want to compromise the ability of its future offspring to produce their food needs by damaging the natural resources used to feed the population today.

Abstract

Rheological properties of dough from different flours are very important to know about the kneading and modeling process especially for development of bakery products. Rheological testing is helpful to examine the structural and fundamental properties of dough. The basic principle underlying evaluation of rheological properties are mechanical behavior of the dough, in conjunction with the physical structure of the dough, the molecular structure of the protein continuous phase in the dough and with chemical reactions of functional groups. This chapter presents some of the methods currently used in bakery industry for determining the rheological characteristics of the flour and the dough. The instruments such as Farinograph, Mixograph, Extensigraph, Alveograph and Amylograph, which are used for the measurement of dough rheological properties (due to visco-elastic behavior of dough) were described.

Abstract

Quality assessment of fruits and vegetable before marketing and processing is an essential task. Various destructive and non-destructive methods have been investigated to achieve this goal. Among the several prevalent noninvasive methods, optical properties measurement methods also promotes for nondestructive quality inspection of fruits and vegetables. The optical properties of biological tissue are, therefore, very importance important for getting sample information and data quantification of the inside of the material. The main goal of this chapter is, thus, to introduce fundamental concept of optical properties, its principle and application in fruits and vegetables. The discussion of electromagnetic radiation for better understanding of the nature of light has also been explored.

Abstract

Food texture is one of the most widely measured quality attributes during postharvest handling, processing, and consumption. Given the subjectivity in human perception of food texture, texture measurement remains a complex exercise and thus presents both a charm and challenge for researchers and industry practitioners. For fresh foods such as fruit and vegetable, textural properties such as firmness are widely used as indices of readiness to harvest (maturity) to meet requirements for long term handling, storage and acceptability by the consumer. For processed foods, understanding texture properties is important for the control of processing operations suchasheating, frying and drying to attain desired quality attributes of the end product. Texture and viscosity measurement is one of the most common techniques and procedures in food and postharvest research and industrial practice. Foods are complex systems exhibiting various degrees of elasticity, viscosity, and plasticity. Because of its complex structure and mechanical behavior, objective measurements of food texture may be influenced by a variety of test conditions, including rate of loading, the magnitude of deformations imposed upon the material, geometry of the loading surface, and localized yielding within the product tested. Various approaches have been used to evaluate the sensory attributes of texture in foods. However, the high cost and time consumption of organizing panelists and preparing food limit their use, and often, sensory texture evaluation is applied in combination with instrumental measurement.

Abstract

Herbal Burfi was development with various types of milk viz., Buffalo (6% Fat), Cow (4% Fat) and mixed milk (5% Fat) and different levels of sugar i.e. 20, 25, 30 and 35 per cent (weight basis of khoa). Each sample was fortified with 5g satavar and safed musli powder. Other minor ingredients like Almonds, Cardamoms, Cashew nuts, Pistachio nuts, etc were mixed thoroughly and after preparation herbal burfi was allowed to set at room temperature (20- 25_oC) for two hours. Physico-chemical (acidity, pH, fat, protein, lactose, sugar, ash and total solids), microbial (total plate count, coliform count, yeast and mould count) quality and sensory attributes of the herbal burfi were evaluated. The data of experiments were statistically analyzed to compare significance effects of various factors by applying factorial Randomized Block Design (fRBD) with the help of OPSTAT software and ANOVA.

Cashewnut is an important delicious and dollar earning cash crop of India. This crop was remained neglected due to its poor yield potential and prolonged harvesting season. Cashew was introduced mostly for soil conservation purposes. In the beginning of the 20^th century cashew kernels gained importance in the international trade as edible nut and the crop began to be considered as having commercial value. Cashew is commercially grown for its kernels although cashewnut shell liquid (CNSL) and apples are also valuable by - products. It is considered to be the most important edible nut in the world trade (Ascenso, 1986). India is the largest producer and exporter of cashewnut in the world. Cashew kernel is the rich source of protein, carbohydrate, unsaturated fats and minerals like calcium, phosphorus and iron. Cashew proteins are complete with all essential amino acids. Fats of cashewnut are considered as complete, attractive, easily digestible and non fattening, it can be used by both olds and infants. The cashew apple juice is rich in vitamin C and it has some medicinal properties.

SUMMARY

The vast amounts of biological data generated from various studies have become the cornerstone of bioinformatics. The very first challenge of this enormous data is to store and handle this large volume of information through the establishment and use of computer databases. These data describe a unique array of information on biological entities such as DNA, protein and other molecules. However, still a large amount of data remains hidden which needs to be explored by accessing these data from databases.

Biological databases play a vital role in the biological research from the fundamental molecular biology to the applied areas of biology viz. medicine, agriculture, biochemical industries etc. This chapter introduces some basic concepts related to databases such as features, construction and classification of biological databases, submission and retrieving of data from biological databases.

INTRODUCTION

Agricultural systems and the environment in which it operates have become increasingly complex which encompass both agricultural production and marketing systems. Both of them are rich in complexity and diversity (Spedding, 1975) and to understand the complexity and structure of such systems and their functions require the use of mathematical modelling frameworks that represent their key features. Disciplines that are required to develop and solve such models include: biology, computer programming, statistics, mathematics, economics, and social science. Models are being developed to investigate specific issues such as weed infestation, soil health, nitrogen cycling, the effects of climate change, climate variability, and to assist developing countries to improve their production at their farm gate. During the first half of 20th Century, most agricultural products were produced by means of labour and the majority of the produce was used for own consumption. However, as time progressed labour was substituted for machines, production became more market-oriented and consequently the practice of farming also transformed from “a way of living” to business enterprises run on business principles.

1. INTRODUCTION

Until the 1990s, the phrase Corporate Governance (CG) was relatively unknown but since then it has gained a huge importance when the corporate sector was surrounded with problems of unethical practicesand flagrant violations of rules and regulations in a number of countries. CG has received increased attention as multiple cases of risk of corporate failures both for public and private sectors. Multiple corporate failures worldwide, such as those of Maxwell, Enron, Global crossing, and Sunbeam forced the regulatory authorities to set up codes and standards on CG.The Indian market has also faced a number of scams since early nineties.Harshad Mehta Stock Scam in 1992 is one of the corporate frauds in the country which finally resulted in setting up of Kumar Mangalam Birla Committee in 1999. Based on their recommendations in 2000, Clause 49 on CG was inserted in the listing agreement of every stock exchange in India. The purpose was to promote and raise standards of CG of listed companies. CG has now become most common phrase in the business world of 21^st century. It is important for financial health of the corporations and relationshipwith the public at large; may it be an individual or community especially after the collapse of Satyam Software Services Ltd. in 2008.It has been made mandatory for the Indian companies to comply with CG norms, to give reports and disclosures as per the listing agreement and various provisions of the Companies Act in their annual reports. The importance ofCG in the 21^st century keeps on increasing as the economy is growing.

ABSTRACT

This paper broadly deals with salient applications of Information Technology in various areas related to Agriculture Research, Government’s digital initiatives, Indian Council of Agriculture Research IT initiatives in agriculture research as step, towards reaching agriculture knowledge and technology to small holders (Resource-Poor-Farmers). The present paper identifies new emerging areas of usage of computer application in Horticulture research and development.

INTRODUCTION

The horticultural sector is facing the challenges of dwindling land resources, increasing biotic and abiotic stresses, indications of factor productivity decline, threatened loss of bio-diversity, new IPR regime etc, (Adiguru and Mruthyunaja, 2004). Further, Indian agriculture has come under significant adjustment pressure from market liberalization and globalization. Farmers need reliable and timely information about best practices of production, processing, marketing, input and output prices, financial markets and risk-covering institutions. Existing public extension system has become outdated and ineffective in spite of the fact that it has been a catalyst in successfully heralding the Green Revolution in the country. This is partly due to an inadequate use of new means of information dissemination (Adhiguru et al., 2003). The public extension system follows a top-down approach and has become less interactive, more time-consuming and costly and fails to meet the expectations of those involved in the agricultural production and other involved in the value chain. Therefore, a new extension system re-oriented to meet the information needs of the farmers should be put in place across the country by using ICT.

1. INTRODUCTION

Science and Technology are vital for developing low-input and high-output agriculture and pharmaceutical. India needs frugal use of natural resources and diversification of agricultural activities. Transgenic technologies are highly misunderstood. Genetically modified crops are a result of them. In fact genetic modification of crops for human use is going on since their domestication. By introduction of Bt cotton in 2002, yields have doubled. American bollworm can no longer threaten Indian cotton crops. Insects can develop resistance to Bt gene or some virus attacking the crop needs more research. RNA-mediated gene suppression may aid the development of patent strategies that will support the next generation of genetically modified crops and enhance scope of patenting. Many fancy Organic farming, which will need 40 percent more agricultural land for present number of people on earth although it is ever increasing. Biotechnology has revolutionized agriculture, healthcare, industrial processing, environmental sustainability and is also a revenue generator. India is poised for a tremendous growth in BT sector. NanoBT has now entered into furthering the useful research on faster pace. It has scientific and technical pool of human resources, rich biodiversity, large agricultural and market base for new BT products and world recognition as a producer of low cost, high quality bulk drugs and formulations. Issues surrounding Intellectual Property Rights and BT inventions are varied but interrelated. Basic research has to be transferred to applied field and the resultant is to be commercialized. In some countries, plant varieties are protected by sui generis system. Post genome research has added fuel to the fire; new innovative fields, like ‘Bioinformatics’ with plenty of biology information and new processing methods have emerged. BT uses four tools of IPR, viz. Patents, Trademarks, Trade secrets and Copyright. At present, its contribution to the World’s patenting activity is less than three percent. As such there is a necessity to amend the IP laws to give better protection to R&D, and better enforcement of IP, technology transfer and licensing arrangements. Biotech industry in India is flourishing more in pharmaceuticals, particularly in healthcare. There is an urgent need for harmonization of administration and centralization of the patenting process in accordance with WIPO diktats.

Abstract

Mentheae, one of the largest tribes of subfamily Nepetoideae of family Lamiaceae is represented by five genera (Mentha, Nepeta, Origanum, Salvia and Thymus) in Jammu and Udhampur districts (Jammu division). Frequent surveys made of these districts to generate ethnobotanical data revealed the existence of Mentha arvensis L., M. longifolia (L.) L., M. piperita L., M. spicata L., Nepeta cataria L., Origanum vulgare L., Salvia splendens Sellow ex Schult and Thymus serpyllum L. While the enlisted Mentha species are represented more or less equally in the two districts, N. cataria, O. vulgare, S. splendens and T. serpyllum are mainly adapted to temperate regions of Udhampur. The frequent interactions with the locals indicated that except M. spicata whose leaves are used for seasoning dishes or preparing refreshing drinks and those of O. vulgare which find utility in making herbal tea, others are largely used for therapeutic purposes. Amongst these species, maximum use value was noted for M. longifolia (0.81) followed by that for M. arvensis (0.69). So far as agreement among the informants regarding the usage of a species for curing a particular disease is concerned, it came out to be maximum for both M. longifolia and M. arvensis for treatment of respiratory (Fic=0.93) and gastrointestinal problems (Fic=0.93). In our study, most of the informants have predisposition towards using M. longifolia for treating respiratory disorders particularly cough and cold. For this species, fidelity level was found to be maximum equal to 33.33%. This indicates that M. longifolia carries great potential for using in new herbal formulations. Finding of lesser use value for O. vulgare (0.21) and T. serpyllum (0.30), reportedly having many medicinal important components, is a matter of concern. The probable reasons underlying quite less usage of these taxa have also been discussed in this communication along with the future prospects of cultivating these.

Abstract

Genus Chlorophytum is represented by approximately 300 species of rhizomatous plants, distributed predominantly in tropical and sub tropical forests of the world. Most of these are medicinally important. Chlorophytum borivilianum Santapau & R.R. Fern among these is highly valued because of high saponin content mainly concentrated in its tuberous roots. These steroidal saponins are important bioactive components responsible for aphrodisiac attributes of this species in addition to several other benefits. Present communication reviews the data available on medicinal properties and phytochemical constitution of the species.

Abstract

India with plethora of flora and fauna is a rich repository of cultural and ethnic diversity. Bestowed with varied biogeographically distributed ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots, the country has always been the torch bearer as far as ethnobotanical knowledge is concerned. Jammu and Kashmir in the North-Western part of India has a rich biological and cultural diversity. Owing to the distinct geographical location and varied climatic conditions, district Poonch represents a rich repository of biodiversity including the wealth of medicinal plants. This study aimed at documenting and examining the use of plants in various medicinal herbal preparations. A total of 223 plant species belonging to 77 families and 173 genera were documented to be used as ethnomedicine by people residing in the study area. The portion of plant parts used were leaves (28.14%), followed by root (16.33%), fruit (11.55%), whole plant (10.3%), stem (09.79%), flower (7.53%), seed (5.27% each), rhizome (4.77%), tuber (3.76%), bulb (1%) and bark and latex (0.75% each). These parts are utilized as herbal remedies for curing 109 human ailments such as abscess, acidity, asthma, back pain, body pain, boils, cancer, cholera, cold, cough, dandruff, erectile dysfunction, eye pain, fever, gastroenteritis, haemorrhoid, high blood pressure, menstrual disorders, sexual disorders, stomach pain, diabetes, diarrhoea, dysentery and weakness. The dominant disease was fever (52), followed by abdominal pain (30), cough (29), headache (22), constipation (20), diabetes (18), wounds (17), weakness (16) and others. There is need for proper documentation and an attempt has been made to highlight high value medicinal plants so that proper strategies could be made for their conservation.

Abstract

Pomegranate, Punica granatum L., is an ancient fruit tree native to the Middle East. All plant parts are rich source of the various secondary metabolites that accounts for its antioxidant and health-promoting activity. A strong genetic control on anthocyanin production is responsible for variability in the color of peel and arils of pomegranate. Characterization, cloning and expression of the genes related with anthocyanin and tannin production provides routes for engineering of these complex pathways. Recent studies on pomegranate genome sequencing have elucidated several biochemical pathways and candidate genes that could assist to increase production of potent bioactive compounds in near future. This will further facilitate our understanding to some exclusive biological processes that plays a significant role in pomegranate breeding.

Indian hot arid zone which is about 12% of total geographical area of the landmass of 0.32 million km² has maximum covering in western Rajasthan i.e. 61% of the total area whereas the other areas in arid region are available in the states of Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka accounting for 20, 5, 4, 7 and 3% of hot arid area whereas the cold arid area of 8.4 million ha lies in the state of Jammu & Kashmir covering the Leh and Ladakh region.

The hot arid area is characterized by frequent droughts of 47% of frequency in the last century of moderate to severe nature. Due to higher occurrence frequency of droughts in this region of state, the livestock assumes great importance as a drought management measure as agriculture is at the mercy of rainfall pattern which is very uncertain in amount as well as distribution coupled with poor soil condition, higher evapotranspiration and higher wind velocity causing the soil erosion.

For arid region of Rajasthanthe general climatic conditions, topographical features and biotic factors do not encourage agricultural operations in the absence of extractive industry the peasantry has to fall upon animal husbandry as their main occupation. Rearing some of the finest breed of cattle, camel, sheep and goats known for their endurance making much use of the meagre feed resources which are grasses ,herbs, shrubs, tree leaves and cultivated feed and fodder crops. Livestock farming has some in built superiority over crop farming as far as growth; stability and resource conservation are concerned. On an average, the region experiences 3 years of drought in every 10 years. The natural forces constituting the soil-climatic complex, which conspire to reduce the crop productivity and cause instability in agricultural production, have much less impact on livestock farming. This is due to differences in the nutritive value of natural vegetation, which mainly sustains livestock.

Sustainable development and efficient management of water is an increasingly complex challenge in India. Increasing population, growing urbanization and rapid industrialization combined with the need for raising agricultural production generates competing claims for water. Ground water has an important role in meeting the water requirements of agriculture, industrial and domestic sectors in India. About 85 percent of India’s rural domestic water requirements, 50 percent of its urban water requirements and more than 50 percent of its irrigation requirements are being met from ground water resources. Ground water is annually replenishable resource but its availability is non-uniform in space and time. Technically, the dynamic ground water refers to the quantity of ground water available in the zone of water level fluctuation, which is replenished annually. Hence, the sustainable development of ground water resources warrants precise quantitative assessment based on reasonably valid scientific principles. National Water Policy, 2012 has laid emphasis on periodic assessment of ground water resources on scientific basis. The trends in water availability due to various factors including climate change must also be assessed and accounted for during water resources planning. To meet the increasing demands of water, it advocates direct use of rainfall, desalination and avoidance of inadvertent evapo-transpiration for augmenting utilizable water resources. The National Water Policy, 2012 also states that safe water for drinking and sanitation should be considered as pre-emptive needs followed by high priority allocation for other domestic needs (including needs of animals), achieving food security, supporting sustenance agriculture and minimum eco-system needs. Available water, after meeting the above needs should be allocated in a manner to promote its conservation and efficient use.

Introduction

Climate change has been, and continues to be one of the important causes of low productivity from animal agriculture in tropical countries like India through crop failures, fodder scarcity and increased incidence of endemic animal diseases. It impacts animal agriculture and cause immediate danger for human societies as livelihoods and food production are being adversely affected. Farm ruminant animals contribute to food supply by converting low-value materials, inedible or unpalatable for human, into milk, meat, and eggs and directly contribute to nutritional security. Besides contributing over one-fourth to the agricultural GDP, it provides employment to 18 million people in principal or subsidiary status in India. Nearly two-thirds of farm households are associated with farm animal rearing and 80% of them are small landholders (≤2 ha). As a result of various socio-economic and market driven factors, during the last one decade, large scale transformation took place in both extensive and intensive animal agriculture with regards to type and breed of the animal. A lot of high yielding, low disease resistant and more vulnerable crossbreed animal population have been increased in present animal production systems inorder to meet the market demands. Climate changes could impact severely the economic viability and production of these intensive animal production systems through increased incidence of drought/?oods/cyclones/hailstorms etc. Drought and high ambient temperatures in particular, affects production of milk, meat and egg, reproduction, health of animals and condition of pastures. Changes in pasture and crop biomass availability and quality affect animal production through changes in daily or seasonal feed supplies. Heavy rains and associated ?oods would washout the fodder resources and animals. Recent incidences of severe hail storms are causing brutal injuries to the grazing animals. To mitigate the adverse affects of extreme weather events and cope with changing climate, much precised resilient technologies suitable to local conditions and resources are needed. Hence, one should be critical in recommending smart animal-agriculture technologies in view of much diversified and heterogeneous group of farmers and the resources accessible to them. This will help in sustainable productivity from animal-agriculture and profitability to the farmers even in the era of climate change.

Introduction

R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. It is a GNU project which is similar to the S language and environment which was developed at Bell Laboratories (formerly AT&T, now Lucent Technologies) by John Chambers and colleagues. R can be considered as a different implementation of S. There are some important differences, but much code written for S runs unaltered under R.

R provides a wide variety of statistical (linear and nonlinear modelling, classical statistical tests, time-series analysis, classification, clustering) and graphical techniques, and is highly extensible. The S language is often the vehicle of choice for research in statistical methodology, and R provides an Open Source route to participation in that activity. In a nutshell, R is an open-source software environment for statistical computing that is rapidly becoming the tool of choice for data analysis in the life sciences and elsewhere. It’s developed by a large international community of scientists and programmers and is at the forefront of new developments in statistical computing.

2.1. What is Greenhouse Technology?

Greenhouse technology involves primarily the structural design that can take care of climate control mechanisms to create proper micro-crop-climate and secondarily it involves the technology needed for optimum growth and production of crop grown under this structure. Combination of these two aspects may be expressed as ‘greenhouse technology’.

So the ‘greenhouse technology’ may be defined as “The technology required to built a structure, covered fully, partly or porously for manipulating the inside climatic conditions, under which crops/plants can be grown with special measures”.

5.1. Introduction

Back drop: Since the concept of greenhouse technology was introduced, metal and wooden structures were tried in different parts of the world. When greenhouse was brought in the tropical and sub-tropical areas, people tried bamboo as construction material for greenhouse instead of iron or wood. However, due to the non-standard character of bamboo, the standardization of design of bamboo greenhouse, as a model, was not possible. Actually all such designs were very much clumsy and not at all comparable to the well established models of greenhouse having metal or wood frame.

Hence it is an urgent call to establish a standard design of bamboo greenhouse that can efficiently compete with the other common & commercial greenhouses made-up of GI-pipes.

Innovation: This greenhouse is structured by matured, cured & treated bamboo instead of usual structural elements (GI/MS/wood). For that matter (1) innovated design and construction methods and (2) a new curing method has been generated. It is very tough to standardize the design of bamboo greenhouses, specifically due to the non-standardized nature of bamboo. Unlike GI/MS pipe etc, bamboos do not have the same dimensions and uniformity in size & shape (diameter/ width/thickness etc). Thus, in general, bamboo greenhouses are low in height and are of naturally ventilated type. However, there is still huge scope to work on design of bamboo greenhouse for different climatic situation to avail the benefits of its natural advantages and low cost.

Abstract

Indian agriculture is undergoing rapid transformation and agricultural-based food industry in India requires timely and adequate supply of good quality raw material for processing, value addition and export. The recent growth and diversification of consumer demand and the expansion of organized agricultural processing and marketing ventures in India has the potential to boost the market opportunities, productivity, and incomes of farmers, including that of marginal and small holders. However, achieving these goals will likely require creation of new institutions and innovations to develop supply chains and facilitate linkages between farmers, wholesalers, processors, and retailers. Among these institutions and innovations are various models of contract farming, including those led by cooperatives, by farmer groups, and by various types of private sector resource intermediation that develop backward linkages to growers. Contract farming is a system where agricultural production is carried out according to an agreement between a buyer and farmers, which establishes conditions for the production and marketing of a farm product or products. In other words Contract Farming is a system of production and supply of agricultural/horticultural produce under forward contracts between producers/ suppliers and buyers. The essence of such an arrangement is the commitment of the producer to provide an agricultural commodity of a certain type, at a time and a price, and in a quantity required by a known and committed buyer. Well-managed contract farming is an effective approach to help solve many of the market linkage and access problems of small and marginal farmers which constitute 86% of the farming households in India. This chapter examines growth and status including the performance of different models of contract farming based on empirical studies. It concludes that by entering into the contractual arrangement, the income level of the farmer and employment level in the rural economy has increased despite certain problems faced by the farmers like delayed payment, delay in procurement and low supply of agricultural inputs to them.

Abstract

Remote sensing has wider applications in agriculture right from landscape mapping, soil moisture, planting dates, cropping systems to climate change effects. Growing uncertainties of weather and climate change pose a major threat to food security of the country and thus warrant for farmers empowerment of informed decision in agricultural risk management. The technology is competent to monitor crop growth, predict crop yield in terms of quantity and quality, assists in estimating crop acreage, its condition, disease and pest status. Over the last two decades, the development of space technology has led to a substantial increase in satellite earth observation systems. Simultaneously, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution has rendered increasingly effective the processing of data for specific uses and their instantaneous distribution on the World Wide Web (WWW). Satellite data provide better coverage in time and in area extent than any other alternative. It is important to make maximum use of this information to monitor our environment. Access to these Satellite data and products is only the beginning. In addition, the ability to interpret, combine, and make maximum use of this information is an integral part of weather and climate management at the national level. Production estimates, post harvest and quantity available for market enable the farmers and policy makers to chalk out sustainable strategy to match supply with market demand.

12.1 INTRODUCTION

Water is a factor of prime importance in agriculture industry. Water management is one of the largest and most important inputs into an orchard. An efficient water management refers to artificial application of water, i.e., irrigation in crop root zones in case of soil moisture deficit and removal of water, i.e., drainage from the root zone in case of excess so as to provide the crops a most optimum soil moisture regime for best production. It means how best we are in irrigating and dewatering our fields so that plants are protected from stress as well as water logging (Goswami, 2015). Water resources are continuously overburdened with excessive drafts and water sources are shrinking at faster rate. Groundwater levels are falling at the rates faster than ever. Under this type of circumstances, judicious use of water should be given due attention for water conservation and also in increasing water productivity. Area under horticultural plantations is increasing at exponential rate. The unproductive uplands and low productive midlands and lowlands are brought under fruit based horticultural plantations. For a profitable orchard enterprise, a well-planned irrigation system and efficient water management practice are of utmost importance. Horticultural sector, which includes vegetables, f lowers and fruits, has enormous potential for development owing to varying agro-climatic conditions in India. There is tremendous scope for increase in productivity and quality of horticultural crops, which is necessary to compete in this modern competitive world market. There are many production technologies available to increase the per unit vegetable production and also to increase its quality. One of the widely acceptable, reliable and cost- effective technologies is pressurized irrigation.

Abstract

Remotely sensed data have become the primary realistic source for natural resources and biomass estimation, since last 30 decades. A summary of earlier research on remote sensing and GIS based biomass estimation approaches and a discussion of existing issues prompting biomass estimation are very valuable for further improving biomass estimation performance with the integration of geographical information systems. This paper discusses the recently most accurately alternative research methods to integration of remote sensing and GIS applications for identification, characterization and analysis of biophysical characters. The remote sensed data and geographical information systems using the accurate assessment of natural resource and management for the enhancement of biomass production and estimation. There is not any other option for the perfectly biophysical and natural resources estimation in small to large area. The earlier research has demonstrated that biomass estimation remains a challenging task, especially in those study areas with complex forest and mixed traditional cropping systems and environmental conditions. Either optical sensor data or radar data are more suitable for forest sites with relatively simple forest stand structure than the sites with complex biophysical environments. A combination of spectral responses and image textures improves biomass estimation performance. More research expertise is needed to focus on the integration of remote sensing, GIS& GPS, the use of multisource data, and the selection of suitable variables and algorithms for biomass estimation at different scales. Understanding and identifying major uncertainties caused by different stages of the biomass estimation technique and applying strength of mind to reduce these uncertainties are critical.

Keywords : Integrating, Remote Sensing, Bio-physical, Resources, Environment

Abstract

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) application in plant genetic resource management allow capture, manipulate, process and display of georeferenced data integrated with genetic resource database for operations such as query and statistical analysis, visualization and geographic representation. GIS based several spatial tools have been developed that model species’ ecological niches finding a relationship between crop or variety with a set of environmental parameters and useful for planning exploration, evaluation trials, in situ and ex situ conservation sites. GIS technologies have direct practical application in elucidation of genetic, ecological and geographic patterns in the distribution of crops and wild relatives; mapping of richness, diversity, distribution of useful traits and, location of areas with complementary diversity; gene bank information management and strategies for future explorations and gap analysis; selection of suitable accessions/sites for ex situ evaluation; searching germplasm for abiotic stress tolerance and developing core collections. With the increasing availability of high- speed computers and software development in the area of GIS tools specific to PGR management increasing trend in application of these is expected. Apart from ecogeographic survey for locating diversity and germplasm collection and design, management and monitoring of in situ reserves, introduction of new varieties, and development of core collection, locating gene donors for biotic and abiotic stresses are the areas to be benefited with the GIS application.

Keywords: GIS, genetic resource, distribution, diversity, core collection, gap analysis, mapping

Chhattisgarh, the 26^th state of the Indian Union came into existence on November 1^st, 2000. The state is geographically situated in the central part of India, between the latitudes of 17° 46' N - 24° 5' N and the longitudes of 80° 15' E - 84° 20' E. Its proximate position with the Tropic of Cancer has a major influence on its climate. The total geographical area is around 137.90 lakh ha of which cultivable land area is 46.77 lakh ha and forest land area is 63.53 lakh ha with more than 2.55 crore population. In Chhattisgarh region about 22% of net cropped area was under irrigation. About 80 percent of the population in the state is engaged in agriculture and 43 percent of the entire arable land is under cultivation. Paddy is the principal crop and the central plains of Chhattisgarh are known as rice bowl of central India. Other major crops are coarse grains, wheat, maize, groundnut, pulses and oilseeds.

Importance of Maize in Chhattisgarh

Earlier maize was mainly cultivated in Surguja and Bastar division of Chhattisgarh but now it is emerging as main cash crop in entire Chhattisgarh state. There had been an increase of 20 per cent in maize crop acreage in Chhattisgarh during the past 10 years. Now the farmers of the area are cultivating maize in lines, applying atrazin weedicide, full dose of chemical fertilizers, etc. They are willing to buy the hybrid seed for cultivation from the market and taking maize as green cob and also utilizing as green fodder. Maize threshers have been purchased by some farmers in the region which is an indicative of large maize production.

For industrial utilization of the maize Chhattisgarh state has “Raja Ram Maize Factory” in Rajnandgaon district. They are producing and supplying Maize starches, liquid glucose, dextrose mono hydrate, dextrin, maltose liquid, malto dextrin, maize oil, maize gluten, maize grit, maize husk etc. But most of the maize production is used as poultry feeds in the state. Traders purchase it directly from the farmers’ fields in the villages. It is also exported to the neighboring states either as grain or green cob. Around 10-15% is retained by the farmers for own consumption and seed purpose.

Bihar is an important maize growing state in India after Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, where it is cultivated during all season. However, the yield of maize is much higher during Rabi and summer seasons than the Kharif. Due to climate change and other factors, the yield of maize is likely to further decline during the Kharif season. However, the cultivation of maize in Bihar during the Rabi season will be much more profitable as compared to wheat due to rise in temperature. There is need to develop maize varieties which can with stand biotic and abiotic due to changing climate factors.

Decadal trends of maize area, production and stresses yield in the Bihar from 1950–2015.