eChapters

The traditional medicines are actually used in human for number of years and therefore its clinical existence comes as a presumption. However, for bringing more objectivity and also to confirm traditional claims, systematic clinical trials are necessary. In Ayurvedic medicine research, clinical experiences, observations or available data becomes a starting point. In conventional drug research it comes at the last. Thus, the drug discovery based on Ayurveda follows a ‘Reverse Pharmacology’ path546.

Nevertheless, all the critical Pharmacopoeial tests such as dissolution time, microbial, pesticide and heavy metals contamination etc. must be in accordance with global standards. It is important to ensure that all the Ayurvedic medicine manufacture is in accordance with Current Good Manufacturing Procedures for herbal products547,548. There have been concerns about quality standards and safety issues of herbal medicines549. The need for new regulations for botanical medicines has also been frequently stressed and some such regulations are coming in force in different parts of the world550,551.

Rusts

The following three rusts are known to occur on barley

1. Stem black rust: Puccinia graminis tritici f. sp. tritici
2. Leaf rust: Puccinia striiformis
3. Leaf rust: Puccinia hordei

Of these, the first two are described under wheat and the disease symptoms are identical. These two rusts occur commonly on barley and cause severe damage in certain years.

Anthracnose

Colletotrichum lindemuthianum

(Sexual stage: Glomerella lindemuthianum)

Diagnostic Symptoms

• The pathogen can attack all aerial parts at any stage of plan growth.
• Main symptoms are circular, black, sunken spots with dark center and bright red orange margins on leaves and pods.
• In severe infections the affected parts wither off.
• Seedling get destroyed due to infection soon after seed germination.

Anthracnose

Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, Glomerella lindemuthiana Shear [teleomorph]

Economic Importance

• Anthracnose is an important disease in Kenya, Uganda, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, India, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia .
• The disease causes huge losses in temperate and subtropical zones.
• Yield losses of 95% have been recorded in Colombia and over 92% in Malawi.
• Anthracnose also affects seed quality and marketability of the crop.

White Rust

Albugo candida

Economic Importance

• White rust is an important disease affecting mustard crop in world.
• Countries where the disease occurs include the Brazil, Canada, Fiji, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Turkey and UK.
• Up to 60 per cent or more yield losses on B. rapa and B. juncea from this disease have been reported in India.

Seedling Blight

Phytophthora parasitica

Economic Importance

• Seedling blight is wide spread in Africa, India and other Asian countries.
• The average economic loss due to the disease has been 10%.

Root Rot or Stem Rot or Charcoal Rot

Macrophomina phaseolina (Sclerotial stage: Rhizoctonia bataticola)

Economic Importance

• Root rot is an important disease of sesame as infection occurs from seed germination and emergence to adult plant stage.
• The losses incurred are even up to 100 per cent, if conditions are favorable.

Introduction

Food safety and quality assumes paramount significance in any food industry. Globalization has driven both the food and agricultural firms to adopt systems that functions in a way to interlink food standards and international trade so as to achieve superior food quality and safety. Food industries follow several regional and international food safety procedures to procure certification from the government and other agencies in order to survive in both domestic and international markets (Ryan, 2014). The essential components in the food safety include handling, preparation and storing of the food products to ensure the food quality and to avoid food-borne diseases. The unwanted substances in a food product included by an accident is known as contaminants and the unwanted substance added to the food product to reduce the cost or to improve the other properties are known as adulterants. Contaminants and adulterants may lead to pathogens and toxins that pose serious concerns over the health of the consumer (Jha, 2016). The adulterants and contaminants are classified as physical adulterants and contaminants, chemical adulterants and residues, microbiological and pathogenic contaminants and toxins.

Hazards in food can be categorized into physical, chemical and biological.

Physical Hazards: Physical hazards are foreign organic or inorganic objects or extraneous materials in the food products. Hard and sharp physical hazards are of particular concern. Examples of physical hazards are broken glass, plastics, metal pieces, wood pieces, stones etc.

Introduction

Thermal processing is an important treatment for food preservation is, especially in the manufacture of shelf-stable foods with specific nutritional properties. It is also indispensable for determining the sensory properties, particularly, colour, flavour, and texture of fried, baked, and roasted products. As a result of heat treatment, chemical changes induced, and a plethora of new molecules are formed in foods, some of which have been claimed to be health-promoting antioxidants and anti-mutagens. However, reports suggest that thermal processing leads to the formation of certain toxic compounds, so-called process-induced contaminants in foods. The process-induced toxicants are certain compounds which are formed in food as a result of food processing, exert adverse toxicological effects, and cause potential health risks to humans. Acrylamide, furan, chloropropanols, heterocyclic aromatic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and N-nitrosamines are some well-known examples of thermal process contaminants.

Species composition of birds in an area is related to the type of vegetation, height above the sea level, the availability of microhabitats and various other factors. The study site at Silent Valley covered all the representative habitats namely forest canopy, forest interior, forest edge, rocky patches, grass patches and foliage air interface met within a tropical forest. Riparian patches were excluded after an initial survey as it contained only a few species of forest birds. The Mukkali study site covered moist deciduous forest, burned forests, coffee estate, open rocky areas and agricultural land. Common species, Dominant species and Species richness of the two study areas were assessed and the data are presented in this chapter.

In this chapter utilisation of habitat by the birds of the Silent Valley National Park has been analysed. Usually three questions are asked in the habitat utilisation studies (1) whether the species form well defined assemblages, quite apart from the geographical distribution patterns? (2) Whether ecologically or taxonomically similar species segregate by habitat? (3) Whether habitat characteristics attribute for the variations in the distribution or abundance (Wiens, 1989).

METHODS

Whenever a bird was observed in the period of study, its exact location and activities were recorded. The concept of habitat as described by Odum (1974), “the habitat of an organism is the place where it lives or the place where one would go to find it” is adopted for this study. Four main habitats were identified in the study area, depending on the vegetation type namely, Evergreen Forest (EF), Moist Deciduous Forest (MDF), Coffee Estate (CE) and Agricultural Area (AA). In each of the above habitats, “microhabitat” of birds was also recorded (Odum, 1974). Microhabitats identified at Silent Valley were the tree trunk, foliage, branch, bushes, dead tree, ground, grass and open area. Microhabitats identified at Mukkali were tree trunk, foliage, branch, bushes, ground, rocky areas and open area.

Introduction

Food supply is a major concern in the near future as the human population touches 9 billion in 2050 and therefore, more food has to be produced. This has to be achieved in the face of climate change amounting to constant pressure of biotic and abiotic stresses. However, Swaminathan (2007) opined that science and technology can play a very important role in stimulating and sustaining an evergreen revolution leading to long-term increases in productivity without associated ecological harm. Rice is considered as global grain since it is consumed by more than half of the world population. In India rice supplies calorie requirement to more than 70 per cent of its population. This is evident from the fact that rice is cultivated in all the 30 states and 5 union territories of the Indian subcontinent of diverse ecologies ranging from below sea level to mountainous regions. Though India tops in rice acreage (43.61 mha) its productivity of 3.19 t/ha (rough rice) is far below world average of 4.12 t/ha and that of Asia’s average of 4.19 t/ha (Shobharani et al., 2010). This low productivity is mainly due to unfavourable ecologies of the varied ecosystems which, rice encounters during critical stages of its growth. Salinity and submergence are major abiotic stresses, next to drought, limiting rice production in South East Asia including India.

In India nearly 8 mha are salt affected of which 2 mha are coastal saline and 3.4 mha are sodic (Singh, 1994). Rice is predominant crop in these areas especially in vast stretches of eastern and western coasts of India. The presence of salts, in excess to plant growth, in the soil solution makes the soil detrimental to crop growth. The source of the excess salt may be from soil or irrigation water. The content and composition of salts (ions) in tandem with types of soil and weather conditions prevailing during the crop period decides the severity of salt stress. Similarly, f lash floods or short-term submergence regularly affect rice growing areas in South and Southeast Asia. Even more favorable irrigated areas experience flooding problems during the monsoon season. It is also prevalent in rainfed lowlands where most of the present day rice varieties do not survive complete submergence for more than a week. In India 30% of the rice growing area is prone to such menace resulting in severe yield losses (Neeraja et al., 2007).

Organizational communication can be defined as the process of the flow (Transmission and Reception) of goal oriented messages between sources, in a pattern and through a medium or media. And organizational communication is the study of how people communicate within an organizational context, or the influence of, or interaction with organizational structures in communicating / organizing.

An additional elements in organizational communication (not present in interpersonal communication) is the flow pattern of messages. Thus here are 6 elements in organizational communication.

1. The transmitting source

2. The receiving source

3. Source (the target)

4. The transmitted message

5. The goal of the message

6. The medium or media and the flow pattern (which is called network). The transmitting and receiving sources are the people sending and receiving the message.

Introduction

Many a times research programs appear potentially promising before implementation yet fail to generate expected impacts or benefits. Impact Assessment (IA) has become an integral part of any research study. It, not only justifies the investment made, but also helps in prioritizing projects. The ultimate objective is to make an impact from the output of the projects carried out. Researchers and extension functionaries involved in the upliftment of farmers/fishers through various research projects, training activities and interventions are bound to justify their resource utilization through unbiased and objective based impact assessments.

What is Impact Assessment?

Impact assessment (IA) is a structured process for considering the implications, for people and their environment, of proposed actions while there is still an opportunity to modify or abandon the proposals. It is applied at all levels of decision-making, from policies to specific projects. Impact Assessment is simply defined as the process of identifying the future consequences of a current or proposed action. The difference between input, output, outcomes and how they encompass the monitoring and evaluation programmes of any organisation later transforming into the study of impacts has been shown in Figure 3.1.

Introduction

Access to adequate food, which is one of the fore-most basic needs of life, should be birthright of every single human being on this earth but in our country one fourth population is still underfed. The food insecurity situation is more rampant in the North-eastern region of the country. The proportion of population below poverty line (BPL) was reported at 31.4 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh, 34.0 per cent in Assam, 37.9 per cent in Manipur, 16.10 per cent in Meghalaya, 15.4 per cent in Mizoram, 8.8 per cent in Nagaland and 40.0 per cent in Tripura, in the year 2015 (RBI, 2015). At national lavel it was reported to be 37.20 per cent. By comparing BPL population in NE Region states and national level poverty it was found that several states of this region like Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya were far better as in these states BPL percentage were very less than the national average, whereas in the states like Tripura, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh BPL percentages were close to National level (37.20%). It has now been well established fact that the availability of food grains may not be the real problem of food security; it is prevailing poverty that comes in the way of achieving household’s food security. Hence, household food security is a function not only availability of food but also of the purchasing power of household. Any effort to achieve sustainable development demands concerted efforts to reduce poverty, including finding the solutions to hunger and malnutrition. In this study, an attempt has been made to analyze the status of food deprivation among fish farmers of West Tripura district of Tripura and to examine consumption expenditure behavior fish farming families of the study area.

Introduction

Fishing technology is the discipline dealing with the natural sciences and technology for optimizing fish catch and fishing operations, leading to a productive and sustainable capture fishery. The fishes are one of the main exploitable resources of the aquatic ecosystems that provide a cheap source of protein which helps solving the problem of nutritional security particularly in NE region of the country. The rapid development of fishing technology in India during the recent years has paved the way for increased production availability of new synthetic materials, evolution of new designs of fishing craft and gear and avoidance of ignorant harmful fishing techniques etc. It is essential that any developmental activity adopted, should also be base rooted in the objective of uplifting the economy of the fishing communities. This implies that the improvisation of the existing tools and techniques and introduction of new ones to enhance fishing efficiency need a careful study of the traditional technologies.

Further, selection of fishing methods and gear are influenced by various factors such as physiography of the water body, nature of fish stock, characteristics of the material from which gear are fabricated and standard of living. Therefore, variation in application of fishing devices can be observed in different type of water bodies, which have characteristic of their own due to unique nature of the water resources of the region. The success of these fishing techniques depends on various factors like selection of site, time, efficiency of materials used and availability of fish, etc. For successful fishing some attractant as a lure is popularly employed.

The North Eastern Region of the Country is very rich in the indigenous knowledge and techniques of fishing. The fishing gear and craft vary from one state to other states in terms of technical specification, materials and method of fishing. The type and size of water bodies also determine design fishing gear and craft to be used for fishing. The present day fishing methods and fishing devices which are in use in the region are the result of continuous efforts and knowledge inherited through generations of fishing community. Hence, fishing methods and fishing devices in the region was developed by the community according to their need, availability of the material, type of water bodies and target species. In this presentation, an assessment, compilation and documentation of these indigenous fishing technologies of the Tripura which is important for academicians, researchers and other stake holders, is made.

Introduction

The word cooperation is of Latin origin and it means to work together (Filley, 1929).Cooperatives are founded on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. Based on the founding principles of co-operatives, members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others (Canadian Business Service Centre, 2004). A fishery co-operative society can be defined as “An autonomous association of people united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled fishery enterprise or fishery activities.”

Attitude implies that the individual is no longer neutral toward the referent psychological objects. The person would be positively inclined or negatively disposed in some degree towards the referents (Campbell, 1963; Allport, 1966; Newcomb, 1966; Zanden, 1977; Burr, 2000). The response in this connection is a lasting one, as long as the attitude in question is operative. Attitude refers to a psychological individual’s stands about objects, issues, persons, groups, or Institutions. The definition of attitude proposed by Triandis (1971) suggests that attitude has three components: (a) a cognitive component (the idea), (b) an affective component (the emotions), and (c) a behavioural component (the action).

Introduction

Aquaculture, also known as aqua-farming, embodies the procedure of the farming of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, algae, and other organisms. Aquaculture involves cultivation of freshwater and saltwater fish-populations under controlled conditions (Wikipedia, 2019). Aquaculture industry has undergone a lot of change in the last two decades. The application of the sophisticated technologies in the aquaculture industry has greatly altered the face of the industry in special relation to the Western and developed countries. New tools related to the measurement of the different environmental parameters needed to be controlled in different layers of the production process like Hatchery, Nursery and Grow-out have come up. Lots of data generated from the above stages relate to include the parameters, like, cost of production, health condition of produced fish, etc., which ultimately leads to the generation of the appropriate pricing of produce. With the advent of globalization, all aquaculture product companies need to look for exporting their respective products along with meeting the full satisfaction related to the demand from the domestic markets with an ultimate objective to increasing the profit. Export of the fisheries products in the western countries needs proper certification on the quality of the products duly by the appropriate authorities. The certification authorities need to check the detailed production process related to the fisheries- products in order to be sure about the quality imbibed in the same. The development of integrated software maintaining the details of the production process makes the task easy for both the production company and the certification authority, thus satisfying the needs of the end-customers in the western markets. Useful ERP software needs to maintain all relevant information on the production process commencing from the very early stage of the production till the act of selling the products in the market.

Introduction

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), fish and fishery products accounts for 17% of the global human consumption of animal protein. Per capita food fish supply has grown to 18.4kg per person, an 8% rise since 2006. Approximately 54% of the seafood protein supply for human consumption comes from wild catch; unfortunately about 30% of the world’s wild-capture fisheries are overexploited and many fisheries are in bad shape and getting worse. Solving this problem will require innovative monitoring and management tools, but we can provide tremendous benefits if we act now to reverse our course. Taking a serious, in-depth look at fisheries could help feed the world’s growing population, and conserve marine species. Humanity is reaching farther and deeper into the oceans and, until recently, there were only anecdotes and guesses about the complete effects of our actions. Recent reports show that some fisheries are being managed sustainably and good progress is being made in reducing exploitation rates and restoring overexploited fish stocks and marine ecosystems.

Sustainable fisheries management is an integrated process that seeks to attain an optimal state that balances ecological, economic, social and cultural objectives for fisheries. It involves information gathering, analysis, planning, consultation, decision-making, allocation of resources and formulation and implementation, with enforcement as necessary, which govern fisheries activities to ensure the above mentioned fisheries objectives. A thorough knowledge on the fish resource assessment is of utmost importance for a fishery manager to effectively make decisions and implement it. In this chapter, an attempt is made to briefly explain the basic concepts of fish resource under management, its assessment and techniques to be applied.

Fruit crops, majority of them are generally perennial in nature and owing to the outcrossing during their evolutionary stages, they are highly heterozygous. Genetic improvement is extremely difficult due to the complex genetic nature. The germplasm collection, conservation and evaluation take long time and area. Although the concept of core collection is very much valid, there is always a question mark when it comes to highly heterozygous crops as to whether the sample is good enough to represent the population. Due to the propagation by seeds, the large variability present needs to be evaluated for various characteristics. The genetical studies carried out in many of these crops are not conclusive and the progeny performance cannot be predicted. The biometrical methods to estimate the parameters viz., combining ability, heritability using the methodologies such as diallel have proven to be futile excercises to a very great extent. Parental selection, which is so vital for a successful breeding programme is very difficult as mainly selection has to be based upon the phenotype. Breeding for particular traits like biotic or abiotic stress has been difficult as resistance is not found within the spp and interspecific / intergeneric hybridization is difficult because of incompatibility barriers for eg the ‘PRSV’ breeding programme in papaya. In highly heterozygous crop like mango, there exists strong genotype x environmental interaction, which alters the performance of improved varieties.

The Annonaceae or custard apple family comprises about 120 genera and more than 2000 species (Leboeuf et al., 1982). The genus Annona is the most economically important one, containing 120 species. The major commercial species throughout the world are: the cherimoya (Annona cherimola), sweetsop (Annona squamosa) and atemoya (a hybrid of Annona cherimola and Annona squamosa). The custard apple species name ‘squamosa’ refers to the knobby appearance of the fruit. Custard apple is a small tropical tree originating in the New World tropics, probably Central America. This species is the most widely grown in the tropical regions of the America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Sweetsop is synonym also named sugar apple and has many other regional names, such as Custard apple (India), anon (Spanish), ata (Portuguese), noi-na (Thailand), stis (The Philippines) and fan-li-chi (Taiwan). Sweetsop is the mostly grown Annona species. The fruit is frequently found in village markets but has not shown much potential for large commercial cultivation due to the small fruit size, frequent cracking at maturity and poor shelf life. The perishable nature and supply shortages make marketing localized or air shipment essential.

Introduction

According to FAO estimates, about 50% total geographical area in India is under various degraded hazards and about 2.1 million ha of land is getting degraded and deforested annually (Sehgal et al. 1998). Out of that underground water in arid and semi-arid areas is saline or sodic in nature. While spices, medicinal and aromatic plants may be a boon for these areas, which not only withstand under adverse conditions but also could be productive and helps in mitigating these problems. However, other crops are remain less or unproductive in these areas.

Spices are low volume and high value crops and have tremendous export potential, which is witnessed by several invasions faced by this Indian peninsula during ancient time. Medicinal and aromatic plants have unequally market potential with the world demand of herbal products growing at the rate of 7 percent per annum (Aishwath and Tarafdar, 2007). Seed spices and aromatic plants are the natural source of flavour, perfumes and fragrance widely exploited by essential oil industries in the world. Owing to considerably diversity of edaphoclimatic conditions ranging from temperate to tropical and arid to sub-humid that prevails in India and an array of medicinal and aromatic flora occurs in wild state. Many exotic essential oil bearing plants, including mints, citronella, geranium, patchouli, lavender and chamomile have been naturalized in India. As the country has emerged as one of the main producers of seed spices and some of the essential oils, theses plants are significant foreign exchange earners. Some of the aromatic plants especially grasses can sustain both biotic as well as abiotc stresses, even in the areas unsuitable for conventional crops (Aishwath et al., 2008). Most of the seed spices crops are seasonal crops and comes up well with limited moisture and nutrients. Therefore, underutilized natural resources can be utilized profitably by crop diversification.

Introduction

Indian arid zone is one of the largest subtropical deserts of the world of which 20% is arid and rest is semi-arid. Hot arid zone is spread over 31.7 million ha area and mainly confined in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. The major part of hot arid region of the country lies in western Rajasthan (19.62 mha) followed by North-western Gujarat (2.16 mha). It is characterized by high aridity index, extremes of temperature low and variable precipitation, very high wind velocity and dust storm, high soil pH, high infiltration rate, very limited availability of groundwater and saline ground irrigation water (More, 2010). Under such harsh climatic conditions cultivation of vegetable crops in open condition results in very low and poor-quality yield which fetches less return per unit area. By creating the suitable micro-climate for plant growth round the year cultivation of vegetables can be done under adverse climatic conditions. It is possible through protected cultivation which has tremendous scope in peri-urban areas of the country (Singh and Sirohi, 2004). It is the best way to increase the productivity and quality of vegetables, especially cucurbits. India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world next only to China. Presently India has 178.17 million tonnes of total vegetable production, but the productivity and quality of most of the vegetable crops is very poor (17.40 t/ ha) due to several biotic and abiotic stresses due to open field cultivation. In Rajasthan, the total production of vegetables is very less i.e. only 1.81 million tonnes from an area of 0.17 m ha with a productivity of 10.66 t/ ha.

India’s economic security continues to be predicated upon the agriculture sector, and the situation is not likely to change in the foreseeable future. Even now, agriculture supports 58% of the Indian population, as against about 75% at the time of independence. In the identical period, the contribution of agriculture and allied sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fallen from 61 to 13%. As of today, India supports 16.8% of world’s population on 4.2% of world’s water resources and 2.3% of global land resources. Also per caput availability of resources is about 4 to 6 times less than that of world average. This will further decrease due to increasing demographic pressure and consequent diversion of the land for non-agricultural uses. Around 51% of India’s geographical area is already under cultivation as compared to 11% of the world average. The present cropping intensity is 136% and it has been registered an increase of only 25% since independence. Further, rainfed and dry-lands area constitute approximately 65% of the total net sown area. There is also an unprecedented degradation of land (107 million ha) and groundwater resource, and also fall in the rate of growth of total factor productivity. This deceleration needs to be arrested and agricultural productivity has to be doubled to meet growing demands of the population by 2050. Efficiency-mediated improvement in productivity is the most viable option to raise production of various commodities including horticulture.

Introduction

Arid and semi arid parts of the India are known as Seed Spices Bowl (Rajasthan and Gujarat) and contribute more than 80% of total seed spices production. Total 109 spices are listed by ISO and 63 spices are grown in India and out of which 20 are being classified as seed spices. Out of 20 seed spices, ICAR-NRCSS working on 10 most important seed spices namely cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, ajwain, anise, caraway, celery, dill and nigella (NRCSS Vision, 2050). Seed spices also grown in some other states on considerable areas such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Punjab, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Since there is a large scope of seed spices by introducing them in new areas, the higher yields can also be achieved effortlessly by implementing new technologies. Among seed spices, maximum area is under cumin followed by coriander, fennel fenugreek, ajwain, celery, nigella, dill, anise etc. Being seasonal crops, these are grown extensively in rotation with food crops and also as inter/mixed crops under rainfed/irrigated conditions. All these crops mostly grown in rabi season. India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of seed spices in the world. Out of total area and production in spices, seed spices contribute about 51.79% of total area and 19.06% of production of spices in the country. The area under seed spices is about 1.74 million hectare and 1.45 million tonnes. India is consistent source of seed spices for importing countries worldwide. There has been ever increasing demand of seed spices and importing countries look at India for quality produce of seed spices.

Introduction

Agriculture is the mainstay of the Indian population and contributes about 30 per cent to the gross domestic product of India. The government has laid great emphasis onimproving productivity, quality of produce and welfare of farmers through awareness campaign and enhanced agri-knowledge for the farming community to double the farmer’s income by 2022 and make the farmers realise their significant contribution to the nation building. Doubling the farmer’s income can only be possible, with proper diversification of crops, developing the existing irrigation system in proper utilization of available water on plant requirement basis, conservation of soil fertility through adding organic manures to the field, best utilization of human excreta from the storage tanks of individual toilets after proper decomposition through bacterial degradation, fulfilling the nutrient requirement of crops on the basis of soil test values, proper financial support from the Government to the farmers in managing stress due to natural calamities etc. The governmentbelieves that farmers’ welfare will improve if there is increase in net income from the farms. With this end in view, the approach is to reduce cost of cultivation, enable higher yield per unit area and realize remunerative prices of farm produce. To achieve this goal, action on three pillars needs to be taken.

Introduction

Pomegranate is one of the most remunerative fruit crops that grow well under arid and semi-arid agro eco-system with severe scarcity of water. The popularity of pomegranate has grown tremendously due to its health beneûts, high returns on investment, less water requirement, therapeutic and functional properties. Growing health consciousness among the consumers and acquisition of super fruit status by pomegranate has made marketing of pomegranate fruits and derived value added products quite easy. As the result of all these benefits, India is witnessing a pomegranate revolution with more than 80 % expansion in area and 250 % increase in production during last one decade. However, there are many challenges to be overcome so as to double the income of pomegranate growers, these challenges include market glut due to unprecedented increase in production coupled with limited export resulting into suboptimal price of the harvested produce; intensification of diseases and insects and pest due to huge unplanned expansion; dominance of only one variety; very limited value addition; hampered export due to suboptimal quality, unwanted sprays, issue of pesticide residues and lack of sufficient number pesticide label claims in pomegranate; inadequate supply chain management. So, in order to overcome these challenges and to increase the profitability of pomegranate stakeholders, we need to focus on scientifically sound cultivation practices to reduce the cost of cultivation, breeding for improved varieties, improved packaging, transport, storage, marketing, supply chain management, facilitating and encouraging export, practicing and promoting climate resilient horticulture, formation of farmers’ cooperatives and farmers producers organization (FPOs), processing and value addition with the aim of total utilization and use of information and communication technologies. This article deals with opportunities and strategies in pomegranate for doubling farmers’ income through nursery management; improved horticultural practices; integrated disease, insets pests and nutrient management; use of information and communication technologies; creation of FPOs; processing and value addition.

Introduction

Climate change has become one of the biggest challenges for the sustainable crop production. Prolonged droughts and desertification are among the issues faced by Indian hot arid zone where the rural poor and smallholders are most heavily affected. If people are to survive in these ever harsher conditions, their crops need to withstand drought, high temperatures and poor soils. Cactus crops are gaining increasing interest across the globe, in particular cactus pear or prickly pear {Opuntia ficus indica (L) Mill.} because of its unique characteristics which provide resilience to the harsh ecological conditions. Cactus pear is able to grow on land where no other crops are able to grow; it can be used to restore degraded land. It is the only crop that can be relied on when everything else fails. Cactus pear is grouped as CAM plant (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism), a photosynthesis mechanism evolved in some plants as an adaptation to arid conditions. In a plant using full CAM, the stomata in the leaves remain shut during the day to reduce evapotranspiration, but open at night to collect carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Introduction

The hot arid zones in India are spread over nearly 31.7 million hectare area of which 41.5 per cent is arable and 19 per cent is cultural wasteland. These zones are perpetuated mainly in North –West and Southern part of the country. The major parts of the country under hot arid climatic conditions are Western Rajasthan (19.62 Million ha), North-western Gujarat (6.2 M. ha), South-western Punjab (1.45 M. ha), South-western Haryana (1.28 M. ha), Andhra Pradesh (2.16 M. ha), Karnataka (0.86 M. ha), and Maharashtra ( 0.13 M. ha). These areas/ zones are characterized by hostile agro-climate and fragile eco-system, an annual rainfall between 100 – 500 mm with a coefficient of variation (CV) varying from 40 – 70 per cent, low and erratic rainfall combined with extremes of temperature (450-500 cal/cm²/day); low relative humidity; high potential evapo-transpiration value ranging from 1600 mm in eastern part and 1800 mm in western part of the hot arid zones. Other important characteristics of the hot arid regions are hot winds with high velocity, poor soil condition, poor ground water with brackish and saline in reaction, poor vegetation, frequent occurrence of drought and frost, difficult to execute agro-techniques, difficulty in post harvest handling and marketing owning to limited and inefficient transportation and marketing facilities, etc (Yadav and Soni, 2008).

ABSTRACT

Phospholipase A₂ catalyzes the hydrolysis of glycerophospholipids at the sn-2 position and releases fatty acids and lysophospholipids. When the fatty acid is the arachidonic acid, a complementary metabolism leads to pro-inflammatory mediators such as prostaglandins, leukotrienes, thromboxanes and platelet activating factors. Thus, modulating pro-inflammatory lipid mediator production by inhibiting PLA₂ activity remains a potential target for the development of new drugs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Medicinal plants have been explored therapeutically in traditional medicines and are a valuable source for drug discovery. Molecular docking studies were carried out for anti-inflammatory compounds from various plant sources with human non-pancreatic secretory phospholipase A₂.

Resource use efficiency in Indian agriculture

Resource use efficiency in agriculture is defined to include the concepts of technical efficiency, allocative efficiency and environmental efficiency. Public investment, subsidies and credit for agriculture are used in an efficient manner. There are large scale inter regional as well as inter farm variations in factor productivity due to varying influence of different factors in different regions. A number of management factors such as timeliness and method of sowing, transplanting, irrigation and application of right doses of inputs and input mix play an important role in influencing inter-farm variation in crop productivity. Growing marginalization and fragmentation of land holdings coupled with rising incidence of informal tenancies and poor rural infrastructure such as road, electricity, markets and education affect factor productivity. The availability of good quality irrigation water coupled with flexibility of irrigation and drainage system and appropriate methods of application as well as pricing of irrigation water is crucial for sustainable use of land and water resources.

The stochastic frontier production function to analyse the resource use efficiency of urban farmers in Uyo, Southeastern Nigeria was done. The result shows that 65% of urban farmers were 70% technology efficient; maximum efficiency is 0.91, while minimum efficiency in urban farm is 0.43.

The increasing awareness of the deleterious effects of indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture has led to the adoption of organic farming as an alternative method for conventional farming world-wide. It is gaining gradual momentum across the world and the growing awareness of organic food which is emerging as an attractive source of rural income generation especially in integrated farming systems.

In north west India where rice-wheat, cotton-wheat and pearl millet-wheat cropping systems are most prevalent. But now, these cropping systems are not proving farmers’ friendly due to higher water requirement, declining yield, susceptibility to insects and pests and adverse effect on soil health. Moreover, in the new millennium with the growing demand of agricultural commodities in national as well as international market due to ever increasing population and globalization, Indian farmers are forced to produce higher quantum of quality agricultural commodities at low cost from shrinking land and natural resources.

Mungbean - wheat cropping system requires less water and hence, can be grown in areas where water availability is limited in addition to beneficial effect of mungbean to supply N to the succeeding wheat crop which are favorable for organic farming. Wheat (desi) also known as tall wheat requires less water and is very responsive to low doses of nutrients. The dwarf wheat grown by farmers with the application of chemicals in the form of fertilizers, weedicides, insecticides and pesticides is not preferred by people and therefore, the demand of organic wheat is rising fast in national and international market. This cropping system can be taken successfully in farming systems for higher monetary returns.

There is need to shift a portion of cultivable land with organic farming as an alternate practice technique. Organic farming gives emphasis on sustainability, environmental safety and low cost production techniques over chemical farming. Keeping the issues of 21^st century agriculture in view following aspects also shows importance of organic farming: Reduce the toxic load; keep chemicals out of the air, water, soil and our bodies; reduce if not eliminate off farm pollution; protect future generations; build healthy soil; taste better and truer flavor; assist farmers of all sizes; promote biodiversity; celebrate the culture of agriculture etc.

The 21^st century dawned with interest in the potential of electric agricultural machines. Beginning in 2000, a concept study, MELA Mobile Elektrische Leistungsund Antriebstechnik Mobile (electric power train technology)supported by universities and organizations in Germany as well as Fendt Agricutural Company (AGCO) showed a possible solution on tractor electrification with electric driven auxiliaries as well as electric CVTs and implement electrification. In 2003 the University of Hohenheim developed an electric combine harvester called Magda. With the introduction of a 42 VDC power supply system, the range of small rotational drives and servo motors could be covered. They showed that if more power had to be transmitted, threephase alternating current should be used since threephase machines had a large speed range and a large range of constant power.

During the first years of the century, longestablished transport manufacturers have been quick to see the environmental advantage of electric propulsion, be it with batteries, hybridelectric or fuel cell. With airliners, Boeing, Airbus and Tupolev quickly saw the advantage. With motorcycles, names such as HarleyDavidson, Curtiss, Ducati, Saroléa and Royal Enfield have positioned battery packs between two wheels. With trucks, Daimler, Toyota, Cummins, Peterbilt, DAF, Volvo, Leyland, Kenworth, and Isuzi, among others have taken the electric route. With buses, Alexander Dennis, Scania, Volvo, New Flyer, Van Hool, DAFVDL, Blue Bird, Heuliez, Rampinican carry their passengers more silently. It therefore seemed only logical that traditional agricultural machinery builders should make the same transition. The first to do this was John Deere, established in Moline, Illinois in 1837.

This chapter traces the history of the electric quadcopter commonly known as the drone, prior to its use in agriculture.

As long ago as 1493, the versatile Italian Leonardo de Vinci, painter, sculptor, machine designer often inspired by his observations of Nature, made a sketch in one of his little notebooks of a screw-like machine next to which he wrote in his mirror-handwriting:

If this instrument made with a screw be well made – that is to say, made of linen of which the pores are stopped up with starch and be turned swiftly, the said screw will make its spiral in the air and it will rise high.¹

Four centuries later, in 1863, the Viscount Gustave du Ponton d’Amécourt, President of The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier than Air Machines, published a forty-page monograph in Paris, entitled “The Conquest of the air by propeller. Account of a new system of aviation.” In this he took the Greek words helico and pteron, meaning “spiral” and “wing”, and combined them into the word hélicoptère (helicopter). D’Amécourt and his friends were among those very few who were passionately convinced that the future of flying was with heavier-than-air machines. To prove their point, having built a fragile flying machine model driven by clockwork springs, they watched it ascend vertically for a few seconds to a height of less than 3 metres (10 feet), only to crash back to the ground.

Abstract

The frictional properties such as coefficient of friction and angle of repose are very important in designing of storage bins, hoppers, chutes, conveyors, harvesters and threshers etc. Angle of repose is the angle made with the horizontal at which the material will stand when piled. The angle of repose is also important in designing the equipment for mass flow and structures for storage. The static angle of repose (b) was determined using an open-ended cylinder of 150 mm diameter and 250 mm height. The higher the moisture content, the higher the cohesion between the seeds. In terms of flow ability, the seeds are heavier and the inertia to move is increased. Coefficient of internal friction is the frictional resistance of seeds with each other. Coefficient of external friction is the frictional resistance between the seeds and the surface. The rolling resistance is directly proportional to the weight of the rolling object and to the coefficient of rolling resistance which is dependent on the rigidity of the supporting surface and indirectly proportional to the effective radius of the rolling object. The air velocity at which an object remains in a suspended state in a vertical pipe under the action of the air current is called terminal velocity of the object.

Abstract

The electromagnetic processing instruments such as microwave is very commonly used at house hold level, hence understanding the behavior of food as well as factors affecting its dielectric properties becomes important. Dielectric properties (DEP) play an important in electromagnetic processing of food products and mainly depend upon the moisture content, physical properties, composition, temperature and power applied. Different methods have been used to determine the DEP of food material including parallel plate, coaxial probe, resonance cavity, transmission line and free space method. The selection of these methods is again based on several factors such as type of materials, accuracy of measurement, the scope of the research, frequency range, availability of equipments and resources. Present study thus summarizes the importance of DEP of food, influencing factors and the different measurement techniques.

Papaya is an ideal fruit crop for growing in kitchen garden, backyards of home as well as orchards, especially those places nearer to cities or big town. It is also grown as a filler plant in orchard. The ripe fruits of papaya are consumed throughout the tropics and sub tropics. Fruits are also used in preparation of jam, soft drinks, ice cream flavour, crystalized fruits and syrups. Unripe fruits are commonly used as vegetables. Papain is prepared from the latex of immature fruits. It is proteolytic enzyme used for tendering of the meat, preparation of chewing gum and cosmetics etc. The ripe fresh fruit is rich source of vitamin-A (2500 I.U.), carbohydrates and minerals (Singh, 1969). Papaya on account of producing fruit in a short period after planting has attracted the attention of fruit growers to be cultivated on a large scale in the country. It is known as wholesome fruit which is valued for its nutritional and medicinal properties. Due to its nutritional, industrial and export demand, papaya is recognized the most potential fruit crop for its economic cultivation. The variable sex forms, propagational problems, susceptibility to frost and water logging, fungal and viral diseases are well identified problems in its cultivation. Economically the production life of papaya is 3 years and every time new plantation has to be raised. Papaya being transplanted at closer spacing is highly suitable for high density planting. Now high yielding variety with better fruit quality are needed to boost the production under varied agro edaphological situation.

Guava is also known as the “Apple of the Tropics”. It is very rich and cheap source of vitamin C and also contains a fair amount of calcium. Important guava growing states in the country are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh has the reputation of growing the best quality of guava fruits in the world (Mitra and Bose, 1990). The importance of guava is due to the fact that it is the hardy fruit which can be grown in alkaline and poorly drained soil.

Ber (chinese date, chinese fig or bore) is an important minor fruit of India. It is hardy fruit tree cultivated all over India and also known as poor man’s fruit. It is most widely cultivated in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pardesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra etc. Ber can do well even under marginal growing conditions and provides quality yields at low cost (Shukla, 1996). Fruits are mostly eaten fresh but the other forms, such as dried, candied, squash etc can also be prepared from ber. Stem bark, root and leaves have some medicinal values. Leaves of ber are used as fodder in dry regions. Ber tree (Ziziphus xylopyrus) is a host plant for rearing the Tachardia laccad a lac insect (Sharma and Kore, 1990).

In the words of Leonardo the vinci, “water is the driver of life”. It is said to be the liquid of life or elixir of life. Water availability is essential to consider as commercial orchards must have reliability of supply and cannot produce optimum yields without irrigation. Water management is one of the largest and most important inputs into an orchard. The single environmental component which determines the type of fruit plants to be selected for a specific ecological situation is the moisture status of the region. Different fruit plants preferring diverse moisture status have wide peculiarity in their anatomical and morphological structures as well as various modifications in their water absorbing organs. They are also seen to have varied capabilities to acquire and utilize water efficiently. In the plant system, the rate of dry matter production has a definite relation with the rate of transpirational loss of water and this transpiration ration is calculated on the basis of unit of water required to produce unit of drymatter. However, while calculating the water requirement of fruit plants, a number of factors, in addition to water use efficiency, are taken in to consideration. Naturally water requirement of a particular fruit plants varies with the agro-ecological condition of different places. Moreover the same cannot be equal in an established orchard and a newly planted one. In established orchard, the trees are grown in community where improved water use efficiency lower down the water requirement of the trees.

Water is one of the most important and critical input for agricultural production system. The demand for food grains is increasing day by day due to increasing population. The irrigated agriculture provides the crop water productivity of about 2.5 tonnes per hectare and the overall irrigation efficiency is only about 30%, which is below the world average level. In the above scenario it is necessary to have the irrigation system in which both the crop water productivity and irrigation efficiency increases considerably. Micro irrigation has become the most viable and efficient technology in such a situation. It provides several advantages in the context of crop agronomy, water and energy conservation. Micro irrigation has the potential to achieve the crop water productivity to a desired level of 4 tonnes per hectare and simultaneously maintain the irrigation efficiency above 80%. The total coverage of micro irrigation in the tenth plan is only about 2 million hectare. The task force on micro irrigation (2004) has indicated a potential of 69 million hectare for our country. So there is a tremendous potential available and the coverage of micro irrigation has to be increased to cover more crop and more new areas.

INTRODUCTION

Massively Parallel DNA sequencing also known as next-generation sequencing, revolutionize the genomics and transcriptomics research as their effects are increasingly widespread. A new generation of non-Sanger-based sequencing technologies has delivered on its promise of sequencing DNA at unprecedented speed, thereby enabling impressive scientific achievements and novel biological applications. Before the next generation sequencing, the Sanger’s enzymatic di-deoxy chain termination was used for nucleotide sequencing from last 30 years with various original improvements. Sanger enzymatic di-deoxy chain termination technique first described in 1977 and the Maxam and Gilbert chemical degradation method described in the same year, which was used in sequence cases which could not easily be resolved with the Sanger technique. The two laboratories where the first automated DNA sequencers were produced, simultaneously, were those of Leroy Hood at Caltech, commercialized by Applied Biosystems, and Wilhelm Ansorge at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL and commercialized by Pharmacia-Amersham, later General Electric (GE) Healthcare. The Sanger method was used in the first automated fluorescent project for sequencing of a genome region, in which sequence determination of the complete gene locus for the HPRT gene was performed using the EMBL technique; in that project the important concept of paired-end sequencing was also introduced for the first time.

INTRODUCTION

The field of virology is still not explored extensively. The use of bacterial and algal viruses till date are mostly restricted to areas like phage therapy (Sanmukh et al., 2012), whole genome sequencing, isolation and characterization of lytic enzymes (Paunikar et al., 2011), control of pathogenic multi drug resistant micro-organisms, structure elucidation through electron microscopy as well as NMR spectroscopic methods. Bioinformatics approach is also well explored for the gene annotation, sub cellular localization as well as structure prediction of various unknown as well as unclassified proteins in different viruses (Sanmukh et al., 2010). Our main concern while dealing with most viruses is limited to its classification and characterization but, we forget to reveal its true nature by exploring various budding applications which they may suffice. Moreover, very few viruses are sequenced and their genome is made available at ICTV (International Committee for Taxonomy of Viruses) which makes their information more unclear. Considering all above scenario, we can feel the urgent need for entering into a new area of “Applied Virology”. Due to various limitations with respect to funding and possible facility requirements, researchers are not yet optimizing on the applications of viruses for potential molecular biology applications as well as its industrial implementation in cost effective, time efficient and for commercial gain.

1 INTRODUCTION

Aquaculture has been growing at higher rate than any other animal food-producing sector globally with Asia dominating the production. Considering the higher consumer demand for aquatic animal food, coupled with stagnating harvest from capture fisheries the rapid growth of aquaculture is expected to continue in the future. For instance, the global production of farmed food fish including finfishes, crustaceans, molluscs, amphibians (frogs), aquatic reptiles (except crocodiles) and other aquatic animals such as sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea squirts and jellyfishes was 59.9 million metric tones (mmt), up by 7.5 percent from 55.7 mmt in 2009 (FAO, 2012). Asia accounted for 89 percent of world aquaculture production by volume in 2010 with China alone accounting for more than 60 percent of global aquaculture production volume in 2010. The other major producers in Asia are India (4.65 mmt), Viet Nam (2.67 mmt), Indonesia (2.30 mmt), Bangladesh (1.31mmt), Thailand (1.29 mmt), Myanmar (0.85mmt), the Philippines (0.74 mmt) and Japan (0.72 mmt). Further, in light of increasing population pressure on land, intensification of aquaculture practices has been taking place and now two-third of all food fish production aquaculture is achieved with artificial feeding (FAO, 2012). In recent years it also has become apparent that aquaculture production is vulnerable to adverse impacts of diseases and environmental conditions as farmed organisms are susceptible to a wide range of factors that can pose a major threat to a thriving aquaculture industry with considerable economical repercus-sions. For instance, in 2010, aquaculture in China suffered production losses of 1.7 million tonnes caused by natural disasters, diseases and pollution. Disease outbreaks virtually wiped out marine shrimp farming production in Mozambique in 2011 (FAO, 2012). In addition, impacts of culture environment, and harvest and post-harvest handlings on flesh quality are also increasingly becoming important issues.

INTRODUCTION

Intellectual Property Right (IPR) is described as a generic legal term for patents, copyrights, and trademarks, making the feasibility for legal rights to protect ideas, the expression of ideas, and the inventors and creators of such ideas (Brown, 2003). Two types of rights, first, associated with patents and second, associated with copyrights are included into the current IPR regimes. The social purpose behind the IPR is to reward the originator of an invention. Intellectual property serves as a strong foundation of the modern information economy since it promotes software, life sciences, and computer industries, and has becomes a part of most of the products we consume today (Gallini and Scotchmer, 2002).

The Indian arid zone is characterized by high temperature and low and variable precipitation which limit the scope for high crops productivity. However, these conditions greatly favour the development of high quality in a number of fruits such as date palm, ber, aonla, bael, pomegranate, kinnow, lasoda and in vegetables cucurbits, legumes and solanaceous crops, spices, medicinal and aromatic plants. The existing low productivity could be increased by following improved technologies and inputs. It is now realized that there is a limited scope for quantum jump in fruit and vegetable production in the traditional production areas. The amelioration of the extreme conditions is also considered vital for life support to the inhabitants of this area. The recent awareness regarding the potential of these ecologically fragile lands for production of quality produce has not only opened up scope for providing sustainability for the people of this region, but also for bringing in new areas to increase horticultural production. The area expansion and yield potential of arid horticultural crops has increased many folds because of development of new varieties and advancement in production techniques in arid region.

Rajasthan has geographical area of 3.42 lakh sq. km has attained the status of being the largest state of India. The state represents 10.4% land surface area with 5.5% population of India, 66% is dependent on agricultural for their livelihood. The state is divided into 33, districts, which are further subdivided into 338 Tehsils and 295 Panchayat Samitis. The total cultivable area is around 220.00 lakh ha. The average rainfall of the State is 575 mm, out of which about 532 mm precipitation occurs in the rainy season i.e. June to September. The average rainfall of eastern Rajasthan is about 704 mm and that of western Rajasthan is about 310 mm which reflects a vast variation. Rivers in Rajasthan are non-perennial except for Chambal and Mahi rivers. The State is presently divided into 33 administrative districts and has 10 agro-climatic zones. Agriculture in Rajasthan is primarily rain fed covering country’s 13.27 per cent of available land. Groundwater is getting depleted as well as polluted. In general, every third year is a drought year. Despite these, the State has made significant achievements since independence and has attained self-sufficiency in food- grains. Rajasthan is located in the north-western part of the subcontinent. It is bounded on the west and north-west by Pakistan, on the north and north-east by the states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, on the east; in the south- east by the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, and on the south- west by the state of Gujarat. The Tropic of Cancer passes through its southern tip in the Banswara district. In the west, Rajasthan is relatively dry and infertile: this area includes some of the Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert. In the south-western part of the state, land is wetter, hilly, and more fertile.

Since time immemorial India has been leader in respect to spice, area, production and consumption. India is known as ‘Land of spices. Out of 109 spices listed by the ISO, India produce as many as 63 owing to its varied agroclimatic regions. Almost all the state and union territory of the country grow one or the other spices. Spices are the sources of livelihood and employment for large number of people in the country. Seed spices are annual herbs, whose dried seeds or fruit are used as spices. Spices are the nature’s gift to mankind and since antiquity, spices have been considered indispensable in the culinary art, as they are used to flavour foods and beverages The important seed spices are coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek. ajwain, dill,, celery, anise, nigella and caraway. The other seed spices s are poppy seed, rai, yellow mustard, white mustard, parsley and sesame. In India, Rajasthan and Gujarat has emerged as “Seed spice bowl” and together contributes more than 80 percent of total seed spices.

Burgeoning population exerts pressure on limited precious natural resources for enhancing production of food, fodder and fuel. In order to meet out increasing demand for food, fruit, vegetables, oilseeds, fodder and timber wood for burgeoning population, it is necessary to utilize each unit of natural rsesource very efficiently. The productivity of the precious natural resources is to be enhanced per unit time per unit area by agronomic ally managing stresses soil and land ecosystem to harvest more benefit. The cropping system as well as intercropping system practised by using different trees, fruits, vegetables, crops are the very efficient enterprises for realising higher productivity of natural resources available with in specified ecosystem.

Dry areas specially arid and semiarid regions are characterized by harsh climatic condition with limited natural resources like fresh water and vegetation. Soil which is most important component for agricultural production is also problematic in this region due to high salt content. Further, these regions face dual water problems: very low rainfall and poor quality of available water. Most of the available groundwater in these areas has high salt content, which further enhance salt content in soil after irrigation with this water. Salinity of soil is one of the most severe abiotic factors limiting agricultural production in arid and semiarid regions of the world. Term ‘salt-affected soil’ refer to soils in which salts interfere with normal plant growth, and is broadly divided into saline, saline- sodic and sodic soil, depending on amounts of salt, type of salts, amount of sodium present and soil alkalinity. Excessive soluble salts in the saline soil limit the ability of plant roots to absorb soil water even under wet soil conditions, while high sodium content in sodic soil reduce the availability of Ca, Mg, other micronutrients and finally deteriorate physical condition of soil. Poor physical structure of soil results in difficult to till, poor seed germination due to soil crusting and restricted plant root growth. Due to the poor physical structure, sodic soils are also susceptible to wind and water erosion compared to saline soils. All these negative impact of salt accumulation on the soil finally affect growth and yield of the crops. As per estimates of ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal, crop production loss to country due to sodicity is around 11.18 million tonnes while due to salinity is around 5.66 million tonnes. Furthermore, the area under this category is rising due to secondary salinization caused by faulty management of irrigation water, seepage loss, impeded drainage, rapid rise of water table causing water-logging. Certainly, these soils and saline water threaten the livelihood security of farming community. The area under cultivation is decreasing due to diversion of agricultural land in to other uses to meet needs of rising population and as such, agriculture has to make best use of poor quality land and water resources to meet the food demand. Therefore, management of salt affected soil become necessary for ameliorating negative impact and enhancing agricultural production in these regions. Each type of salt-affected soil has different characteristics and thus required different strategies for management.

Energy and food are the two main requirements for human civilization; however the demands for these two resources are increasing in a fast rate. Development of any region is reflected in its quantum of energy consumption. In this context, the situation in arid region is difficult. People burn firewood, agricultural waste and cow dung cake for cooking food causing damages to the fragile eco-system of arid zone. There is inadequate electrical power supply and hence villagers of remote arid areas are unable to derive general benefits. The kerosene is used for lighting and fast depleting diesel oil is used for running agricultural machinery including pumps. In this context solar energy is considered to be one of the promising sources in India.

About 12% of electricity production capacity in India is met through renewable energy sources. In India, national solar mission was launched in November 2009 with a target of 4000 MW grid and 1000 MW off-grid electricity generation from solar energy by the end of phase II (2013-2017), whereas these targets are 20,000 MW and 2000 MW, respectively by 2022. The target has been revised in 2015 to a total grid connected solar power generation of 1,00,000 MW comprising of 40,000 MW roof top generation and 60,000 MW grid connected solar power plants (Resolution of MNRE, Govt of India, No. 30/80/ 2014-15/NSM dated 1^st July 2015).