eBook Chapters

Introduction

Public extension services in the agricultural sector have not kept pace with new challenges and opportunities. Overall, the reform measures initiated by the Government are yet to penetrate agriculture and allied rural sectors. The development of linkage in agriculture is extremely important for the system approach, in order to provide proper knowledge and services to the farmer contributing to the agricultural production. Many service sectors in agriculture are working independently to achieve their organizational objectives. This results in less organizational effectiveness and exhibits poor forward and backward linkages. Public private partnership and NGO partnership has been promising institutional interventions to provide need based information through information and communication technologies (Van Den Ban 1997). Policy frame work for Agricultural Extension (2000) has notified the provision for establishing partnership with private and other public agencies. Uzhavar Udhaviyagam is one of the interventions implemented by Govt of Puduchery since 2000, with an objective of integrating various agro extension services offered by related public sectors, private sectors and NGOs, cooperative sectors under one umbrella. This is a’so providing ample scope for establishing 3 Ps (Public private/NGOs partnership) model and participatory extension services. Keeping this focus point a study has been formulated with an objective to study the degree of linkage on information sharing and dissemination regarding the extension services rendered by Uzhavar Udhaviyagam.

I. INTRODUCTION

Information technology has heralded a new era of Communication System. It has revolutionized the whole commercial world. The mother earth looks like a global village where people sitting thousands of miles away can talk face to face, like people sitting across the table. Business men and consumers are using computer to create, transmit and store information in the electronic form. Traditional form of paper documents are being discarded for the reason that electronic method is Cheaper, easier to store, retrieve and communicate. Though these advantages are obvious but people were reluctant to transact business in electronic form due to lack of legal frame work, validating these transactions. All the paper transactions involved writing and signature to conclude them. These writings and signatures posed a great hurdle for electronic governance and electronic commerce for validating and enforcing them. The law of Evidence is based on paper made documents which should have been signature. Since electronic commerce eliminates the need for paper based transactions, hence to facilitate e-commerce the need for legal change has become an urgent necessity. International trade, though the medium of e-commerce, is growing by leaps and bounds for the past few years. Many countries have switched over from traditional paper based commerce to e-commerce. The instantaneous means of communications through internet have been a great menace to copy right in different areas David Teather from London has reported that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry say that the market in year 2000 was worth $36.9 billion, a fall of 1.3 per cent on the previous year. The biggest decline in the sale of C.D. singles was 39% and globally it fell by 14%. The growth in popularity of Napster and to contain the damage. Napster is in the process of removing copyrighted material from its site.¹ But the powers of the computer are so great that the law enforcement agencies are facing a real challenge to contain its onslaught. Internet telephony is a common sight at cyber cafe, despite the fact that it is illegal.2 B.B. Nanda and R.K.Tewari observe that “ internet paedophilia, computer network break-ins, industrial espionage, Child pornography password sniffling, spoofling, telecommunications fraud, software piracy, e- mail bombing and spamming, and the availability of illicit or unlicensed products and services are offences already making themselves felt. Emerging problems include credit card fraud, cyber terrorism, cyber laundering and criminal use of secure internet communications. The huge growth of internet will breed cyber fraud with great ease especially in the area of share-holdings of companies.3 The present weak electronic system of payment without adequate safeguard is posing a serious risk for unauthorised withdrawals from banks and counter money laundering operations. Software piracy is a boom business and video and phonographic industries are sinking day by day globally.4 The UNCITRAL Model law provides for equal legal treatment of users of electronic communication and paper based communication. In pursuance of a declaration made ‘by Member Countries, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is about to form a work programme to handle its work in this area including the formation of multilateral trade deals through the medium of electronic commerce. The paper discusses, briefly, the meaning of cyber space the origin and development of intemet and e commerce its uses and abuses. Certain provisions relating to Information Technology Act, 2000 have been briefly discussed to apprise oneself about its effectiveness in meeting the challenges posed by e commerce in different areas.

Since the industrial revolution in the 1800s, automation got more advanced to efficiently handle sophisticated tasks and increase production. With increasing demands and shortage of labor across the globe, agriculture robots or commonly known as Agribots are starting to gain attention among farmers. Crop production decreased by an estimated 213 crores approx ($3.1 billion) a year due to labor shortages in the USA alone. Recent advancements in sensors and AI technology that lets machines train on their surroundings have made agrobots more notable. We are still in the early stages of an ag-robotics revolution, harnessing the full potential of the Internet of Things in agriculture, with most of the products still in early trial phases and R&D mode.

The term bioinformatics was coined by Paulien Hogeweg in 1979 for the study of informatics processes in biotic systems. It was primarily used in genetic and genomic studies, particularly in those areas of genomics involving large-scale DNA sequencing. Bioinformatics involves application of information technology to store, organise and analyse the vast amount of biological data available in the form of sequences and structures of proteins (the building blocks of organisms) and nucleic acids (the information carrier). There are umpteen ways to define bioinformatics, mainly owing to its rapid evolutions.

Introduction

Over the last two decades the Land and Water Development Division (AGL) has been at the forefront of the development and application of computer-based systems to analyse data and generate information to support decisions on various land and water issues . Separate soil and land and water systems have been developed. The soil and land systems focus on methodologies and tools for the assessment of land resources potentials at global, regional and national and sub-national levels. The water systems concern irrigation water use and management at field level and water resources assessment at regional and national levels.

AGL has been cooperating with various units within FAO and numerous international agencies and national institutions in developing and applying the systems.

Initially, in the late seventies and early eighties, the systems were developed for mainframe and mini-computers. From the late eighties they were gradually adapted to microcomputers. At the same time computer tools for managing spatial data, including geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing and global positioning systems (GPS) were introduced. Since the last few years the availability of networked PC workstations, rapid application development environment and multimedia tools have opened an era of completely new possibilities in the development and application of the systems.

VIVEK M. PATIL

The term “information” has a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical interpretations. Generally speaking, the concept of information is associated with knowledge derived from study, experience, or instruction. Technology, on the other hand, refers to the application of knowledge to the practical aims of human life, or to changing and manipulating the human environment. Technology includes the use of materials, tools, techniques and sources of power to make life easier or more pleasant and work more productive. Technology began to influence human endeavour as soon as people began using tools. Technology also started being used for managing information when the amount and variety of information grew to such vast proportions that the human brain could neither store nor process it efficiently.

Definition

The term Information Technology (IT) was coined by Jim Domsic of Michigan in November 1981. Domsic created the term to modernize the outdated phrase “data processing”. Information Technology is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate and/or disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology as a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated. “Information Technology” as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is “the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.” IT deals with the use of computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit and securely retrieve information.

Recent advances in information technology are making it more feasible to provide farmers with marketing information they need. However, farmers are still lagging behind in getting the information as accessibility to this technology is not available to them for various reasons. The major reason for this is abundance of small and marginal farmers without formal education and training in proper decision making. This problem is more acute for North Western (NW) hill farmers as besides above constraints, accessibility to information centers is very difficult due to undulating topography and lack of communication and transport facilities.

In the North-Western hill states, not many initiatives have so far been taken to use the information technology for the rural/agricultural development. Presently, use of radio and television for acquiring the information is limited as these media do not give focused information for different target areas. Even newspapers, in their local versions, do not provide regular updates for different major mandis regarding vegetables. This area has also been neglected by AGMARKNET (www.agmarknet.nic.in) for the market information regarding hill crops. For Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, only one and three markets, respectively, has been covered. This shows the apathy of agricultural development departments towards incorporating ICT into the day-to-day activities of hill farmers.

1. Market information includes

a) Market intelligence

b) Market news

c) Both a and b

d) Marketing

2. Historical nature of market information is

a) Market intelligence

b) Market news

c) Market information

d) Marketing

3. Current information about markets is

a) Market intelligence

b) Market news

c) Market information

d) Marketing

Introduction

Information technology is set to become important in agriculture in the coming years. In the last few decades, the application of computers and communication technologies has led to the development of a plethora of information of all types in the area of plant protection science. These information bases are available on CD-ROM, on-line form in various hosts and via mail over internet, multimedia data bases, Decision-Support Systems (DSS)/Expert Systems (ES), Simulation Models (SM), etc.- to cite a few of the latest developments. Further, cyber space is fast emerging as an area of information technology, particularly in the field of crop pest management (Srivastava and Swain, 1998). The application of information technology in pest management has been one of the most exciting developments in the field over the last decade. From the 1960s, the entomologists began using computers for spray scheduling, population modeling, exploring control strategies and managing pest monitoring data. More recently, computers are being utilized in pest management delivery systems and decision support systems (DSS) designed to enhance decision making.

Infrared spectroscopy (IRspectroscopy) is the spectros copy that deals with the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, that is light with a longer wavelength and lower frequency than visible light. It covers a range of techniques, mostly based on absorption spectroscopy. As with all spectroscopic techniques, it can be used to identifyand study chemicals. A common laboratory instrument that uses this technique is a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer.

The infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is usually divided into three regions; the near-, mid- and far- infrared, named for their relation to the visible spectrum. The higher energy near-IR, approximately 14000–4000 cm^–1 (0.8–2.5 μm wavelength) can excite overtone orharmonic vibrations. Themid-infrared, approximately 4000– 400 cm^–1 (2.5–25 μm) may be used to study the fundamental vibrations and associated rotational-vibrational structure. The far-infrared, approximately 400–10 cm^–1 (25–1000 μm), lying adjacent to the microwave region, has low energy and may be used for rotational spectroscopy. The names and classifications of these sub regions are conventions, and are only loosely based on the relative molecular or electromagnetic properties.

Infrared spectroscopy exploits the fact that molecules absorb specific frequencies that are characteristic of their structure. These absorptions are resonant frequencies, i.e. the frequency of the absorbed radiation matches the frequency of the bond or group that vibrates. The energies are determined by the shape of the molecular potential energy surfaces, the masses of the atoms, and the associated vibronic coupling.

INTRODUCTION

Now-a-days, food products with maximum health benefits and ease in preparation are gaining popularity globally, the reason being changing awareness level about food and dietary habits. Since ages, a number of methods like cooking, baking, drying etc. have been used to thermally process the food materials. Electrical sources of electromagnetic waves are very promising because of advances in nuclear and hydroelectric power as well as ongoing cost rises in traditional forms of fuel, of which there are only restricted reserves. The heating aids include use of wooden fuel, gaseous fuel, electric energy etc.; but the new era of electromagnetic rays had introduced new horizons of food processing by utilizing it in various unit operations (Sakai and Hanzawa 1994). Though, these radiations are gaining popularity in various walks of life; their destructive impact is much dominating. Hence, one should handle these radiations with utmost care as well as comprehensive understanding of the know-how and control over the process.

The total energy of a molecule consists of translation, vibrational, rotational and electronic energies. Transition among different types of energy levels occurs in different regions of electromagnetic spectrum. Transitions between rotational and vibrational energy levels of the ground state molecules give rise to absorption bands throughout the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Organic molecules are characterized by possessing bonds and groups that vibrate independently of each other. Thus, initially infrared spectrometry was used for identification of functional groups of organic molecules. There is lot of ambiguity in the interpretation of infrared spectra of organic matter preparations due to complexity and diversity of the components of soil organic matter. But if used carefully it can provide information on: (i) nature, reactivity and structural arrangement of oxygen-containing functional groups, (ii) presence of protein and carbohydrate constituents, (iii) presence or absence of inorganic impurities (metallic ions, clays, etc in humic fractions), (iv) the amount of different soil organic matter components, and (v) interaction of organic components with pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, etc.

On the contrary to organic molecules, minerals tend to have few isolated vibrating groups. It can be used for mineralogical analysis when used in conjunction with x-ray diffraction and other similar techniques.

Infrared spectrometry is used in the identification of inorganic compounds including minerals which have well-defined absorption bands in determining- (i) whetherlayer silicate isdioctahedral or trioctahedral in composition, (ii) in studying isomorphous substitution, (iii) hydration of minerals, and (iv) in quantitative analysis. Infrared spectrometer provides information about nature and identify of inorganic compounds that are amorphous in x-ray diffraction analysis.

Infrared light (800-1500nm) interacts with molecules at the level of atomic vibrations. An infrared spectrum gives valuable information about the molecular structure. It is rarely used for quantitative purposes and hence concentration measurements are not possible. Infrared light detects vibrations characteristic of functional groups. For example the C=O (carbonyl) group absorbs at 1700 cm-1 (wave number). The main region of interest for analytical purposes is from 2.5- 25µm or 4000- 400 cm-1. At wavelengths below 25µm the radiation has sufficient energy to cause changes in the vibrational energy levels of the molecule, and these are accompanied by changes in the rotational energy levels. The pure rotational spectra of molecules occur in the far infra red region (50-1000 µm) and are used for determining molecular properties.

Abstract

Out of 1.37 billion populationof India 67 % lives in rural areas whose major source of income is agriculture and allied activities (World Population Review, 2019). In simple words, the livelihood of this vast majority is closely related to rural enterprises. Fostering rural entrepreneurship may be affected by several issues, infrastructure being one of them. This paper attempts to examine the relationship between infrastructure investment by the state and rural entrepreneurship in India, with ‘Gross Fixed Capital Formation’ and ‘Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing, Value Added’ considered as proxy variables. Time series econometrics is compiled with the data collected from World Bank Database for the period of 1961-2017. The study has established evidence in support of greater investment in infrastructure enhancing rural entrepreneurial opportunities in India.

Advantages
    1.    These agents are primarily exhaled through the lungs and recovery is not dependent upon redistribution within the body and detoxification mechanisms. This is helpful in poor risk patient.
 
    2.    Anesthesiologist has good control over the anesthesia.
 
    3.    Early recovery of the patient.

    4.    Closed system available for thoracic surgery.

Introduction

Amidst the vast fields and verdant landscapes lies the heartbeat of nations -the farmers. Yet, despite their indispensable role in feeding the world, farmers often find themselves on the front lines of adversity, grappling with challenges ranging from volatile markets to climate uncertainties. Recognizing the pivotal importance of agriculture in fostering sustainable development, a plethora of initiatives and strategies have emerged to empower and support farmers worldwide.

Abstract

Agriculture is the backbone of India’s economic development and has experienced immense growth in the past few decades. Agriculture not only involves the participation of male workers but also experiences active participation of all family members, as well. Women, as part of the family, take up agricultural activities as an extension to their household chores. The Government and voluntary agencies have also recognised the need for women in the farming community to become self-reliant and active participants in the agricultural sector. Increasing awareness and educating themselves with the passage of time, farmers have made themselves aware of new techniques of farming and growing and established themselves as agricultural entrepreneurs in the long run. Many initiatives supporting women entrepreneurs and creating a supportive ecosystem for women to become agricultural entrepreneurs have been initiated by the state. The case of Anita Devi popularly known as the Mushroom Lady of Bihar has been taken up in this paper to substantiate with evidence how government initiatives have helped her gain success and grow as an agricultural entrepreneur. This study aims at disseminating how such initiatives help in creating an ecosystem that motivates agricultural entrepreneurs in general and women in particular.

Abstract

The main reasons behind farmers for adopting organic farming practices are their concerns for the environment and about side effects of agricultural chemicals in conventional farming systems. Organic farmers find their method of farming to be profitable and personally satisfying. There is also a concern with the amount of energy used in agriculture, since many farm chemicals require energy intensive manufacturing processes that rely heavily on fossil fuels which are very limited.
This paper is an attempt to identify the current process of organic farming and initiatives to make organic farming a more profitable practice. 

Keywords: Agriculture, Farming, Organic

Injectable Anesthesia

Injectable anesthetics are the agents which are administered to the patient parentrally. They include drugs which are given intravenously to rapidly induce anesthesia in a patient. Single or combinations of drugs usually administered intramuscularly to patients which are difficult to handle. Injectable agents generally require less equipment and are easier to administer than inhalation anesthetics, but it must be remembered that once they are given to a patient they cannot be removed.

According to the facts, groundwater salinization and the scarcity of freshwater are indeed expanding. In the coming decades, saline water will replace freshwater as the principal resource for agriculture and aquaculture. Over 8.62 million hectares of land in India and over 397 million hectares of land worldwide have been rendered unusable for traditional agriculture as a result of secondary salinization. Use of salinized land and the water resources for aquaculture is a flexible solution to reduce environmental problem with multiple potential benefits on the economic, social, and environmental fronts. As aquaculture demand has increased, new production methods have been developed. Inland saline aquaculture, here defined as a land-based aquaculture system using saline groundwater and surface water, is practised by a number of countries, including Israel, USA, India, and Australia. The possibility that saline groundwater may differ chemically from coastal seawater is one of the key barriers to the growth of inland saline aquaculture. One must either change the chemistry or choose species that can tolerate the fluctuations to get around this. Several species are farmed or evaluated for their potential including finfish like tilapia, Indian Major Carps, catfishes, climbing perch, Asian sea bass, cobia, milkfish, mullet, and sturgeons. By combining the usage of resources, cultural systems play a significant part in attaining the disruptive technology of inland saline aquaculture. This review revealed the finfish species raised in inland saline resources as well as culture methods such as pond-based, tank-based, biofloc, and aquaponic systems for inland saline aquaculture. One of the cutting-edge food production methods required to boost aquaculture productivity and meet the expanding seafood demand is inland saline aquaculture. In spite of this, inland saline aquaculture has yet to become an industrial-scale and rural business to produce sustainably from unutilized lands.

Innate immunity or innate immune response is a set of non-specific or less specific mechanisms which provides the first and rapid line of defense. All such mechanisms exist prior to the exposure to a pathogen i.e. before the onset of the infection. It is also called inborn or innate immunity. The different components of the innate immunity like physical barriers, chemical barriers, phagocytosis, inflammation etc. act to prevent the entry or elimination of the microorganisms in a non- specific manner.

ABSTRACT

Marketers make consistent attempts to innovate tools and strategies to overcome the challenges they face in the business arena. Business innovations are broadly classified under two heads, namely Product / Service innovation. Marketers need to design creative solutions to overcome challenges typical of the rural environment such as physical distribution, channel management, promotion and communication. India’s rural markets offer a sea of opportunity. The urban rural split in consumer spending stands at 9: 11, with rural India accounting for 55 percent of private retail consumption. Indeed the market can be tapped with focused attention and strategy. Currently the Indian retail market is estimated at Rs. 13,30,000 crore and almost half of this growing retail market at present lies in rural India, which is a tremendous growth sector that needs to be tapped with care. This paper examines how the corporate sectors with their innovation and creativity tapping the Indian rural market with their retail marketing.

Key words: Innovation, retailing, rural retailing, rural India, creativity

Contrary to “Law of Finite Biology” though the number of genetic codes will exhaust soon in an exponential way (presumably leading to solutions to every known genetic anomaly related health problem), the number of NCE (New Chemical Entity), their number being finite⁹⁹ too, will run out of fuel soon too, despite unraveling of genomic decoding. The bleak scenario in the pharmaceutical field is a testimony to the latter surmise. As many a wise scholar has pointed out, the era of single molecule drug seem to drawing curtains. However, unlike what seems common sense, the era of combinational drug therapies of MM paradigm probably will not foot the bill. Just as very high speed serial computing simulates parallel processing but does not make real time parallel processing, mixtures of prima facie complementary medicinal molecules will perhaps not make combinational recipes. The fundamentals of non-linear dynamical complex systems (NLDCS) paradigm demand so. The odds against success with such efforts are close to odds of success of creating life one bit at a time out of mixing C, H and O molecules in a jar would be. The number of genes might be finite, but data on their combinations (and their corresponding effects) and more so on their permutations (one has to only imagine the vastness of those possibilities) would, as of now or in near future, cause an information overload and comprehension failure¹⁰⁰ (limitation of human biological brain apparatus) pitting researchers and industry against a futility barrier. However, TM provides a silver lining to these bleak analyses. Analytical comprehension of TM recipes, regimens or techniques might be unachievable by contemporary science, empirical testing of their efficacy and safety being doable and therefore taken care of, TM can provide an outlet to the drug discovery impasse because the same natural forces that shaped multi-gene interaction into complex and dynamical mode have created some of, if not all, TM solutions.

Decisions to adopt innovations are influenced by a complex array of factors, including:

Individual Attributes: Characteristics such as income can significantly impact the decision-making process.

Attributes of the Social System: Innovations may be perceived as violating ethical norms or threatening the privileges of elites within the social structure.

Perceived Attributes of the Innovation: Factors such as the appearance or performance of a new crop variety in a test plot can influence adoption decisions.

Rogers' (1983) model, illustrated in Figure 19-1, outlines the stages involved in the decision to adopt an innovation.

Acquiring information about the value of an innovation is inherently costly. While beneficial innovations exist, there are also numerous unsuitable or harmful ideas. The presence of deceptive salesmen and overly enthusiastic entrepreneurs complicates this process. As noted in Proctus' lament from the epigraph, the challenge lies in employing effective decision-making strategies to maximize the likelihood of adopting beneficial innovations and rejecting detrimental ones, all while acknowledging the costs involved in making these decisions.

Abstract

Sustainable development and success in any field, agriculture being one of them, goes hand in hand with Innovation. To tackle the current growing problems in the agricultural sector, and long-term sustainability of the agri-ecosystem, agricultural innovations are needed that might bring new products or processes or open up new markets, thereby optimising the use of the limited resources to attain maximum benefits. The authors discuss innovation from the perspective of two dimensions: Technology and Market to illustrate four different kinds of innovation - incremental, architectural, radial and descriptive. This paper deals with the concept of innovation in agricultural field [referred to as agri-innovation] using illustrations of two innovative products namely Dragon Fruit and Water Hyacinth, both of which have significant role in the agri-ecosystem of India. The introduction of Dragon Fruit in a new market is illustrated as an agri-innovation. Efforts by state and private sector of introducing Dragon Fruit, a popular production in South & South East Asia to Indian markets are an example of Architectural Innovation. Also the most common weed Water Hyacinth is considered to be used in news forms so that it can be modified as a new product for a new market. The paper thus documents the suitability of these innovative agri-products in the current Indian market scenario.

Within a social system, some innovations diffuse rapidly from initial introduction to widespread use in just a few years. For instance, pocket calculators saw rapid adoption during the mid-1970s. In contrast, other electronic innovations, such as home videotape equipment, have only achieved about 3 percent adoption over the past eight years. What are the characteristics of innovations that influence the rate at which they diffuse and are adopted?

Within a social system, some innovations diffuse rapidly from initial introduction to widespread use in just a few years. For instance, pocket calculators saw rapid adoption during the mid-1970s. In contrast, other electronic innovations, such as home videotape equipment, have only achieved about 3 percent adoption over the past eight years. What are the characteristics of innovations that influence the rate at which they diffuse and are adopted?

Significant Progress and Prospects

It is widely acknowledged that biofortification presents a promising and cost effective agricultural strategy to enhance the nutritional status of malnourished populations globally. Approaches to biofortification, including crop breeding, targeted genetic modification, and mineral fertilizer application, offer significant potential for combatting mineral deficiencies in human diets. The development of biofortified food crops with enhanced nutrient content such as iron, zinc, selenium, and provitamin A has shown promise in addressing micronutrient deficiencies prevalent in both developing and developed nations. Over the past decade, both national and international initiatives have made substantial contributions toward achieving these goals. These efforts have resulted in the release of biofortified varieties across various crops, including rice, maize, wheat, potatoes, vegetables, and millets. The majority of these varieties have been developed through conventional breeding methods without sacrificing crop yield, making them readily accepted by both growers and consumers.

One of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals is the cultivation of nutritionally rich crop varieties with heightened levels of micronutrients such as iron, zinc, calcium, total protein, lysine, tryptophan, anthocyanin, provitamin A, and oleic acid, coupled with reduced levels of anti-nutritional factors. In the past decade, 142 biofortified varieties, spanning rice, wheat, maize, pearl millet, small millet, lentil, chickpea, and other crops, have been developed under the auspices of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Biofortified varieties typically do not impact ecological conditions, soil, or water requirements differently from traditional varieties. Additionally, they do not incur extra cultivation costs, and their economic output is comparable to traditional produce, leading to their widespread adoption. In India, the scale-up of biofortified varieties has gained momentum, with substantial quantities of breeder seeds being produced and distributed to public and private seed agencies for further multiplication and dissemination to farmers. Over the past six years, approximately 10 million hectares of land have been cultivated with biofortified rice, wheat, pearl millet, mustard, and lentil varieties.

Introduction

In recent years, inland saline aquaculture has emerged as a rapidly growing sector in the broader field of aquaculture due to the escalating pressure on traditional freshwater resources and the escalating demand for seafood. Saline aquaculture, cultivating aquatic species in inland waters with elevated salinity levels, presents opportunities and challenges. This chapter examines the innovations and challenges that characterize inland saline aquaculture, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable approaches that balance productivity with environmental resilience. The global population growth and dietary preferences have caused an increase in the demand for seafood (FAO, 2020).

Introduction

India is predominantly an agricultural economy and about half of the workforce is engaged in agriculture sector. Around 48 per cent of households in the country are agricultural household and they derive the monthly income from crop cultivation. India is leading in production of many agricultural crops but finding a market for marketed surplus and getting fair prices have always been a major challenge. Long time ago, traditional market system was existed in India. Marketing implied greater magnitude as yields and production started rising after farmers embraced with advanced technologies such as high-yielding varieties, fertilizers, chemical inputs, block chain development, farmers business network, market linkages, diversification towards high value crops, integrated farming system approach, precision farming including digital agriculture, drones, GIS technology, remote sensing, soil health management, crop and livestock insurance, mobile apps, web portal, machine learning and many mores. These catered the need of efficient regulated marketing system to support the farmers and keep away from them getting manipulated in the market.

India has gained self-sufficiency in the agriculture production. There is need to translate this production into better remuneration for the farming community by focusing into agricultural marketing system. The agricultural marketing system is characterized by various short comings like heavy sale of commodities at primary level immediately after the harvesting period, absence of on-farm grading of produce, poor packaging, insufficient marketing infrastructure, long marketing channels, existence of various malpractices in the marketing of agri-produce, nontransparent price discovery mechanism, lack of market information system, low marketable surplus especially of small and marginal farmers, etc.

Rising population and increasing demand for food are prominent factors driving the digital farming market. Moreover, the growing demand to efficiently deal with pests, weeds, and other diseases is encouraging farmers to digitize their farm. In developing regions, cheaper internet data and strong penetration of smart devices (especially smartphones) are driving the digital farming market. Active participation of governments in digitizing farms through investment is also driving the digital farm market.

Introduction

India is one of the agriculturally important countries in the world and has strong net-work of agriculture education, research and extension. As per the historical record India is committed to thrive and excel independently. During 1965–66, India imported food grains from the US under PL-480 scheme, and the situation was “ship-to-mouth”. This condition was also exacerbated with the growing population which made India to increase its food production at most priority with commitment. With the introduction of high yielding semi dwarf varieties of rice from IRRI, The Philippines and wheat from Mexico which combined with right policies of government to provide essential inputs and market facilities, credit etc. revolutionized the Indian agriculture. In addition to these innovative ideas and policies the food production reached to the level of self-sufficiency until today. For instance the food production during 1950-51 was 54 million tonnes and reached to 285 million tonnes during 2018-19. After the fourth five year plan, India made its stand of self-sufficiency even affected by any year of worst drought. Later, the focus had been given on agricultural research and education in the country for sustaining self-sufficiency in agriculture sector at all times of change of conditions within the country and also globally. Although more than 65 per cent of rural population is depend on agriculture sector, the average monthly income is about Rs. 6500. It reveals that under employment and large population in India depend on agriculture which is unsustainable (Rena, 2003). Therefore, it is needed to books the rural economy, create new infrastructure and other innovations in this sector. India has been emphasizing for innovative techniques. The main advantage for India is the richest natural resources and need only planning and execution on innovation front.

Introduction

Spices are botanical products of tropical and subtropical plants, mainly fruits, seeds, f lowers, roots, stems, leaves, bark, or whole plant (Golob & Nations, 1999). The dominant spices of trade including cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and pepper (A. Osman et al., 2019)including aroma, flavor, and color, to foods and beverages in an effort to enhance their palatability. Herbs and spices exhibit a plethora of medicinal properties including antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. Spices serve as natural preservatives to delay food spoilage and extend shelf life.

Innovations in Field Extension

Of late, a lot of emphasis is being given on innovative extension approaches at the field level, in order to ensure an effective implementation of the Transfer of Technology (ToT) process. Many such new initiatives have been undertaken in India, the details of which are as under.

Farmer Field Schools - ANew Participatory Approach

Introduction

Fermentation is playing an important role in the human life and is evident from the fact that food can be both spoiled and made by fermentation. A wide range of the fermented food products are consumed by the consumers in their daily routine. It is one for the oldest and ancient method of food preservation. It may have been a mere accident when people first experienced the taste of fermented food. Fermentation became popular with the dawn of civilization because it not only preserved food but also gave it a variety of tastes, forms, and other sensory sensations. Fermentation, along with salting, cooking, smoking, and sun drying, is one of the earliest ancient traditions developed by cultures all around the world to extend the possible storage time of foods. Slowly, people have realized the nutritional and therapeutic value of fermented foods and drinks, and this has made fermented foods even more popular. Bread, beer, wine, and cheese originated long before Christ. Although modern food technology has contributed to the present day high standard of quality and hygiene of fermented foods, the principles of the age-old processes have hardly changed. In industrialized societies, a variety of fermented foods are very popular with consumers because of their attractive flavor and their nutritional value. During food fermentations, the controlled action of selected micro-organisms is used to alter the texture of foods, preserve foods by production of acids or alcohol, or to produce subtle f lavours and aromas which increase the quality and value of raw materials. After drying, fermentation is the world’s oldest food preservation method.

Introduction

Packaging is one of the most important processes to maintain the quality of food products for storage, transportation and end-use. The basic functions of packaging are considered as protection, containment, information and convenience. Food packaging was initially considered to increase the marketable life of the food in a container by protecting it from the influence of the environmental factors. Then it was expected to be informative, easy-to handle and disposal-friendly with increased functionality. Current innovations of food packaging technology are geared to ensure one/ all of these properties along with better protection, more efficient quality preservation and enhanced safety of the packaged food. Innovative packaging technologiesalso prevent the rate of quality deterioration and facilitate easy handling of the produce during distribution and marketing. During distribution, the quality of the food product can deteriorate biologically and chemically as well as physically. Innovative packaging technologies are the most important and challenging technologies to overcome these limitations.These technologies require specific knowledge and appropriate training and understanding for rationally selecting the most suitable packaging for each product and intended use. Innovative packaging of foods includes active packaging, smart packaging, on-the-go packaging, intelligent packaging etc. which have been briefly discussed in this manuscript.

Introduction

The food production in India has been on a rising trajectory and the country is among the top producers of several crops. It is the highest producer of milk and second highest producer of fruits and vegetables. Total food grain production in the country is estimated at record 291.95 million tonnes (MT; Second Advance Estimates for 2019-20) which is 6.74 MT higher over 2018-19. While enhanced field productivity is an essential component of agricultural sector, improved postharvest handling, marketing and processing is equally essential to reduce the waste, particularly in a country where such losses are substantial and add stress on limited farming resources, appropriate agrilogistic is needed. Post-production management and marketing infrastructure is therefore, not only vital but a priority. Such infrastructure and the services they provide are essential not only for the efficient performance of various marketing functions, but also for effective expansion of the size of markets which allows for growth.An efficient post-harvest logistics network not only ensures that produce will reach destination markets in quality and quantity, but should also trigger a steady reverse flow of market information to the source.

Introduction

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. Good harvest helps in moving the economy in the right direction. The agriculture sector accounts for 17% of US$ 2.6 trillion economy of India (Anonymous, 2019a) and employs 54.6% of the country’s workforce (Anonymous, 2019b). India occupies first place in the production of pulses, jute and milk, and second place in rice, wheat, cotton, sugarcane, vegetables and fruits (FAO STAT, 2020). The agriculture export constitutes a fifth of total exports made by India and self-reliance in agriculture is required to become an economic superpower. The green revolution has paved the way from begging bowl to overflowing granaries in our country. The overall food production has increased from 52 MT in 1950-51 to 295 MT in 2019-20, which is a phenomenal growth of more than five times in seven decades span. Of the several factors that influenced the sea change in agriculture production and productivity, the quality seed of improved varieties occupies a crucial position. The green revolution was ushered in by the import of 18000 tonnes of seed of high yielding wheat varieties Lerma Rojo and Sonara 64 and rice variety IR-8. Till today, the quality seed alone contributes to 15-20% of total production (Chauhan et al., 2015), indicating its importance in agricultural production of the country. The problematic global scenarios like economic recession, climate change, water scarcity, population explosion, pollution or new pandemics drives the states to be more self-reliant. To be self-reliant is not to be altogether “self-contained”. We should be opened for the best material available anywhere in the world, and simultaneously we should develop our infrastructure and industry to cater to the needs of our population as well as export to other countries. Seed sector is one of the potential areas for boosting self-reliance as well as has a lot of export potential. The government push for self-reliance under the present COVID-19 pandemic situation by infusing INR one lakh crore as agricultural infrastructure fund that will help in developing several start-ups. The success of this movement mainly depends on innovations in every sector, including the seed sector and simultaneously, there is a need to extend it to the regulatory mechanisms. This chapter will discuss the possible areas of innovations that are already in the pipeline and those to be targeted in the areas of seed production, quality assurance, marketing and regulation along with policy interventions needed to boost the seed sector.

The introduction of high yielding varieties, additional irrigation facilities, a great input flow through fertilizers and pesticides, farm mechanization, credit facilities and other rural infrastructure facilities ushered in the green revolution. The food grains area under irrigation as a percentage to its total sown area has been increased from 20.9 to 51.2%, rice irrigated area from 36.5 to 58.3%, wheat from 43.1 to 93.4%, pulses from 9.4 to 18.6%, oilseeds from 3.7 to 28.6% during the period from 1965-66 to 2013-14 (DES, 2015). Despite the net sown area being stagnant around 140.80 M ha, gross cropped area has been increased significantly from 155.28 M ha in 1965-66 to 195.25 M ha in 2011-12 due to increase in net irrigated area from 26.34 to 65.26 M ha (Fig. 1), gross irrigated area from 30.90 to 91.53 M ha during the period. There has been a sharp decline in average size of operational land holdings. The scope for expansion of the area available for cultivation has become limited. The average size of holdings for all operational classes (small & marginal, medium and large) have declined over the years and for all classes put together it has come down to 1.16 ha in 2010-11 from 2.28 ha in 1970-71. Therefore, it is the urgent need to use the natural resource like water efficiently and in a sustainable manner.

Introduction

The arid regions in India occupy 38.7 million ha (Mha), comprising 31.7 and 7 Mha under hot and cold arid region, respectively. The major part (90%) of the hot arid region lies in Northwest (NW) India and the rest in geographically isolated pockets in South India. The NW arid region extends from 22°30” to 32°50” N and 68°50” to 75°45”E , bounded by Aravalli hills in the east, Thar desert in the west the irrigated Indus plain in the north and the alluvial plains of the Sabarmati river in the south. The region mostly lies in western Rajasthan covering 12 districts (196150 km², 68.7%) followed six districts in northwest Gujarat (62180 km² 21.8%), five districts in southwest Haryana in (12840 km² 4.5%), and six districts in southwest Punjab in (14510 km², 5.0%) (Fig.1). The region is characterized by low rainfall (100 to 400 mm yr-1), that is also erratic and highly unpredictable (coefficient of variation, CV = 30 to 70%); high evaporation (1600 to 2000 mm yr-1); temperature extremes (-5.7° C to 50°C); frequent droughts (once in 2.5-5.0 years); strong winds (20-50 km h-1) during summer; and short crop growing period (8 to 15 weeks) (Moharana et al., 2016). Despite the common characteristics of aridity and extremes of temperatures, there are enormous spatial variations in terms of rainfall pattern, physiography, soils, amount of available surface and ground water, and extent of vegetation cover (Joshi, 2012). Accordingly, the NW hot arid region has been classified in 4 sub-regions, 11 zones and 34 sub zones (Faroda et al., 1999).

Despite these intimidating conditions, the region supports a large human and livestock population and biodiversity. However, the ever-increasing human and livestock population and developmental activities exert enormous biophysical pressure on the slender natural resource base of the region. A major challenge is desertification due to wind erosion/deposition, water erosion, water logging and salinity. Degradation of permanent pastures has led to loss of fodder resources constraining livestock husbandry, the backbone of the economy of the region. Of late, industrial effluents and mining are also contributing to desertification.

Historical Perspective of Agricultural Education Policy in India

Pre-Independence Era

During the reign of the British Crown, vocational education and training suffered a great setback and there was a lack of emphasis on agricultural education, even though the Indian economy, to a great extent, depended on agriculture. In 1901, only five institutions were imparting theoretical and practical instruction in agriculture, but that education was not used in extension or fieldwork—it served only as an opening for government white-collar jobs (Crane, 1965).

Post-Independence Era

Prior to the establishment of agricultural universities, university-level education in agriculture, animal science, horticulture, agricultural engineering, and allied subjects were largely conducted by colleges affiliated with general universities that had no special commitment to the farming community. The University Education Commission of 1947, among other things, examined the state of agricultural education in India. The report of this Commission emphasized the need for having what was termed “Rural Universities.” In 1954, the First Joint Indo-American Team on Agricultural Research and Education fully endorsed the recommendations of the University Education Commission and strongly recommended the immediate establishment of agricultural universities in a few selected states. The U.S. agricultural advisors who began to arrive in India in the early 1950s were products of the land-grant university system, and many of them naturally believed India could benefit by creating a similar system (Goldsmith, 1988). The Government of India accepted this recommendation and the first agricultural university in Uttar Pradesh now named as Govind Ballab Pant of Agriculture & Technology was established in 1960, patterned on the land-grant university model of the United States. This was a significant turning point in the history of agricultural education in India. The Second Joint Indo-American Commission (1959) reiterated the recommendations of the First and recommended that at least one agricultural university be established in each state. Agricultural universities have now been established in 21 of the 28 states and the concept of the agricultural university now forms an essential part of the national policy on education.

Introduction

It is known and well documented that ‘biological diversity’ (i.e. diversity within species, between species and within ecosystems) has been declining at a much faster rate than earlier time in human history. The current rate of extinction is tens to hundred times higher than the average over the past 10 million years and it is accelerating (IPBES, 2019). The estimates of the number of species getting extinct every year vary from low (200 to 2,000) to high (10,000 and 100,000) (Bar-On et al., 2018). The delicate balance of clean air, water and biodiversity in nature which helps in survival on earth, is rapidly being destroyed due to humans’ activity like growing of food, producing energy, dispose of waste and consume resources (IPBES, 2019). The current human population of the world (7.6 billion) represents only 0.01% of all living creatures and attributed to be instrumental in causing loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants (IPBES, 2019). These unprecedented changes in important components of biodiversity are likely to continue or increase in the foreseeable future, unless we take active corrective measures (IPBES, 2019).

Whilst all biodiversity has intrinsic economic or social value, it is the ‘agricultural biodiversity’ (‘agrobiodiversity’ in short) that has the greatest importance for food nutrition and health security of humans. The FAO has recently defined biodiversity for food and agriculture (BFA) as a subset of biodiversity that contributes primarily to agriculture and food production (FAO, 2019). It includes the domesticated plants and animals raised in crop, livestock, forest and aquaculture systems, harvested forest and aquatic species, the wild relatives of domesticated species, other wild species harvested for food and other products. It also encompasses “associated biodiversity”

Introduction

Climate change effect is global and one of the most pressing issues of the 21^st century. It has now emerged as a significant global environmental challenge affecting crop, animal, fish, egg and milk production, water availability, human health, and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Evidences of changes in climate, particularly to the spatial and temporal variability of precipitation and temperature are many and as a result, uncertainty, risks and farmers distress have increased manifold over the current years. India, a developing nation and primarily an agriculturally based country will be highly affected due to greater dependence on agriculture for livelihood of larger proportion of population (Johnson and Hutton, 2014). Anthropogenic forces like rise in population, economic activities, consumption patterns, social behaviour, energy resource utilization and land-use changes in terms of deforestation, use of fossil fuels, industrialization, and race towards development, high concentration of green house gases (GHG) has been released resulting in global warming, a major factor leading to climate change. This heat of climate change has been experienced globally and has affected all forms of life on earth in many ways (Campbell-Lendrum et al, 2015).

As per the fifth assessment report of IPCC (2014), proportional sharing in GHGs emission of various sectors are energy production (34%), and agriculture, forestry and land-use (AFOLU) (24%), mainly contributed by biomass burning and resource intensive agronomic activities (Houghton et al., 2012; Tubiello et al., 2015). Global food security has been threatened by climate change more so in developing nations through changes in soil properties, and is one of the most important challenges in the 21^st century to supply food for the increasing population.

Since climate change is inevitable, we must consider how best we can adapt it, so as to minimize its harmful consequences on the society. For subsistence farmers in India, adaptation in response to changes in climate patterns can be the difference between survival and calamity. There is a need to bring innovations on climate smart agriculture and also necessary agricultural reforms for emerging of a self-reliant India.

Introduction

Agricultural Extension is as ancient as agriculture itself. When it moves in agricultural trends, the importance on extension has also been transformed. Firstly, agricultural extension was the component of the research-extension-farmer approach. In the Training and Visit (T&V) period, communication of innovation was the crucial concept and the role of extension was to successfully disseminate the technological interventions. However, after the green revolution, the gap between resource rich and resource poor farmers widened with information and extension reaching only a few of them. With the conceptualization of new models, like Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems (AKIS), the focus of extension has changed to formation of groups and collective farming. In time, the private sector has also entered into the agricultural arena, introducing the concept of pluralism in extension. Emphasis on mass media has also increased. More recently, Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) is introduced within the innovation systems framework. It focuses on the actors, their interactions, the institutions, and the policy environment to support or hinder it. Communication for innovation is the key AIS concept tried to identify the actors in systems, their core activities and bring them into an innovation platform for effective service and successful innovations (Saravanan, 2017).

Introduction and Background

Agriculture at present has the trend of using an industrialized production model, where crops and animals are produced in systems that are increasingly specialized, simplified and concentrated, to address growing food, feed and fibre demands. Within this model, external inputs (e.g. irrigation, synthetic fertilizers chemical pest control, feeds, and growth hormones) have been utilized to achieve production goals, often at the expense of environmental quality and key ecosystem services. Continuation of this model of agricultural production has resulted in loss of ecosystem services, increased ecosystem simplification and species extinction. Responses to future challenges in agriculture should include the development of novel systems that are highly productive, minimize damage to the environment and effectively utilize renewable resources. Achieving these multiple goals will be a momentous task, as it will require development and implementation of more complex, diverse and management-intensive production systems than currently employed. Furthermore, future agricultural production systems will need to be adaptable to respond to unforeseen environmental challenges. Integrated agricultural systems have been purported to possess attributes to address these challenges. Agro-chemicals, fuel-based mechanization and irrigation operations are the heart of industrial agriculture which is derived entirely from dwindling and ever more expensive fossil fuels. Intensification of agriculture by the use of high yielding crop varieties, fertilization, irrigations and pesticides are impact heavily on natural resources with serious health and environmental implications. Practice of monoculture in some parts of the country and the world has an adverse environmental impact due to lack of ecological regulation mechanisms and heavily dependent on external inputs.

Introduction

Majority of the India’s population (about 70%) depend directly and indirectly on agriculture for a living, and thus, the sector must attain self-reliance for their future survival. The North Eastern Region (NER) of India comprising the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim covers a total area of 26.2 million hectare (7.97% of the India’s total geographical area). Of this area, hill and mountain region accounts for about 70% area that excludes Assam plains. The region is characterized by unique geophysical socio-cultural and environmental features. Drought and floods are the two miseries for the farmers of North Eastern Region of India (NER). The poorest people are likely to be the hardest hit by impacts of climatic factors and its change because they rely heavily on climate-sensitive sectors such as rainfed agriculture and fisheries. They are also less capable to respond due to limited human, institutional and financial capacity and have very limited ability to cope with climate impacts and adaptation options in agriculture sector to a changing hazard burden (Ngachan and Das, 2018). The NER of India is endowed with enormous water resources potential that accounts for about 34% of the country’s total water wealth. In spite of the abundant water resources, the ratio of percent irrigated area to net sown area varies from 5% in Assam to 28% in Arunachal Pradesh with an average of 10.6 % in NER. This is less than one-fourth of the national average of net irrigated area which currently stands at 43.2% (Sharma et al., 2010). The water scenario in the region is skewed and is characterized by plenty and scanty syndrome, i.e. excess water during rainy season and severe scarcity during post- and pre- monsoon season. There is wide variation of rainfall in space and time. It is projected that by 2021, an additional 15 million population will be added to the current 45 million in the region (Choudhury et al., 2012). Hence, adequate planning and management of these bountiful but most vital resources are required for overall sustainability of agriculture in NER.

Edible oil scenario

Vegetable oil or edible oil is the main source of energy in humans and it also supplies nutrients for growth and maintenance of human body. Edible oil demand in India has been increasing progressively since last one decade, primarily due to population growth, improved standard of living and also changes in food habits. Presently, the area under oil seed production is between 26 and 27 million ha with an average yield of 1000 to 1100 kg ha^-1. This accounts to 7.5 to 8.0 million tonnes of vegetable oil production locally, as against the current demand of 22.5 to 23 million tonnes per annum.

The extreme weather events being experienced at a greater frequency now a days are due to accelerated climate change caused mostly due to global warming. Global warming is basically a change in the climatic conditions of the Earth, brought about by a considerable rise in the near-surface temperature of the planet. Earth’s surface and the troposphere become warmer due to absorption of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface by Green House Gases(GHGs). The important green house gases include carbon dioxide(CO₂),methane(CH₄) nitrous oxide(N₂O), chloro-?uoro-carbons(CFCs), ozone(O₃) and water vapour(H₂O). Various climate models predict major changes in our weather patterns, environment, and way of life in absence of efforts for substantial reductions in GHG emissions. The CO₂ gas concentration of atmosphere has increased to 385 ppm as against the normal concentration of 300 ppm. The atmosphere contains only 1 % of the total global carbon pool. The undesirable changes can be reversed by increasing soil and eco system carbon pools, increasing mean resident time(MRT) of sequestered carbon and decreasing GHG emission to atmosphere.

Introduction

Despite environmental, bio-physical, and resource constraints in most parts of Rajasthan, even though the state’s geography can be classified into three distinct climatic zones: hot arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid, from a horticultural perspective. These diverse zones have excellent vegetable production potential, a wide range of crop plants, and varied opportunities for resource utilization. However, extremes of high (March–October) and low (December–January) temperature situations associated with abiotic stresses in arid regions restrict the choice of crops and their genotypes, quality of product, and productivity levels. Thus, vegetable exploitation with adaptive and native crop plants is generally found to be most productive and stable under the dry-land climate of the state that receives 150–650 mm of rain and has problems from abiotic factors owing to climatic variability, extremes in temperatures, drought, frost, hot and cold winds, and soil and water quality.

Vegetable production in the country is largely uneven and concentrated, mainly in the limited states and areas where the climate is much more favorable and mild for their production. In addition, emphasis is given only to the few numbers of vegetables that are grown with high inputs and irrigations. To meet the increasing vegetable demand and utilization of indigenous resources, there is the utmost need for massive and integrated efforts with unconventional, under-scored, and perennial vegetable production. The increase in vegetable production can be achieved first by developing high-yielding crop genotypes suited to the prevailing conditions of the targeted zones and resource-based technologies under climatic variability. The second approach is to exploit native resources, i.e., varied and untapped land-areas and under-scored horticultural species with vegetable potentialities.

Introduction

Coastal zone represents a broad transitional zone between land and sea which is strongly influenced by both the shoreline ecosystems and the near shore sub-littoral land-based ecosystems. The coastal areas of the country occupy about 10.8 million ha of land and are spread over the 7517 km long coastline along the Bay of Bengal in the East coast, Arabian sea in the West coast and two islands territories. The coastline of the country in its journey covers 9 states (West Bengal Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat Goa) 2 union territories (Puducherry and Daman and Diu) and 2 groups of islands (Andaman & Nicobar group in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadeep and Minicoy group in the Arabian sea) in the country. The region has varied geomorphic and topographical features of mountains, valleys, coastal plains, riverine systems climatic conditions, soil conditions, water budgets and a wide range of cultivated crops. It also supports diverse vegetation ranging from rich tropical rain forests to coastal mangroves and highly rich in biodiversity. The entire coastal ecosystem is highly fragile and vulnerable to climate change and highly endangered by the sea level rise following global warming. Agriculture is the major occupation of the people in the rural areas of coastal regions of the country but it is highly complex risk-prone and entirely dependent on the vagaries of nature.

Since, the problems of coastal agriculture are widely variable there is no universally applicable remedial measure for self-reliant coastal agriculture and it is likely that the remedial measures or the technological interventions will be variable according to the problems associated with the concerned area. It is highly necessary that technological improvement aimed at enhancement of the productivity of coastal agriculture and the livelihood of the farming communities must be simple in use to suit the skill and resource poor farmers and, to be operative at small scale farming as the majority of the farmers are in marginal and small categories with very poor landholdings.

In conventional breeding for genetic upgradation of yield and other desirable attributes of crop plants, favourable assemblages of genes from two or more parents are made to develop a commercial variety. The important steps of this exercise are: locating the right kind of parents that possess the desired characteristics; making crosses between or among them; handling the segregating generations in an appropriate manner so as to identify the required recombinants; stabilizing the recombinants and finally evaluating their performance in a series of trials. This approach has been very successful in the sense that it has provided increments in productivity continuously. In an analysis done by the American Society of Agronomy on the genetic contributions to yield gains of five major crop plants, it was concluded that sorghum yields increased due to genetic improvements at the rate of 1.2 per cent per year between 1950 and 1980. For corn, the corresponding yield increase was 90 kg/ha/year between 1930 and 1980, which is equivalent to a rate of increase of 1 per cent per year. It was also estimated that 70 per cent of the total gains in corn yields are attributable to genetic improvement and 30 per cent of the yield gains are due to non-seed inputs like fertilizers, pesticides and cultural practices.

In India also, the improvement of productivity of the major food, fibre and several cash crops has been very impressive. The success is due to intensive research in plant breeding resulting in the evolution of varieties with very high genetic yield potentials and the concurrent support from other disciplines that has provided the package of practices which help in the realization of the created potential. In all crop plants, where the breeding efforts have been intensive, the phenomenon of plateauing of yields has become apparent. Wheat provides, perhaps, the best example of the situation. Since the 1970s, when the gains from genetic restructuring of the plant type had been established, major yield increases have not occurred. Since the demands of the future will be undoubtedly much larger, and additional cultivable land will not be available, ways will have to be found for a sizable increase in productivity per unit area in the immediate future. This requirement calls for the development of strategies and procedures that will make dramatic yield gains possible. For meeting the challenge, a continuous search is being made for innovative methods which will give yield increments of a much higher order than those provided by the conventional approach. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to introduce some such promising approaches.

Introduction

In a world grappling with the effects of unchecked waste generation, the pursuit of sustainable waste management solutions stands as a paramount challenge (Smith, 2020). In India, agriculture has evolved in its own way, it has sustained livelihood of millions and had transformed from being a food deficit country to a food exported. There were certain accelerated efforts taken in implementation of advanced resources and technology which transformed India to a self- sufficient country. However this irrational application of synthetic inputs has come with a cost,which resulted in generation of substantial amount of waste. Waste can be any residual substance which has lost its value to the original user after a certain period of its utilization(Gupta, 2019). Agricultural waste are the materials that are generated during or after farming activities which either have no use in the original process of production or may have been spoiled or left unused in the right time in certain cases. These waste that are generated during farming can be in solid,semisolid or liquid forms depending on the nature of farming activities. If these agri-wastes are left without proper treatment, they may have certain types of impact on the environment,for instance the pesticide residues may impact the grazing animal health and when the fertilizers volatize and leach causing an ill-effect on the aquatic ecosystem (Yadav, 2019). Certain Agri experts had opinion that these farm residues can be recognized as “resources out of place” instead of byproduct. The holistic management of farm resources with appropriate techniques can help in reutilization of the farm wastes in secondary production sectors thus minimizing resource utilization and intensifying work efficiency.