eChapters

Verbal communication-definition and meaning-Verbal vs Oral communication - Types-Styles-Barriers to effective verbal communication

Meaning

Verbal communication takes place directly between the superiors and juniors in organizations and between farmers and extension functionaries in the field and is often known as face to face communication. It takes the form of talks, a public address, verbal discussions, telephonic talks, telecommunications and other forms such as audio-visual aids speeches and orders, holdings of meetings and conferences, lectures, social get-togethers, training sessions, public address systems, museums, counseling etc.

Definition

The Verbal Communication is a type of oral communication wherein the message is transmitted through the spoken words. Here the sender gives words to his feelings, thoughts, ideas and opinions and expresses them in the form of speeches, discussions, presentations, and conversations.

Verbal vs Oral communication

Verbal Communication - Oral: It consists of spoken messages which include exchange of ideas, questions or comments. Few examples of verbal (oral) communication are face-to-face conversations, group discussions, counselling, interview, radio, television, calls, etc. Man is the only privileged species which can use language. Language is mostly used in speech and writing comes later. Oral communication has much wide and acceptable use when compared to written communication. As a part of everyday life, in informal relations or formal organization, we communicate more orally than in writing. Oral communication is a building block of human relations. Without oral communication, any interaction is lifeless. Thus, its importance cannot be ignored.

Verbal Communication - Written: This type of verbal communication does not require speech or sound. Though technically, written communication is nonverbal, it falls under this category as it includes the use of words and language. Few examples of verbal (written) communication are books, letters, text, newspapers, etc.

Aristotle, Shannon and Weaver, Schramm, Berlo, Westly and Maclean, Leagan, Rogers and Shoemaker, Littererls model and Dance’s Helical Model-Elements of communication-communication barriers

Introduction

Models are symbolic representation of structures objects or operation. They can be used to show the size shape or relationship of various parts or components of an object or process. It helps to explain the working of a system. A model helps to get a whole idea of the system.

Model help to illustrate, predict and explain the concept

They can be structural or process oriented

Make us to understand the way how to interpret the process

Origin

The world ‘Communication’ comes from the Latin word ‘communis’, meaning common. This implies that when we communicate, we are trying to establish ‘Commonality’ with someone through a message. Communication, then, is a conscious attempt to establish commonality over some idea, fact, feelings and the like, with others. In essence, it is a process of getting a source and a receiver tuned together for a particular message or a series of messages.

1. Introduction

Observing the right to property from the angle of human right, it could be perceived that it is an essential component of freedom and development (Narveson, 2010). In his literature Levy (1995) maintains that, free speech is of little value to a person who has no entitlement on property. He also holds the view that only property can enable the individual to make independent decisions and choices because he is not beholden to anyone and has no need to be subservient. Thus property ownership is basically grounded on considered and intrinsic values of human right. Strategically it assists economic human rights essential for development. Intrinsically it provides every one the right to preserve human dignity and in turn worth to protect human rights. Moreover, every individual should enjoy the legal protection that is perpetually required to preserve his or her human dignity. Access to use and control of productive resources including land are essential to ensure the equality and adequate standard of living among persons. The discussions on woman right to land are somehow interlinked with global food security and also sustainable development of the economy. The crucial obstacles on these rights are inadequate legal standard, ineffective implementation mechanism, and discriminatory cultural values.

In many capitalist societies women are still being vulnerable and subjected to exploitation which emerges from their exclusion from property ownership rights. Indeed the claim from women, for right to own property confirms the proposition laid down by Levy (1995) that the property rights relieves its owner to be subservient to others. However, the deteriorated rule of democracy obviously protect the discriminated and arbitral rules in almost every part of the world.

1. Introduction

Anybody can become angry-that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way-that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.

– Aristotle.

The word emotion is derived from the French word, “emouvoir” which means ‘to excite’. Researchers have been interested in emotions since time immemorial. One of the earliest reported studies on emotions was attempted by Aristotle in 4th Century BC wherein he identified 14 distinct emotions. The traditional Indian art and literature talks about ‘navarasas’, nine emotions namely, joy (hasya), fear (bhayanaka), anger (raudra), love (shringar), courage (vira), sadness (karuna), amazement (adbhuta), disgust (vibhatsya) and calmness (shanti). Darwin (1872) theorized that emotions can be innate, evolved, and had a functional purpose. Robert Plutchik in 1980 talked about eight basic emotions, which he grouped into four pairs of polar opposites namely, joy-sadness, anger-fear, trust-distrust, surprise-anticipation. Renowned psychologist Paul Ekman and his colleagues through a cross cultural study in 1992 identified six basic emotions namely, anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. The popular animation movie produced by Pixar and released by Disney pictures in the year 2015,explored the emotional adjustment journey of a girl Riley, through the five basic emotions, anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness, adapted from Ekman’s work. In a recent study by Cowen and Keltner (2017) researchers identified 27 unique emotions. In yet another study to identify emotions based on facial expressions irrespective of sociocultural influences by Jack et al. (2016) just four emotions, happiness, sadness, anger and fear were recognized.

1. Introduction

India Economic Survey (2018) reported that agriculture sector employed more than 50 per cent of the Indian work force. Women accounted for about 33 per cent of cultivators and 47 per cent of agricultural labourers excluding livestock, fisheries and various other ancillary forms of food production in our country (Rao, 2006). There are also reports on gender assessment which indicated that 75 percent of all women workers and 85 percent of rural workers in India are employed in agriculture (Agarwal, 2003). These suggest that the participation of women in the various fields such as agricultural professionals, entrepreneurs, cultivators, and laborers are on a steady increase. Urban migration by rural men for reasons of better economic opportunities has been identified as a major cause that gave this visibility to women as farmers and agricultural labourers. This indicate the emergence of agriculture as a viable livelihood alternative especially among rural women. It has been widely reported that the major difficulty experienced by the farm women has been the lack of control and ownership of the land resources, which rendered them inaccessible to credit, technology and training. Findings of FAO (2011) indicated that, if women farmers had equal property rights, access to scientific knowledge, monetary services, education and training facilities as their male counterparts, agricultural production would have increased to that extent that the number of persons in acute hunger in the world could be reduced by 100-150 million.

A study conducted by Ghosh and Ghosh (2014) on the share of women in agricultural activities across Indian states revealed that majority of women residing throughout the country generate their financial gains through farming and ancillary enterprises. Deviation of this trend could be observed only in Punjab, Kerala, and West Bengal where women were actively engaged in non-farming enterprises related to the well-developed service sector of these states. In the

states of Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Bihar more than 80 per cent of women were engaged in agriculture. The study also observed that wages of agricultural labour, income from farming, price volatility of agricultural produces and unpredictable weather conditions had significant influence on the livelihood options of majority of women headed households in India.

The Context

The global food system is dynamic, with newer challenges every day with altering production and consumption subtleties. Roles played by various stakeholders of the global agricultural food system and rural development has changed tremendously in the last few decades. Smallholder farmer stakeholders to multinational companies are affected differently by the present difficulties likethe pandemic, climate change, and other factors. The various stakeholders respond, play roles to the challenges differently, and eventually become the agricultural value chains. The newer challenges affect the vulnerable actors like women, smallholder farmers, etc., who constitute asignificant portion of the value chains. This is specifically so in developing countries like India, where the processes of the ‘feminization of agriculture’progresses exponentially. Managing sucha value chain is highly challenging as access and sustainability of various actors differ considerably. Agro-advisory service toolkit for gender-responsive value chain analysis and development aims to select and analyze value chains for opportunities to improve the vulnerable situation and its actors seeking for resilience and reducing gender inequalities. It is now considered a development strategy to promote economic growth. There is an urgent need that thesmallholder farming systems are integrated into the value chains to serve local, national, regional, and global markets.

The chapter presents a brief overview of the gender-responsive value chain concept, factors that limit women’s participation in the value chain, interventions to improve the efficiency of value chains in a gendered perspective, and the development of value chain tools for addressing gender inequitiesin the agricultural system, and the challenges faced.

1. Introduction

Economic growth and the commercialization of agricultural systems have enhanced the adoption of various technological interventions in the farming systems (Rola-rubzen et al., 2020). The green revolution is one of the successful examples of technology interventions, which led to the agriculture transformation and thereby brought reduction in the hunger and poverty of India (Minten and Barrett, 2008). It conclusively proved that the adoption of these farm technology interventions can increase production, productivity and farm income. The technology interventions consisted of a package of improved crop varieties, irrigation, fertilizers, plant protection chemicals, and agricultural machinery.It also brought to fore that the nation’s capacity to maximise its agricultural production potential also relied upon the responsiveness of farmers who were the ultimate decision makers. Thus the availability and accessibility of these technologies to the farmers, and their ability to adopt and utilise these technologies assumed paramount significance in the whole process.

Later decades of twentieth century proved that, along with men, women’s role is vital in agricultural production and they are the backbone of the rural economy in many developing countries including India. It is reported that women are responsible for more than 50 per cent of the world’s food production and account for about 43 per cent of the total agricultural labour force (Doss, 2018). In India, about 78 per cent of economically active women are engaged in agriculture compared to 63 per cent of men. Moreover,in rural India, almost 50 per cent of rural women are classified as agricultural labourers and 37 per cent as cultivators.

1. Introduction

Women empowerment is critical to the process of community development as well as for economic growth. Gender budgeting is recognized as a distinctive technique of women empowerment that directly upholds women development through allocation of budgetary fund. It aims at bringing gender equality through allocation of public funds and affirmative action for under-privileged sections. In fact, the term gender budgeting has been explained differently by various authors. A comprehensive definition states “gender budgeting as a dissection of the government funds to establish its gender differential impacts and to translate gender commitments into budgetary commitments” (Sharp, Rhonda, 1999). It can be viewed as a mainstream application of gender in the budgeting process. It ensures gender assessment of the budget, including reorganization of revenue and expenditure to incorporate gender perspective at all levels of the budget process. Gender budgeting therefore deals with gender specific formulation of laws, policies, plans, schemes and programs by allocation of resources; implementation and execution; monitoring, review and its impact assessment. It analyses the government budget from a gender perspective to assess how it addresses the needs of women in the areas of health, education, employment etc. It uses the budget as an entry point and apply the gender lens to the entire process of programme implementation.

Public budgets have different effects on women and men, and describe the unequal distribution of power in society in terms of economic disparities, differences in living conditions and ascribed social roles. Gender budgeting aims to visualize the gender impact of budgets and to transmute them into an instrument for increasing gender equality. Gender budgets basically includes all types of governments at the national, regional and local levels.

1. Introduction

The gender gap in agriculture is perceived worldwide. It signifies that farm women have less access to resources, finance, capital and advisory services compared to men (FAO, 2011a). Further, women own only 1 per cent of the world’s property in spite they dominate in world food production (50 to 80 per cent) and they own less than 10 per cent of land globally (Huyer et al., 2015). But, in a healthy society, both men and women should enjoy the equal right, opportunity, accessibility and also should shoulder the equal responsibility in family building, society building or nation building. But till date, the equal status and opportunities of men and women has remained a desired goal. It happens so, as the livelihood needs of men and women are different due to their different roles, responsibilities, accessibility to resources and cultural norms. However, of late the researchers and policy makers have realized the importance of gender equality for national development and it has been one of the avowed targets in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for 2030. This has led to the recognition and conceptualization of the concept of ‘gender analysis’ in development research. Gender analysis frameworks provide a step-by-step methodology for conducting gender analysis (Ochola et al., 2010). Gender analysis is relevant to education, although the frameworks used for development projects must be adapted to meet the needs of educational projects (Leach, 2003).

The chapter discusses the concept of Gender Analysis along with the tools and frameworks available in undertaking gender analysis. Each method is discussed in detail covering the context of use, merits and limitations. The data collection formats are also discussed.

1. The Invisible Gender

India, as is always said, is primarily an agrarian economy. Despite the forward leaps taken by our society in the different novel and pioneering areas of development, agriculture remains the force that supports rural India. According to the economic survey of 2020-21, the contribution of agriculture to the country’s GDP has increased from 17.8% in 2019-20 to 19.9% in 2020-21. It is a sector that provides almost half of all the employment opportunities available in the world. The rural agricultural workforce all over the world comprises 37 per cent women and in low-income countries, it is as high as 48 per cent. Women also represent close to 50 per cent of the world’s 600 million small-scale livestock managers and about half of the labor force in small-scale fisheries. They also have a highly significant presence in the post-harvest, processing, and small scale value addition sectors also. However, these numbers are pessimistic estimations as the women’s contributions to agriculture are often unpaid labor and therefore their contributions are not fully captured (FAO, 2020).

They also have a highly significant presence in the post-harvest, processing, and small-scale value addition sectors also.According to the latest reports from Oxfarm Research, the agriculture sector employs 80% of all economically active women in India, which comprise 48% of the self-employed farmers, and 33% of the agriculture labor force.Barring few states like Punjab, Kerala, and West Bengal, most of the women in rural India are engaged in agriculture. It is estimated that 85% of the rural women in India work in agriculture yet own only 13% of the land. The modeled estimates of the International Labour Organization (ILO) shows a drop in females employed in agriculture from 74.38% in 2000 to 54.59% in 2019.However, under the cultural backdrop of Indian society, a significant number of women still exist as “invisible contributors.

1. Introduction

Much of humankind has either at least interacted with forests or benefited from forests for their lives and livelihoods. Approximately 1.6 billion rural people worldwide, mainly in tropical regions, depend upon forests in one form or the other. People rely on forests or forest services as sources of food, shelter, energy, building materials, fiber, fodder, income, medicine, and inspiration (Gabay and Rekola, 2019). The earlier efforts of international forest development practices were focused only on the production and industrial sector. Nonetheless, in the late 1970s and 1980s, this focus shifted to better understanding the links between people and forests. The same period has witnessed the birth of community-led (social/participatory) forest management in many countries. Women’s role in the forestry sector has also started to receive more attention and understanding during this time (FAO, 1986; Ginsburg and Keene, 2020; Kristjanson, 2020). Thus, gender roles have remained an area of interest in forest management, especially in developing countries, and the perspectives have evolved over the years. The agenda 2030 of the sustainable development goals (SDG) encompasses strategies designed to tackle gender inequities and protecting ecosystems, including forests, biodiversity, and oceans (UN, 2015). In fact, the interlinked trajectories of women and the environment have led to the emergence of the theory of ecofeminism and women environment and development (WED) in the late 1970s (Tyagi and Das, 2017). It integrates the ethics of ecology with feminism to explore the intangible interconnections between environmental degradation and sexist oppression (Warren, 1993). Though feminist discussions are not new to the forestry sector, attempts to generate gender-disaggregated data exclusively on forestry management perspectives have been scarce.

1. Introduction

Fisheries is an important sector of food production which besides providing nutritious food to millions also serve as a livelihood option for many. It helps to bring about people centered rural development that protects the environment. Conventionally, fishing has been considered a male domain, because of the assumption that social, cultural, or religious taboos prevent women from participating in fishing activities. In fact, the involvement of women in fishing and related activities has remained invisible and unrecognized till the late 1980s. However, the publications and policy reports during the period highlighted the valued contributions by women in fisheries sector to economies and food security around the world (Harper et al., 2020). Several high-level fisheries reports and policy instruments that followed added to this momentum and emphasized the importance of principles of gender equality in ensuring sustainable coastal livelihood security. Present day estimates indicate that there are around 60 million people who are directly engaged in the primary sector of fisheries and aquaculture globallyof which 14 per cent are women (FAO, 2018) Asia tops the list with the highest number of fishers and aquaculture workers (85 per cent of the world total), followed by Africa (9 per cent), America (4 per cent) and Europe and Oceania (1 per cent each) (FAO, 2018). However, despite growing attention to women and gender in fisheries there exits glaring gap in the gender disaggregated data from fisheries sector that is skewed against women worldwide. These warrant the need for the implementation gender balanced fisheries policies and management strategies that support women empowerment in the sector.

1. The Context

Poverty continues to be a major issue the world over. Over the last decade there has been a significant reduction in the number of the extremely poor. Extreme poverty rates fell from 10.1 per cent in 2015 to 9.2 per cent in 2017 (https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/global-poverty-reduction-slowing-regionaltrends-help-understanding-why). However, despite these achievements, we still have 689 million people living on less than two dollars a day and estimates by the World Bank in 2020 indicate that if one takes an account of higher poverty lines we have 24.1 percent of the world living on less than $3.20 a day and 43.6 percent on less than $5.50 a day in 2017 (http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview). The disturbing aspect of this analysis are the facts that half of this poor are children and in most areas where poverty is encountered women represent a sizeable chunk of them. Poverty in real life is translated into lack of access to education and consumption of diets that are both quantitatively and qualitatively deficient in crucial micro nutrients and vitamins, placing them at higher risks on account of protein energy malnutrition, vitamin A deficiency and the all pervading problem of anaemia. The social consequences of such diets and implications for human capital of the world in the later part of this century would be devastating.

Poverty among women has huge repercussions for the citizens of tomorrow. It is in this context that the role of livestock products assumes crucial importance. Milk, eggs and meat have some of the highest bio-availabilities of crucial protein, iron and vitamin A. Berrazaga et al. (2019) observed that though plant proteins are beneficial in terms of the advantages that they offer from environmental and health points of view, the anabolic effect of plant proteins is generally lower than that of animal proteins. This is on account of their lower digestibility, relatively lower contents of essential amino acids such as leucine and the lack of sulphur amino acids such as lysine. The authors further observed that food protein quality was assessed by digestibility, net protein utilisation and biological value and these

1. Introduction

Adequate nutrition is the fundamental keystone of any individual’s health. It is especially crucial for women because it causes havoc not only on the woman’s health but also on their children’s health and in turn the community. Malnutrition causes a variety of risks to women. It undermines women’s ability to survive childbirth, makes them more susceptible to infections, and leaves them with fewer reserves to recover from illness. Children of malnourished women are found to face impaired cognition, short stature, decreased resistance to infections, and an increased risk of disease and death throughout their lives. The increasing number of malnourished population in any country is a threat to its technological and economic development. Moreover, a chronically undernourished woman in every probability will give birth to a baby who is likely to be undernourished as a child.Thus malnourishment in women perpetuate the cycle of under-nutrition to be repeated over generations.In other words, women’s nutritional status impacts the countries nutritional status.

Despite economic progress, India has failed to combat malnutrition that adversely affects the country’s socio-economic progress. This is reflected in the hunger score of 27.2 which categorized India in ‘serious’ hunger category. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) rank of the country is 94 among 107 countries in 2020 and was 102 out of 117 countries in 2019. In fact, GHI is calculated based on the four indicators viz. undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. Estimates also suggest that more than one-third of the world’s malnourished children are in India. Among the varied causes of malnutrition in the country, major ones include mother’s nutritional status, lactation behaviour, women’s education and sanitation. These in turn affect children in several forms and get manifested as childhood illness, stunting, and retarded growth. Therefore, addressing the nutrition of women population at all levels is essential to safeguard the future generations, and in turn the human capital and economic development of any nation.

1. Introduction

Agriculture and its allied sector is the largest economic sector in India and Indian economy depends heavily on the performance of this sector. Along with production, changes are occurring in supply, machinery, processing, distribution and marketing in the agriculture sector. All over the world, agriculture is passing through a phase of transition, and elements such as discrimination free trade, fair trade, transparency and its resulting predictability, scope for fair competition are being facilitated in to the agriculture sector through different norms and agreements. Due to the concerns about the environment, requirement of clean fuel which can be derived from vegetable sources are also getting increased. All these developments have created new opportunities and scopes for agriculture and agribusiness. Agripreneurship is considered as an employment in the strategy in the country especially for rural people. It promotes our economy by improving productivity and integrating the products into different markets including international markets. It helps in the reduction of cost and avoiding the uncertainties related to markets. To promote micro to medium scale industries, agripreneurship has a major role. Agripreneur faces constraints in related to identification of scope, proper time management and allocating budget etc. and proper project management skills are required to counter these constraints. Agripreneur should also consider sustainability, social and economic factors also (Gupta et al., 2017).

The male-centered business models were considered as the norm till the advent of the present century. But now we have entered an era where there is consensus that women entrepreneurs’ have huge role in the national economic development. Moreover, a significant number of studies show that even though there is a gap between the number of men and women entrepreneurs, the contribution from

women entrepreneurs has been constantly on the rise. This is despite the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs with respect to availability of credit, training, networks and information access and policy constraints. In order to ensure sustainable economic growth, it is necessary to embrace women’s entrepreneurship as it gives new market opportunities and greater development impact. In this chapter, emphasis is given to women entrepreneurship and its contribution to national economy, social empowerment and national integration. Also the challenges and opportunities faced by women in agri-entrepreneurship and changes in the perceptions on women entrepreneurship are discussed.

1. Introduction

Gender remains a critically important and largely ignored lens to view development issues across the world (Jayaraman, 2017). Gender inequality is the greatest human rights challenge of our time and also a critical economic, moral and social challenge (UN, 2015). There exists a significant gender gap in various sectors such as health, labour market opportunities, education and political representation all over the world. This mostly cause the restriction of women to stay at home for household chores. However, the associated disempowerment resulting from the adverse effects of restricting their way around outside world are seldom addressed in the development evaluation and monitoring processes (UNICEF, 2019). Therefore, gender equality and women empowerment are made explicit throughout the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Drawing urgency to these efforts, SDG5 aims on full gender equality and women empowerment as a cross-cutting theme along with more than 30 related targets across other SDGs.

According to FAO (2011), rural women constitute about 43 percent of world’s agricultural labour force and are the agents of change and resilience builders. Even then they undergo greater constraints compared to the men counterparts in accessing technological interventions, productive resources, market information, services and financial assets. The contribution of women to food security often remains undervalued and invisible (FAO, 2011). This leads to inadequate reflection of women’s role in policy, legal and institutional frameworks. These have created difficult situations for them to address the multiple tasks of natural resource management, child rearing and family well-being, without more rural women inclusive development interventions. There would be a drastic reduction in the number of hungry population and malnourished children in the world if women had the same access as men to productive resources which in

turn helps to increase yields on their farms significantly (FAO, 2018). Furthermore, they are also under-represented in grassroot level institutions and administrative mechanisms and assumed to have less decision-making ability. In addition to these constraints, women face an imprudent work burden, at the same time much of their labour remains unpaid and unrecognized under the prevailing gender norms and discrimination. It is high time to include them in decision making process within the households, communities and institutions and thus to enhance women’s participation in governance (Bayeh, 2016).

1. Introduction

The intricate relationship between agriculture and women has been widely featured in the development discourse for long. Globally, more than 400 million women are engaged in farm work directly or indirectly. In other words, 42 per cent of economically active women are engaged in agriculture and they comprise about 43 per cent of the total workforce in agriculture (Dash and Srinath, 2013). In India, agriculture and allied sectors continue to be the most immediate avenues of employment and income for about 160 million rural women who work as farmers, co-farmers, farm labourers and farm entrepreneurs (Oxfam 2017; Sadangi et al., 2009). It is estimated that about 65 per cent of rural women workers are engaged in agriculture as cultivators and agricultural labourers in the country as opposed to 49.8 per cent of male workers. In these capacities, women perform multiple tasks such as land preparation, sowing, transplantation, harvesting and rearing of animals. Most of these operations are labour intensive and not mechanized (Pachauri, 2019). Besides, they are engaged in off-farm domestic activities such as cooking, cleaning, childcare, water and fuel collection and community activities. Shrinking remunerative opportunities in the farming sector has triggered migration of rural male folk to urban areas and also there is a shift in their job priorities to pursue employment in the rural non-farm sector in recent years. Since women did not feature predominantly in either of these trends, most of them are still engaged in agriculture, mostly as labourers and cultivators (Mehrotra, 2020). Vindicated by the fact that the number of female agricultural labourers in India increased by 24 per cent between 2001 and 2011, even though 7.7 million farmers left farming during the corresponding period. During the period when up to 34 per cent of men in rural areas migrated in search of employment and better economic opportunities, the corresponding figure for rural women is merely 3.6 per cent. A recent study of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) found that 55 per cent of employed women in India

1. Introduction

The world’s temperature has already warmed up to almost 1.2ºC since the preindustrial levels and this warming impact is visible in the form of extreme weather events, sea level rise and diminishing Arctic sea ice. Heat waves and drought in Europe and China, forest fires in the U.S., dust storms and extreme rainfall in India (including the Kerala floods 2018) and high precipitation in Japan and other island nations are all examples of the disasters which have occurred within a single year of 2018. With a further 0.5ºC warming, these effects would be even more pronounced than the scientists’ previous predictions. A 1.5ºC warmer world will see higher temperatures, increase in frequency and intensity of precipitation, higher sea levels, and floods, droughts and heat waves (Venkatesh, 2018). The climate change induced economic damage has been increasing in the past few decades and is likely to continue growing because of population growth, urban development and changing land use pattern (IPCC, 2012). Kerala encountered the most disastrous floods in its history since 1924, between June 1^st and August 19^th of 2018. As the torrential rainfall and associated storm thrashed the state, the entire state got buried under water with only few areas remaining above water. The combined precipitation received by the state during this period was 42 per cent in excess of the typical normal. The exceptional spell of rainfall inflicted heavy damage on the life and properties of thousands of people in the state.

Since 2012, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has considered gender and climate change as a stand-alone agenda item under the Conference of the Parties. This is because it has been already understood that climate change has a greater impact on those sections of the population which are more reliant on natural resources for their livelihood. People who have the least capacity to respond to natural hazards are also affected

more. Majority of women, who are considered among the poorest of the poor are at a greater disadvantage because their income is mostly derived from informal natural resources dependent livelihoods. Globally, more than 400 million women engage in farm work in more than 90 countries. Agriculture being a climate sensitive sector, climate change takes a huge toll on this area. Women are usually engaged in subsistence agriculture and labor-intensive works which worsens their susceptibility to climatic change (Lambrou and Piana, 2006). Hence, during extreme weather events, women experience greater impacts and vulnerability than men and become economically insecure following disasters.

1. Introduction

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed”

Mahatma Gandhi

Natural resources form the core of ecology that is put to economic use. It is usually defined in terms of materials created in nature that are used to satisfy human needs. Soil, water and energy supplies (eg. coal, natural gas) that serve to satisfy human needs and wants comprise the major natural resources (Barsch and Burger, 1996). Based on the impact on an environment, cost of extraction and rate of exhaustion, natural resources are broadly categorized into renewable and non-renewable resources. Major renewable sources comprise of wind, solar energy, tidal energy, geothermal energy, forest etc. which have the potential to be renewed or replaced through natural processes over time, once consumed. Unlike this, nonrenewable resources such as coal, petroleum, natural gas and similar types have finite reserves that cannot be regained once consumed. However, environmental degradation, aggravated by the growing population and climate change vagaries, has intensified the competition for these scarce resources in recent years. This has necessitated sustainable natural resource management strategies and advanced experimentations to convert nonrenewable energy sources to renewable forms as they form the basis of all present day development and economic growth. Increasing demands on natural resources have warranted a more prudent and diligent efforts in ensuring sustainable natural resource management. The dichotomy of unlimited human wants and limited resource availability is at the heart of all natural resource management principles that guide economics of resource allocation and optimum utilization.

1. Introduction

Gender equality in agriculture is a long time demand to achieve the sustainable agricultural development goals. According to the World Bank (2009) differences in the socially constructed gender roles and gender relations affect agricultural development as it creates inequality in the distribution, access to and control over agricultural resources between men and women; that in turn affect the agricultural development outcomes. However, role of men and women in agriculture is not constant across the world due to the disparities existing in the allocation of productive farm resources to women and men among different societies and cultures. Most of the agrarian social systems recognize men as the key players of crop production due to their ownership over agricultural land and other resources. This often masks the significance of activities carried out by farm women in the crop production process. Currently agriculture provides employment to nearly 27.2 percent men and 25.4 percent women globally (World Bank, 2020). Irrespective of the unequal power relations between men and women, their relative representation in the agriculture workforce remained almost equal throughout the years. Hence, it became inevitable to address the concerns of both genders in agriculture rather than concentrating only on women centric issues while formulating programmes and policies aiming agricultural development. These trends in agriculture motivated social researchers like Safiliou (1990) to propose gender as a ‘variable’ similar to ‘social class’ to rationalize agriculture. Globally, gender based researches has covered various dimensions of contributions of men and women in agriculture as cultivators as well as agricultural labours in different time period. However, studies on topics related to women’s rights, women empowerment, and gender equality in order to achieve food security and agricultural development has increasingly been carried out after the “fourth world conference on women: action for equity, development

and peace” held at Beijing (China) during 4-15 September, 1995. Though gender research in agriculture mostly revolves around farm women and their empowerment concepts like marketing extension, market-led extension etc., it has led to the empowerment of both women and men cultivators.

The chapter discusses the concept of gender in research and development, its evolution and its integration into research perspectives in agriculture. A brief description of gender analysis tools is also included.

1. Background

Agriculture sustains 58 per cent of population in India. Productivity and profitability are two major planks for food security and sustainable livelihood of farmers. About 86 per cent of farmers in India own less than two hectors of land. As a result, their marketable surplus is small which poses a major challenge in ensuring remunerative price. Limitations associated with quality of produce, storage, transportation, credit as well as vagaries of weather and market are other related problems. These limitations further aggravate if the producers happen to be women due to their socio-cultural and economic position in the society. Only a decentralised and income assuring approach alone can bring prosperity to the farmers apart from gender equality. This would ultimately propel the agricultural growth of the country.

The chapter discusses one of such approaches called the public private partnership (PPP). It has gained prominence in the wake of the demand for farm reforms, trade, commerce, climate change and gender equality in recent years.

1. Context

Women play a critical role in agriculture, and agriculture continues to remain the major livelihood strategy for women as well as millions of small, marginal and poor farming households in India. Despite this, farm women lack access to extension services as extension programmes rarely identify women as an integral client. Farm women and men have differential needs for knowledge, information, technology and skills as often they are involved in different activities spread over time and cropping seasons. Besides these, men and women farmers have differential access to assets, information, markets, credits, and other services that are necessary for using new knowledge, technologies and skills. Ignoring women while delivering services and technologies creates a gap as many of the agricultural operations are performed by women only.

It is estimated that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 per cent (FAO, 2011). Yields on plots managed by women are lower than those managed by men, as they do not have the same access to inputs. If they did, their yields would go up, they would produce more, and overall agricultural production would increase. It isn’t merely about enhancing productivity but also about being fair and equitable. Women are a significant part of the agricultural workforce and they deserve to be consulted prior to formulation of agricultural development plans and policies. SDG 5 on Gender Equality “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” is closely aligned to this aspect. Moreover, enhanced access to services can help women grow more food, have more say in the family, and could potentially lead to more income and food in women’s hands-leading to better food security and nutrition for the entire family as they are the major caregivers in the family.

1. Introduction

There is a global evidence of deterioration of nutrition and food security condition following the Pandemic and subsequent economiclockdown (Summerton, 2020; Laborde et al., 2020). In India, the status of nutrition and food security has been a matter of concern for decades. India scored an alarming rankof 102 out of 116 countries in Global Hunger Index (IFPRI, 2019). The problem has also been a gendered one, with an abysmally higher proportion of malnourishment and hunger in women and children in India. As per NFHS 4 (2015-16), every second woman in reproductive age in India was suffering from anaemia, two in five children were suffering from stunting and every tenth child in India was suffering from acute malnourishment (IIPS, 2017). It is not difficult to imagine that this existing malnutrition-crisis has only worsened in the post-lockdown period. There is a consensus among academicians, policy makers and planners that the nutrition crisis needs to be linked to gender-based exclusions & vulnerabilities (Quisumbing et al., 2020). This chapter attempts to discuss some of these complicacies of food-nutrition-gender linkages to put forth gender advocacy for food & nutrition policies.

Evidence of linkages between gender and nutrition are there althoughit is difficult to establish precise empirical connect. Also, the pathways through which gender influences nutrition and food security are multiple and complex. Food/nutrition-policy, therefore, has a long way to go till it is gender-informed. To begin with, the understanding of the concept of gender is limited at the policy-level. Moreover, most of the nutrition-food related policies in India have not mainstreamed gender or are working ina gender-specific manner rather than redistributive manner¹.

It is in this pretext the chapter reviewed the available evidence on gender-nutrition linkages to put forth an argument not only in favour of gender-aware nutrition policies, but also to guide as to how Gender should be integrated. The chapter is structured in five sections with sections that discusses the concept, i.e., importance of context in policy-level for conceptualising gender-needs. This is followed by a review of existing work from a Gender Needs framework and selected empirical evidence from recent primary study of the author are also presented as another separate section. The relevance of reviewing gender-nutrition linkage after COVID19 Pandemic also find place in the chapter. Finally the summary concludes the discussion on gender advocacy in nutrition.

1. Introduction

For a proper understanding and analysis of women’s position in India’s rural economy, we require adequate and good quality data. This chapter examines the limitations of gender-disaggregated data on the rural economy of India with respect to three aspects: the ownership of land and other assets, participation in the rural workforce, and women’s share of agricultural incomes and earnings. In approaching the need for better data on gender, the following features of gender statistics as identified by UN organisations should be kept in mind (Corner undated)

1. Emergence and history of the concept of gender in development

In a chronological point of view it was the period of late 1960s to mid1970s that marked a turning point in development that saw the emergence of gender as an issue of concern. It was during this period that many important publications on psychology of women and gender roles started its manifestation. However, the recurring theme in most of these publications focussed the white male bias in research and research interpretation. Yet, these research publications served as a platform for a thorough discussion of the biological and social factors that contributed to the understanding of psychology of women. The book entitled, The Development of Sex Differences, edited by Maccoby (1966), can be seen as a pivotal moment in the field of gender psychology. The book with several chapters that lay the foundations of children’s gender development focused on theories of gender development. The publication of the book Man and Women, Boy and Girl in the 1970s put forth an advanced theory about gender identity and suggested that social factors played a more significant role in gender identity and gender roles. This sparked the debate of nature - nurture issues which are still significant to this very date. It’s during the same decade that scholars started to challenge the conceptualisations of masculinity and femininity and migrate from the unidimensional simplistic models of bipolar opposites.

Contributions of Carl Gustav Jung (originally Karl Gustav Jung) also had a great role in this migration. Carl Jung’s school of analytical psychology, proposed the concepts of anima and animus. These were part of his theory called collective unconscious which suggests that every woman has an unconscious masculine realm known as animus and every man has an unconscious feminine side known as anima. He postulated that this personal unconscious symbolized prototypical masculine or feminine principles and not an aggregate of either father or mother. It had the potential to transcend to the personal psyche and influence the behavior.

Threats

There are sixteen threat factors have been identified from Indian mangroves (Kathiresan 2010). However, habitat conversion for agriculture and aquaculture activities, environmental pollution by upstream anthropogenic activities, Climate change processes (e.g. sea level rise; increasing frequency of cylones, etc.) are the major threat factors for mangroves. Mangroves are able to cope up with short-term oscillations and long-term fluctuations of climatic conditions, but the consequences of global climate change, such as increased extreme events, will have unprecedented effects on biota and threaten the resilience and recovery potential of the ecosystems (Harris et al. 2018; Sippo et al. 2018). Despite conservation measures, the mangroves still experience an annual loss of 0.2-0.7% during 2000-2012 and they remain the most threatened ecosystem of the world (Hamilton and Casey 2016).

Mangrove forests are ecologically significant and economically important (Kathiresan 2018). They provide ecosystem services worth at least US$ 1.6 billion each year and support coastal livelihoods worldwide (Costanza et al. 1997). They serve as the nursery, feeding and breeding grounds for crabs, prawns, molluscs, finfish, birds, reptiles and mammals. A large amount of global fish catches (up to 80%) is dependent on mangroves, thereby ensuring the food security of coastal people (Ellison 2008). The mangroves provide firewood, timber, cattle feed, honey, medicines and tourism development. They protect groundwater aquifers from seepage of seawater, thereby ensuring water security for coastal population. Mangrove forests remove coastal pollution particularly toxic heavy metals. They offer coastal protection against the fiery effects of natural calamities such as tsunami, storm surges, cyclone and floods (Kathiresan and Bingham 2001; Kathiresan and Qasim 2005; Kathiresan and Rajendran 2005). The potential of mangroves in carbon capture and sequestration is remarkable in mitigating the impacts of global warming and climate change (Kathiresan et al. 2013, 2014).

West Bengal

In West Bengal, mangroves are present in Sundarbans, the large deltaic complex of three major rivers, the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, and 62% of total area is shared by Bangladesh and 38% by India. The Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (SBR), at the confluence of the Bay of Bengal covering an area of 9,630 km², lies between 21°40′N and 22°40′N latitudes and 88°03′E and 89°07′E longitudes, spreading in districts of South and North 24-Parganas in West Bengal, India. The major portion of SBR is designated as Reserve Forest, covering nearly 4260 km² and the area under mangrove vegetation is 2112 km² (FSI 2019). Compared to 2017 assessment there has been a decrease of 2 km² area of mangroves. The mangroves and their associates in the SBR exhibit great generic and species diversity and it is abode to rare and highly endangered flora and fauna, as well as, the only mangrove-tiger (Royal Bengal Tiger - Panthera Tigris tigris) kingdom in the world. Recognizing importance and uniqueness, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the Indian part of Sundarbans as a ‘World Heritage Site’ in 1987, and also designated the ‘Sundarban Biosphere Reserve’ under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program in 2001. Recently, Sundarbans has been declared as a Ramasar Site, considering ecological significance. Totally 33 true mangrove species belonging to 21 genera and 13 families have been identified in Indian Sundarbans. Among the mangrove species listed, Rhizophora apiculata, Bruguiera parviflora, Ceriops decandra, Kandelia candel, Aglaia cucullata, Excoecaria indica, Xylocarpus moluccensis, Xylocarpus granatum, Heritiera fomes, Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea, Brownlowia tersa, Nypa fruticans, Acanthus volubilis, Dolichandrone spathacea and Phoenix paludosa are under serious threat in Sundarbans (Kathiresan 2008; Gopal and Chauhan 2006). Particularly Heritiera fomes (locally called Sundari, from which Sundarbans derives its name), Nypa fruticans and Phoenix paludosa are declining rapidly due to the reduction of freshwater input (Gopal and Chauhan 2006).

Distribution of Mangroves in India

Mangrove forests in India are found along the coastline of 9 States and 4 Union Territories (Fig. 5). The mangrove habitats are broadly classified into three namely, Deltaic (Eastern Coast Mangroves), Estuarine & Backwater (Western Coast Mangroves) and Insular mangroves (A & N Islands) (Mandal and Naskar 2008). India has a total mangrove cover of 4975 km²; of which, 57% is present along the east coast (Bay of Bengal); 31% along the west coast (Arabian Sea) and the remaining 12% in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (FSI 2019).

Origin and diversification of Mangroves

Mangroves are quite old, possibly arising just after the first angiosperms (Duke 1992). Based on the fossil evidence and recent molecular studies, it is believed that mangroves originated along the shorelines of ancient Tethys Sea and there was a dispersal along the Tethys seaway westward into the Atlantic and further into the east Pacific (long before the closure of the Panama Isthmus) and eastward into South east Asia and Australia during the Late Cretaceous or early Eocene around 80 million years ago (Duke 2006). Nypa seems to be earliest fossil evidence. However, prior to closure of Tethys sea, around 40-55 million years ago, the mangrove genera - Nypa, Acrostichum, Rhizophora, Avicennia, Pelliciera, Sonneratia, Bruguiera, Ceriops, Heritiera, and Aegiceras - were present around shoreline (Duke 2017). The closure of Tethys Seaway by the mid-Tertiary (34-50 Million years ago) by northward movement of African landmass, created a physical barrier that completely terminated the Atlantic East Pacific (AEP) and Indo-West Pacific (IWP) exchange route, and resulted in subsequent diversifications within the AEP and IWP regions influenced by region-specific events (Ellison et al. 1999; Duke 2006). The plate tectonics and other vicariant events like Pleistocene sea level rise are attributed to the current distribution pattern and disjunct distributions of species within genera. Duke (2017) hypothesised two separate westward dispersal routes in AEP: (i) a southern path along the coasts of West Africa, South America and, (ii) a northern path along the North American east coast, whereas he hypothesised two isolated pathways in IWP towards eastward dispersal: (i) a northern path along the coast to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and, (ii) a southern path along the coasts of East Africa, India, and Australia. Further he noted that collision of India and Australia with Middle East and Southeast Asia respectively, resulted complication in dispersal route. Based on the available records it is presumed that diversification of mangrove plants has largely been driven by three key processes of speciation viz., Allopatric speciation, Peripatric speciation and Parapatric speciation (Duke 2017).

Mangroves Definition

A mangrove is tree, shrub, palm or ground fern, generally exceeding one and a half meter in height that normally grows above mean sea level in the intertidal zone of marine coastal environment and estuarine regions of the tropical and subtropical coastlines (Duke 1992). The mangrove is also defined as assemblages of salt tolerant trees and shrubs. Mangroves are taxonomically heterogenous and more related to environment than terrestrial or aquatic plants.

The term ‘mangroves’ is used to define both a group of plants and a community. To avoid confusion, Macnae (1968) proposed the term ‘mangal’ for the mangrove forest community, and the term ‘mangroves’ for the plants. Other terms for the mangrove forest community are coastal woodland, oceanic rainforest, intertidal forest, tidal forest, blue carbon forest, mangrove forest, and mangrove swamp.

Generally, mangrove species are grouped into two types: Exclusive and Non-Exclusive. The exclusive species are limited to the mangrove habitat, and they are also referred to as strict mangroves, obligate mangroves or true mangroves. The non-exclusive species are mainly distributed in a terrestrial or aquatic habitat, but they also occur in the mangrove habitats and they are referred to as semi-mangroves, back mangroves or mangrove associates. Tansley and Fristch (1905) are the first to introduce the criteria to classify mangrove species into true mangroves and mangrove associates. Tomlinson (1986) used rigid criteria to distinguish true mangroves from mangrove associates. In his criteria, true mangroves possess all or most of the following features:

29.1 Introduction

An environmental factor that interferes with the complete expression of genotypic potential of a crop is called stress. The stresses may be biotic (pathogens, insect-pests, etc.) or abiotic. The main abiotic stresses are drought, mineral deficiency/toxicity and heat or cold. The losses due to abiotic stresses can be minimized by:

Crop management: The degree of stress can be reduced by suitable agronomic/soil management practices, e.g., irrigation to relieve drought stress, soil amendments to reduce salinity.

Development of resistant cultivars: This offers the cheapest, easiest to apply and most eco-friendly approach to reduce losses due to any stress.

Indirect breeding: Evaluation of materials under stress often helps in identification of a resistant line that may become an important commercial cultivar.

???????Direct breeding: It is deliberate breeding of materials for stress resistance. When a genetically variable material is grown under the stress environment, selection can be based on survival, yield and other traits contributing to stress resistance.

28.1 Introduction

The stress that is caused by biological agents or factors such as diseases, insect-pests and parasitic weeds is called biotic stress. The term disease can be broken into two words: “dis” (means negative, reverse or opposite) and “ease” (means comfort, or freedom from pain or discomfort). Hence, plant disease can be defined as any harmful alteration from the normal functioning of physiological processes. Diseases may be bacterial, fungal or viral. A wide range of insects infests various crop plants. The extent of damage caused to crop plants by various organisms is usually in the order fungi > bacteria > viruses > nematodes = insects. But the relative importance of these organisms varies to a great deal in different crops. Breeding of cultivars resistant to diseases and/or insect-pests is the cheapest, safest and most dependable means of limiting the losses due to them. Resistant cultivars form an important component of integrated management of diseases and insect-pests.

28.2 Breeding for Resistance to Biotic Stresses-Diseases

Agrios (1970) has defined disease as: “Disease is a series of invisible and visible responses of plant cells and tissues to a pathogenic microorganism or an environmental factor that result in adverse changes in form, function or integrity of plant and may lead to partial impairment or death of the plant or its parts.” The organism causing disease is called pathogen, while the plant affected by the disease is called host.

The principles underlying breeding for resistance to diseases are much the same as for other characters, except for one important difference, i.e., the diseases caused by pathogens are the product of interaction between two genetic systems, that of the host and that of the parasite. Both systems are capable of variation and evolution and affect the interaction between host and pathogen. Here the breeder is required to deal with the heritable traits of both the host plant and the pathogens invading it.

27.1 Introduction

Crop improvement depends on genetic variation present in nature or created by hybridization followed by segregation and recombination. Again, gene transfers are possible only from the lines and species that are sexually compatible with the concerned species. Interspecific gene transfers pose many problems, including the loss of F₁ hybrids during embryo development due to abortion of the endosperm in the developing hybrid seeds. Embryo rescue technique was developed to rescue such interspecific hybrid embryos, and it has been widely used for this purpose. It is to be mentioned that embryo rescue can be used only in such cases where sexual hybridization is successful in producing zygotes that begin to develop into embryos.

Besides, the technique of somatic hybridization by protoplast fusion was developed to enable gene transfer from the species that do not produce zygotes on hybridization. This method has been extensively used and some useful lines have been derived. But this method is limited to utilization of genes present in plant species. Again, the results of somatic hybridization are unpredictable since many somatic hybrids fail to regenerate complete plants and the transfer of specific genes or groups of genes depends entirely on chance.

The recombinant DNA technology (also called genetic engineering) has permitted the transfer of genes from any organism into any organism. Besides, chemically synthesized genes can be transferred and integrated into genomes of various organisms to enable the expression of these genes. A gene transferred into an organism by genetic engineering is called a transgene. 

26.1 Introduction

We have already discussed the basics of tissue culture techniques in Chapter 2. Plant tissue culture techniques in combination with recombinant-DNA technology are essential requirements for development of transgenic plants (will be discussed in next chapter). However, tissue culture techniques like anther, pollen, ovule and meristem culture can themselves be used for improvement of different traits or as an aid to conventional breeding methods. In recent years, isolated microspore culture has been preferred as a breeding tool and an experiment system for various genetic manipulations. Besides, using protoplast fusion and hybrid embryo rescue, distant hybridization has been successfully achieved in many crops. Protoplast fusion technique can be used for the transfer of cytoplasmic male sterility from one species to another in very short duration. Somaclonal variation generated during tissue culture can also be utilized for recovery of variants showing disease resistance or other desirable characters.

25.1 Introduction

The method of selection in which a gene/QTL (Quantitative Trait Locus) is selected on the basis of the genotype of the molecular marker (also called DNA marker) linked to this gene/QTL is known as marker-assisted selection (also called marker-aided selection). The idea of marker-assisted selection (MAS) was first advocated by Tanksley (1983). MAS can be used in combination with the conventional breeding methods or novel breeding schemes could be devised to take full advantage of the marker data. MAS has been widely used for introgression of the desired genes and QTLs using backcross programmes.

25.2 Marker-Assisted Backcrossing (MABC)

The backcross programme based on molecular marker is usually called marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC). MABC has three activities: (a) foreground selection, (b) background selection and (c) recombinant selection.

25.2.1 Foreground Selection

The use of molecular marker to select the gene/QTL being introgressed is known as foreground selection. The objective of foreground selection is to select the target gene, i.e., the gene being introgressed, without phenotypic evaluation for the trait governed by the target gene. Foreground selection for a gene/QTL will be highly desirable in a variety of situation, some of which are listed below:

24.1 Introduction

When crosses are made between two different species of a genus or between two different genera, they are known as distant hybridization (also called wide hybridization). It includes both interspecific and intergeneric hybridization. Thomas Fairchild (1717) was the first man to do distant hybridization. He produced a hybrid between two species of Dianthus, viz., D. caryophyllus and D. barbatus (Carnation and Sweet William). Intergeneric hybrid produced by Karpechenko, a Russian scientist, in 1928 is Raphanobarssica. It is the amphidiploid of cross between radish (Raphanus sativus) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata). Unfortunately, it had roots like cabbage and leaves like radish. Triticale was produced by Rimpau in 1890 itself. It is an amphidiploid obtained from a cross between wheat and rye (Triticum and Secale). Another example is Saccharum nobilisation involving Saccharum officinarum, S. barberi, S. sinensis, S. spontaneum. Wide hybridization has been used in the genetic improvement of some crops. It is an effective means of transferring desirable genes into cultivated plants from related species and genera.

23.1 Introduction

An organism or individual having more than two basic sets of chromosomes is called polyploid and the condition is known as polyploidy. Polyploidy is an important tool to increase genetic diversity by altering the chromosome number (2x) and consequently the number of genes within a single cell. Polyploidy has been one of the important mechanisms in the evolution of many cultivated crop plants.

23.2 Types of Polyploidy

23.2.1 Autopolyploidy

The condition that arises due to multiplication of the same chromosomes of a single species is known as autopolyploidy (also called ‘simple polyploidy’ or ‘single species polyploidy’). Autopolyploids have generally larger leaves, stem and other vegetative parts and flower, fruit and seeds than their normal diploids.

22.1 Introduction

Mutations are sudden heritable changes in the genotype of an organism. De Vries (1900) for the first time used the term mutation (mutare in Latin means ‘to change’) for the appearance of new types in evening primrose (Oenothera) plant. In 1901 he put forth the idea of producing mutations artificially for use in crop improvement. Alberto Pirovano (1922) was first to use X-rays and ultraviolet rays for inducing mutations in plants, but his work remained unknown. So, Muller (1927) became the first known to induce mutation in Drosophila fly using X-rays. Though Stadler (1928) had started working simultaneously on barley and maize and induced mutations, he was late in reporting mutation due to longer life cycle of these plants compared to Drosophila. Mutation may be gene mutation (the result of change in the nuclear gene or plasma gene) or chromosomal mutation (change in chromosome number, structure or chromosomal aberrations of various types).

21.1 Introduction

There are a number of field, vegetable, fruit and ornamental crops that are cultivated using asexual or vegetative parts such as stems, roots, modified flower etc. This is a heterogeneous group of plants and can be further categorized into four groups for ease in understanding the breeding methods applied to them. They are:

Group 1: Flowerless or Sterile

This group either does not bear flowers or if bears, they are sterile and do not set seed, e.g., ginger, mango ginger, turmeric, garlic, betel, many yams, etc.

Group 2: Apomicts

Apomixis has been reported in over 300 genera. But stable apomixis has been reported only in a few cultivated plants like meadow grass, citrus, mango, raspberry, etc.

Group 3: Flowers but Seed-Set Rare

In this group flowering takes place under specific situations but seed-set is limited, e.g., potato, sweet potato, sugarcane, etc.

20.1 Introduction

A hybrid cultivar (also called hybrid) is the F₁ progeny of a planned cross between inbreds, cultivars, clones or populations. Depending upon the breeding approach, the hybrid cultivar may involve two or more parents. A critical requirement of hybrid production is that the parents are divergent. This divergence is the cause of superior performance of hybrids. The outstanding performance of crops is due to the exploitation of the phenomenon of heterosis (hybrid vigour) which is high when parents are divergent. Much of what we know about heterosis breeding (also called hybrid breeding) came from the work on maize hybrid cultivar development. However, commercial hybrids are now available in many crops including self-pollinated crops.

19.1 Introduction

In self-pollinated crops, the methods of selection aim at improving individual plants. On the other hand, in cross-pollinated crops they aim at improving a population of plants. A population is a large group of interbreeding individuals. Hence, selection is called population improvement in cross-pollinated crops. Selection in self-pollinated crops results in isolation of pure breeding lines which is the end product. But in cross-pollinated crops, it results in an improved population which is used as the commercial cultivar. Improved inbred lines (also called inbreds) for producing hybrids can be obtained from such populations. Again, like many rounds of selection being practised in different inbreeding generations in self-pollinated crops we are also practising many rounds of selection in cross-pollinated crops. But, unlike self-pollinated crops selection in cross-pollinated crops is followed by intermating to develop a new population before starting another round of selection. One cycle of selection consists of selection of individual/family and intermating of the selected units. Such cycle is repeated till we get the improved population. This method of practising the cycles of selection and recombination in a population is called recurrent selection or population improvement. Frey (1983) prefers the use of recurrent selection for closed populations where no new germplasm is added to the population during selection. Population improvement was used for a group of breeding techniques where all aspects are similar to recurrent selection but with the provision of adding new sources of germplasm whenever feasible. It is only a matter of coincidence that past history of application of recurrent selection has been limited to closed populations, but its basic aim has always been the accumulation of favourable genes, without any restriction on the migration of new genes during the course of selection. Apart from a slight nuance, population improvement and recurrent selection are two titles of the same principle and procedure of manipulating the genetic potential of populations. Recurrent selection can also be applied in self-pollinated crops.

18.1 Introduction

The genetic variability present in populations of self-pollinated vegetable, spice and ornamental crops is rapidly exhausted by pureline selection. For further improvement, genetic variability must be created. This is generally achieved by hybridization. After the cross has been made, F₁ is grown and seeds set on it are harvested. This makes the seed source for raising F₂ population, and so on. The segregating populations from crosses are handled according to a suitable method. The three basic methods available for this purpose are: (1) pedigree method, (2) bulk method, and (3) backcross method. There are also certain modifications of these methods.

18.2 Pedigree Method

Pedigree method is developed from the pureline system and widely used method of plant breeding for self-pollinated crops. A main difference between pedigree selection and mass selection or pureline selection is that hybridization is used to create variability for the base population in case of the former, whereas in mass and pureline selections variability is naturally present in the base populations. The pedigree method was first described by H.H. Lowe (1927). This method predominated the crop improvement programme throughout the world until 1980s. Pedigree method is common in horticultural crops, especially where readily identifiable qualitative traits are involved. Vegetable crops in which pedigree system is used include tomato, cucumber, pepper, pea, lettuce, snap and field beans, all self-pollinated crops. In general, selection is done on F₂ plants. Yield is important in many horticultural plants, but quality is equally or even more important. Quality may be associated with identifiable traits, making the pedigree system ideal for self-pollinated vegetable crops.

17.1 Introduction

Self-pollinated vegetable, spice and ornamental crops may be heterogeneous. It is exemplified by landrace cultivars. They may have originated from single plant selections but have been grown over a long period of time. Landrace cultivars are a mixture of genotypes, perhaps because of breeders’ lack of appreciation of selection techniques to produce a pure line, spontaneous mutations, chance hybridization, or a combination of factors. Natural selection in landraces has resulted in a cultivar that is well adapted to the local environment. Depending on amount of human selection, differences among genotypes in a landrace cultivar may be small and inconspicuous. On the other hand, a lack of human intervention may mean that differences among plants in a landrace cultivar will be conspicuous. After years of self-pollination, individual plants are homozygous. Selection of such individuals would result in a true-to-type reproduction of their phenotype within the limitations imposed by the environment.

16.1 Introduction

Plant introduction is the process of introducing plants from their growing locality to a new locality. Introduction of plants from a foreign country is called foreign introduction or exotic collection. Introduction from one state to another within a country is called indigenous collection or indigenous introduction. With introduction, the process of acclimatization is associated. Acclimatization is the adaptation or adjustment of an individual plant or population of plants under the changed climate for a number of generations. Plant introduction is an oldest method of plant breeding. It is used in self-pollinated, cross-pollinated and asexually propagated crops. The material of seed-propagated crops is introduced in the form of seed and that of vegetatively propagated crops in the form of cuttings or propagules. The introduced material may be a new crop, a wild relative or a new cultivar of a crop already grown in the area. There are five important sources of plant collection, namely, (1) centres of diversity, (2) gene banks, (3) gene sanctuaries, (4) seed companies, and (5) farmers’ fields.

15.1 Introduction

Plant breeding aims at developing genetically improved crop cultivars with economic benefits for small-scale and commercial farmers. Population growth, dwindling agricultural land and global climate change present increasing risk to crop production. Consequently, plant breeding aims to constantly develop crop cultivars with improved yield and quality and tolerant to drought, diseases and pests. Use of genetically improved crop cultivars and better management practices are among the best strategies to increase food production and meet a projected doubling of food demand in the next 40 years. Both the public and private plant breeding sectors face several constraints, including a shortage of professional plant breeders and breeding technicians, limited budget, inadequate facilities and lack of access to information. Successful plant breeding requires adequate infrastructural investment, in addition to the actual breeding activities. The benefits of plant breeding research and development can only be realized on a long-term basis because of the inherent nature of the crops and the eminent breeding procedures involved. Plant breeding involves two main activities, i.e., pre-breeding/ germplasm enhancement and cultivar development per se. These interdependent activities are the controlling factors that determine the pace at which cultivars are released timeously and consistently to farmers. The two phases, in turn, depend upon various factors, e.g., breeding goals, genetics and agronomy of the crop, breeder’s long-term objectives, availability of testing facilities and national cultivar-registration requirements. Despite these factors, there are certain clear steps and breeding procedures found in any conventional breeding programme. These include choice of parents, making crosses among chosen parents, and selection from recombined parents followed by extensive field testing of the candidate cultivars. Maintenance, multiplication and distribution of the seed are the ultimate stages of a breeding programme. Systematically outlined conventional breeding procedures, timeframes and estimated breeding generations are essential to objectively consider the ultimate timescales required to release new and improved cultivars of all crops. The information may assist plant breeding- students, educators, researchers, project advisors, administrators and funding agencies. Dear students, in this chapter we outline the timeframes of conventional breeding procedures of clonally (also called vegetatively) propagated, self-fertilizing (also called self-pollinated) and cross-fertilizing (also called cross-pollinated) crops.

14.1 Introduction

The mating or crossing of genetically dissimilar individuals is called hybridization. Hybridization results in recombination that in turn widens the spectrum of variation among individuals. So, the reason for genetic diversity in progenies of crosses is the formation of new combinations of genes. This newly created variability is then channelized into development of better cultivars.

The importance of pure line selection as a method of breeding started decreasing when plant breeders felt that the genetic variability existing in the land races of self-pollinated crops had been almost completely exploited and there was little chance for further improvement in these crops by using pure line breeding. Therefore, no option was left for plant breeders except to cross diverse individuals and combine together desirable characters in a single genotype from two or more parents. The planned hybridization which could avoid self-pollination and chance cross-pollination, soon became the main feature of almost all plant breeding programmes.

13.1 Introduction

F₁ plants produced by crossing two parents with contrasting characters are called hybrids. Hybrids generally exhibit increased vigour and fitness over the parents. This phenomenon is called hybrid vigour or heterosis. Thus, heterosis is the phenomenon in which the hybrid of two genetically dissimilar parents shows increased vigour at least over the mid-parental value. Heterosis is just the reverse of inbreeding depression, which results after selfing the plants of the cross-pollinated crops. Kolreuter (1761-66) was the first to report hybrid vigour in the hybrids of tobacco, Datura, etc. Most of the early plant hybridizers including Mendel (1865) had noticed this phenomenon. Shull (1914) coined the term heterosis from two Greek words, hetero (different) and osis (condition), to replace his own earlier word ‘stimulus of heterozygosis’. In current usage, heterosis and hybrid vigour are used as synonyms and interchangeable.

13.2 Types of Heterosis

Depending on the nature, origin, adaptability, reproducibility and non-reproducibility, heterosis can be categorized into two: (1) euheterosis (true heterosis) and (2) pseudo-heterosis (false heterosis, i.e., luxuriance).

12.1 Introduction

Allowing certain plants from the population to reproduce, while barring others, comprises selection. This permission for reproduction may be granted by nature or by the plant breeder. In the other words, both nature and breeder exert selection pressure. Natural selection operates through differences of fertility among the adult individuals of parent generation as well as through differences of viability among the individuals of offspring generation. Artificial selection, i.e., the selection from action of the plant breeder in the choice of parents, produces its change of gene frequency by separating the adult individuals of parent generation into two groups, viz., the selected and the discarded, that differ in gene frequency. So, selection simply implies the retaining of desirable types or culling of unwanted or undesirable types.