eBook Chapters

1.1 Introducution

Growing of vegetables is one of the most profitable allied activities of agriculture especially in small-medium land holdings and with limited water resources. Use of improved varieties and hybrids is very critical to make smaller land holdings profitable. Seeds of improved varieties and hybrids not only increase income to the tune of more than 30% but also reduce the use of plant protection chemicals. India being the second largest producer of vegetables in the world with 6.2 m ha of land and 85m MT production-use of improved seed is very important. The annual requirement of vegetables is estimated to be over 135m MT which can be only achieved through use of quality seed. India is predominantly vegetarian country and depends upon vegetables for their nutrients and minerals.

Vegetable cultivation is labour intensive, gives high returns and ensures nutritional security. To ensure these the supply of quality seed is very vital. Apart from seed production, its processing for seed quality to give the end user is of high importance. Unlike seed processing of field crops, vegetable seed processing is very technology driven since the volume is less and involve costly material. Improved processing efficiency brings more income for the grower and seller. The vegetable seed being low volume needs better technology for upgrading, size grading, blending, conditioning, processing, treatment and packaging. Vegetable seed processing is set of activities as mentioned here each of having a special focus on the quality.

1.1 Importance of Food Process Engineering

Food occupies the first position among the hierarchal needs of human beings. It is more important than shelter and clothing. After production and be forec on sumpti on, food commodities are subjected to nume rous unfavourable physical, chemical, microbial or parasitic factors which may cause their spoilage or disease when consumed. To prevent such spoilage, a process engineer has to understand these and provide remedial measures. The two primary goals of processing operation are first to minimize post harvest losses and second value addition of raw food commodities through preservation and processing.

Present level of production of different types of food commodities and their estimated post-harvest losses along with monetary values are given in Table 1.1. It shows that various food items get lost, to the tune of 65 million tonnes, worth Rs. 76,000 crores per annum, during post-harvest phase. A substantial amount of these losses could be prevented if appropriate agro processing centers, having backward linkage with farmers to ensure constant supply of quality raw food materials, are established and operated. Profit generated through value addition must also be shared with farmers, who are only people in the world to create wealth every year, in the form of food, fiber and other commodities necessary for human survival. It can bring sea change in rural areas, where 65-70% population live, in respect of economy, health and happiness.

It sounds simple, but the above process is fairly complex and requires lot of coordination in order to succeed. The major challenge is to minimize the losses during the various post harvest operations and keep the food as fresh as possible. In order to do so, one must first try to understand the various causes of post harvest losses of food commodities and the various factors that influence theses causes. Secondly, we must use those food processing operations that will not only extend the shelf life of the produce but also convert the raw food commodities to more acceptable product to the consumer.

Association of human beings with plants is much older than the dawn of civilization. Use of plants as source of food, cloth and shelter started first for fulfilling basic needs. Aesthetic use by way of growing flowers and ornamental plants came much later. Gradually, it was felt that ornamental plants need to be grown in a systematic manner and that yielded the concept of designing gardens. With the advancement of time, gardening styles metamorphosed in various ways influenced by climatic conditions, geographic locations, rulers and most predominantly by people. At present, plants and gardens are part and parcel of our daily life. The scope of developing gardens is simply enormous, be it home, office, institute, temple, factory, ‘samadhi sthal’ etc. Growing plants and developing gardens are now considered a necessity wherever scope exists.

Preserving the productivity of agricultural land over a long term requires sustainable food production. Sustainability is achieved through alternative agricultural practices informed by in-depth knowledge of the ecological processes occurring in farm fields and the larger landscape of which they are a part. From this foundation, we can move towards the social and economic changes that promote sustainability of all sectors of the food system. Sustainability means different things to different people, but there is a general agreement that it has an ecological basis.

In recent years, all eyes seem to be focused on visions of the future. High-tech, bio-tech, and info-tech are the key words most frequently used among those who are concerned with future agriculture development. Many also forecast increasing vertical integration of production, processing distribution functions-including activities from molecular level to consumer preference i.e. from seed to table, thus increasing dependence on biotechnology and information technology at all levels in world agriculture.

Conventional farming systems vary from farm to farm and from country to country. However, they share many common characteristics viz.,rapid technological innovation; large capital investments in order to apply production and management technology; large-scale farms; single crops/ row crops grown continuously over many seasons; uniform high-yielding hybrid crops; extensive use of pesticides, fertilizers, and external energy inputs; high labour efficiency; and dependency on agribusiness. In the case of livestock, most production comes from confined, concentrated systems.

Agricultural development in independent India can be divided into 3 distinct phases. The phase I started during 1950, wherein local cultivars, indigenous technology, green manuring being the inputs and the expected output was quite low. Alarming rise in the population rate forced the scientists to think of alternatives to the local cultivars with higher response to fertilizers & jump in yield levels. This marked the beginning of phase-II (1965), wherein high yielding varieties, fertilizers, mechanistion & irrigation were used as the inputs and production increase was lucrative. And this phase was popularly called as ‘Green Revolution’ phase in the History of Indian Agriculture. But after 20-25 years the impact of high input technology was reflected in the degradation of agro-ecosystem & once again forced the scientists to think of a viable option to keep intact the resource base & to harvest more/sustain yield levels to feed the burgeoning population. This being the third phase is popularly called as phase of sustainable agriculture organic farming phase started from 1980’s onwards. This gave an impetus to environmentalists, to think seriously regarding protection of the ecosystem.

Microbiology

Study of microorganisms, a large and diverse group of microscopic organisms, that exist as single cell or cluster. It also includes virus, which are microscopic, but not cellular.

Sustainable development and efficient management of water is an increasingly complex challenge in India. Increasing population, growing urbanization, and rapid industrialization combined with the need for raising agricultural production generates competing claims for water. There is a growing perception of a sense of an impending water crisis in the country. Some manifestations of this crisis are:

(a) Increasing costs of developing new water resource – Many major and medium irrigation projects seem to remain under execution forever as they slip from one plan to the other with escalating cost and time overruns.

(b) Siltation of reservoirs and owing to lack of maintenance, the capacity of the older irrigation systems seems to be going down.

(c) Declining groundwater table due to over-exploitation imposing an increasing financial burden on farmers who need to deepen their wells and replace their pump sets and on State Governments whose subsidy burden for electricity supplies rises.

(d) Water pollution and degradation of water-related ecosystems - Water in most parts of rivers is not fit for bathing, let alone drinking. Untreated or partially treated sewage from towns and cities is being dumped into the rivers. Untreated or inadequately treated industrial effluents pollute water bodies and also contaminate groundwater,

(e) Wasteful use of already developed water supplies, often encouraged by the subsidies and distorted incentives that influence water use,

(f) Besides in many rural habitations there are pockets where arsenic, nitrate, and fluoride concentration in drinking water are posing a serious health hazard

(g) Rise in water-logging and salinity resulting in degradation of soils in irrigated areas,

(h) Increasing water conflicts about water rights between upper and lower riparian states in a river, conflicts about quality of water, people’s right for rainwater harvesting in a watershed against downstream users, industrial use of groundwater and its impact on water tables and conflicts between urban and rural users etc

(i) The gross irrigated area does not seem to be rising in a manner that it should be, given the investment in irrigation. The difference between potential created and area actually irrigated remains large. Unless we bridge the gap, significant increase in agricultural production will be difficult to realize.

Human beings have been concerned about the concept of food safety since time immorial. Around the globe there has been major improvement in food safety management in the last twenty years. Looking into the progress made on the ways to make food safe and how to make them free from pathogens, this book, will explain food hygiene, the journey of research been taken in food safety till date and the challenges that we are going to face in future to ensure food safety and its wholesomeness. It also includes the role and responsibilities of the various sectors of society, namely governments, food industry, consumers and academia.

In the beginning of the twentieth century many modern food safety policies have been established. In the packing of meat and in food processing industries a lot of work has been done (Sinclair 1906). Another second generation policy includes the outbreak in the United States in early 1990s’ of pathogen E. coli O157:H7 and the BSE scandal of the late 1990s in the UK Lopman et al., (2003) have discussed on viral outbreak in europe. Currently, the crisis has come due to the economic and technological transformations which have taken place in food and the food supply system. As these changes have many health risks the public is very concerned. Therefore, the control forms of safety regulation and food safety laws have come into the picture. These policies include continuous line inspection, visual product inspection and detailed specification of approved hygiene practices. There is a need of a public health-focused policy which works towards the preventive integrated management of foodborne hazards from farm to table. This includes the use of modern science based risk management tools which will increase the efficiency accurately towards public health. A lot needs to be worked out for better implications. Current efforts to modernize food safety policy around the world are being worked out by the use of risk analysis and cost-benefit analysis in public administration and also the quality management in industry. The role of public economics plays an important role in food safety policies. For the social benefits the policy makers need to take decision on the costs and strengthening of the risk assessment. Today there are globalized markets and this can influence the health globally. Emerging economies like China are industrializing and urbanizing rapidly like that of Europe and North America.

Climate Change has emerged as one of the most serious environmental concerns of recent times. The most imminent climatic change is increase in atmospheric temperature due to increased levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and hydrochlorofluoro carbons (HCFCs). Because of increasing concentrations of the greenhouse gases in atmosphere, there is much concern about future changes in the climate system viz., Atmosphere, Lithosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Cryosphere. Direct or indirect effects on the society linked sectors like water, forestry, agriculture, animal agriculture, fisheries, land and marine biodiversity and health due to climate change/variability are many-fold and economic impact of climate change is enormous. The recurrent drought and desertification threaten seriously the livelihood of over 1.2 billion people who depend on land for most of their needs. The global economy has adversely been influenced due to droughts and floods, cold and heat waves, forest fires, landslips and mudslips, icestorms, duststorms, hailstorms, thunder clouds associated with lightning and cloudbursts, unusual rains and the sea level rise (Fig.1.1). Increase in aerosols (atmospheric pollutants) due to emission of greenhouse gases including black carbon and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Ozone depletion and UV-B filtered radiation, eruption of volcanoes, the “human hand” in deforestation in the form of forest fires and loss of wetlands in the process of imbalanced development are causal factors for climate variability and change. The carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration was in the steady state at 280 ppm till the pre industrial period (1850). It was rising since then at the alarming rate due to industrialization and burning of fossil fuels and the concentration of carbon dioxide is almost currently touching more than 400 ppm. Global increases in CO₂ concentrations are due primarily to fossil fuel use, with land-use change providing another significant but smaller contribution. The loss of forest cover and wetlands, which normally intercept rainfall and allow it to be absorbed by the soil, causes precipitation to reach across the land, eroding top soil, causing floods and droughts. Paradoxically, the lack of trees also exacerbates drought in dry years by attaining soil to dry out more quickly. For the first time the world over felt the effects of global warming and climate change during the year 1998 in the form of weather related disasters.

Pesticides offer one of the best means of controlling plant diseases and pests and subsequently improving the yield. They have been used since the 19^th century. Pesticides, undoutly are poisonous and their indiscriminate use and abuse may result in ecological imbalance resulting in pest resurgence, aggravation of minor pest, pesticides resistance, environmental pollution, poising serious health hazards to man and animals. However, if used judiciously, following the guide line of Pesticide Action Network (PAN), such problems are not likely to occur, and instead improve crop yield. It is however unfortunate that many of us really lack the insight in Materia Medica of plant diseases and pests and most of the problems have occurred due to misuse and abuse of pesticides for which man is responsible and not the pesticides.

The term “nutraceutical” was coined from “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical” in 1989 by Stephen DeFelice, MD, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine (FIM), Cranford, NJ. According to DeFelice, nutraceutical can be defined as, “a food (or part of a food) that provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease”. In other words, nutraceuticals are chemical or natural feed ingredients which may enhance health by providing a physiological benefit by the provision of basic nutrients. Enzymes, prebiotics, probiotics, yeast and fungal extracts, predigested hydrolyzed carbohydrates and fats, phytogenic additives, acids etc are included in nutraceuticals. However, the term nutraceutical as commonly used in marketing has no regulatory definition.

Human being as a hunter has depended mostly on animal food and some fruits. With the progress of civilization, he settled down and

started agriculture around 7000-10,000 B.C. He started depending on plant grains to take care of his energy and nutritional requirements in addition to animal foods. Initially cereal grains must have mostly accounted for his staple food requirements. Taste and health requirements must have prompted him to diversify his crop production programme. It is this need that must have made him to cultivate oilseeds, fibre and other crops.

Oilseeds, thus, have been under cultivation since antiquity. Rapeseed and sesame have been described in the Indian Sanskrit writings of 2000 BC. Historically, extraction of oil seems to have been a batch process. Seeds kept in gunny bags or boxes were pressed to remove oil. The separated oil on clarification was used for food and non food purposes. The resulting cakes were utilized as animal feed or thrown away into fields which helped in improving the soil fertility. Human beings slowly discovered the uses of oil and other oilseed products for various food and non-food purposes.

There are several species of plants in the world whose oil can be utilized for human consumption. Though around 40 oilseeds are known, only around a dozen oilseed crops have become commercially important. There are ten seed crops and three tree crops. The seed crops are groundnut, rapeseed- mustard, sesame, soybean, sunflower, cottonseed, safflower, niger, castor and linseed. These are mostly annual crops. The three major tree oil crops are palm, olive and coconut.

“Hydrology is the science that treats the waters of the earth, their occurrence, circulation and distribution, their chemical and physical properties, and their reaction with their environment, including their relation with living things. The domain of hydrology embraces the full life history of water on the earth.” (Federal Council for Science and Technology, “Scientific Hydrology”, Washington, 1962)

This definition puts in a nutshell what is most often inadequately done before undertaking exploitation of water resources. In short, it is the scientific inputs that are likely to be missed while planning water resources management projects. It is the “full life history of water” part of the above definition that is of specific relevance to the theme of this book, Isotope Hydrology.

Conventional hydrology is strong on measurement and quantification of different parts of the hydrological cycle (Fig.1.1), be it precipitation, run-off, evaporation, transpiration, infiltration, groundwater dynamics etc. Through chemistry and isotopes, we try to understand the processes themselves in order to delineate the history of that part of the hydrological cycle that is being studied. For example, if we are measuring river flow, we would like to know the contribution of different components; base flow, rainfall run-off and snow melt, if any.

Let’s see what we know and what do not know in the conventional hydrological practice. We know surface waters evaporate, form into clouds and precipitation occurs under favourable weather conditions. What we often do not know is the source of moisture, oceanic or inland.

Plants are used for many purposes apart from food such as industrial products like perfumes, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, food additives, cosmetics and also for rectifying the side effects of allopathic medicines, etc. Interest was taken in the chemical constituents of plants in the very early days of modern science. Plants were used for very many purposes besides providing food, such as for treating medical ailments and for dyeing in textiles.

To the agricultural chemists, any biological organism is ultimately constituted from the elements like C, H, O, N, P, Ca, Mg, S etc. Two or more elements combine to form complex organic compounds such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, enzymes, alkaloids, glycosides, organic acids and many more complex compounds. These biomolecules can be classified into two main major metabolites. (1) Primary metabolites and (2) Secondary metabolites.

Plants are used as medicine since time immemorial. One of the area of Ethnobotany, Ethnopharmacology is considered as the scientific evaluation of traditional medicinal plants (Cotton, 1996). Cox (1994) has suggested that the ethno-directed sampling is most likely to succeed in identifying drugs used in the treatment of gastrointestinal, inflammatory and dermatological complaints. The Plant kingdom is a virtual goldmine of potential drug targets and other active molecules awaiting to be discovered. It has been estimated that only 10 - 15 per cent of the 7,50,000 existing species of higher plants have been surveyed for biologically active compounds. Natural products produced by plants, fungi, bacteria, insects and animals have been isolated as biologically active pharmacophores. Approximately one-third of the top-selling drugs in the world are natural products or their derivatives often with ethnopharmacological background. Moreover, natural products are widely recognized in the pharmaceutical industry for their broad structural diversity as well as their wide range of pharmacological activities.

New medicines have been discovered with traditional, empirical and molecular approaches (Harvey, 1999). The traditional approach makes use of material that has been found by trial and error over many years in different cultures and systems of medicine (Cotton, 1996). Examples include drugs such as morphine , quinine and ephedrine that have been in wide spread use for a long time, and more recently adopted compound such as the antimalarial artemisinin. The empirical approach builds on an understanding of a relevant physiological process and often develops a therapeutic agent from a naturally occurring lead molecule (Verpoorte, 2000). Examples include tubocurarine and other muscle relaxants, propranolol and other adrenoreceptor antagonists, cimetidine and other histamine H₂ receptor antagonists. With the development of molecular biological techniques and the advances in genomics, the majority of drug discovery is currently based on the molecular approach.

Part A

1. Pesticides

A pesticideis defined as anysubstance intended for preventing, destroying, attracting, repelling or controlling pests including unwanted species of plant, or animals duringthe production, storage,transportation, distributionand processing of the food, agricultural commodities or animal's feed or which may be administered to the animals for the control of ectoparasites. Pesticides include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, acaricides, nematicides, etc.

According to food and agricultural organization (FAO) 1986, the term pesticidehas been defined as“any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing or controlling any pest and includes anysubstance or mixture of substances intended for use as plant growth regulator (PGR), defoliant or desiccant. The term excludes fertilizers and antibiotics or other chemicals administered to animals to stimulate their growth or to modify their reproductive behaviour”. Pesticides are the largest group of poisonous substances that are widely broadcast today.

Meteorology is derived from the Greek word meteoro which means above the earth’s surface; i.e., the atmosphere. The state of the atmosphere experienced at a given time, in any location on the surface of the earth is known as weather. Thus meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere or the weather. It is a branch of physics dealing with atmosphere and it is often quoted as the ‘physics of the lower atmosphere’. The main focus of meteorology is to understand the weather processes and forecast the weather. Solar radiation, the air mass and moisture are the three key ingredients that make up weather. The exchange of heat, moisture and momentum between the earth’s surface and the atmosphere determines the characteristic of weather. The observable weather events are known as meteorological phenomena and are defined by a set of variables called weather elements. Atmospheric temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, wind and visibility, etc. are examples of such weather elements. The weather elements are not separate entities. They are closely related with each other and are highly variable in nature. Meteorology explains and analyses the changes of these weather elements.

Meteorology

The major subdivisions of meteorology are dynamic meteorology (or atmospheric dynamics) and physical meteorology (or atmospheric physics). The dynamic meteorology is concerned with the analysis and interpretation of the three-dimensional, time-varying, macro scale motions and energy transformations in the atmosphere. The science of dynamic meteorology is meant to develop models based on the hydrodynamic and thermodynamic equations. The physical meteorology is concerned with the processes that alter the physical properties and the chemical composition of air parcels as they move through the atmosphere.

Flowers, the aesthetic creations of God over the earth and symbolize beauty, purity, peace and love. Flowers have been associated with progress and prosperity from ancient times. They have long been associated with each civilization and culture in the world, and are integral part of traditional, religious ceremonies and rituals and no function, from birth till death, are complete without the use of flowers. They play a cardinal role in human behaviour and culture, bringing tranquility and peace of mind. Sensory elements of flowers like fragrance, colour, texture, softness, freshness, etc. influence human psyche in different manner.

From a symbol of love, flowers have transformed into an industry generating both income as well as employment. In the flower industry, significant changes are occurring in the competitive relationships worldwide due to increasing habit of “saying it with flowers” to celebrate major life events, expressing emotions in ways that words are deficient. Estimate of the annual consumption of commercially grown flower vary by source and range from 40-60 billion USD. Global exports over the last few years have grown by more than 10 per cent annually. Flower growing and its value addition viz., essential oils, natural dye extraction, dry flowers, floral ornaments, bouquets and artistic garlands, etc. is associated with variety of employment generation activities. Besides the traditional centres of production, new production centres are also developing.

In the beginning, human kind selected some of the useful wild flowers and brought them to gardens for decoration; mainly used for their floral and other values. The rose, which is an high value flower today, has long history, perhaps older than man. Carnation was grown in Greece during 300 B. C. Orchids were known for their attractive flowers and scent in China about 2500 years ago as mentioned by Confucius. Chrysanthemum is the another oldest flower grown in China as early as 500 B. C. At the time of Confucius, only a wild single-flowered type was known in chrysanthemum. Later on many new varieties arose and in Japan, the flower reached a high stage of development and popularity. From Japan, the chrysanthemum spread to Europe. Now some of the best known modern varieties have been developed in Europe, America, and Australia. Lotus, an aquatic ornamental flower, is native to India and is associated with religion, art and culture of Indian civilization. Eloquent references to the aesthetics of these ornaments are available from ancient literature and sculptures. Most of the garden flowers were introduced into Europe for cultivation from their wild habitats between 16^th and 19^th centuries.

Spices are non-leafy parts (e.g. bud, fruit, seed, bark, rhizome and bulb) of plants used as a flavoring or seasoning, although many can also be used as a herbal medicine. They are those plants, the products of which are made use as food adjuncts to add aroma and flavour or they are derived vegetable substances which are used for seasoning the food imparting distinctive flavour and fragrance that gives zest or piquancy for enjoyment. The term ‘spice’ originated from the Latin word ‘species’, meaning of specific kind. A closely related term, ‘herb’, is used to distinguish plant parts finding the same uses but derived from leafy or soft flowering parts. For example Black pepper, Ginger, Turmeric, Chilli, Cinnamon, Nutmeg etc. Spices are generally composed of fiber, carbohydrate, fat, sugar, protein, gum, ash, volatile (essential oils), and other nonvolatile components. All of these components impart each spice’s particular flavour, colour, nutritional, health, or preservative effects. The flavour components (volatile and nonvolatile) are protected within a matrix of carbohydrate, protein, fiber, and other cell components. When the spice is ground, cut, or crushed, this cell matrix breaks down and releases the volatile components (Raghavan, 2007).

India is endowed with abundant natural resources and diverse agroclimatic conditions, which are ideal for cultivation of a number of annual or perennial crops, in different areas. Meticulous planning, extraordinary scientific support, judicious use of inputs and focused policy thrust have led to manifold increase in production and productivity of fruit trees. The horticultural crops, particularly fruit crops, are high-value and technology- intensive crops. Appropriate technologies are gaining popularity in entire country in view of their high potential of productivity, land utilization and more income. Today, our country is producing different kinds of fruits, but quantum of total fruit production is unable to cope with the present day demand. Various constraints, biotic and abiotic in nature, pose hindrances to meet the fuel potential. The poor productivity of fruit trees is the main reason of low availability of fruits. The low productivity of fruits is compounded by several environmental, genetic and conditional factors. Besides, productivity and quality of perennial fruits continued to remain low and there exists a wide gap in between actual and potential production. Visualizing the problems of perennial commercial fruit production, the main reason comes in forefront/top is a large number of old and senile orchards turning even unproductive, due to lack of information regarding non-adoption of appropriate agro-techniques and canopy management (Hare Krishna, 2012). Though, we have made rapid strides in fruit production, the productivity is very low compared to developed countries. The present scenario of production in our country is still technology deficit and what so ever the technologies are available very poor in adoption level and the situation still go worse even in the era of climate change.

Present situation demands that new technologies are needed to push the yield frontiers further by utilizing inputs more efficiently, diversifying to more sustainable and yielding higher quantum of quality production, particularly by integration of invasive and non-invasive medium-term strategic technologies. There are still challenges ahead in the way of the research which require concerted efforts in organizing, conducting and developing the technology as well as the proper way they are transferred to growers. The new generation of technologies will have to be much more site-specific, based on high quality science and a heightened opportunity for end-users, participation/adoption in identification of targets and achieving the objectives. These must be not only aimed at increasing the growers/farmers technical knowledge and understanding of science-based timely operations. It will also need to take on challenges of integrating the socio-economic context and role of markets for profitability and economic viability.

1.1 General

Access to energy is a crucial enabling condition for achieving sustainable development. Prudent energy policies and research can play an important role in steering both industrialized and developing countries onto more sustainable energy development paths. Specifically, they can strengthen the three pillars of sustainable development: the economy, by boosting productivity, social welfare, by improving living standards and enhancing safety and security, and the environment, by reducing indoor and outdoor pollution and remediating environmental degradation.

1.2 Energy and it’s Requirement

Energy in any form is necessary to meet many of our requirements. It’s varying definitions shows the importance of energy in our life.

With increase in population, demand for basic needs has been steeply rising during the past decades in most of the developing countries of the world. The growing population needs food, clothing, shelter, fuel and fodder for them and their livestock. In India, 50 to 70% of the people are living in rural areas that neither have adequate land holdings nor alternate service opportunities to produce or procure these basic commodities.

The present day living demands quality life. The quality life can be maintained provided our surroundings remain intact or improved to provide means for better living. With increasing advancements in science and technology, we have manipulated our environment without paying adequate attention to consequences. The result has become so alarming that now all the countries of the world are trying to actualize the meaning and concept of sustainability. It is more so in case of agriculture as it forms core base of life supporting system.

The magnitude of manipulation varies from country to country depending upon level of development. It goes without saying that development and manipulation of environment are interrelated having positive and negative effects. To eradicate ill effects of manipulation, we need to understand the meaning of actualizing of sustainability.

Crop production broadly depends on the fertility of the soil where a crop is raised. There are several factors like the kind and quality of seed, climate, water supply, and plant protection measures etc. that affect the crop production. Among these factors, the fertility status of the soil largely determines the ultimate yield even if all these factors are optimum for crop production. A clear distinction should be made between soil fertility and soil productivity. Soil fertility deals with the inherent capacity of soil to provide nutrients in adequate amounts and in proper balance, for the growth of specified plants when other growth factors such as light, water and temperature, and the physical condition of the soil are favourable. Soil productivity is concerned with the capability of soil to produce a specified plant or plant parts or a sequence of plants under well defined and specified systems of management inputs and environmental conditions, viz. climatic conditions. It does not mean that a fertile soil is always productive. A fertile soil, under a bad management system, may be unproductive for a crop. In this book, plant nutrient elements and their available forms, functions and deficiency symptoms are briefly described for the better understanding of soil testing and fertilizer recommendation.

The role of plant nutrients in crop production is well established. Estimation of nutrients contents and forms in materials, which are involved in nutrient supply and dynamics is a crucial step in scientific nutrient management and crop production. There are 16 essential plant nutrients. These are carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), sulphur (S), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), boron (B), molybdenum (Mo) and chlorine (Cl). These nutrients have to be available to the crops in quantities as required for a yield target. Any limiting or deficient nutrient (s) will limit crop growth.

Agroforestry is a new name for a set of old practices. The general concept of agroforestry is to integrate trees and agriculture so as to create a more diversified landscape, while providing the producers with new environmental and economic benefits. In other words, agroforestry is a method of farming that allows trees and shrubs to grow along with crops and/or livestock, therefore blending agriculture and forestry in the same production system. In fact, man's association with forest is much older than with agriculture. First man was a food gatherer and hunter in forests. Then he realized that the seeds of the fruits he collected germinated, grew into plants and bore the fruits again and thus man started to cultivate foods. Man's desire to live in a community created settled agriculture.

The pressure on the agricultural lands has increased manifolds due to the increasing population, expansion of urban area and the industrialization process. The environment has also been disturbed. Soil is losing its productivity and the biodiversity is threatened. Farming community is trying all means to increase the land productivity. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are applied in higher proportion, causing environmental pollution hazards. Under all these circumstances agroforestry has shown that besides sustainable agriculture it can also help promote a better environment. Trees have always played an important role in mankind's survival. This relatively young science known as agroforestry was brought from the realm of indigenous knowledge into the forefront of agricultural research three and half decades ago and was promoted widely as a sustainability-enhancing practice that combines the best attributes of forestry and agriculture.

Horticultural crops include the fruit crops, vegetables, spices, plantation crops, medicinal plants, aromatic plants, commercial flower crops and ornamental plants.

Knowledge on the methods by which these reproduce is of primary importance from the standpoint of plant breeding. Besides, their annual or perennial nature also decides the methods of breeding to be adopted to get desired improvement.

Two divisions of methods of reproduction commonly recognized are:

1. Asexual i.e. vegetative parts of the plants are utilized to produce new individuals.

2. Sexual i.e. gametic fusion, the resultant zygote develops into seed which is utilized to produce new individual.

This group can be further placed in several sub divisions according to the mode of pollination. They are

a. Naturally self pollinated crop - (e.g. tomato, pepper, brinjal) wherein cross pollination occurs less than 4 % only.

b. Often cross pollinated crop- (e.g. chillies, bhendi) wherein though self pollination is more frequent, cross- pollination may occur so frequently that some methods of preventing cross pollination between varieties and strains of different genotypic constitution must be followed throughout the breeding programme.
Common breeding methods can be applied to the above two groups, however, the parents chosen for breeding under often cross pollinated crop need to be selfed for few generations to select desirable, homozygous lines.

Introduction

Progress in plant biotechnological research has opened many avenues for basic and applied research in the field of crop plants. Plant tissue culture is an important component of biotechnology that involves in the improvement of crops. Besides this, plant tissue culture provides a good system for many basic studies in plant breeding, plant physiology, genetics and cell biology. Further, manipulation of cells through the modern technique of genetic engineering may lead to an introduction of new gene(s) to a host plant and the techniques of genetic engineering rely on plant tissue culture techniques. The regeneration of plants through plant tissue culture and their subsequent acclimatization and delivery to the field possesses many problems to make tissue culture technology a viable alternative proposition. The successful development of encapsulation technique for preparation of plant propagules in a nutrient gel has initiated a new line of research on artificial seeds. Application of this technology has been well recognized in several agronomically important crops and forest trees. Artificial seeds make a promising technique for propagation of transgenic plants, non-seeds producing plants, polyploids with elite traits and plant lines with problems in seed propagation.

1.1 Weather

Firstly, what is weather? Simply, the conditions in the atmosphere above the earth is called weather. It refers to the conditions such as wind, rain and temperature, prevailing at a particular location during periods of hours or days. We often ask “what’s the weather like today”? Any individual can answer to this question as it requires only a short term experience or say exposure to the atmosphere. The TV news forecasters predict weather each day and inform about the temperature, cloudiness, humidity, or possibility of storm in the next few days. Weather is localised, say, it’s a hot and cloudy weather in one part of the country and dry and windy on the other part.

1.1.1 What are the factors that influence weather?

Before we try to understand the factors that influence weather, we must understand what the components that describe a weather conditions are? Is it the rains, or the air temperature or both? The answer to this question is not so easy, and it’s a bit complicated. There are many components that constitute weather. Weather components include rain, cloud cover, sunshine, winds, hail, snow, sleet, storms, thunderstorms, heat waves and many more. These components are sometimes referred as weather parameters or climate elements. Each of these components define weather patterns of a particular area. These components determine the status of local atmospheric conditions. Again, as a basic definition, weather is the state of the atmosphere and majority of weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the atmosphere, called as the troposphere. Does it mean that ground conditions such as the topography, water bodies and vegetation of a particular area has nothing to do with it? No, it is not so. The state of the atmosphere is subjected to various processes taking place not only in the atmosphere but also in the ocean, the sea-ice, the vegetation, etc. Weather parameters or the components of weather form a sequence of events, and the influences are far reaching and they do not remain solely in the atmosphere. For example, terrestrial radiation impacts the air temperature, air pressure and humidity. The terrestrial location also influences the cloud formation. The clouds may or may not turn into precipitation depending on the outcome (cloud or rain), which is by and large governed by troposphere. Likewise, a lack of precipitation affects not only weather conditions, but also soil moisture conditions that may result in lowering of water levels (ground water table) in soil. Wind speed and direction are governed by the atmospheric pressure and air temperature. So, all these parameters or components are interrelated and the weather conditions are the outcome of their interactions. Therefore, we can say that, the three main components of weather are temperature, precipitation and solar radiation. These components are influenced by different factors.

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

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

India is a varitable emporium of herbs. The medicinal use of plants was known to the inhabitants of India from time immemorial. As per Indian Materia Medica, a large number of vegetables, different parts and products of flora and fauna came into use for the treatment of diseases by ancient Hindus. Generally the practitioners, of various Indian system of medicines used to utilise the flora and fauna found in their environment and accept those which were found useful after trial.Ayurved comes from Atharvaveda. There are hundred fourteen hymns which describe some diseases and medicinal practices. This was the era around 2000 B.C. The books written on Ayurved were rewritten by ‘Charak’. It is known s ‘Charak Sanhinta’. They were written in eight volumes having hundred twenty chapters in Sanskrit Sushrut wrote in similar way under the name of ‘Sushrut Sanhita’ having ten thousand verses in six-volumes under one hundred eighty six chapters. He described ‘Surgery’. Kashyap wrote on ‘Paediatrics’ and Vatsayana wrote on ‘Sexology’. Hence, very rich and old heritage of Ayurved is prescribed and documented in Hindu Vedas. This was the age when art of ‘Pharmacy’ was introduced. There after came the ‘Creative age’, when the active principles of medicinal drugs were adopted. According to Charak, in the Chapter ‘Kalpasophan’, the drugs differ with respect to land, season, source, flavour, taste, potency, post digestive effects and specification and also with respect to their body, morbid tendency, constitution, age, vitality, gastric fire, proclivities, homologation and stage of diseases.Accepting those ideas in 1864 with the help of the then king of ‘Jamnagar’ the famous Baidya, Jandu started a small factory (Rasasala) in Jamnagar. Then in 1910 Jandu Pharmaceutical works was established in Bombay to manufacture Ayurvedic medicines in large scale. Thereafter many small factories were started in different parts of India. The vedic period around 1800 B.C. The classic period of the Indian medicine begins about 600 B.C., where the treatments of various types of ailments have been indicated. Due to Industrial evolution and general economic growth in Eastern countries, there was growth of a systematic Eastern Medicine. Gradually people started to develop confidence in allopathic and ayurvedic medicines were neglected.Many allopathic medicines which were established as life saving drugs, were later found to be harmful to humans. Such medicines have been proved to have side effects which cause damage to health. The modern man of scientific C1ptitude again tries to rotate the wheel of history in search of an alternative source/truth from natural resources. With this view many attempts have been made in India and abroad to unravel the truth, described in Vedas with regards to medicinal effects of flora and fauna. Although the Allopathic medicines are found to dominate over the Ayurvedic medicines, many remote areas of tribals are still continuing the traditional practice of using medicine from their natural surroundings.

Meteorology is derived from the Greek word meteoro which means above the earth’s surface; i.e., the atmosphere. The state of the atmosphere experienced at a given time, in any location on the surface of the earth is known as weather. Thus meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere or the weather. It is a branch of physics dealing with atmosphere and it is often quoted as the ‘physics of the lower atmosphere’. The main focus of meteorology is to understand the weather processes and forecast the weather. Solar radiation, the air mass and moisture are the three key ingredients that make up weather. The exchange of heat, moisture and momentum between the earth’s surface and the atmosphere determines the characteristic of weather. The observable weather events are known as meteorological phenomena and are defined by a set of variables called weather elements. Atmospheric temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, wind and visibility, etc. are examples of such weather elements. The weather elements are not separate entities. They are closely related with each other and are highly variable in nature. Meteorology explains and analyses the changes of these weather elements.

METEOROLOGY

The major subdivisions of meteorology are dynamic meteorology (or atmospheric dynamics) and physical meteorology (or atmospheric physics). The dynamic meteorology is concerned with the analysis and interpretation of the three-dimensional, time-varying, macro scale motions and energy transformations in the atmosphere. The science of dynamic meteorology is meant to develop models based on the hydrodynamic and thermodynamic equations. The physical meteorology is concerned with the processes that alter the physical properties and the chemical composition of air parcels as they move through the atmosphere.

1.1. History of Cultivation

Prehistoric people lived as hunters and gatherers. About ten thousand years since now they unveiled the mystery of germination and engaged themselves in production of plant from seed. Since then it was practiced in the open field fully exposed to sun, rainfall, ambient temperature & humidity, etc. Gradually, with the development of society, they improved the package of practice and became accustomed to produce better crop in accordance with these natural conditions.

Backdrop of modern agriculture technology: Since the late 19^th century, population all over the world increased rapidly, which demanded more food production. This situation prompted crop production as a profitable business. New scientific inventions were incorporated in farming practices to increase the production per unit area (yield). On the other hand, repeated cultivation of same or similar crops in the same land, year after years, gradually reduced the productivity of soil. Hence, need arose for increase of crop yield through further improvement in farming technology.

First-phase development: The incorporation of ‘chemicals’ into the soil as plant nutrients(fertilizers) coupled with the use of ‘high-yielding varieties’ changed the scenario of crop production in the sixties of last century. This, along with ‘mechanization’, increased crop yield many-fold and helped to bring large areas under the plough. Countries, which developed these technologies, made good amount of money/profit from this development. Gradually, the rest of the world adopted or purchased these technologies particularly to meet up the rising demand of food in their respective country.

Subsequent problem: This systemof cultivation solvedthe food scarcity problem initially but use of chemicals, cultivation of similar crop over a large area etc. destroyed the agro- ecological balance. These technological developments, coupled with adoption of labour saving technologies, gradually created problems like gradual loss of soil health, lowering of nutrient-use-efficiency and subsequent yield. This invited severe attack of pests like insect, disease, weed and related social problem like unemployment.

1.1 General

Renewable technologies are considered to be clean sources of energy. The optimal use of these resources minimize environmental impacts, produce minimum secondary wastes, and are sustainable based on current and future economic and social needs. Sustainable development requires methods and tools to measure and compare human activities’ and its environmental impacts for various products. Renewable energy sources (RES), which include biomass, hydropower, geothermal, solar, wind, and marine energies, supply 14% of the world’s total energy demand. Renewable resources refer to primary, domestic, and clean or inexhaustible energy resources. Large-scale hydropower energy supplies 20 % of the global electricity need. Wind power in coastal and other windy regions is a promising source of energy.

Renewable energy resources can make a decisive contribution to the economic, social and sustainable development of rural regions in developing countries, yet the consumption of fossil fuels is dramatically increasing along with improvements in the quality of life, the industrialization of developing nations, and the increase of the world’s population. It has long been recognized that excessive consumption of fossil fuel leads not only to a diminishing fossil fuel reserves more quickly, but also has a significant adverse impact on the environment. Such impacts result in increased health risks and the threat of global climate change. Changes to improve environmental conditions are becoming more politically acceptable globally, especially in developed countries. Society is slowly moving towards seeking more sustainable production methods, minimizing waste, reducing air pollution from vehicles, generating distributed energy, conserving of native forests, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing consumption of fossil fuel to meet out current energy demands, however, has sounded alarms over regarding potential energy crisis. This has generated a resurgence of interest in promoting renewable alternatives to meet the developing world’s growing energy needs. Excessive use of fossil fuels has caused global warming from carbon dioxide emissions, therefore, promoting renewable forms of clean energy is eagerly required. To monitor the level of these greenhouse gas emissions, an agreement that has fulfills the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol was create with overall pollution prevention targets.

1.0 Overview

Natural resources sustain life and are critical for economic development of nations. In developing countries like India where more than half the population is rural, economic development is inextricably linked with agricultural development. In these countries, the food and livelihoods security of the poor are critically associated with access to the services provided by the natural resources - land, soil, water, biodiversity and climate resources. The natural resources are finite, and with increasing population, economic growth, urbanization, and demands for food and other agricultural commodities, these are being increasingly strained. As a result, the productive capacity of the natural resource base is shrinking and deteriorating. Sustaining the productive capacity of natural resources for future generations, while meeting the food and other demands of the growing populations, is the major development challenge of the twenty first century.

In India, during the last forty years the net sown area under agriculture has remained nearly constant at 141 million ha. In the same period, the population has more than doubled (from 541 million in 1970 to 1186 million in 2010) and per capita income grew by more than 3.5 times (from Rs 14824 in 1970 to Rs 53331 in 2010). As available land resources for agriculture are finite, increases in agricultural production to meet the growing demands of the population have to come from intensification of agriculture on the same lands. As a result, the quality of soils on these lands is gradually deteriorating both at the farm and ecosystem levels. The major threats to soil quality come from loss of organic carbon, erosion, nutrient imbalance, compaction, salinization, water-logging, decline in soil bio-diversity, urbanization, and contamination with heavy metals. More than 100 million ha of the total cultivated land of 141 million ha is stated to be under some form of soil degradation.

Similarly, utilizable fresh water resources of India are finite at about 1123 billion cubic meters (BSM), of which about 690 BCM are from surface water resources and 433 BCM are from groundwater. This supply is shared among multiple uses: human and animal consumption, agriculture, urban uses, industry and for provision of environmental services. The total water demand in 2010 is estimated at 710 BCM and is projected to increase to 1180 BCM by 2050. Several parts of India are already facing severe water shortages as a result of the growing demand for water. The quality of water resources is also impacted by agricultural intensification and development, and is increasingly a matter of concern. By the year 2050, when population is expected to stabilize, the shortages will only intensify. The country as whole can be on the verge of becoming a water scarce country, with nearly all the presently estimated utilizable water resources being put to use.

Biodiversity natural resources refer to the abundance of different species and ecosystems in nature. These resources are the primary sources of present and future productive agriculture and human well being, as they provide the basic resources for use in breeding crops and livestock, soil formation and structure, soil fertility, nutrient cycling and the provision of water services. India is among the 12 mega diversity regions of the world. It is known to have more than 18,000 species of higher plants including, 160 major and minor crop species and 325 of their wild relatives. Increasing pressure from human population growth, agricultural intensification, urbanization, pollution and degradation of land, soil and water resources are having a negative impact on the plant, animal and microbial biodiversity resources of the country and their productivity.

1.1. Soil Resource Evaluation

Soil is the essence of life on the planet Earth. It has sustained humanity and human civilizations through five functions (Karlen et al. 1997) viz., i) sustaining biological activity, diversity and productivity; ii) regulating and partitioning water and solute flow; iii) filtering, buffering, degrading, immobilizing and detoxifying organic and inorganic materials, including industrial and municipal byproducts and atmospheric decomposition; iv) storing and cycling nutrients and other elements within the earth’s biosphere; and v) providing support to socioeconomic structures and protection for archaeological treasures associated with human habitation. Reeling under the pressure of increasing food, fodder, feed, fibre and fuel production, soil has been used as a medium of plant growth with considerable reliance on external supply of major nutrients, irrigation water, plant protection chemicals, etc. Although soil, a product of millions of years of weathering, has supported various forms of terrestrial life, its sustainable management holds the key for meeting the basic requirements of burgeoning population and development commitments. So intense has been the pressure of increasing food, fodder, feed, fibre and fuel production that the soil has been exploited often exceeding its carrying capacity. The soils are increasingly used for agricultural and non-agricultural uses, such as disposal of farm, urban and industrial wastes, ensuring environmental safety etc. This is possible by the judicious use of this resource.

A clear and intimate knowledge of the kinds of soils and their extent of distribution are essential prerequisites in developing rational land use plans for agriculture, forestry, irrigation, drainage, etc. soil resource inventory or mapping provides an insight about their potentials and limitations. It is therefore imperative to prepare an inventory of this resource for developing optimum land use plan and conservation plans.

Horticultural plants present a kaleidoscopic scenario from small herbs to very big deep rooted perennial trees. The associated rhizospheres present variable conditions as to supply of nutrients, water and air. The principles governing their physical, chemical and biological properties along with their relationship with plants need to be understood clearly. The plants differ in their requirements at various stages of growth; hence their tissues require constant monitoring of nutrient status for better productivity and quality. As nutrient behavior in soils is governed by soil properties and environmental conditions, measurement of such properties is often required. These include pH, salinity, organic matter, CaCO₃ and texture in drier areas the presence of Na and gypsum (CaSO₄2H₂O) is also of concern.The irrigation water is a source of dissolved salts which are also nutrients and in excess impede water and nutrient relations of soil and plant. It requires a thorough understanding of the principles underlying methods of collection, characterization of water, air and nutrient relations of soil-plant system, monitoring of plant nutrient status, quality of irrigation water and soil and water pollution for effective management of nutrients avoiding pollution.

Soil and plant analysis is a diagnostic instrument for soil fertility and basis for fertilizer recommendation; to know where and where not fertilizer is to be applied. Obtaining accurate and precise values has always being the basis of soil analysis.

India has a total geographical area of about 329 million hectares which represents about 2.4% of the world’s total landmass but it harbours a total of 47,513 plant species. Out of about 0.4 million species known in the world, it represent as much as 11.4% of world flora. About 28% of plants that occur in India are endemic to the country. The ecological or ecosystem diversity of the country is enormous, ranging from sea level to the highest mountainous ranges in the world, hot and arid conditions in the northwest to cold arid conditions in the trans-Himalayan region, tropical wet evergreen forests in Northeast India and the Western Ghats and mangroves of Sundarbans.

A series of efforts have been made to initiate the work on post-harvest grain technology in India. H.M. Lefroy, the 1^st Imperial Entomologist appointed by the British Government in India in 1905 had given a tentative list of storage insects in 1906. This list of storage insects was further supplemented by T.B. Fletcher in 1914. The problems of grain storage were discussed at Pusa, Bihar at the Entomological meetings held during the years 1917, 1919 and 1923.

The Department of Food was established in 1942 by the Government of India. The executive wing of the Food Department was responsible for the purchase, movement, transport and distribution of food grains. Central Food Technology Research Institute (CFTRI) at Mysore was established in 1950 with a mandate to train personnel and evolve technology relating to food processing and preservation. The Central Warehousing Corporation was set up on 2^nd March, 1957 under Agricultural Produce (Warehousing and Development) Act 1956. On 1^st January, 1965 Food Corporation of India was established.

In 1958, the Department of Food started a centre at Hapur known as Grain Storage Research and Training Centre with the main objective to train the personnel of State Government engaged in food procurement, storage and distribution. This centre was upgraded during 1968-1973 with the technical and financial assistance of UNDP and this centre was redesignated as Indian Grain Storage Institute (IGSI). Two field stations at Ludhiana and Bapatla (later shifted to Hyderabad in March 1979) were established in 1968-69. Subsequently, three stations of IGSI at Jabalpur (October, 1980), Udaipur (February, 1981) and Jorhat (May, 1981) were also established. The overall objective was to minimize losses of food grains by development of modernized grain storage practices for the farmers, traders, cooperatives and large storage of food grains in the country and also to evolve the methodology to be adopted by the Save Grain Compaign which has its headquarters in the Department of Food.

Agricultural crops are being affected by a wide range of organisms such as insects, mites, fungi, bacteria etc. Another important and unseen enemy is known as plant parasitic nematodes. The study on nematodes is known as Nematology.

Nematology is an important branch of biological science, which deals with a complex, diverse group of round worms known as Nematodes that occur worldwide in essentially all environments. Nematodes are also known as eelworms in Europe, nemas in the United States and round worms by zoologists. Many species are important parasites of plants and animals, whereas others are beneficial to agriculture and the environment. Nematodes that are parasites of man and animals are called helminths and the study is known as Helminthology. The name nematode was derived from Greek words nema (thread) and oides (resembling). This book focuses primarily on plant parasitic nematodes, their morphology, anatomy, nematological techniques, taxonomy, classification based on their feeding habits, symptom of damage to crops, interaction with other microorganisms, biology of important nematodes viz., Meloidogyne, Heterodera, Rotylenchulus, Tylenchulus and Radopholus and nematode pests of important crops and their management.

Annual crop losses due to these obligate parasites have been estimated to be about $78 billion worldwide and $8 billion for U.S. growers. The estimated annual crop loss in Tamil Nadu is around Rs. 200 crores.

The soil in a hectare of agroecosystem typically contains billions of plant parasitic as well as beneficial nematodes. The damage to plants caused by nematodes is often overlooked because the associated symptoms, including slow growth, stunting and yellowing can also be attributed to nutritional and water related disorders.

Among the vast resources of plants, aromatic and medicinal plants are highly beneficial to mankind for supplying medicines and essence. Olfactory gland bearing aromatic plants are few and many of them are located mainly in tropics and sub-tropics. Ecological conditions in the tropics are so conducive for such plants that out of 75,000 edible plants, majority are found in this region. (Chai et al., 1979, Jong, 1979)

Among the aromatic plants, kewda (Pandanus fascicularis Lam.), a common species of screwpine, is commercially important for its highly aromatic male spadices used in the production of highly prized kewda perfumes. Kewda attar, water and oil (rooh kewda) are the important perfumery products. Kewda attar blends well with most of the fancy perfumes, in preparation of lotions, cosmetics, soaps, hair oils, agarbatis (incense sticks), scenting clothes and flavouring betel masala, chewing tobacco and bouquets. Kewda water is used for flavouring various foods, confectionaries, sweets, syrups and soft drinks. The oil and attar are considered as stimulant, antispasmodic and administered for headache and rheumatism (Chopra et al., 1956). The kewda is mentioned frequently in Tamil classics as having flowers which neutralize the foul fish odour pervading the sea coast with their strong perfume. Jehangir in his memoirs, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, described kewda flower for its strong and penetrating scent, which even obscures that of musk (Gandhi, 1989).

Odisha state lying between 17^o 52′ N to 22^o 45′ N latitude and 81^o 50′ E to 87^o 50′ E longitude has a prosperous agriculture. Nearly 75 % of its working population are either cultivators or agricultural labourers and remaining 25 % are engaged in the categories of household industry and other works (Anonymous, 1988). The wastelands occupy 13.79 % of the total area of Odisha and are mostly scattered throughout the state. The areas of wastelands in the state mainly accounted for the hilly slopes, degraded forests, over grazed revenue wastelands, oil eroded valleys, drought stricken pastures, saline and marshy lands, etc. The changes in land use leading to creation of wastelands include overgrazing forest degradation and development of marginal cropland due to flood, drought and soil erosion etc. (Fig. 1).

Water is an important element for life on the earth. It is an essential recurrent natural resource for environmental sustenance, agricultural productivity, industrial growth, power production, enrichment and renewal of land and air. For easy assess to the water, the first human settlements occurred along the banks of rivers and ensuing civilizations flourished in river valleys. For example, the Indian civilization of Mohanjodaro and Harappa developed in the Indus valley, the Egyptian civilization in the Nile valley, the Chinese civilization in the Yangtze valley, the Babylonian civilization between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, Aztec, Maya and Incas civilization in the basin of Amazon river.

The industrial revolution, which, began in the early 18th century in some European and Asian countries, set in the motion for new forces in the society and greatly changed the pattern of social life on the earth. Rapid industrialization and urbanization subsequently brought many changes in the environment and ecosystems in the world. India also witnessed a phenomenon of industrial development in the post independent era. The last four to five decades have witnessed population explosion and increase in the per capita consumption of food, consumer goods and utilization of natural resources. These have lead to the proportionate increase in the domestic and industrial effluent generation in India. The water pollution is continuously increasing at an alarming rate in Europe and Asia. By the end of this century. India's Population is projected to double itself from its present level. Similarly the per capita consumption of food has been estimated to increase by 40% resulting in 50 % production of industrial and domestic effluents in near future.

Apart from the quantity, there will be qualitative changes in the effluent generation which are likely to contain greater amount of oil, toxic chemicals, detergents and dyes. A large number of these compounds are non-biodegradable and are cumulative, thus rendering toxic product. Certain group of animals and plants are selective in their functions and can executive certain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. These biomes are helping more effectively on recycling of industrial effluent as well as domestic effluent management system.

In nature, there exists a balance between abiotic and biotic communities like animals and plants population, raw materials and total biomass present at any time. This balance ensures natural recycling and optimum production in naturally balanced ecosystems. The plant growth is slow, but it ensures optimum utilization of waste products and a healthy environment. The increased population and its human desire to possess all comforts and pleasures had lead to over exploitation of natural resources. The high demand of natural resources lead to the beginning of waste accumulation due to the creation of man made imbalances in the environment. The environment is to provide up to date information about important concepts in surrounding. Information is presented from an analytical, observational and multidisciplinary perspective from which we must view environmental issues in order to the study successfully.

India is the second most populous country in the world with a population of 1.3 billion and is expected to reach 2 billion by 2050. Though the country transformed itself from a food deficit nation to surplus donor in agricultural commodities in a short span of 70 years, it also encountered several stumbling block along the way. In post independence era, the governments of the day adopted a multi-pronged strategy of population control, development of irrigational infrastructure, high yielding varieties of crops and agricultural development schemes that resulted in green revolution, white revolution, rainbow revolution. etc., which saddled the country in a comfortable position as far as food production is concerned. In the process, what went unnoticed was the hidden hunger resulting in malnourished population with different kinds of ailments. ‘Hidden hunger’ manifested due to an imbalanced diet, lacking in micronutrients–vitamins, minerals and other essential diet components. Serious among them, which plague the country even today are iron deficiency causing anaemia, Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) causinig blindness in children and increased risk of other illnesses and death. Anaemia and calcium deficiency among women and stuntend growth in children are the other diet related diseases. About 10% of population are also suffering due to over feeding or mal-noursihment. Economic burden and loss of human productivity due to lifestyle diseases is taking a toll in India during the last couple of decades.

At present, the world can very broadly be divided into two main categories. (i) Industrialized countries where food is plentiful and the diet is varied, and the most prevalent diet-related disorders are cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, obesity, diabetes and osteoporosis. (ii) Developing countries, where food is scarce and malnutrition is a major problem or where traditional foods and cultural practices are being replaced by western-style diets resulting in lifestyle diseases/disorder. India falls in the second category. Diversified food habit is one of the direct impacts of increasing disposable income in India. Global epidemiological studies with reference to food habits have shown that increase in lifestyle diseases are directly related to reduced consumption of fruits and vegetables and increased consumption of animal food (meat and animal fat).

Vegetables are important accompaniments for the main course of meal, which is by and large a carbohydrate-based food (wheat, rice or millets). It not only makes the meal more palatable, but also wholesome with its diverse color, smell and taste. More importantly it facilitates the easy movement of food through the bowel, better absorption by the body and till the elimination. Besides hunger satiation, it helps to maintain the health by providing the essential micronutrients and prevent lifestyle disorders.

As a nutritious food, it provides the vitamins, minerals and phyto-chemicals which are required in small quantities for physiological processes and metabolic activities. They are cheap sources of beta-carotene, vitamin-B complex, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, etc. They are rich in minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, etc., and dietary fibres. It has now been proved that minerals are better absorbed by the body in presence of several other factors of plant matrix, than as mineral supplements. It also provides small amounts of carbohydrates and proteins. Vegetables are important as protective foods as their consumption prevents many diseases. They are important sources of antioxidants and phytochemicals. Each vegetable has been found to have certain specific phyto-chemical which besides being a free radical scavenger, is also inhibitor of certain conditions responsible for disease development.

Among the vegetables, tubers like cassava, potato and sweet potato being highly rich in carbohydrates, served as staples for several countries for very long time, in the history. For the same reason, there are a variety of food products based on these tubers. Others like carrot, radish, beetroot, and turnip in root vegetables, onion and garlic among bulbous crops; tomato, brinjal (egg plant), okra and capsicum among fruit vegetables serve as sources of phytochemicals (carotenoids, anthcyanins, lycopene, betalain, capsicum, bassiniloids, etc.). Beans, peas, cowpea, and other leguminous vegetables are important sources of proteins and leafy vegetables (greens) contribute to the much-needed minerals, vitamins and fibre (roughages) in the diet. Allicin and diallyl disulphide found in onion and garlic control blood cholesterol besides being anti-bacterial. The diphenylamine in onion is effective against diabetes. The ‘Charantin’ found in bitter gourd have hypoglycaemic activity. Diosgenin in yams are used for manufacture of contraceptive drugs. Cole crops like cabbage, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts and sprouting broccoli have anti-carcinogenic properties mainly due to hydrolysed glucosinolate derived isothiocynates and indoles. Similarly, health benefits and curative properties of many indigenous and exotic vegetables have been mentioned in several classical texts of India and China.

1.1. Definition

A tractor is a specific vehicle designed to deliver a high tractive torque at slow speeds, for the purposes of haulage or for pulling an agricultural implement or equipment or machinery. This vehicle is also used as a source of power for stand-alone agricultural machineries. The word tractor is taken from Latin being the agent noun of trahere “to pull”.

1.2. History of evolution

The first engine-powered farm tractors used steam and were introduced in 1868. These engines resembled small road locomotives. They were used for general road haulage and in particular for timber trade. The most popular steam tractor was the Garrett 4CD.

In 1887, gasoline-fuelled engines were tried as an alternative to steam engines. Later, Henry Ford produced his first experimental gasoline powered tractor in 1907, under the direction of his chief engineer Joseph Galamb. It was referred to as an “automobile plow”. While unpopular at first, these gasoline powered machines began to catch on. In the 1910, the size of the tractor was smaller than the earlier introductions and also became more affordable. In 1917, Henry Ford introduced the first mass-produced tractor. These were built in the U.S.A., Ireland, England and Russia. The unique feature of these tractor consisted of the strength of the engine holding the entire machine together. By 1920, tractors with a gasoline powered internal combustions engine had become a norm.

1.3. History in India

The level of mechanization in Agriculture was very low at the time of independence in 1947. But, the initial few five-year plans implemented by the Government of India gave an impetus to the improvement in the production and productivity of major crops including mechanization via joint ventures and tie-ups between local industrialists and international tractor manufacturers. It was three decades after independence that the domestic production of 4-wheel tractors grew slowly. In 1990, the tractor production was nearly 2,70,000 units per year and by the 2013, the volume approached to about 6,96,000 units per year. India has presently overtaken the United States as the world’s largest producer of four-wheel tractors with over 16 national and 4 multinational corporations engaged in its production. But still the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that from out of the total agricultural area, less than 50% is under-mechanized land preparation. This indicates that potential for large tractorization still exists. Credit facilities for farmers have been improving steadily over the years. This is one of the prime drivers of the sale of tractor in India.

1. Introduction

Agricultural mechanization refers to usage of any improved tool, implement and machine by the farm workers to improve the efficiency of any operation to increase productivity. It also helps to reduce drudgery or stress which adversely affects human mental faculties leading to errors, imprecision and hazards and eventually loss of efficiency if done manually. In developed countries, however, mechanization is synonymous to automation. There is scope to mechanize every operation of crop production, post harvest and agro-processing.

Plant absorbs large number of elements from the soil and other sources during their growth and development. But all these elements are not essential for plant growth. Seventeen mineral elements are known to be essential for the growth and development of all plants. A list of essential nutrients, their source and forms by which they are absorbed by plants are presented in Table 1.1.

Except carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O), all the other nutrients are obtained by plants largely from soils, fertilizers or manures. It has been seen that the number of nutrients obtained from soil is about 5 times the number of nutrients obtained from air and water. However, most of the plant tissue, in general, from 74 to 99.5% is made up of C, H and O i.e. nutrients obtained from air and water and only 0.5 to 26% of the plant tissue is synthesized from soil constituents. In ordinary (normal) conditions of agriculture, except drought, C, O and H are not limited for plant growth. It is the remaining 14 elements from soil that are usually limiting plant development and hence considerable emphasis is placed on the improvement of soil in respect of greater availability of these 14 nutrients. It may be borne in mind that all nutrients are essential for all crops even though their requirements differ from crop to crop and even among varieties of a given crop. Secondly, all nutrients are equally essential regardless of amounts required. For example, to produce one tonne of grain, wheat may absorb 25, 9, 33, 3.7, 5.3 and 4.7 kg of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulphur (S), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), respectively and 56, 624, 70, 24, 48 and 2 g of zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), boron (B) and molybdenum (Mo), respectively. If the crop (any crop) does not get the smallest amounts of micronutrients needed, it cannot make the best use of abundant NPK.

According to Liebig’s Law of minimum which he enunciated in 1855, the growth of a plant is limited by that nutrient which is in shortest supply. This law in fact lays the ground rules for balanced crop nutrition.

1.1 General

Food is basic necessity for the survival of human beings. It is derived from agriculture which traps and transfers solar energy in chemical energy in the form of biomass and end products are processed and utilized for food, feed, fibre, fertilizer, and fuel. Indian’s economic security continues to be foreseen upon agricultural sector. Agriculture supports 52 per cent of population, as against about 75 per cent at the time of dependence. Despite the focus on industrialization, agriculture remains a dominant sector of the Indian economy both in terms of contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as a source of employment to millions across the country. India occupies a leading position in global trade of agricultural products. However, its total agricultural export basket accounts for a little over 2.15 per cent of the world agricultural trade. The major export destinations are USA, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nepal and Bangladesh. Among agricultural commodities, basmati rice, spices, oil meals, sugar, cotton and castor oil have been leading export commodities.

Agriculture is an essential ingredient in overall development of India economic. The history of Indian agriculture in dates back to Indus Valley Civilization and even before that in some places of Southern India. India ranks second worldwide in farm outputs.

On the eve of Independence, 70 per cent of India’s nation income was from agricultural sector. Before 1947, over 85 per cent of country’s population lives in villages where livelihood completely depended on agriculture, which contributed over 95per cent of country’s income. Agricultural sector was most important sector in Indian economy facing massive stagnation and continuous determination. In the present context, around 60 – 70 per cent of Indian population directly or indirectly depends upon the agricultural sector and currently it contributes to 16 per cent of the Indian gross domestic product.

Introduction

India with exceeding population of 1027.01 million with 741 million living in rural areas is on the path of development. With 40% of population below poverty line, our country faces the problem of quality life. The lack of access to and control over resources is said to be the cause of poverty. The central aim of enhancing economic productivity of India is to improve the overall welfare of those residing under poverty line. To combat poverty, ‘self help promotion’ is of recent paradigm that has attracted attention of all sections of population. Now it is a matter of concern for all those social consciousness driven people who wants to vanish poverty through this concept known as Self Help Group.

As per the report of ILO, by the year 2050 about 33% of people in the developed countries and 19% in developing countries will be sixty years or older and most of them incidentally will be women. 2001 census reveals that unorganized labour account for more than 40% of the total work force and total employment in both sectors in our country is 397 crores. Out of the unorganized sector workers, 237 crores are employed in agriculture.

Women form half of our population. They have significant roles in overall development. Rural development concept in our country attaches more importance to women development. Through various projects and research, it has been recognized that group approach is only means of reaching disadvantaged people in our society within which women are included. Many countries in Asia have proved effectiveness of group approach in achieving development.

With increasing emphasis on development, quality life, livelihood, etc. group concept has to be worked out in development prospective. The advantages of group concept over individual approach are i) Democratizations ii) Visualization of common problem iii) Interaction to become homogeneous iv) Power to present problem before authorities v) Farming base for grass root level planning vi) Realization of one’s potentiality compared to others vii) Protection from risk or sharing of risk viii) Enabling to form acceptable rule and regulation and ix) feeling of empowerment.

Shrimp culture, a subset of aquaculture is slowly emerging as one of the major and fastest-growing food production sectors in the world. Shrimp that were once caught from the wild are now being cultured using modern aquaculture methods. Thanks to international institutions such as the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) etc., who have the encouraged the production of shrimp that fetch huge returns on investment within a short period. Third world countries are also impressed by the potential of this sector to provide food security and to earn huge foreign exchange to redress their debt burdens.

Commercial shrimp farming developed in India on account of the government’s policy to promote shrimp culture because of its potential to utilise the vast saline tracts along the coastline, provide employment opportunities to coastal rural population and to earn valuable foreign exchange. After the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991, development of shrimp culture gained greater momentum. Individual entrepreneurs were also encouraged to take up shrimp farming with both financial and technical support.

The market for shrimp is growing by leaps and bounds as they provide a cheap source of protein at only a little above half the cost of producing animal protein. The unique attraction of shrimp being a ‘high-value commodity’ has led to revolutionise its production, currently known as the ‘Blue Revolution’. The revolution has expanded its wings to the coastal areas of Odisha and is becoming one of the most sought out livelihood. The exponential increase in income leading to a dramatic change in the standard of living has lured the people to opt for shrimp culture. In almost all the coastal districts of the state (Odisha), shrimp culture is prominent now.

The human body consists of trillions of cells and to be healthy it needs variety of foods and nutrients. The food around the globe includes a variety of spices which have many health benefits. It has been found that spices and vegetables in the diet are very important for living healthy. The traditional foods, nuts, seeds, wild fruits and vegetables which are used in the diet are grown in specific areas. Traditional food system plays a significant role towards maintaining the well-being and the health of people in any specific region.