eChapters

Introduction

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an important fruit crop of hot arid region of the India. It is grown commercially in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. India is one of the largest producers of pomegranate in the world. The pomegranate area in arid region is increasing at faster rate due to its incessant demand, drought hardy nature, low cost management and wider adaptability to arid soils. In Rajasthan it is mainly grown in Jaipur, Ajmer, Alwar, Tonk, Sriganganagar, Tonk, Pali, Kota, Jalore, Banswara, Sawai Madhopur, Bhilwara, Jhunjhunu and Sirohi districts in 12,000 ha area (Rathi, 2017). The pomegranate plants flower and provide fruits throughout the year. In Rajasthan pomegranate is harvested in all three seasons during March-April, Aug.-Sep. and Nov.-Dec. However, it needs to be forced into rest period for prolific harvest at a given time. The basic objectives of flower regulation in pomegranate is to manipulate the natural flowering and fruiting in such a way that it produce high yield of quality fruits in desired season with sustainable use of farm resources. Transition of flower from vegetative phase to reproductive phase is critical phase in pomegranate flowering, which determine production efficiency. The differentiations of vegetative tissue to reproductive tissue decide flowering intensity and production efficiency. Withholding of irrigation (moisture stress), plant growth substances, nutrient content along with canopy management are major horticultural interventions for flower regulation which influence flowering. It is based on principles that pomegranate bears three kinds of flowers namely hermaphrodite, intermediate and male flowers (Fig.1) on both new and old growth in three flushes i.e. ambe bahar (Feb.-March), mrig bahar (June-July) and hasta bahar (Sep.-Oct.).

Introduction

India is the second largest producer of fruits crops in the world but productivity of arid fruit crops especially in western Rajasthan is miserably low.The productivity as well as the quality of fruit crops is affected to a greater extent due to various physiological disorders. The extremes of environmental variables like changing environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, unbalanced soil nutrients, inadequate or excess of certain soil minerals, extremes of soil pH, poor drainage and deficiency of micronutrients as well as macronutrient causes many more disorders (Kumar and Kumar, 2015). At present, the climatic scenario of arid region is also changing and the problems like frost, temperature fluctuation, moisture fluctuation, high evaporation and low precipitation as well as nutrient imbalances are becoming a challenge for cultivation of many arid fruit crops. Reasons of low productivity in hot arid ecosystem of western Rajasthan are primarily physiological or stress related disorders such as styler-end browning in ber, fruit cracking in bael and pomegranate, internal necrosis in aonla and black and white nose in date palm. The world wide approximately 70% of crop yield reduction is the direct effect by abiotic factors (Acquaah 2007). In this chapter, we discussed the problems associated with ber, pomegranate, aonla, date palm & bael especially physiological disorders which will certainly help the farmers in timely overcoming of these maladies for getting satisfactory remunerative prices from arid fruit crops under hot ecosystem of western Rajasthan.

Introduction

India is a second largest producer of fruits after China contributing about 11 per cent to the global production. India leads the world in productivity of papaya, grapes and banana but average productivity of country is much below as compared to other leading countries, which is merely 11.6 t/ha. Abiotic stress is the primary cause of crop loss worldwide, reducing average yields for most major crop plants by more than 50%. Drought and salinity are becoming particularly widespread in many regions, and may cause serious salinization of more than 50% of all arable lands by the year 2050 (Wang, 2003). This leads to a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular changes that adversely affect plant growth and productivity. There are various factors, which contributes to low productivity like limited availability of quality planting materials, old and senile orchards, poor orchard management practices, insect pest and diseases, poor post-harvest management practices etc. There is a much scope in expansion of horticultural crops in arid region and it has vast potential for changing scenario of horticulture of the country. Land resource, surplus family labors, increasing canal irrigated area, developing infrastructural facilities, plenty of solar and wind energy, etc. are the strength in the region for research and development of arid horticulture. Further, low incidence of diseases/insects in the region provides good scope for production of quality seed and planting material of horticultural crops (Sharma et al., 2013).

Introduction

India is emerging as a major stake holder in the global horticulture scenario. More emphasis is given to underutilized fruits due to their high nutritive and medicinal value in addition to being resistant/tolerant to many biotic / abiotic stresses. Jamun (Syzygium cuminii Skeels), fruits are used as an effective medicine against diabetes, heart and liver trouble (Singh and Singh, 2012). The powder of seeds has high value being useful in the treatment of diabetes. Therefore, the jamun fruits are having high value in terms of therapeutic and nutrition. Fruits and seeds of tamarind have tremendous potential for industrial use. Mahua (Bassia latifolia) is a boon for tribal farmers of Gujarat. The corolla commonly called as mahua flowers is a rich source of sugar containing appreciable amount of vitamins and minerals. Flowers (fresh and dried) and spent flowers (after fermentation) are also used as feed for livestock. Fruits are eaten as raw or cooked. Seeds are good source of oil. The oil obtained from Mahua kernel is used for edible purpose and permitted for preparation of vegetable oil. Mahua oil is used in manufacture of soap, lubricating grease, fatty alcohols and candles. Chironji (Buchanania lanzan Spreng) is excellent tree of agro forestry and social forestry. The flesh of ripe fruit is very palatable and the oily kernels are good source of protein (28-30%) and are used in preparation of sweets. Kernel oil can be used to substitute olive and almond oil. Khirni (Manilkara hexandra) thrives well on rocky, gravelly, saline and sodic soils and is good source of sugars and antioxidants. It is being used commercially as rootstock for sapota. Tamarind has tremendous potential under semi arid conditions (Singh and Singh, 2013). The medicinal properties of the bael (Aegle marmelos Correa) fruit are due to high marmelosin content. The pulp of mature bael fruit is very effective to cure dysentery and diarrhoea Varieties on jamun (Goma Priyanka and Thar Kranti), bael (Goma Yashi, Thar Divya and Thar Neelkanth), tamarind (Goma Prateek) and chironji (Thar Priya) have been developed. These varieties are precocious bearer with good yield and quality attributes and suitable for high density planting. These minor fruits have potential in secondary agriculture through value addition. Minor fruits have been conserved at the station and it has great potential under semi-arid regions of western India.

Introduction

The Indian arid zone covers nearly 31.8 million ha of the country’s geographical area. It mainly spreads over parts of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan states of India. Six of the eleven districts in Western Rajasthan i.e. Barmer, Bikaner, Churu, ShriGanganagar, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur lie wholly in the arid zone. High temperature, low precipitation and high velocity winds are some of the main culprits of Arid zone which limit the scope for higher crop productivity in these areas. Under this situation, arid horticulture based farming practices has ample scope to raise the productivity and living standard of peoples of the hot arid and semi-arid regions. Arid horticulture based farming practices greatly favour the development of high quality produce in many fruit and vegetable crops. Horticulture based farming practices are now considered to be the most ideal strategy to provide food,nutrition and income security to the people especially in arid and semi-arid region of the country (Chundawat 1993; Chadha 2002).

Today India is the world largest producer of many fruits and vegetables. Wastes and by-products generated from fruits and vegetables are organic in nature and contribute a major share in soil and water pollution. Also, accumulated fruit and vegetable wastes (FVWs) cause greenhouse gas emission which is a matter of serious environmental concern. Proper disposal and handling of these wastes can help reduce pollution risks, at the same time be a source of several useful and commercially valuable by-products. Organized processing of wastes can help farmers achieve higher incomes.

A new buzz-word is rapidly spreading through the manufacturing and analytical environment. Discussions on the application of Non Invasive Research namely the Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy are often found on the agenda of production, project, and technical and even board meetings. Engineers and chemists are confronted more frequently with the challenge to decide whether a NIR instrument will be the solution to their production quality control and other analytical problems. Are there really amazing machines that can determine protein, fat, moisture, fibre, starch, nicotine, alcohol, sugar, amino acids and whatever analyses you require on any product from foodstuff to fertilizer and animal feeds in less than a minute and so simple to operate that even the unskilled labourer can handle it? In this article we will endeavor to answer the questions that often crop up in the evaluation of NIR as an analytical technique towards Natural Products.

ABSTRACT

Diabetes is a chronic endocrinologic disorder characterized by high blood levels of glucose due to insufficient secretion of insulin by the pancreas or improper utilization of insulin by target cells. More than 120 million people from all over the globe are estimated to suffer from this malady. Many plants and their constituents have become chief ingredients of a number of pharmaceutical preparations used against diabetes. An intensive survey undertaken for over 4 years in the tribal belts of Orissa to identify the plants used in folk medicine and the methodologies employed by the herbal healers have revealed that 35 species are being employed to cure diabetes. Out of 313 patients (185 males and 128 females) interviewed, 211 (67.5%) use Gymnema sylvestre, Momordica charantia, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Tinospora cordifolia, Pterocarpus marsupium, Andrographis paniculata and Rauwolfia serpentina in one form or the other regularly. Multi-plant preparations gave 80% results whereas single plant administration gave less than 50% results. Polyherbal treatment is advocated as multi-pronged attack to achieve desired results.

ABSTRACT

A low molecular weight antifungal protein has been purified from the leaves of a medicinal herb, Mentha viridis, L. using a combination of cold acetone precipitation, carboxymethyl cellulose column, Q-sepharose column chromatography, and preparatory native PAGE techniques. The purified protein migrated as a single band on SDS-PAGE, with a molecular weight of ca 15.5 kDa. The purified leaf protein of M. viridis inhibited mycelial growth of phytopathogens such as Fusarium solani, Fusarium sp., and Pythium aphanidermatum. The purified protein from the leaves of M. viridis inhibited the growth of human pathogens such as Candida albicans and C. tropicalis (75 mg/mL). This inhibition is concentration dependent. The purified antifungal protein of leaves of M. viridis did not show protease, chitinase, and b-1, 3 glucanase activity.

1. Introduction

The heritage of medicinal plants used in India has an ancient history. The epic of Ramayana witnessed Sanjivani Booti as life saving drug. Two important compendia on medicinal plants i.e., Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita were published between 1000 BC and 600 BC. In these Ayurvedic literatures, uses of more than 1,200 plant drugs along with their action and specific therapeutic applications are mentioned. Charaka made 50 vargas (groups) of drugs while Sushruta made 38 ganas (groups) of drugs (Singh and Gautam, 1997). India, with its diverse agro-climate, harbors large plant-diversity. Eastern Himalayas comprising Darjeeling, Sikkim and adjacent Nepal as well as Bhutan hills are very rich in florastic diversity, several of which are endangered but economically useful medicinal plants with high demand in national as well as in international market (Manandhar, 1999). A great many of these wild Himalayan medicinal plants have found their way into modern bio-pharmaceuticals and bio-cosmetics in recent times (Rai et. al., 2000). One such species is Nepalese Kutki (Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora, Pennell) belongs to family Scrophulariaceae.

P. scrophulariiflora is better known by the name Nepali Kutki. The rhizome of this plant has been found to contain the chemicals like Kutkin, D-mannitol and vanillic acid (Yang, 1996). It is said to have effects on fever, malnutrition due to digestive disturbance, jaundice, diarrhoea and dysentery (Zhang et al., 1994). In India it is valued for their demonstrated value as an antibiotic. They are also used as an adulterant of, or as substitute for, Gentiana kurrooa. Properties that these two species share include the ability to stimulate appetite and gastric secretions (Jain, 1968). In Nepal rhizome of this species is also used as a cathartic, in case of dyspepsia, as a purgative as well as in the treatment of scorpion bites (Anon., 1993). Some of the important active photochemicals are listed in Table 1.

ABSTRACT

Natural sources have been exploited since the dawn of civilization for the sustenance of mankind. With the passage of time numerous medicines were discovered to treat various maladies utilizing the vast resources of land and the sea, along with the knowledge base support of folklores and folk medicines of different regions of the world, Marine natural products chemistry has gained prominence during the last four and half decades with a view to harnessing the vast potential of the sea particularly in search of drugs by virtue of modern science and technology. Products of marine algae or seaweeds have been used as medicine as well as food and feed and latterly as nutraceuticals. Advanced societies of the world consume seaweed extracts (in the form of alginates, agars and carrageenans) every day in their foods or pharmaceuticals that is complemented by the excellent safety records of commonly ingested species. In this account, I will be focusing on the health care applications of seaweeds.

Health care has two aspects e.g. healing or amelioration of disease conditions with medicines and the other being sustenance of the health system. Seaweeds have been reported to be the source of many bioactive and nutritionally important compounds e.g. antibacterial, antiviral, immunomodulator, cytotoxic, anticancer, neurotoxic, blood anticoagulant, antifertility, vitamins, proteins and minerals. Status of these activities in India and elsewhere in the world has been discussed.

Various components of farming systems are as under

1. Cropping system

A system is set of elements which depend on each other and interacting among themselves. Farming system consists of several enterprises like cropping system, dairying, piggery, poultry, fishery, bee keeping, etc. These enterprises are interrelated. The end products and wastes of one enterprise are used as inputs in other. The wastes of cow, dung used as FYM in crop production and straw is used as feeding material for cow. Bullock is used for field preparation.

Cropping system is an important component of a farming system. It represents cropping pattern used on a farm and their interaction with farm resources, other farm enterprises and available technology which determine their makeup.

Cropping pattern: means the proportion of area under various crops at a point of time in a unit area. It indicates the yearly sequence and spatial arrangement of crops and fallow in an area. It indicates the early sequence and spatial arrangement of crops and fallow in an area. Crop sequence and crop rotation are generally used synonymously. Crop rotation refers to recurrent succession of crops on the same piece of land either in a year or over a longer period of time. Component crops are so chosen so that soil health in not impaired.

Agriculture has under gone drastic changes from the mid 1960s through the introduction and application of various newly developed techniques in agro science such as crop and water management practices, Emphasis has been given to be integrated system approach in crop production.

It is essential to plan and implement rational policies to minimize the regional imbalances of agricultural production. The present growth in crop production has to be sustained considering ecological and economic factors. The existing as well as emerging frontiers must be examined to enhance agricultural growth on a sustainable basis. The understanding of agroclimatic relationship through crop weather conditions, soil fertility, water use efficiency, rain water management and appropriate cropping patterns based on regional resources potential must be emphasized more over agro forestry, integrated crop management, biotechnology and use of renewable energy must be emphasized for use in environmentally harmonious agriculture. Training of farmers has to be adapted to be changing technological environment.

The forest affects soil and water in many ways. Leaves and branches decreases wind strength, alter the absorption of solar radiation, and increase the surface area for evaporation. The root growth and the decomposition of plant organic matter by soil fauna and microbes, modify soil texture and structure, affecting water penetration and drainage. Changes in vegetation cover can therefore have a significance influence on the hydrological cycle and climate system.

The study area consists of the state of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. On the basis of physiographic and soil resources, this zone is clearly divisible into two sub zones; the plains of Punjab and Haryana and the highlands. Based on altitude soil type, geology, and rainfall each of these two sub zones may be further subdivided. Major sources of water in the region, in addition to rainfall and river, are lakes and ice crops of glaciers and undergrounds springs. Under ground water is largely concentrated in the plains of Punjab and Haryana. The region covers a varied land use, from highly intensive monocultures through rotational and intercropping to grazed rangeland and near natural forests.

Orissa is a land of tribes and one of India’s most important forests state providing home to a very large forest dependant tribal population. Represented by 22.5% of the total population of the states of tribes of orissa, which are scheduled as 62 different ethnic groups (Biswal et al., 1997). The orissan ethnographic scenario includes as many as 62 scheduled Tribes are enlisted in the presidential orders numbering 5,915,067 persons in 1981 census constituting 22.43% of the total population of the state (26,370 and 21). Distribution of tribal population in the district during 1981 census was uneven. Their number was more in inland districts like koraput, Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Phulbani and Kalahandi than in the coastal plain consisting of Balasore, Cuttack, Puri and Ganjam (Mohanty and Chowdhury, 1990). Different tribes exists in orissa are namely divided into three groups on ethnolinguistic basic (i) Austro-Asiatic (ii) Dravidian and (iii) Indo-Aryan (Behura, 1993). The important communities are Saora, Bathudi, Bhumija, Bhuiyan, Saunti, Gond, Kharia, Kandha, Kisan, Kolha, Munda, Oraon, Paraja, Santal, Saora and Shabar (Behura, 1993). From different district of Orissa different ethno botanist worked on geographical basis or on a particular tribe, on a particular plant, food habit, and religious occasion, social customs etc. district wise enumeration is given below.

Jain, (1971) studied magico-religious beliefs pertained to plants prevalent among different tribals of the state. Rai chaudhuri et al., (1975) reported ethno botanical uses of 38 species from the state 81 plant species used by the rural folk for antifertility, as medicine, fibre and food were reported by (Saxsena and Dutta, 1975). Saxsena et al., (1981) gave an account of ethnobotany of 83 plant species.

Cloud with dense forest and valleys the present Kalahandi district, Orissa comprises of ex–state of kalahandi and exzamindari of khariar minus Kasipur. The present district of Kalahandi district of Orissa state was a part of south Kasipur Kingdom. It continued as a princely state up to Nov. 1949 and then merged with orissa state the district Kalahandi was created out of exprinciply state of Kalahandi with addition of ex-zamindari areas of Khariar which formerly a part of Sambalpur district. Again Nuapada and Nawarangapur area separated from it and the present form of the district exist.

The modern Kalahandi district occupies the south western part of Orissa and is situated between 19 degree 10’ North Latitude and between 82 degree 30’ and 83 degree 50’ longitude. To the northern side of Kalahandi district Balangir, to south eastern side Rayagada district is situated. To south westen side Nawarangpur district, to the Southern side Koraput district and to north Nuapara district and western side Chhatisgarh are situated. The Kalahandi district extends over an area of 7920 sq. kms, which is 5.09% of total geographical area of Orissa and occupies 7th position in area of the state of Orissa. According to 2001 census, total population of the district is 13, 34,772 which has 3.64% of the whole state and density of population is 168 per sq. k.m. In the district, 2 subdivisions, 4 revenue Tahasils, 13 blocks, and 195 Gram Panchayats and 2205 villages are existing.

Introduction

Sem (Dolichos) bean, Hyacinth bean or Field bean is one of the most ancient crops among cultivated plants. It is a bushy, semi-erect, perennial herb, showing no tendency to climb. It is mainly cultivated either as a pure crop or mixed with finger millet, groundnut, castor, corn, bajra or sorghum in Asia and Africa (Maass et al., 2010). It is a multipurpose crop grown for pulse, vegetable and forage. The crop is grown for its green pods, while dry as well as fresh green matured seeds are used in various vegetable food preparations, as most of the nutritive value is concentrated in the seeds. FAO website reports that Dolichos lablab (field bean) is a dual purpose legume. It is traditionally grown as a pulse crop for human consumption in south and south-east Asia and eastern Africa. Flowers and immature pods also used as a vegetable. It is also used as a fodder legume sown for grazing and conservation in broad acre agricultural systems in tropical environments with a summer rainfall. Also used as green manure, cover crop and in cut and carry systems and as a concentrate feed.

Abstract

Physical properties of food are aspects such as colour, structure, texture, rheology and interfacial properties, and composition. We have a range of instrumental methods for objectively characterising and measuring food structure and physical properties. These are useful for applications such as new product development, benchmarking, reformulation and specification.

Colour

Consistent and accurate measurements of the colour and visual appearance of food products is extremely important. Various methods are available for colour measurement, allowing a wide variety of sample types to be measured. Colour measurement results are typically provided on the CIELAB scale. Others are available on request.

Humankind has always been a perceptive feel for rheological testing, e.g. in physical and visual evaluations of material properties such as hardness, stiffness, flexibility, and viscosity, and their relation to end-use quality characteristics. People often naturally measure the quality of solid foods by gently squeezing them, or liquid viscosity is measured by gently rotating the liquid in its container. These intuitive measurements gradually became formalized into quantitative descriptions of material properties.

Rheology can be defined as the study of how materials deform, flow or fail when force is applied. The name is derivated from Greek word: rheos, meaning the river, flowing, streaming. Therefore rheology means “flow science”. Rheological investigations not only include flow behaviour of liquids, but also deformation behaviour of solids. Normally, to measure rheological properties, the material is subjected to a controlled, précised and quantifiable distortion or strain over a given time and the material parameters such as stiffness, modulus, viscosity, hardness, strength or toughness are determined by considering the subsequent forces or stresses (Dobraszczyk and Morgenstern, 2003). The term rheology was coined by Eugene C. Bingham, a professor at Lafayette College, in 1920, from a suggestion by a colleague, Markus Reiner (Steffe, 1996)

Abstract

Fats and oils are one of the five essential ingredients of human diet and the others are protein, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. The oil seeds are major source of edible in world. Oils and fat form an important constituent of human food. Lipid metabolism generates many bioactive lipid molecules, which are fundamental mediators of multiple signaling pathways and they are also indispensable compounds of cell membranes. Many people in developing countries, especially children under five years of age suffer from acute or chronic protein and energy shortages. There is definitely a need for food production to keep pace with the increase in the number of the world’s population. Oilseed and nut should be properly dried before storage, and cleaned to remove sand, dust, leaves and other contaminants. All raw materials should be sorted to remove stones and moudly nuts. Some moulds, especially in the case of groundnuts, can cause aflatoxin poisoning.

Introduction

Oil has been a vital part of people’s regular dietary consumption all over the world and its usage has been found to increase several folds over the decades. The importance of using the appropriate oil for cooking goes a long way in affecting the consumer’s health. Improper methods of oil-aided cooking can lead to cardiovascular diseases and increased cholesterol in the blood (Kumar et al., 2018). There is definitely a need for food production to keep pace with the increase in the number of the world’s population. In order to achieve these national development strategies in many based economy tropical countries on agriculture and biased now towards increasing diversity of food products and consumer in order to alleviate malnutrition and pressure to strengthen and expand based industries on agriculture to ensure that their products are both healthy and safe. Oils and fats for food have used a variety of other applications since prehistoric times, and were easily isolate the source of the fats and oils found useful because of its unique properties.

Measures of central tendency are also known as averages. Averages are defined as statistical constants which enable us to understand in a single effort, the significance of the whole i.e., they are the representative value of the distribution. They give an idea about the concentration of the values in the central part of the distribution.

Five Types of Averages

Arithmetic Mean

It is the sum of all the observations divided by the number of observation.

For individual data or simple series (i.e., series in which all values have single frequency)

Literal meaning of dispersion is scatterdness. We study dispersion to have an idea about the homogeneity and heterogeneity of the distribution. Dispersion gives an idea about how much the values of the observation varies from their averages. The series in which the values of the observation differ much from their averages is said to be heterogeneous or highly dispersed. The series in which the value of the observation does not differ much from their averages is said to be homogenous or less dispersed.

There are two types of measures of dispersion:

Pomegranate is an ancient and important fruit. It is grown for its delicious and juicy pink arils (outer growth of seed) which are eaten fresh (Keskar et al., 1993). Fresh fruit is of exquisite quality while its processed products like bottled juice, syrups and jelly are highly appreciated. The juice is considered useful for patients suffering from leprosy. Fruit juice easily fermented and may be used for the production of wine. Juice of wild pomegranate is used in the manufacture of citric acid and sodium citrate for medicinal purpose. Pomegranate is known best for curing the chronic stomach ailment. Seeds of pomegranate contain oil which has a potential for industrial use. Sour aril of the wild types can be utilized for the preparation of anardana.

Litchi is a delicious fruit and generally consumed as a table fruit. It is one of the most popular fruits of India which is commonly taken as fresh or in dried forms. Litchi is also recognized as “Queen of the fruits”. Dried litchi commonly known as ‘Litchi nut’ is very popular among the Chinese living all over the world. This subtropical fruit cannot tolerate frost in winter and dry heat in summer. An interesting feature of the litchi plant is the symbiotic growth of Mycorrhiza fungi on roots of the tree. These fungi form nodules on the roots of litchi. The trees and the fungus live together to benefit each other. Litchi makes an excellent canned fruit and highly flavoured squash is prepared from inferior fruits. Besides, fruit, other parts of the plant like leaves, bark and roots are also used for various purposes. In China leaves are used for making poultices, bark and roots for making decoctions for throat gargle.

Coconut is a monocotyledonous woody plant belonging to the family Arecaceae or Palmae. It is presumed that the generic name Cocos and popular name coconut are derieved from Spanish word ‘Coco’ meaning “Monkey face” a probable reference to the three scars on the base of the shell resembling two eyes and a nose of monkey face. Coconut is valued most for its nut, the other components are coconut water, kernel, shell and husk. Coconut water is one of the most refreshing drinks which is also known for its medicinal value. It increases blood circulation in kidneys, causes profuse diuresis and eliminates mineral poisoning. It is a good substitute for saline glucose under gastroenteritis conditions. The coconut has been regarded as Kalpavriksha (tree of heaven) because all the parts of the palm is useful to mankind in one way or the other.

The dried kernels commonly called as copra is richest source of vegetable fat i.e. 60 to 67% oil. Coconut is major source of edible oil and it is propagated through seeds. India is largest producer of coir and its product. The coconut plant has about 4-6 years of juvenile phase with 60 years of productive life.

In nature, plantspecies flowers produce fruits and seeds and the primary objective is to reproduce them. Plant species those are unable to produce viable seeds, reproduce themselves by other means. With a common of these processes they vary in various aspects of flowering and fruiting. The variations may be due to their different growing habits, requirement of different environments, differences in their basic nature etc. Here we are going to discuss different types of bearing habits do exists in fruit crops.

Growth Habit

Growth is quantitative irreversible increase in the existing size of say plant or a shoot or simply a leaf etc. Fruit crops can be classified on the basis of their growth habits in two major classes. One is evergreen and second is deciduous. Evergreens include those plants which bear their leaves throughout the year. Examples are mango, litchi, guava and orange. Whereas, deciduous trees shed their leaves during a part of year (when weather is adverse i.e. during winter). Mostly temperate fruits belong to this category. The presence or absence of leaves makes very big difference in their physiology, their bearing season and pattern etc. These two categories also make a basic group to study them separately with respect to many aspects viz. source and sink relationships, pruning etc.

Introduction

Fruits play a vital role in improving human health which are called as protective foods rich in vitamins, minerals, fats, oils, proteins and improves in economy of producers, exporters and industrialists. Fruit crops can be classified into two broad categories i.e. ever green and deciduous trees.

1. Evergreen fruit trees grow under tropical and subtropical climate and they are not dependent on chilling requirement for floral bud differentiation and flowering. Ex: Mango, Citrus, Guava, Sapota, Papaya etc.,
2. Deciduous fruit trees require dormancy during winter season and chilling units for floral initiation and have specialized modifications to protect sensitive growing tissue from unfavourable conditions. Ex: Apple, Pear, Peach, Plum, Apricot, Cherry, Grapevine, Walnut, Almonds etc.,

Rootstocks play an important role in the propagation of plants. It may modify form or stature, adapt a variety of a soil, fit in an incompatible climate, impart or resist disease to the scion, increase production, hasten maturity of crop, change the colour of the fruit, effect the flavour of the fruit, shorten life of the tree, increase the size of the fruit, develop vigour, effect salt tolerance and influence storage capacity.

Orchard is a long-term investment and careful planning and resource analysis prior to establishment is essential. Lack of attention and care in the initial stages of orchard development results in irreversible damages. Essential resources for successful orcharding can be broadly grouped into two categories as biophysical and socioeconomical. Biophysical resources include land, soil, agrochemicals, planting materials, irrigation and manpower, while socioeconomic factors are finance, security, market, technical knowledge, transport, storage and social amenities.

Selection of crops and varieties should be done carefully, the most important factor being market demand. Popular fruit crops, which have demand in local markets, can definitely be a good choice. Previous experience and expertise of growers of selected locality can be made use before finalizing plans.

SITE SELECTION

Factors like climate, soil, availability of water, trained labour and inputs like fertilizers and plant protection chemicals should be considered. Accessibility to market, railway station, transport, nearness to road, storage facilities and processing units which facilitate expeditious disposal of perishable fruits, help in getting good returns from orchards. Successful fruit growing in a particular locality depends to a great extent on the natural factors especially climate and soil.

INTRODUCTION

Soil is a very important component of the earth’s biosphere. It is the basis of agricultural production and also in the maintenance of local, regional and global environmental quality (Glanz 1995). The thin layer of soil covering the surface of the earth represents the difference between survival and extinction for most land-based life (Doran and Parkin 1996). Analysis of soil productive capacity point out human-induced degradation on nearly 40% of the world’s agricultural land as a result of soil erosion, atmospheric pollution, widespread soil cultivation, over-grazing, land clearing, salinization and desertification (Oldeman 1994). Degradation and loss of productive agricultural land is definitely one of our most pressing ecological concerns, similar to the other human caused environmental problems like global climate change, depletion of the protective ozone layer and serious reduction in biodiversity (Lal 1998).

Sustainable development and environment friendly technologies in agriculture are the need of the time. It is also necessary that these technologies should be able to solve farmers’ problems that vary according to his socioeconomic and ecological condition. To reach the wide as well as diverse section of our producers, the extension system should be location specific and very fast. The technology must be based on farmer’ need, existing resources of farmers, appropriate marketing and should be considered the cost benefit ratio. Sustainable development of producers, efficient technology as well as effective transfer of technology within a short period of time is thus utmost important in recent period. These require larger proportion of human skill combined with electronic information system. In this connection, expert system can be effective in transfer of technology to meet the need of the time. Expert system is the turning point and breaking through of artificial intelligence developing, it is breaking through from generic thinking to special knowledge applying, from theory method to actual system design. Over the years the field of application of expert system has been widening rapidly. Many countries have made expert system in different field, such as: financial decision-making, medical treatment and diagnose, diagnose on breakdown of machinery, chemical engineering, geological prospecting, military affairs, and other agricultural domain. Recently, many researchers in India has been identified the advantage of this system and already developed expert system in several commodities in agricultural crops.

ABSTRACT

The details of a frame work for development of data warehouse are discussed in this paper. The concepts of data ware housing, its data ware house process, its architecture, components, data sources, data transformation, apart from free and shareware and commercial software available are described. The details of power of Data Warehouse are also described with a procedure for a better reporting of data and analysed results. The data Warehouse should be made to deliver clear indications on how the research or business enterprise is performing. There is a need to plot out the expected users for the Data Warehouse in the enterprise so that they will have the appropriate reports in a format which is quickly understandable.

ABSTRACT

Wavelet analysis is a technique possessing mathematical properties and it has been used by the scientific research community for its power to analyse rapidly changing transient signals used to represent data or functions - the wavelets used in the analysis are, however, functions that break the data down into different scales or resolutions. Wavelets possess the competence to handle spikes and discontinuities than traditional Fourier analysis and make the noisy data to de-noisy. Though traditional applications of wavelets have focused on image compression and analysis, wave propagation but they are also being used to analyse time series, biological processes, spectroscopic data of chemical compounds, seismic signals for earthquake prediction, atmospheric data for weather prediction, computer graphics, medical image technology, detection of aircraft and submarines, non-parametric regression, density estimation, and long memory wavelet models. Indeed, wavelets permit complex information such as music, speech, images and patterns to be decomposed into elementary forms at different positions and scales and subsequently being reconstructed with high precision. Signal transmission is based on the transmission of a series of numbers, indeed, the series representation of a function is important in all types of signal transmission.Wavelet transform of function is the improved version of Fourier transform. Fourier transform is a powerful tool for analysing the components of a stationary signal. But the Fourier transform fails to analyse the non-stationary signal where as a wavelet transform allows the components of a non-stationary signal to be analysed.

INTRODUCTION

The role for economic theory is no longer simply to explain how the existing system works, but also to explore how the economic system can be changed to become more adaptive and resilient in the face of the challenges of the 21st century, and how it can be more directly designed to support human well-being, in the present and the future. Simultaneous changes are needed, in both the actual economy and also in theoretical approaches of economics. The economic theory that was accepted as standard in the non-communist world during the second half of the twentieth century erects serious impediments to meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. In order to redirect economics to be more useful, and more truly reflect the world we now face, a good starting point is to go back to the goals that are embedded in economic thinking. Here it is useful to make the distinction between intermediate and final goals. Final goals are ends that are worth achieving in themselves, while intermediate goals are pursued because they are expected to contribute to the final goals. As final goals for any economy are ‘well-being and equity in the present’ and second is ‘productive capital for the future’. Productive capital needed to maintain well-being also necessarily includes natural resources, as well as human health and education, and cohesive social systems. Increasing production and consumption are important intermediate goals for humankind in some times and places. Other obviously critical intermediate goals include climate mitigation, and promoting resilience and adaptation within both human society and ecological systems. Responding to global inequity as well as global climate change requires coordinated public policy to fundamentally redirect existing economic systems. In addition to a much greater emphasis on equity, economic theory that is appropriate to the needs of the twenty-first century will need to be more concerned with the meta-externalities of the economic system. The business sphere is currently creating meta-externalities of culture and politics that place great burdens on the core sphere, and that tie the hands of governments. This does not necessarily imply that the for-profit sphere is “bad” and the others “good”—rather that institutional changes must be made to bring the purposes and functions of all three spheres into better harmony. To address such a complex issues, economic theories and models that developed in the past should embedded with new advent in computational technologies. In venturing a vision of technological possibilities rather than simply projecting linear or exponential changes in performance, it is crucial to think not only of how technical improvements lead to the substitution of a new generation of tools for existing ones, but also of how entirely new uses, and indeed new needs, might emerge.

Abstract

Asteraceae, one of the largest families of flowering plants, is of worldwide distribution and inhabits almost every environment except Antarctica. The family exhibits various life forms and is known to harbour a wide variety of phytochemicals. The study aimed at systematically documenting the precious ethnobotanical knowledge (ethnomedicinal, ethnotoxic and wild edible plants) of Asteraceae in district Udhampur. A total of 42 infomants between the age group 21-90 years were interviewed and 28 plant species of Asteraceae belonging to 26 genera were observed to be of ethnobotanical significance in district Udhampur. All the taxa were growing in wild and majority of them were herbs. The ethnomedicinal formulations were prepared in the form of paste, decoction, powder, etc which were found to be effective against plethora of ailments. The ethnotoxic plants were observed to exert their adverse effects by causing different ailments or diseases. The present study may serve as a base line data for further research and will go a long way in the treatment of major and minor ailments, protecting people from being poisoned by substances that may have cured them and also serving as food source.

Abstract

Crocus sativus L. commonly called as saffron is a Persian plant belonging to the Iridaceae family and is cultivated for more than 4000 years. It grows exclusively in India, the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean region. Saffron is traditionally used for, as a food supplement and its pharmacological properties such as antihypertensive, anticonvulsant, anxiolytic aphrodisiac, antioxidant, antidepressant etc. It comprises of the dried stigma which comprises of 150 different types of metabolites, of which some are responsible for the color, flavor and aroma of the Saffron. Saffron is a plant with great significance as an adaptogen and seems to be promising as a nutraceutical in barring several diseases. The current chapter explores the Ethnobiology, historical background, chemical constituents, ethnopharmacological properties, uses and toxicity of Saffron.

India is a natural reservoir of the several fruit species. The several less known fruit species, which have the potential for commercial exploitation, are yet to be utilized to their potential. An attention to the less known fruit would play a significant role in increasing the income, providing employment opportunities, uplifting of the poor, small and marginal farmers and the development of value added products. These fruits are well known for their medicinal and nutritive value. There is a great need to develop and popularize not only for their domestic market but also for their export. Some of the less known fruits are described here with respect to their cultivation technology.

The arid zone of India covers about 12% of the country’s geographical area and occupies over 31.7 mha of hot desert and about 7 m ha under cold desert. The arid regions of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana together constitute the Great Indian Desert known as Thar Desert that accounts for 89.6% of hot arid regions of India. In Gujarat, 6.22 m ha area is under arid zone which constitute 19.6% of the arid area of country (Fig 1). In Gujarat, eight districts fall under arid zone, namely, Kachchh (100% of district area), Jamnagar (80%), Surendranagar (29%), Junagadh (20%), Banaskantha (18%), Mehsana (7%), Ahmedabad (6%) and Rajkot 6%).

Distribution

Several countries grow henna on a commercial scale for its dye-bearing leaves, notably India, Egypt, Iran, Niger, Sudan and Pakistan. In India, it was once grown extensively in Punjab and Gujarat. However, gradually the major cultivation has shifted to the arid fringes of Rajasthan, with Pali district having the maximum area under henna. It is taken as an annual Ratoon crop under rainfed conditions. Presently over 39,000 ha of henna plantations in the district with nearly 70 per cent occurring in the Sojat area produce around 20,000 t dry leaves worth Rs. 40 crores. Besides this, leaf cuttings are also collected from existing farms and field boundary plantations in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh henna is grown for its scented flowers used in the essence industry. Kannauj, Lucknow, and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh are reputed centres for the commercial extraction of mehndi oil from flowers and its use in traditional essence. Since henna is grown as a dryland crop under limited moisture conditions greater use of available moisture by the plants is possible.

Global warming and climate change are becoming major challenges in the front of global community to deal with. Climate change is no more a myth but it is reality. The IPCC, 5^th assessment report clearly stated that “evidence of climate- change impacts is strongest and most comprehensive for natural systems”. Natural and human systems of almost all continents in the world have been affected by climate change in recent decades (IPCC, 2014). Agriculture is essential for sustainability of human life on earth but change in climate is threatening its sustainability. In recent decades all aspects of food security has been potentially affected by climate change, including food access, utilization, and price stability. It has been projected that in absence of adaptation measure, increases in local temperature by 2°C or more above late-20^th-century levels will negatively impact production of the major crops in tropical and temperate regions.

Agriculture is one of the major economic activities responsible for food security and livelihood for millions of people. Success, production and productivity of agricultural crops are highly dependent on climate, soil and water. Thus climate change will have adverse effect on agricultural crops. High atmospheric temperature, unpredicted erratic rainfall, rapid soil degradation and evolution of new insect and pests due to climate change will offer new challenge to sustain agriculture. Many part of the world and India is already experiencing impact of climate change on agricultural crops (like early maturity, geographical shift and occurrence of new pests) and these impacts are predicted to increase rapidly in future. The increasing concern about adverse impact of climate change on food security has led to extensive research and documentation of impact of climate change on field crops like rice, wheat and maize. While the clear and holistic idea about impact of climate change on horticultural crops like vegetables and fruits are not well documented especially in developing countries like India.

Global climate changing has been a focus for a long time in many fields, the increasing CO₂ concentration in atmosphere was considered as one main driving force for global warming. The increases in greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere contributed to raise concerns over climate change enhanced the role of forests and plantations in the global carbon cycle are growing as a great issue. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is one of the main greenhouse gases because a huge volume of CO₂ is added to the atmosphere, when compare to all other greenhouse gases and made itself as a primary agent of global warming. It contributed 72 per cent of the total anthropogenic greenhouse gases, causing between 9-26 per cent of the greenhouse effect (Kiehl and Trenberth, 1997). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there has been an unprecedented warming trend during the 20th century. Scientists now have estimated that the average global surface temperature is likely to rise by 1.4 to 5.8°C by the end of the 21^st century (IPCC 2007).

The IPCC estimates that the level of carbon dioxide in today’s atmosphere is 31 per cent higher than it was at the start of the Industrial Revolution about 250 years ago. An atmospheric level of CO₂ has risen from 280 ppm at the pre-industrial to the present level of 375 ppm. Most of the increase has occurred in the second half of the 20^th century. The mitigation of climate change demands, determined commitment of scientists to develop strategies to effectively manage the issues of the changing climate through carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is ought to be a promising solution for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas.

The arid region of India covers about 12 % of countries geographical area and occupies over 3.17 lakh Km² of hot desert located in the parts of Rajasthan (61%), Gujarat (20%), Punjab and Haryana (9.0%), Andhra Pradesh (7%), Maharashtra (0.4%) and Karnataka (3.0%). In addition to this an area of about 78 thousand Km² of cold desert in Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh presents an entirely different set of agro climatic conditions as compared to hot arid zone. The hot arid region is characterized by low and erratic distribution of rainfall (< 100 to 400 mm), high temperature, low relative humidity, high potential evapo-transpiration, high sunshine and high wind speed during summer. Soils of this region are dry for most part of the year and suffer from water stress. Besides growing annual crops, a great emphasis is being laid on the development of agroforestry systems in this region which also includes cultivation of arid fruit crops in cropping systems. Horticulture based production systems are considered to be the most ideal strategy to provide food, nutrition and income security to the people (Chundawat, 1993). Integration of annual crops with fruit trees yields multiple outputs that ensure production and income generation.

Fruits with their delightful colours, flavours and tastes are nature’s wonderful gift to mankind. Apart from being the most nutritious food in the form of easily digestible simple sugars, vitamins, minerals and many phyto-nutrients (Plant derived micronutrients), they provide unique health benefits due to their antioxidant properties and valuable fibre. Antioxidants help protect the human body from oxidant stress, diseases, and cancers, and also boost the immunity of the body thus developing the capacity to fight against various types of diseases. The insoluble dietary fiber in fruits is known to provide protection from conditions like chronic constipation, hemorrhoids, colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, and rectal fissures etc. Due to their unique nutrition-profile the importance of fruits in our diet cannot be over emphasised.

Insects are a major limiting factor in fruit production. The infestation of insects pests on fruit trees in orchards adversely affects the quality and yield of fruits. The size, shape, taste, attractiveness and palatability of fruit deteroriates, due to which the market price is reduced and the growers incur losses. Fruit growers resort to use of chemical pesticides under such conditions. However many reports suggest that although the global production and use of pesticides in agriculture is increasing every year, but the damage due to insects has not decreased rather it has also increased, indicating that the use of pesticides is not the panacea remedy for all insect related problems. Many scientists are of the opinion that over-reliance on the use of synthetic pesticides in crop protection programs around the world has resulted in disturbances to the environment, pest resurgence, pest resistance to pesticides, and lethal and sub-lethal effects on non target organisms especially beneficial flora and fauna, including humans. Farmers spend thousands of rupees on pesticides. The residues of pesticides in food and fruits is yet another cause of concern. Fruits which are considered to be wonderful for health are often laden with unacceptable levels of pesticide residues nulling their beneficial properties. Pesticides have been linked to many diseases especially cancer. All these issues related with use of pesticides has triggered rethinking on the methods of control.The recent examples of the results of indiscriminate pesticides use , consequent crop failures and suicide by farmers now calls for introspection in this matter.

Over 85% of the rural population in India is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. About 50% of them being poor, most of their earnings are spent on meeting their basic needs, particularly food. With the increasing population over the last five decades, their per capita share of land and water resources has reduced substantially. As a result, rural people are faced with the problem of unemployment.

Inspite of agriculture being a major source of livelihood, the productivity as well as profitability in agriculture have been significantly low in the country. While the productivity can be attributed to illiteracy, lack of awareness, poor dissemination of technology, inadequate investment in agricultural inputs and poor communication and information services, lack of profitability is mainly due to inadequate and inefficient infrastructure required for forward and backward integration, poor post harvest and processing facilities and poor connectivity with market, resulting in exploitation by large number of middlemen. Traditionally, the farmers have been dependent on the Agricultural Extension Agencies of the State Government for information, input supply and marketing services. Over the years, these agencies are not being able to cope up with the growing responsibilities and specific needs of the farmers. To overcome this problem, Farmers’ Cooperatives have been promoted to supply various agricultural inputs and organise the marketing of farm produce. Although, this was an excellent concept, most of these cooperatives could not carry out the work economically and efficiently due to lack of commitment from the elected leaders and unfair trade practices by the competing traders. The farmers, not realising the inability of the extension agencies, are still dependent on the Government and external agencies to help them in managing their agri-business.

Introduction

Aquatic ecosystems are critical components of the global environment and provide a variety of resources for human population, including food, water for drinking and irrigation, recreational opportunities, and habitat for economically important fisheries. Fish is the main source of animal protein for 3 billion people worldwide, providing a valuable protein complement to the food platter worldwide. Fish is also an important source of essential vitamins and fatty acids. Furthermore, it provides an important source of cash income for many poor households and holds a great potential as a source of foreign exchange. However, aquatic ecosystems are increasingly being threatened directly and indirectly by climate change. Global warming with consequent climate variability and extreme weather conditions has a great impact on the aquatic ecosystems resulting in increased temperature variation, ocean acidification and freshwater salinization etc. As per report of IPCC 2018, global warming of 1.5 ºC above pre-industrial levels has been declared (IPCC, 2018) and expected to rise further in future. Thus, variations in temperature, salinity, acidity and dissolved oxygen along with the effects of other anthropogenic activities may exert strong in?uences on aquatic ecosystems and the aquatic animls will be facing these climate-related stressors in near future. Such environmental stressors is projected to alter fundamental ecological processes, geographic distribution of aquatic species, reproductive and immunological performance of species etc.

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.

Clouds are visible mass of little drops of water or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the earth. The World Meteorological Organisation defined cloud as a visible aggregate of minute particles of water or ice or both, in the free air. This aggregate may include larger particles of water or ice and particles such as those present in fumes, smoke or dust.

Clouds are the most important form of suspended water droplets caused by condensation. The typical size of these water droplets and ice crystals range from less than 1 µm to 50 µm. When surrounded by billions of other droplets or crystals, they become visible as clouds. In the atmosphere sufficient moisture is required to allow condensation to take place. Then, moisture needs a suitable surface upon which it can condense. In free air, condensation begins on hygroscopic nuclei such as aerosols. These are microscopic particles and include dust, smoke, salts and chemical compounds. Nuclei range in size from 0.001 µm radius to over 10 µm. On an average, oceanic air contains one million condensation nuclei per litre and land air holds some 5 or 6 millions. On hygroscopic particles such as sea salts, condensation can begin before the air is saturated. Supersaturation in clouds rarely exceeds one per cent. On average, clouds contain only four per cent of the total water in the atmosphere at any one time. Almost all clouds exist in the troposphere, although the tops of some severe thunderstorms occasionally extend to the stratosphere. Clouds move along with the wind and remain stationary in calm winds. They grow vertically and horizontally, depending on the temperature of the cloud and its ambient temperature. They may dissipate or precipitate. Under favourable atmospheric conditions, they burst and fall as rain. Clouds are essential to the earth-atmosphere system. They complete the following functions.

Precipitation is water in liquid or solid forms, falling on to the earth. In other words, precipitation is the deposition of atmospheric moisture on earth. Formation of clouds does not mean precipitation. Precipitation involves condensation, growth of hygroscopic nuclei, cooling of nuclei at different stages and their fall on to the earth’s surface. There may be several clouds but no precipitation. If the cloud particles are too small and remain suspended in the sky, they may not fall on the earth. Under certain conditions, water particles formed tend to fall but do not reach the surface since they get evaporated on the way. Only when the cloud droplets or ice crystals grow to certain size and can no more remain floating due to buoyancy of air, do they fall as precipitation.

Precipitation is the major source of water to all the living organisms on the earth. All the water sources on the earth depend on precipitation only.

FORMS OF PRECIPITATION

Precipitation form is the state that the moisture is in, i.e., liquid, freezing, or frozen (solid). Different forms of precipitation may occur together, such as mixed rain and snow; but such an occurrence is simply a mixture of forms, not a separate form of precipitation. Because atmospheric conditions vary greatly both geographically and seasonally, several different forms of precipitation are possible. All forms of precipitation are collectively termed hydrometeors. Hydrometeors have been classified into 50 specific types. Out of these precipitation forms, only rain (liquid form) and snow (solid form) make significant contribution to total precipitation. In many parts of the world, the term rainfall is used interchangeably with precipitation.

3.1 Introduction

Diffusion is a broader term, which encompasses unplanned as well as planned and directed spread of an innovation. In this chapter, the emphasis is on dissemination of integrated pest management (IPM) technologies. A wide variety of methods and media are being used for delivering IPM technologies depending upon the type of information and the stage of implementation (Whalon et al., 1982). The mass media methods such as print and electronic media are useful for creating awareness rather than directly assisting the farmer to use IPM technology (Lumber et al., 1985). Mass media methods are less intense methods than face to face method namely farmer field school.

3.2 Methods Used for Dissemination of IPM Technologies

Different methods used for dissemination of IPM technologies include the use of mass media including electronic and print media, field days, extension visits, video movies, plant clinics, IPM clubs, picture songs, IPM websites farmer field school etc.

Plant biodiversity is the single greatest resource that man garnered from nature during the long cultural development phase. More than 2.5 lakh species of mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants and more than 50,000 plant species are yet to be documented, primarily in the remote and less studied reaches of tropical forests.

Vegetable crops in which rich diversity occurs in India are Cowpea, Common bean, Cole crops, Okra, Brinjal, Sweet potato, Taros, Yams, Sword bean, Velvet bean and Elephant foot yam. Wide diversity was observed in chives, leeks and other Allium spp in Kumaoun and Garhwal Himalayas; cluster bean in Western arid zone; lab lab bean in Deccan plateau; cucurbits in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and leaf vegetables like Amaranth and Fagopyrum in Western Himalayan region. Tropical vegetables consist of solanaceus fruits (tomato, hot pepper, brinjal), cucurbits (water melon, muskmelon, cucumber, pumpkins and squashes, bottle gourd, chow-chow, ivy gourd, bitter gourd, ash gourd, round gourd, snake gourd, pointed gourd, sponge gourd, ridge gourd), malvaceous vegetables (Okra),legumes (common bean, lima bean, dolichos bean, cowpea, sword bean, winged bean), allium (onion, shallot, garlic, leek) and leaf vegetables (amaranth, spinach beet, Ceylon spinach). The indigenous vegetables both cultivated and wild have important role in household nutrition, economy and food security. There are 25 hot spots of biodiversity of which Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayan region are the most important ones. Indo-Myanmar region is one of the largest hot spots of the world and is the centre of origin of tuber crops like yams, taro, Amorphophallus and Alocasia. Tropical tuber crops form an important group of subsistence crops especially to those living in tropics and sub tropical zones. Tuber crops are the third important food crops after cereals and grain legumes. Major tuber crops are cassava, sweet potato, Asiatic yam, African yam, lesser yam, elephant foot yam, taro, tannia and country potato. Minor tuber crops are arrowroot, winged bean, yam bean, canna, safed musli and Jerusalem artichoke. Sweet potato is one of the world’s highest yielding crops.

Biodiversity is the origin of all species of crops and domesticated and the variety within them. It is also the foundation of ecosystem services essential to sustain agriculture and human well-being. Today’s crop and livestock biodiversity are the result of many thousands years of human intervention. The biodiversity in vegetable crops is composed by the genetic diversity, as species diversity (inter specific diversity) and as diversity of genes within a species (intra specific diversity) referring to the vegetable grown varieties, and by the diversity of agro-ecosystems (agro-biodiversity).

Crop diversity is the variance in genetic and phenotypic characteristics of plants used in agriculture. Over the past 50 years, there has been a major decline in two components of crop diversity; genetic diversity within each crop and the number of species commonly grown.

The Indian centre of origin and diversity of cultivated plants represent an outstandingly rich reservoir of nature’s wealth of plant species which include a large number of economically important species including Vegetable Crops. Common vegetables like okra and brinjal are native to this region. Out of the recorded 110 genera and 640 species of cucurbits, 100 species representing 36 genera occur in India. Twenty of these species are endemic. Adoption of high yielding crop varieties and hybrids along with changing land use patterns have led to rapid replacement of native cultivars in most cases. Conserving and sustainable utilization of locally adapted types and primitive landraces are, hence, now major concerns at the national and global levels.

The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) at New Delhi is the nodal organization in India with the national mandate to plan, conduct, promote and coordinate all activities concerning plant exploration and collection, germ plasm import and exchange, plant quarantine, germplasm multiplication and distribution, evaluation and characterization, documentation and conservation of both indigenous and introduced genetic variability in cultivated plants and their wild relatives.

The challenging job of collecting, genetic evaluation and utilization of plant genetic resources cannot be satisfactorily accomplished by one organization. The enormous task of safeguarding and promoting greater utilization of these valuable resources can be best achieved through a networking approach. Professional development is the key to success of this endeavour. NBPGR organizes regularly short-term training courses on various aspects of PGR to impart latest knowledge and techniques to scientists and technicians engaged in crop improvement programmes and handling germpalsm collections.

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.