eChapters

1.1 INTRODUCTION

India is the seventh largest country in the world in total geographical area and has second largest population next to China. Around 55 to 60 per cent of its population depend on agriculture and allied activities. Horticultural crops constitute a significant component of total agricultural production in the country. They require very intensive care in planting, carrying out different cultural operations, manipulating growth, harvesting, packing, transportation, marketing, storage and processing.

1.2 AGRICULTURE

The term agriculture broadly refers to the technology of raising plants and animals. Agriculture is the science, art or practice of cultivating soil, producing crops and raising livestock in varying degree of proportion followed by marketing. In other words, it is the activity of man to produce three basic needs of human being, i.e., food, fuel and fibre (3F) by using terrestrial resources optimally. The term agriculture is derived from two Latin words ager meaning field or land and cultura meaning cultivation or growing.

4.1 Introduction

Heat is energy which flows due to difference in temperature. Whereas energy is stored heat. Therefore, when the heat energy transfer is completed. It is stored in the form of potential or kinetic energy, in general as internal energy. Heat as energy is measured in terms of observed changes in other forms of energy & other physical properties. A heat transfer analysis is required for estimating the size, the efficiency and cost of the equipment necessary to transfer a specified amount of heat in a given time. It is well known fact that the size of a solar collector or a heat exchanger depends not so much on the amount of heat to be transmitted but rather on the rate at which heat is to be transferred under given conditions.

4.2 Modes of Heat Transfer

Heat is transferred from one body to another in three possible ways, conduction, convection, and radiation.

13.1 Introduction

Geothermal energy is the nature-based heat generated from within the earth. Underneath the earth’s relatively thin crust, temperature range from 1000 to 4000°C & in some areas, pressures exceed 138 MPa is available. Geothermal energy is most likely generated from radioactive thorium, potassium and uranium dispersed evenly throughout the earth’s interior which produce heat as part of the decaying process. This process generates enough heating, keep the core of the earth at temperature approaching 400°C. Composed primarily of molten nickel & iron, the core is thought to be surrounded by a layer of molten rock, the mantle at approximately 100°C. Nine major crustal plates float on the mantle & currents in the mantle cause the plates to drift, colliding in some areas and diverting in others. When two continental plates converge a complex series of chemicals in the form of molten magna rises in the earth’s crust and depending upon its magnitude, it may break the crust and reach at the earth surface. Volcano, hot spring, geysers & fumaroles are natural geothermal resources near the surface and perhaps where economic drilling operations can tap their heat and pressure.

17.1 Introduction

It is well known fact that planners as well as end users have to consider any resources as technology from economic point of view. Therefore, it is important to have techno – economic analysis of each energy source option. In the feasibility study of particular energy option, three tier judgment approaches is required, which include technical feasibility, economical viability and social acceptability. Hence in the rural energy planning programme one has to considered techno socio economic analysis of an individual energy option. Since in integrated rural energy planning, locally available energy resources are used, presuming that it is socially recognized. Hence in the IREP project, the need and scope of techno economic analysis in terms of economic analysis of different technical feasible options, before between “economic” and “finical” analysis should be kept in mind. An economic analysis is needed to verify that a particular energy source will provide “net benefit” to society as a whole, before its final integration in the energy context, while a financial analysis integrated in the energy practices. In simple words, a financial analysis is concerned with goods and services, money inflow and outflows and the transfer of payments. An economic analysis also considers the social benefits and costs of goods and services which are not traded in a market.

Abstract

Land development in urbanized watersheds poses a potential of increasing storm runoff rates, and therefore increasing the risk of flooding in the downstream areas of a watershed. To investigate the impact of change in land use practices on the watershed hydrology, an hydrological analysis was conducted on Little Kitten Creek watershed located near Manhattan city of Riley county, Kansas, USA. Prior to development, land use types in the watershed included woodland, pasture, and fallow land. However, rapid development has occurred in the watershed in the last ten years. Post development land use practices include commercial development, residential housing, and conservation (woodland and grasslands). Data collected and analyzed included digital elevation model (DEM) of study site, stream network and soil data using ArcGIS (ESRI, 2006) and Arc-Hydro Software (Maidment, 2000). Watershed characteristics such as slopes, channel length, circularity ratios, and drainage density were also computed. The delineated watershed boundary, stream segments and soil data layers were over laid to produce soil maps. Time of concentration (Tc) was determined for the pre and post development conditions in the watershed using seven different methods. The time of concentration values computed using Kerby, Federal Aviation Agency, Kinematic Wave and NRCS (SCS) methods found more reasonable compared to the remaining three methods used.

These computed time of concentration values were observed to be shorter for the post-development condition when compared to the pre-development condition of the watershed. The reduced time of concentration in the post development condition is attributed to increase in percentage of impervious areas due to increased residential development in the watershed; therefore increased rates of runoff in the watershed are expected.

Keywords: Rezoning, Time of Concentration, DEM, Kinematic Wave, Drainage density, Circularity ratio.

Abstract

Agroforestry is an ancient practice that farmers have adopted throughout the world. There are innumerable examples of traditional land use practices combining production of trees and agriculture crops on the same piece of land. In India, the organized agroforestry research began in 1979 when a Seminar on Agroforestry was organized at Imphal by the ICAR, New Delhi. As a follow up to this, ICAR launched an All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Agroforestry (AICRPAF) was started in 1983. The diagnostic survey and appraisal revealed that there are enumerable agroforestry practices prevalent in different agro- ecological zones of India occupying sizeable areas. However, spatial technologies like Geographical Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Positioning System (GPS) have yet to be implemented extensively in this field in India. The spatial technologies have shown great potential in natural resource management through out the world, especially in developed countries in the fields like forest cover mapping, agricultural planning, watershed management, land use planning, etc. In India the agroforestry land use occupy large areas but use of these technologies to estimate area has been initiated in year 2007 with DST sponsored project entitled ‘Spatial and Temporal analysis of agroforestry interventions in North-western India using GIS and Remote Sensing’ The area under agroforestry systems has been estimated/ mapped in two districts viz., Yamunanagar (Haryana) and Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh), where intensive commercial agroforestry was predominant. Besides, the methodology developed as an out come of this study may be replicated for agroforestry systems existing in other parts of the country.

Keywords: Agroforestry, Geo-spatial, Mapping, Natural Resources, Remote Sensing.

Abstract

Anantapur is the driest district of Andhra Pradesh and hence, agriculture conditions are very often precarious. Groundnut grows where other crops fail and thus it is the predominant crop of Anantapur district. Groundnut is grown in about 7.5 lakh ha in Anantapur district; however the average yields are low at 500 kg ha^-1. Among various available vegetation indices, normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) is widely used for all reasons, which is a single numerical indicator of presence and condition of green vegetation. NDVI mapping at a regional scale helps to assess the spatial changes in the vigour of green vegetation and thus occurrence of any moisture stress. Climate tools have a great role in understanding the crop performance and estimating the yields. This study was taken up by using freely available MODIS data to understand NDVI in terms of abiotic stresses over Anantapur district and linking with the actual rainfall conditions, groundnut crop acreage and production. Results indicate that low groundnut yields in general could be related to NDVI-based stress measurements and rainfall quantum and distribution in the area however, with a few exceptions. It is hoped that by combining improved practices through IWM with climate-adapted crop varieties, rainfed farmers of Anantapur district can sustain their crop production under present climate variability and become resilient to future climate change.

Keywords: Climate, MODIS, NDVI, Anantapur, Groundnut, Integrated Watershed Management

Abstract

Customized application development can deliver/fulfill the specialized and specific needs of the users as well as it provides user- friendly environment to the users. There have been applications developed in the past but now applications developed and coupled with the advantage of GIS technologies for various data-handling, spatial analyses and visualization under variable inputs and spatial scales is an innovative approach developed during recent years.The present work encompasses Spatial Agricultural Information and Decision Support System having five modules - Agro-socio-economic-information, Bio- Physical Information, Crop’s Information & Management, and Agriculture DSS Module. This system, developed in a GIS framework, allows managers and planners to rapidly assess land attributes and link these attributes with maps and related infrastructure. Hence, it can facilitate efficient use of existing resource information. The primary database of the software has a Database Update feature which can be utilized by the user using the software to integrate own data into the primary database of the software. With this integration, the software adapts to new data entered and will enable this data to be visualized in GIS platform. The software has been designed keeping in view the requirements of the departments like Department of Agriculture, Department of Land Records etc. In comparison with the commercial GIS applications, the commercial applications are not cost effective if the primary requirement is visualization enabling decision making and basic spatial analysis. The most features available on such software remain un-utilized or they cannot be used without having GIS knowledge. This application is suitable in such scenarios, providing a simple customizable platform for GIS visualization. This software application fits in and serves the line departments and in a way promoting the GIS in the mountainous terrain as it requires very basic or no GIS skill set to operate.

Abstract

GIS has several products that can be protected in India as copyright. The paper describes major provisions of copyright Act, 1957 that has been amended five times. GIS products qualify to be registered within various sections of the copyright Act. Patenting of software is permitted in some countries but not in India, a comparative account of these two forms of protection has been discussed with practical examples. General public licensing of open source software, translation, exclusive licensing and data sharing & accessibility policy are other areas covered in the present study and analytical learning.

Key words : copyright, patent, GIS, software, data sharing

1.0 Introduction

The copyright Act 1957 was mainly amended in 1994 and1999 to bring into complete harmony with Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), further major amendment has been done in 2012, that include wide range changes in ownership, term of protection, copyright security, cinematography and broadcasting provisions. In the same year government of India has initiated ‘National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP)’ which came into operation from February 2012. At present the copyright Act and data sharing policy are the two legal and administrative instruments which facilitate the intellectual property protection and appropriate sharing among stakeholders in the country.

Land is merely an area of the earth’s surface comprising all physical, chemical and biological environments that influence the land use (FAO ,1976). Land refers not only to soil but also to climate, landforms, hydrology, geology, natural vegetation including fauna and flora. The land use simply means management of a land for specific uses to meet the human needs in all rural, urban and industrial context, whereas the land use plan refers to a coherent set of decisions about the ways to achieve the desired level preferably on economic background. Thus, the land use planning is the systematic evaluation and assessment of a land and associated attributes for the purpose of identifying the best land use options beneficial to landowners or users without degrading the land resources or environment. It includes not only the landowner or users, but also the policy or decision makers as well as economic experts for financial measures from planning stage or logistic planning to execution.

Land cover

Relates to the type of feature present on the surface of the earth e.g., Fields, trees, concrete high ways.

Land use

Relates to the human activity associated with a specific piece of land. The same land would have a land cover consisting of roofs, pavements, grass and trees. The land use in an area is really an intervention by the people over the existing natural eco-environment for satisfying their needs.

Land cover is distinct from land use despite the two terms often being used interchangeably. Land use is a description of how people utilize the land and socio-economic activity - urban and agricultural land uses are two of the most commonly recognised high-level classes of use. At any one point or place, there may be multiple and alternate land uses, the specification of which may have a political dimension.

The ability to fast-track development and delivery of improved maize cultivars with capacity to provide climate-resilience (high and stable yields in stress-prone environments), coupled with improved nutritional quality, will be critical for sustainable intensification and diversification of maize-based cropping systems, and for providing enhanced income opportunities to the smallholders. This warrants coordinated multi-institutional efforts and implementation of innovative strategies to further increase genetic gains through breeding, and to translate these gains in the farmers’ fields. This article will focus only on the novel tools/ technologies/strategies that are being employed by CIMMYT for increasing genetic gains, especially for grain yield under stress-prone environments in the tropical/sub-tropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Novel tools/techniques/strategies for increasing genetic gains in the tropics

“Genetic gain” (also called as selection response) refers to the difference in the mean value of the selection criterion between original generation and next generation (formed from only the selected individuals), when they were compared in the same environment. The selection criterion is the trait(s) on which selection is based. While conventional breeding has been successful in improving maize yields over the decades, and especially in the last one decade in India through single-cross hybrids, the significantly rising demand for maize in the tropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia warrants sharp increases in genetic gains. Thus, the major challenge for the present generation of product development teams is to double the genetic gains for grain yield under stressed environments, i.e., from the present <1% to at least 1.5% within the next 5-6 years.

Shrinking land resources, vulnerable market of cash crops along with climatic aberrations have adversely affected the Indian agriculture and as a result, small farmers are increasingly alienating from this profession. To sustain their livelihood, farmers are increasingly adopting the alternative sources and dairy farming is one of the best-suited businesses, which can rightly fit at this stage. It is fast emerging as a potential business in rural India, particularly in the peri-urban belt. Among the major inputs required to set up a dairy unit, round the years availability of good quality fodder is the foremost requirement. Green forages are rich and cheapest source of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals for dairy animals. The importance of forages in our country is well recognized since feeding forages alone accounts for over 70% of the cost of milk production. Hence by providing sufficient quantities of green fodder instead of costly concentrates and feeds to the milch animals, the economics of dairy unit can easily be maintained. Milch animals need around 40 kg of green fodder daily for better milk production and for maintaining good health of the animal. There is a large number of fodder crops grown in our country, the majority being dominated by pearl millet, sorghum, maize and oats in the non-leguminous and berseem and lucerne in the leguminous category. Pearl millet and sorghum are extensively grown as cereals in the southern and dryer regions of the country and the stover remained is used as animal fodder. However, the nutritional quality of the stover is very poor due to higher content of indigestible lignin and low levels of cellulose, whereas, the cultivated green fodders are mostly confined to the North-Western plain zones of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. The availability of round the years quality green fodder, therefore, seems to be a tough task. At present, the country faces a net deficit of 61.1% green fodder, 21.9% dry crop residues and 64% feeds (IGFRI Vision, 2030).

1) Origin and distribution

Pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum (L) Leeke, 2n-14) originated in west Africa from where it was introduced into India. Large variability is still found in Africa. Pearl millet is a dual purpose crop; its grain is used for human consumption and its fodder as cattle feed. It is cultivated mainly in Africa and Asia, primarily as a grain crop in an area of 26 million ha with a production of 13 million tonnes. As a poor man’s bread, it sustains a large population of Africa and Asia. It also contributes to the economy of countries like the U.S.A. where it is grown as a forage crop.

In India, Pennisetum americanum (bajra) is cultivated on 11 to 12 million ha land with a production of about 6 million tonnes. It is grown on marginal lands and in areas of scanty rainfall. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana account for about 90 per cent of the total area under this crop.

Introduction

Tree improvement through the application of genetic principles is directed towards modifying the heredity of tree populations so that they are able to meet the needs of the forester and the wood based industry. The breeder of annual crop plants resorts to hybridisation, selection, testing of the improved strains, multiplication of improved seeds and finally their release for commercial planting in that logical sequence. But the tree breeder, whose career may be shorter than the life cycle of the tree species taken up for improvement, tends to carry out the above operations in a modified form and often some of the operations are carried out concurrently.

Many of our tree species are wild unselected populations. They are, therefore, expected to exhibit considerable natural variability for many characters and also to respond well to selection for further improvement. Further, altitudinal and latitudinal variation in many characters between populations are expected for those tree species which have a wide geographical distribution. So, the selection of desirable seed sources or provenances is an essential step that is basic to all tree improvement programmes. The right provenance is identified through well laid out provenance trials at a number of locations in the area where the improved selection is to be grown. Further improvement is then planned and executed for exploiting the naturally available intrapopulation variation. The variation normally measured is the phenotypic variation which is the result of interaction of the genotype of the individual with the environment. However, what is essential for selection to be effective is genetic variation for the character under consideration. Genetic variation is assessed by appropriate progeny trials. Since many of the economically valuable characters of tree species are polygenically controlled and exbibit continuous variation, measurements have to be in metric units. The use of biometrical techniques for assessing and analysing this variation, therefore, becomes an essential requirement.

The satellite data is available in raster format. Raster data consists of two – dimensional array of pixels or grids which stores the values representing features. All the pixels are of same size and shape with their particular coordinate location. A raster data format is shown below.

The sensors present over remote sensing satellites are designed to collect energy or radiance from the varied surface features having wide range of radiance i.e. from features like water bodies having very low radiance to features like sand or snow having very high radiance. But, most of the time, the study area may not have all these features; therefore, radiance values may remain confined to a narrow range. This reduces the contrast of the image, thereby decreases its visual quality. In this context, image contrast enhancement techniques are used for effective visualization and display of remote sensing image on computer screens or hard copy so that maximum amount of information can be derived through its visual interpretation.

Contrast enhancement of a digital image is a technique to modify the original grey levels of input image to the entire available range of the grey levels. This increases the contrast between various features in the image which improves the visual quality of original image. Contrast enhancement can be done by both linear and non-linear methods. Some of the commonly used contrast enhancement techniques with their implementation in R software are discussed in this chapter.

We need following packages for performing this exercise in R. raster package is required for importing of raster image and for performing contrast enhancement. RStoolbox package is also required for contrast enhancement as well as for visualization of raster data with ggplot2 package. rasterVis package is mainly used in this exercise for plotting histogram of the raster data.

Annual flowers are a group of herbaceous plants which grow from seeds, produce flowers, set seeds and complete their life-cycle within one year or one season. They provide a beautiful display of colours in the garden. Whether it is a small home garden or a big public garden, it is incomplete without beds of annual flowers. They enhance the decorative value of a garden within a short span of time. At their blooming time, one feels elated when a rain of beauty drizzles in the garden.

Classification of Annuals

Based on season, the annual flowers are divided into 3 groups—winter season, summer season and rainy season.

Winter season annuals

This group includes a large number of seasonal flowers. The important ones are acroclinium, agrostemma, amaranthus, anchusa, annual carnation, annual chrysanthemum, antirrhinum, arctotis, bells-of-Ireland, brachycome, calceolaria, calendula, campanula, candytuft, celosia, China aster, cineraria, clarkia, cornflower, daisy, delphinium, dianthus, dimorphotheca, echium, eschscholzia, gazania, godetia, helichrysum, helipterum, hollyhock, gypsophila, limonium, linaria, linum, lupin, marigold, matricaria, mesembryanthemum, mignonette, mimulus, myosotis, nasturtium, nemesia, nicotiana, nemophila, nigella, pansy, petunia, phlox, pimpinella, poppy, rudbeckia, salvia, saponaria, scabiosa, schizanthus, senecio, stock, sweet alyssum, sweet pea, sweet sultan, sweet william, venidium, verbena, viola and wall flower.

The term “low-maintenance” refers to a plant that does not require frequent maintenance such as regular watering, pruning, or spraying to remain healthy and to maintain an acceptable aesthetic quality. A low-maintenance plant has low fertilizer requirements and few pest and disease problems. In addition, low-maintenance plants suitable for India must also be adapted to or at least tolerate our poor, alkaline, sand or limestone-based soils. Both native and non-native species are included herein. Also, a variety of plants that are not commonly available in Indian nurseries or garden centres were intentionally included with the hope that increased demand will generate increased supply. Putting the right plant in the right place is of foremost importance in creating a healthy and successful low-maintenance landscape. However, this principle is dependent upon one’s ability to accurately select the right plant species for a given location. Common names are often misleading and sometimes more than one plant species may be referred to by the same or similar common name.

There are four major tracts where salt affected soils are commonly met within India. These are:

1. The Semi-arid Indo-Gangetic alluvial tracts (mainly in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and a part of Bihar)
2. The arid tracts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
3. The arid and semi arid tracts of southern states, particularly of the irrigated rigor (Vertisols) soils.
4. The coastal alluvium

Earlier it was estimated that about 7 million hectares of land have been affected by salinity/sodicity conditions in India. The area under these soils increased and reached to the level 10 million hectares at present.

Leaf analysis and its importance

Improved fertilizer management for crops is important in view of today’s need to reduce production costs, conserve natural resources, and minimize possible negative environmental impacts. These goals can be achieved through optimum management of the fertilizer applied. Understanding the crop nutrient requirements and using soil testing to predict fertilizer needs are keys to fertilizer management efficiency.

Plant tissue testing is another tool for use in achieving a high degree of precision in fertilizer management. Timely tissue testing can help diagnose suspected nutrient problems or can simply assist in learning more about fertilizer management efficiency. Leaf analysis (also called stem leaf analysis, tissue analysis or foliar analysis) is the most precise method of monitoring plant nutrient levels. While soil analysis reveals the levels of essential soil nutrients, leaf analysis shows the grower exactly what the plant has successfully absorbed. Leaf analysis is especially helpful in detecting nutrient deficiencies before they affect plant health and yield.

Phosphorus is one of the key nutrients required for higher and sustained productivity of potato and its influence on tuber yield is very well established. Phosphatic fertilizers are expensive and in developing countries like India, they are either imported or manufactured using imported raw material. Due to increase in cost in the recent past, there has been a decreasing trend in the amounts of P fertilizer applied in India (Sundara and Natarajan, 1997 and Sundara, 1988). At the same time, soils contain substantial reserves of total P, most of it remains relatively inert, and only less than 10% of soil P enters the plant–animal cycle (Kucey et al., 1989). Upon addition to the soils, soluble phosphates react with the constituents of the soil and form compounds that are less soluble. This conversion depends upon the soil type. In acid soils, the reaction products are aluminium and iron phosphates and in the predominantly calcareous soils, the reaction products are calcium phosphates. As a result most of the P applied (often as much as 90%) is rendered unavailable for crop uptake but is retained in insoluble form. This is the reason that the potato-based cropping systems in different potato growing pockets generally show positive P balance resulting into its build up (Singh et al., 1994). Thus, soils commonly have large reserves of ‘fixed’ P that could support long-term crop requirements if it could be mobilized through appropriate soil management including use of P-solubilizing microbes. The ability of phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB) to convert insoluble forms of phosphorus to an accessible form is an important trait in sustainable farming for increasing plant yields (Singh and Kapoor, 1994). The beneficial effects of PSB on crop productivity have been widely described. These soil phosphate solubilizing bacteria stay near the roots and make the phosphorus available to plants from soil.

Potato plays a vital role in food security for ever increasing world population (Thiele et al., 2010; Scott and Sourez, 2011; Scott and Sourez, 2012). It is highly capital and labour intensive crop (Kushwah and Singh, 2011). Presently, India is the second largest potato producer in the world. India is producing about 45-48 million tonnes of potato annually from about 2 million hectare of area. However, India would require 125 million metric tonnes of potato from 3.6 million hectare area in 2050 (Vision, 2050). The stagnating growth rates of cereals’ productivity, large scale diversion of food grains to feed & bio-fuel and expected steep rise in per capita consumption of pulses, edible oil, fruits, vegetables, milk, sugar and non-vegetarian food in the regime of steadily rising population is bound to put pressure on existing cultivable land. Since, cultivable land is expected to remain more or less constant in the next 40 years, the role of crops like potato having higher production potential per unit land and time will become imperative. In this context potato crop has very high probability of making crucial contribution to the future national food security agenda. The perceived changes in Indian socio-economics in the medium and long term are expected to enhance per capita food consumption of fresh potatoes.

Fertilizer and nutrient recommendations for different crops are mostly region specific and very general in nature which results into a blanket application of fertilizer leading to its poor efficacy and wastage of costly resources as well as of environmental pollution. In addition, this has caused severe imbalance of nutrients in soil. The spatial variability of available nutrients properly mapped along with other relevant parameters will help to develop site specific nutrient management practices with increased productivity and profitability apart from checking nutrient imbalance and environmental pollution.

Cutaneous muscle

The cutaneous muscle of the thoracic region is a part of the cutaneous muscle of the trunk. It arises from the interbrachial fascia on the medial surface of the arm and elbow and the lateral aspect of the arm and shoulder. It extends as a broad sheet between the shoulder and arm cranially and the stifle and thigh caudally and then upward to the middle of the dorsum and the tuber coxae.

Fascia of thorax

The fascia of the thoracic region is the caudal continuation of cervical fascia. It is in two layers, the superficial and deep. The superficial fascia is continuous with that of the skin and the cutaneous muscle. The deep fascia forms a well developed sheath for aponeurosis with the longissimus muscle. It is attached medially to the supraspinous ligament and the summits of the spinous processes of the thoracic vertebrae while laterally it is attached to the lateral surface of the ribs. From here it continues ventrolaterally and passes medial to the scapula under the rhomboideus thoracis muscle.

The muscles of fore limb (Fig. 5-3 A and B) are distributed in different regions of fore limb as muscles of shoulder girdle, shoulder, arm and those of forearm and manus. By means of the muscles of shoulder girdle the forelimb is attached with the trunk of the body by synsarcosis and bears the weight of the body. The rest of the groups of muscles act on different joints of the fore limb as extensors or flexors of these joints. The group of muscles acting on these joints originates on the bone of the proximal segment and insert on the bone of distal segment of the concerned joint.

Muscles of shoulder girdle

The muscles of shoulder girdle have been described with the muscles of thorax.

Muscles of shoulder

The muscles of shoulder arise on the scapula, act on shoulder joint and end on the humerus. These muscles are in two groups as the lateral group of muscles and the medial group of muscles.

Our general environment is loaded with tiny invisible living things that influence us consistently. Microbiology is a specialized area of science that deals with living things typicallytoo little to be seen without magnification. Suchmicroscopic life forms are collectively referred to as microorganisms. Microbial kingdom incorporates the study of bacteria, rickettsiae, viruses, fungi, algae and protozo a. Virology the study of viruses, mycology study of fungi and protozoology deals with protozoa.Credit for prologue to microbial world goes to ‘Antony van Leeuwenhoek’ and to vistas of microbial activities to ‘Louis Pasteur’ and ‘Robert Koch’. This period is reffered as the “Golden Era” of microbiology on account of the significant discoveries viz: microbial fermentations, discovery of various disease-causing agents, microbes’ cultivations, differences in metabolic activities, development of attenuated strains and their use as immunoprophylactic agents. The techniques used to study bacteria and different microorganisms embody direct microscopic examination, cultivation, biochemical tests, animal inoculation, serological reactivity and recent molecular biological techniques.Definitive evidence for the cause of a given infection is established by Koch that are still used to this day to definitively prove that a microorganism causes a particular disease. Koch’s four postulates are:

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is branch of pharmacology that deals with study of chemical substance intended to kills or inhibits the growth of invading microorganism or foreign cell without harm to host cells. Paul Ehrlich coined the term chemotherapy and is known as father of chemotherapy. Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk discovered sulphonamide (sulfonamidochrysoidine). First commercially available sulphonamide marketed in the form of Prontosil dye, for which he received the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. SelmanAbraham Waksman discover streptomycin and several other antibiotics from soil actinomycetes and actinomycetes is called treasurer house of antibiotics.

α-lactam antibiotics- includes penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems, monobectum and beta-lactamase inhibitors. It inhibits bacterial cell wall synthesis due to inhibition of transpeptidation reaction thus inhibits peptidoglycan synthesis. Penicillins contain 6-animopenicillanic acid (((lactam ring + thiazolidine ring) eg. natural penicillins, beta-lactamase-resistant agents, aminopenicillins, carboxypenicillins, and ureidopenicillins. Discovery of penicillin was done by Alexender fleming from penicillium mold in 1928 from Penicillium notatum. Now a day’s Penicillium chrysogenum mold is a major source of penicillin production. Benzathine penicillin G is a repository salt of penicillin. Probenicid competitively inhibit renal tubular secretion of penicillin and increase the half- life of penicillin. Procaine penicillin G should not administer by i.v. route due to adversely affect the cardiac conducting system. Beta-lactamses inhibitors are calvulenic acid (Streptomyces clavuligerus), salbactum, tazobactam. They are called suicidal /progressive inhibitors. Main adverse effect associate with penicillin is immediate type of hypersensitivity reaction due to Antigen+ IgE antibody reaction.

Abstract

World Economic forum (WEF) which evaluated 149 countries on four parameters including economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment, said that it would take 108 years to close the overall gender gap. That means the economic opportunity gap-based on participation, pay and advancement in the workforce-remains the area that is going to take the longest time to close. Globally, women are paid less than men. Women in most countries earn on average only 60 to 75 per cent of men’s wages. Contributing factors include the fact that women are more likely to be wage workers and unpaid family workers; that women are more likely to engage in low-productivity activities and to work in the informal sector, with less mobility to the formal sector than men. India’s inequality crisis hurts girls and women the most. An Oxfam report on inequality published in January 2019 revealed that in the workplace, women still receive 34% less wages than their male counterparts for the same work. In J&K, incidences of domestic violence, dowry, etc are rampant. State Women Commission J&K receives 1600-1700 domestic violence cases every year, majority cases being from the Kashmir Valley. Men’s silence, insensitivity and indifferences with regards to gender equality practices need to be the focus theme of the time. The fight for gender equality cannot be fought by women alone. Men have a key role to play in demanding and supporting this societal shift by being a part of the movement.

Keywords: Women empowerment, global perspectives, Indian perspectives, way forward.

Abstract

Gender Budgeting was first introduced in 1985 and is being implemented globally by more than 50 countries to ensure gender equality goals. India took initial steps towards analysing the gender gap through “Towards Equality” a Report of the Committee on the Status of Women by the Government of India in 1974. Gender based resource allocation in the country was seen from 1990s onwards in the Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97) when for the first time gender perspective and the need to ensure definite flow of funds from general developmental sectors to women was emphasised upon. Women constitute 49% of human population in India so it is extremely important that the untapped gender potential is recognized, reorganised and utilized efficiently & effectively to attain a leading position in S&T sector. India has expanded her R&D base immensely since the turn of the 21^st century. Consequently there has been 10 times enhancement in enrolment of women in S&T disciplines in institutions of higher education since 1989-90. Department of Science and Technology has taken many steps in recent past to strengthen the ecosystem to empower women in S&T domain, particularly by enabling over 4000 of them who had a break in career, primarily due to familial responsibilities, to make a dignified comeback. Several Role Models, who have shown their mettle and made a mark in the chosen field, are emerging and engaging & encouraging the young, Gen Next girls.

Abstract

Women entrepreneurship means the process in which women initiate a business, gather all resources, undertake risks, face challenges, provides employment to others and manage the business independently. Where women population hovers around 50% of the total human population in the world so entrepreneurship by them plays a key role in the development of economy of both developed and developing nations. The problems faced by women entrepreneurs are heavy work load, irregular payment, lack of work guarantee and no maternity benefits, health problems, marketing, financial liberty and being away from home. A different culture is required to promote, motivate and develop sustainable infrastructure for fostering women entrepreneurship. Often, an entrepreneur has to go through a complex set of procedures and formalities to start a business, which not only create irritations and delays but frustrate her efforts until she is exhausted. An urgent need, therefore, is to simplify procedures and formalities. Part of the problem is one of attitudes, which are built on regulatory roles rather than developmental roles. All training and financial agencies need to be gender sensitive. The time has come for an effort to inculcate a spirit of enterprise, self-dependence, creativity, and high goals among women in developing nations. Hence, entrepreneurship must be made part and parcel of the education curriculum.

Abstract

Women play a critical and potentially transformative role in agricultural growth in developing countries but they face persistent obstacles and economic constraints limiting their potential inclusion in agriculture. The feminization of agriculture is determined by two major factors, first compared to men, women have much poorer access to and control over productive resources and they have inadequate access to public services, such as training, extension and credit. Women farmers often lack the know-how and the confidence to use the improved technology and most of the new technologies. The reason being most of these advancements are aimed at male specific end users. Giving support to rural women is a way of breaking the vicious cycle that leads to rural poverty so there is need to cut the drudgery of women farmers and make their efforts worthwhile and economical. Development strategies should consider rural women as the epicenter, paying special attention to their social skills both within and without agriculture sector. In terms of equity, women overall have lower awareness of AAS than men do, indicating the importance of targeting women in communications efforts. More trainings are required to generate interest and motivate farm women to learn about the AAS and use it. Closing the gender productivity gap could increase agricultural output in by a significant amount. Increased production would also imply increased food availability and reductions in undernourishment. Integrating Gender and Agriculture within Agricultural Extension System empowers families, helps women to contribute to household incomes, increases productivity & reduces gender gaps in agriculture.

Abstract

Livestock sector plays an important role in rural livelihood, employment and income generation and is a preferred entrepreneurial area for women and unemployed youths. There are enormous enterprises to venture in livestock sector such dairy, poultry, sheep rearing, goatry, piggery, fisheries, hatcheries, processing, organic dairy, organic poultry, value added products, feed and fodder products, pet-vet consultancy and clinic etc. Women constitute about 69% of workforce engaged in livestock sector right from rearing of animals to production and product development activities. Market oriented milk & milk product production as well as poultry production will be key livestock activities to generate income on a steady daily basis for resource poor households. Livestock-based enterprises are pathways out of poverty for many people in developing countries like India, for whom animals are source of nourishing foods and regular incomes. With demands for milk, meat and eggs rising fast in many developing countries, the raising marketing of animals and animal products also allows many people to take advantage of the new growth opportunities in this sector. The projection of human population in India shows an increasing trend with alarming rate which in turn increases the demand for food especially of animal origin.

Rice

Plant parasitic nematodes cause serious damage to rice crop. Thirty two species belonging to 13 genera were observed in association with the crop. Among them few are considered to be important. They are the rice white - tip nematode (Aphelenchoides besseyi), rice stem nematode (Ditylenchus angustus), rice root nematode (Hirschmanniella oryzae), root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne graminicola) and the cyst nematode (Heterodera oryzicola).

The white-tip nematode (Aphelenchoides besseyi)

The yield loss due to the white-tip nematode is estimated to be as much as 17.4 to 54.1 per cent. The nematode is distributed in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, Former USSR, Italy, Cuba and Madagascar.

Black Pepper

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is indigenous to the tropical forests of Western Ghats of South India. The crop is grown in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh and Assam.

The root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita and the burrowing nematode, Radopholus similis are important pests of this crop. The root-knot nematode infested vines show yellowing of lower leaves and the leaves loose natural luster. The yellowing of leaves gradually progresses upwards. The affected vine leaves become flaccid and wither. The infested plant root show root galls of varying sizes.

The burrowing nematode also causes serious damage to the vine. Var der Vecht (1950) first reported slow wilt in this crop due to R.similis infestation in Indonesia. The nematode in association with Fusarium and Rhizoctonia causes serious damage to the crop.

Definition

Based on various standard sources, plant breeding has been defined in various ways. A few important and standard definitions are:

The art and science of changing plants genetically.

Plant breeding is the genetic adjustment of plants to the service of man.

Improvement of crop plants as the result of process of evolution directed by man for his own ends. The basic principles of plant breeding are thus the principles of evolution. Directed evolution as imposed in plant breeding differs from natural evolution chiefly in a greatly reduced time-scale, and in a more precise control over the factors which govern hybridization and selection.

The science and art of manipulating the heredity of plants for a specific purpose.

Plant breeding is a deliberate effort by human to nudge nature, with respect to the heredity of plants, to an advantage. The changes made in plants are permanent and heritable and the professionals who carry out this task are called plant breeders. This effort at adjusting the status quo is instigated by a desire of humans to improve certain aspects of plants to perform new roles or enhance existing ones. As a result, the term “plant breeding” is often used synonymously with “plant improvement” in recent years. Normally the term plant breeding connotes the involvement of sexual process in effecting a desired change; however, it is also true that modern plant breeding also includes the manipulation of asexually reproducing plants (plants that do not reproduce through the sexual process). Breeding is therefore about manipulating plant attributes, structure, and composition, to make them more useful to humans.

Gepts and Hanock (2006) have defined plant breeding as an applied, multidisciplinary science. It is the application of genetic principles and practices associated with the development of cultivars more suited to the needs of human than the ability to survive in the wild; it uses knowledge from agronomy, botany, genetics, physiology, pathology, entomology, biochemistry and statistics. Of particular importance is the ability to transfer, in addition to major genes, large suites of genes conditioning quantitative traits such as productivity and other traits of interest to humans. The ultimate outcome of plant breeding is mainly improved cultivars. Therefore, plant breeding is primarily an organismal science even though it is eminently suited to translate information at molecular level (DNA sequences, protein products) into economically important phenotypes. The traditional definition of plant breeding includes only those scientists who develop new cultivars and improved germplasm, however, many feel this definition should be expanded to include scientists who contribute to crop improvement through breeding research.

Cell

Cells (small, membrane-bounded structures filled with a variety of chemicals in an aqueous solution that interact to give life) are the basic unit of life. Cells are capable of acquisition and use of energy, have the capacity to reproduce and respond to the environment and are able to carry out a variety of chemical reactions. They maintain a relatively constant internal environment despite changes in the external environment. There are two types of cells, namely, prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

The prokaryotic (pro = before, karyote = nucleus) cells are the simple form of cell types which include the various types of cells of bacteria and their relatives, all belonging to kingdom Monera. They possess a cell wall constructed of peptidoglycan, a substance unique to prokaryotes. Beneath the cell wall, there is a plasma membrane that encloses a cytoplasm containing DNA, RNA, proteins and various small molecules.

Biochemical reactions are mediated by enzymes and all enzymes are proteins. Proteins are polymers of subunits (monomers) called amino acids which are often termed as ‘residues’. Each amino acid has an amino group (NH ) at one end and a carboxyl group (COOH) at the opposite end. 20 different kinds of amino acids occur naturally in proteins. Each enzyme consists of a certain number of amino acids in a precisely ordered sequence. The blueprint for making proteins is coded in the nucleotide sequence of DNA. The number of nucleotides which code for an amino acid is termed a codon. There are 20 common amino acids but only four different nucleotides. Obviously a singlet code (one nucleotide coding for one amino acid) could code only for four amino acids. A coding sequence of two nucleotides for one amino acid or a doublet code would produce 4₂ = 16 possible coding combinations or codons and this arrangement is not sufficient to take care of 20 amino acids. A codon size of three nucleotides for one amino acid or triplet code seems more likely as it produces 4₃ = 64 possible codons as illustrated in Table 43.1 (Strickberger, 1968).

Abstract

Chickpea is one of the major grain legume crops of the tropics and subtropics. It is the second most important pulse crop after pigeon pea in India and is commonly known as gram or Bengal gram is a versatile crop among the grain legumes with a total production of 11.6 (Mt) from 13.2m ha. However, it ranks fifth in the productivity after Fababean, pea, lupin, and lentil and ranks first among the pulses both in acreage and production. Whereas, area under pigeon pea 3.90 mha with a total production and productivity of 2.89 mt and 741 kg/ha, respectively and is commonly known as red gram or Arhar is a very old crop of India. The chromosome number of pigeon pea is 2n = 22 chromosomes. They are the rich source of protein and supplies a major share of the protein requirement of the vegetarian population of the country. Chickpea accounts for 70.7% of the world Chickpea production n India followed by Australia, Pakistan, Turkey, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Iran USA, Canada and Mexico. Both crops are used as an important source of protein in human nutrition and cattle feed. Chickpea is considered to have medicinal effects and it is used for blood purification. Chickpea contains 21% protein, 61.5% carbohydrate, 4.5% fat. Its seed is also rich in protein, starch, fiber, calcium, iron and niacin, malic and oxalic acid, which makes it one of the best nutritionally balanced pulses for human consumption. However, like any other pulses, the chickpea seed also contains antinutrional factors, which can be reduced or eliminated by cooking. Both crops enrich the soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen in the root nodules and improve the soil structure. It is also to improve soil fertility by biological nitrogen fixation which helps reduce the input cost for the existing crop. These crops usually receive few inputs other than labor, insecticides and seed. Chickpea is a crop of both tropical and temperate regions. Low yield of chickpea attributed to its susceptibility to several fungal, bacterial and viral diseases. In general, estimates of yield losses by individual insects and diseases range from 5 to 10% in temperate regions and 50 to 100% in tropical regions. Whereas, Pigeon pea can be attacked by more than 100 pathogens. These include fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes, and mycoplasma like organisms. Fortunately, only a few of them cause economic losses and the distribution of the most important diseases is geographically restricted. The diseases of considerable economic importance at present are Fusarium wilt, sterility mosaic, phytopthera blight and alternaria blight.

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out during rabi 2012-13 at Bihar Agricultural College farm, Sabour, Bhagalpur to assess the effect of different herbicides on microbial population dynamics of soil in winter maize (Zea mays L.). The experiment comprised of ten weed management treatments involving various herbicides (acetochlor @ 1.125, 2.25 and 4.5 kg a.i. ha^-1, atrazine @ 1.0 kg a.i. ha^-1, pendimethalin @ 0.5 kg a.i. ha^-1 + atrazine @ 0.5 kg a.i. ha^-1, alachlor @ 0.5 kg a.i. ha^-1 as pre-emergence and 2,4-Diethyl ester @ 0.6 kg a.i. ha^-1and topramezone @ 0.04 kg a.i. ha^-1+ atrazine @ 0.25 kg a.i. ha^-1 as post-emergence including weed free and weedy check laid in randomized block design with three replications. Results indicated that all the herbicides’ treatment showed significant adverse effect on microbial population in rhizospheric soil of winter maize up to 45 days after sowing. Further, there was reduction in soil microbial population occurred in all the herbicides treated plots up to said time period as compared with weed free and weedy check. Initially the soil microbial population in weed free plot was much higher than that of weedy check, however, it was found in reverse trends in rest of the time intervals as well as harvest. Thereafter, soil microbial population was gradually increasing at different time intervals and at harvest, their population increased considerably in herbicidal treated plots though the weed free and weedy check showed higher soil microbial population than other herbicide treated plots.

Abstract

Fungal rot and wilt caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a devastating disease of vegetables causing huge loss. The fungus has a broad host of more than 400 species including diverse vegetable crops, viz., carrot, potato, tomato, green pepper, eggplant, lettuce, peas and beans, cole crops, bottle gourd, pointed gourd, etc. Being able to overwinter in the soil in form of sclerotia upto 5 years and having such a wide host range, management of the disease becomes very difficult. Thus development of resistant varieties can be the only long term strategy for control of the pathogen. The screening of the existing genotypes and identification of resistant genotypes forms the base of any resistant breeding programme. The widely available genotypes of different crops have been screened by several researchers and resistant genotypes have been identified in cauliflower, vegetable soybean, peas, tomato, etc. These genotypes are further used in breeding programmes for as donors for resistance to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum.

Keywords: Vegetables, Sclerotinia, Resistance breeding, Genotypic screening

Polyacrylamide

Polyacrylamide is a cross-linked polymer of acrylamide. The length of the polymer chains is dictated by the concentration of acrylamide used, which is typically between 3.5 and 20%. Polyacrylamide gels are significantly more annoying to prepare than agarose gels. Because oxygen inhibits the polymer- ization process, they must be poured between glass plates (or cylinders).

Silver Staining for Protein

Silver staining is one of the procedures, in addition to Coomassie Blue, R and G types, and fluorescent dyes that are available for detecting proteins separated by gel electrophoresis. Switzer introduced silver staining in 1979, a technique that today provides a very sensitive tool for protein visualization with a detection level down to the 0.3-10 ng level.

The basic mechanisms underlying silver staining of proteins in gels are relatively well understood. Basically, protein detection depends on the binding of silver ions to the amino acid side chains, primary the sulfhydril and carboxiyl groups of proteins, followed by reduction to free metallic silver. The protein bands are visualized as spots where the reduction occurs and, as a result, the image of protein distribution within the gel is based on the difference in oxidation-reduction potential between the gel’s area occupied by proteins and the free adjacent sites. A number of alteration in the silver staining procedure can shift the oxidation-reduction equilibrium in a way that gel- separated proteins will be visualized either as positively or negatively stained bands. Silver staining protocols can be divided into two general categories: 1) silver amine or alkaline methods, and 2) silver nitrate or acidic methods. In general, the detection levels’ using the various procedures is determined by how quickly the protein bands develop in relationship to the background (e.g. signal-to-noise ratio). The silver amine or alkaline methods usually have lower background and as a result are most sensitive but require longer procedures. Acidic protocols, on the other hand, are faster but slightly less sensitive. Clearly, each protocol has different advantages regarding timing, sensitivity, cost, and compatibility with other analytical methods, especially mass-spectrometry (MS) a tool that is being used in combination with gel electrophoresis or chromatographic methods for rapid protein identification. Until recently most of the silver staining protocols used either glutaraldehyde- of formaldehyde-based sensitizes in the fixing and sensitization step, thus, introducing the chemical modifications into proteins. The utilization of those chemicals causes the cross-linking of two lysine residues within protein chain, thus, strongly affecting two most crucial steps for the subsequent MS analysis: hampering the trypsin digestion and highly reduces the protein extraction from the gel .

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule made up of pairs of building blocks called nucleotides. The four kinds of nucleotides that make up DNA are adenine (abbreviated as the single letter A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). The DNA molecule has the shape of two intertwined spirals, referred to as a double helix. DNA is packaged into chromosomes that are located within the nucleus of all cells. These chromosomes are the same in every cell of an organism and together make up the organism’s genetic information, its genome. Chromosomes contain stretches of DNA called genes that code for amino acids that make proteins. It is the proteins that are the foundation of life for all organisms. The interaction and structure of proteins determine the visible characteristics or phenotype of an organism, while the genetic makeup of an organism is called its genotype.

The sequence of nucleotides that make up a gene can differ among individuals. The different forms of a gene are called alleles. The alleles are the result of nucleotide differences in a gene that affect an amino acid sequence of a protein. This can result in a change, addition, or deletion of a protein that can affect the phenotype.

Northern Blot

The northern blot is a technique used in molecular biology research to study gene expression by detection of RNA (or isolated mRNA) in a sample.

In cell biology, a mitochondrion is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most eukaryotic cells These organelles range from 0.5–10 micrometers (µm) in diameter. Mitochondria are sometimes described as “cellular power plants” because they generate most of the cell’s supply energy in form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used as a source of chemical energy. In addition to supplying cellular energy, mitochondria are involved in a range of other processes, such as signaling, cellular differentiation, cell death, as well as the control of the cell cycle and cell growth. Mitochondria have been implicated in several human diseases, including mitochondrial disorders and cardiac dysfunction, and may play a role in the aging process.

Several characteristics make mitochondria unique. The number of mitochondria in a cell varies widely by organism and tissue type. Many cells have only a single mitochondrion, whereas others can contain several thousand mitochondria. The organelle is composed of compartments that carry out specialized functions. These compartments or regions include the outer membrane, the intermembrane space, the inner membrane, and the cristae and matrix. Mitochondrial proteins vary depending on the tissue and the species. In humans, 615 distinct types of proteins have been identified from cardiac mitochondria; whereas in Murinae (rats), 940 proteins encoded by distinct genes have been reported. The number of proteins encoded in plant mitochondrial DNA is probably not much higher than the number encoded in mammalian mitochondria.Experiments have shown that most of the protein synthesis in isolated maize mitochondria can be accounted for by some 18-20 polypeptidesThe mitochondrial proteome is thought to be dynamically regulated. Although most of a cell’s DNA is contained in the cell nucleus, the mitochondrion has its own independent genome. Further, its DNA shows substantial similarity to bacterial genomes.

The screwpines are tropical shrubby plants grown for the highly scented flowers or the ornamental foliage. The ornamental foliage types are generally cultivated in the green house and protected from direct sun. The variegated types loose the colour in a rich soil and hence should be grown in a rather poor soil containing just sufficient nutrients and moisture. Some species are good for potting and indoor decoration. The common screwpine is used as a hedge also (Randhawa and Mukhopadhyay, 1986)

The screwpine (Pandanus), is highly polymorphic with numerous forms and varieties and selected in various countries for specific uses as maintained by vegetative propagation, e.g. P. leram (Plate 14), the Nicober-bread fruit, is grown in the Andaman Islands for its edible fruit providing a starchy food that is enjoyed locally; another species, P. utilis (Plate 15), on the remote Island of Mauritius, provides fibre from the leaves, used in making bags and a species from Polynesia, P.veitchii (Plate 16) is most commonly grown in green houses and outdoors as an ornamental, where the winter weather is mild and in the species the prop roots and branching stems are particularly well developed attracting attention from many people who might not otherwise notice the stranger from the tropics (Lorus and Milne, 1967). However, these three species give a striking foliage effect and especially useful in seaside gardens as P. utilis with green leaves; P. veitchii with banded white and P. leram with even longer leaves (Thomas, 1965). An unarmed form, forma laevis warb., is cultivated for the fragrant bracts of the inflorescence, while forma samak, a group of prickly Pandanus, is preferred for the tough leaves suitable for matting; another form with longitudinal yellow bands on leaves (forma variegatus) is grown for ornamental purposes (Deshaprabhu, 1966; Ambasta, 1986). In the Pacific Islands, some of the forms (e.g pulposus) are cultivated for their edible fruits (Purseglove, 1975; Ambasta, 1986). Burkill (1966) states that the common wild armed form of the sea-coasts was var. littoralis and that flower growers had selected various races for cultivation, which included the prickly var. samak and thronless var. laevis, grown in India, Malay and Indonesia, are used for making mats.

I. General information

1. Plants propagated through modified underground stems are grouped into tubers, bulbs, rhizomes
2. An example of a bulbous plant propagated through tuber is dahlia
3. Bulbous plants which are propagated through corms are Gladiolus, Freesia, Tetonia and Tigrida
4. Bulbous plants propagated through bulbs are Amaryllis, Tuberose, Zephyranthes and Crinum
5. Bulbous plants propagated through rhizome are Alstroemeria, Bamboo, Canna, Convallaris, Hydechium, Iris and Zantedeschia
6. Bulbous plant propagated through tubercle is Bowiea volubilis
7. Bulbous plants propagated through tuberous roots are Dahlia, Eranthis, Ipomoea, Mirabilis, Ranunculus and Tapioca
8. Bulbous plants propagated through tuberous stem are Begonia and Cyclamen
9. Bulbous plant propagated through offsets are daffodil, tulip and iris

Rainfed Agriculture - A historic view

Historically, famines and scarcities have been recorded from the earliest times in India. They were mentioned in the epic Mahabharata, and there is Jain legend of a 12-year famine in the fourth century A.D. During the reign of the Moghul Emperor Shah Jehan in 1630-32, The official historian recorded in ‘Badsha Namah’ that soup Kitchens were opened, a lakh and half coins were given in charity and one eleventh of land revenue was remitted in the drought effected area.

In the remote past, these famines were tided over by saving grains and fodder from years of bumper harvest and by migration of people and cattle to greener pastures. With the rise of population pressure on arable land, the effects of scarcity and famine became progressively severe because the traditional methods of tiding over were no longer adequate. The successive famines in the closing decades of the 19th century closing decades of the 19th century led to the setting up of three Famine commissions.

The Commissions made several suggestions which formed the basis of the Famine Code promulgated in 1883 onwards and adopted by the then provincial governments. Apart from the relief works to be taken up during famine, the Commission recommended protective irrigation projects in dry and scarcity area and establishment of department of agriculture at the center and in the province. Later, the Royal commission on Agriculture (1928) reiterated in its report the problem of dryland agriculture and recommended a close attention by departments of agriculture to these problems.

The first systematic approach was made in 1923 by setting up small plots at Manjri, near Poona. This was followed by a more comprehensive research scheme on dry farming sanctioned by the Imperial (then Indian) Council of Agricultural Research during 1933-35. Under the scheme, research was conducted in low rainfall areas at Rohtak, Solapur, Bijapur, Raichur and Agra. Based on the results of this scheme, a series of dry farming practices were evolved which were known as ‘ the Bombay Dry farming ‘, ‘ the Madras Dry farming ‘ and ‘ the Hyderabad Dry farming ‘ practices. These practices emphasized soil and water conservation as basic to dryland production programs. The Scheme was terminated in 1943, since it was felt that the immediate objectives had been achieved.

Problems Associated with Rainfed Farming Agriculture

It is a dream desire to eliminate drought from this region. There are many problems that are associated with rainfed farming systems. The problems may be grouped into four major factors: climatic, edaphic, technological and socio- economic.

Climatic

1.Scarcity of rain-water which is low and unpredictable with respect to intensity and distribution;

2.High ET (nearly 3650 mm annually compared to total annual precipitation ranging from 350 to 1400 mm);

3.Extreme thermic values (upto 490C with the mean annual temperature exceeding 180C at some places);

4.High solar incidence (450 to 500 Cal cm² day^-1);

5.High wind velocity with desiccating winds causing a high rate of ET and wind erosion;

6.Low relative humidity;

7.Extensive climatic hazards such as weather aberrations, drought, flood, frost, gale, cyclones and burning winds due to dry, deserted and denuded situations.

Understanding the principles involved in plant growth and development is prime important for managing agronomic practices for higher productivity of dryland crops sustainably. Systematic study of plant growth based on the variability and interpreting plant development based on biometric methods is called as growth analysis. Plant data in turn biometric data is collected from the field and analysed over the period to know the growth condition of the plants. Based on biometric data, agronomic practices like application of fertilizers, irrigation and weed management practices were employed. Several growth indices are devised for identifying environmental or genetic factors as sources of variation in plants. Both whole plant and their component organs (leaf) are basis for calculating growth indices.

The most common parameters used in growth analysis are leaf area index, crop growth rate, relative growth rate, net assimilation rate and leaf area duration.