eChapters

Agriculture depends mainly on natural resources like land situation, soil, water and a favourable climate. Continuous agricultural practices adopted without conservation of such precious resources may lead to unsustainability of growth in agriculture. Conservation of these resources and their sustainable use with appropriate measures would be required for a sustainable agriculture.

The large and diverse livestock resources of India benefit millions of people in rural areas, enhancing their standard of living. The key elements of sustainable agriculture are livestock resources. India has a population of 535.78 million livestock. According to 20th livestock census 2019,India ranks first in the world for the number of buffalo (109.85 million), second in number of cattle (192.49 million), third for the number of sheep (74.26 million), fifth for the number of chickens and ducks (851.81 million), and tenth for the number of camels (2.5 lakhs). About 8.8% of India’s population is engaged by the livestock industry, which provides a living for two-thirds of the country’s rural communities.

The two limbs of Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal form parts of North Indian Ocean (NIO) on the left and right respectively. Though the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are located in the same latitudinal belt and receive the same amount of solar radiation, oceanographically these two basins exhibit remarkable differences. The reason for it is Bay of Bengal is shallow and less saline due to heavy river water discharge and Arabian Sea is deep and cold and more saline.

Happiness is the barest minimum to any person for survival and moving with a humble vision and mission either. Unfortunately, our farmers are denied to a glow of happiness, and mantled with clouds of agony, depression and confusuion. They are supposed to ensure food security to all, but themselves have to deal with extreme food insecurity, market uncertainty, undulating income, erosion of natural resources and stereotypes of farming occupation. That is how there has been a sharp rise in the migration from farm to off farm occupation.

This is the need of the hour to estimate their happiness. Agriculture is India’s backbone, employing half the country’s population. However, it has been confronting with several issues, including unfair and non-remunerative market prices, an unstructured supply chain, disaster driven crop failure, and so on. However, an alarming trend in our country shows that farmers are desiring to quit agriculture by large number, 45-60 per cent, and are committing suicides; this is a threat to our long-term a gri-development. Do they cultivate because they desire to, or because they have got no other choices either?

Domestication is the most extensive biological experiment ever undertaken by man. It has involved millions of animals and has extended through many centuries. It still continues and animal domestication was one of the major contributory factors to the agricultural revolution during the Neolithic period, which resulted in a shift in human lifestyle from hunting to farming. There are two species of domestic duck, the common duck, domesticated from the wild mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), and the Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata). Both are members of the Anatinae. In both species, the same scientific binomial is used for the domestic and the wild forms. Inter-breeding between the two species occurs, but their offspring are infertile. Both species of domestic duck produce eggs and meat and both are valuable on farms and smallholdings for reducing pests.

Around the world, nearly one billion people live along the 3,12,000 Km long coastline. The Indian coastline runs around 8,129 Km distributed along nine coastal states, two groups of islands and two union territories. The coastal ecosystem of India forms a very valuable resource community, supporting the livelihood security of several million rural poor and also contributing the national economy in a large measure. The latest estimates by National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS & LUP), Nagpur, India, using Global Assessment of Soil Degradation (GLASOD) guidelines indicate that the coastal area in the country is spread over an area of 11.8 million hectares (Mishra, 2005). Yadav et al. (1983) have reported about 3.1 M ha and 2.1 lakh ha of coastal salinity in India and Tamilnadu respectively.

1.1 Background

The whole world is characterized by diverse cultures, different approaches to life, divergent outlooks and world views and dissimilar living conditions and environments. The people in it live with cultural, social, economic and educational dissimilarities, differences, inequalities, and goals. Despite the disparities in everything, the whole world is unified by Information, Communication and Technology through the global media culture, technocapitalism, and information revolution. Gone are the days when people confined themselves to their hearths, farms, educational institutions and places of work, managing their lives with basic minimum requirements and needs! 

Uncertainty is an inevitable character of any system where most of the contradictory factors are either unpredictable or unfathomable. The higher is the complexity, the lesser would be the resilience. Agricultural production system, as it is managed in Indian condition, is the most vulnerable one to a plethora of uncertainties. Mostly managed in an open air rained conditions, it has been exposed to weather and resource uncertainties comprising of market volatility, poor access to technology and a fragile input delivery mechanism. The present study examines and depicts the possible issues and reasons for uncertainty.

Growth of urban population has become a challenge throughout the world. Presently, many of the cities are featured with high rising buildings, rush of vehicular traffic and networking of industrial establishments. The urban ecological footprints are increasing day-by-day resulting in unfavourable living conditions. The cities require vast area of land to sustain the population for requirement of food, clothing and other requirements. All these items are brought from areas outside the city, may be from far or near. Creating avenue for production of food and other materials in and around the cities will certainly minimize the pressure on land available outside the city areas. The urban sustainability is at threat due to environmental pollution, rising population and intensification of non-green activities. Many cities have natural resources such as water bodies, inherent vegetation, open space, etc.; which can be appropriately utilized for productive purpose. Promotion of urban agriculture in the form of growing crops, planting trees rearing animals and encouraging landscape garden will have long term impact on urban ecosystem. This can prevent environmental degradation, ensure supply of fresh food and improvement in urban life.

Vegetables are defined as edible herbaceous plants or parts of plants consumed as raw or after cooking and are rich in vitamins and minerals, low in calorific value and neutralize the acid substances produced during digestion of high energy foods. Olericulture is a branch of horticulture that deals with production, storage, processing and marketing of vegetables and has its origin when man started growing vegetables for human consumption. The term Olericulture comes from Latin words holus-holeris = any kind of culinary vegetable, pot herb, and cultura = to cultivate.

Vegetable crops include a large number of plants, mostly annuals and a few perennials, grown for their edible leaves, stem, flower buds, flowers, fruits and roots. Vegetables are integral part of a balanced diet and are considered as “Protective foods” as their consumption prevent several diseases. They have a prominent role in combating malnutrition of animals and human beings.

The word ‘horticulture’ was first conceived by Peter Laurinburg. In an English language, the word horticulture used for the first time in 1678 in a book entitled “New World of Words” by Phillips. The term HORTICULTURE is resultant of two Latin words i.e. HORTUS meaning GARDEN and CULTURA meaning CULTIVATION.

The Latin term ‘Garden’ meaning to enclose. In past, the garden had protection with with walls or other similar structures. Such protected places were used to grow fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants. When fruits are grown in a definite area, that area is called as an ‘orchard’. Thus, horticulture refers to cultivation of garden plants in protected enclosures. It is an aesthetic science deals with the garden crops. Such as growing of vegetable crops in vegetable gardens; fruit crops in fruit gardens. The most distinguished character between horticulture and agriculture is that horticulture deals with small scale gardening and usually in enclosed gardens although this is not a necessity, while agriculture is done on large scale with extensive crop cultivation.

Soil is a natural resource that exists on the planet much before the existence of mankind on it. The human relationship with soil throughout the history of mankind has marked its ability of crop production and influenced the success of civilisation. Such relationships also affirm soil as the foundation of agriculture and food security, supplying all the essential ingredients to plants, as fundamentals to life on planet, and support various biogeochemical cycles on earth’ s terrestrial ecosystem. Prosperity of human society depends on the utilisation of planet’ s resources in creative and productive ways. Of these resources, soil has gained much importance as it provides human to sustain themselves with their capacity to food production, to make significant contribution towards biodiversity and other ecosystem services that are vital for the functioning and resilience of earth’ s environment. Soil occupies a pivotal position in the environment to maintain its quality.

1.1 Perspective

From the very dawn of evolution of human beings, man has been using plants as food, for wellness and as medicine to alleviate diseases and discomfort. People living in different parts of the world, both new and old, in the centres of some of the oldest civilizations, had selected organisms from time immemorial for food and medicine by a process of trial and error or even by experimentation with the biological resources, particularly among the plants growing around them. These have been referred to as ethnic food/traditional food and ethnic medicine/traditional medicine. India is one of the mega centres of biodiversity, and that of the ethnic diversity, that evolved over millennia with settlement of diverse races coming from different regions of the world, besides the indigenous people. Thereby, it inhabits some of the most diverse cultural traditions. This process has led to further evolution of some of the oldest indigenous civilizations originated in the Indian Subcontinent with amalgamation of exotic traditions and the knowledge. Integration of the knowledge associated with the use of plants with medicinal properties has enriched its great heritage of medicinal plant use, the Ayurveda, i.e., the knowledge of life and longevity, dating back to the pre-historic and the early Vedic period.

India, the second most populous country in the world after China, is trying hard to provide basic needs like food, shelter, clothes, electricity and education facility to its 1,316 million people and to upgrade itself from the stage of ‘Developing economy’ to ‘Developed economy’. Table 1.1 depicts the trend of population increase from 1154 million to 1316 million during 2009 to 2018 with diminishing growth rate from 1.42% to 1.12%. Growing demand of ever increasing population has been met so far by over exploiting natural resources like land, water, fossil fuels, forests and mineral resources which resulted rapid unplanned urbanization, quick depletion of fossil fuels, more and more waste generation, alarming increase in environmental pollution, deforestation with loss of plant and animal species, desertification of cultivable land due to soil erosion, soil contamination & soil salinity and increase in health diseases due to malnutrition, starvation and environmental pollution.

India is well known for its rich flora and fauna and is referred as one of the richest biodiversity nations of the world. The mammalian population of India is a combination of Palaearctic, Oriental and Afro-tropical fauna (Sahajpal et al. 2009). It is the home of 400 different mammalian species, 129 of these species are protected under Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 (India) and an arbitrator to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) (Nameer, 2015). Illegal trade of the wildlife for preparation of various products is the common issue in the conservation and is also responsible for regional extinction of the species.

Participatory curriculum development (PCD) in extension education is an emerging approach to help and improve the quality of education in farm universities. The main steps of the PCD approach adopted here have high practical utility for the design of formal course contents for the Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in Agricultural Extension. A great deal of thinking is required while deciding on how much participation will be required from which stakeholders, at what level(s).

Cytology is the study of cells from fluid or tissue samples prepared directly on glass slides and stained for microscopic evaluation. It is also described as examination of cells without regard to the tissue's architectural details.

It is less invasive than tissue biopsies and, in some cases, it can provide a rapid diagnosis that would otherwise take several days if done by histopathology.

When is the cytology needed?

The diagnostic methods of clinical examination, radiographic evaluation, and laboratory data suggested that a diagnosis that cannot be confirmed by these methods. In that situation, cytology is very much helpful to confirm the disease processes or conditions.

1.1 Background

The aftermath of Green Revolution has contributed to both coercions and pollution, albeit, it saved human civilization from hunger, malnutrition and impoverishment. The beginning of GR era, with the prevailing objective and condition, has got less but few choices to go for intensive cultivation that invited chemical fertilizer, assured irrigation and farm mechanizations to make the 'magic gene' revolutionizing the production, productivity and livelihood security in agriculture as well.

The welcome of exotic genes into Indian agriculture has also triggered the silent oftraditional cultivars. Nevertheless, the quantum jump of an agriculture with a production of 55 million tons to 120 million tons during 70s, has contributed to make India self-reliant in food and we have been able to earn a new esteem in the global geo-political scenario by throwing away the 'begging bowl' called PL480.

Albeit a mammoth volume of food grain production in India, 320 million tons and close to 350 million tons of vegetables production in 2023 evinces the emergence of mighty Indian agriculture over the geo-political expanse at global level, yet the income from agriculture to her 140 millions of farmers is not secured, persistent and satisfying. This is due to a mal orchestration of weather-market-job-technolgy uncertainties. The farmers producer organization offers them a new hope and aspiration for small-marginal tiny agricultural producers of India.

Introduction

Human beings are the most critical components of an organization. The organization’s survival has improved all the facets contributing to its success. In a competitive world, human resources are sine qua non in an organization. Quality of work life (QWL) is critical for deciding organizational employee- related outcomes. Human resource management has a unique role in any organization. Organizational goals in an organization are achieved through planning, organization, staffing, direction, coordination, and control. 

India is basically an agrarian economy where 57.8% of rural households are engaged in agriculture (Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Household, 2021). 48.9 per cent of the Indian work force is employed in the agricultural sector, (ILO, 2016). The estimated Indian population for the year 2050 is 1.7 billion which will raise our food demand to ∼400 million tonnes (Rao et al., 2018). In this context, Indian agricultural production system will have to take up the challenge to feed l7.5% of the global population with only 2.4% of land and 4% of the available water resources at its disposal.

The term “fish” is usually a convenient description for a group of cold-blooded, ectothermic, aquatic non-tetrapod craniates that breathe with gills (Nelson, 2006). Fishes exploit every nook and niche of the domain of water. They are especially noted for their unimaginable numbers and bewildering forms. Most of them have a stream-lined body covered by scales and pose fins supported by fin rays and breathed by gills throughout life. They constitute the first group of animals that have developed biting jaws in the phylogenetic history of vertebrates.

About Northeast India

A serene land tucked up in the lap of mighty Himalayas, the North East regions in India is bestowed with picturesque locale and inexorable culture. The vast stretch of land located on the foothills of Himalayas, is a glorious heritage of art, culture and festivities. The tropical beauty of India, finds itself an all new meaning when we enter this paradise of tranquility. The serene ambience and salubrious climate of the region attracts people from all over the world. It almost feels like the valley casts a magical spell upon its visitors to replenish their soul making them feel rejuvenated. The widely scattered archeological specimens in the region speak aloud about the mythological significance of this part of the country, the North East region of our country bears testimony to our rich cultural heritage.

India is primarily an agriculture based economy, which implies, agriculture dominates the nation’s economic landscape. In the course of socioeconomic growth, agriculture is crucial. Around 58 per cent of the population in India rely only on agriculture for their livelihood. In India, agriculture acts as an important source of living for about 60 per cent of the population (India Brand Equity Foundation, 2021) and almost 70 per cent of rural households depend on farming. The farming sector in India contributes significantly to the economy, making up about 29 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Balkrishna et al. 2021).

This chapter describes fundamental terminology and lays the foundational framework for the course. It offers a general understanding of statistics, its purpose, and its role in addressing diverse problems across various fields of study. Additionally, it explains the rationale behind choosing R software as a powerful tool for data analysis.

Basic Concepts and Terminology

Statistics is an essential tool in agriculture, helping researchers to collect, analyze, interpret, and present numerical data related to plant traits, and agricultural practices. The fundamental goal is to make informed decisions and enhance crop yields, quality, and resilience.

To illustrate, researchers choose to work with a sample due to practical considerations, such as time and cost constraints. For instance, in a field with 10,000 crop plants, a researcher aims to determine the average plant height in the field. To conserve time and resources, they randomly select 200 plants from various locations within the field. These 200 plants constitute a sample from the entire population of 10,000 plants. By analyzing the height observed in the sample, the researcher can conclude the average height of the entire crop field.

1.1 GENERAL DESCRIPTION

There is a folk tale from India which is mentioned under relevant situations. This tale teaches how different perspectives lead to different points of view. The tale of the blind men and an elephant originated in the ancient India, from where it has been widely spread to different parts of the world. This famous ancient tale mentions about six blind men who had never come in contact with an elephant during their lifetime and who know and visualize what the elephant appear like by touching it and feeling. In the tale it is highlighted that every blind man touches a different part of the elephant's huge body, but only one part, such as the leg, ear, tail, body or the tusk. These blind men then go on to narrate about the elephant on the basis of their touch and feeling and their recount of the elephant varied widely from each other. They were told that elephants could trample forests, carry huge loads and is very big in size. The six blind men were taken to the elephant and asked how it look like (Fig.1.1). The first blind man reached out and touched the side of the huge animal. "An elephant is smooth and solid like a wall!" he declared. "It must be very strong and powerful." The second blind man put his hand on the elephant's trunk. "An elephant is like a giant snake," he said. The third blind man felt the elephant's pointed tusk. "I was right," he decided. "This creature is as sharp and deadly as a spear." The fourth blind man touched one of the elephant's big ear and announced "I believe an elephant is like a huge fan or may be a magic carpet that can fly over mountains and treetops". The fifth blind man touched one of the four legs. "What we have here," he said, "is pillar of a house." The sixth blind man gave a tug on the elephant's coarse tail. "Why, this is nothing more than a piece of old rope and it appeared to him dangerous, indeed”.

Seed is the primary and most critical input in any crop production programme. A quality seed alone contributes around 15-20% towards total production. The efficacy of all other inputs to increase production will be in vain if the quality of the seed is poor. Hence, use of quality seed is crucial as it appreciably increase the productivity of the crop without depending much on other inputs. This adds to the old saying in Manu Smriti good seed in good field yield abundantly .A quality seed can be defined as genetically and physically pure seeds with high germination percentage, free from seed borne pathogens and safe moisture content. This guarantees good germination, vigorous growth, and good establishment of crop in the field.

History of Seed Industry in India

Farmers dependent mostly on traditional indigenous varieties earlier and its seed requirements were met through their own farm saved seeds or through local sources. But the quality of these seed stocks was not assured, and this resulted in drastic reduction in production as well as productivity of the crops. As a result of various crop improvement programmes, improved varieties possessing high yield potential along with additional characters of biotic and abiotic resistance came into the scenario. But the availability of the seeds of these improved varieties among the farmers remained as a problem and it limited the cultivation of these varieties. This led to the development of a well-planned systemized seed production system. Government of India had framed and brought out different legislations for regulating systemized seed production. These laws are framed to make available quality seeds and planting materials to a common farmer and equip him to approach authority for justice. Seed legislations were initiated in the country by establishment of National Seed Corporation (NSC) during 1963 under Ministry of Agriculture and the seed industry was restructured through the nationals seed projects phase I (1977-78), Phase II (1978-79) and Phase III (1990-1991). These initiatives strengthened the seed industry through formulation of seed regulations, establishment of state seed corporations and seed certification agencies thereby assured the supply of quality seeds to farmers

Introduction

Entrepreneurial communication is an action intended to forge a relationship with the other party in order to affect their interest, attitude, and behavior. This is due to the fact that it is never done without considering how it would affect both qualitative and quantitative outcomes. A person can transmit or receive information about another person’s needs, wants, perceptions, knowledge, or emotional states through the act of communicating. In the context of entrepreneurship, communication refers to a set of procedures for exchanging knowledge and understandings between individuals who are engaged in a predetermined or novel situation.

Every interaction that takes place during communication involves a shift and is dynamic. Since it is dependent on interaction and a transaction between speakers, communication cannot be understood s a straightforward process of transmission. The planned actions and activities are not hindered because the emission and reception occur simultaneously, with h the transmitter acting as both a receiver and a transmitter. The process of sending and receiving signals as knowledge, feelings, emotions, skills, talents, attitudes, activities, etc. is known as entrepreneurial communication.

In terms of information sharing about events, situations, involvement, impact, adaptation, etc., it is built on interactions between business owners, educators, and educated youth.

Indian agriculture now stands at a cross road. By 2050, Indian population will overtake that of China’s. The world population in the same year will be close to 9.5 billion. And to feed the human population of this planet, the agricultural production needs to be increased 60% over the present one by 2050. For India the target is 450 million tons by 2050.

This is a humongous task. This mammoth escalation of targeted food production has to be carried out with the constraints and barrier created by climate change, erosion of soil, bio-diversity, ecological disruption due to mindless anthropogenic action and wrong planning.

The production, productivity, income, livelihood, and ecological resilience in agriculture are not performing in perfect orchestration. They are in apparent contradiction. To produce 1 kilogram of rice, the equivalent water foot print is about 4000 litres. It is obvious that enhancing food productivity, there could be more disruption and stress on soil, water and bio-diversity. The ecological resilience is a subject of musical chaos and symphony amidst ecological function-stress-conservation-extraction-. Without depletion and disruption, it is simply impossible to initiate and foster agriculture production as well as productivity. But the question is what could be level of endurance? Wherein restoration and retention, ecological resilience will move in resonance and complementary manner.

An Overview of Fish and Shellfish Health Management in Aquaculture in India

Aquaculture in India in particular freshwater fish culture comprised mainly of Indian major carp cultivation has a long history. Since 1980s commercial carp culture expanded, particularly in Andhra Pradesh and in few years became an Asia model. Then on, it is slowly and steadily expanding to different parts of the country particularly Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Orissa and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Of late, culture of Pungasius (Basa) has come up on large scale in AP. In addition, there is also growing small scale commercial cultivation of catfish, murrels, tilapia and freshwater prawn(Macrobrachium rosenbergii). Aquarium fish breeding is also expanding to establish itself as an industry in India.

Brackish water culture has been practiced traditionally in India in Pokkali fields of Kerala, Bheries of West Bengal and Ghaznis of Karnataka since hundreds of years. From 1990 onwards, commercial shrimp culture came into existence along the coasts of India. High export value, support from government and short culture period encouraged private entrepreneurs to pursue shrimp farming in a big way. There is vast potential for fish culture in brackish water and at the present efforts are on to popularize culture of Asian seabass, mullets, Eutroplus and milk fish. Mariculture is still at infancy but increasing at a slow and steady rate.

Aquaculture health management has to be viewed from the incidences and outbreak of diseases due to growth and expansion of the industry. Aquaculture has expanded tremendously in the last three decades, growing at 6-7 % annually. Contribution of fish production from aquaculture in the country is around 60 % compared to 10 % it was 40 years ago. In few years to come, aquaculture contribution may go up to 80 % of total fish production. Today 2.43 m ha of freshwater and 1.15 m ha of brackish water are under culture. In addition, 8.62 m. ha of irrigated inland area mainly in Haryana, Maharastra and Karnataka which have become saline and unsuitable for agriculture are slowly being reclaimed for aquaculture. Farmers are growing acclamatized saltwater fish and shrimp spp in inland saline waters and a shift like this may favour pathogens with different virulence to cause disease. Overall, it can be seen that in addition to increased conventional areas in fresh and brackish water, aquaculture is being practiced in unconventional areas like saline soils. Performance of fish and shellfish in these non conventional water bodies in the long run needs to be studied from their health point of view.

India has a unique social and cultural setting with diverse people, culture and religions. It is one of the oldest and greatest civilizations of the world. Geographically India extends snow clad Himalayan mountains in the north to the tropical rain forests of the south. It is the 7th largest country in the world and well recognised in Asia by its mountains, seas, deserts, and vast stretch of fertile plain land, which give the country a distinct geographical identity.

India has a very rich, diverse religious and cultural heritage. The four main religions of India are - Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Sikhism. Hinduism is the largest religion in India, with approximately 80% of the population is Hindu while Islam (Muslim) is the second-largest religion having 14% (approx.) share.

Religion in India is characterised by the diversity of religious beliefs and practices. In Indian history, religion has been an important part of the country's culture. Indian subcontinent is the birthplace of four of the world's major religions, namely, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism, which are collectively known as native Indian religions and represent 83% of the total population of India approximately.

Hinduism

Hinduism is the main Indian religion. It is considered as a religious and universal order, a way of life which followed by the people who believed in Hinduism. The word ‘Hindu’ refers group of particular people who believes and follow Hinduism, the oldest religion in the world. It has also been described as ‘Sanatana dharma’.

Definitions

Pathology

Pathology is the study of the anatomical, chemical and physiological alterations from normal as a result of disease in animals. It is a key subject because it forms a vital bridge between preclinical sciences (Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry) and clinical branches of Medicine and Surgery (Fig.1.1). Pathology is derived from the Greek word pathos = disease, logos = study. It has many branches, which are defined as under:

General Pathology

General Pathology concerns with basic alterations of tissues as a result of disease. e.g. fatty changes, thrombosis, amyloidosis, embolism, necrosis (Fig. 1.2).

Systemic Pathology

Systemic Pathology deals with alterations in tissues/organs of a particular system. e.g. respiratory system, genital system etc. (Fig. 1.3).

Statistics

It is a branch of mathematics, which comprises several areas like Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, Geometry, Statistics and Probability etc.

Biostatistics is a mathematical science which analyses numerical facts or biometric data of biological events following certain rules like design of experiments, analysis of data, presentation of data with tables, figures hypothesis testing, making a probability prediction and conclusion etc.

or it is an art of analysis and presentation of data following certain rules and international norms accepted by international journals for pharmacology experiments, animal farm data, human and animal medicines data, epidemiology data, non-parametric data etc.

What is statistics?

The number of introductory or elementary texts on the subject of statistics indicates how important the subject has become for everyone in the biological sciences. However, the fact that there are many texts might also suggest that we have yet to discover a fool proof method of presenting what is required. The problem confronted in biological statistics is as follows:

When there is a need to make a set of numerical observations in biology, it has been observed that the values are scattered. Then questions arise to know whether these values differ because of factors e.g. treatments or these are part of a ‘background’ i.e., natural variation. You need to evaluate what the numbers actually mean, and to represent them in a way that readily communicates their meaning to others.

Aristotle (384 to 322 BC), an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist (Fig. 1.1) developed the concept of meteorology as a study of the lower atmosphere. Over the years meteorology developed as a science of atmosphere which deals with the physics, dynamics and chemistry of the atmosphere and their effect upon the earth’s surface, oceans and thereby life in general either directly or indirectly.

As the atmospheric conditions change from time to time in a given area and from place to place in a given time, climatology was developed as a science which studies the average conditions of the weather and its variability over a long period of time.

All most all the human activities are greatly influenced by the weather and climate to a greater extent. Therefore, the scope of meteorology encompasses various activities which are of considerable economic significance as detailed here below;

1.1 Housing

The design and construction of houses, buildings, industrial structures etc. depends upon the weather and climate of the region. Orientation of doors, windows roofs of the buildings are usually designed to provide maximum comfort and convenience to the people.

Migration is inevitable in the process of economic development (Afsar, 2003; Ballard, 2005). There exists a two-way causation between migration and economic development. Migration induces economic development while economic development induces further migration. Migration can be two types: international migration and internal migration. International migration deals with migration across the countries of the world, while internal migration deals with migration within the national boundary of a country (Zohry, 2005). There are four streams of internal migration which are rural-rural, rural-urban, urban-rural, and urban-urban. Among these four streams, rural-urban migration has certain distinct characteristics which affect developmental aspect of both places involved namely, place of origin and place of origin and place of destination. It is well known that developmental disparities between rural and urban triggers rural-urban migration. People generally migrate from less developed rural countryside to more developed urban centers they left farming and engaged in modern works which are more profitable and low risk oriented (Bhattacharya, 1993; de Haan, 1997). The impact of migration can be assessed in several ways; therefore welfare impacts, social impacts, economic impacts etc. For example, remittance send by the urban migrants to their native villages help them to evade poverty; increase consumption; invest more in agriculture, education, health. Remittances have certain social impacts as well.

Nearly 19.9% of India's GDP (Statistics Times.com, 2021) and 54.6% (According to the 2011 census of India) of the people are employed in agriculture, which is important for the country's economy. Despite making up the majority of landowners, small and marginal farmers confront a number of obstacles including restricted access to government services, contemporary technologies, and financial choices. In addition, they frequently experience crop failures and are heavily dependent on shady middlemen and local loan sharks. Following the Y.K. Alagh Committee's recommendations, the Indian government introduced the idea of Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) in 2001. These organisations are designed to empower small-scale farmers by giving them the ability to communicate directly with consumers and strengthen their negotiating position.

Small-scale farmer groups known as FPOs band together to promote their shared products and pool resources. In India, there are already over 7,300 FPOs registered, with over 1.5 million farmers joining. The Indian government wants to bring together over a million farmers under the FPO umbrella by setting an ambitious objective of 10,000 new FPOs being established by 2024–25.

Arsenic contamination is one of the serious concerns for public health throughout the world. During the weathering of rocks and minerals, which are followed by subsequent leaching and runoff, arsenic (As) is released into the soil and groundwater. Additionally, human sources can transfer it into the soil and groundwater. Depending on the geological settings, geochemistry, and geo-environmental conditions of an aquifer, different aquifers may have different adsorption and desorption processes, arsenic species, Eh, pH, solid phase dissolutions, and precipitations. Therefore, rigorous geochemical investigation for an adequate understanding of arsenic geochemistry under different hydrogeological and geo-environmental conditions of aquifers is essentially required for evolving sustainable solutions. All of the arsenic affected river plains have river routes originated from the Himalayan region. Arsenic in groundwater contamination has far-reaching consequences including its ingestion through the food chain, which are in the form of social disorders, health hazards and socioeconomic dissolution besides its sprawling movement, and exploitation of groundwater. Food crops produced with arsenic tainted water are marketed to other locations, including areas where people may eat the tainted food and be exposed to arsenic. The arsenic contamination of groundwater is a form of groundwater pollution which is due to naturally occurring high concentrations of arsenic in deeper levels of groundwater.

Any perturbation and chaos in ecological setting and its functioning will lead to serious disruptions disruption in both resilience and livelihood. This is exactly what is being confronted by Indian Agriculture upfront. Our soils are brutally extorted to accept the harsh reality that close to 70 per cent of our cultivable land is starving of organic carbon. The ground water depletion in the name of modern agriculture has been another testimony of our ruthlessly prodigal agriculture amounting to serious water crisis. Every five seconds equivalent to a football ground, the golden acres, are vanishing with fertile soil from the chest of the planet. Thus, soil erosion amounting to almost 15 tons per hectare per year in Indian agriculture is not only alarming but also humongous. The losses of biodiversities including floral and faunal counts are adding blistering blistering barrier for our food production system. In the name of green revolution, we turned wrongly illusioned with the ability of so called high yielding varieties and have driven out our valuable landraces to invite gene myopia and gene erosion. This has got a catastrophic consequence. The stagnation of production and productivity in food sector is going to be the bleak indicator of our fragile and frail ecological resilience in the entire production system. But the down to earth reality is that apart from experts, most of our farmers are not aware of this threat, sensitized either. The book has assimilated the data in a delving manner, and real time fact of ground reality that reveals an interesting interpretation of farmers' perception on the rhetoric’s of ecological resilience in India.

India is one of the most populous country in the world with a population of 1.26 billion (Census,2011). Of which women constitute about 49 percent of the population. Women act as a significant factor in development of the nation. Women from all sphere of life are contributing meaningly towards the prosperity of the nation. Especially, the rural farm women who constitute nearly half of the total rural population. The rural women are the mainstay of Indian agriculture. Their contribution towards agriculture development is worthy of praises. They are capable of accomplishing sustainable development in all the various activities which they have carried out and shown interest. Women are the essential part of society. For a society to develop, women should be given equal importance as the male counterpart. Nurturing of society is possible only if women are nurtured with equivalent opportunities and progress. Indian society is still male dominant, which accounts for low reputation of women. Women are treated as less competent human being. Through passing of time there have been acknowledgement by the Constitution of India on the part of importance of women as a productive humane resource for development of nation. Many measures have been adopted for the gender equality. This paved the way for advancement of empowerment of women.

Human migration involves the movement of people from one place to another with intentions of settling, permanently or temporarily, at a new geographical location. The movement often occurs over long distances and from one country to another, but internal migration, within a single country, is also possible; indeed, this is the dominant form of human migration globally. Migration is often associated with better human capital at both individual and household level, and with better access to migration networks. Age is also important for both work and non-work migration. People may migrate as individuals, in family units or in large groups. There are four major forms of migration: invasion, conquest, colonization and emigration/immigration.

Persons moving from their home due to forced displacement, such as a natural disaster or civil disturbance, may be described as displaced persons or, if remaining in the home country, internally-displaced persons. A person who seeks refuge in another country can, if the reason for Annual Net Migration Rate 2015–2020. Prediction by UN in 2019.leaving the home country is political, religious, or another form of persecution, make a formal application to that country where refuge is sought and is then usually described as an asylum seeker. If this application is successful this person's legal status becomes that of a refugee.

Biomimetics is defined as the study of the formation, structure, or function of biologically produced substances and materials and biological mechanisms and processes especially to synthesize similar products by artificial mechanisms which mimic natural ones.

Biomimetic materials and molecules have been applied in many of the potential research areas in medical and dental sciences and highlight their foundation from plants, animals, or microbes that can be used to treat human disease.

A bioactive/biomimetic material and biocompatible material is an artificial or natural material used to change part of the living system or to function in internal contact with living tissue. Bioactive materials can interact with living tissues or systems.

There are several types of biomimetic materials like

Osteogenic Materials

Osteoconductive Materials

This chapter covers plant breeding’s present, past, and future prospects with a special emphasis on cultivar development. In order to increase agricultural production and productivity (yield per unit area) of important crops, plant breeders have achieved significant achievements in the genetic enhancement of yield, adaptive features, disease–pest resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, and nutritional qualities. Plant breeding is more crucial than ever to address production issues in order to provide a steady supply of food, feed, and fiber due to the growing demands of the human population and rising climate fluctuations. Now a days plant breeders have advanced tools to create superior cultivars because of recent technological developments in the fields of phenomics, genomics, and biotechnology. This chapter has covered important topics of crop domestication, pre-Mendelian and post Mendelian plant breeding, plant breeding in the 20th and 21st centuries, including information on the green revolution, genetically engineered crops, molecular marker applications, image-based phenotyping, machine learning techniques, and the relationship between both public and private plant breeding organizations, and future plant breeding efforts.

The agriculture sector in India accounts for about 20.2 per cent of its gross value added (GVA) and 17.34 per cent of the total export earnings. It employs approximately 60 per cent of the country’s workforce. It is an unavoidable source for generating demand for industrial goods and services, and domestic savings in rural India are a huge source of resource mobilization in the Indian economy. This sector plays a key role in ensuring national food security and, in the meantime, national security as well. For these reasons, the development of agriculture has a strong multiplier effect on the economy. There is also an increasing consensus that a globalizing economy and a long-term economic development plan for India are practicable only if it has agriculture and raises rural incomes as its central concern.

ICT and Information Needs of the Stakeholders

Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extension-related term used in information technology (IT) that emphasizes the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications like wireless signals and telephone systems and computers; it is also useful in the software system, middleware, storage, and audio-visual, that enable users to store, transmit, access, manipulate information by understanding the whole process.

This chapter presents a birds’ eye view of the soil to develop the interest among the readers to know more about the fundamental concepts of soil.

Soil is a major determinant of terrestrial ecosystems and helps in the distribution of land flora and fauna. Soils are sources, transformers and stores of plant nutrients. Soils are the recycling places of plant and animal residues and wastes. Soils are also the screen and filter of pollutants in many ways, forms and degrees. Soils are the main link and recharger of hydrological cycle. Soils influence radiant heat exchange, temperature change and land surface reflection characteristics. Soils are important sources and sinks of biogeochemical cycles of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide. Soil is used in buildings, roads, brick kiln, naturopathy etc. Soils are good record of past climatic conditions and human activities, as they have some stable features originated from the interactions of climate, organisms, relief, parent material and time. Soil provides nutrients, water, air, heat and mechanical support to arable plants to produce the food, fodder, fibre, fuel and other plant products for human and animals. Mainly the soil is studied as a natural body and as a medium for plant growth.

1.1. Background

Once this beautiful planet conceived human civilization with the glory of motherhood, the birds kept on twittering in an ecstasy of joy and freedom; the ripples of pristine rivers, blue and giggling, offered shelter to silvery fishes and pink Amazon Lilies! But human greed has defeated its own needs. So, what had been a means to survive now has turned into tools to triumph, rather, a weapon to destroy her own creation. By this time, we have transformed fertile lands into a barren Arizona, deep forests into a nasty slums and blue rivers into a filthy stream, called Yamuna.

The advent of the Anthropocene, implies that an unprecedented era of human impact on the natural environment, is now so large that the Earth has entered a new geological epoch; it is leaving the Holocene, the environment within which human societies themselves have developed (Gornish and dos Santos, 2016; Reynolds, 2021). Climate change is a prominent sign of human- driven changes to the global environment. There is every reason to be alarmed about anthropogenic climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss, all of which have been accelerating in recent decades and do pose “existential crisis” (Díaz et al., 2020; Abhilash et al., 2021). Sixth Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on February 28, 2022, paints a troubling picture as limiting global warming to 1.5oC (a global target in the Paris Climate Agreement) is not safe for all. If warming exceeds 1.5oC, even temporarily, much more severe, often irreversible effects of climate change will occur, land and ocean temperature change, sea level rise and ocean acidification, loss of Arctic Sea ice and ice sheets, stronger storms, longer heatwaves and droughts, abrupt precipitation mainly intensity and seasonal distribution, thawing permafrost and more (IPCC, 2013). On the basis of the Sixth Assessment UN Secretary-General António Guterres said “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.” According to the United Nations (2015), there are still 836 million people in the world living in extreme poverty (less than USD,1.25/ day). And according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), at least 70% of the very poor live in rural areas, most of them depending partly or completely on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is estimated that 500 million smallholder farms in the developing world are supporting almost 2 billion people, and in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa these small farms produce about 80 percent of the food consumed (IFAD, 2011). The rural poor often depend partly on forests for their livelihoods (World Bank, 2002). It is estimated that between 660 and 820 million people (workers and their families) depend totally or partly on fisheries, aquaculture and related industries as a source of income and support (HLPE, 2014).

History of Chemical Control, Insecticide Toxicology and Properties

History of pest control probably started when the first person swatted a mosquito or pulled off a tick, the battle for the control of our planet didn’t start until organized agriculture, when pests attacked the plants, and we grew to eat and threatened our very survival.

A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances used to stop, kill, avoid, or lessen the effects of a pest (insects, mites, nematodes, weeds, rats, etc.). This includes insecticide, herbicide, fungicide, and many other substances used to control pests. Pesticide was defined in different ways at different times and in different places. But pesticide is still generally the same: it is a (mixed) substance that is poisonous and effective on target organisms but safe for non-target organisms and environments.

Chemical control, commonly known as pest control, is the use of chemicals to reduce insect populations. Herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, rodenticides, acaricides, nematodes, and fungicides are all examples of pesticides. Insecticides are a class of chemicals used to combat insect pests. A substance or combination of compounds used to kill, repel, or otherwise prevent insects is called an insecticide. When it comes to controlling pests, insecticides are most powerful tools available for management. They have a wide range of positive effects, including high efficiency, speed of healing, general applicability, adaptability to different settings, adaptability to shifting agronomic and ecological conditions, and low cost. When insect pest numbers approach or surpass the economic threshold, insecticides are the sole viable instrument for emergency action in pest management. The usage of pesticides, a widely used method, can be central to such a system. The use of chemical pesticides will remain pivotal in these initiatives. In many cases, chemical control of pests is the best option available. Some people’s view of pesticide use for pest management as an ecological sin is incorrect. Chemical pesticides are a reliable and useful tool for the biologist, so long as they are used in accordance with good ecological principles.

Indian Food Processing Industry (FPI) is one of the most untapped industries with abundant raw material to grow at a higher rate. FPI has been identified as a priority list in the “MAKE IN INDIA” program by the Government of India to boost its domestic manufacturing and export share. In the last few years, FPI has emerged as a high-growth and high-profit sector due to its immense potential for value addition while processing food products at various stages. The degree of processing of value addition to agricultural produce in India (20 %) is very low as compared to other countries, such as China (40 %), Brazil (70 %), and Malaysia (80 %). In India, the degree of processed food products ranges between 2 per cent (fruits and vegetables) and 35 per cent (milk) for various agriculture products. Hence there exist a huge potential for the growth of this sector in India. The export value of FPI was US$29.12 billion in 2016 and its share in world import was 2.18 per cent (Agarwal & Neogi, 2017).

India’s food processing sector covers fruit and vegetables; spices; meat and poultry; milk and milk products, alcoholic beverages, fisheries, plantation, grain processing, and other consumer product groups like confectionery, chocolates and cocoa products, soya-based products, mineral water, high protein foods, etc. The output of India’s food processing sector is expected to reach USD 535 Billion by 2025-26 (Invest India, 2020). Out of this, foreign investment is around Rs.10,000 crores (APEDA, 2020). Besides this, Government has also approved proposals for joint ventures; foreign collaboration, industrial licenses, and 100 per cent export-oriented units envisaging an investment.

India has a very wealthy tradition of herbal medicines for the treatment of many health discomforts.The tradional healing practicese are common and popular among all the tribes and communities.It is evident that many communities have so much belief in their ethnobotanical knowledge that they often prefer a traditional medicineal practicener over any certified medical personality. Among all the plant species which have been already reported by many researchers for their ethno medicinal properties are getting very rare in their original habitat.These plants are obviously of great medicinal importance and immediate need of conservation.Some medicinal plants which are exclusively found in forest are getting lost due to habitat fragmentation and enormous deforestation.

Insects are prevalent on this globe due to their varied adaptations and hence constitute the largest component of the animal kingdom. Only around 5 per cent of the total insect species, act as pests, rest either are beneficial like honey bees, lac insect, silk worms etc. or are harmless. Insect pests can be of medical, veterinary, house hold and agricultural importance, as these creatures harm our health, animals’ health, our belongings and also the agricultural health. Though all these components are equally important but, in this book, the last one i.e. agricultural health, have been taken into consideration. Insect pests cause around 20 per cent loss to our crops by directly or indirectly affecting the crops both quantitatively and qualitatively. The insects have different types of mouth parts which are used for sucking, biting and chewing, sponging and lapping, siphoning etc. for food required for their survival and the insects with sucking and biting, and chewing types of mouth parts cause much of the damage. The mites (Phylum Arthropoda) though do not belong to class Insecta but in some instances also are of economic importance as they cause economic damage to agricultural crops and produce.

In history, some developments were possible through belief and scientific study with evidence to support their claims. Our ancestors made ways of surviving on earth by varying the raw materials and tools. Science had absolutely no place, and all discoveries were derived through the trial-and-error method. The same was for agriculture, tracing back to our roots, the farming system was highly
dependent on the on-farm inputs. However, with the timeline of evolution, the exponential growth of the population demanded speedy growth in agricultural production giving rise to Green Revolution technologies (GRTs) in the mid- 1960s, which introduced high-yielding varieties of crops that were responsive to higher dosages of chemical fertilizers and irrigation and persuaded farmers to resort to intensive monocropping. Since the onset of GRTs in the mid-1960s, food production in India has risen five to ten-fold (Dasgupta, 1977).
However, while the past few decades have seen substantial ‘green revolution’ advances, I admit, the hazards have kept themselves hidden and well concealed--of these are significant adverse impacts on the natural resources, agriculture and its produce and indeed extend to human health (Koner & Laha, 2021). There is further proof that increasing dosages of chemical fertilizers led to an emergence of pest resurgence; pesticides residues considerably exceeding permissible limits contaminated drinking water and/or air often, a drop in biodiversity, nitrogen leaching and groundwater pollution, and soil heavy-metals build-up are very common in intensive agriculture regions (John & Babu, 2021). While such issues contributed to suicides in rural India, their unwarranted use also diminished pollinator populations (Baron et al.,  2017). There are many measures to ease the overwhelming cost burden upon farmers on account of farming and rising costs of cultivation. It pertains to the increased input subsidies made by various state and central governmentsthe fertilizer subsidy, the free supply of electricity for irrigation, the interest subvention on agricultural credit, and the premium subsidy for crop insurance. On the contrary, the recent trends show that 75% constitutes a higher number of electricity subsidies, reserved for agriculture consumers, from 2016-2019.