eChapters

Aquatic weeds are those unwanted plants which grow in water and complete at least a part of their life cycle in water. Aquatic weed problem is a global one but more pronounced in tropical and subtropical zones, where warm weather supports profuse growth of aquatic plants. In India, large irrigation projects have been reported to be adversely affected by profusely growing aquatic weeds, that block canals reducing water flow by as much as four-fifths. (Dr. K.T. Chandy,  2010).

1. Harmful Effects of Aquatic Weeds

The important harmful effects of aquatic weeds are as follows
 
    (i)    The aquatic weeds mainly Submerged, immersed, and marginal weeds in and along irrigation canals, ditches, and drainage channels impede water flow, increase evaporation, cause damage to canals and structures and clogs gates, siphons, valves, sprinkler heads, bridge piers, pumps, etc.

(1) Striga
 
Striga, commonly known as witchweed or witches weed, is a genus of parasitic plants that occur naturally in parts of Africa, Asia, and Australia. Witchweeds are characterized by bright-green stems and leaves and small, brightly colored and attractive flowers, Striga has been given the common name of “witchweed” because of attaching to the roots and robbing the host of water and nutrients. The genus Striga (Family: Scrophulariaceae) includes a large number of tropical parasitic or hemi-parasitic plants as follows

Herbicides are applied to the soil in hopes of obtaining season-long weed control. It is desirable for the chemicals to control weeds during the season of application, but they should not remain long enough to affect subsequent crop growth.

    1.    Selection of herbicides: The type of herbicide and the method of application can influence the extent of the residual carryover. Herbicides differ in their physical and chemical properties such as water solubility, volatility and susceptibility to breakdown by sunlight, and microbes. When applied at recommended rates, most herbicides breakdown within a few days or weeks after application and impose no restrictions on cropping options in the next year. Some herbicides however do not degrade quickly and can persist in the soil for weeks, months or years following application. The use of residual herbicides can be beneficial as the residues prevent growth of sensitive weed species throughout the season. These residues however can restrict the crops that can be grown in rotation. Some herbicides can remain active in the soil for weeks, months or years. This can be an advantage as it ensures good long term weed control. However, if the herbicide stays in the soil longer than intended, it may damage sensitive crop or pasture species sown in subsequent years. For example, chlorsulfuron is used in wheat (Triticum sp) and barley (Hordeum vulgore), but can remain active in the soil for several years and damage legumes and oilseeds.

Abstract

Several methods of composting are in practice in India such as the anaerobic pit composting, Indore method, NADEP method, bio dung method and vermicomposting. Wastes at the domestic, community and industrial level, can be converted to compost as a viable solution in solid waste management, as well as compost production as a viable micro-enterprise functioning as income generation program. Agricultural waste and residues are an excellent resource for composting at rural centres. Beneficial use of this compost in organic farming as well as in soil bioremediation has been well proven.

Abstract

Peri-urban horticulture is fast catching on as a viable business proposition. Participation of women is envisaged as a significant input in such an enterprise. Tissue culture propagation or ‘’Micro propagation’ is a good candidate in this context among several biotechnologies available today. Micro propagation as a means of rapidly multiplying plants in a relatively small space irrespective of the season of the year has steadily gained popularity. Planting material in horticultural crops like banana and several other vegetatively propagated crops like ornamentals is in perpetual demand and can be met economically if women launched micro propagation as a peri-urban cottage industry. As against low rates of multiplication with conventional technologies, it is possible to raise thousands of propagules from a single starter-culture in a year’s time using newer technologies. Details of setting up the industry on a home-scale and participation of women in peri-urban areas in this enterprise are discussed in this plenary talk.

Abstract

One of the major distinctive agriculture extension concepts is the Intensive Agricultural Development Village concept or Village Adoption System, where in the Extension Guides who are working at taluk level select a suitable village and disseminate the need based and innovative technologies released by the University. In this connection Extension Education Unit of University of Agricultural Sciences at Mangalore has adopted Irvathur and Renjala villages of Karkala taluk in Udupi district and several educational activities like Field Trials, Result Demonstration, FLD, Block Demonstration and Integrated Farming System Demonstrations were carried out. Training programmes were conducted on Vermiculture, Dairy farming, Paddy cultivation, Cashew demonstration, IPM on Areca nut, Coconut etc., Besides establishing Milk Producer’s Co-operative Societies in the villages, the key programme observed in the village was Vermiculture. To start with, Vermiculture was tried with one farm woman with 100 worms.

INTRODUCTION

In the history of human development, woman has been as important as man. In fact, the status, employment and work performed by women in society is the indicator of a nation’s overall progress. Without the participation of women in national activities, the social, economical or political progress of a country will stagnate. Empowerment is a multi-dimensional process, which should enable women to realize their full identity and power in all spheres of life. It consists of greater access to knowledge and resources, greater autonomy in decision making to enable them to have greater ability to plan their lives, or to have greater control over the circumstances that influence their lives and free from shocks imposed on them by customs, beliefs and practices. Generally development with justice is expected to generate the forces that lead to empowerment of various sections of women and to raise their status.

INTRODUCTION

Women constitute half of the humanity, contributing to two-thirds of world’s work hours. She earns only one-third of the total income and owns less than one-tenth of the world’s resources. This shows that the economic status of women is in a pathetic condition and this is more so in a country like India. Rural women in India share abundant responsibility and perform a wide spectrum of duties in running the family, maintaining the house, involving in activities like rearing, feeding livestock, attending to farm labour, and the likes. Still they suffer economically and are socially invisible. Training of rural women is important so as to increase their involvement in developmental process, enhance their skill and make them equal partners in national development.

Abstract

Rural woman plays dominant role in dairy husbandry activities. Capacity building of rural women in this enterprise is the need of the hour to sustain 4% growth rate in dairy sector as the future demand for dairy products is bound to increase.  Specific objectives of the study are to understand the socio-economic and dairy husbandry scenario of households; knowledge level about different aspects of dairy husbandry; impact of training on knowledge and; policy implications for their capacity building for this enterprise in the state of Haryana. The data towards this end was collected from a survey conducted on 180 women trainees where pre and post models were used. The background socio-economic variables of women trainees were: 26-45 years age group, literacy of 76.12% and the main occupation was agriculture and household management. Milch buffalo (84.45%) was the main dairy animal. Milk production of more than 5 litres was found in 55.54 percent households and selling of milk more than this quantity was seen in 14.14 percent households. About 60 percent of woman trainees themselves looked after the animals. Pre-training knowledge reveals that majority of women knew the right milking method (70.6%) and breed of buffalo (62.2%).

Abstract

In India, women’s economic productivity is rather critical to 60 million households whose family members live below the poverty line. Therefore, the empowerment of poor women is vital for bringing down rural poverty.  The operation of the DWCRA project during the VIII plan of government of India (GOI) had inadequate impact and therefore, failed in organizing cohesion within and among the groups to identify the activities that could generate sustained income.  Considering the importance of women and lacunae in the Rural development programmes, Swarnajayanti Grama Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was evolved and was launched on 1st April, 1999. With this, the erstwhile programmes viz. IRDP, DWCRA, TRYSEM, SITRA, GKY and MWs ceased operation.  SGSY aims at establishing a large number of micro enterprises in the rural areas. The ‘beneficiary’ families (known as Swarozgaris) may be individuals or groups (Self Help Groups).

Abstract

The known views in society about the biotech foods were collected and structured in statements. An opinion survey of sixty scientists of CCS Haryana Agricultural University on these statements was conducted. Half of the scientists agreed that there were no biotech food products in our country. Biotech foods were considered safe for human consumption by 61.7% of the respondents. A large majority of the scientists considered that biotech foods were different in taste from foods made from conventional crops. Similarly 65% of scientists had the opinion that biotech crops increase food allergies. Fifty percent of the scientists agreed that biotech foods were regulated and tested. The rest opined that labeling is needed for biotech foods even in USA. Overwhelming majority felt that biotech foods were not widely accepted. Meat, milk and egg products from biotech animals were not concieved as unsafe to eat by 43.3% respondents. Equal number of scientists felt the same about foods produced through biotechnology and viewed that these were not tested for health.

Abstract

Sericulture, an agro-based industry contributes significantly to Indian economy.  Silk cocoons are reeled on charaka, cottage and multiend reeling machines. Of these more than 50% of raw silk comes from charaka sector. Charaka silk reeling units decreased from 23971 to 16263 (1998-2003) in Karnataka. These charakas are mostly operated at grass root level with labour coming from small, marginal and land less villagers. A study was conducted in 15 charaka reeling units in two taluks each of Bangalore rural, Mysore, Kolar and Chamarajanagar districts. Respondents were grouped into small (1-4 charakas), medium (5-8) and large charaka reelers (>8). Primary data was collected with pre-tested schedules.

India is on the move, but in part.  
For, the farm sector is lagging behind.
It may soon become a drag on the economy.
Hence, farm development requires renewed efforts,
Farm youth must get critical attention.
Matter brooks no delay.

Farming is still the only source of human subsistence. No alternative is in sight. This ancient family occupation has survived over the ages through a process of transfer from father to son, generation to generation. But, in recent times, with an unprecedented externalization of farming, and under the pervasive influence of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation, this process of transfer of occupational knowledge within the community is seriously dislocated. Also, the earlier institutional arrangements for formal education in farming like district agricultural schools, gramsevaks training units and farmers training centres have now disappeared. In the meantime, even as more rural youth are becoming literate, formal education system is seen to have shed all aspects of agricultural education. Thus, the rural drop-outs are missing both formal and informal orientation in farming since a comprehension of ‘modern’ farming is beyond the middle level farmers. As such, farm youth today are neither here nor there, with regard to farming.

The world is changing rapidly and education is facing new challenges as we move into the 21st century. For Extensionist, this means new approaches to teaching and learning are needed. Futurist John Naisbitt (1994) predicts that as structured employment opportunities decline, entrepreneurial skills will become necessary for the rural youth to compete. Additionally, acquiring skills and attitudes necessary for the youth can be achieved through youth entrepreneurship programs (Cox, 1998)

There is a challenge to convert ideas into policy and then into action to put in programmes aimed at helping the future farmers of the world.  According to UN report , Youth as a target group is not a major policy priority of most governments in developing countries. This review illustrates that youth are only occasionally visible in policy related documents.  Hazelman  (2008) emphasized based on lessons from case studies made by FAO in Asia and the Pacific,  highlighted  the importance of having a clear national policy relating to rural youth; building and utilizing youth networks and partnerships at the national, regional and international levels; organizing youth into youth-led organizations that are active and have strong leadership together with competent and committed advisors, with projects and activities that address youth and community needs; and giving priority and attention to education and training opportunities for continued learning and human-capacity building.

Today around 25% of rural population in India are between the age group of 15 and 29 (2001 Census).  The Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-2007) has estimated that India's labour force will increase faster than the ability of the economy to create new working opportunities. The country is adding 2 million young people to the ranks of the unemployed every year. The Plan document estimates that open unemployment could be as high as 5% at the end of the Tenth Plan period, from 2.8% at present.  This is likely to entail tremendous costs, including social unrest and dislocation resulting with large number of youth are unemployed or underemployed.
 
In India and in many developing countries the majority of the work force is employed in agriculture. However, stagnating agricultural productivity and rural environmental degradation have made agriculture a last option.  As the environment on which their livelihoods depend becomes more and more degraded, rural youth face diminished prospects of employment.  Not only do these youth lack income, they lack a means of gaining respect and a sense of belonging in their communities.  Unable to find decent employment, youth often look for employment in the urban informal sector, with poor working conditions and pay.  But without training in skills suited to the rural labour market, these youth have few opportunities in rural areas.  Inadequately trained to compete successfully in rural labour markets, they often suffer worse levels of poverty and marginalization in rural areas.

Agriculture is the main stay for majority for people in India for their livelihood as 55 per cent of population depends directly or indirectly depends on the agriculture. The farmers still follow the traditional farming system and practices. Food grain crops are dominating in the cropping pattern. The share of commercial crops in cropping pattern though rising is not significant. The condition of the farmers is such that they have lost interest in farming. The new generation has no interest and is away from farming. The new generation does not consider farming as profession and they treat it is traditional activities and family tradition. The present generation thinks that the farming system is not capable to provide a life, therefore, they are diverting from agriculture to other profession. The major problem for rural youth is non-availability of self-employment options except farming in Rural India. Therefore, rural youth are either migrating to urban area or becoming the causal labor.
 
In order to keep the rural youth in agriculture, there is dire need to create the employment opportunities in rural area. In rural area, agriculture is the major primary source of employment. In such condition, development of agriculture based entrepreneurship is the best option to keep the rural youth in agriculture. A number of agriculture based enterprises can be promoted. By introducing elements of entrepreneurship in farm business, the farming community will be able to combine land, labour and capital in right proportions.

A large portion of India’s population lives in the villages where still against many odds smaller units of village industry sector are struggling for survival. Abject poverty, no year round employment avenues, poor access to basic infrastructure, market, illiteracy and small holdings are few among tangible features of rural India. Desai (2007) has high lighted that poor infrastructural facilities in rural segments has been one of the factor holding back rural industrilisation in India.

On the other hand with liberalisation and globalisation of economy and the removal of quantitative restrictions the khadi & village industries including agro based industries are facing stiff competition. The situation has ultimately resulted in continuous migration of unemployed rural youth to nearby urban areas. Very few among immigrated rural youth are getting absorbed due to mechanisation in urban industries, leaving others in distress. Gopu (2007) viewed that unbridled growth of industries in urban areas has accented the regional disparities in India. Despite planned industrialisation efforts in the country agriculture remains largest industry or major occupation providing employment to 65 per cent of rural work force. In this, situation, expansion of rural industrialisation can play a vital role in abating distress migration and create employment opportunities to rural youth.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man tries to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”     
- George Bernard Shaw

Generating productive and sustainable employment for growing populations is a challenge faced by many developing countries in Asia. In India, the daunting numbers further compounds the task. Approximately 65% of the country’s billion plus population is below the age of 45. The Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-2007) has estimated that India’s labour force will increase faster than the ability of the economy to create new working opportunities. The average growth rate of employment in India, which stayed above 2% per annum during the 80s and the early part of the 90s, fell to only 1.1% in the late 90s. The country is adding 2 million young people to the ranks of the unemployed every year. The Plan document estimates that open unemployment could be as high as 5% at the end of the Tenth Plan period, from 2.8% at present. This is likely to entail tremendous costs, including social unrest and isolation. India’s planners have set the country a goal to create 100 million employment opportunities over the next 10 years.

The most significant achievement in India after independence is the self-reliance in food grain production. The use of high yielding varieties, irrigation facilities, higher application of fertilizers & pesticides contributed to sufficient food grain production in the mid 60’s & 70’s of the last century. Later on development in other enterprises like dairy, poultry, piggery, fishery, sericulture etc., took place in an isolated manner. However, the productivity of these high yielding varieties and hybrids became stagnant during last decade and with limited scope for increasing the cultivable land, the country’s food security is likely to be threatened in the near future. According to a recent estimate the food grain requirement of India would be 380 and 450 million tons in the years 2025 & 2050 respectively with the present rate of population growth. On the other hand, despite significant breakthrough in food production the living standards of farmers are far from satisfaction; this situation is matter of great concern for the country. The farmers are losing confidence in farming due to declining returns; hence majority of them prefers to shift to non-agricultural vocations. If this trend continues in future, the potential to satisfy future food needs will be seriously compromised. Agriculture continues to be the pivotal sector in the Indian economy providing employment to 69 per cent of the population.

It is now a fait accompli that for enhancement of the economic condition of the farmers, just growing of the variety of crops is not sufficient. Along with the crop husbandry, it is the need of the time that farmers must integrate other enterprises with traditional crop production practices. Integration of various farm enterprises in a farm ensures growth and stability in overall productivity and profitability. It also ensures recycling of residues, optimization of resources, reduction of risk and generation of employment. Various enterprises that could be included in farming system are agronomical crops, vegetables, fruits, flower cultivation, dairy, poultry, fishery, goat keeping, piggery, sericulture, mushroom cultivation, agro forestry, bee keeping, silviculture, agro-based industries and food processing. A judicious mix of enterprises complementary to crops and suited to the given farm situations and farmer’s preference would bring overall prosperity.
 
The Integrated Farming System (IFS)  is a complex inter-related matrix of soil, plant, animals, implements, power, labour, capital and other inputs controlled in part by farm families and influenced by varying degrees of political, economic, institutional and social forces that operate at many levels. Under farming system, the farm is viewed in a holistic manner. Farmers are subjected to many socio-economic, bio-physical, institutional, administrative and technological constraints. Integrated farming system conceptually is a set of elements or components that are inter-related with each other and which are interact among themselves.

Abstract

Determination of quality of wheat is very important because quality requirement of an individual product vary from one another. Flour quality can be defined as the ability of the flour to produce a uniformly good end product. Flour quality factors can be divided into two basic groups: those that are inherent in the wheat as a result of the genetic make up and the changes brought about by growing conditions; secondly those factors that might be altered during the process of converting wheat into flour Wheat flour constituents play an important role in determining the quality of flour. The flour quality for baking could be assessed by measuring the physical, chemical and rheological characteristics.

Abstract

Wheat gluten consists mainly of gliadin and glutenin polypeptides. During mixing gliadin and glutenin proteins interact to form a unique viscoelastic gluten network, which is envisaged as being necessary for holding the gases and for producing a light porous crumb textured bread. Recent work has confirmed that the elastic properties of gluten are due to the glutenin fraction, whilst the viscous properties are attributed to the gliadin fraction. Equal amount of these two major protein components of wheat gluten is required for achieving the desired bread quality, but variation in the composition and physical properties of the glutenin polypeptides appear to be largely responsible for the differences in the gluten viscoelasticity and breadmaking potential among wheat cultivars. Recently, associations of gliadin polypeptides with breadmaking quality have also been reported. Using improved protein separation and purification techniques, physical methods and genetic engineering, we are beginning to understand the structure-functional relationship of wheat gluten proteins, but much remains to be explored in the years to come. 

Abstract

Consumers are now more conscious about quality and source of their foods. Attempts made to determine the quality of food materials are numerous, but most of them are destructive in nature. In recent years, nondestructive methods of quality evaluation have gained momentum and a considerable attempts have been made to develop them. This paper describes application of these non-emerging technologies: magnetic resonance imaging, x-ray computer tomography, near infrared spectroscopy and a few other important techniques for determination of different quality attributes with special emphasis on grain, and discusses their pros and cons for practical exploitation.

Abstract

The constant improvement in automation of bakery industry has placed higher demands on wheat. As a consequence bakery industry requires wheat possessing specific quality attributes. In view of this, there is need to produce good quality wheat not only for good chapattis but also for better bakery products viz., bread, biscuit, noodles, pasta products. New technologies are emerging which could be exploited for determining the Indian wheats for their suitability for various value added products. In the current investigation, 50 genotypes possessing low protein content (<10.5%) selected from a vast amount of breeding material were analysed for their biscuit making attributes. These lines were screened by actual baking test and alkaline water retention capacity (AWRC) test keeping the standard prescribed for biscuit making qualities viz., low protein content, low sedimentation value, low AWRC and larger diameter with larger spread factor of biscuit. Further with the help of Stable Micro Systems TA.HDi Texture Analyser the biscuits were analysed for hardness and crispness. Correlation coefficient among 8 quality traits suggested highly significant and positive correlation between sedimentation value and AWRC, biscuit diameter and spread factor, and biscuit hardness and fracturability, and significant negative correlation between biscuit diameter and its thickness. On the basis of findings, genotypes identified for biscuit making qualities may be used as donor for developing varieties suitable for biscuit making.

Abstract

Sunflower seeds of variety PSFH- 67 were obtained from the PAU seed farm. These seeds were cleaned with commonly used seed processing equipment. Samples were divided into 2 parts. One part was kept as such for taking the observations of feed (control) and the remaining part was passed through specific gravity separator for its refinement. The various fractions obtained were recovery (heavier, healthy seeds), middlings (intermediate, under size) and rejections (lightweight seeds, wevil eaten, foreign matter). The respective percentages of each fraction were computed. These graded fractions as well as the feed were packed in 2-kg cloth bags and stored under ambient conditions. Different quality parameters viz. moisture content, physical purity, percent germination, thousand grain weight and vigour index were recorded at 30 days interval from Jan, 2010 to Apr. 2010. The physical purity, moisture content, thousand grain weight, percent germination, root length, shoot length and vigour index were found to be higher in recovery and minimum for rejections while moisture content was highest for rejection compared to all other fractions. The physical purity remained more or less constant throughout the period of storage. The thousand-grain weight showed a rapid decrease during first month thereafter it remained constant. There was continuous decrease in percent germination with the period of storage irrespective of the treatment.

One of the chief aspects of Entomology is the study of insects from the standpoint of their innumerable relations and activities affecting the interests of man. More than any other living organisms, insects have more intimate and complex relationship with man. It is well known that insects affect human interests both for good and bad. However, their injurious activities are of much greater concern to man than the beneficial aspects of their activities. Several insects are beneficial to man in several ways, both directly and indirectly and there are scores of other insects, which do not interfere with the interests of man in any way.

From the time man stepped into the domain of insects, a stifle has started between the insects and man. To meet his various demands for food, clothing, shelter and various other requirements, man cultivates various crops and raises many domesticated livestock. Unfortunately for man, insects also have started depending on these for their living. When the requirements for man and insects happen to be the same, a race is on for their survival and existence. Insects attack plants and livestock and cause extensive damage and economic loss. So, man considers such injurious insects as his enemy and to safeguard his interests tries to destroy them by various means. However, man’s supremacy and intelligence have not proved a match to the rapid propagation of insects and their various adaptations to withstand any hardship and adverse conditions. In the effort to gain an upper hand, it has not been possible for man to destroy the unwanted insects completely and the struggle is going on as a never-ending ordeal.

All control measures are directed to bring down the nematode population low enough to raise the crop successfully and profitably. The choice of control measures to be taken depends upon the nematode species to be tackled and the crops involved.

1. Cultural methods 
The objective of these methods is to adopt suitable land management practices, so as to bring down the nematode population in the field to a low level, which may not cause economic injury to the crop or to keep the field free from parasitic nematodes by adopting suitable preventive measures. Besides causing direct damage to the crops, several nematode species are known to transmit many fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens, which aggravate the extent of damage caused to the crops. Many of these pathogens gain access to the host plants only through mechanical injury caused by the nematodes. By controlling the nematode parasites, the incidence of diseases caused by such phytopathogens can also be avoided to a large extent. Cultural methods, though may not give spectacular results within a short span of time of a single season or year, as in the case of chemical control measures, if followed over a number of years is sure to give encouraging results. Cultural methods include crop rotation, fallowing, ploughing, flooding, trap cropping, use of organic amendments, selection of seeds and seed materials, use of resistant and tolerant varieties etc.

Fish is the most important source of protein for the people of Northeastern India where almost 100% people are fish eaters. So fish culture is very popular in this region. There is a huge demand for fish here and the most popular aquaculture practice is pond culture. The state of Tripura particularly progressed well in fish production and became self sufficient in fish seed production. The state is blessed with 22,895 ha of water bodies where more than 50% (12,895 ha) of area is used for aquaculture purpose. Composite fish culture and integrated aquaculture are very common here. These fish ponds are very productive both in eco-physiological and faunistic point of view. Most of the farmers have a pond area of less than one hectare for fish culture and are unable to go for any supplementary feeding. Average fish productivity is estimated as 1800 kg/ha. Preliminary experiments conducted in the Institute showed that timely application of the fertilizer and/or restricted supplementary feeding improves total production.

Background

In simple term, what agriculture is to land aquaculture is to water and can be defined as the art, science, and business of cultivating plants and animals in water. Considering scope of inland aquaculture in the present discussion would be limited mostly to grow desirable fish/prawn (hence forth termed as fish) in fresh water ponds and to some extent to their seed production in hatcheries. The important activities in aquaculture includes deliberate interventions during the rearing process or life cycle of the stock, management of the culture system and production process so as to increase survival and production of stock. Since, the main goal of aquaculture is to maximize the fish production per unit land/water resources per unit time which primarily depends on the degree of management and intervention. The important forms of intervention and management practices are regular stocking, fertilization, feeding, liming etc. The degree of care taken or effort put in these aspects would determine the level of production.

Availability of quality fish seed is the critical and basic input for successful fish culture operations. Till the sixties, a major part of the seed required for culture was being collected from the riverine sources, which had several disadvantages. Indian major carps viz. Catla, Rohu & Mrigal and Chinese carps viz. Silver carp & Grass carp mature in the pond but do not spawn or lay eggs in standing waters. Usually they breed or spawn naturally in flowing rivers during monsoon months. In artificial breeding, certain inducing agent (hormone) is injected to fish for successful spawning.

In India, the first successful induced breeding of carp was achieved through use of pituitary hormone in 1957. Increased seed production of fish today is a direct result of improved technologies of breeding, hatching and rearing.

Three decades ago, earthen “pit” hatcheries were used for hatching eggs around bunds. Today large commercial hatcheries exist, where all activities such as raising of brood stock, breeding and fry rearing can be undertaken. This has certainly marked the growth of the industry. Commercial Chinese hatchery facilitates not only large-scale production of fish seeds but also improves the survival percentage of seed.

The aquaculture sector showed an overwhelming growth of 468% during the last two decades and is presently playing a key role in the changing Indian economic growth. The contribution from aquaculture is 21.6% by volume and 49.3% by value to the total fisheries exports. Inland fisheries sector had shown consistent growth of over 5% per annum over the period of 1999-2005. High demand of aquaculture products in the world has forced the aquaculturist to change the culture system from extensive to intensive. This has led aquaculturist to lose millions of dollars due to fish mortalities associated with fish disease and related conditions. Out break of disease has been considered as a major stumbling block in intensive aquaculture practices.

Disease is a very complex interaction between three important factors, namely the susceptible fish, the disease causing agents (pathogen) and the environment. These three factors are most important and must be considered in any fish disease outbreak. The environment in which the causative agent of diseases and their host fish interacts, may favour one or the other. Changes in the environment, whether natural or artificial, may shift the balance from one side to the other and will often determine whether the host will survive or succumb. Understanding and managing the stress and their causative factors are thus the key factors for successful aquaculture.

The concern for nature and the focuss for all things which are basic and natural has been spearheading to a green movement of everything natural and nature-based consumer products all over the world. God has given diseases and remidies also in the nature only we have to properly find out. In today’s world of consumer boom, the role of essential oils has increased many folds. Uptil now known applications of essential oils, more and more areas are opening up which will benefit the industry. Use of essential oils in therapeutics is becoming popular in India, China, Japan and European countries. Aromatherapy involves the use of essential oils and aromatics derived from plants to cure diseases. These plants are known as aromatic plants. Aromatic plants possess odorous volatile substances which occur as essential oil, gum exudate, balsam and oleoresin in one or more parts, namely, root, wood, bark, stem, foliage, flower and fruit. The characteristic aroma is due to a variety of complex chemical compounds. The term essential oil is concomitant to fragrance or perfumes because these fragrances are oily in nature and they represent the essence or the active constituents of the plants. They are called volatile or ethereal oils as they evaporate when exposed to air at ordinary temperatures. Essential oils are highly concentrated, low volume, high value products.

Introduction

India is the largest developing economy of the world and about 70 per cent of its population is dependent directly or indirectly on this profession.  To meet the food requirement of the ever-multiplying population of this country, agriculture production has to be maximized by using genetically improved varieties, fertilizers improved implements, seed, and other agronomical technologies. Beside these improvements the agriculture production has remained static for the last decade. For further improvements in agricultural production we have to adopt comprehensive strategies. One of such strategies is the pollination management that is a very vital process of agriculture crop production. Pollination is a process involving reproductive parts of a flower and an external agent in the form of a vector. According to Prof. E.C. Martin, the value of bee pollination of fruits, vegetables and seeds in the United States of America totaled very close to $8 billion in the 1960s; the figure 20 years later is probably close to $20 billion.

    1.    Nutrients : Chemical substances obtained from food and used in the body to provide energy, structural materials, and regulating agents to support growth, maintenance, and repair of the body’s tissues. Nutrients may also reduce the risks of some diseases.
    2.    Carbohydrate, fat, and protein are sometimes called macronutrients because the body requires them in relatively large amounts (many grams daily). In contrast, vitamins and minerals are micronutrients, required only in small amounts (milligrams or micrograms daily).
    3.    The international unit for measuring food energy is the joule, a measure of work energy. To convert kcalories to kilojoules, multiply by 4.2; to convert kilojoules to kcalories, multiply by 0.24.
    4.    Essential nutrients : Nutrients a person must obtain from food because the body cannot make them for itself in sufficient quantity to meet physiological needs; also called indispensable nutrients. About 40 nutrients are currently known to be essential for human beings. Energy-yielding nutrients: the nutrients that break down to yield energy the body can use:

    1.    Absorbance (A) - Defined as –log (1-a) = log (1/t), where ‘a’ is the absorbance and‘t’ the transmittance of a medium through which a light beam passes.

    2.    Absorption coefficient (a) - The relative decrease in the intensity of a collimated beam of electromagnetic radiation, as a result of absorption by a medium, during traversal of an infinitesimal layer of the medium, divided by the length traversed.

    3.    Acceleration due to gravity (g) - The standard value (9.80665 m/s2) of the acceleration experienced by a body in the earth’s gravitational field.

    4.    Acid - Historically, a substance that yields an H+ ion when it dissociates in solution, resulting in a pH< 7. In the Brönsted definition, an acid is a substance that donates a proton in any type of reaction. The most general definition, due to G.N. Lewis, classifies any chemical species capable of accepting an electron pair as an acid.

    5.    Acid dissociation constant (Ka) - The equilibrium constant for the dissociation of an acid HA through the reaction HA + H2O1 A- + H3O+. The quantity pKa = -log Ka is often used to express the acid dissociation constant

    6.    Acyl groups - Groups formed by removing the hydroxy groups from oxoacids that have the general structure RC (=O) (OH) and replacement analogues of such acyl groups.

    7.    Adiabatic process - A thermodynamic process in which no heat enters or leaves the system.

Nutraceuticals and Health Foods

    1.    According to the International Food Information Council (IFIC), functional foods are “foods or dietary components that may provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition.”

    2.    Nutraceuticals : A product isolated and purified from foods that is generally- sold in medicinal forms are usually associated with food. A nutraceutical is demonstrated to have a physiological benefit or provide protection against chronic disease (Coined originally by Stephen DeFelice in 1989, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, USA).

    3.    The International Life Sciences Institute of North America (ILSI) has defined functional foods as “foods that by virtue of physiologically active food components provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition

    4.    Health Canada defines functional foods as “similar in appearance to a conventional food, consumed as part of the usual diet, with demonstrated physiological benefits, and/or to reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions.”

Food Processing Technology

    1.    The transition from solid to fluid and back is known as a phase transition and this is important in many types of food processing (e.g. water to water vapour in evaporation and distillation and dehydration; water to ice in freezing and freeze drying or freeze concentration or crystallisation of fats.
 
    2.    Phase transition takes place isothermally at the phase transition temperature by release or absorption of latent heat, and can be represented by a phase diagram.

    3.    A second type of transition, known as glass transition, takes place without the release or absorption of latent heat and involves the transition of a food to an amorphous glass state at its glass transition temperature.

    4.    The transition is dependent on the temperature of the food, time, and the moisture content of the food.

    5.    The density of a material is equal to its mass divided by its volume and has units of kgm^-3

Food Packaging

    1.    Food packaging : A wrap, pouch, bag, box, cup, tray, can, tube, bottle and jar are some of the many forms of packaging that contain food products. It must contain a food product as well as protect and preserve it for a specific length of time. Each package must, by law, display product information for the consumer.

    2.    Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) is an economical material with low WVTR; however, it has high permeabilities to flavours/volatiles, poor grease resistance and are limp.
 
    3.    High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is stiffer, more translucent and has better barrier properties but needs higher temperature for sealing.

    4.    A copolymer of polyethylene and poly vinyl alcohol, and EVOH has outstanding gas barrier properties especially when dry.

    5.    High-density polyethylene is stiff, strong, tough, resistant to chemicals and moisture, permeable to gas, easy to process, and easy to form. It is used to make bottles for milk, juice, and water; cereal box liners; margarine tubs; and grocery, trash, and retail bags.

    6.    Low-density polyethylene is flexible, strong, tough, easy to seal, and resistant to moisture. Because low-density polyethylene is relatively transparent, it is predominately used in film applications and in applications where heat sealing is necessary. Bread and frozen food bags, flexible lids, and squeezable food bottles are examples of low-density polyethylene.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) System

1. Identify hazards
 
 It is important to be able to identify the possible microbiological, chemical and physical hazards that can occur at every stage of the food business – from growth, processing, manufacture, storage and distribution, until the point where it is sold to the customer and eaten.

    ·    Microbiological Hazards : Any bacterium, virus, or protozoan that is capable of causing illness and that grows or may be carried on food. Well-known examples of bacteria are Campylobacter, Listeria and Salmonella. The most likely food-borne viruses are the Norwalk type viruses. Giardia is an example of a protozoan that may be food borne. It is important to have some understanding of the risks associated with different types of microbiological hazards.

    ·    Chemical Hazards : Examples include excessive or toxic amounts of heavy metals, chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, vitamins, minerals, preservatives, disinfectants, detergents and cleaning compounds. Some hazards may be naturally present such as in green potatoes or taro and rhubarb leaves.

    ·    Physical Hazards : Objects that get into food, or are already present in food, may cause illness, injury or distress to the person eating it. Some examples are glass, metal fragments etc. Other contaminants such as hair or insects may be offensive but not necessarily a danger to health. They should nonetheless be considered and controlled

1. Food Labelling

Food labelling is the primary means of communication between the producer and seller of food on one hand, and the purchaser and consumer on the other.

Basic Terminology in Food labelling

‘‘Food” means any substance, whether processed, semi-processed or raw, which is intended for human consumption, and includes drinks, chewing gum and any substance which has been used in the manufacture, preparation or treatment of “food” but does not include cosmetics or tobacco or substances used only as drugs.

‘‘Ingredient” means any substance, including a food additive, used in the manufacture or preparation of a food and present in the final product although possibly in a modified form.

Immunological Causes of Male Infertility

Immune mediated male infertility is an auto-immune disease.Spermatozoa are first produced at puberty and isolated from the systemic circulation by a structural barrier maintained by Sertoli cell tight junctions within the testis and the uninterrupted epithelial cell lining of the excurrent ductal system. Sperm production occurs well after the development of immunological tolerance to self antigens; therefore sperm specific components are viewed as foreign by the immune system. Whether spermatogonia, the primordial cell in spermatozoa differentiation, is also antigenically foreign is not established. What is known , is that immunization with sperm elicits a highly reproducible immune response that can impair fertility.

Antisperm antibodies are found in about 10-15% of infertile men. Immunity only to those antigens present on the surface of viable, motile sperm will impair fertility. Antibodies to internal sperm antigens, due to an immune response to sperm degraded in the genital tract or to cross reacting microbial antibodies present in the sera of many fertile individuals , are of questionable relevance to infertility. A number of spermatozoa antigens have been identified .

In animals with a long gestation period, such as domestic animals, the acquired immune system is fully developed at birth, but cannot function at full adult levels for several weeks. The complete development of the acquired immunity depends on antigenic stimulation. The proper development of B cells and B cell antigen receptor (BCR) diversity requires clonal selection and antigen driven cell multiplication. Thus, the newborn animals are vulnerable to infection for the first few weeks of life. Hence, the temporary assistance in defending themselves at this time is provided by the mother in the form of antibodies and possibly T cells.
 
Development of the Immune System

The thymus is first lymphoid organ to develop, followed closely by the secondary lymphoid organs. B cells appear soon after the development of spleen and  lymph nodes, but antibodies are not usually found until late in foetal life, if at all. The ability of fetus to respond to antigens develops very rapidly after the lymphoid organs appear, but all antigens are not equally capable of stimulating fetal lymphoid tissue. The immune system in a series of steps, each step permitting the foetus to respond to more antigens. These steps are driven by a gradual increase in the use of gene conversion or somatic mutation to antibody diversity. The ability to mount cell mediated immune (CMI) responses develops at the time as antibody production. Data from humans suggest that T cell receptor diversity is limited in the fetus and neonate and that cytokine production may be low. This may simply be due to their lack of to foreign antigens.

A. Answer the following

Q.1.    What is the difference between apoptosis and necrosis?

Ans.    In apoptosis, there is pronounced decrease in cell volume, modification of cytoskeleton, condensation of chromatin and degradation of DNA into fragments. Due to these changes, an apoptotic cell sheds tiny membrane bound apoptotic bodies containing intact organelles. Macrophages phagocytose apoptotic bodies and cells in the advanced stages of apoptosis. But there is no release of proteolytic and the lytic enzyme, cationic proteins and oxidizing molecule in the surrounding tissue and no local inflammatory response. On the other hand, in necrosis cells swell and burst releasing their contents and possibly triggering a damaging inflammatory response.

A. Answer the following.

Q.1.     What are the different phagocytic cells ?
Ans.     The phagocytic cells of mammals belong to two complementary systems (1) The myeloid system consists of cells that are rapidly phagocytic but incapable of sustained effect. (2) Mononuclear phagocytic system act more slowly but capable of repeated phagocytosis.

Q.2.     How 3 types of granulocytes are differentiated ?
Ans.    Three types of granulocytes are distinguished by the staining property of their granules. Cells whose granules take up basic dyes such as haematoxylin (a blue dye) are called basophils, whose granules take up acidic dyes such as eosin (a red dye) are called eosinophils and those that take up neither basic nor acidic dyes are called neutrophils.

A. Answer the following.

Q.1.     What are tumour specific transplantation antigens (TSTAs) or tumour specific antigens (TSAs) ?
Ans.     Some antigens present on the surface of malignant cells are unique to the cancerous cells and are not present on their normal counterparts. They are called tumour specific transplantation antigens (TSTAs) or tumour specific antigens (TSAs).

Q.2.     What are tumour associated antigens (TAAs) ?
Ans.    Some antigens present on the tumour cells that are not different qualitatively from those found on normal cells but are overexpressed and present in increased number on the cancer cells as products of cellular oncogenes. They are called tumour associated antigens (TAAs). Ex the high level of a growth factor receptor due

Introduction

Sheep and goats have a vital economic importance in India, inhabitant in semi-arid region and mostly rose under harsh environmental conditions (high ambient temperature, scarcity of feed and water). The arid and semi-arid regions of India are drought prone due to low and uneven rainfall.  The vegetation of arid and semi-arid tract is more acute during summer when the quality of the pastures becomes vulnerable which in turn decreases the body condition score of animals and reproductive efficiency is being compromised (Maurya et al. 2009a & 2010).  The small ruminants are widely distributed in comparison of other domesticated species. These species of livestock is also a source of employment for marginal and land-less farmers particularly in the arid and semi-arid region of India. Most of the Indian farmers have limited resources and small ruminants production offers an opportunity to alleviate financial conditions and improve living standards.

Introduction

Harshberger first used the term ethnobotany in 1895-96, for the plants used by the local tribes and people, for their basic needs and requirements. They also used plant, plant parts and plant products for animal healthcare and other practices. This indigenous or traditional animal health care practice is called ethnoveterinary medicine. Ethnoveterinary medicine is defined as a holistic comprehension of the indigenous systems of animal health, their interpretation through western medicine and the development of effective and appropriate technologies (McCorkle 1986). McCorkle et al. (1989) define Ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) as dealing with the folk beliefs, knowledge, skills, methods and practices pertaining to the health care of animals. McCorkle et al. (1996) give a description of ethnoveterinary medicinal research as the holistic interdisciplinary study of the local knowledge and the socio-cultural structures and environment associated with animal health care and husbandry.
 
EVM consists of local people’s knowledge pertaining to animal health and production. According to Mathias (1996 & 2002), it includes:

Pomegranate is emerging as one of the important fruit crops for semiarid and arid areas of India with the identification of superior varieties like Ganesh, Mrudila, Arka Ruby, and Bhagwa the area under pomegranate is increasing fast. Therefore the demand for elite planting material is also increasing fast. Pomegranate is propagated vegetatively either by cutting or air layering since ages. However now a day’s orchards raised from tissue culture are also very common. Nursery as a business preposition can also be as profitable as raising a crop. 

Types of Nurseries According to Marketing
    1.    Wholesale nurseries
    2.    Garden centers
    3.    Nurseries for large-scale gardening (municipals etc.)
    4.    Regular nurseries

Manures and Fertilizers

Even though pomegranate grows well in soils of low fertility, production can be increased by application of manures and fertilizers. Initial soil analysis is desirable for proper scheduling of fertilizers. The nutritional recommendation depends on fertility of the soil and also the age of the plant. For young plants (2-3 months old) application of 200 g Neem cake along with 3-4 kg FYM/plant is recommended. After 3 months, each plant may be given 250 g DAP along with 250 g Neem cake and 5 kg FYM. Again after 9 months, application of 500 g DAP, 250 g Potassium sulphate, 1 kg Neem cake and 10 kg of FYM/plant is recommended.

Fruit Maturity Criteria
 
    1.    The fruit takes about 135 to 170 days to mature depending on the variety.

    2.    In summer, mature fruit turns yellow and is dark pink in winter and rainy season.

    3.    The calyx at the bottom of the fruit turns hard and curves inwards.

    4.    The fruit shape gets compact

    5.    The fruit skin becomes hard.

    6.    The color of the aril turns dark red or pink and is full of juice and sweetness.