eChapters

Much of the success on modern agriculture dependson the availability of high quality seeds with good genetic potential and proven performance in germination, emergence, and vigorous Vegetative growth.

Seed: Seed is a fertilized mature ovule containing an embryonic axis (embryo), stored food material (endosperm) and a protective covering (seed coat or testa).

Seed structures: Living embryo, the most important part of seed, consists of two structures (i) embryonic axis and ( ii ) cotyledon(s). Theembryonic axis is composed of three parts namely

(i)radical (embryonic root), the hypocotyls (point of attachment of cotyledons) and (iii) plumule (theshootapex with the first true leaves). Thethree parts of embryonic axis are easy to identify in dicots, but in monocots (especially in the family Gramineae) their identification is difficult. In monocots, there is only one cotyledon, which is reduced and modifiedto form the scutellum. The basalsheath of cotyledon is elongated to take the shape of coleoptile,while in somecases (e.g., maize), the hypocotyls is modified to form mesocotyl. The base of hypocotyls sheathing the radical is termed as coleorhiza.

Seed development: Thereare manyvariations in the pattern of seeddevelopment when the entire plant kingdom is considered. However, the general processof This includes seed development is almost similar.

ABSTRACT

Bioinformatics is a critical tool in designing the molecular biology experiments. The xeroxing of specific part of genome needs correct primer designing. Primer designing has central role in molecular biology right from cloning, sequencing, gene expression profiling by real time PCR, genotyping by RFLP, SNP analysis by real time PCR and auto sequencer. In this chapter we are describing how to proceed for experimental designing right from data mining from GENEBANK to designing of primers for various common molecular genetic analysis work. The write up also describes in silico evaluation of primers, various off line commercial and non-commercial software, on line free software and trouble shootings in primer designing, The different strategy described in context of primer designing would be of immense use of researchers.

ABSTRACT

54 foraminiferal species belonging to 29 genera, 23 families, 17 superfamilies and 5 suborders have been identified from Nagaland. Of the total species 16 are planktic and 38 are benthic forms. The age for the Upper Disang Group of Nagaland is assigned as Late Eocene, based on the presence of Late Eocene markers i.e. Globigerinatheka semiinvoluta, Cribrohantkenina inflata, Hantkenina alabamensis and Turborotalia cerroazulensis. As per the present study the Disang succession in Nagaland can be grouped into five biofacies. The Uvigerina dominated biofacies consisting Uvigerina cocoaensis, U. continuosa, U. eocaena, U. glabrans, U. jacksonensis and U. cf. steyeri. In some samples even up to 100 % Uvigerina were present. The localized occurrence of thick “Uvigerinids” in high percentage with pyritized test in this section indicates anoxic conditions, suggestive of possible source rock for oil.

ABSTRACT

Over the past four decades groundwater has become a topic of discussion and investigation and as a result the knowledge of understanding groundwater conditions has radically improved. For the past quarter century, remote sensing has played a vital role to target the groundwater resources for the essential survival of horticulture and agriculture crops in drought-prone areas. GIS technology has made a rapid stride for the past one decade to amalgamate the data generated from various space-born platforms and the ground based surveys to facilitate the generation and use of various thematic information for groundwater resources assessment. The present study aims for the demarcation of various groundwater prospective zones in the West Doon Valley and its environs, falling in the SOI toposheet 53 F/15. The role of various parameters namely, Geomorphology, Geology, Lineaments, Drainage, Land Use, Water table and Slope has been integrated for delineating groundwater prospective zones. IRS IC LISS-III geocoded satellite image on 1:50,000 scale was used. Index overlay model has been applied for GIS analysis. The resultant map indicates five prospective zones, such as poor, low, moderate, high and very high groundwater prospective zones in the study area.

Due to inadequate intakes of vitamins and minerals, half of the world's population suffers from micronutrient malnutrition. An adequate amount of wholesome as well as diverse foods are required for the proper growth and development. In addition to calories requirements, these foods should provide various nutrients. In India, ~70% of children do not get the required calories either due to lack of enough food or diverse food. This indicates that these children are also incapable of fulfilling their protein, minerals and vitamins requirements. Diets that lack diversity can be deficient in certain nutrients. Due to the micronutrient composition of the soil of a region, or because of the intrinsic insufficiency of the normal diet the staple foods of some region can lack particular nutrients. The individual plant foods are often deficient in certain nutrient components due to the varying level and composition of food nutrients in different food crops. Some crops are rich in one component but low in other. For example; legumes are usually high in protein, but deficient in essential amino acids like methionine whereas, wheat and rice are rich in carbohydrates but contain little essential amino acid such as lysine, iron, and lack provitamin A. Relying on a single food crop as major staple source of nutrients thus will not attain a nutritionally complete diet and result in malnutrition and deficiency diseases, which often occur in populations of developing countries, mainly due to poverty. Globally, over one billion people are undernourished and food security is a major issue with the world's population forecast reaching to nine billion by 2050.

Abstract

The increasing interest in polyphenolic compounds in industries has led to the exploration and exploitation of rich bio-compounds from natural sources, essentially plants and their by-products. Solid-liquid extraction is mostly applied for the recovery of these valuable compounds from plants. Since the extraction process is often difficult in a fresh matrix, a drying operation is needed to reduce the moisture content, and preserve the targeted valuable compounds. An uncontrolled drying operation will lead to product damage and hence, loss in quality, reason why, several studies have been carried out to understand and control the drying process. The present chapter aims to present some data on drying for bioactive compound recovery from plants and their by-products, mainly polyphenolic compounds. Our main interest is the mathematical tools used to model the drying process.

The dairy processing industry in India deals mainly with the fluid milk and/or short shelf life products, despite India being the largest producer of milk in the world, with an output bordering the 110 million ton mark. This feature offers immense potential in the area of R&D in dairy processing in terms of value addition. The potential gains are many, including higher returns for producers and advantages in terms of health, therapeutic, nutritional and/or gastronomy for the consumers. However, the Indian Dairy Industry can amass possible benefits by being a global contender in trade only when its products are at par with those available in the rest of the world in terms of price and quality. It is evident from the post-WTO scenario that for sustainability, Indian dairy industry will need to maintain wholehearted commitment to quality management right from the farm to the consumer, shedding its inhibitions and resistance to changes.

9.1. WTO Agreements and Food Industry

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was formed in 1947 and lasted until 1994, when it was replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The WTO is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. It provides a forum for negotiating agreements aimed at reducing obstacles to international trade and ensuring fair deal for all, thus contributing to economic growth and development. Currently, there are 16 agreements to which all WTO members are parties and two agreements to which only some WTO members are parties. WTO currently has 153 members, of which 117 are developing countries or separate customs territories. The Head Quarters of WTO is at Geneva (Switzerland) and the official languages are English, French and Spanish.

In insects nervous system is highly developed and serves to coordinate the activities of its various systems. Units of this system are known as neurons. Which carry information in the form of electrical impulses from external and internal sensilla (Sensory cells) to appropriate effectors e.g., glands, muscles and glail cells. Nervous system of insects may be divided into three parts.

1. Central nervous system
2. Sympathetic or visceral nervous system
3. Peripheral nervous system.

Plant tissue culture is the cultivation of plant cells, tissues, or organs on specially formulated nutrients media under the right environmental conditions. A whole plant can be regenerated from a single cell. The history of plant tissue culture has been long and started with Haberlandt in 1902 when he proposed the culture of single plant cells, his experimentation never resulted in success. White (1943) became successful in culturing plant cells for the first time, however, Morel (1960) at the Institut National Recherche Agronomique in Versailles near Paris was first to demonstrate meristem culture technology. He successfully introduced tissue culture technology to the orchid industry and produced disease-free plants of grape. By the 1970s, plant tissue culture had become a formidable technology. Plant tissue culture technique has been around for more than 30 years and considered as an important straightforward technology for the production of disease-free high quality planting material and the rapid production of many uniform plants. Its application requires a sterile workplace, nursery, greenhouse and trained manpower.

Plant tissue culturing techniques have been especially important in the agricultural community over the past many years. During this time, plant tissue culture has effectively moved from the confines of small laboratories and has taken its place among broad scale techniques employed by agricultural industry.

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

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that change in climate system is gradually leaving a strong impact. Observations undoubtedly show that there is increasein global temperatures, wide spread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level. Global climate has shown warming of 0.89 [0.69 to 1.08] °C over the period 1901–2012 which is mainly attributed to anthropogenic activities. Scientific findings indicate that warming is more pronounced than expected and the impact would be particularly severe in the tropical areas, which mainly consist of developing countries, including India (Shukla, 2016). Thus, climate change is a great challenge which is continuously being faced by the sustainable economic growth of the India. Climate sensitive sectors like agriculture, forestry, hydrology oriented sectors faces major threat due to projected changes in climate. India Meteorological Department (IMD) in 2012 reportedincreasing temperature trends during last 112 years and increase in heavy rainfall events and decrease in low and medium rainfall events over India. Changes inrainfall and temperatures have also been reported at various place by Dash et al., 2009, Arora et al., 2005, De et al., 2005, 2008, MoEF 2010, Jones and Briffa., 1992, Kothawaleet al., 2010, Tyagi and Goswami., 2009 and others. Agriculture is likely to be hit by climate change and the Indian economy mostly agrarian based will get worst impact.Several international and national level interventions have taken initiatives foranalyzing the behavioral pattern of climate change.However, it was felt that there is a need for the regional level analysisparticularly, within the state in order tofindtrends that depicts immediate attention at root level. Keeping this in view, many researchers carried out studies at regional level. Systematic collection of literature with reference to climate change in regional level over most of the states of India is being done. These assessments will help in finding relationship between climate change and the vulnerability to human life in long term.

Wheat (T. aestivum) is a staple food of the vast majority of the human population in most part of the world; Europe, West Asia, South East Asia, Americas and North Africa. It provides more nourishment than any other food crop and leads all other food crops-rice, maize and potato on a global basis. The wide varieties of food products prepared from it make the crop popular and also a reason for its expansion even to non-traditional wheat cultivated areas. As a leading cereal crop, it is cultivated widely under varied agro-ecological regions and cropping systems throughout the world. It is one of the first plants domesticated and cultivated by humans, which played a critical role in the transition from hunter–gatherer groups to stabilized societies with an agrarian foundation.

Lawn is an integral part of any garden and it gives pleasure while sitting during evening in summer and one can enjoy good sunshine during winter. Hence, it is often referred as “heart of the garden”. It is covered with perennial grass and provides open landscape to the house and adds aesthetic beauty to the surroundings. Good lawn is essential to have in a good garden. It is permanent feature, which occupies 60% share of total garden area. Here in this chapter lawn is divided into two parts. There are approximately 620 genera and 10,000 species of grasses worldwide. Grasses are used extensively used throughout the world for their beauty and utility. Grasses are found from temperate to tropical to arid semi arid regions and suits in most extreme climatic conditions and have adapted to a worldwide climate and zones. Grasses are used as fodder, food, medicinal and for aesthetics purpose and it belongs to family Gramineae.

The landscape gardening for aesthetic appreciation is an integral part of the progress achieved through the growing world floriculture business that has reached a $ 40 billion mark and valueless aesthetic emotional gains. The industry is continuously rising through transitional changes to have more accepted and unique applications as a wide and economic choice to the consumers with regards to the energy saving in the system. The use of energy for sustenance of the landscape plants before and after planting can be a benchmark in time to come as no one can believe that the plants instead can grow with still better traits either be it the foliage colour, variegation, shape, size and or form beside the fact that the consumption of such altered/compact plants has increased manifold in house, gardens, parks and indoors with a large number of products worldwide in a eco-friendly manner.

At the same time there is great environmental consciousness towards transforming landscape gardening with more natural and unspoiled system of growing plants and maintaining them in the landscape as perennial ones. The system being independent of distance of use or application offers an ease of transport into a mass for large-scale uniform planting. This is the fact that in the recent times, the commercial growers do not rely on the nature to introduce the genetic mutation that will make them millionaires but depends on the art and scientific knowhow to create a novelty in its own. This has resulted in the seriousness and painstaking effort of the growers to produce the plants round the year in new forms and shapes to put forward a new plant with extra-ordinary marketable characteristics every year, e.g. compact chrysanthemum, kalanchoe, bromeliads, orchids, etc are some of the common products with an unusual and eye-catching hue in the auction markets. Similarly, a large number of annual and perennial plants perfectly suited for various kind of landscaping, slope, soil types and moisture regimes under the specific and artificial environment created for a specific growth of the plant.

Whether you are an experienced gardener or a newcomer to the high desert, learning how to successfully garden the desert can be an exciting challenge. With minimal annual precipitation, a short growing season and fluctuating temperatures, maintaining an attractive, healthy landscape can keep you on your toes. Most gardeners value the natural beauty of our native landscapes, but are interested in enhancing it with additional plants to add more color and texture. Can a more beautiful landscape be created and still be water efficient and sustainable? The answer is YES.

The Meaning of Xeriscape

The word xeriscaping (pronounced zer-iskap- ing) is commonly referred to as water-wise or water-smart gardening. Xeros is derived from the Greek word meaningdry’. However, do not let the Greek derivative conjure up images of a dry, desert-like, “blandscape.” Xeriscaping and Xerogardening refer to landscape gardening in ways that reduce or eliminate the need for supplemental irrigation. It is promoted in areas that do not have easily accessible supplies of fresh water and is gaining acceptance in other areas as climate pattern changes. Xeriscape is a proactive approach to curbing wasteful use of a valuable natural resource. Xeriscaping, is a seven step method that combines innovative water conservation techniques with sound horticultural practices. Not only it is possible to have a colorful and beautiful landscape while conserving water, but it can become more sustainable while saving you time, energy and money.

Often it is thought that a xeriscape means the use of all native or low water use plants, resulting in limited plant selection. However xeriscapes can incorporate hundreds of plant choices including trees, shrubs, evergreens, perennials and grasses. Plants whose natural requirements are appropriate to the local climate are emphasized, and care is taken to avoid losing water through evaporation and run off. The specific plants used in xeriscaping depend upon the climate. The concept originated in Denver, Colorado, in early 1980s. Because of severe drought conditions, Denver rationed water and prohibited irrigation of lawns and yards. As a result, vegetation in yards withered, and Denver landscapers began promoting what they called xeriscape, a landscaping approach that uses small amounts of water but maintains a traditional look. In some areas, terms likes water-conserving landscapes, drought tolerant landscaping, zeroscaping and smart scaping are used instead.

Flowers and plants are associated with mankind from the dawn of civilization. In the modern era these have become an integral part of human life, as love for flowers and ornamental plants is a common natural instinct in human beings. The catchy flowers glowing and glowing in all their grandeurs with simplicity always make them tempting to wish the season to continue for never ending, but it may be beyond reach of human beings. However, the answer for it could be by producing and preserving ever-lasting or long-lasting flowers and other attractive ornamental plant parts. These are now becoming favorites especially with the adventurous flower lovers across the globe. The beauty and fresh look of cut flowers and cut foliage is generally lost due to microbial activities and biochemical changes thus these are retained only for a few days even by using the best techniques of post harvest management (Datta, 1999). The charm of dried ornamental plant parts can be maintained from a few months to years with lesser cost if protected from the damage of high humidity as in dried flowers, the microbial activities in the aging process come to stand still.

The main characteristics of dried ornamentals are novelty, longevity, aesthetics, flexibility and year-round availability. The dehydrated or dried ornamentals are generally inexpensive and are sought for their everlasting and attractive appearance globally (Smith, 2000). Being largely focused on the qualities of attractive flowers, living plants and plant parts, floriculturists generally pay little attention to dried and preserved flowers and plants. Therefore, these products remained overlooked and underrated throughout the world. These are overlooked in the sense that their considerable economic importance is generally unrecognized and these are underrated in the sense that their aesthetic contribution is largely discounted. In contrast to other areas of floriculture including post-harvest management, relatively very little public funded research and development projects were undertaken on the dried flower industry across the globe (Joyce, 1998). This has slowed the pace in optimizing the dehydration technology and quality of the produces. Privately funded research and development work has sustained, but such findings are usually kept secret and limited information are available to the common man. Thus, this component of floriculture industry has remained ill defined with respect to the processes, products and organizations in the developed and developing countries. As we see in major cut flower crops, there are defined standards available for judging the quality, however these are lacking in dried ornamentals. There is an urgent need to start war- footing efforts and awareness on the dried ornamentals to attract greater public support to conduct concentrated research and development with more professionalism in the trade of these products.

Abstract

Ten GPS stations have been set up in campaign mode in North Bengal in the Himalayan foothills and frontal zone, of which 7 have been reoccupied. Data from these 7 GPS stations over the period December, 2005 – January, 2007 have been processed using GAMIT/GLOBK suite of software and the velocities of these stations have been estimated. Since the data obtained so far cover a span of one year only, the conclusions derived from them are to be considered as preliminary. The stations are found to be moving at the rate of ~ 40-55 mm/yr in ITRF05 reference frame towards NNE. The baseline between LHAS (Lhasa) and IISC (Bangalore) is estimated to be shortened by ~10.2 mm over the period of our measurement. The southernmost station in our study, NBUV, at Siliguri is more or less collinear with LHAS-IISC baseline. The shortening of NBUV-IISC line is estimated to be ~ 3.8 mm over this period and that of NBUV-LHAS line is ~ 6.4 mm for the same period. These GPS stations were set up across the parallel set of previously marked fault scarps named Matiali (MT), Chalsa (CL) and Baradighi (BD) faults in North Bengal between longitudes 88⁰ E and 89⁰ E. The results from the GPS measurements show that stations to the south of the BD fault are moving at a faster rate than those to the north of MT fault. The baseline between stations AMBK (Ambiok) and NBUV has shortened by ~3 mm over the period of our observation. These two are the northernmost and southernmost stations respectively with respect to the three E-W running parallel faults and thus the shortening of baseline AMBK-NBUV is due to movements on the set of three faults taken together. A N-S to NNE-SSW running line of discontinuity between 88.5⁰ E and 89⁰ E longitudes separates the velocity vectors of the set of stations SAMS, JITI, PMSM, BRDH to the east of the line and the set of stations NBUV, BGKT, AMBK to the west. The line of demarcation of the two blocks containing the two sets of stations appears to coincide with the Gish transverse zone (GTZ).

The food plants of world are damaged by more than 10,000 species of insects, 30,000 species of weeds, 1,00,000 diseases (caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms and 1000 species of nematodes (Hall, 1995). The global losses due to various categories of pests vary with the crop, geographic location and weather. Total yield losses from different pests to all the crops have been estimated to be US$ 500 billion worldwide (Oerke et al., 1994). In India, the current losses due to insect pests in principal field crops have been estimated to be Rs. 6, 89,400 million (Dhaliwal et al., 2004). In addition, there is loss of Rs. 60,000 million due to insect pests during storage. Thus, total losses to major crops and food grains in storage caused by insect pests are estimated to be Rs. 750 billion annually (Dhaliwal and Arora, 2006). Among regions, losses in Asia and Africa almost reaches 50 percent whereas in Europe (28.2%), North America (31.2%) and Oceania (36.2%) are below average. Losses due to animal pests in Asia (18.7%) are almost double those in developed countries and losses from weed competition in Africa and Asia are approximately double than those in Europe (Oerke et al., 1994). To combat such heavy losses mostly chemical pesticides are used by the farmers but indiscriminate use of pesticides has led to severe ecological consequences like destruction of natural enemy fauna, effect on non target organisms, residues in consumable products including packed pure and mineral water and ultimately resistance to the pesticides, to which we solely rely. Insecticides are always required to suppress rapidly expanding insect pest populations. Strategies should be employed to increase efficiency and accelerate insect mortality by combining microbials with sub lethal doses of chemical insecticides and botanicals. Biointensive pest management (BIPM) is the recent trend in Indian farming and attracting the farmers for higher income to their produce. This has resulted due to increased awareness among the end users and concerns about the deteriorating ecological situations among the eco-campaigners.

Microbial pesticides consist of disease causing microorganisms, which are disseminated in the pest populations in large quantities in a manner similar to application of chemical pesticides. It includes bacteria, viruses, fungi, nematodes and some protozoans. Pathogens may exert controlling effect by means of their invasive properties, toxins, enzymes and other substances (Lewis, 2006). The use of microbial insecticide has been proved to be a viable alternative to chemical insecticides, especially in management of forest insect pests. The combination of particular active ingredients and their ability of replication in host populations in the fields define the major differences between microbial insecticides and chemical insecticides. These differences have practical implications for their use in insect pest management programmes.

The increasing use of antibiotics in livestock and poultr y led to development of antibiotic resistant micro organisms and antibiotic residues in livestock products besides other side effects. These caused alarm bells ringing all over the world and by the end of June, 1999 majority of antibiotics as growth promoters in monogastric diets had been banned within the EU. The ban on use of antibiotic at sub therapeutic level in Europe and the potential for a ban in the United States have made scientists to seriously think of alternatives to antibiotics. In fact, the use of probiotics for farm animals was already stimulated by the findings of the Schwann Committee in 1969 which recommended that antibiotics in animal feeds should be restricted. However, the concept of probiotics gained momentum in later part of the last century. In recent years, with the public disapproval of using antibiotics in livestock and poultry production due to their residual effects in their products, there has been a greater emphasis on the use of probiotics in poultry.

Introduction

The seed industry has witnessed a substantial change in the 20th century, with farmers relying on purchasing seeds from market with better traits rather than relying on seeds from previous season’s harvest. Developments in seed technology have increased the momentum of the industry’s growth, and the introduction of genetically modified crops has further boosted the seed market. The value of global seed market has tripled since 2000 and reached US$ 54 billion in 2014 (Indian Seed Market (pdf), www.icfa.org.in).

Introduction

Seed vigour is an important quality parameter, which needs to be assessed to supplement germination and viability tests to gain insight into the performance of a seed lot in the field or in storage. Several definitions have been offered to explain seed vigour. Isley (1957) defined vigour as “the sum total of all seed attributes, which favour stand establishment under unfavourable field conditions”. While, AOSA (2005) defined seed vigour as the sum total of all those properties in seed, which upon planting, result in rapid and uniform production of healthy seedlings under a wide range of environments, including both favourable and stress conditions and ISTA (1985) stated that seed vigour is the sum total of those properties of the seed, which determine the potential level of performance and activity of a non-dormant seed or seed lot during germination and seedling emergence.

Introduction

Quality seed plays seminal role in augmenting agricultural production as well as productivity. Only by using good quality seeds, productivity can be enhanced up to the tune of 15-20 per cent alone, but under optimum management, the increment may touch upon up to 45 per cent depending upon the crops since the efficiency and efficacy of all other inputs in the production technology gamut are contingent upon the quality of seeds being used. Since antiquity the importance of quality seed to enhance agricultural productivity is well evident as mentioned in old testimonials, literatures, scriptures, treatises, epics, and many other ancient documents.

Seed quality is the major decisive factor governing stand establishment of any crop and thus having immense importance and bears utmost priority in case of high value, low volume crops like vegetables in particular and for high volume low value crops in general for enhanced productivity and production as well (Mandal et al., 2015). A number of diverse materials/ treatments at varying doses have been used to increase the rate and uniformity of seedling emergence in wheat and rice, which are generally categorized for seed enhancement, which is a kind of value addition.

Seed enhancement may be defined as post-harvest treatments that improve germination and seedling growth or facilitate the delivery of seeds and other inputs/materials required at the time of sowing smoothly. Seed enhancement technology predominantly possess a central objective to further improve seed performance by treating with specific additives/ chemical/ organics/ botanicals, etc. under very specific regimes and with the aid of certain planting equipments to grow uniform crop obviously to harness higher productivity and production (Halmer, 2006). Various techniques have been employed to assure superior performance of additives in different crops and most have been found to have immense commercial application (TeKrony, 2006). This includes three general areas of enhancement: pre sowing hydration treatment (priming), coating, pelleting technologies and seed conditioning.

Introduction

In India, around 70 per cent of cultivated land is under rainfed condition, but it accounts for about 42 per cent of the total quantity of produced food grains (Sujatha et al., 2013). It was estimated that using quality seeds, productivity can be enhanced up to the extent of 15-20 per cent and under optimum management, the increment may touch upon up to 45 per cent depending upon the crops. Quality seeds play a major role, along with improved package of practices leading to enhanced productivity. Crops propagated with seeds face many problems: Poor seed germination, poor seedling establishment under several abiotic stresses such as, drought, salinity and poor seedling vigour. The capacity of a crop propagated with seeds to grow depends on its genetic constituent and its interaction with the environmental biotic stresses. A number of diverse materials/ treatments at varying doses have been used to increase the rate and uniformity of seedling emergence in many field crops, which are generally categorized for seed enhancement. Seed enhancement may be defined as “post-harvest treatments that improve germination and seedling growth or facilitate the delivery of seeds and other inputs/materials required at the time of sowing smoothly”. Seed enhancement technology predominantly possess a central objective to further improve seed performance by treating with specific additives/chemical/organics/botanicals etc. under very specific regimes and with the aid of certain planting equipments to grow uniform crop obviously to harness higher productivity and production (Halmer, 2006). There are several ways and means to enhance vigour of germinating seedlings while emerging from the seed, which produce a uniform crop stand and finally substantially more yield is achieved by adopting simple techniques.

New Technique of Food Preservation

1. High Pressure Processing (HPP)

High Pressure Processing (HPP) is a method of food processing where food is subjected to elevated pressures (up to 87,000 pounds per square inch or approximately 6,000 atmospheres), with or without the addition of heat, to achieve microbial inactivation or to alter the food attributes in order to achieve consumer-desired qualities. Pressure inactivates most vegetative bacteria at pressures above 60,000 pounds per square inch. HPP retains food quality, maintains natural freshness, and extends microbiological shelf life. The process is also known as high hydrostatic pressure processing (HHP) and ultra high-pressure processing (UHP).

‘Prunes’ is prepared from peach.

Arrak” liquor is prepared from date palm.

Hayane” variety of date palm suitable for juice making.

Kanji” is made from black carrot.

Kirschwascer” a wine prepared from cherry.

Shahi” variety of Litchi suitable for canning.

Introduction

Seed as an input is the precursor for agricultural development as it alone can guarantee 20-30 per cent share of crop productivity (Koudinya and Kumar, 2014). Rigveda, the world’s most ancient scripture available, prescribes the importance of seeds as “Subeejam Sukshetre Jayate Sampadyate” which literally means, “A good seed in a good field can lead to the prosperity and posterity of the entire human race”. Seed production is indeed important to take care of a country’s food and nutritional security needs. At the same time, seed export across countries is vital for ensuring competitiveness in the domestic seed industry besides generating employment and valuable foreign exchange which in turn can be used for scaling up the seed sector’s efficiency itself (Poonia, 2013). As a matter of fact, seed trade is one of the reasons for huge advances made in the Indian seed industry through development and exchange of genetic transformation, marker-assisted breeding and nanotechnology (Nandi et al., 2013). As of 2014-15, global seed industry has reached USD 45 billion in which international seed export alone was worth USD 10 billion. Further, with the estimated growth rate of 9.2 per cent during 2015-2020, the world seed business is expected to be over USD 92 billion. Presently, USA, China, France, Netherlands and Brazil are the top markets comprising more than 66 per cent of the global share in seed trade. Corn, soybean and vegetables account for more than 75 per cent of the total global seed market volume. As of 2014-15, the value of the Asian vegetable seed market was USD 6.75 billion in which China had a major share (41 per cent) and the Indian share was around 7 per cent. Moreover, the world vegetable seed market alone is expected to grow at the rate of 7 -8 per cent per annum and reach USD 8.8 billion by the year 2020 (Parashar and Kumar, 2016).

1.1 Importance

Perfumes, essential oils and aroma are some of the products which indicate religious values, living standards, personality development for personal use and adornment from years back. The Vedic literatures also indicate the presence of perfumes and aromatics and were used for religious purposes as well as medicinal purposes. The word perfume has been used today to describe scented mixtures and is derived from the Latin word, “per fumum”, meaning through smoke. Perfumery has been one of the Indian arts and was a famous centre for perfume and perfume products. The essential oil means a class of volatile odoriferous oils, obtained from raw material of botanical source that impart the plant odour and other characteristic properties derived through distillation (usually with water or steam) or expression and obtained in the form of an oily liquid. The oils extracted through expression are some time called “Expression oils”. The aromatic substances being used from the Vedic period are defined as those plants which possess odoriferous steam volatile constituent’s (essential oil) in them.

Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and USA are the major producers of aromatic materials. China is becoming increasingly important as a primary source and a very large quantity of aromatics and flowers as raw material is available. European Union and Switzerland are the main world markets for aromatics and also has established as a largest consumer of essential oils. The world’s largest importer of aromatic materials is the USA followed by Japan. The latter accounts for about 10% of world demand especially for lemon, clove, orange, peppermint and cedar wood oil.

India exports essential oils of lemongrass, mint, sandalwood, palmarosa, cardamom, ginger and eucalyptus in adequate quantity under AGMARK certification. But, for a better export quality there is a need to study the customer requirements, quality assurance and standards to keep pace with International market, Total Quality Management (TQM) through adulteration detection and modern analysis techniques with economic marketing channels.

India possesses a number of resources as plant parts, ample land and varied climatic conditions with low production costs but the essential oil producers need to study the customer needs for a regular supply of best quality products at a competitive rates. Today, second important factor for successful competition is the quality assurance. The consumers, these days, are very much aware about the quality and safety of using perfumes, essential oils and other pharmaceutical products. The third most important point is the packaging which attracts the consumers most of the times. Proper packaging along with an attractive label is always a plus point for the marketing of any product. Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and Good Manfacturing Practices (GMP’s) are the quality assurance systems which continuously controls and regulate the quality production of commodities, needs strict enforcement. ISO 9000, TQM and ISO 14000 series are the some of quality management organizations, working for the development of quality standards.

ABSTRACT

Mushrooms are in use for centuries in traditional system of medicines, and have importance in greater Chinese and western pharmacopeia. Morchella species are well known across the globe as a popular and prized edible fungi and unique culinary saprophytes. They have a long history of usage in the formulation of different traditional medicine for centuries due to their anti- oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancerous and immuno-stimulatory properties. Inspite of high demand and day-by-day increasing importance, cultivation of M. esculenta Dill.ex Pers and other morels are limited, however, there is a report that some species of Morchella are successfully cultivated in China. Phytochemical studies reveals that polysaccharide groups, phenolic compounds, tocopherols, ascorbic acid and vitamin D are the most active molecules present in morels. In addition to these compounds, morels are also rich in carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids, organic acids and several kinds of macro-and micronutrients. Literature revealed that no data on reproductive biology of M. esculenta are available till date. Future investigation is required to study the life cycle and the ecological association of different morels to high altitude regions, and causes of their association with coniferous and broad leaved trees such as Cedrus deodara, Pinus gerardiana, Picea smithiana, Quercus and Castanopsis species. There is an urgent need to explore all traditional knowledge associated with morels, phytochemistrys and associated pharmological studies of major compounds, reproductive cycle and their basic biology for future conservation of this precious mushrooms for man-kind.

ABSTRACT

Artemisia annua L. is known for the content of anti-malarial drug, artemisinin. It is widely distributed in subtropical, temperate and subtropical zones worldwide and traditionally used for the treatment of various ailments. Artemisinin has been the frontline treatment since the late 1990s and saved countless lives, especially among the world’s poorest children. The major chemical constituents of Artemisia annua L. are sesquiterpenoids and some phenolics. The essential oil of Artemisia contains artemisia ketone, camphor, caryophyllene oxide, 1,8- cineole and -pinene, and these essential oils constituents are known for their medicinal properties.Artemisinin was discovered in 1971 bya Chinese Medicinal Chemist Youyou Tu (Nobel Prize in 2015). As the demand for artemisinin remains high worldwide, exploring the chemical and the genetic variation especially knowledge, about its mechanisms for high-yielding would be more important. The plant extract is also known for other biological activities such as anti- hypertensive, anti-microbial, immuniosuppresive, and antiparasitic activities. To increase the production of artemisinin and to investigate the effect of climate change on artemisinin content will be the major research area in future from Artemisia genus. Exploring the alternative resources such as microbial production and semisynthetic approaches from other easily available natural molecules would be of high demand. Some other molecules from Artemisia should also be focused for the future development of man kind and in drug discovery science. An overview of present status of medicinal applications, phytochemistry, and future perspectives for the research possibilities on the active ingredient Artemisinin from A. annua is discussed in this chapter.

ABSTRACT

The deeply rooted coastal grass Spinifex littoreus (Burm.f.) Merr. is a potent soil binder having capability to form a strong and stable dunes. However detailed features of this species has not been thoroughly studied till date. In this communication, salient morphological features along with different crucial micro-morphological peculiarities have been discussed. The comparative analysis of gradual degradation of population of Spinifex littoreus and native dune vegetation of the coastal belt in East Medinipur of West Bengal and adjacent Balasore district of Odisha are provided, along with different biodiversity indices. Plants were characterized as stout, dioecious, stoloniferous grass upto 90 cm tall, with rigid and sharp spiny leaves. Spikelets in racemes subtended by large bract-like spatheoles which are fascicled into large capitate spiny structures 30-37 cm in diameter. S. littoreus is fairly common along sandy shores and dunes. Plants are useful as a sand binder in unstable coastal dunes ecosystem.

ABSTRACT

Plant tissue culture is an important and efficient technique for the production of desired plant products with different and improved variety in aseptic conditions. Plant tissue culture methods have a wide scope for the creation, conservation, and utilization of genetic variability for the genetic improvement of field, fruit, vegetable, forest crops, medicinal and aromatic plants. The main objective of this communication were to collects the information and techniques of tissue culture to genetic improvement of the medicinal plants. Tissue culture technique in combination with molecular techniques has been successively used to incorporate specific traits through gene transfer. Modified varieties of medicinal plants is mostly required, as some compounds like alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, saponins, phenolics, flavanoids, and amino acids etc are extracted from these plants. From the ancient time up to 20th century, most of the human-being are dependent on the medicinal plant for basic healthcare needs and improving such a crop is the most important for this billionaire world. As far conventional methods of genetic improvements the tissue culture techniques takes cheap and lesser time required for traits specific improvements in the MAPs.

ABSTRACT

Dendrophthoe falcata (L.f.) Ettingsh, a unique hemiparasitic taxa belongs to the family Loranthaceae, spreads over the entire forest in the South West Bengal. It is generally stem hemiparasitic taxa, as it is found mostly on aerial part of the host plant due to lack of root system. It depend on the host plant for mainly water and to some extend carbon. It synthesizes its own food. This plant has haustoria instead of root, they penetrate their haustoria into the vascular bundle mainly in the xylem tissue of the host plants. This species has numerous medicinal values with a long history of its use in Chinese traditional medicines. The present work deals with the anti-diabetic, phytochemicals and silver nanoparticles properties of D. falcata. The responsible enzyme i.e. Alpha-amylase breaks the large starch molecules which produces free glucose and simultaneously increases the blood sugar level and as a result hyperglycemia occurs. This study also reveals that the plant’s leaves extracts have inhibitory activities on this key alpha amylase enzyme and apart from that aqueous extract of this plant contains some secondary metabolites which is very crucial data for drug preparation and any other research purposes. The maximum amount of silver nanoparticles is present in this plant which is valuable as a silver line in near future implications for different drugs preparations

1. Introduction

The increasing size and activities of humans have mounted severe pressure on the survival of other life forms on the earth. This is a matter of great concern for the humanity. Therefore, a critical study to inventory all plant species has become very essential and urgent before they are lost or become extinct. In the face of extinction of many of these species, we need to learn as much about them as quickly as possible. In the recent years there has been a great concern for biological diversity and conservation of biological resources. Although much emphasis has been given to the ways and means for inventories (Flora) of biological diversity, there is also need for more in depth studies that deal with basic relationship of species. Monographic, revisionary and systematic studies that provide basic descriptive information about organisms and their relationship are required to document the information and knowledge about the plant wealth of a country. This chapter is to highlights the usefulness of the Flora and revisionary studies, and provides the relevant information to the beginners and the budding plant taxonomists about the preparation of an ‘Ideal Flora’ and ‘Creative Revision’ to meet the requirement of the present time.

1. Introduction

If we want to know what kind of plants and animals are in a particular habitat, and how many they are of each species, it is obviously (usually) impossible to go and count each and every one present. It would be like trying to count different sizes and colors of grains of sand on the beach. This problem is usually solved by taking a number of samples from around the habitat, making the necessary assumption that these samples are representative of the habitat in general. In order to be reasonably sure that the results from the samples do represent the habitat as closely as possible, careful planning beforehand is essential.

The usual sampling unit is a quadrat. Quadrats normally consist of a square frame, the most frequently used size being 20×20 m² for trees, 5×5 m² for shrubs, 1×1 m² for herbs. The purpose of using a quadrat is to enable comparable samples to be obtained from areas of consistent size and shape. Rectangular quadrats and even circular quadrats have been used in some surveys. It does not really matter what shape of quadrat is used, provided it is a standard sampling unit and its shape and measurements are stated in any write-up. It may however be better to stick to the traditional square frame unless there are very good reasons, because this yields data that are more readily comparable to other published research. (For instance, you cannot compare data obtained using a circular quadrat, with data obtained using a square quadrat. The difference in shape of the sampling units will introduce variations in the results obtained.)

1. Introduction

Plant diversity is vital for the survival and well-being of humanity. A number of domesticated plant species are critical to food security. In addition to the cultivated species, many wild plants also play an important role in meeting local needs for food, fuel, medicine and construction materials; crop wild relatives are also of special interest for crop breeding programmes. There are currently hundreds of underutilized plant species and varieties displaying traits of interest to meet present and future needs, while the value of many other plant species is yet to be discovered (Stohlgren et al. 1997). Researchers have confirmed the importance of the contributions and interdisciplinary understanding in relation to taxonomy, physiology, reproductive biology, conservation biology, hydrology, soils, as well as socioeconomic and climate change for holistic understanding of biodiversity patterns (Dale 1999; Myers et al. 2000). It is thus necessary that the professionals studying plant diversity require a synoptic view on the regulators of biodiversity and the tools through which the processes could be understood.

Spatial analysis can contribute significantly for improved understanding and monitoring of plant diversity. Results obtained from spatial analysis make it possible to formulate and implement targeted conservation strategies, which can be more effective (Escudero et al. 2003; Dale 1999). Outputs from spatial studies can provide critical information like evaluation of the current status of plant species and prioritize areas for conservation on the plant diversity, in particular geographic region. Spatial information, combined with available characterization and/or evaluation data, is very useful for effective genebank management (e.g. definition of core collections, identification of collection gaps, etc.). This type of analysis is conducted using Geographic Information System (GIS) tools, which allows one to carry out complex analyses combining different (spatial) data sources and generate maps, to facilitate the development and implementation of conservation policies (Goodchild 1992; Crosetto et al. 2000; McCarthy 2001).

1. Introduction

Medicinal plants play an important role in human life to combat various diseases. The rural folks and tribals in India even now depend largely on the surrounding plants/forests for their day-to-day needs. Majority of the medicinal and aromatic plants are still collected from wild for preparation of herbal drugs and perfumes/cosmetics. Rapid population growth and rising popularity of herbal drugs and natural essential oils have brought into focus the acute scarcity in availability of some of the plants due to indiscriminate and unregulated collection, habitat destruction through expanding agricultural lands, deforestation and urbanization. Fall in the supply of good quality, genuine raw material has resulted in price rise and deterioration in the quality of formulations. With growing demand and use of medicinal and aromatic plants, the important species have to be introduced into commercial agriculture.

The Indian annual turnover of herbal material has crossed Rs. 4000 crores mark, of which Rs. 300 to 400 crores worth is being the export market. The share of Indian trade in medicinal and aromatic plants is only 1.5 percent of the world market. India is one of the major exporters of crude drugs mainly to the developed countries like the USA, the UK, Germany, Japan, France, Switzerland, etc. The main crude drugs having good export opportunities are Aconite, Aloe, Dioscorea, Ephedra, Digitalis, Bach, Belladona, Cincona, Ergot, Isabgol, Opium, Vinca, Senna, Sarpagandha, etc. Of these senna leaves, isabgol husk/seed, and Cassia tora seeds are in maximum demand. China is the major producer of herbal plant material in the world. China earns US$ 5 billion per year from herbal trade besides meeting its domestic requirements. Though India has more potential of production of number of medicinal and aromatic plants than China, the contribution of India in the world market is very low because of the production of poor quality produce (Chadha and Gupta 2005).

Conversion of muscle to meat is a complex process in which several physical and chemical changes takes place over a period of several hours or even days. The major changes which take place during this process include fall in muscle pH and temperature as well as muscle shortening which further leads to proteolysis or ageing. These changes during conversion of muscles to meat are variable and have great effect on meat quality (tenderness, juiciness, flavour, colour etc.) and also on certain processing characteristics like emulsification, binding properties and yield of the products. To know this complex process it is necessary to understand the process of energy production and metabolic pathway shifting in live animals.

Pre Slaughter

In the living animal, aerobic metabolism is used to obtain energy. The source of energy at this stage is either free fatty acids or blood glucose or muscle glycogen. In this process total 38 ATP molecules are produced from single glucose or glycogen molecule by the complex processes known as glycolysis, oxidative decarboxylation and oxidative phosphorylation. However, under stressful situations, anaerobic metabolism may be used and lactic acid is produced. Lactic acid is usually transported from the muscles to the liver, where it is re-synthesized into glucose and glycogen, or to the heart, where it is metabolized to carbon dioxide and water.

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

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

Forms of precipitation

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

The word ‘monsoon’ is derived from the Arabic word mawsim meaning season. The Arabs during their travel towards India recognised that by June strong southwesterly winds commence over the Arabian Sea and bring a lot of rains to the subcontinent. The term was first used in English in British India and neighbouring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area. In the Indian subcontinent, monsoon is one of the oldest weather observations, an economically important weather pattern over June through September every year, and the most anticipated weather event and unique weather phenomenon. Due to its effects on agriculture, flora and fauna, and other economic, social, and environmental effects, a monsoon is one of the most anticipated, followed and studied weather phenomena of the Indian subcontinent. It has significant impact on the overall well-being of subcontinent residents.

The term ‘monsoon’ is customarily used in India to refer to the rainy season during the northern hemisphere summer from June to September and is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea. Now the term monsoon has been broadened to include almost all of the phenomena associated with the annual weather cycle within the tropical and subtropical land regions of the earth.

Many diseases, nematodes, insects and weeds affect crop production, causing severe yield loss. Weather is the most important factor that determines the geographical distribution of these crop pests. The local weather patterns have a significant impact on the abundance of diseases and insect pests in the crops. The severity of disease and pest development depends on the combination of weather conditions during the growing season and is variable from season to season. The weather conditions include temperature (both the maximum and the minimum), light, rain, humidity, dew, cloudiness, sunshine, wind, air currents, evaporation, snow and atmospheric pressure. However, among these weather parameters, temperature and humidity play the major roles in infection of crops due to insect pests and diseases.

Many aspects of the global climate are changing rapidly. Evidence for changes in the climate system abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans. The climate system is the highly complex system consisting of five major components; the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface and the biosphere, and the interactions among them. The climate system evolves in time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because of external forcings such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations and human-induced forcings such as the changing composition of the atmosphere and land-use.

The term ‘climate variability’ is often used to denote deviations of climatic statistics over a given period of time (e.g., a month, season or year) from the long-term statistics relating to the corresponding calendar period. In this sense, climate variability is measured by those deviations, which are usually termed anomalies.

‘Climate change’ refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or due to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. The United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines ‘climate change’ as ‘a change of climate behaviour which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between ‘climate change’ attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and ‘climate variability’ attributable to natural causes. Climate change is a long-term shift in weather conditions measured by changes in temperature, precipitation, wind, snow cover, and other indicators. It can involve both changes in average conditions and changes in variability, including, for example, changes in extreme conditions.

A key difference between climate variability and change is in persistence of ‘anomalous’ conditions. In other words, events that are used to be rare occur more frequently, or vice versa. Occasionally, an event or sequence of events occurs that has never been recorded before, such as the exceptional tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 or hurricane season in the Atlantic in 2005. Yet even that could be a part of natural climate variability. If such a season does not recur within the next 30 years, by looking back it could be called as an exceptional year, but not a ‘climate change’. Only a persistent series of unusual events taken in the context of regional climate parameters can suggest that a potential change in climate has occurred.

Abstract

More than one-third of food is lost or wasted in post-harvest operations in India. Decreasing the post-harvest losses (PHL) may be a sustainable solution to increasing food availability and improving farmers’livelihoods. As per Associated Chambers of Commerce of India, India loses approximately US$ 14.33 billion annually on account of PHL (ASSOCHAM, 2017). The objective of this study is to analyse the agricultural wastes that are produced in the value chain for a modern trade retailer, identify their causes, and discuss methods for minimising field wastages. A case study approach has been used to depict the agricultural value chain (vegetable segment). A field visit was conducted to a farmland and a privately operated Collection Center in Barasat area of West Bengal. The author discusses solutions towards minimising harvest wastages in the farm by focusing on waste reduction. Post-harvest wastages beyond the farm can be reduced by undertaking measures that focus on waste management. Going forward, adoption of technologies by farmers may lessen inefficiencies such as wastages and improve their income. Further scope for research lies in exploring joint interventions by private players, government agencies, non-profit organisations and entrepreneurs through public-private partnership models or through development of clusters for creating sustainable value chains and achieving greater profitability.

Abstract

Packaging industry is considered to be one of the world’s largest industrial sectors. In the past few years, food processing has undergone several paradigm changes with respect to production, distribution, storage, processing and retailing. This increasing dynamism in the food industry, while on one hand placing a lot of challenges on the packaging industries, is on the other hand opening up opportunities for entrepreneurs to foray into food processing and also packaging industries and develop appropriate solutions in response to the needs of the market and environment. This study aims at exploring the state of packaging industry and packaging technologies in developing countries, with special emphasis on India, against the backdrop of increasing concern for prevention of food losses and therefore highlighting the need for new innovative ideas for food packaging. The authors posit that customer awareness about safety of processed food has given rise to tremendous possibilities of entrepreneurship opportunities in the area of safe and hygiene packaging. However market preferences, state reputations and cost benefit analysis play major roles in packaging of processed food products.

An understanding of intellectual property rights for plant breeders has become increasingly important over the last few decades. It is also a confusing topic to many in the industry. Confusion is understandable when we are presented with various types of protection, many acronyms, terms used interchangeably and incorrectly, regulations that vary internationally and a lack of understanding or consistent interpretations of laws that govern these rights.

Plants are unique from other marketed products due to their complex nomenclature, ease of propagation and the many levels of distribution and promotion involved in their marketing. The protection is required for a plant cultivar needs to be considered in relation to all of these factors in order to be correctly implemented and maintained. Breeding and commercialization of new ornamental plant varieties is an economically important activity both for the industry and the well being of our society. Breeding or developing a new variety requires a long time. In horticultural crops, it takes 3-10 years from initial crossing of parent cultivars to develop a commercial variety. It is important to encourage development of new variety by providing incentives such as Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) over exclusive production and marketing of seed of an improved variety. When the new cultivar is introduced and commercialized, plant breeders finally begin to get paid for their years of hard work in the form of royalties. Legal protection for new plant varieties provides the means by which companies, institutions, and independent plant breeders can receive a return on their investments of time and money as well as justify their involvement in research and new plant development. In addition, legal protection enables plant breeders to be recognized for their craft and skill and encourages plant breeding as a profession. Plant variety protection provides an incentive for continued breeding and to ensure the availability of new varieties that meet future demands and keep the industry thriving.

Abstract: Zantedeschia, commonly known as calla lily, is one of the popular ornamental plant in the world. Zantedeschia are commonly associated with the New Zealand, even though they are native to South Africa. The vegetatively propagated crop is currently the most important rhizomatous geophyte in the world. Most cultivars are grown for cut flowers, variegated or spotted foliage for floral arrangements, flowering potted plants and landscaping. Continued breeding and improvement of Zantedeschia focused on disease resistance, improved floral longevity, novel spathe colour, better bloom quality, longer stems, more flowers/ rhizome and determinate growth habit. Intersectional/interspecific hybridization is hampered by post fertilization barriers, hybrid breakdown, albino hybrid embryo and F₁ sterility. Crossing barriers have been overcome with the use of in vitro embryo rescue. Haploidization and molecular techniques are being used to create homozygous plant and marker assisted selection, respectively.

1. IMPORTANCE

Nutrients are known to influence each and every physiological process within plant system. A considerable amount of various nutrients has been reported to drain off every year with the yield, pruning wood and fallen leaves from the plant and soil system. Therefore, for successful fruit culture, assessment of nutritional status of an orchard assumes significance. The key to mineral nutrition of any orchard is the judicious application of fertilizers on the basis of leaf and soil analysis. The nutrients requirements of fruit trees may vary from crop to crop and includes the soil as well as foliar application of the required major and micro-nutrients. Low level of nutrient results in low yields which are much below the realizable potential. There are a number of reasons why better nutrient management in horticultural crops deserves serious attention. The nutrition management of fruit crops is important:

1. To obtain higher yields and higher returns.
2. To increase the returns from established orchards.
3. To help improving the nutritional standards of the people by providing adequate supply of fruits and vegetables at affordable prices.
4. To provide greater and better quality raw material for fruit and vegetable processing industries, and
5. To help earning foreign exchange through the export of high quality produce in fresh or processed form.

1. INTRODUCTION

Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) has become a widely practiced Hi-tech horticulture practice. It refers to maintenance of soil fertility and plant nutrient supply to an optimum level for sustaining the desired crop productivity through optimization of the benefits from all possible sources of plant nutrients in an integrated manner. Another important aspect of INM is for enhancing of the fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) by proper placement of fertilizer in close proximity to the rhizosphere of the highest root activity. Today, Integrated Nutrient Management has become one of the common practices among progressive horticulture producers.

INM involves proper combination of chemical fertilizers, organic manures, crop residues, nitrogen fixing crops and bio-fertilizers suitable to the system of land use under ecological, social and economic conditions. INM involves maintenance or adjustment of plant nutrient supply to an optimum level for sustaining the desired crop productivity.

A successfully developed new cultivar should have stable performance and broad adaptation over a range of environments, seasons and locations, in addition to high yielding potential. Evaluating performance stability and range of adaptation is become increasingly important in breeding programmes. Since, stability and adaptability are important selection criteria in breeding programmes, in depth research on stability is needed for a better estimate of crop performance and adaptability.

Genotype × season interaction is of major performance to the plant breeder in developing stable but high yielding varieties of crop plants. When new varieties are tested over a series of seasons, the relative ranking of the varieties for any given attribute is rarely the same at each season. This increases the difficulty of identifying superior stable genotypes. Comstock and Moll (1963) have shown statistically the effect of large genotype × environment interaction in reducing the progress from selection.

In order to minimize the genotype × season interaction, stratification of the seasons can be practiced. The implication in stratification is that suitable selections could be made for unfavourable and favourable seasons encountered within the sampling units proposed. Stratification of the environments has been practiced for a long time to identify suitable selection that could be made for the narrower range of environments encountered within the sampling units proposed. However, even with this refinement of technique, the interactions of genotypes with locations in a sub-region with environments encountered at the same location in different years, frequently remain too large (Allard and Bradshaw, 1964). Little is known about the environmental factors contributing to such interactions. Sprague (1966) suggested that even if such information were available, the possibility of materially reducing the genotype × environment interaction in field experiments would remain questionable.

Introduction

India is a land of diverse agro climatic zones and each of these zones offer a great potential for cultivation of wide range of crops across all seasons. Vegetables form major and important part of our dietary requirements, which are widely grown in the rural and peri-urban areas. Hi-tech horticulture including protected cultivation of high value and exotic vegetables has been on the increase, targeting high end domestic and export market. Of late, due to the population pressure, fragmentation of land holdings and urbanization has led to decline in cultivable area, more so in urban and peri-urban areas. Production of vegetables under protected cultivation system results in effective use of the land resources, besides being able to increase the production of quality vegetables both for the export and domestic markets by offsetting biotic and abiotic stresses to a great extent that otherwise is prevalent in open cultivation. Under protected cultivation, vegetables are widely grown due to higher productivity and economic feasibility.