eChapters

Climbers

Climbers are group of plants which have weak stems and ability to climb up the support with the help of modified organs for sunlight and air, twiners differ from climber in the way that they do not posses such modified organs but twine around the support cover it and reach the top. Climber are woody or herbaceous plant which climb up the trees and other tall objects with the help of support of their special modified organ, such as tendrils, root, thorns, rootlets, hooks etc.

Tendrils- Bigonia gracilis, Clematis paniculata etc.

Thorns- Bougainvillea species, Climbing roses etc.

Rootlets- Ficus repens etc.

Hooks- Gallium aperine, Rubus australis etc.

Climbers and twiners are important group of plants. Climbers and twiners add the beuty, colour or fragrance in the garden and artificial structure like garden wall, topiary, arches, pergola etc. are made with the help of climbers.

Drying- Removal of water from product by influence of non conventional energy source like sun and wind.

Dehydration- Process of removal of moisture by the application of artificial heat under controlled condition of temperature, humidity and airflow etc.

Advantage of dehydration over sun drying

The process of dehydration is much more rapid than sun drying.

Dehydration requires less floor area.

Dehydration is done under very hygienic condition.

Sun drying is not possible in cloudy weather or during rain while dehydration or mechanical drying is not dependent on weather.

The colour of dehydrated or mechanically dried fruit and vegetable remain uniform due to uniform drying temperature.

Herbicide History and Development

Common salt, ash, smelter waste, and like cheap materials have been used for centuries to control weeds on roadsides, fence rows, and pathways. But Chemical weed killing was born in 1896 when Bonnet, a French grape grower, observed that the Bordeaux mixture which he used against downy mildew of grape turned the leaves of Sinapis arvensis (a weed) black. Soon it was found that copper sulphate present in the Bordeaux mixture was responsible for its weed killing effect. Further tests in France, Germany, and U.S.A. established that copper sulphate could indeed be used for selective control of broadleaf weeds in small grains; wheat, barley, and oat. Between 1896 and 1908, several other inorganic salts, as also sulphuric acid, were found selective to small grain cereals. Of these, in Europe, a 6 to 10 per cent solution of sulphuric acid continued for considerable time as a satisfactory herbicide for broadleaf weed control in cereals, but it corroded the containers and sprayers. In the U.S.A., salts like sodium chlorate, carbon bisulphide, sodium arsenite, kainite, and calcium cyanamide were developed for non-selective eradication of perennial weeds, particularly, Convolvulus arvensis ‘field bind weed’ and Cirsium arvense ‘Canada thistle‘. In Hawaii, sodium arsenite solution was found highly effective for weed control in sugarcane plantations. Between 1930 and 1940, some boron compounds, thiocyanates, dinitro phenols (DNC and DNBP), ammonium sulphate, and certain mineral salts were developed in the west for selective and non-selective weed control. DNC and DNBP wereused extensively in Europe in small grains for broadleaf weed control, even though these chemicals dyed the hands and clothes of the users to yellow colour, almost permanently. Further milestones in weed control were introduction of organic chemical, 2-methyl-4, 6-dinitrophenoll (DMOC), in 1932 and discovery of hormone type selective weed killers. Selective residual chemicals such as substituted phenyl ureas and triazines, and non-residual chemicals diquat and paraquat are more recent discoveries.

The discovery of the herbicidal activity of 2, 4-D (2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) first synthesized in 1941, triggered the development of modern herbicide technology. 2, 4-D proved to be an outstanding herbicide.

Isostasy is derived from the Greek word isostasios meaning ‘in equipoise’ or in a state of balance. American geologist Dutton was the first to use the term isostasy in 1889 for the state of gravitational equilibrium that exists between continents and ocean floor and the mountains, plateaus and plains on a rotating earth, in accordance with densities of their underlying rocks. Dutton was of the view that the height of these different features was related to their density. In other words, the higher features were composed of rocks of lower density and the features of lesser to height were made of rocks of higher density. For instance, the continental blocks whose average height is about 5 kms above the ocean floor are composed of lighter rocks than the latter, and to compensate for their higher height the continental blocks go deeper into the earth so that the continents and ocean basins may remain in equilibrium. The same argument applies to the mountain ranges. The excess mass of lighter materials which rises in the form of mountain chains on the earth’s surface is compensated by light materials extending as roots into the denser strata below. In other words, the upper part of the earth’s crust is built of lighter rocks which is floating on the substratum of denser rocks. The hypothesis of the sialic rocks floating over the sima of the sub-stratum had been first put forward by Sir George Airy of Britain in 1855. The use of the word floating, of course, did not imply that the sub-stratum was in a liquid condition.

Rainfed areas currently constitute 55 per cent of the net sown area of India and are home to two-thirds of livestock and 40 per cent of human population. Livestock plays an important role in the rainfed agro-ecosystem, because of inherent risk involved in the crop farming. The aspect of milk production costs in the country need to be reduced to make the dairy industry competitive. The milk production costs are generally high because of small herd size, difficult collection conditions in hills and high feed costs. Cost of production of rearing animals can be reduced either by improving per unit productivity or reducing feed cost which is the major constituent of total cost. The scientific practices of growing feed and fodder needs to be disseminated among the farmers for increasing the efficiency of dairy animals.

Forages also contribute in prevention of soil erosion and decline in organic matter and fertility. They can also help in reducing nitrogen fertilizer costs and the energy costs associated with application of nutrients.This chapter attempts to determine the economics of different fodder and fodder seed crops for highlighting their importance in the livestock sector in hills.

Introduction

Livestock are vital to subsistence farming and sustainable livelihood in most developing countries. Of India’s population of one billion people, more than 70 percent live in the rural areas. India also has more than 30 percent of the world’s bovine population. So, Milk production costs are generally high Livestock rearing plays a significant role in the economy of the Indian people. Crop residues and pastures / grasslands are the major feed resource for this activity.

Climatic, topography, physiographic factors, altitude and related aspects have influenced the distribution of various crop and grass species, which determine the fodder/forages production both qualitatively and quantitatively (Whyte, 1968). Though livestock rearing is an important occupation of farmers in India, the scientific forage cultivation has remained almost neglected. Thoughtless cutting of trees and indiscriminate use of grazing areas has lead to denudation of hill slopes, which has resulted in critically low biomass availability and adverse effects on livestock production in hills and thus, the livestock productivity remains very low.

Introduction

Eggplant or aubergine {Solanum melongena L. Solanaceae), is indigenous to a vast area stretching from northeast India and Burma, to Northern Thailand, Laos, Viet nam and Southwest China and wild plants can still be found in these locations. There is a wealth of eggplant common names. Eggplant is a major fruit vegetable with world production exceeding 31 million tonnes (Mt). Leading producers are China (17 Mt) and India (8 Mt), Egypt (1 Mt), Turkey (0.9 Mt), Japan and Italy (0.4 Mt). Eggplant is particularly favoured in Asia where it has been cultivated for millennia, and in India it is considered King of Vegetables. Brinjal, native to India, shares 31 % area (5.1 × 10⁵ ha) and 28% production (82 × 10⁵ t) of the world (Anon., 2003). It contributes 9% of the total vegetable production in the country. Three states/provinces viz. Orissa (1.41 × 10⁵ ha), West Bengal (1.29 × 10⁵ ha) and Bihar (0.72 × 10⁵ ha) cover 67% of total brinjal area in India (Anon., 2006). It is widely adaptive and highly productive (17.78 t/ha) crop of tropical and sub-tropical regions. It is comparable with tomato for nutritional values like vitamin C, iron and fiber, thereby, can play an important role in combating malnutrition in under-nourished regions (Singh et al., 2001). However, genetic improvement, production technology, post harvest handling and plant protection measures are important for increasing the production, productivity and consumption of brinjal.

Frequency Distribution: A tabular presentation of the data in which the fre- quencies of values of a variable are given along with them is called a frequen- cy distribution. Two types of frequency distribution are available

1. Discrete Frequency Distribution or Ungrouped Frequency Distribution
2. Continuous Frequency Distribution or Grouped Frequency Distribution

Objective (a): Prepare a discrete frequency distribution from the following sentence in English: “Today there is hardly a phase of Endeavour which does not find statistical devices at least occasionally useful.”

Theory: This problem relates to discrete frequency distribution i. e. a frequency distribution which is formed by distinct values of a discrete or continuous variable.

Objective: The distribution of age of males at the time of marriage was as follows

FOR GROUPED DATA

Objective: Data regarding lives of two new models of refrigerators collected in a recent survey are

REGRESSION

Regression means to revert or return back. The term was first introduced by Sir Francis Galton in1877. Regression technique is applicable in all those fields where two or more relative variables have the tendency to go back to the mean. Regression analysis refers to the methods by which estimates are made of the values of a variable from the knowledge of the values of one or more other variables and to the measurement of the errors involved in this estimation pro- cess.

In statistical modeling, regression analysis is a statistical process for estimat- ing the relationships among variables. It includes many techniques for mod- eling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. Regres- sion analysis helps one understand how the typical value of the dependent variable (or ‘criterion variable’) changes when any one of the independent variables is varied, while the other independent variables are held fixed. Most commonly, regression analysis estimates the conditional expectation of the dependent variable given the independent variables – that is, the average value of the dependent variable when the independent variables are fixed.

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is a hypothesis-testing technique used to test the equality of two or more population (or treatment) means by examining the variances of samples that are taken. ANOVA allows one to determine whether the differences between the samples are simply due to random error (sampling errors) or whether there are systematic treatment effects that cause the mean in one group to differ from the mean in another.

Most of the time ANOVA is used to compare the equality of three or more means, however when the means from two samples are compared using ANOVA it is equivalent to using a t-test to compare the means of independent samples.

ANOVA is based on comparing the variance (or variation) between the data samples to variation within each particular sample. If the between variation is much larger than the within variation, the means of different samples will not be equal. If the between and within variations are approximately the same size, then there will be no significant difference between sample means.

The two-way ANOVA compares the mean differences between groups that have been split on two independent variables (called factors). The primary purpose of a two-way ANOVA is to understand if there is an interaction be- tween the two independent variables on the dependent variable. For example, you could use a two-way ANOVA to understand whether there is an interac- tion between gender and educational level on test anxiety amongst university students, where gender (males/females) and education level (undergraduate/ postgraduate) are your independent variables, and test anxiety is your depen- dent variable. Alternately, you may want to determine whether there is an in- teraction between physical activity level and gender on blood cholesterol con- centration in children, where physical activity (low/moderate/high) and gender (male/female) are your independent variables, and cholesterol concentration is your dependent variable.

The interaction term in a two-way ANOVA informs you whether the effect of one of your independent variables on the dependent variable is the same for all values of your other independent variable (and vice versa). For example, is the effect of gender (male/female) on test anxiety influenced by educational level (undergraduate/postgraduate)? Additionally, if a statistically significant interaction is found, you need to determine whether there are any “simple main effects”, and if there are, what these effects are (we discuss this later in our guide).

3.1.1. Introduction

Clutch is a device which is used to connect and disconnect the tractor engine from the transmission gears and drive wheels. It is fitted in between the engine and gear box. The clutch transmits power by means of friction between driving members and the driven members.

6.4.1. Function

The brake is used to stop or slow down the motion of a tractor. It is mounted on the driving axle and operated by two independent pedals. Each pedal can be operated independently to assist turning of the tractor during field work or both the pedals can be locked together.

6.4.2. Principle of operation

The brake works on the principle of friction. When a moving element is brought into contact with a stationary element, the motion of the moving element is affected. This is due to frictional force which acts in the opposite direction of the motion and converts the kinetic energy into heat energy.

7.5.1. Functions

The two primary functions of tyres, especially rear ones, are to provide maximum work output while ploughing the field and for haulage.

8.6.1. Function

It steers the tractor in the required direction. The rotation of the steering wheel moves the steering column, which in turn rotates the sector shaft. This rotation pulls the pit man arms on one side and pushes at the other side. This motion is conveyed to the wheels by the drag link and makes the front wheel turn in the requisite direction.

11.1. Hydraulic system

It is a mechanism in a tractor to raise, hold or lower the mounted or semi-mounted equipment by hydraulic means. All the present day tractors are equipped with a hydraulic control system for operating three point hitches. Some of the tractors are fitted with a hydraulic brake system and a few others are fitted with a hydraulic steering system. Tipping trailers, front mounted loaders or dozers are examples of multi use of hydraulics.

11.2. Principle

The working principle of a hydraulic system is based on Pascal’s law (Fig 11.1.) This law states that the pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is transmitted equally in all directions. A small force acting on a small area can produce higher force on a surface of larger area.

17.1. What?

The soil is prepared to a fine tilth, which is referred to as land preparation or preparatory cultivation. This enables proper sowing of seeds, planting of seedlings and precise application of fertilizers to the crop. Various implements are used to prepare the land. The basic ones are ploughs, harrows, cultivators or tillers, and land levellers. These implements are manually operated or by animals or tractors. Various improvements have been made to increase the efficiency of each one of the implements by research workers. Many products are also available to suit the local regions and soil condition.

17.2. Plough

It has been the basic implement used for decades in agriculture to open up and invert the soil for initial cultivation. While inverting the soil, it also buries the weeds and the remains of the previous crops and allows them to decay. In the process of inverting, it also aerates the soil. Ploughs were initially used with animal power. Later on, many improved implements with heavy weights have been developed. These are drawn by tractors.

19.1. Need for weeding

Weeding is the critical operation to be carried out to obtain a good crop. Weeds are plants which grow in places where they are not wanted. They grow in the fields competing with crops for water, soil nutrients, light and space and thus reduce crop yields. They also harbor insect pests and micro-organisms. Certain weeds release the inhibitors or poisonous substances into the soil which are harmful to plants, human beings and livessecks. They increase the expenditure on labour and equipment, render harvesting difficult and reduce the quality and marketability of agricultural produce. When grown in water channels, they block and or reduce the flow of water.

The weed seeds germinate earlier and grow faster than the crop plant. This phenomenon is more pronounced when coupled with favourable environment like fine soil tilth and the soil receiving adequate water and fertilizers. Weeds flower earlier and produce seeds profusely ahead of the crop. So, these seeds get mixed up with the harvested crop and are distributed to the next season or transported to other places along with the harvested produce.

20.1. What?

Sprayer is equipment used for applying insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and in some cases fertilizers as foliar sprays to agricultural crops. Sprayers range in size from man-portable units (backpacks) to Self propelled units with boom mounts covering 60-150 feet length. Sprayers include the ones used for spraying liquid formulations, dusters for dusting dust formulations and granular applicators for delivering granules.

20.2. Principle of working

Sprayers work based on Bernoulli’s principle. Basically, the sprayers have a storage tank, a plunger, lance and a nozzle. When the plunger is pushed in, the air flows at a high velocity through the nozzle. The flow of air at high velocity creates a region of low pressure just above the lance. The higher atmospheric pressure acts on the surface of the liquid insecticide causing it to rise up the lance and the insecticide leaves out through the nozzle as a fine spray.

Sprayers are fitted with hollow cone nozzles for spraying pesticides and with flat fan nozzles for herbicides.

26.1. What?

These devices are used to lift water to a height that allows access to water. Lifting devices can be used to lift groundwater, rainwater stored in an underground reservoir and river water. For agricultural use, water is lifted either from a borewell or open well to irrigate the crops. According to power sources, lifting of water can be accomplished either manually or by animal or electricity sources of power.

26.2. Human-powered devices

Man has a limited physical power output, which may be in the range of 0.08 to 0.1 hp. This power can be used to lift water from shallow depths for irrigation. These include swing basket, counterpoise lift, don, Archimedean screw and paddle wheel. However, nowadays these are not commonly used.

26.3. Animal-powered devices

Animal power is abundantly available in India. They are used to lift water, besides being put to use for other field operations and processing works. A pair of bullocks may develop approximately 0.80 horsepower. They can lift water from a depth of 30m or more. Of course, the rate of discharge will go down with increase in the lift. These include rope and bucket lift, self emptying bucket, two bucket lift, Persian wheel and chain pump.

1. FRUITS

Fruit is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, mainly one or more ovaries.

1.1. Types

1.1.1. Fleshy

1.1.1.1. Simple fleshy fruits

Develop from a flower with a single pistil.

1. VEGETATIVE PROPAGULE

Vegetative propagation or asexual propagation is the method of propagating plants with the use of organs other than the seed and spore. In contrast to sexual propagation, the union of the male and female sexual gametes (fertilization) is not a requisite to the production of new plants. Hence the word “asexual”, which means “without sex” or “not sexual”.

1. APOMIXIS

Development of seed without fertilization. When the seed formation occurs without sexual fusion, the process is known as apomixis. This occurs by several mechanism, however all apomitic seed have genetic material only from the female plant Apomixis may or may not require pollination and pollen tube germination to initiate seed formation, however sexual union.

1. DEFINITION

Artificial seed technology involves the production of tissue culture derived somatic embryos encased in a protective coating. Artificial seeds have also been often referred to as synthetic seeds. However, the term ‘synthetic seed’ should not be confused with commercial seeds of a synthetic cultivar which is defined as an advanced generation of an open pollinated population composed of a group of selected inbred clones or hybrids. The concept of artificial or synthetic seed is shown in Figure 1.

1. INTRODUCTION

Seed is the most important determinant of agricultural production potential, on which the efficacy of other agriculture inputs is dependent. Seeds of appropriate characteristics are required to meet the demand of diverse agro-climatic conditions and intensive cropping systems. Sustained increase in agriculture production and productivity is dependent, to a large extent, on development of new and improved varieties of crops and an efficient system for timely supply of quality seeds to farmers..

1. SEED

It is a matured ovule usually developed after fertilization. Seed can also be defined as the embryonic plant in resting stage, usually supplied with food reserves in the cotyledons or endosperm or in perisperm with the protective structure called seed coat. In a nutshell, it is a dry dispersal unit of a plant. It develops into an individual similar to the one that produced it

1. HAND EMASCULATION AND POLLINATION

The male part of seed parent is removed by hand before anthesis to check the self pollination from the crop plants with bisexual flower having fertile male and female part. This process is known as emasculation. These emasculated flowers are then pollinated by the pollens collected from pollinator parent to produce hybrid seed (Fig. 1). Eg. Cotton, tomato, brinjal.

1. LAND REQUIREMENTS

1. FORAGE LEGUMES

1.1. Isolation

1. SEED FORTIFICATION

It is process of enriching the seeds with bioactive chemicals for improving the germination and seedling vigour. To the known volume of seeds, one third volume of the nutrient solution is added and allowed to imbibe for short duration. The imbibed seeds should be dried under shade. The fortification treatments recommended for different crops are depicted

1. MIXING AND DIVIDING

The main objective of mixing and dividing of seeds is to obtain the representative homogenous seed sample for analysis by reducing the submitted sample to the desired size of working sample.

2. TYPES OF MECHANICAL DIVIDERS

2.1. Boerner divider

The principle involved in mixing and dividing in gravitational force. It consists of a hopper, a cone and series of baffles directing the seeds into 2 spouts. The baffles are of equal size and equally spaced and every alternate one leading to one spout. They are arranged in circle and are directed inward. A valve at the base of the hopper retains the seeds in the hopper. When the valve is opened, the seeds fall by gravity over the cone where it is equally distributed and approximately equal quantity of seeds will be collected in each spout. A disadvantage of this divider is that it is difficult to check for cleanliness (Fig. 1).

1. SEED MOISTURE

Seed moisture is one of the most important deciding factors of seed viability and quality during storage. Hence, determination of seed moisture content and drying to the safe moisture content is utmost important before transit and storage.

According to ISTA (1985), moisture content of the sample is defined as that loss of weight when it is dried in accordance with the rules or the amount of water collected when it is distilled. It is expressed as percentage of the original weight of sample (wet basis).

1.1. Principle

Moisture present in the seed is removed completely as much as possible without oxidation or decomposition or loss in other volatile substances by applying heat. The weight loss due to drying is estimated and the moisture content is calculated.

1. DEFINITION

Seed deterioration is defined as deteriorative changes occurring with time that increase the seed’s vulnerability to external challenges and decrease the ability of the seed to survive

1. SEED TREATMENT

It refers to the application of pesticides (fungicides, insecticides or a combination of both) to seeds before sowing and/or storage in order to protect the seeds and young seedlings from soil borne pathogens and/or storage pathogens and insects. Seeds are thoroughly mixed with required quantities of chemicals namely bavistin (carbendezim) @ 2-4 g/kg of seeds.

1. INTRODUCTION

Seed health refers to the health status of a seed. Sowing healthy seeds of high quality is our concern to improve crop yields, thus increasing food production. It has a great concern to farmers and seed producing agencies where the disease is high and average yields are low and where more food is needed to feed the ever-increasing population. So, it is important to test the seeds for disease organism before they are sown in the field and to avoid harmful organisms traveling from infected to non-infected areas within a country or across international boundaries.

1. PPV & FR ACT

With the signing of TRIPs agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO), India has agreed to provide protection to plant varieties. The Government of India, therefore, enacted “ The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act (PPV&FR Act)” in 2001 and the Regulations for implementing the Act were formulated in 2003.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, has been identified as the nodal agency for implementing the PPV& FR Act through an Authority known as “The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer Rights Authority”. The Authority came into force in November, 2005.

PPV & FR act has 11 chapters, 4 schedules and 97 sections.