eChapters

1. PLANT DOMESTICATION AND INTRODUCTION

Domestication is the process of bringing wild species under human management. Under domestciation, the crop species have changed considerably as compared to the wild species from which they originated.

Extension Teaching

It is now evident that the extension is an educational process which attempts to produce desirable changes in the human behaviour. This educational process is nothing but teaching-learning process and this is explained by Leagans (1961) as follows:

Teaching is the process of arranging situations that stimulate and guide the learning activity towards the goals that specify the desired changes in the behaviour of people. Teaching consists of providing situations in which the things to be learnt are brought to the attention of the learners, their interest is developed, desire aroused, conviction created, action promoted and satisfaction ensured.

Learning is the process by which an individual, through his own activity, changes his behaviour.

Process means a course of procedures, something that occurs in a series of actions or events conducting to the desired end.

Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP)

Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) is a modified programme of erstwhile Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP) and Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) of the Department of Land Resources. The scheme was launched during 2009-10. The programme is being implemented as per Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects 2008. The main objectives of the IWMP are to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water. The outcomes are prevention of soil erosion, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting and recharging of the ground water table. This enables multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed areas.

Introduction

Cereals and cereal products comprise a long history of consumption by humans. Cereals are the important source of nutrients and non nutritive health beneficial components and for that reason cereal based food products are consumed as staple food in human diet in developed as well as developing countries. The cereal grains mainly cultivated and consumed as food include rice, maize, wheat, sorghum rye, barley, oats, and millet. Products obtained from cereal grains are flours, grits, semolina, breakfast cereals, extruded product like pasta, puffs and flakes, and bakery products such as bread, biscuits, cakes and tortillas. Moreover, cereals or their components are used as ingredients in the preparation of various food products such as beverages infant foods coatings and processed meats. Initially cereals are consumed as whole or with minimal processing like boiling, grinding and roasting. However, processing like salting, drying, steeping and fermentation of cereals for preparation of cereals based beverages and foods has been practiced since the initiation of cereals consumption as food by human. Increasing consumer awareness and commercialization of cereal products have created interest of food manufacturers in utilization of novel and more efficient technologies with optimized conditions, development of convenient and more health beneficial foods with satisfactory sensory properties and wide variety of foods to ease the choice of consumers. Market full of diverse range of snack foods, breakfast cereals, ready to eat and ready to cook foods, and novel functional foods with variation in appearance, texture and flavor is an indication of evolution of food industry from basic to complicated form focused on efficient and automated operations. In ancient times, fermentation of food was done with the aim of enhancement of shelf life and palatability without clearly knowing the role of microorganisms. Modern fermentation technology uses various operations and specific strains of microorganisms for conversion of bulky and perishable materials into novel foods with more pleasing flavour, enhanced functional properties and extended shelf life. In addition to basic bread, new varieties of bread developed with improved functionality like sourdough bread, gluten free breads and high fibre breads is an example of innovation in cereal fermented foods indicating modification in ingredients, microbial culture and processing technologies as compare to traditional fermentation process. The word “extrudate” is derived from the Latin word “ex” meaning ‘out’ and “trudere” meaning ‘to thrust’. Extrusion technology is turning out to be very popular in food industry due to its versatility, usefulness and cost efficiency. It is well-organized state-of-art technology and plays important role in various food industrial processes such as cooking, mixing, conveying, shearing and shaping of end products. Extrusion cooking is high temperature short time (HTST) with high pressure process, is especially used for preparation of cereal based snacks, fat replacers, breakfast cereals, infant formula, gluten free foods, starch and protein rich cereals food products. A wider range of ready to eat food products with different texture, size and shape is produced by fast and easy extrusion cooking. In epidemiological studies it is stated that whole grain consumption is more health beneficial than refined grains and the reason behind it is that dietary fibre and phytochemicals located in germ and seed coat are generally removed during milling or polishing. Various technologies are developed by food scientists and technologists to preserves the bioactive compounds during processing and or to supplement processed food products with the bioactive compounds during food preparation to maintain the bioactivity and functionality of final products. Utilisation of whole grain flours, composite flours, supplementation of cereal foods with ingredients from fruits, vegetables, plant extracts and legumes, bio-fortification of crops, implementation of genetic engineering to produce crops rich in bioactive compounds are some technologies which are being used in modern food industry to develop value added cereal food products.

Introduction

The farm to fork approach utilizes agricultural products as raw material for processing by industries to obtained value-added products (Mijinyawa et al., 2007). Processing that transforms animal, vegetable, or marine materials into value-added food products for consumers and forms an integral part of agriculture for storage or size reduction into fine particles. One of the major problems associated with processing is the unavailability of processing facilities including appropriate engineering materials for the transformation of agro-based produce into different forms (Ogwuagwu, 2007). This transformation process mainly includes operations like particle size reduction, milling or comminution, etc. utilizing different size reduction forces without making alterations in chemical properties (Enrique, 2012). This enhances the eating quality or appropriateness of foods for advance processing with a more varied range of available products.

Grains are dried small seeds with adhered or removed husks or outer layers processed for consumption (FAO, 2011). The two major types of commercial grain crops include cereals (such as millet, corn, sorghum, wheat, rye and so on) and legumes (such as beans, groundnuts and soya beans). These grain crops are subjected to a milling operation to break them into smaller pieces or more practically appropriate form. The grinding process involves the application of different mechanical forces to overcome the interior bonding forces bringing change in the state of solid grains to different desirable forms such as flour or meal (Kaul and Egbo, 1985). As a result, the physical state of these grains is modified due to a reduction in size and change of shape (Ryan and Spencer, 2008). Most of the actual milling processing that is used in various industries is based on simple operations. But now various technological progress has been initiated that involves the adoption of computer control for various milling operations to improve efficiency and quality while minimizing labor requirements. Hence, the present text highlights the various technological advancements and evaluation techniques employed in milling operations.

Potassium is the third important essential nutrient element after nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) required by all living organisms, including plants and animals. Potassium is essential for many metabolic activities like carbohydrate metabolism, nitrogen metabolism. It is required for the activation of over 60 enzymes in plants. It controls/regulates the activities of various essential nutrients. It is vital to photosynthesis, and synthesis of carbohydrates, starch and proteins in plants. It plays vital role in controlling the opening and closing of stomata in photosynthesis. It also helps in controlling water use by plants by regulating the osmotic pressure of guard cells during transpiration. It plays a major role in transport of water and nutrients throughout the plant in xylem. Potassium improves crop yield and quality of flowers, fruits, vegetables and other field crops in terms of size, shape, colour, taste, shelf-life, and fibre quality. Potassium stimulates the growth of strong stems and provides strength to the plant against some disease by promoting thickness of the outer cell walls. It is required for translocation of assimilates. Under reduced K supply, translocation of NO₃^-, PO₄^3-, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ and amino acids is hampered. It also imparts resistance against environmental stresses such as drought, cold and frost. Adequate K can reduce moisture loss from growing plants, thereby giving some drought resistance. It reduces lodging of crops and enhances their winter-hardiness.

It is taken up by the plants as K⁺. Being a basic element, it takes part in neutralization of the acidity in plants caused by several organic acids produced. It does not form organic compounds in the plant system. It is the most mobile element in the plant. Thus, it can move through all the plant system due to osmotic pressure. When any plant sample is dipped into water, some K comes out. This shows that it is highly mobile.

Potassium is also required for animal nutrition and human beings. Potassium is essential for many metabolic functions. It maintains salt balance between cells and body fluids. Adequate K is essential for nerve function and preventing muscle cramps. It is routinely added to many animal feeds. Since K⁺ is not stored in the human body, dietary replacement is required on a regular basis. Government agencies state that diets containing foods that are good sources of K and low in Na may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke.

Baking is no different from any other area of cooking, and as in other sectors only the best and the freshest raw material can guarantee good results. So selection of right kind of ingredients is of utmost importance. Another basic need of a professional baker and confectioner is to purchase the equipment required. The design and size depends upon the volume of sale expected. So in this chapter we are going to learn about the ingredients required for running a bakery.

Introduction

The arid regions in India occupy 38.7 million ha (Mha), comprising 31.7 and 7 Mha under hot and cold arid region, respectively. The major part (90%) of the hot arid region lies in Northwest (NW) India and the rest in geographically isolated pockets in South India. The NW arid region extends from 22°30” to 32°50” N and 68°50” to 75°45”E , bounded by Aravalli hills in the east, Thar desert in the west the irrigated Indus plain in the north and the alluvial plains of the Sabarmati river in the south. The region mostly lies in western Rajasthan covering 12 districts (196150 km², 68.7%) followed six districts in northwest Gujarat (62180 km² 21.8%), five districts in southwest Haryana in (12840 km² 4.5%), and six districts in southwest Punjab in (14510 km², 5.0%) (Fig.1). The region is characterized by low rainfall (100 to 400 mm yr-1), that is also erratic and highly unpredictable (coefficient of variation, CV = 30 to 70%); high evaporation (1600 to 2000 mm yr-1); temperature extremes (-5.7° C to 50°C); frequent droughts (once in 2.5-5.0 years); strong winds (20-50 km h-1) during summer; and short crop growing period (8 to 15 weeks) (Moharana et al., 2016). Despite the common characteristics of aridity and extremes of temperatures, there are enormous spatial variations in terms of rainfall pattern, physiography, soils, amount of available surface and ground water, and extent of vegetation cover (Joshi, 2012). Accordingly, the NW hot arid region has been classified in 4 sub-regions, 11 zones and 34 sub zones (Faroda et al., 1999).

Despite these intimidating conditions, the region supports a large human and livestock population and biodiversity. However, the ever-increasing human and livestock population and developmental activities exert enormous biophysical pressure on the slender natural resource base of the region. A major challenge is desertification due to wind erosion/deposition, water erosion, water logging and salinity. Degradation of permanent pastures has led to loss of fodder resources constraining livestock husbandry, the backbone of the economy of the region. Of late, industrial effluents and mining are also contributing to desertification.

Introduction

Disaster may be defined as a sudden event that causes damage to life, property and destroy the economic, social and cultural life of people. It could be of natural or anthropogenic origin. Disasters impact the poor and the most vulnerable section of the community. Over the past 30 years, more than 2.5 million people and nearly $4 trillion have been lost to natural disasters in India; globally the losses jumped from $50 billion a year in the 1980s to $200 billion in the last decade (NIDM, 2019).According to a World Bank report, nearly 75% of the losses are attributable to extreme weather events and climate change threatening to push an additional 100 million people into the extreme poverty by 2030 (Hallegatte et al., 2016). The Bank’s Unbreakable report finds that natural disasters had larger and long-lasting impacts on the poverty. Population growth and rapid urbanization are major driving factors for an increase in the disaster risks.

The United Nations estimates that more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050 (NIDM, 2019). This could put 1.3 billion people and $158 trillion assets at risk from river and coastal floods alone. According to the Bank’s Investing in Urban Resilience report (2016), by 2030, without significant investment into making cities more resilient, natural disasters may cost cities worldwide $314 billion each year.

Introduction and Background

Agriculture at present has the trend of using an industrialized production model, where crops and animals are produced in systems that are increasingly specialized, simplified and concentrated, to address growing food, feed and fibre demands. Within this model, external inputs (e.g. irrigation, synthetic fertilizers chemical pest control, feeds, and growth hormones) have been utilized to achieve production goals, often at the expense of environmental quality and key ecosystem services. Continuation of this model of agricultural production has resulted in loss of ecosystem services, increased ecosystem simplification and species extinction. Responses to future challenges in agriculture should include the development of novel systems that are highly productive, minimize damage to the environment and effectively utilize renewable resources. Achieving these multiple goals will be a momentous task, as it will require development and implementation of more complex, diverse and management-intensive production systems than currently employed. Furthermore, future agricultural production systems will need to be adaptable to respond to unforeseen environmental challenges. Integrated agricultural systems have been purported to possess attributes to address these challenges. Agro-chemicals, fuel-based mechanization and irrigation operations are the heart of industrial agriculture which is derived entirely from dwindling and ever more expensive fossil fuels. Intensification of agriculture by the use of high yielding crop varieties, fertilization, irrigations and pesticides are impact heavily on natural resources with serious health and environmental implications. Practice of monoculture in some parts of the country and the world has an adverse environmental impact due to lack of ecological regulation mechanisms and heavily dependent on external inputs.

Introduction

The Indian fisheries sector is set in a unique and diverse set of resources ranging from the pristine waters of the Himalayas to the sprawling Indian Ocean. The fisheries biodiversity of the country encompasses a wide spectrum of physical and biological components that support the livelihoods of millions of people. Fisheries resources are set in different ecosystems. With growing population and the increasing demand for fish protein, the need for sustainable development of aquatic resources is now felt much more than ever before.

Fisheries and aquaculture remain important sources of food, nutrition, income and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Global capture and culture fish production during 2019 were 97 and 82 million tonnes, respectively with India being second largest producer of fish in the world after China. From 0.75 million tonnes in 1950-51, total fish production of India touched 12.59 million tonnes in 2018-19 with a contribution of 8.90 million tonnes (70.60%) from inland sector. The sunrise fisheries sector contributes about 0.96 % to National Gross Value Added (GVA) and 5.37% to agricultural GVA (2018-19) while engaging over 14.5 million people (2003 census) at the primary level and almost twice the number along the value chain. During 2018-19 the export of marine products that includes production from aquaculture reached 13,77,244 tonnes valued at INR 46589 crore (US $ 6.93 billion). The inland sector grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 6.5% between 1979 and 2018, while overall fish production witnessed 4.5% growth, which is double the growth rate of food grains production in India.

Introduction

The food production in India has been on a rising trajectory and the country is among the top producers of several crops. It is the highest producer of milk and second highest producer of fruits and vegetables. Total food grain production in the country is estimated at record 291.95 million tonnes (MT; Second Advance Estimates for 2019-20) which is 6.74 MT higher over 2018-19. While enhanced field productivity is an essential component of agricultural sector, improved postharvest handling, marketing and processing is equally essential to reduce the waste, particularly in a country where such losses are substantial and add stress on limited farming resources, appropriate agrilogistic is needed. Post-production management and marketing infrastructure is therefore, not only vital but a priority. Such infrastructure and the services they provide are essential not only for the efficient performance of various marketing functions, but also for effective expansion of the size of markets which allows for growth.An efficient post-harvest logistics network not only ensures that produce will reach destination markets in quality and quantity, but should also trigger a steady reverse flow of market information to the source.

Trees are amazing nature’s creations that are not only important for mankind but also sustain ecological balance in nature. They are the source of livelihood and provide valuable raw material for manufacture of household utility products. They are important from spiritual aspect and have been exhaustively described in ancient Indian texts with their significant Ayurvedic and other potential health benefits. Botanically a “tree.” is a large, long-lived (perennial) woody plant that attains a height of at least 6 m (20 ft) at maturity. A tree possess certain characteristic features such as a trunk (single main self-supporting stem) which gives off spreading branches, twigs and foliage to make a crown. Since the diameter at breast height (dbh) of trees is determined internationally at 1.35 m (4.5 ft) above the ground, a tree must be un-branched at least up to 1.5 m (5 ft) from the ground.

Lily is one of the most beautiful and popular ornamental bulbous flowers. They belong to the genus Lilium of the family Liliaceae, which comprises of 110 species classified into seven taxonomic sections: Lilium, Pseudolirium, Martagon, Sinomartagon, Archelirion, Leucolirion and Oxypetalum. All species are distributed over the mountainous area in the Northern Hemisphere (10° to 60°), mainly in Asia, North America and Europe. Especially, China, Nepal, Korea and Japan are the major centres of lilium gene pool around the world. Being second amongst the bulbous flower crops in the commercial market, Lilium has 4^th position among cut flowers in Flora Holland (Flora Holland Annual Report 2017). In the language of flowers lily is known as symbol of purity and innocence. Majority of cultivated lilies are either hybrids or selections. A large number of species and hybrids can be used in ornamental gardens even though the lily requires little more attention than any other bulbs. Many species of lily (L. leichtlinii, L. lancifolium, Lilium candidum and L. auratum) are also edible and having medicinal value.

Importance and uses

Lilies are one of the most important bulbous ornamental plants with varies uses, grown in border, beds, pots, landscape gardens and are excellent cut flowers of magnificent appearance and beautiful flowers. Roman naturalist and writer, Plinius, recorded that salves and oils were prepared from leaves and flowers of the Madonna lily, or L. candidium. Some species are also known for medicinal and food values, which increased its economic importance many folds. The mucilaginous substance coming out from the bulbs while cooking is used as an ointment for tumours, ulcers and inflammations. The plant was really more of a miniature household pharmacy. Different compounds have been reported in this genus, such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, amino acids, vitamins, alkaloids, phenolics, flavonoids, carotenoids, sterols, steroidal saponins, and steroidal glycoalkaloids. Alkaloids, steroidal saponins, flavonoids and polysaccharides have been isolated from L. lancifolium and L. brownii var. colchesteri bulbs. Flowers of Lilium candidium contain an alkaloid. Extract of Lilium polyphyllum bulb has been used as refrigerant, expectorant, aphrodisiac, diuretic, antipyretic and tonic (Warrier et al., 1997; Dhyani, 2007). In the customary system of medicine, this species reported to restore health immediately and works as antioxidant in the body. Lily oil is an aid in childbirth. The white lily was also renowned as a cosmetic.

Blackrot of Cabbage

Economic Importance

Blackrot is an important bacterial disease of cabbage and other crucifer crops worldwide. The disease was first described in New York on turnips in 1893, and has been a common problem for growers for over 100 years (Smart and Lang, 2013). Blackrot has been given many names such as bacterial blight,black stem, black vein, stem rot or stump rot (Pfeufer and Davis, 2019). These pathogen is particularly damaging to cabbage and cauliflower, but turnip, rutabaga, collard, kohlrabi and Chinese cabbage are also susceptible. Broccoli and radish aregenerally resistant to Blackrot (Flynn,1999).

Introduction

India is the second largest producer of vegetable in the world after China. Every year diseases cause economic losses (8-23%) and also post-harvest losses (20-25 %) in vegetable crops. Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a nutritionally important and remunerative crop grown throughout the world and is consumed both as a vegetable, shelled green beans as well as dry beans. It is known commonly known as french bean, common bean, kidney bean, field bean, snapbean, dry bean etc on the basis of its variety and edible purpose. The crop is infected by a number of diseases. Common bacterial blight, Anthracnose, White mold, Bean Common Mosaic, Bean yellow mosaic, Web Blight, Halo blight, Dry root rot and wilt, Bean Rust are some of the major diseases.

Bacterial Blight of Bean

Three types of bacterial blight are found to occur in beans viz. Common bacterial blight or Bacterial blight, Halo blight and Bacterial brown spot. These three diseases affect leaves, pods, stems and seeds in similar manner such that it is usually impossible to distinguish the diseases from one another based on the visual symptoms. While common blight is usually more prevalent in warmer weather, the other two occur more in cool weather.

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is considered as the important pulse and popular leguminous vegetable in India. Pea belongs to the genus Pisum, a member of family papilionaceae. Rhizobium bacterium found in root nodules that fixing atmospheric nitrogen and helps in soil fertility. Pea (Pisum sativum L.) originated in the near East and Mediterranean regions. Pea diseases are affect the crop both quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Pea crop diseases caused by the fungal (rust, powdery mildew, downy mildew, aschochyta blight, septoria blight, fusarium root rot, aphanomyces root rot, alternaria blight, wilt, anthracnose, cercospora leaf spot, damping off, seedling rot), bacterial (bacterial blight and brown spot), nematode (root-knot nematode, cyst nematode and lesion nematode) and viral diseases (pea enation mosaic, pea mosaic, pea seed borne mosaic, pea early browning virus, pea streak, pea stunt and cucumber mosaic virus). India is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses in the world.

Fish as a cheap source of protein, bioavailable minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids, ensures global nutritional security. India witnessed around 14-fold increment in fish production from 0.7 million tonnes in 1950’s to 10.43 million tonnes in 2014-15. With a contribution of 5.05% to world’s capture production and 6.6% of total aquaculture fish production, India emerged as one among the most progressive fish producing countries in the world. Fisheries as a major agricultural sector, constitutes 0.92% of total GDP and 5.58% of total agricultural GDP of India. With the global fish export value of 148,147 million USD, India ranked seventh position among the top fish exporters of the world. The sector is crucial in securing food supply, job opportunities, nutritional needs and earning foreign exchange for the country, cataloguing it as a sunrise sector of Indian economy.

Technological developments in harvest sector

Introduction of new materials for fishing gears, mechanization of fishing crafts and modern electronic technologies for navigation and fish location, paved way for the significant increase in fish production in India over the years. ICAR-CIFT, Cochin has been involved in the design and optimization of a range of crafts and gears since its inception, which gave a major fillip to the harvest sector of Indian fisheries. Considering the plateauing/decline in catches perceptible since last two decades, ICAR-CIFT has shifted its focus from increasing production to responsible harvest of resources. As a result a large number of technologies for sustainable harvest and green technologies with reduced emissions were developed.

Food Safety has been the buzz word in recent days as there are increasing consumer awareness on hazards present in food as well as the ombudsmen role played by independent media. Although regulatory regime across the world has taken proactive steps, in most of the cases it has been a knee-jerk reaction to the impending crisis. Defining the actual goal of food safety has been an arduous task as there are umpteen interrelated factors that influence the intended goals. Some of the definitions on food safety put forward by international agencies are as follows:

Introduction

In the past few decades, there has been a considerable demand for certain air-breathing fishes from India, mainly in the research laboratories of western countries. This is probably due to their unique modifications, especially in the respiratory and circulatory systems. Though, the air-breathing fishes are capable of extracting oxygen both from water as well as air, yet their transportation to long distances in living conditions posed several problems, such as hypoxia, injury, disease and finally death.

Proper sanitization of all the equipment and accessories is one of the essential steps for the study of the structure of gills, determination of oxygen uptake of fishes under normal conditions, under the association, under anaesthetization, under ammonia toxicity and all other steps of packing and transportation in this pandemic of COVID-19.

For effective live fish transportation, inside and out comprehension on the ideal ecological conditions for negligible pressure and greatest endurance is required. At the point when the fish leaves its normal climate, it should be in a self-supportable climate that provisions important necessities, for example, ideal temperature, oxygen and so forth.

Transportation of different life cycle stages (spawn, hatchlings, fry, fingerlings and adults) of fish is traditionally done in different types of containers. The age-old practice of transportation entails heavy mortality probably due to depletion of oxygen, hypertension of carbon dioxide, the toxicity of accumulating wastes, hyperactive strain and exhaustion, infection, injury and variation in pH, temperature, salinity and hardness etc (Jhingran, 1985). A portion of dissolved oxygen is utilized both by the fish and other microorganisms for their metabolism. As a result, the system becomes gradually deplete of oxygen and affects the fish. To overcome the problem of high mortality during transportation, it is essential to evaluate suitable conditions for their transportation. An inexpensive or less expensive method of live fish transport will help our aqua-culturists in many ways.

India is on the progressive path of development and its rural population is an integral part of this growth trajectory. As India gears up for an era of increased digitalisation, the issue of holistic and inclusive economic growth remains a pivotal concern. Hitachi, one of the leading Japanese conglomerate with a global footprint and a forerunner in digital innovation, has been an active contributor in transforming millions of Indian lives, its services reaching far beyond citizens within city limits. While India is one of the world’s fastest-developing economy, equitable growth remains a critical imperative. The rural population today constitutes above 45% of the national income. In 2050, despite urbanization, over half of India’s population will still be rural. Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi has prioritized radical digitalisation to induce economic inclusiveness through a host of initiatives. ‘Digital India’, ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ provide for impetus and opportunity to rural citizens, to ensure they are equal participants in India’s growth story. Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It’s also a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failure. In many developed countries, farming has been modernized by a wave of technologies, adopted at farm level.

Digital technologies are finding increasing use in the agricultural value system, and High-tech farming is becoming the standard, thanks to use of sensors, logic controlled systems, data analytics, etc. In India, the increasing availability of energy and internet connectivity to the large rural landscape is further accelerating such changes. Digitised information systems allow remote access to knowledge, has given rise to group sharing and continue even now to revamp how societal exchanges happen interpersonally, commercially and in the extension services system. The digital spectrogram can be compared against a large database and spectral analysis can diagnose the contents of the sample. This analysis can happen in the cloud, and results communicated to the farmers almost instantaneously. There exist various similar technologies where a sample from a field, gets converted into digital information, is promptly analysed to provide accurate results, which then allows farmers to take decisions best suited to the land they farm on. The availability of satellite imagery, infrared imagery, and a myriad of remote inputs allow for more accurate weather forecasts, advance warnings on pest infestation and similar, and more. Instead of traditional homilies about temperature and rainfall events, the farmers now consult and share the advisories and forecasts of the same.

The numerical based on simple mathematics like divide, multiply, sum, deduction, under root, percentage etc are given below to sharpen the inherent ability of the students. This simplication is a very good exercise to aqcquaint the students about basic mathmetics so that they can solve tough questions quickly. Therefore some tips are given below for solving the questions.

Introduction

Plant growth in agricultural soils is inf luenced by a myriad of abiotic and biotic factors. As a routine practice growers normally use physical and chemical approaches to manage the soil environment to improve crop yields while the application of microbial products for this purpose is less common. An exception to this is the use of rhizobial inoculants for legumes to ensure efficient nitrogen fixation; a practice that has been occurring in North America for over 100 years (Smith, 1997). The region around the root, the rhizosphere, is relatively rich in nutrients, in expense of as much as 40% of plant photosynthates from the roots (Lynch and Whipps, 1991). Consequently, the rhizosphere supports large and active microbial populations capable of exerting beneficial, neutral, or detrimental effects on plant growth. The importance of rhizosphere microbial populations for maintenance of root health, nutrient uptake, and tolerance of environmental stress is now recognized (Bowen and Rovira, 1999; Cook, 2002). These beneficial microorganisms can be a significant component of management practices to achieve the attainable yield for in other words a crop yield limited only by the natural physical environment of the crop and its innate genetic potential (Cook, 2002).

The prospect of manipulating crop rhizosphere microbial populations by inoculation of beneficial bacteria to increase plant growth has shown considerable promise in laboratory and greenhouse studies however, responses have been variable in the field (Bowen and Rovira, 1999). The potential environmental benefits of this approach, leading to a reduction in the use of agricultural chemicals are fitting the sustainable management practices. Realizing the biological interactions occurring in the rhizosphere, recent progress are in need to fulfill the practical requirements of inoculant formulation and timely delivery which would increase the technology’s reliability in the field and facilitate its commercial development.

Agroforestry is a land use system that involves two or more plant species at least one of which must be a woody perennial. When perennial woody and herbaceous components are grown together on the same piece of land their performance would largely depend on their ability to share various growth resources in a given environmental situation. Due to difference in growth pattern and resource requirement of the components in agroforestry situation, a close interactive relation is obvious. Thus, careful management practices for the components are required to establish a successful agroforestry system. The characteristics of the trees and crops, and their interactions, can be modified with good management practices in order to take advantage of the positive characteristics and minimize the effects of the negative ones. Effective and efficient agroforestry management may be divided into two groups; tree management and agricultural crop management.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE SELECTION OF TREE SPECIES

Trees in an agroforestry system contribute significantly to the total output of the system and therefore, success of the system depends on the selection of the tree species. The following factors are to be considered to choose the best tree species for the agroforestry systems in a particular site.

Introduction

Fermentation has been an integral part of food processing throughout the history of mankind. In beginning, it was mainly preservation method, then it became key process in substantial sensory characteristic development and now it is utilized to improve overall properties of outcome from major industries like bakery, dairy, beverages, etc. The human understanding of controlled fermentation process changes its fundamental objective by exploring its success in development of rheological and texture characteristics.

The biochemical transformation of raw food due to fermentation affects the organoleptic as well as rheological properties of a product. The changes in rheological as well as sensory properties is related with the modification of major component by the action of microorganism. For example, transformation of polysaccharides in bread dough by action of yeast produce ethanol, CO₂ and other simple compound which modify sensory as well as rheology of dough. The major micro-structural, bio-compositional and bio-chemical changes are due to microbial action are frequently described to understand the effect of fermentation on rheological as well as sensory properties of food products. The rate and quality of these associated major changes mainly depends upon concentration of saccharides for growth of microorganism as well as nature and existing microflorae. Hence, a proper monitoring of changes in rheological and sensory properties is necessary to optimize the controlled fermentation as well as design of process parameters from engineering and consumer point of view.

The biochemical changes directly responsible for changes in basic rheological and sensory characteristic including flow behavior, consistency, viscoelastic properties, hardness, adhesiveness, color, aroma, flavor and mouthfeel. The food industry is so diverse and exploring new and possibilities to catch diverse consumer worldwide, a proper understanding of effect of fermentation on mentioned properties will be key to hold competitive market. Hence, the present chapter will cover the basics of rheology and its role in food industry, effect of fermentation on rheological and sensory attributes of major class of food.

In order to provide for the establishment of an effective system for protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage the development of new varieties of plants it has been considered necessary to recognize and protect the rights of the farmers in respect of their contribution made at any time in conserving, improving and making available plant genetic resources for the development of the new plant varieties. Moreover to accelerate agricultural development, it is necessary to protect plants breeders’ rights to stimulate investment for research and development for the development of new plant varieties.

Such protection is likely to facilitate the growth of the seed industry which will ensure the availability of high quality seeds and planting material to the farmers. India having ratified the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of the Intellectual Property Rights has to make provision for giving effect to Agreement. To give effect to the aforesaid objectives the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 has been enacted in India

2.1. Minerals

Primarily, minerals are usually inorganic substances possessing a definite chemical composition and a definite molecular arrangement which is usually expressed in geometric form. The mineral matter is made up of various elements, combined to form compounds. Usually, minerals consist of more than one constituent elements. Quartz contains two elements, silicon and oxygen. Other minerals may contain many elements, such as amphibole consists of several elements that include sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, aluminium, silicon, and oxygen. Some elements exist as such without forming compounds. They contain exceptionally one element. Graphite (C), diamond (C), and Sulphur (S). Minerals are naturally occurring crystalline solid where the atoms are arranged in a regular three-dimensional array. A crystal is a solid, formed by a repeating three-dimensional pattern of atoms, ions, or molecules & possessing fixed distances between the different parts. Minerals that do not grow in these regular or crystalline patterns are called amorphous solids. When we talk about ‘naturally occurring’, we exclude the laboratory-synthesized crystalline solids. Glass and amber are also naturally occurring solid, but they are not crystalline and thus, they are not considered as minerals, rather they are referred as amorphous solids.

Introduction

Persistent use of conventional farming practices based on extensive tillage, especially when combined with removal or in-situ burning of crop residues, has magnified soil erosion losses and swiftly degraded soil resource base. One of the glaring examples for the aforementioned statement is the ‘Dust Bowl’ in the U.S during 1930s in Great plains, where 91 M ha of land was degraded by severe soil erosion (Hobbs, 2007).

One of the primary challenges of our time is to feed growing and more demanding world population with reduced external inputs and minimal environmental impacts (nature paper). Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a set of management practices for sustainable agricultural production without excessively disturbing the soils, while protecting it from the processes of soil degradation like erosion, compaction, aggregate breakdown, loss of organic matter, leaching of nutrients, and processes that are accentuating due to anthropogenic interactions in the presence of extremes of weather and management practices. The organic materials conserved through this practice are decomposed slowly, and much of materials are incorporated into the surface soil layer, thus reducing the liberation rate of carbon as CO₂ into the atmosphere. In the total balance, carbon is sequestered in the soil, and turns the soil into a net sink of carbon. So, CA enhance soil health by improving soil aggregation, reducing compaction through promotion of biological tillage, increasing surface soil organic matter and carbon content, and moderating soil temperature and weed suppression. CA reduces cost of cultivation, saves time, increases yield through timelier seeding/planting, reduces pest and diseases through stimulation of biological diversity, and reduces green house gas emissions.

Machinery development, refinement and adoption for a range of soil and cropping situations will be fundamental in any success to promote conservation agriculture practices. Agricultural machinery or tools, which support conservation agriculture generally refer to the cultivation systems with minimum or zero tillage and in-situ management of crop residues. Minimum tillage is aimed at reducing tillage to the minimum necessary that would facilitate favorable seedbed condition for satisfactory establishment of crop. Zero tillage is however an extreme form of minimum tillage. With the development of direct drilling machines, almost all research work was attempted to define the responses of direct-drilled seeds in relation to soil micro-environments. Different designs of direct drilling machines viz. zero till drill, no till plant drill, strip till drill, and rotary slit no till drill have been developed with controlled traffic measures for energy efficient and cost-effective seeding of crops without tillage. In this paper various issues, challenges and prospects of conservation agriculture in India has been discussed.

Introduction

Modern intensive agriculture systems based on the principles of yield maximization have been plagued with multiple constraints such as declining factor productivity, decreasing resource use efficiency (fertilizers, water, labour etc.), soil organic matter decline, salinization, soil structure degradation, water and wind erosion, reduced water infiltration rates, soil compaction due to surface sealing and crusting, declining ground water table, pest and disease outbreak, weed resistance and weed shifts (Paustian et al., 2016). To address these overwhelming issue, conservation agriculture (CA) has been defined by FAO as a concept of resource saving agricultural crop production which is based on enriching the natural and biological processes above and below ground. The major purpose for its advancement is to reduce the production cost, save resources, enhance yields and utilize resources like nutrient and water efficiently. Conservation tillage denotes soil management system that follows the principle of at least 30% of the soil surface coverage with crop residues after seeding of the crop (Jarecki and Lal, 2003). CA, a resource-efficient agriculture helps to conserve, improve and utilize natural resources efficiently through integrated management of available soil, water and biological resourwces combined with external inputs and thus contributes to environmental conservation as well as enhanced and sustained agricultural production in the long term. The practice and wider extension of conservation agriculture thus requires a deeper understanding of its ecological underpinnings for managing its various elements for sustainable intensification.

Introduction

Organic farming is basically a holistic management system, which promotes and improves the health of the agro-ecosystem related to biodiversity, nutrient biocycles, soil microbial and biochemical activities. Organic and bio-dynamic farming emphasises management practices involving substantial use of organic manures, green manuring, organic pest management pratices and so on. It has also come to mean that it is a system of farming that prohibits the use of artificial fertilisers and synthetic pesticides.

Biodynamic agriculture is an advanced form of organic farming system that is gaining increasing attention because of its added advantage of soil health and food quality. It is an alternative variant where the chemical fertilisers are totally replaced by microbial (biological) nutrient givers such as bacteria, algae, fungi, mycorhiza, actinomycetes. Biological Pest management of crops is undertaken by employing predators, parasites and other plethora of natural enemies of pests, in addition to all the rest of option that help to avoid resorting to chemical pesticides. These agents could be augmented into farms or promoted through such activities that favour their flourished activities. Composting, Green manuring, crop rotations. Intercropping, mixed cropping etc. as well as bird perches, trap crops promote such biological activities.

3.1 Introduction

Irrigation water that is supplied to crop fields is defined by a term commonly called as discharge which is also called as rate of flow. Discharge is defined as the volume of water flowing through a cross section in a unit time. It can be expressed as cubic metre per second (cumec), cubic feet per second (cusec), litre per sec (lps) etc. one cumec is equivalent to 35.5 cusecs or 1000 lps. The measurement of discharge is very important in everyday life starting from deciding the amount of irrigation to be supplied to a crop at a particular growth stage, or amount of water supply for domestic and industrial uses, for flood control and power generation etc. It plays a vital role in water resources planning.

3.2 Methods of Discharge Measurement

The various methods of discharge measurement can be broadly classified into the following types: (i) volume method of discharge measurement (ii) flow measuring structures such as orifices, mouthpieces, flumes and weirs.

Physiotherapy may be defined as the use of physical techniques like massage, exercise, heat, cold, sound waves, electric current etc for the treatment of injuries and movement dysfunction. Physiotherapy deals with the treatment of diseases by physical methods. It is used for treating injuries, strain, spasm, painful conditions, sprain of tendons, paralysis, postoperative trauma etc. It improves functioning of nerve, muscles and bones. The aim of physical therapy is the restoration of function and promotion of tissue healing by assisting normal physiological processes. The physiological response to physical therapy is its effect on the vascular supply; this in turn reproduces similar changes in deeper tissues.

For growing fungi, a wide range of media are used. Media affect colony morphology and color. For utilizing different carbon sources some fungi lack the necessary enzymes. For growth and reproduction all fungi require several specific elements. The requirements for growth are generally less specific than for sporulation, so it is often necessary to try several types of media when attempting to identify a fungus in culture. Sporulating cultures should be used because repeated transfers of a pathogen on artificial media usually result in loss of sporulation or pathogenicity or both. Transfer should be made using spores and cultured alternately on nutrient rich and poor culture media. Most fungi thrive on potato dextrose agar (PDA), but in some fungi excessive mycelial growth is obtained at the expense of sporulation. Similarly, wood-inhabiting fungi and dematiaceous (dark pigmented) fungi often sporulate better on Corn meal agar (CMA) or Oat Agar, both of which have less easily digestible carbohydrate than PDA. Cellulose-destroying fungi grow on a weak medium such as Water Agar (WA) or Potato Carrot Agar (PCA). By adding pieces of tissue, such as filter paper, wheat straw, rice, grains, leaves or dung, often produces good sporulation dependent on the organism grown. Some special methods of inducing sporulation in fungi.

Bacteria can be defined as a group of diverse and ubiquitous prokaryotic single cell microorganisms. The size of bacteria varies with genera/species. In cocci the diameter varies between 0.5-1 µm. The measurement of bacillus / rod shaped bacteria is 4-8 µm ? 1-1.25 µm. The surface area and volume ratio of bacteria is very high. The nutrients are absorbed through a large surface area and it is rapidly distributed into a small volume. So the growth rate and metabolism of bacteria is very high. The bacterial cell mass is packed near the surface and no circulatory system is required to distribute the nutrients. The growth and metabolism rate of bacilli are more than cocci because surface area and volume ratio of a sphere (cocci) is lowest among all the geometrical forms.

Shape of bacteria

The shape of bacteria is mostly regulated by the rigid cell wall covering the bacteria. Different shapes of bacteria are observed.

Lignieres and Spitz first isolated Actinobacillus from the cattle with actinomycosis like condition in Argentina in 1902. The findings were also confirmed by Nocard in 1902. Later the isolated bacterium from the cattle was named as Actinobacillus lignieresii in memory of Lignieres.

Pfeiffer (1892) first isolated Haemophilus influenzae as a cause of human influenza and it is also known as ‘Pfeiffer’s bacillus’. Other workers isolated and described different species of the genus Haemophilus from animals and birds. In 1903, Friedberger, a research assistant of Pfeiffer, isolated similar kind of bacteria from prepuce of dogs which was described later as Haemophilus canis. In 1925, Mitchell isolated Haemophilus ovis from the respiratory tract of sheep. Lewis and Shope (1931) isolated and illustrated Haemophilus suis from the infected pigs. Glasser found the association between fibrinous serositis, polyarthritis in pigs (Glasser’s disease) and a small gram-negative rod as early as 1910, later became known as Haemophilus parasuis. The bacteria was first isolated by Hjarre and Wramby in 1943. De Blieck (1931) isolated a hemophilic bacterium from the birds suffering with ‘infectious coryza’ and named the bacteria as Bacillus haemoglobinophilus coryzae gallinarum. Later it became known as Haemophilus paragallinarum (Avibacterium paragallinarum).

1. INTRODUCTION

Mushrooms are edible fungi of commercial importance and their cultivation has emerged as a promising agro-based land-independent enterprise. There are about 20 varieties of mushrooms being cultivated throughout the world for food. In India, only white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus J.E. Lange Imbach), oyster mushroom (Pleurotus spp. [Fr.] P. Kumm) and paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea [Bul.] Singer) are grown commercially. Of these, white button mushroom contributes ~90% of the total production. Mushrooms have been recognized as an alternate source of good quality protein and produce the highest quantity of protein per unit area from agro-wastes. Besides, they provide potentiality for generating employment, improving economic status of growers, help in checking pollution and earn foreign exchange.

Out of the total production about 45% of mushrooms produced are consumed in the fresh form while the other 55% are processed, with 5% in dehydrated form and 50% in canned form. This is because their shelf-life in the fresh form is very short and hence mushrooms are traded in the world market mostly in the processed form. Fruiting bodies (reproductive phase) of Agaricus are appreciated not only for texture and flavour but also for their chemical and nutritional characteristics.

1. INTRODUCTION

Vegetables occupy a prominent position in our diet especially to tone up our digestive system and provide nourishment. Regular use of vegetables, supply many essential health building and protective substances, such as vitamins and minerals. India ranks second in vegetable production in the world. The abundant production of vegetables during the season, results in a glut. Consequently, a large quantity of vegetables gets spoiled resulting in a considerable loss of natural resources. Therefore, preservation is the best way to save the wastage of vegetables and make them available even in the off-season (Plate 1).

8.1 Introduction

One important aspect of bio-aesthetic planning is to landscape public places on a priority basis compared to private places. For this specific reason, the railway station and the railway lines should attract attention at the very outset for landscape gardening.

8.2 Definition

Bio-aesthetic planning means the proper utilization of the available flora and fauna in the beautification of the surroundings. The concept of bio-aesthetic planning is given by concept of Prof. Lancelot Hogben.

In India, the theme of bio-aesthetic planning was propagated by Dr. M. S. Randhawa. Le Corbusier and his associates, Pierre Jeanneret, E. Maxwell Fry and Jane B. Drew had planned Chandigarh city as per the principles of bioaesthetic planning.

15.1. Cereals

15.1.1. Oat (Avena sativa)

1. Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum)

Wheat has been traditionally grouped into the genera Triticum in the tribe Tritiaceae of the family Poaceae. Bread wheat, 2n=6x=42 is a hexaploid consisting of three distinct genomic complementary, namely, A, B and D, with the genome structure AABBDD. In the past there were 4 species, viz. Triticum aestivum, T. durum, T. dicoccum and T. sphaerococcum, under cultivation in India. T. sphaerococcum has now practically gone out of cultivation because of its low productivity and high susceptibility to diseases. The major wheat producing countries are China, India, USA, the Russian Federation, and Australia. These five countries together contribute more than half of the global wheat production. In India, Uttar Pradesh has registered the highest production followed by Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Bihar. These top six states together contributed around 90 per cent of the total wheat production in the country

Floral Biology

The inflorescence of wheat is known as spikelets. Spikelets are alternately arranged on the rachis; each spikelet’s has a small joint axis which bear two to nine flower known as florets. Close to the base of rachilla are two empty boat shaped bracts known as glumes. Above these inserted alternately on opposite side of the rachilla known as lemma. Opposite it’s a thin membrane bracts known as palea enclosed within the lemma and palea are a single pistil and three steamens. The pistil consists of an ovary bearing two short styles each carrying a feathery stigma. At the base of the ovary are two membranous scales known as lodicules. Each stamen consists of a thread like filament carrying a pollen containing anther.

Introduction

Consumers are nowadays very much concerned about the food they purchase and consume. Consumer wants the food containing antioxidant properties or can say functional food in safe and stable forms, so that the availability of daily requirements of functional food ingredient must be ensured for normal growth and development of the body. The functional food that can provide a health benefit such as increased dietary fibre, vitamins or minerals to the body. The incorporation of antioxidant compounds acts as an efficient way to fight against reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated in our body. As it is already known that the ROS causes oxidative stress and acts as a main trigger for different life threatening chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, aging etc. Therefore, seeing the consumers’ demand for value added products with bioactive ingredients, all small and large scale food industries are taking initiatives to process different types of food (fruits, vegetables, dairy, sea food, animal, microbial products etc.) to extract and purify its active fraction of functional ingredients to valorize different value added products. Functional ingredients may also be derived from different food wastes generated during processing of food. This practice provides additional economic benefits to food businesses. Food industries are also giving importance to different processing methods to extract high quality of functional food ingredients in large quantity because processing method affects the concentration of extracted bioactive compounds. The simple addition of functional ingredients may cause an unwanted and negative change of sensory and texture of food. Therefore, using novel processing technologies such as microencapsulation, the negative changes could be minimized or avoided because these technologies could prevent the inactivation of bioactive ingredients.

Introduction

Pulses are annually grown leguminous crops that yield one to twelve grains/ seeds within a pod, and are often promoted in diet owing to their low cost and many beneficial nutritional effects (Craig 2009). The United Nations general assembly has declared 2016 as the international year of pulses (Oyeyinka et al. 2016). The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) describes pulses as the crops that are harvested only for dry grain. This definition excludes crops that are harvested green as food sources (such as green beans and green peas), crops that are used only for sowing purposes (such as alfalfa and clover) and crops used primarily for oil extraction (such as peanuts and soybean). India is the largest producer (around 25%) of pulses in the world and the Indian subcontinent covers the leading area in terms of consumption of pulses. It was also suggested that India can also increase the production output by 30%, considering a rise in government support prices for stimulating the growth of pulses and in case of a normal monsoon season (FAOSTAT 2008). The mainly grown pulses in India include mungbean (green gram), chickpea (Bengal gram), urd bean (black gram), lentil (masur), pigeon pea (arhar), cowpea, horse gram and peas (Tiwari and Singh 2012). In the western countries, nowadays pulses are one of the preferred food sources of the population, owing to ideological reasons and interest in vegetarian diet.

Botanical Name: Areca catechu L. Family: Arecaceae / Palmae Chromosome No: 32 Place of Origin: Philippines, Malay, Indonesia, Cochin, China and Malaya Peninsula Common Name: Betel nut 3.1 Introduction Arecanut (Areca catechu L.), commonly known as Supari or Betel palm or Arecanut palm, is cultivated primarily for its kernel obtained from the fruit which is chewed in its tender, ripe or processed form. It is an important cash crop of India. The economic produce is the fruit called ‘betel nut’ and used mainly for masticatory purposes. Its cultivation is restricted in South Western and North Eastern regions of the country. The chromosome number of Areca catechu L. was first determined as 2n=32 (Venkatasubban, 1945) and it belongs to family Arecaceae. It is one of the important commercial crops grown in parts of Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The cultivation of arecanut has also been extended to other states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. India is the largest producer and consumer of arecanut in the world holding 62% of the area and 60% of the production. The other major arecanut growing countries are Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar and Thailand. Arecanut being a profitable plantation crop, it is important to understand the package of practices and seasonal operations to be followed in the nursery, in young gardens and in old plantations to get maximum returns. To get additional income in the adverse periods, concept of cropping system is very important. The exact origin of areca nut is not known till date but, arecanut is a palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of East Africa (Kumar, 2013).