eChapters

1.    ___________means studying, examining and analyzing the financial aspects are pertaining to farm business.

(a) Agricultural finance

(b) Finance management

(c) Accounting management

(d) All of these

2.    Agricultural finance deals with the :–

(a) Acquisition of fund

(b) Use of fund

(c) Management of funds

(d) All of these

Nearly 50 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, it is not possible that food production be adequate for their needs. In some areas of food production surplus, it must be brought to the deficit places where peoples live and work and made available at prices they can afford, otherwise many will remain hungry. This is why marketing is a crucial part of any campaign to relieve hunger. Marketing is the means by which food is brought from the place where it is produced to the people who want to eat it.

Marketing can be a very simple process and it can also be very complex. This depends on what must be done to the farmer’s product to get it from the field to the consumer in good conditions, in an acceptable form and to have it ready when the consumer wants.

Marketing is relatively simple in a village community which produces most of what it needs. Here the producer can sell directly to the consumers coming to his house, or he can attract them by displaying his produce in some central open space in the village which then becomes known as ‘the market’. The total volume of the livestock products sold in this way is still very large, especially in the less commercially developed countries. Direct marketing within the villages is sometimes praised because of its low cost, and also because it does not involve any ‘middleman’ between producer and consumer. But, if farmers sell their produce only to the local consumers, and if their land could produce more than they need, there is no way by which they can take advantage of these excess production potentialities. Similarly, if the consumers are only able to eat what is produced locally, which may confine them to a diet that is monotonous, unsatisfying and very expensive too. This is true of many people’s living in isolated areas, which requires much home processing and still has little nutritional value; and of the many others for whom most meals consist of hand-pounded cereals. Hence, this undernourishment on one side and excess production on the other side leads to the development of marketing concept.

Abstract

The genetic improvement of crop plants is possible only through employing an appropriate breeding technique. The use of plant breeding technique depends on mode of pollination and reproduction of plant species e.g. selection and hybridization are used in sexually reproduced species, while clonal selection in asexually propagated plant species. The plant species/ varieties are usually derived through conventional techniques (vi z. introduction, selection, hybridization etc.), which are commonly used in various breeding programmes, while some modern techniques viz. transgenic breeding and marker assisted selection etc. are also available which are equally effective for improvement of all crop species. Various techniques applied for development of new varieties and hybrids are briefly described in this section.

Plant breeding is an art, science and technology of improving genetic make-up of crop plants in relation to their economic usefulness for mankind. Various techniques/methods of breeding used for genetic improvement of crop plants are: introduction, selection, hybridization, mutation, transgenic breeding etc.

Classification of Breeding Techniques: Plant breeding techniques are classified as conventional and modern breeding techniques.

Introduction

In order to implement the sui generis system for plant variety protection for granting PBR to a breeder or farmer or institution, DUS testing is compulsory. A new variety shall be registered, if it conforms to the criteria of novelty, distinctness, uniformity and stability. An extant variety, a variety about which there is a common knowledge shall also be registered within a specified period, if it conform such criteria as distinctness, uniformity and stability.

Once a valid application for PBR is accepted the seed / plant material of the variety will be requested for official DUS tests. These official DUS tests need to be conducted by crop based institutions on behalf of the PPV & FR authority by following universally acceptable test procedures. This necessitated in the development of test guidelines, descriptors and procedures to be followed in each crop. National Test Guidelines have been developed for 96 crops representing harmonized approach for the testing of new varieties which will form the basis for DUS examination. These National Test Guidelines contain details on i) subject of the guidelines, ii) material required, iii) conduct of tests, iv) methods and observations, v) grouping of varieties, vi) characteristics and symbols, vii) table of characteristics, viii) explanations on table of characteristics, ix) literature and x) technical questionnaire. The registration was open for 107 crop species for new variety and for 114 crop species for extant / farmers varieties.

8.1 Introduction

The concept of social justice led to a raise the standard of living of the masses. This is only possible by meeting the energy needs of industry, agriculture, transport and domestic use. The energy of demand has been increasing tremendously all over the world science mid – nineteenth century due to rise in industrial and agricultural activities and was being met to a great extent by fossil fuels.

Three factors led the mankind to look for alternative renewable sources of energy like solar, wind, hydro etc. (1) there is a danger that the rate at which the non renewable sources of energies are being consumed presently may lead to a global shortage in the near future. This has already happen in case of oil. (2) Use of fossil fuel involves emission of toxic gases polluting the environment causing health hazards of living being. and (3) the demand and supply gas of energy is continuously widening, thus necessitating to exploit renewable sources of energy.

Out of various renewable energy sources, solar energy has been a promising one and lot of development has been taken in its technology for various uses. The numbers of technology engaged in developing solar energy for meaningful use are aiming to achieve the following objectives-

A. Diseases

1. Bacterial leaf blight

Occurrence & severity status

The disease Bacterial leaf blight, also known as ‘Bacterial leaf spot’, occurs on white jute (Corchorus capsularis) and tossa jute (C. olitorius) in seed crops of jute at the ICARCRIJAF research farm, Barrackpore, West Bengal, India (Biswas et al., 2013, 2014), in Formosa (Elliott, 1951) and Sudan (Sabet, 1957). The incidence of the disease varies from 25% (Borker and Yamlembam, 2017).

Symptoms

The disease initially appears on leaves as small brown circular spots of 25mm diameter (in tossa jute) or angular brown spots (in white jute), In most cases, the spots are surrounded by a yellow halo and the angular spots coalesce at later stage show larger blighted areas on lamina (Borker and Yamlembam, 2017). The lesions on the stems are elongated; sometimes the spots girdle the stem. The disease on the capsules produces small sunken brown spots. Defoliation and death of the plants may result in severe infections. In the later stages of disease, brown sunken spots were found on the green capsules (Sabet, 1957; Biswas et al., 2013, 2014).

1. Seedling management in the nursery

Seedlings of many seed propagated vegetable crops like, tomato, brinjal, chillies, sweet pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, knolkhol, broccoli, Brussels sprout, kale, endive, chicory, celery, lettuce, parsley, onion, etc. are first raised in the nursery beds before transplanted in the main field although, many of these crops like, tomato, sweet pepper, onion, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc. are also direct seeded using precision seed drills in the USA, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy and other European countries. Many seed propagated vegetable crops viz., okra, peas, beans, radish, carrot, beet, turnip and all the cucurbits (e.g. bitter gourd, bottle gourd, pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon, muskmelon, snake gourd, sponge gourd, ridge gourd, etc.) are conventionally grown through direct seeding in the main field.

Transplant groups

1. Plants easy to transplant: They form new roots rapidly, put forth shoots rather slowly and absorb water readily e.g. beet, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Swiss chard, lettuce and tomato.

2. Plants transplanted with moderate ease: This group replace roots and grow shoots a bit slower than the previous group and do not absorb water very efficiently e.g. celery, brinjal, onion, pepper, leek and cauliflower.

Improved Varieties of Cucurbits

A. CUCUMBER, MELONS, PUMPKIN AND SQUASHES

Cucumber (Khira)

1. Introduction

Apricot is among the highly nutritious fruits of Rosaceae family and appreciated for its health promoting contents. Studies have shown that apricot fruit is effective in preventing stomach ulcers and oxidative damages of living systems (Enomoto et al., 2010; Miyazawa et al., 2006). Apricot tree belongs to genus Prunus in the Rosaceae (rose) family. Apricot (Prunus armeniaca) is categorized under ‘stone fruits’, along with peaches, plums, almonds, and some cherries, due to its seed being enclosed in a hard, ‘stone’ like endocarp. This fruit is native to temperate Asia, first discovered growing wild on the mountain slopes of China, and long cultivated in Armenia later.

Throughout its history, apricot has been noted for delicious flavor, delicate velvety fruit surface, and early flowering and fruiting. The name apricot is a corruption of the Arabic and Greek al-paraecox which means the early fruit. The old spelling ‘apricock’ is retained in English until the 17^th century. The fruits are mainly consumed fresh but are also cooked and often stuffed. The high sugar content makes them suitable for drying. In china they were also preserved by salting and smoking. Other uses include fruit leathers, nectars, and liquors (Janick, 2005).

19.1 Introduction

The combination of two separate processes whereby water is lost on the one hand from the soil surface by evaporation and on the other hand from the tree by transpiration is referred to as evapotranspiration (ET).

19.2 Evaporation

Evaporation is the process whereby liquid water is converted into water vapour (vaporization) and removed from the evaporating surface (vapour removal). Water evaporates from a variety of surfaces, such as lakes, rivers, pavements, soils and wet vegetation. (Penman, 1963).

Energy is required to change the state of the molecules of water from liquid to vapour. Direct solar radiation and, to a lesser extent, the ambient temperature of the air provide this energy. The driving force to remove water vapour from the evaporating surface is the difference between the water vapour pressure at the evaporating surface and that of the surrounding atmosphere. As evaporation proceeds, the surrounding air becomes gradually saturated and the process will slow down and might stop if the wet air is not transferred to the atmosphere. The replacement of the saturated air with drier air depends greatly on wind speed. Hence, solar radiation, air temperature, air humidity and wind speed are climatological parameters to consider when assessing the evaporation process.

Where the evaporating surface is the soil surface, the degree of shading of the tree canopy and the amount of water available at the evaporating surface are other factors that affect the evaporation process. Frequent rains, irrigation and water transported upwards in a soil from a shallow water table wet the soil surface. Where the soil is able to supply water fast enough to satisfy the evaporation demand, the evaporation from the soil is determined only by the meteorological conditions. However, where the interval between rains and irrigation becomes large and the ability of the soil to conduct moisture to pear the surface is small, the water content in the topsoil drops and the soil surface dries out. Under these circumstances the limited availability of water exerts a controlling influence on soil evaporation. In the absence of any supply of water to the soil surface, evaporation decreases rapidly and may cease almost completely within a few days.

Introduction

The Heliantheae are the third-largest tribe in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). With some 190 genera and nearly 2500 recognized species, only the tribes Senecioneae and Astereae are larger. The name is derived from the genus Helianthus, which is Greek for sunflower.

This is one of the large and predominantly flourishing flowering botanical groups occurring in almost all parts of the world. Except for three species in South America, all other Helianthus species are native to North America and Central America i.e., Southwest United States-Mexico area (Heiser, 1976). The common name, “sunflower”, typically refers to the popular annual species Helianthus annuus, or the common sunflower, whose round flower heads in combination with the ligules look like the sun. This and other species, notably Jerusalem artichoke (H. tuberosus), are cultivated in temperate regions and some tropical regions as food crops for humans, cattle, and poultry, and as ornamental plants.

The species H. annuus typically grows during the summer, post summer rainy season and later in post-rainy season too with the peak growth during pre-summer season with temperatures ranging from 28^oC to 35^oC in India.

Domestication of sunflower started around 4,000 years ago in Eastern North America by the native tribes of American continent (Blackman et al., 2011). The current annual oilseed yielding sunflower was cultivated originally by local inhabitant tribes (Weiss, 2000), who used the seed as a source of food. The adaptations in annual sunflower to human cultivation include a dramatic increase in apical dominance, an increase in seed size, the loss of natural seed dispersal and seed dormancy, and the loss of self-incompatibility (Wills and Burke, 2007).

During 2019, the global acreage of biotech/GM crops was 190.4 million ha and India planted 11.9 million ha GM cotton having insect resistance (Bt-cotton, having two commercialized events, namely, cry1Ac, MON-531, MahycoMonsanto, popularly called by trade name Bollgard-I, single gene event, commercialized in 2002 and cry2Ab2, MON-15985, Mahyco-Monsanto, popularly called by trade name Bollgard-II, double gene event or stacked trait event, commercialized in 2006) stood at the fifth place after USA, Brazil, Argentina and Canada (ISAAA, 2019). Four more events related to Bt cotton (cry1Ac, Event-1, JK Agri-Genetics, commercialized in 2006, fused genes cry1Ab and cry1Ac, GFM Event, Nath Seeds, commercialized in 2006, cry1Ac BNLA-601, UAS, Dharwad and CICR (ICAR), commercialized in 2008 but discontinued and synthetic cry1C, MLS-9124, Metahelix Life Sciences-now Tata Rallis, commercialized in 2009 but not placed in the market) were approved for commercialization but the products could never reach to the market.

1.1. Origin and distribution

• Also known as balsam pear or bitter cucumber.
• Old world origin and native of tropical Asia, particularly in Indo Burma region
• Widely grown in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, China and tropical Africa
• In India, it is cultivated in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

1.2. Economic importance

• Bitter gourd contains bitter principle (Glucoside) momordicin.
• Important vegetable in South Indian states, particularly in Kerala and grown for immature tuberculate fruits a unique bitter taste
• Fruits are
  • Rich source of vitamins and minerals

The purpose of a sub-surface drainage system is to lower the ground water table and removal of salts beyond the crop root zone. The ground water beyond table may rise due to commonly practiced flood irrigation method, seepage from unlined channels, percolation of rain and runoff water and sub-surface flow from higher areas. Sub-surface drainage consists of drains laid at a specified depth, spacing and grade below the ground surface. The size, spacing and depth of drains depend largely on the soil-water properties viz., infiltration, saturated hydraulic conductivity, drainable porosity; and the requirement of removal of water through drains in certain time period fixed on the basis of rainfall and crop cultivated. The drains are usually placed in a pervious stratum. Suitable filter of coarse sand and gravel may be used when it is placed in a low permeable stratum. Sub-surface drainage serves the important job of removal of concentrated salt solution from the crop root zone particularly in arid and semiarid region.

Advantage of sub-surface drainage system

1. Since sub-surface drainage are underground, no loss of land for cultivation. Some part of the land goes out of use for making drains in surface drainage.

4.1 Introduction

The adverse effect of non-vegetarian diet, particularly red meat, on human health and on environment due to destruction/clearing of forest for raising more pasture and to increase the industrial production of grains for animal feed have led to greater greenhouse gas emissions, and environmental pollution due to extensive use of inorganic fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides. Clearing of forest has also caused extinction of plant species. For these reasons, greater interest has been generated in vegetarian diet based on the direct consumption of whole grains, legumes, nuts, fruits, and vegetables that are easily assimilated by the human body, nutritionally more efficient, and have least impact on the environment. In fact, the healthfulness of vegetarian diets has been found to be strongly correlated with sustainability of agriculture because of easy affordability of plant-based foods. Vegetarian people have been often referred to as vegan and pescatarian (including fish and other seafood). Most pescatarians include dairy and eggs as well. Similarly, allopathic medicines, which are synthetic inorganic concentrated drugs, have adverse effect on non-targeted organs, besides being expensive.

Chapter Overview

In this chapter, we delve into the pivotal role of women in livestock production, particularly in the context of India. Women emerge as the backbone of livestock care, contributing significantly to rural communities’ well-being and the nation’s economy. We explore their diverse and indispensable contributions, from feeding and general management to health and breed management, processing, and marketing. Despite their crucial roles, women face numerous obstacles and constraints in livestock production, including limited access to resources, gender biases, and cultural norms.

Chapter Overview

This chapter provides an in-depth examination of Gender Budgeting in India, exploring its historical development, principles, and the tools used to promote gender-sensitive budgeting. It delves into the key concepts, institutional frameworks, and the necessity for gender budgeting. The tools for deepening gender budgeting, such as the Five-Step Framework and gender-sensitive checklists, are explained in the context of the Livestock sector. Furthermore, it elucidates the importance of valuing unpaid work and the role of gender budgeting in monitoring policy goals.

4.1. Introduction

Globally, rice is cultivated on about 165 million ha of land, which provides around 787 million tons of paddy annually (FAO, 2023). In Asia, 708 million tons of paddy is produced from nearly 143 million rice-cultivated areas. Rice crop is grown in a wide range of climates, varied soil types, and hydrological situations. Rice is the lone cereal crop that grows well in floods.

The rice habitat can be divided into four groups based on the hydrology of the rice field: irrigated lowland rice (79~80 million ha), rainfed lowland rice (54~55 million ha), upland rice (14~15 million ha), and flood-prone rice (11~12 million ha) (Table 4.1) (Bouman et al., 2006).

Inflammation

Inflammation is a complex process of vascular and cellular alterations that occur in body in response to injury. The term inflammation has been derived from the Latin word inflammare, means to set on fire. Inflammation is considered as an important event in body that activates the existing defense mechanisms in circulating blood to dilute, naturalize or kill the irritant/ causative agent. Thus, it is said that immunity is the resistance of body, while inflammation is the activation of that immunity. It is beneficial to body except when chronic or immune origin. Inflammation starts with sublethal injury and ends with healing.

Etiology

• Any irritant/ injury.

• Bacteria, virus, parasite, fungus etc.

• Trauma. • Physical or chemical injury.

20.1. Introduction

Food laws and regulations are the legal standards of quality which regulate the manufacture and marketing of food products. The major objectives of enacting the food laws and regulations are:

1. To maintain quality of food produced

2. To prevent exploitation of the consumer by the sellers

3. To safeguard the health of the consumers and

4. To establish a standard of quality for different food products.

Definitions

Reaction of vascularised living tissue to local injury caused by various agents like microbes or necrotic tissue

Inflammation − Reaction of blood vessels − Accumulation of fluid and leucocytes in extra vascular tissues Inflammation and repair always go hand in hand

Beneficial effects of Inflammation

To destroy / dilute the injurious agent (microbes; toxins ) and to protect cell from injury (necrosis)

Harmful Effects of Inflammation

Definition
Fungi are eukaryotic, spore bearing, achlorophyllus, heterotrophic and thallophytic plants with varied forms and habitats, representing heterothallic or homothallic types of sexuality with characteristic sexual and /or asexual means of reproduction without tissue differentiation.
General Characteristics of Fungi
1. Thallus
The body of the fungus is called as Thallus, which is without stem, root and leaves. It may be Plasmodial, Pseudoplasmodial , Pseudomycelial or Mycelial. A single thread like filament is called as hypha. A hypha is made up of a thin, transparent tabular wall filled or lined with a layer of protoplasm.

A group of hypha constituting the body of fungus is called as mycelium may be septate or aseptate. i.e coenocytic.
(a) Coenocytic or Nonseptate or Aseptate Mycelium: When mycelium is not divided by cross walls called as Coenocytic mycelium. Depending upon the nature of parasitism with the host plant, mycelium is either ecotophytic or endophytic.
b) Septate Mycelium: When mycelium is divided by cross walls or septa called as septate mycelium.

Introduction
Food laws and regulations are the legal standards of quality that regulate the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale, and marketing of food products. The major objectives of enacting the food laws and regulations are i) to maintain the quality of food produced ii) to safeguard the health of the consumers iii) to prevent exploitation of the consumer by the sellers and iv) to establish a standard of quality for different food products. In 2006 the government of India enacted the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSSA) to consolidate all laws relating to food and to establish the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for laying down science-based standards for different articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption. Various food laws enacted in our country before 2006 for different categoriesof food were:
• PFA (The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act),1954 (Act 37 of 1954)
• FPO (Fruit Products Order),1955
• Meat Food Products (Control) Order,1973
• Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order,1998
• The Edible Oil Packing (Regulations) Order,1998
• Solvent Extracted Oil, De-oiled Meal and Meal and Edible Flour (Control) Order,1967

The results of the investigation are presented and discussed in this chapter after statistical analysis. These are presented according to the specific objectives of the study.
6.1 Results of Household Schedule
1. Socio-Economic Profile of the farmers of the high, medium and low altitudes Socio economic profile refers to the position of an individual with reference to various indicators of social and economic status in a rural community. The purpose for selection of this objective was to study the personnel characteristics of the high, medium and low altitudes like age, educational qualification, caste, family, house, material possession and mass media exposure etc. which are presented in the table below.

Flood-control measures aim to reduce the probability of inundation or limit its harmful consequences. Structural measures physically modify water flow or storage and include dams, reservoirs, levees, floodwalls, diversions, channel improvements, detention basins, and watershed-treatment structures. Non-structural measures reduce exposure and vulnerability through forecasting, warnings, zoning, insurance, preparedness, evacuation, public education, land-use control, and disaster-response planning. This chapter classifies and evaluates both groups of measures, explaining their purposes, benefits, limitations, and selection criteria. It emphasizes that no individual intervention provides complete protection. Effective flood-risk reduction normally requires an integrated combination of structures, sound watershed management, reliable information systems, institutional coordination, and community participation.

Morphology based nematode taxonomy and biodiversity studies have historically challenged most biologists. In the past few decades, there have been efforts to integrate molecular methods and digital 3D image-capturing technology in nematode taxonomy, the former to enhance the accuracy of identification of such a taxonomically challenging group and the latter to communicate morphological data. While the employment of these two methods is growing in recent taxonomic, biodiversity and biogeographic studies, a movement to abandon traditional phenotypic identification methods altogether has emerged (Eyualem Abebe et al?, 2011). Proponents try to justify this trend by citing the challenging gap between the high estimated number of undescribed species and the limited ability of traditional taxonomy to accomplish the task of documenting such diversity.

Meaning of Market Energy Strategy

Market Entry Strategy

When an organization has made a decision to enter an overseas market, there are a variety of options open to it. These options vary with cost, risk and the degree of control which can be exercised over them. The simplest form of entry strategy is exporting using either a direct or indirect method such as an agent, in the case of the former, or counter trade, in the case of the latter. More complex forms include truly global operations which may involve joint ventures, or export processing zones. Having decided on the form of export strategy, decisions have to be made on the specific channels. Many agricultural products of a row or commodity nature use agents, distributors or involve Government, whereas processed materials, whilst not excluding these, rely more heavily on more sophisticated forms of access.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Soil fertility can be considered to be a measure of the soil’s ability to sustain satisfactory crop growth, both in the short and longer-term. Organic farming recognizes the soil as being central to a sustainable farming system. It could be argued that organically managed soils require a higher level of baseline fertility because shortfalls cannot be made up by applications of soluble fertilizers. Soil fertility is determined by a set of interactions between the physical and chemical environments of the system and by biological activity. Organic matter is linked intrinsically to soil fertility, because it is important in maintaining good soil physical conditions (e.g. soil structure, aeration and water holding capacity) and is an important nutrient reserve. Organic matter contains most of the soil reserve of N and large proportions of other nutrients such as phosphorus and sulphur.

The term soil refers to the outer, loose material of the earth’s surface, a layer distinctly different from the underlying parent rock. A number of features characterize this region of the earth’s crust. It is the natural medium, which supports plant growth. It provides the physical support needed for the root system and also supplies nutrients needed for plant growth. It is a perennial source of organic matter. It supports a vast population of microorganisms.

Tropical tuber and root crops are subjected to the depredation of a number of insect and non insect pests. Comprehensive studies revealed that cassava is attacked by a wide range of arthropod and rodent pests. An exhaustive global account of cassava pests and their management was given by Anon (1978), Bellotti and Schoonhoven (1978) and Bellotti et al. (1999). Lal and Pillai (1982); Pillai and Palaniswami (1984), Pillai (1994) and Palaniswami (1999) reviewed the pests of cassava in India. Anon (1978), Sutherland (1986) and Jansson and Raman (1991) covered world sweet potato pests. Palaniswami (1999) detailed the pests attacking sweet potato in India. Pests of edible aroids, yams and chinese potato were comprehensively reported by Anon (1978); Mitchell and Maddison (1983) and Palaniswami (1994, 1999). In India about 34 species of insects and non-insect pests infest cassava, 80 species attack sweet potato, 46 species on edible aroids, 21 on yams and 10 on chinese potato. One of the main factors for the low productivity of these crops in India is attributed to the pest complex attacking them (Chadha, 2001).

Agriculture is undoubtedly the largest livelihood provider in rural India. As we enter a new post WTO Scenario and IT revolution, new inventions are happening day by day in every sphere. Agriculture is not culture now, it is agri business! Agriculture constitutes over 25% of India’s GDP. In recent years, much emphasis has been given by the Ministry of Agriculture on commercializing agricultural production in the country. Adequate production and distribution of food has become a high priority and global concern. In the fast changing world and increasing competition in a globalized economy, there is a need for exploiting the available resources to the maximum level and use of best technologies available world over, to cope up with domestic demand of food and also to target export market. This will be particularly relevant in South India, where farmers grow a number of crops, but have technical constraints in enhancing production and productivity because of inadequate exposure to high technology & inputs coupled with advanced production practices, logistics and marketing. In addition, shortage of labour is a major concern for progressive farmers of South India who are ready to offer more wages to labourers. Therefore, they are forced to become machinery-dependent in their farm operations. As a result, Southern India is emerging as one of the hottest destinations as well as a strong market with buying potential for farm machinery and equipment.

Myristica fragrans Houtt., the nutmeg tree is unique among spice plants as the donor of two distinct spices; nutmeg and mace.Native of Indonesia (Moluccas islands), nutmeg tree grows there abundantly and is now naturalised in West Indies, Srilanka, India, Phillipines, Tropical America and Pacific Islands. (Varghese, 2000). In India, the plant is grown in certain pockets of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, North East India and Andamans (Krishnamoorthy, 2000). It is also grown in a small scale in Srilanka, Trinidad, China, Tobago, Zanzibar and Mauritius.

4.1. INTRODUCTION

Water stress is the single most severe limitation to the productivity of rice in the rainfed ecosystem (Widawsky and O’Toole, 1990). Drought has been defined as the inadequacy of water availability, including precipitation and soil moisture storage capacity, in quantity and distribution during the life cycle of the crop to restrict expression of its full genetic yield potential. Drought is actually a meteorological event which implies the absence of rainfall for a period of time, long enough to cause moisture-depletion in soil and water deficit with a decrease of water potential in plant tissues. Under drought conditions, water stress develops in the plants as the demand exceeds supply of water; this may occur either/or both due to atmospheric or soil conditions, and is reflected in a gradient of water potentials developed between the soil or soil-root interface and leaf, the transpiring organ. Moisture stress is likely to develop to a different rate in different plant organs along with the gradient. Drought like many other environmental stresses has adverse effects on plant growth and yield.

Introduction

The life cycle of a plant passes through biotic and abiotic stresses and plants are being attacked at different stages of growth by a number of disease causing organisms. These organism including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and nematodes attacks plants. These pathogens caused large crop losses and probably since the beginning of agriculture have contributed to human hunger and malnutrition. The control of plant diseases is thus of fundamental importance and is a major objective of plant breeding and pathology programme and agriculture chemical industry. Plants resists pathogens attack both with preformed defenses such as antimicrobial secondary compounds and by inducing defense responses (Hammond and Jones, 2000, Heath, 2000). Inducible defenses can be activated upon recognition of general elicitor such as bacterial flagellin and even host cell fragments released by pathogens damage (Gomez and Boller, 2000, Hammond and Jones, 2000). However, plants also involved sophisticated recognition systems to detect proteins produced during infection by specific races of pathogens (Martin et al., 2003).

Deviation from normal well being may be for various kinds involving one or more organs and exhibiting array of symptoms. Examination of animals for diagnosis of disease is strenuous process because investigator has just got to know by several means of examination. The evidences produced by owner, animal house, feed being provided supported by prevailing environment and climate are immensely helpful in accurate diagnosis. Diagnosis, of production related diseases, is more difficult because of biasness in history revealed by the owner. At the same time diagnoses of poisonings are also not easy because owner’s description about possible cause and symptoms exhibited by sick animals are vague. So careful quizzing of owner about each and every aspect of disease and animal obviously seems to be first step towards diagnosis, followed by examination of animal. Examination of environment in relation to history revealed by owner and observations drawn from the examination of animal can infer some conclusion about cause of disease. Support of laboratory examinations such as fecal test, blood test and urinalysis are important tools in disease investigation. Following steps are essential in disease diagnosis.

In ancient days spices and herbs were valued as basic ingredients of incense, embalming preservatives, ointments, perfumes, antidotes against poisons, cosmetics and medicines and were used less in culinary preparations. A notable use of spices and herbs in ancient and medieval times were for the treatment of a variety of illnesses. Subsequently spices and herbs had come to be used to flavour food and beverages. In the course of time spices and herbs were shown to be useful not only for making the food lasting and palatable, but also in retarding or preventing rancidity and spoilage. This knowledge acted as a catalyst for the use of spices in a variety of processed foods. Based on the uses, herbs and spices are classified in to culinary, cosmetic and pharmaceutical. In the modern world spices have wide affiliation in the culinary art of people around the world, and are used in food industry for flavouring and seasoning, as well as in pharmaceutical preparations in the traditional systems of medicine and in beauty care. Spices and herbs are useful because of the chemical constituents contained in the form of essential oil, oleoresin, oleogum and resins, which impart flavour, pungency and colour to prepared dishes.

1. Introduction

There is intense commercial interest in dehydrated fruit and vegetable products especially mango powder, banana powder, orange powder, papaya cereal flakes to powder, tomato juice powder and other vegetable powders, which are in great demand for soups, biscuit type cookies supplemented with fruit powders (Ana Maria et al. 2009; Sunita and Chauhan 2008), pizza mixes and sauces. Natural fruit and vegetable powders are gaining lot of popularity in recent years as they are very easy to handle after production, require minimum storage space and they are attractive. Tamarind powder is developed from tamarind fruit (Tamarindus indica) (Manjunath et al. 1991) and recently cashew apple and guava residues from fruit juice industry were successfully converted into fruit powders and used at different levels of wheat flour substitution for cookies formulation (Ana Maria et al.2009) and fruit puree like papaya can be mixed with cereal flour to prepare slurry and after gelatinization, the slurry can be useful for preparing drum dried flakes and powder (Sunita and Chauhan 2008). Tropical fruits are exotic in flavor but their juices and purees are seldom available in dehydrated powder (James, 1971). Citrus juice concentrates were produced during world war II in powdered form by using spray, drum, vacuum-puff, and freeze drying (USDA, 1962). The preservation of fruits and vegetables by dehydration offers a unique method, which may be considered as an alternative low cost preservation technique. A shift from fresh to more and more processed foods with significant value addition is bound to occur sooner or later considering the socio-economic changes taking place in the country and the rapid integration of Indian economy with global system. Most popular brands are found in the “ready to consume” food sector.

The stresses, drought, salinity, chemicals, cold and hot temperatures, have interconnected effects on plants, resulting in the disruption of protein homeostasis. Maintenance of proteins in their functional native conformations and preventing aggregation of non-native proteins are important for cell survival under stress. The heat shock proteins buffer this environmental variation and are therefore important factors for the maintenance of homeostasis across environmental regimes. Heat shock proteins are known to be expressed in plants experiencing high-temperature stress. Heat shock proteins are important in relation to stress resistance and adaptation to the environment. Their molecular function might be membrane or protein stabilization, but, for now, for most heat shock proteins the molecular function remains to be elucidated. The general observation of the response and induction of heat shock proteins following heat stress suggests that they play a fundamental role in cellular homeostasis. It is possible that heat shock proteins may be involved with the phenomenon of acquired thermotolerance. Heat stress disturbs cellular homeostasis and can lead to severe retardation in growth and development, and even death. Temperature stress can have also a devastating effect on both the plant anabolism and catabolism, initially acting on protein complexes, being the quaternary structure the first folding that is lost during heat stress or heating. Understanding the role of HSPs in relation to stress resistance in a more applied perspective as a potential indicator of stress is important. New technological developments make it possible to investigate the role of genes coding for heat shock proteins in greater detail. A combination of genomics and proteonomics will further elucidate the effects of stress on expression patterns at the DNA, RNA and protein level.

    1.    Fortification of common salt is done with 
        a)    Potassium iodide    b)    Potassium iodate
        c)    Both a & b    d)    None
    2.    Vinegar is a 
        a)    Class-I preservative    b)    Class-II preservative
        c)    Natural preservative    d)    a & c
    3.    As per FSSAI regulations, the permitted level of Sulphur dioxide in RTS beverages is not more than ______ ppm
        a)    100    b)    70
        c)    150    d)    80
    4.    Sodium nitrite is a
        a)    Preservative    b)    Buffering agent
        c)    Curing agent    d)    Flavour enhancer

Raj Bahadur
    
3.1.    Nitrogen Fixation in Saline Soil
    
3.2.    Legumes and Nitrogen Fixation
    
    3.2.1.    Legumes in Saline Agriculture; Nitrogen Fixation Capabilities
    3.2.2.    Legumes in Saline Agriculture; Salinity Tolerance of Legumes
    3.2.3.    Improvement of Salinity Tolerance of Legumes
    3.2.4.    Legumes of the HALOPH Database
    
3.3.    Perspective for Saline Agriculture
    
3.4.    Impacts of Agriculture and Global Climate Change Terrestrial Biogeochemical Cycle of Nitrogen
    
    3.4.1.    Nitrogen Chemistry and Terrestrial Life
    
3.5.    Nitrogen Fixation
    
    3.5.1.    Decomposition
    3.5.2.    Nitrification
    3.5.3.    Denitrification
    3.5.4.    Bio-geochemical Linkage of Nitrogen and Carbon
    3.5.5.    Soil Organic Matter
    3.5.6.    Perturbations and N and C Biogeochemistry
    3.5.7.    Organic Nitrogen
    3.5.8.    Mineralization
    
3.6.    Factors Influencing Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Legumes
    
    3.6.1.    Temperature
    3.6.2.    Soil Water Status
    3.6.3.    Nitrogen Concentration in the Root Zone
    3.6.4.    Carbon Demand for Fixation
    3.6.5.    Seasonal Regulation of Legume Biological Nitrogen Fixation
    
3.7.    Quantification of Biological Nitrogen Fixation
    
    3.7.1.    Estimation with Empirical Models
    3.7.2.    Potential N Fixation Rate
    3.7.3.    Impact of Soil Temperature
    3.7.4.    Impact of Soil Water Status
    3.7.5.    Effect of Soil Mineral N or Internal Substrate N
    3.7.6.    Influence of Plant Substrate C or C supply
    3.7.7.    Changes in N Fixation with Plant Growth Stage
        
    References

A. Bhattacharya

6.1.    Macronutrients (Primary)
    
6.2.    Macronutrients (Secondary and Tertiary)
    
6.3.    Micronutrients
    
6.4.    Inter-relationships Between Nutrient Elements
    
    6.4.1.    Synergism
    6.4.2.    Antagonism
    
6.5.    Potassium Inter-relationships with Macronutrients
    
    6.5.1.    Potassium Inter-relationships with Secondary Nutrients
    6.5.2.    Potassium Inter-relationships with Micronutrients
    
6.6.    Nutrient Deficiency
    
6.7.    Role of Mineral Nutrition Against Environmental Stress
    
6.8.    Role of Mineral Nutrition Against Drought Stress
    
6.9.    Role of Potassium in Abiotic Stress Resistance
    
    6.9.1.    Potassium and Drought Stress
    6.9.2.    Cell Elongation and Cell Membrane Stability
    6.9.3.    Aquaporins and Water Uptake
    6.9.4.    Osmotic Adjustment
    6.9.5.    Stomatal Regulation
    6.9.6.    Detoxification of Reactive Oxygen Species
    6.9.7.    Potassium and Salt Stress
    6.9.8.    Potassium and Low-Temperature Stress
    6.9.9.    Potassium and Waterlogging Stress
    
6.10.    Partition of Photosynthates under Nutrient Deficiency
        
References

14.1. INTRODUCTION

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L. emend. Bowden) is one the most important ancient crops and played very important role in the development of agriculture and human civilization. It has also played crucial role in the progress of science of agriculture, physiology, genetics, plant breeding and malting and brewing science. It is the fourth most cereal crop after rice, wheat and maize in acreages and production in the world.  It is grown and used all around the world in many countries and has fed livestock, poultry and people since ancient time.  Barley was domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent of the Near East. Fertile Crescent is considered the first of at least seven primary centres of agriculture origin in the world (Smith, 1998; Baik and Ulrich, 2008). Barley is best known around the world as a feed grain and a premier grains for malting and brewing. When most people think of composition of beer, they only think of barley over other cereals. Although utilization of barley for food is relatively low as compared to other cereals today, throughout its history barley has remained an important and major food source poor people living in Western and Eastern Asia and Northern and Eastern Himalayan region nation like Tibet, Nepal and in Northern and Eastern Africa (Newman and Newman, 2006, 2008). Moreover, there has been resurgence of interest and use of barley as food primarily in the developed world due to an increasing emphasis on incorporating the diversity in consumption of whole grain in people’s diets due to its health benefits.

Introduction to Research

Research is an inseparable part of human knowledge. Its role in human life is as precious as that of salt in a vegetable. The life would lose its taste without research exactly in the same manner as a vegetable without salt. The modern academics just cannot stand and meet the aspirations of a matured society, if it does not provide for research and investigation. “The obvious function of research is to add new knowledge to the existing store. but its power for cleansing our minds of clinches and removing the rubbish of inapplicable theory is equally notable. Scientific research is a cumulative process. It is also a projective process, especially in the social sciences. Understanding can be (advanced) not only by gains in knowledge but also by discarding outworn assumptions”.

Significance in Agriculture

The Green Revolution resulted in many fold increase in the food grain production. Crop yields have increased steadily over time, but continuing these increases above the current high levels would be difficult. But in order to meet the demands of the increasing population, the crop production must increase in a sustainable manner. Sustainable increase in the total production without increasing cultivated area represents a huge challenge that can only be met by integrative investigations at the whole plant-plant community level. Improvement of crop production systems will require a thorough understanding of basic principles of yield production. This involves the study of the plant processes responsible for the growth, development and production of economic yield by crop plants, focusing on whole plants and plant communities and not individual plant parts, organs, or cells because most of the processes that control yield operate at the whole plant-plant community level.

The processes responsible for the primary productivity of crop communities are photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, nutrient utilization and how the products of these processes are converted to economic yield and morphogenetic processes.

Crop physiology is the study of plants at the whole-plant and plant-community level of organization and Agronomy is the study of crops and cropping systems at the farm level over a period of time. At this level of organization, the complexity of the system is so large that comprehensive attempts are to be made to examine the mechanisms underlying the crop responses to management or climate.

The scientific approach to agriculture has been to isolate (i.e., the experiments in which everything else is equal except the studied phenomenon) and to reduce (i.e., the process by which, a phenomenon is quantified in terms of one or more essential molecular processes), because the production system is too complex. Whereas the unraveling of crop production systems to simple chemical and physical phenomena has improved our general understanding of the system, it is necessary to understand how these chemical and physically processes interact within a whole plant grown from seed to maturity under natural conditions for this information to be useful in agronomy.

11.1 Introduction

Fermented foods are the result of the activity of a few specialized types of micro-organisms among the thousands of species known to mankind. Success of such processes is depended upon the control of environmental conditions ensuring the growth of the desired microbial species and inhibition of others. The fermentation can be broadly defined as the process in which the carbohydrate or like compounds are broken down, under anaerobic or aerobic conditions [171]. The basic role of micro-organisms is to breakdown the organic compounds to get energy for their metabolic activities. From ancient times, people all over the world have developed traditional processes for production of alcoholic beverages (wine) either from natural sugar such as in wine or by degrading the starchy materials (beer). Fruit wines referred to as ‘Soma’ in our ancient scriptures have been part of food of man and were used as medicine, might have originated accidentally (transformation of fruit juice beverages having exhilarating or stimulating properties). Wines are made principally from fruits like grape or extract of other fruits of various types (table wine, sparkling wine, dessert, aperitif or vermouth and pop wines) while the beers are prepared from grains like barley, rice and corn. The principal carbohydrate in grain is starch which can not be fermented directly. This process is brought about by starch splitting enzymes by germinating the grains followed by drying and storage until needed. Distillation of beer produces a variety of liquors (whisky, rum, gin, vodka), while that of wine produces the brandy. Besides, the improvement in the raw material selection, fermentation conditions and techniques, a lot of waste material is generated during fermentation process in the industries. Nevertheless, the food based industries are significant contributors to the economy of the many countries of the world (Fig 1). The global market value of food fermentation based industries is estimated to be around 250 million US dollars. Interestingly, more than 10% of this accounts for alcoholic beverages (Fig 2) with projected increase of US$ 27 billions in 1989 to 40 billions in 1990 [93,123,123,129].

5. 1 Irrigation Channels

Canal or channel is an artificially made conduit through which water is supplied to the field from river, tank, reservoir or wells. The open channel is the most common type of water conveyance system. If the pipes and drains are partially full behave like open channel. The irrigation channel may be lined or unlined and the flow is either uniform or varied.

The canal may be classified in following ways.

(a) Classification based on the source of supply

(i) Permanent or perennial canal

(ii) Inundation canal

Importance

It is one of the most valuable primary products in world trade, in many years second in value only to oil as a source of foreign exchange to producing countries. Its cultivation, processing, trading, transportation and marketing provide employment for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Coffee is crucial to the economies and politics of many developing countries; for many of the world’s Least Developed Countries, exports of coffee account for more than 50 percent of their foreign exchange earnings. Coffee is a traded commodity on major futures and commodity exchanges, most importantly in London and New York.

1. Introduction

Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa Chev.) is among the most recently domesticated of all fruit plants. The kiwifruit of international commerce are large – fruited selections of Actinidia deliciosa Planch and Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) C F Liang et A. R. Ferguson, belongs to family Acitinidiaceae. A. chinensis has been cultivated commercially for little more than 20 years, however, A. deliciosa for about 70 years. This is known as “China’s miracle fruit” and “Horticulture wonder of New Zealand”. Although this fruit vine originated in China, yet its full economic potential was exploited by the New Zealanders, which accounts for over 70 per cent of world trade (Franco, 1990). Kiwifruit has completely replaced the older name of ‘Chinese gooseberry’. In China, ‘Mihoutao’ (monkey peach) is used for all Actinidia species, but as A. chinensis and A. deliciosa are by far the most important economically of the various Actinidia species in China, they are often simply referred to together as Mithoutao. More explicitly, the two species are sometimes referred to together as Zhonghua (Chinese) Mihoutao. In other countries of the world, its cultivation gained momentum after 1960s and now is cultivated on a commercial scale in USA, Italy China, Japan, France, Germany and Australia.

In India, it was first introduced in 1960 at Lalbagh garden, Bangalore, but the plant did not come into bearing due to lack of chilling requirement during winter for its bud break. Later on, in 1963, it was introduced in Shimla hills, where the plant came into bearing in 1969. In order to assess the performance of kiwifruit cultivation in different agro-climatic conditions of state its plantation were done at different locations. After evaluation, this fruit was recommended for commercial cultivation in mid and low hills of the state. It can also be grown in mid hill of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttrakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Nilgiri hills of south India.