eChapters

Abstract

Tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze], of family Theaceae, is an important cash crop  worldwide. It is an evergreen shrub cultivated in humid and sub-humid tropical, sub-tropical, and temperate regions of the world, and grows mainly on acidic soils. Due to limitation of expansion of tea cultivation in new land, import of low cost high quality tea, increasing vertical productivity is the best option of Indian tea Industry. The primary need of the tea industry today is to develop high yielding clones with better quality and stress tolerance potential. Conventional tea research has contributed appreciably to the genetic improvement of tea over the past several decades, but it is time-consuming and labor intensive.

Introduction

Indigenous peoples established distinct systems of knowledge, innovation and customary practices from their centuries old interactions with the local biodiversity and environment, relating to the uses and management of local natural resources. Today, this knowledge is looked as an important resource for research and development in different areas such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, veterinary, jewelry, fashion and cosmetic products. This has led to rampant exploitation of such knowledge disregarding the customary practices and rules of indigenous peoples holding and preserving such knowledge as well as the biodiversity and natural resources. As a consequence, the traditional knowledge is under threat of being misappropriated or lost.

Antibodies are a group of glycoproteins having a globular compact structure. They are known as immunoglobulins. On the basis of their experiments, Tiselius and Kabat, in 1939, demonstrated that most antibodies are found in the g globulin fraction of serum proteins. When serum from rabbit, immunized with ova albumin, was subjected to electrophoresis, it showed a peak for g globulin (Fig. 4.1). Studies have revealed that the major part of IgG is found in the g globulin fraction of the serum proteins. Other fractions, a and b, too, have other immunoglobulins along with small part of IgG.

Abstract

With the evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Agriculture as the major employer of Ugandans population with over 82% of the population, agricultural information is a key component in improving small-

Globally, 2 billion children under the age of five suffer from diarrhoea, of which, more than 50% of the cases being in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is more likely to be fatal (UNICEF-WHO, 2009). It has been also estimated that the great majority of acute diarrhoeal illnesses in children over the age of two years is attributable to bacterial pathogens (Carpenter, 1980). Amongst the various enteric bacterial pathogens, diarrheagenic strains of Escherichia coli are considerably responsible for causing bacterial diarrhea (Nataro and Kaper, 1998).

Abstract

Spray drying is one of the most preferred methods of converting food and pharmaceutical solutions into powder form. Very high product throughput, hygienic and highly automated process and relatively benign thermal and dehydration stress on products associated with this process has made it ubiquitous in powder manufacture. Compared to freeze drying, spray drying is significantly less expensive both in terms of operation and capital costs. In this chapter, key features of spray drying such as underlying operational principle, types of spray nozzles used, the flow pattern of droplets/particles and drying medium within the drying chamber, the particle formation process of individual droplet are discussed in considerable detail. The modelling aspect of a single droplet subjected to spray drying environment has also been included. Finally, the most commonly considered characteristics of spray dried powders including morphology, crystalline/amorphous nature and solubility are highlighted and discussed.  The content presented in this chapter will be very useful for practising engineers, technologists, researchers as well as postgraduate and undergraduate students.

Abstract

Food dehydration is an oldest method to increase the shelf life of food by reducing the water activity. A dried food product provides advantages of increased shelf life and reduced cost due to decreased weight as well as transportation. However, there is a decrease in product quality due to inadequate control on drying process parameters such as drying temperature and moisture removal together with change in thermo-physical properties of food. Computational modeling and simulations can provide a unique insight on the drying parameters that influences the product quality, and optimize the process conditions which are difficult by experimental analysis. Moreover, the computational techniques are advantageous over experimental optimization methods by minimizing the time and cost. This chapter reviews different computational modeling techniques such as, finite element modeling, finite volume and finite difference methods for modeling of food dehydration process. Also, this chapter describes the application of modeling techniques for determining the influence of shrinkage and porosity during dehydration.

Abstract

By loosely inspiring the actions of neurons in the human brain, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are widely accepted as a powerful nonlinear adaptive approach to tackle complex, dynamic, highly nonlinear, and ill-defined problems in an increasing number of fields of food industry.They have been used extensively in food drying to solve problems of nonlinear function approximation, pattern recognition, data description, optimization, simulation, pattern recognition, control, data sorting, clustering, and noise reduction, due to their massively parallel structure and capability to learn from examples. In this chapter, after providing a brief description of ANN technology and its principles as well as the structure of the most commonly employed ANNs in this context, an example is given to explain how the ANN technique is used for modeling and controlling food drying process. Generally, modeling, prediction, and optimization of heat and mass transfer, thermodynamic performance indicators, and quality parameters as well as physico-chemical attributes of dried foods are the most popular subjects to attract researchers’ attention to apply the ANNs in food drying industry.

SYNOPSIS

Animal source foods (ASF) include any food item that comes from an animal source such as meat, milk, fish, eggs, cheese and yogurt. Many individuals do not consume ASF or consume little ASF by either personal choice or necessity as ASF may not be accessible or available to these people. Animals are used as food either directly or indirectly by the products they produce. Animal source foods (ASF) include any food item that comes from an animal source such as meat, milk, fish, eggs, cheese and yogurt.

Small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton), popularly known as the “Queen of spices”, occupies an important position among the foreign exchange earning commodities. Cardamom is cultivated on a commercial scale in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Tanzania and Papua New Guinea. Guatemala is the largest producer of cardamom in the World. In India, it is confined to the States of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, accounting for an area of 41588 ha, 25021 ha and 4561 ha, respectively (Spices Board, 2009). Among these States, Kerala accounts for the major portion of production (58.4 %), followed by Karnataka (35.2 %) and Tamil Nadu (6.4 %). In Kerala, Cardamom is mainly grown in the erstwhile Travancore area in the present Idukki district and it is known as the Cardamom Hill Reserve (CHR), which was specially reserved, denotified and removed from the control of forest development by the orders of the Travancore Government. By a Royal Proclamation in Medam 997(ME) 334 square miles (86,506 ha) area in Devikulam, Udumbanchola and Peermedu taluks of the present Idukki District was declared as CHR for the promotion of cardamom cultivation (Miniraj and Nybe, 2007). Cardamom is a native of the moist evergreen rain forests of the Western Ghats of South India and is grown extensively in the hilly regions at elevations of 700 to 1300 metres as an under crop in forest lands. Cardamom thrives well within certain thermal regimes. It is believed that diurnal symmetries in temperature trends, if any, have close links with the changes in cloudiness, humidity, atmospheric circulation pattern, winds and soil moisture (Kumar et al., 2002).

Chrysanthemum (chrysos =golden; anthos = flower) is a popular flower crop of commercial importance known as the “Queen of the East”. It ranks next only to rose among flower crops in the world.

Water is one of the most important production assets and securing access to and control and management of water is key to enhance livelihood base of any country like India where most people depends on agriculture. India is endowed with rich and vast diversity of natural resources, water being one among them. But water resources in India are unevenly distributed over the country. The more than 50 per cent of the total resources distributed with five states namely Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal (MWR, 2008) and left other states much prone to water scarcity.

Introduction

India has predominantly agrarian economy with just 2.5% of the world’s geographical area, but has about 17% of its population. India’s population has increased from 361 million in 1951 to 1270 million at present: a three and half-fold increase in a span of 63 years. By 2020, India will need about 294 million tonnes food grains (Kumar, 1998). However, only 259.29 m t was produced in 2011–12 (Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, 2012), implying that about 34 m t additional food grains have to be produced from the same or even lesser land area.

D gene segments, diversity gene segments     :    D gene segments, or diversity gene segments, are short DNA sequences that join the V and J gene segments in rearranged immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes and in T-cell receptor â and ä chain genes. See gene segments.    
D loop    :    An extended loop of single-stranded DNA displaced from a duplex structure by an oligonucleotide.

Abstract

With recent advances in molecular biology and rapid developments in new analytical techniques, engineering of microbes for the bioremediation processes has been extensively studied as recombinant microbes can degrade various toxic pollutants effectively. The prospect of microbial engineering has greater potentialities for agriculture and environmental applications and this may provide us deeper insight in understanding the microbial interactions and biotransformation processes. Though much work has been carried out on bioremediation using genetically engineered microorganisms, its application is restricted to environment due to the concerns of health and environment over ecosystem. Nevertheless, evaluation of risk assessment has also been carried out in order to ascertain the potential benefits of transgenic microbes.

Abstract

The word “mycorrhiza” literally means “fungus root” to describe the mutualistic association between roots of higher plants and certain fungi. Arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) are the most common and widely occurring of all the mycorrhizal associations and have great economic significance. They belong to the phylum Glomeromycota. Mycorrhizal associations are potential factors in determining the diversity in ecosystems. They can probably modify the structure and functioning of a plant community in a complex and unpredictable way. Currently there is considerable resistance against the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, because of their hazardous influence on the environment, and on soil, plant, animal, and human health. Hence, use of biofertilizers and biocontrol agents are recommended in practical agriculture/horticulture/forestry.

Probiotic Fermented food products
 
An individual requires adequate nutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals to maintain diet. There has been an explosion of the consumer interest in the role of enhancing the health by some specific foods or physiologically active food components, so called functional foods (Hasler, 1998). The concept of functional foods evolved in the year 1990 in Japan.

Introduction

The tenet “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” said by Hippocrates nearly 2,500 years ago, is receiving renewed interest. In particular, there has been an explosion of consumer interest in the health enhancing role of specific foods or physiologically active food components called as functional foods [1]. Clearly, all foods are functional, as they provide taste, aroma, or nutritive value. Within the last decade, however, the term functional as it applies to food has adopted a different meaning - that of providing an additional physiological benefit beyond that of meeting basic nutritional needs.

WORLD HISTORY

Work on ornamental crops was first initiated in Krelage Nursery founded by Ernst Heinrich Krelage for bulbs, lilium and dahlias in 1811. During 1895, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute was established for ornamental crops. The first yellow corn Golden Bnatam was listed in Burpee’s Catalogue in 1902. In 1909 Primadonna F1 hybrid variety of begonia was released by the Benary Seed Company in Germany and in the same year Atlee established seed farms at Floradale in California, Erfurt in Germany Anglia in UK and Kashmir valley in India for annual garden flowers. Luther Burbank did excellent breeding works on ornamental trees, flowers and fruits in 1926.

Chrysanthemum (Dendranthema spp.) belongs to family Compositae (Asteraceae). It was named by Carolus Linnaeus from the Greek prefix “chrys” means golden and “anthemon” means flower. Chrysanthemum morifolium is the modern florists chrysanthemum, which evolved as a result of endless variation and hybridization from C. sinensis, C. indicum and C. ornatum (Bailey, 1963). This group is also distinguished as C. hortorum. The name of C. morifolium Ramat has been changed to Dendranthema grandiflora Tzvelev (Anderson, 1987, Heywood and Humphries, 1977). Chrysanthemums are mainly herbaceous perennial and bear flowers in capitula. Chrysanthemum perennates in nature by means of stolons and is readily propagated through basal stem cuttings. It ranks second next to roses in importance among the cut flower crops in the world.

Dendrobium is a huge genus of orchids. It was established by Olof Swartz in 1799. The name is from the Greek word “Dendron” means “tree” and “bios” means “life”; it means “one who lives on trees”, or essentially, “epiphyte”. The truly spectacular genus Dendrobium contains the largest diversity of horticulturally interesting specimens. More than 1,000 natural species make dendrobium the second-largest orchid genus. Dendrobiums are among the most commonly encountered orchids in the retail trade. Flowers are very long-lasting both on the plant and once cut, looking fresh for up to three weeks or more. Faded flowers on the bottom of the stem can be removed to encourage upper buds to open. Dendrobiums are sturdy orchids that can add a focal point to any room.

The  Camellia  is  one  of  our  most  beautiful  and most  appreciated ornamental  plants belonging to the family Theaceae. The genus Camellia was named by Linnaeus after the Jesuit botanist “Georg Joseph Kamel”. Camellias represent gratitude, love and perfection and are a perfect way to tell someone they possess those qualities. The camellia is the state flower of Alabama. Industrial use of Camellia is in the oil industry. Seeds of several species belonging to the sections Oleifera, Paracamellia, Camellia and Furfuracea are used for extracting edible oil, which is used extensively for cooking in China (Ming, 2000, Gao et al., 2005 and Zhang et al., 2007). In China, more than 3 million hectares are used for camellia oil production and nearly 645000 tons of seeds are harvested each year, which yield nearly 164000 tons of edible oil (Ming, 2000 and Gao et al., 2005).

Petunias (Petunia spp.) are annual or perennial plants belonging to Solanaceae family. The common kinds are rather weedy in habit, but their great profusion of bloom under all conditions makes them useful and popular.  They are small herbs grown for their showy, often fragrant flower. The geographic distribution includes temperate and subtropical regions of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, with a centre of diversity in Southern Brazil. For longer flowering season they may be grown in bed borders, edgings, rock garden, window boxes, hanging baskets and pots. Petunia is considered to be the first cultivated bedding plant and has remained as a commercially important ornamental crop since the early days of horticulture and is one of the favourite genera for developing new varieties. Apart from its significance as an ornamental crop, petunia has proved to be one of the most excellent model crops for studies on gene regulation and genome structure, since the system combines innumerable and excellent technical features with a broad range of research possibilities.

Soil  is an interface of inorganic and organic componentsof the planet earth, which combines carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere with different mineral elements of the lithosphere through millions of microorganisms, intercepting energy from the sun and moisture from the hydrosphere and atmosphere. It is a source as well as sink to adsorb, desorb, fix or release mineral elements and gases, decompose organic residues, simultaneously and support the growth of plants. All these natural processes are accompanied by runoff, percolation and evapotranspiration processes of the hydrologic cycle. Thus, soil is a dynamic body that acquires properties in accordance with the forces, which act upon it. Many soil properties emanate from physical, chemical and biologically mediated reactions, where the factors like climate, vegetation, topography and time  influences the processes. Soil reaction is one of the most important chemical characteristics of the soil solution,which has both direct and indirect effects on plant nutrition.

Many farmer participatory field  experiments were designed and conducted in different states of India having large area under acid soils, with locally available soil ameliorants to study their effect on soil health and crop performance. This work was done during 2000 & 2005 under an ICAR network project on “Soil characterization and resource management of acid soil regions for increasing productivity”. The details of the field locations are presented in table 1.

INTRODUCTION

Ethno-entomophagy is the term used to describe the practice of consumption of insects as food by native human populations. Insects are an important source of protein for humans, either through direct consumption or as food supplements for livestock (DeFoliart, 1989). They are nutritious in terms of protein (40–75 g/100g dry weight) and minerals. Their protein is of high quality and has high digestibility (77–98%) with good concentration of essential amino acids (46–96% of the nutritional profile) (Verkerk et al., 2007). The biochemical composition and chemical analysis have revealed that they are comparable with other foods enriched with high proteins, fats, lipids, vitamins and mineral salts (Prasad, 2007). Insects generally have higher food conversion efficiency than other animals. They show a food conversion efficiency of about twice as efficient as pig and boiler chick and more than five times as efficient as beef cattle (Durst and Shono, 2010). Some of the important edible insects include grasshoppers, caterpillars, beetle grubs, adult winged termites, bees, wasps, winged ants, cicadas and a variety of aquatic insects.

INTRODUCTION

Fish are one of the main exploitable resources of the aquatic ecosystems that provide a cheap source of protein which help solving the problem nutritional security particularly NE region of the country. The rapid development of fishing technology in India during the recent years has paved the way for increased production availability of new synthetic materials, evolution of new designs of fishing crafts and gears and avoidance of ignorant harmful fishing techniques etc. It is to be taken into account that any developmental activity adopted should also be base rooted in the objective of uplifting the economy of the fishing communities. This implies that the improvisation of the existing tools and techniques and introduction of new ones to enhance fishing efficiency need a careful study of the traditional infra-technologies. Further selection of fishing methods and gear are influenced by various factors such as physiographic of the water body, nature of fish stock, characteristics of the material from which gear are fabricated and standard of living. Therefore, variation in application of fishing devices can be observed in different type of water bodies, which have characteristic of their own due to unique nature of the water resources of the region.

Introduction

Diazotrophs are phylogenetically diverse microbes spanning over various classes varying vastly on basis of physiological properties (Young, 1992), include various phototrophic microorganisms aerobic phototrophic Cyanobacteria (Vaishampayan et al, 2001), anaerobic purple-sulfur phototrophs like Chromatium, and green-sulfur phototrophs, e.g. Chlorobium, Rhodopseudomonas; chemolithotrophs Alcaligenes, Thiobacillus, Methanosarcina, Methanobacterium, Desulfovibrio or Azospirillum lipoferum and heterotrophic bacterial anaerobes (Clostridium), microaerophiles (Herbaspirillum), and aerobes (Azotobacter). Free-living aerobic nitrogen fixing bacterial genera found in soil include obligate aerobes as Azotobacter, Beijerinckia, Derxia, Achromobacter, Mycobacterium, Arthrobacter and Bacillus but the majority are microaerophilic (e.g. Azospirillum, Herbaspirillum) or facultative and obligate anaerobes (e.g. Klebsiella, Aerobacter, Desulfovibrios, Rhodospirillum, Clostridium, Erwinia).

Analyzing feeds for nutrient content is essential for proper balancing of livestock rations. This is especially essential for those feeds that have undergone the fermentation process. Silage samples should be analysed for dry matter, protein fractions (degradable and undegradable protein, soluble protein, and heat damaged protein), ADF, NDF, mineral content and energy. In addition to these components, lactic, acetic, and butyric and propionic acids, pH, ammonia nitrogen, ethanol, and yeast and mold counts are also quantified.

Introduction

Medicinal and aromatic plants constitute a major segment of the flora, which provides raw materials for use in the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and drug industries. The indigenous systems of medicines, developed in India for centuries, make use of many medicinal herbs. These systems include Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, and many other indigenous practices. More than 9,000 native plants have established and recorded curative properties and about 1500 species are known for their aroma and flavour. In one of the studies by the World Health Organisation, it is estimated that 80 per cent of the population of developing countries relies on traditional plant based medicines for their health requirements (WHO 1991). Even in many of the modern medicines, the basic composition is derived from medicinal plants and these have become acceptable medicines for many reasons that include easy availability, least side effects, low prices, environmental friendliness and lasting curative property. India and China are the two major producing countries, having 40 per cent of the global biodiversity and availability of rare species. These are well known as the home of medicinal and aromatic crops that constitute a segment of the flora, and provide raw materials to the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, fragrance, flavour etc. industries.

California’s Napa Valley, situated at the northern end of the San Francisco Bay 30 miles (48 kilometers [km]) from the Pacific Ocean, is the most famous wine appellation in the United States. This small valley, 56 km long and 8 km wide at its broadest point, has produced some of North America’s finest wine grapes from the 1850s to the present. Today it contains approximately 18,616 hectares [ha] of vineyards along the valley floor, in the foothills and mountains flanking the main valley and in the smaller valleys in the eastern part of Napa County [45].

Potato is an important crop of the world and grown in almost all the states in India. Apart from India, potato is grown in more than 100 countries but the intensity of cultivation varies considerably. For example in the Netherlands 19.6% of the total arable land is cultivated with potatoes. The figures for Germany, Peru and USA are 10.1%, 5.6% and less than 1% respectively. India ranks fourth in area (1.29 m ha) and third in production (25.23 m ton) in the world. The productivity of potato depends mainly on the quality and quantity of planting materials and the agronomic management practices adopted. Most of developing countries including India experience release of high yielding varieties, development of adequate agronomic and pest control measures but the gap between supply and demand of good quality adequate quantity seed has to be the major constraint in increasing its productivity. The seed production in India is mainly confined to the North-Western part both in the hills and the plains, because of favourable weather and low incidence of aphids (vectors responsible for viral diseases) in this regions.

Abstract

The food security scenario in South Asia has witnessed rapid progress over the last few decades, yet nutrition outcomes, especially those related to women and children, have failed to keep pace. This paper contends that the role of women in providing food and nutrition security at the household and individual level needs to be examined, if the paradox of persisting malnutrition amid macro level food sufficiency is to be resolved. Food security, in its broader connotation, results from the availability of adequate food, effective consumption, and desirable nutrition outcomes. As such, it is intricately linked with a woman’s multiple roles expressed in her productive, reproductive, and caring functions. However, even focused efforts aimed at resolving the problems faced by women in performing one or other of their roles, may fail to produce expected results, if the issues underlying each function and their inter-linkages are not fully understood. The paper thus attempts to review various aspects of the relationship between women and food security in South Asia, highlights the issues that require urgent focus and indicates emerging concerns in the region.

9.1. INTRODUCTION

Iron (Fe) is important component of a plant’s energy-power house chlorophyll. It also interacts with all the major enzymes and proteins at higher concentration in the soil, and it is toxic to plants. Fe-toxicity creates a range of nutrient disorders and deficiencies of P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn and Zn in plants. These elements were reported to play decisive roles in manifesting toxicity symptoms in rice (Sahu, 1968; Ottow et al., 1983; Yamauchi, 1989; Sahrawat et al., 1996). Excess absorption and translocation of Fe in the rice plants led to toxicity, which has been a major limiting factor in wetland rice. Average yield loss due to Fe-toxicity accounts to 50% and in fact ranges from 10-100% (Brigit et al., 1993).

INTRODUCTION

Among plant nutrients, our soils are particularly low in nitrogen and therefore, require is high doses of nitrogenous fertilizers for getting optimum productivity. Added to this is the problem of poor efficiency of nitrogeneous fertilizers which under normal conditions is only 40 – 50 %, still less for rice ranging from 25 – 35 %, and the residual effect for the succeeding crops is never more than 10 %. The rest of the applied nitrogen is lost either through volatilization, leaching or denitrification (Kashyap, 1978). The high cost of nitrogenous fertilizers and their poor utilization efficiency very much add to the high cost of cultivation. Hence, the need of the hour is to decrease our dependence on chemical fertilizers and increase the efficiency of the fertilizer thus used. The increase in nitrogen efficiency in crop plants can be achieved by reducing denitrification with the use of nitrification inhibitors, reducing the soil compaction, improving drainage conditions, use of soil improving crops, and adopting carefully the irrigation procedures (Carlson, 1980). No doubt exploration of this possibility is a big task, nevertheless, the understanding of physiology and biochemistry of nitrogen nutrition at molecular level is obligatory and is likely to add insight to achieve the hard task goal.

INTRoDUCTION

In developing countries, cereals and legumes are the principal source of daily energy and protein intake. The major economic loss caused by grain infesting insects in not always the actual material they consume, but also the amount contaminated by them and their excreta which makes food unfit for human consumption. Today million of tones of the food grains are damaged by the ravages of the pests that not only cause quantitative but also qualitative changes in food grains. Stored product insects depress the food value of a product, introduce pathogens, parasites or toxins or make it less palatable. Insect infestation in high in the tropics and may lead 100 per cent damage in severe cases.
 
In order to cope with the requirement of the increasing population and food problem, at present as well as for the decades to come, the world will have to raise agricultural production very substantially, both by increasing the production and by reducing losses on account of post harvest spoilage especially of cereals and legumes which are the primary sources of food for men kind. This is a major problems during agricultural production, food transfer and processing. Million tonnes of grain worth several hundred corers of rupees every years are either damaged or loss for want of knowledge of scientific methods of saving the foodgrains during storage. In India, post-harvest losses caused by the unscientific storage, rodents, insects, micro-organisms, moisture etc. account for about 10 per cent of total foodgrains (Anonymous, 1971). A world survey by F.A.O. indicated about 5 per cent loss of cereals, in storage annually (Herford, 1952).

Introduction

“Sustainable development as a concept represents the latest step in a long evolution of public concerns with respect to both natural resources and environment”. It is defined as “development that meets the needs for the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This definition indicates that to meet their needs, the present generations have no right to overuse natural resources and the environment, which will ultimately threat the living standards of the future generations. Therefore, stewardship of both natural and human resources is of prime importance (Freenstra 1997). Advocates of sustainable development perceive that the biosphere imposes limits on economic growth, express a lack of faith in either science or technology as leading to human betterment, are extremely averse to environmental risks, support redistributive justice and egalitarian ethics, profess concern over population growth and have faith in the wisdom of human capital development, and have survival of species and protection of the environment and of minority cultures, rather economic growth per se, as goals.

Introduction

All the amino acids have in common an amino group and a carboxyl group attached to the -carbon atom; however, they differ in having distinctive side chains, usually called R groups, as is shown in the following  generalised structural formula

The Indian region is one of the world’s eight centres of crop plant origin and diversity, distinguished by Russian Scientist N.I. Vavilov. The region is home to a rich endemic assemblage of plants. Scrub jungles, grasslands, dry and moist deciduous forests, semi-evergreen and evergreen forests are the variety of vegetations along the Ghats. The complex terrain and heavy rainfall have helped to preserve flora and fauna in this region. The Western Ghats are an area of exceptional biological diversity and conservation interest, and are “one of the major Tropical Evergreen Forest Regions in India”.  This region is extremely rich in floristic diversity and most of the species are not exploited so far. There are many underutilized endemic flowering plants found in Western Ghats having ornamental value. 

Flora of Western Ghats
 The Western Ghats cover only 5% of India’s total geographical area but contains more than 27% (4000 species) of  country’s total plant species (Nayar, 1996). The Western Ghats, also known as the Sahyadris, extend about 1600 km. starting in North from Tapti river and going down to Kannyakumari in the South. These ranges run parallel to West coast hardly 40 kilometres away on an average from shoreline. The Western Ghats run through states of Maharastra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala. Elevation of Western Ghats is in  900 – 1500 m and in some places goes beyond 2000 m. The Western Ghats form major watershed in Peninsular India and  58 major Peninsular Indian rivers originate from them.

Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L) is the most important fruit crop of cold arid regions of India. It is one of the most delicious of temperate fruits having pleasing flavour and truly one of the most delectable of the stone fruits.  Exceptional fruit quality consists of blending of sugar and acidity and strong apricot aroma. It has been appreciated and grown for thousands of years on slopes of mountains in Asia and at least two thousand years in Europe.  There are many uses of apricot. It is enjoyed as fresh fruit but a large portion of the production worldwide is preserved primarily by drying. In China, apricot was not only dried but also preserved by salting and smoking. In Japan, apricot (mume) flowers are revered for their beauty and are used since 7–8th century for ornamental purposes.

Dragon fruit  (Hylocereus undatus (Haw.) Britton and Rose) is a climbing vine cactus species which has received worldwide recognition, first, as an ornamental plant and then as a fruit crop. Its fruit is the most beautiful in the family Cactaceae with a bright red skin studded with green scales and white or red flesh with tiny black seeds.  The flower is so beautiful that it is nicknamed as Noble Woman or Queen of the Night.  The juicy flesh of the fruit is delicious in taste. It is well established as a new crop in Australia, China, Israel, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Taiwan and Vietnam. In Vietnam, it has become a major export crop, which fetches higher prices than even Durian, the King of Fruits in south East Asia.  The main constraint is that the establishment cost is high due to use of trellises for climbing. The cost of establishment will depend on the type of trellises used, and experience in Sri Lanka shows that relatively cheap trellising is sufficient. The other agronomic practices are easy and less expensive; maintenance cost is low and aftercare is minimal due to fewer pest and disease attacks. Further, the biggest advantage of this crop is that once planted, it grows for about 20 years, and one hectare could accommodate about 800 Dragon fruit plants.

Entomology, a Greek word entomoV, entomos, “ that is cut in pieces or engraved/segmented”, hence “insect”; and -logia, logia -study, is the scientific study of insects , a branch of arthropodology. The arthropods made their appearance during the earliest Devonian period while humans appeared only in Quarternary. Insects possess an immense degree of evolutionary maturity as against man, account for more than two-thirds of all known organisms, date back some 400 million years, and have many kinds of interactions with humans and other forms of life on earth. Entomology is a speciality within the field of biology and it is rooted in all human cultures from prehistoric times.

In India, insects were known from Vedic era and records of insects in India were evident from India’s mythological epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharatha. 

SUMMARY

The natural drainage systems are severely affected by the development processes and thus increased in waterlogged and salt affected areas. In major and medium irrigation projects due to inadequate designs coupled with poor management practices has raised groundwater table and in turn sizeable command areas are being affected both by water logging and soil salinization, Water logging and salt problem have been experienced in irrigation projects all over the country. Both adversely affect the growth and the yield of the crops. An area with water table within 2 m from the land surface is called as water logged area. It is potential to water logging if water table is between 2-3 m from the land surface. It has been estimated that around 16.71 million hectare land is affected by salt and waterlogging in India. The drainage is the remedy to these problems for sustainable agriculture.

            Drainage is defined as the natural or artificial removal of surplus ground- and surface water and dissolved salt from the land in order to enhance agriculture production. In the case of natural drainage the excess waters flows from the fields to lakes, swamps, streams and rivers. However, in an artificial system surplus ground or surface water is removed by means of sub surface or surface conduits. Improved drainage create a healthier environment for plant growth, It conserve soil and water; and provide drier field conditions for ease in farm operations for the crop production. Agricultural drainage is must to realize the full benefit of irrigation.

WORLD HISTORY

Work on ornamental crops was first initiated in Krelage Nursery founded by Ernst Heinrich Krelage for bulbs, lilium and dahlias in 1811. During 1895, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute was established for ornamental crops. The first yellow corn Golden Bnatam was listed in Burpee’s Catalogue in 1902. In 1909 Primadonna F₁ hybrid variety of begonia was released by the Benary Seed Company in Germany and in the same year Atlee established seed farms at Floradale in California, Erfurt in Germany Anglia in UK and Kashmir valley in India for annual garden flowers. Luther Burbank did excellent breeding works on ornamental trees, flowers and fruits in 1926.

David developed the first successful hybrid in Nasturtium (1934) and Red and Gold hybrids of marigold (1937). In 1940, Burpee was successful in chromosome doubling and transformation of wild flowers and developed “Bright Scarlet” and “Super Tetra Series” in antirrhinum and “Jumbo Scarlet” in zinnia. He produced new strains of marigold, zinnia, nasturtium and snapdragon. William Houston in 1940 initiated the Ageratum breeding. Morden Research station was set up in Western Canada in 1945 for ornamental crop breeding. In 1968, Dr. Gustav A.L., Mehlquist was recognized as an international authority on breeding of ornamental plants. George J. Ball breeder of peas, asters and calendulas was a pioneer for the supply of dwarf impatiens and orange impatiens ‘Super Elfin’ in 1968. Israeli breeders during 1990 gave more attention towards the development of carnation, lily and anemone varieties. Longwood Gardens in 2008 got success in breeding of stock. The first record of chrysanthemum hybridization, germination and selection of superior seedlings occurred in 1827 by M. Bernet.

Chrysanthemum (Dendranthema spp.) belongs to family Compositae (Asteraceae). It was named by Carolus Linnaeus from the Greek prefix “chrys” means golden and “anthemon” means flower. Chrysanthemum morifolium is the modern florists chrysanthemum, which evolved as a result of endless variation and hybridization from C. sinensis, C. indicum and C. ornatum (Bailey, 1963). This group is also distinguished as C. hortorum. The name of C. morifolium Ramat has been changed to Dendranthema grandiflora Tzvelev (Anderson, 1987, Heywood and Humphries, 1977). Chrysanthemums are mainly herbaceous perennial and bear flowers in capitula. Chrysanthemum perennates in nature by means of stolons and is readily propagated through basal stem cuttings. It ranks second next to roses in importance among the cut flower crops in the world.

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION

Chrysanthemum is originated in northern hemisphere (Europe and Asia). However, some workers reported that China is the native place of chrysanthemum (Carter, 1980). Most of the species in the lineage of present day cultivars are from China.

Chrysanthemum was first cultivated in China as a flowering herb and is described in writing as early as 15^th century B.C. As herb, it was believed to have the power of life. In 18^th century, they appeared in Japan as the crest and official seal of the Emperor. Japan also has a national chrysanthemum day, which is called the Festival of Happiness. In the western world, they are introduced in England, Japan, France and U.S. have developed a wide range of colours, shapes and sizes of flowers. Since the chrysanthemum was first introduced in the U.S. during colonial times, its popularity has grown such that mums now reign as undisputed ‘Queen of the Fall Flowers’. The Netherlands is the foremost importer of chrysanthemum cut flowers and is the centers for re-export to other parts of the world. In India, chrysanthemum is successfully grown under protected as well as open conditions in different states.

Dendrobium is a huge genus of orchids. It was established by Olof Swartz in 1799. The name is from the Greek word “Dendron” means “tree” and “bios” means “life”; it means “one who lives on trees”, or essentially, “epiphyte”. The truly spectacular genus Dendrobium contains the largest diversity of horticulturally interesting specimens. More than 1,000 natural species make dendrobium the second-largest orchid genus. Dendrobiums are among the most commonly encountered orchids in the retail trade. Flowers are very long-lasting both on the plant and once cut, looking fresh for up to three weeks or more. Faded flowers on the bottom of the stem can be removed to encourage upper buds to open. Dendrobiums are sturdy orchids that can add a focal point to any room.

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION

Dendrobiums are originally from Southeast Asia. The geographic distribution is from India through China, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and the islands of the South Pacific with the largest diversity in New Guinea. Dendrobium species are either epiphytic or occasionally lithophytic. They have adapted to a wide variety of habitats from the high altitudes in the Himalayan mountains to lowland tropical forests and even to the dry climate of the Australian desert.

The Camellia is one of our most beautiful and most appreciated ornamental plants belonging to the family Theaceae. The genus Camellia was named by Linnaeus after the Jesuit botanist “Georg Joseph Kamel”. Camellias represent gratitude, love and perfection and are a perfect way to tell someone they possess those qualities. The camellia is the state flower of Alabama. Industrial use of Camellia is in the oil industry. Seeds of several species belonging to the sections Oleifera, Paracamellia, Camellia and Furfuracea are used for extracting edible oil, which is used extensively for cooking in China (Ming, 2000, Gao et al., 2005 and Zhang et al., 2007). In China, more than 3 million hectares are used for camellia oil production and nearly 645000 tons of seeds are harvested each year, which yield nearly 164000 tons of edible oil (Ming, 2000 and Gao et al., 2005).

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION

Since it is a native of warm temperate regions (southern China) and thrive throughout a wide area extending from Washinton, D.C., south through Georgia and Florida, west along the Gulf Coast and north along the Pacific Coast as far as Seattle. Species of Camellia are largely distributed in south-eastern and eastern Asia and China, which, being the centre of species diversity, possess more than 80% of the species (Gao et al., 2005).

Diploid Camellia reticulata was discovered in the Jinshajiang valley, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, China, at an elevation of 1650-2800 m and under high humidity conditions (Xia et al., 1994). Yunnan province is the centre of origin for C. reticulata (Xia et al., 1994). The most important ornamental species is C. japonica L., of which there are over 32000 registered cultivars (Savige, 1993). Today, plants from C. japonica, C. reticulata, C. sasanqua and a group of yellow-flowering species called golden camellias are grown as ornamental plants worldwide. The family can be divided into three groups of similar genera (Prince and Parks, 2002).

Petunias (Petunia spp.) are annual or perennial plants belonging to Solanaceae family. The common kinds are rather weedy in habit, but their great profusion of bloom under all conditions makes them useful and popular. They are small herbs grown for their showy, often fragrant flower. The geographic distribution includes temperate and subtropical regions of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, with a centre of diversity in Southern Brazil. For longer flowering season they may be grown in bed borders, edgings, rock garden, window boxes, hanging baskets and pots. Petunia is considered to be the first cultivated bedding plant and has remained as a commercially important ornamental crop since the early days of horticulture and is one of the favourite genera for developing new varieties. Apart from its significance as an ornamental crop, petunia has proved to be one of the most excellent model crops for studies on gene regulation and genome structure, since the system combines innumerable and excellent technical features with a broad range of research possibilities.

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION

Petunia is endemic to South America, with subtropical distribution ranging from 22^o to 39^oS. The major species richness is found in Brazil followed by Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia. All species occur in Brazil, except for P. occidentalis, which has a disjunct distribution restricted to the Sub-Andean mountains in northwestern Argentina and southern Bolivia. The Serra do Sudeste and neighbouring places in southern Rio Grande do Sul have a low-altitude mountain range and a set of diverse edaphic conditions. Petunia integrifolia and P. axillaris, parental species of garden petunia, are sympatric in these areas. Five species of Petunia grow in Serra do Sudeste, three of them namely P. bajeensis, P. exserta, and P. secreta are strict endemics. In the border of the Serra Geral in the state of Santa Catarina species of Petunia grow associated with grasslands, along forest borders, or on outcrops associated with Araucaria moist forests, at altitudes ranging from 800 to 1800 m. For this area the occurrence of four species, three of them strict endemics, P. bonjardinensis, P. reitzii and P. saxicola, restricted to the higher area of the plateau in Santa Catarina. There are two major disjunct areas of occurrence of Petunia: the Serra da Mantiqueira in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and the Sub-Andean region in Argentina and Bolivia. In the first, only P. mantiqueirensis is found, an endemic species phylogenetically related to the Brazilian highland group. The subtropical range of Petunia, with centers of diversity in southern Brazil, overlaps with that of Calibrachoa.

With the advent of modern crop varieties, better irrigation facilities and greater use of fertilizers and other inputs country has changed within the last 50 years from a region of food scarcity to a region of food sufficiency. The greenrevolutiontechnologiesinvolvinggreateruseofsynthetic agro-chemicals such as frrertilizers and pesticides with adoption of nutrient- responsive, high yielding varieties of crops have boosted the production per unit area under different crops and cropping systems. However, this increase in production has slowed down and in some cases there are indications of decline in growth of productivity and production (Table 1). These production scenarios may be envisaged as corresponding decrease in soil organic matter and continuous increase in multi nutrient deficiency (Dwivedi et al., 2006). If such situation is allowed to continue for another few decades, there are chances that todays’ productive land may become unproductive. The declines in yield and production fatigue have been noticed in various cropping systems of different agro-eco region (Gill and Singh, 2009). Farmers’ participatory surveys conducted in Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region indicates that farmers’have resorted higher doses ofnutrients each year to obtain the same yield as obtained in previous year (Dwivedi et al., 2001). The probable reasons behind these are continuous mining of nutrients, inadequate use of organic sources, imbalance fertilization and decline of soil organic matter.

Microorganism is a collective term for all living organisms, which are not visible to the eye, and occupy an intermediate position between the vegetable and animal kingdoms. They are found every where in the atmosphere, in water and in the soil and, as they break down organic materials, they play a very important role in the cycle of the nature.

There are thousands of species which are important to the life and economic structure of the human race. For example, certain species form simple chemical elements during the break down of dead organic material which plants can use again. They increase soil fertility and crop production which results in more food.

Other species are present, and essential, in animal intestines, helping in the digestion of food.

Some microorganisms are used in many food processes, e.g. dahi, yoghurt, cheese, pickles, beer and wine as well as in the acid production to preserve foods. There are microorganisms that produce toxic substances which kill other organisms, e.g. the mould penicillium which produces the substance penicillin.

Many microorganisms cause diseases in animals and plants with a subsequent reduction in the nation’s food supply, whereas others cause food deterioration such as mouldy foods, tainted foods, etc.