eChapters

Leaf area is an important attribute in bio-productivity studies, as it bears an important and direct relationship to photosynthesis and transpiration. Leaf area is also important in determining the percentage of solar radiation intercepted by an individual plant or crop canopy. Photosynthesis centers on individual leaf. However, productivity depends not only on individual leaves but on stand of vegetation and canopy structure. The photosynthetic productivity of a canopy depends on both the amount of leaves present and the configuration of the leaves making up the canopy. Thus, leaf area has direct bearing on plant growth and final yield.

Water loss from a plant in the form of vapour is known as transpiration. Loss of water vapour mainly from leaf cells through pores but also from the leaf cuticle and through lenticels of the stem. The resistance to diffusion of water vapour through a plant’s stomata is called as stomatal resistance. Whereas, stomatal conductance is a numerical measure of the maximum rate of passage of either water vapour or carbon dioxide through the stomata, or small pores of the plant.

The information on soil-water content is necessary from the point of view of efficient water management of crop production as water required by crops is to be met from the water stored in their root zone. Soil water content changes periodically as a result of changes in field water balance components namely, precipitation, irrigation, evapotranspiration, runoff and deep percolation. Crop growth is adversely affected if the soil water depletes below certain level. For selection of crops, deciding of irrigation level and frequency of irrigation, the assessment of water content of soil is important.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined loss of water from vegetation and soil. When water is not a limiting factor at a site, the rate of ET is primarily controlled by meteorological factors like solar radiation, temperature, wind and relative humidity. The measurement of ET under natural conditions is of great importance in the water resource management and irrigation planning. Potential evapo-transpiration (PET) is the evaporation from a surface if water was never a limiting factor. PE-can also be calculated using empirical formulae.

Real time weather data at different time intervals is very important for the crop weather studies, but through the agro-meteorological observatories such real time weather data are generally not collected. The acquisition of agro-meteorological data through conventional observatories requires services of trained personnel to collect, compile and creation of weather data base. With the advances in technology, weather observations are automatically recorded, stored and can be transmitted to the remote place with the help of Automatic Weather Station (AWS).

Weather phenomena are not localized, it moves and varies over space and time. The weather over a place or area is the result of far away weather events/conditions. Acquisition of global scale observation, therefore, becomes a pre-requisite for understanding the physics of the weather and also to represent the weather condition over an area at a particular time. Complex three-dimensional models of weather systems can be made by collecting weather data at multiple levels in the atmosphere. Upper-air data are important to know present weather over a place and crucial for weather forecasting.

Weather has profound influence on agriculture, which demands that the changes in weather conditions are regularly monitored. In qualitative terms, weather conditions are often expressed on the basis of final condition created by interaction of different components. For example, too hot, too cold, sunny or cloudy, humid, dry weather conditions refer to specific atmospheric conditions but are least useful in analyzing the impact of weather on agriculture.
 
The measurements taken at a weather station can include any number of atmospheric observables. The WMO has laid down specifications, procedures and practices in respect of various meteorological matters such as instruments, observations, telecommunications, processing of data, analysis etc.

The agro-meteorological data after the quality control is used to establish a relationship between the crop and weather or to understand their interactions. In agrometeorological data analysis, statistical tools are used. The frequent use of statistics terms and their computational formulas are given below for ready reference:

Heat units also called growing degree-days (GDD), effective heat units, or growing degree units, are a heuristic tool in phenology. GDD is a simple means of relating plant growth, development and maturity to air temperature. The concept is widely accepted as a basis for building phenology and population dynamic models. Degree day units are often used in Agrometeorology, Agronomy, Entomology and Pathology essentially to estimate or predict the lengths of the different phases of development in crop plants, insects, pathogens etc.

World Trade Organisation

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) was the result of years of painstaking efforts on the part of governments and other bodies to establish a globally acceptable basis for a new economic order. It was established to correct the imbalances and disparities in international trade and bring about an evenly balanced world trade order that equally benefits the developed, developing and least developed nations. While there are several agreements under the WTO, the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) specifically represents the resolve of all member countries to use intellectual property as one of the means for achieving economic balance and diminishing the trade barriers.

Growth of horticulture is the cornerstone for augmenting employment opportunities in agriculture sector both directly and indirectly. Of late, there is a marked shift in the cropping pattern towards diversification into high value commercial crops in the country. To make horticulture viable and profitable, the thrust should be on improving the resource use efficiency, so that the relative profitability could be enhanced. Success in horticulture is more technology driven compared to other crops. The time bound removal of quantitative curbs on imports and other barriers to access domestic market under WTO, of which India is a signatory, will require Indian Horticultural produce / products to become competitive both in the domestic and international markets. This would call for use of Hi-tech horticulture technologies. The term Hi-Tech Horticulture was coined in recent years. There are no standard definitions for this. The Department of Agriculture and Co-operation,GOI in 1999 defined Hi-tech Horticulture as “any technology which is modern, less environment dependent, capital intensive and has the capacity to improve the productivity and quality of horticultural crops”.

In the backdrop of a predominantly agrarian economy, India has made tremendous advances in modern agriculture to meet both the food and nutritional security. In recent years, horticulture has assumed great importance mainly to augment nutritional security and secondarily as a highly cost-effective, remunerative and eco-friendly enterprise having vast export potential. To meet the challenges of research and development, tracer techniques have added the much needed fillip as they can be ingeniously applied to resolve issues which are not ordinarily possible using conventional techniques.

Horticultural crops are ideal and valuable assets of nature to mankind. They are popular among masses since time immemorial but their importance was realized only in the recent past due to their high nutritive value, good taste and pleasing quality. They provide essential nutrients and minerals for proper functioning of human body and aesthetic surroundings for peaceful living. India is an important centre of diversity and several horticultural crops  originated here.  The horticultural crops constitute 13.08% of total crop area and contribute about 28% to GDP. The sub-continent extends from 8° 04’ - 37° 06’ North latitude and 68° 07’- 97° 25’ East longitude and it has tropical, sub-tropical and temperate climates which favour successful growing of a large number of horticultural crops.  India has a wide variety of climate and soil on which a large number of horticultural crops like fruits, vegetables, potato and other tropical tuber crops, ornamentals, medicinal and aromatic plants, plantation crops, spices, cashew and cocoa are grown. Of late, major emphasis was laid on development of high yielding varieties and high production technologies and their adoption in areas of assured irrigation paved the way towards food security.

Vegetables are the most extensively utilized plants for  exploitation of heterosis for  development of hybrids. As the importance of heterosis breeding increased, male sterility proved an asset particularly in crops like onion and carrot which produce many but small sized flowers making hand emasculation tedious. Large scale hybrid seed production sometimes remains handicapped because of high labour cost, unavailability of trained labour at crucial times i.e. at blooming, bad weather conditions like continuous rains etc. The phenomenon of male sterility has always been of long term interest for  researchers of various disciplines of applied, strategic and basic sciences. It is of special interest for  plant breeders to produce more efficient and economic hybrid seed. Discovery of certain male sterile mutants which  eliminate more laborious operations of emasculation combined with various marker genes further facilitate identification of undesirable types even at seedling stage has widened the very basis of hybrid seed production. This technique has also reduced the total cost of hybrid seed production. Onion crop provides one of the rare examples of very early recognition of male sterility (Jones and Emsweller 1936), its inheritance and use in hybrid seed production (Jones and Clarke 1943). Since then male sterility is reported in fairly large number of crops including vegetables.

Polyembryony is the occurrence of more than one embryo in a seed. It includes all those instances in which there is a clear indication of the actual occurrence of two or more embryos in a developing ovule (Tisserat et al. 1979). The additional embryos in polyembryony result from the differentiation and development of various maternal and zygotic tissues associated with the ovule of seed. Earlier, polyembryony is said to have an abnormal feature but now it is considered as a desirable character in citrus, mango, jamun, almond, etc. to obtain true to type planting materials. The polyembryony is one of the apomictic processes which have been described to occur in the ovules of angiospermic species (Koltunow, 1993). Polyembryony in horticultural crops occurs as facultative apomixis wherein simultaneous growth of multiple embryos of somatic origin co-exist in the same seed containing sexual embryo resulting from either selfing or cross pollination.

Food irradiation involves exposure of food to short wave energy to achieve specific purposes like extension in shelf life, insect disinfestations and elimination of food-borne pathogens and parasites. Compared to heat or chemical treatment, irradiation is more effective and an appropriate technology to destroy food-borne pathogens without much loss to the quality of food. It offers a number of advantages to producers, processors, retailers and consumers. Irradiation is a cold process and can be used to pasteurize and sterilize foods without affecting freshness and texture of food. Unlike chemical fumigants, irradiation does not leave any harmful toxic residues in food and is more effective. It is efficient and can be used to treat prepacked commodities. The FAO estimates that about 25% of world’s total food production is lost due to insects, bacteria and rodents after harvesting. Use of radiation can play an important role in cutting these losses and reducing dependence on chemical pesticides. The food borne diseases claim millions of lives all over the world every year. Irradiation of food can reduce these incidences by destroying harmful microorganisms.

Plant diseases are mentioned in some of the oldest books available (Homer, C – 1000 B.C. mentioned about the therapeutic properties of sulphur and in Old testament – 750 B.C.) and were feared as much as human diseases and war.

The history of plant breeding is divided into 4 periods- knowledge of plant breeding before 1900, application of genetic principles (1900-1940), plant breeding research after 1940 and the recent developments in plant breeding. Emphasis is given on the land marks in genetic improvement of vegetable crops.

The major land marks  in genetics and breeding of crop plants are listed below.

India is a vast country with varied soil and agro-climatic conditions and therefore is able to grow a wide range of vegetables. In view of their productivity, diversification, nutrition, value addition and export, vegetables are an important component in Indian agriculture. Up to 1939, vegetable seeds were used to be imported from Australia, U.K., U.S.A., but after World War I and II, India started seed production of vegetables. In the recent past, the seed industry has made rapid strides over the past three decades and has contributed significantly to the quantum jump in agricultural production and India emerged as the second largest producer of vegetables, next to China in the world. During 2005-2006, India produced 113.5 million t of vegetables from 7.2 million ha with a productivity of 15.76 t/ha. The seed industry has increased certified and quality seed production and distribution by the organized sector to about 60 lakh quintal from 300q in 1964-65. India can be proud of having launched and managed both crop improvement and seed improvement as simultaneous and parallel programmes playing complimentary and synergistic roles.

Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) are free-living bacteria  having beneficial effect on plants by root colonization. They stimulate plant’s growth. Intensive research work is carried out on use of various PGPR as plant growth promoters on various crops. There are reports which show that PGPR promoted growth and reproductive parameters of cereals, pulses, ornamentals, vegetable crops, plantation crops and even  tree species. The important PGPR used in vegetable crops are Azospirillum, Azotobactor, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Phosphate Solubilising Bacteria (PSB) and Bacillus subtilis.

The term DNA sequencing refers to methods for determining the order of the nucleotide bases, adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine, in a molecule of DNA. In molecular terms ,the definitive understanding of a DNA molecule comes from determining its nucleotide sequence.The function of a gene can be deduced from its nucleotide sequence,for example by comparing the sequences of genes with known functions.

The first DNA sequences were obtained by academic researchers, using laborious methods based on 2 – dimensional chromatography in the early 1970s.  Following the development of dye-based sequencing methods with automated analysis, DNA sequencing has become easier and orders of magnitude faster.  Knowledge of DNA sequences of genes and other parts of the genome of organisms have become indispensable for basic research studying biological processes, as well as in applied field like diagnostic or forensic research.  The advent of DNA sequencing has significantly accelerated biological research and discovery.

Use of morphological markers has continued till today for characterization of several crops including horticultural crops with the Mendel’s principles of inheritance by following visible traits in the progenies of sexual crosses. Genetic markers play an essential role  in the study of variability and diversity, in the construction of linkage maps, and in the diagnosis of individuals or lines carrying certain linked genes. Within this context, the limitations of morphological markers became quickly apparent. They tend to be restricted to relatively a few traits, display a low degree of polymorphism, are often environmentally variable in their manifestation, and can depend on the expression of several unlinked genes. Furthermore, some may affect plant viability or seed set, distorting gene frequencies in the progeny. Morphological markers were largely supplemented by biochemical markers, particularly isoenzymes that could be easily scored by electrophoresis (Ganapathy and Scandalios 1973; Tanksley 1983). The limitations of isoenzmyes as markers, in particular both the limited number of polymorphic enzymes that can be conveniently stained and the environmental effects on expression pattern, were apparent already twenty years ago (Tanksley 1983).

Ethylene is a primary plant hormone involved in the senescence of plant tissues including flowers and leaves. In carnation flowers, inhibition of the synthesis or action of ethylene delays the onset of senescence symptoms and lengthens the vase life of flowers. Leaves of cut chrysanthemum of some cultivars frequently become yellow, sometimes prior to the onset of flower senescence, in response to exogenous ethylene. Generation of transgenic plants with suppressed production or action of ethylene is an excellent way to lengthen the longevity of these ornamental plants. This paper reviews our studies on generation and characterization of carnations with reduced ethylene production and chrysanthemum with reduced sensitivity to ethylene.

Root and Tuber crops are the most important food crops of man after cereals. Tuber crops are efficient producers of carbohydrates especially under suboptimal conditions of rainfall, fertility and low input conditions encountered in tropics. The group contributes about 6 % of the world’s dietary calories. In fact, one out of 6 kg of human food comes from roots and tubers. Tuber crops find an important place in the dietary habits of small and marginal farmers especially contributing to food security of tribal populations. Tuber crops grown in India include Cassava, Sweet potato, Dioscorea, Colocasia, Amorphophallus and minor tuber crops like Chinese potato, Arrowroot, Canna, Yam bean etc. The biotechnology can contribute to the solution of the major problems and realize greater benefits for tuber crops.

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].

Current Status of Seed Production

Organized seed production in the country became possible with the formation of National Seed Corporation (NSC) during 1963, which paved the way for a sound seed industry to come as a consequence of the introduction of hybrid technology during 1961-65. The release of high yielding dwarf varieties of wheat and rice by the 1960’s gave further impetus to the growth of the seed industry in the country. For the total area under cultivation of 26.7 m hac and 44.8 hac of wheat and rice respectively, the seed requirement for these two crops alone come to 32 lakh tones and 13 lakh tones respectively of which the varieties contribute about 98 per cent and the hybrids 2 per cent. Only about 10-15 per cent of the total requirement is met by the seed producers leaving the balance for the farmers to manage and the seed producers have to grab the opportunity to supply quality seed materials in order to increase the production.

2.1 Rice

Rice is the staple food for the largest number of people on the Earth. According to an estimate, the global rice production must reach 800 million tonne from the present 91.04 million tonne in 2005-06 to meet the demand in 2025. It’s area is 37% of the total area under food grains as against 20% under wheat, another important food crop. But globally it stands next to wheat in harvested area.As the irrigated rice contributes more than 75 per cent of the total rice production, enhancing its yield potential would be key to meeting the global rice requirement for an additional 215 million tonne. To achieve the target yield, rice varieties with a yield advantage of about 20 per cent over popular and widely adapted rice varieties under tropical conditions must be developed. Experience in China, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh and several other countries clearly indicates that hybrid rice technology offers readily available option to meet this challenge.

3.1 Redgram or Pigeon Pea

In any production programme, the importance of quality seed needs hardly be emphasized. In fact, the major bottleneck in the pigeon pea cultivation programme is the restricted or poor availability of quality seeds of the desirable varieties. The seed has been considered as the ‘vehicle of change’. With better attention paid to their interaction among water, fertilizer and seed of improved varieties, the production can be maximized. Although a numbers of improved varieties of pigeon pea have been released since 1970, organized seed production programmes have been rather limited. Most of our national efforts in this direction continue to be centralized on cereal crops like wheat, rice and hybrid millets. Moreover, the benefits of the current research will not reach the farmers unless large-scale seed multiplication programmes are organized. Most farmers continue to use seeds of traditional varieties and consequently have not been able to expedite the higher production potential of the new strains.

4.1 Mustard 

The principle oil yielding rape seed & mustard sp. cultivated in India are

5.1 Jute Seed Production 

Jute ranks next to cotton as the most important natural fibre and it recognized as the ‘golden fibre’. Its products being biodegradable and environment friendly in contrast to synthetic substitutes, a renewed interest in this natural fibre has been generated in the recent past throughout the world. Important characteristics of jute fibre are its silky lustures, high tensile strength, low extensibility, considerable heat resistance. Because of its great abundance and shortage of cotton, jute is blended with cotton and jute/cotton blended yarns are produced mainly to take advantage of the lower price of jute fibre (Doraiswamy et al., 1998). Several diversified product is also made from jute. Since currently the paper industry has been using it as a raw material for paper. It is also being used in geotextile. The jute sticks are largely used as fuel and also for making gun powder.

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.

1.1 Introduction

Agriculture and allied sector contributes nearly 18 percent of gross domestic product in Indian economy and more than 70 percent population is dependent on agriculture and allied sector. In this sector, livestock is an integral part and it provides essential commodities and livelihood to the majority of its population. Livestock sector provides sustainability and stability to the national economy by contributing farm energy and food security. During last decade, the annual growth rate for livestock population maintained and in contrast the crop production remained stagnant or increased marginally. Between 1983 and 1999, the per capita consumption of milk increased by 37 percent and meat, egg and fish by 24 percent.

Every nutrient has its specific functions to play in the biological system. As we know there are six nutrients i.e., water, carbohydrate, protein, fat, minerals and vitamins and each of these have different functions, it will be discussed separately for each nutrients.

2.1 Water

Water is the ideal dispersing medium because of its solvent and ionizing powers which facilititates cell reaction and due to its high specific heat which helps to absorb the heat of these reactions with a minimum rise of temperature. Lean adult body contains about 70 percent of water, though the amount varies from embryo to mature animals.

Developments of feeding standards

Feeding standards are statements or quantitative descriptions of amounts of one or more nutrients needed by the body. Since the beginning of nineteenth century, scientists worldwide started formulation of standards for feeing the livestock and poultry and as such with the advancement of science the standards were developed from time to time. For convenience all such standards are grouped under major 
3 headings based on principles of standards. These are comparative type, digestible nutrient system and production value type.

4.1 Ration and balanced ration

A ration is the feed allowed for a given animal during a day of 24 hrs. The feed may be given at a time or in portions at intervals. Balanced ration may be defined as the ration that provides all essential nutrients to the animal in such a proportion and amounts that are required for the nourishment of the particular animal for 24 hrs.

The potential value of any feed for supplying a particular nutrient can be determined by chemical analysis but the actual value of the feed to the animal can arrived at only after making allowances for inevitable losses that occur during digestion, absorption and metabolism. The first tax imposed on feed is that represented by the part of it which is not absorbed and excreted in the feces.

This may be defined as the factor present in feeds/ fodders or trees leaves and impair some aspects of animal metabolism, produce adverse biological effect in animal production. These are referred mostly as toxic factors because of the deleterious effects they produce when taken by the animals. The term ‘toxic factor’ however, is misleading because there is an implication that the substances are lethal beyond certain level of intake.

Diseases of metabolic origin are commonly known as metabolic disease viz., bloat, acidosis, milk fever, hypomagnesimia, pregnancy toxaemia etc. However, few common metabolic diseases encountered in herd/ flock management are discussed in the chapter. Among these diseases bloat, acidosis and ketosis are generally occurs due dysfunction in rumen. In the rumen, microbial fermentation occurs due to unique structures and environment. Microbes converts fibrous feeds which are of no use for human beings to important product viz., milk meat, hair and fibre etc. Some bacteria and protozoa have isolated from rumen by the researchers and with their fermented products and pathways. Name of the fermented products with the products is presented in the following Table 24.

India over several millenniums has been the treasure land of biological wealth, intellectual knowledge and spiritual wisdom. During both pre and post Vedic periods, arts, science and technology had flourished well in various fields. Indian agriculture to some extent is much traditional and dates back to about 10,000 years. India with its traditional crop varieties and crop production technologies was able to feed its population and also exporting some selected produces to other continents. All the Indian villages had been the self sufficient, self sustained and self reliant units. The development of modern agricultural production was achieved by creating large scale specialized farm production units, increased mechanization and use of chemical inputs.

Warren (1987) defined indigenous knowledge as local knowledge, knowledge that is unique to a given culture or society. This knowledge is the information base for the society, which facilitates communication and decision making. Indigenous knowledge is passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth.
 
Carter (1988) while describing the nature of indigenous knowledge indicated that IK is highly localised and restricted. Local environmental factors and cultural conditions govern the revolution of IK these vary between countries, regions and even farm to farm.

This chapter contains the description of the Indigenous Traditional Knowledge practices as subject wise manner viz, Traditional varieties, Crop management, Crop protection measures, Post harvest methods, Storage structures, Farm tools, Medicinal plants, Ethnoveterinary practices, Fisheries and others related to agriculture.

Traditional Varieties

Crop Management Practices
DSIR/TPDU/TIF 056 and E-28-GO-GOI Research Scheme on “Documentation and Preservation of Agricultural Traditional Knowledge through Farmer Participatory Approach”

Crop Protection Measures
DSIR/TPDU/TIF 056 and E-28-GO-GOI Research Scheme on “Documentation and Preservation of Agricultural Traditional Knowledge through Farmer Participatory Approach”

Post Harvest Methods
DSIR/TPDU/TIF 056 and E-28-GO-GOI Research Scheme on “Documentation and Preservation of Agricultural Traditional Knowledge through Farmer Participatory Approach”

Seed Storage Structures
Seed Storage Structure
Kuluppai / Kulumai (Mud Pot)
Th. Gopalakrishnan, 52 years old is residing in A.Edayapatti village in Manapparai taluk of Trichy district. He is educated up to 10^th standard and has agriculture as his primary occupation. He possesses a post harvest storage structure called ‘kuluppai/kulumai’.

It is a storage structure used to store grains, which is suited to all ecosystems. This structure is invented by ancestors and maintained for more than 100 years until now. 

Agricultural Tools
DSIR/TPDU/TIF 056 and E-28-GO-GOI Research Scheme on “Documentation and Preservation of Agricultural Traditional Knowledge through Farmer Participatory Approach”

Medicinal Plants
DSIR/TPDU/TIF 056 and E-28-GO-GOI Research Scheme on “Documentation and Preservation of Agricultural Traditional Knowledge through Farmer Participatory Approach”

Fisheries
DSIR/TPDU/TIF 056 and E-28-GO-GOI Research Scheme on “Documentation and Preservation of Agricultural Traditional Knowledge through Farmer Participatory Approach”

Weeds are the plants which grow where they are not wanted or simply plants growing out of place. A plant may be desirable in one situation and a weed in another situation. Those plants that interfere with human activity in crop and non-crop areas are considered weeds. Weeds compete with crops for soil nutrients, water and light; they host insects and plant pathogens harmful to crop plants, and their root exudates and/or leaf leachates may be toxic to crop plants. Weeds also hinder crop harvest and increase the costs of such operations. In addition, at harvest, weed seeds often contaminate the crop produce. Thus, the presence of weeds in crop areas reduces the efficiency of inputs such as fertilizer and irrigation water, enhances the density of other pest organisms, and finally severely reduces crop yield and quality (Labrada and Parker 1999).  Weeds are serious menace in crop production.