eChapters

1. Indian Major carps belongs to which family?

 a) Cobitidae

c) Ariidae

b) Cyprinidae

 d) Clupeidae

2. Body of carps is covered by which scales?

 a) Placoid

b) Ganoid

 c) Cycloid

3. Family cyprinidae includes......

 a) Catla catla

c) Cirrhina mrigala

d) Ctenoid

 b) Labeo rohita

 d) All of these

4. Selection criteria for cultivable fish includes .........

 a) It should have a fast growth rate

 b) It should be a hardy and resistant to disease

 c) Its flesh should be tasteful and with high nutritive value

 d) All of these

5. Why carps are suitable for culture?

 a) They can tolerate low oxygen content

 b) They have fast growth rate

 c) They feed on plankton,decaying weeds and debris

 d) All of these

Introduction

In many of the experimental designs considered previously like CRD and RCBD ,the main feature was to compare varieties,methods of cultivation,different kinds of fertilizers, etc. In general, in such experiments, only one factor is allowed to vary at a time, while all other factors known to affect the response are generally controlled. Such experiments are called ‘Simple’, or ‘Classical’ experiments.

Biological organisms are simultaneously exposed to many growth factors during their lifetime. Because an organism’s response to any simple factor may vary with the level of the other factors, simple factor experiments are often criticized for their narrowness. Indeed, the result of a single-factor experiment is, strictly speaking, applicable only to the particular level in which the other factors were maintained in the trial. But there are numerous occasions, especially in agriculture and animal experiments, where the main interest of an investigator does not lie with the effect of a single factor at a time but lies with simultaneous influence of many factors. For example, the interest of an investigator may not be in merely knowing the effect of spacing on the yield of a certain crop, but his interest would lie in finding out the simultaneous effect of both spacing and method of fertilizer application, that is, whether along with spacing, split dose of fertilizer at periodical intervals would be more beneficial than applying full recommended dose at one time. In order to answer this and many other questions, there are some special experiments called factorial experiments.

Confectionery is an vital food item of great acceptance among wide range of population. It has been relished as a major food delicacy from ancient times. The term confectionery is describes a spectrum of sweet goods and takes on different meaning depending on the country in which it is used, for example in the United Kingdom the term applies to any sweet product including cakes. In the United States confectionery is candy and includes sugar confectionery and chocolate confectionery.

Introduction

Introduction of improved high yielding varieties of crop plants, use of modern agricultural practices coupled with essential control of pests of food and fiber crops have significantly contributed towards increasing the food production in green revolution era in India. Pesticide application forms the foremost limb in hiked agricultural food production and management practices. The production and post production management of crop yield requires increased use of pesticides.

Introduction

It is considered to be one of the most ancient machine tools, having evolved from the early tree lathe, which was a new mechanism for turning and milling items held between two nearby trees at the time. The job rotated sporadically due to a rope wound around the work, with one end linked to a flexible limb of a tree and the other end being pulled by a worker. Then hand tools were employed.

The machine was given the name “lathe” when a strip of wood called “lath” was used to support the rope during its construction. This technology evolved over centuries, and in 1797, an Englishman named Henry Maudslay invented the first screw-cutting lathe, which is the ancestor of today’s high-speed, heavy-duty production lathe.

Sustainable agriculture requires sincere attempt by the farmers to be sustainable in their approach. The practices are neither new nor difficult. But the minds of the farmers are so much inclined to inorganic farming that it is not so easy to divert their minds for sustainable agriculture.

9.1. Balance and Weighing

9.1.1. Principle of Functioning of a Balance

It is one of the important tools used in the laboratory and one should have thorough knowledge about its assembly, use and care, otherwise it may be the initial step for introducing error in any physical or chemical analysis. Every balance has its maximum load limit and sensitivity depending upon its construction.

Essentially balance may be regarded as a rigid beam, BC having a central fulcrum, O and two arms of equal length, d₁, d₂ (Fig.9.1). The both ends of beam have prism edges upon which the balance pans are suspended by means of suitable suspension.

5.1 Jute Seed Production

Jute ranks secand 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.

Introduction

Chickpea, the world’s third most important food legume, is currently grown on about 10 m ha worldwide, with 95% cultivation in the developing countries. India is the largest producer of chickpea in the world. Chickpea is grown under rainfed conditions in winter in India subjecting it to abiotic stresses. Consequently it experiences water deficit stress at one or the other growth stage(s) which affects the crop productivity.  Among the abiotic stresses to which chickpea is subjected to drought stands to be the number one problem in major chickpea growing regions because the crop is grown on residual moisture and the crop is eventually exposed to terminal drought (Johansen et al., 1994). A distinctive variation exists between the plant in sensitivity to water stress. Chickpea is considered relatively more tolerant, possibly because of its deeper root system is and its smaller leaves and canopy. Several adaptive mechanisms are evoked by plants in response to water stress (Chaves et al., 2003). These traits enable chickpea to ensure its survival in different environmental conditions.

5.1 Introduction

A reservoir that collects and harvests in-situ rainfall as well as runoff from the catchment area can be used for many purposes: the most important of which is the supply of water to crops as supplemental irrigation. The water of the reservoir can be used for domestic and industrial uses. It is also a good source for recreational use. Total water demand of the reservoir including irrigation to different crops in different seasons, domestic and other non agricultural uses are to be assessed. While estimating the crop water requirement and irrigation requirement, various crops to be grown in the service area of the reservoir, their water requirements, crop duration, extent of coverage and water management practices followed are to be taken into consideration. Multiplying the irrigation requirement with crop coverage area, volumetric irrigation water requirement of crop can be found out. Summation of irrigation requirement of all crops grown in service area of the reservoir gives total irrigation demand of the reservoir.

Small farm reservoirs are normally used for irrigation to crops as well as to meet the live stock water demand. Normally the large live stocks like horse, cattle require 20 thousand litres of water per head per year whereas the small live stocks like sheep, goat, pigs require 2 thousand litres of water per head per year. Adding the irrigation demand to the livestock demand, total water requirement of the reservoir is calculated. In addition to this, water used for industrial, domestic and other sectoral purposes are to be added to irrigation and livestock demand to estimate the total water demand of the reservoir.

6.1 Soil

The term ‘soil ’is defined in various ways depending on the general professional field in which it is used. However to an agriculturist, soil is the substance existing on the earth surface, which grows and develops plant life. For an engineer, soil is the unaggregated deposits of mineral and organic particles covering major part on the earth crust. It includes widely different materials like boulders, sand, gravel, clays and silts. Soil is produced by the weathering of solid rocks. The formation of soil is due to geologic cycle continuously taking place on surface of the earth. The geologic cycle comprises weathering or denudation, transportation, deposition and upheaval, again followed by the above mentioned processes. Weathering may be natural or artificial. In natural weathering, physical processes like temperature changes, flow of water, ice, wind and rain play the role. In artificial weathering animals especially human beings interference causes soil erosion and formation.

INTRODUCTION

All plant species grown on this universe are attacked by insect-pests and diseases, resulting huge yield losses in agriculturally important species. Among diseases, extensive yield losses occurred due to soil borne fungal plant pathogens. Soil borne fungal pathogens infect roots or stem bases, their dispersal and survival stages are primarily confined to the soil. Although many soil pathogens may also produce air or water dispersed spores which results in long distance dispersal. Soil borne fungal diseases are specifically those diseases where the soil borne fungi has the capacity to survive in soil for long periods in the absence of their hosts, or survive in the soil outside of seed or host residues, but infection and symptom expression are confined to the subterranean organs of the plant. Soil borne fungi may be divided into two classes: i) The  soil inhabiting fungus which is characterized by its ability to survive indefinitely as saprophyte (e.g. Rhizoctonia, Sclerotium) and ii) The soil invading or root inhabiting fungus which is characterized by an expanding parasitic phase and a declining saprophytic phase after  the hosts death.

Introduction

Banana is the forth ranked agricultural crop in the world and first among fruits. A large number of pests and diseases threaten banana production. The major constraints in production are diseases and pests transmitted through the conventional planting materials. Although the average yield for bananas worldwide is over 40 t per hectare, production in India averages only 20 t per hectare. The nematode parasites are among the most important pests on commercial and subsistence banana production and their control remains difficult, as the nematodes are involved in the destruction of primary roots that disrupt the anchorage system resulting in toppling or uprooting of plants. The most widespread and important are burrowing nematode, Radopholus similes, some species of root lesion nematode, Pratylenchus coffeae and P. goodeyi, species of root knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita and M. javanica; the spiral nematode, Helicotylenchus multicinctus, H. mucronatus and semi endo-parasitic nematode Rotytlenchus reniformis.

Introduction

After water, nitrogen is the most critical nutritive element for crop productivity and human efforts to produce food and energy have greatly changed the nitrogen cycle of the earth. Sustainable cropping systems throughout history and across the world have relied on the combination of a cereal with an N-fixing legume. In recent history, cereals have dominated global agriculture, while legume areas and productivity have stagnated or even declined. An atmosphere around us contains nearly 78% nitrogen, which is in free form. Hence it is not available to plants. At present, India produces around 206 million metric tones of foodgrains for its growing population, increased foodgrain cannot be produced unless we carefully make use of biological nitrogen. Biological nitrogen fixation is the key to sustain agricultural productivity through the application of biofertilizers in the field. However, there is an urgent need to transfer this technology on the field to farmers and industry by producing these fertilizers on large scale.

Although some forms of electromagnetic energy, such as light and heat, can be detected by the human senses. One of the greatest draw backs to high energy radiation is the inability to detect it. We cannot see, feel, taste, smell, or hear the various forms of ionizing radiation. Fortunately, ionizing radiation interacts with matter which makes detection and measurement possible by utilizing specialized equipment. In this section we want to introduce you to the various ways and means of detecting and measuring ionizing radiation.

As mentioned previously, Becquerel discovered radioactivity because it left marks on photographic film as a means of detecting radiation. However, there are more definitive means commonly used by scientists and technicians who study and work with radiation. The equipment utilized for the detection and measurement of radiation commonly employs some type of a substance or material that responds to radiation. Many common methods use either an ionization process or molecular excitation process as a basis. Remember that we stated earlier that radiation interacts with matter. For detection and measurement purposes the process of ionization is the most commonly employed technique, based on the principle of charged particles producing ion pairs by direct interaction. These charged particles may collide with electrons, which remove them from their parent atoms, or transfer energy to an electron by interaction of electric fields.

5.1 Replication
    DNA Replication in Bacteria
    DNA Replication in Eukaryotes
    
5.2 Transcription

5.3 Translation

Soil fertility is the resultant of several factors, not the least important of which is the soil itself. Theoretically, the soil only plays the part of a support and could be very easily dispensed with and replaced by sand and even that can be replaced by a wire framework to support the plant mechanically and it will grow quite well if the right amount of nutrient materials have been added to water. ‘Where does the soil come in?” you will ask. The importance of the soil is two-fold: (1) It provides vast reserves of plant food which is slowly made available. (2) It provides limiting factors which restrict plant growth; these limiting factors must be neutralized. We have already discussed these reserve food materials and limiting factors in Chapter II.

It has been shown that if we treat a soil with dilute acid exhaustively we can remove everything from it except the mineral framework. If we try to grow anything in this mineral framework nothing will grow. Yet it is not like sand, for whereas in sand by adding appropriate amounts of nutrient materials in water solution you could grow a crop, nothing will grow if you added the same solution of nutrient materials to the soil. This mineral framework, therefore, is not inert like sand, but it is active and can react with the nutrient salts in such a way that either they are rendered unavailable or something else which is toxic is produced by the interaction between the soil and the nutrient salts. This mineral framework is not acted upon by dilute acids, but it reacts with alkalies in such a way that the alkalies are neutralized. In this respect, therefore, the mineral frame work behaves like an acid. With alkalies it forms salts and different alkalies are required in equivalent amounts for the formation of these salts. Thus we can have salts of a number of bases and if we use sodium hydroxide for neutralizing we shall have sodium soil, similarly we can have a calcium, magnesium or potassium soil. Now in nature, all the various bases principally, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, are associated with it in different proportions. The nature and amount of these bases determines the physico-chemical properties of the soil affecting crop yield and leading to soil infertility. We have already indicated the method of bringing the soiil to the normal state when it suffers from any of the defects associated with the soil framework.

Fruit beverages

Fruit beverages are highly refreshing, thirst quenching, appetizing, easily digestible and nutritionally far superior to synthetic drinks. The fruit beverages includes natural and sweetened juices, squash, syrup, cordial, nectar, Ready to Serve (RTS) beverages, fruit juice concentrate and citrus juice barley water. Fruits most commonly used to prepare beverages are oranges, lime, pineapple, grapes, cashew fruit, mango, jack fruit, apple etc. To prepare fruit beverages select fresh, fully ripe, tart, juicy and seasonal fruits.

Biofertilizer is still an unclear term. It can be easily found that biofertilizers are identified as plant extract, composted urban wastes, and various microbial mixtures with unidentified constituents, and chemical fertilizer formulations supplemented with organic compounds. Likewise, the scientific literature has a very open interpretation of the term biofertilizer representing everything from manures to plant extracts.  Quality control of biofertilizers involves several major aspects such as isolation and identification of various strains, screening of the pure isolated strains, fermentation and quality control and finished product.

Sustainable agricultural production is endangered by several ecological factors, including biotic & abiotic stresses. Biotic stress is the stress as a result of damage done to an organism by other living organisms. The agents of biotic stress are fungi, bacteria, virus, nematodes, insects, weeds & other plants which reduces quality and production of crops. These challenging environmental factors may have adverse effects on future agriculture production. Breeding resistant cultivars is considered as the best strategy to mitigate the effect of biotic stress. It is durable, economical & environment friendly and provide broad-spectrum resistance. Widely cultivated but susceptible genotypes can be improved by introgression of resistance genes from donor genotype into the background of recurrent genotype by different breeding strategies. In modern agriculture, conventional crop-breeding strategies alone are inadequate for achieving the increasing population’s food demand on a sustainable basis. The advancement of molecular genetics and related technologies are promising tools for the selection of new crop species with resistance genes. Transfer of several genes or quantitative trait loci (QTL) with potential characteristics into a single widely cultivated genotype is possible through the process of marker assisted selection (MAS). Gene pyramiding through MAS have accelerated the development of durable resistant/tolerant lines with high accuracy in the shortest period of time. With marker assisted backcross breeding (MABB), a major gene can be precisely targeted, the genome of the recurrent parent can be recovered fast, and linkage drag can be reduced. Genomic selection (GS) allows selection for multiple traits directly in the genome. These techniques help in identifying plants with two or more genes by employing gene-linked markers without the need for repeated testing in each generation during the development of pyramided lines and hence shorten the time of breeding program.