eChapters

2.1. Introduction
The present century is the century of oxidative stress (OS) that linked to several life-threatening disorders which predominantly affect public health as well as their nutritional status. Unhealthy lifestyle and eating pattern which is major concern for OS. The biological literature first used the phrase “oxidative stress (OS)” in 1970. OS can be defined as a state of imbalance condition between the high level of pro-oxidants and the low level of antioxidant scavenging capacity in the body. The normal oxidative process that occurs in cells is crucial for the existence of life and favours the death of a cell. Free radicals, which are unstable, can form when molecular oxygen breaks up into pairs. This unstable radical has a high level of reactivity and produces reactive molecular species like reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS). To resist the OS and to maintain the redox balance, cells have an inbuilt antioxidant defence capacity, comprising of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPOD) etc. But some pathogenic or environmental conditions may overpower this antioxidant defence system, allowing a portion of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) to bypass degradation and create much more reactive radicals. Increased ROS and RNS affect redox balance and damage DNA, proteins, amino acids, and fats, causing alteration of structures as well as action of cells and tissues. This will ultimately produce several pathogenetic elements associated with clinical situations and leads to the development of human aging and numerous diseases. Several dietary components such as whole grains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables are excellent sources of antioxidative vitamins, minerals, nutraceuticals or phytoceuticals that shields the human body from the harmful oxidative injury by scavenging or destruction of free radicals and also by upregulation of endogenous antioxidant defence system. Thereby long-term and sustainable OS remedies can be performed.

4.1 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.

4.2 Water and Irrigation Demand of Crops

Of the various demand of water from the reservoir, irrigation demand of crops grown in the command area of the reservoir is very important. Most of the crop water demand is met from rainfall. However, when the rainfall is deficient to meet the crop water demand, then the deficit is met from the stored water of the reservoir in the form of irrigation, more commonly called as supplemental irrigation. The irrigation to the crops is required mostly to meet the evapotranspiration requirement of the crop. Before discussing the water and irrigation demand/requirement of crops, it is essential to know some commonly used terms frequently used.

Dryland agriculture is a more vulnerable system in view of its high dependency on monsoon rains which are of aberrant nature. The risk of crop failure and poor yields always restrain farmers from investing on new technologies and input use.

Concept of resilience

Resilience is used to describe the magnitude of a disturbance that a system can withstand without crossing threshold into a new structure or dynamic. Resilience is defined as “the ability of a system and its component parts to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or escape from unacceptable standards of living due to the effects of a hazardous event, in a timely and efficient manner”. In other words, resilience describes the capacity of communities in a given context or landscape to maintain and improve their livelihoods—despite stresses and shocks—through the sustainable management of natural resources while maintaining key ecological functions

5.1 Soil

Soil and water are the two most important natural resources required for crop production. Without soil, no crop can be produced even if there is availability of plenty of water. It is vital not only for agriculture but also very vital for sustenance of life. No building can stand on any place without soil. Soil gives foundation support for any building. 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. It contains all vital elements including its inherent fertility contents that support the growth of plants. 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. It is obvious that it takes hundreds of years to form one inch of soil.

9.1 Introduction

After knowing when to irrigate and how much to irrigate, next important thing is how to irrigate the crop field. Methods of irrigation plays a very crucial role in deciding how to irrigate the crop fields since all the crops do not require same methods of irrigation. Depending on the sources of water available for irrigation, type of crop to be irrigated, quantity and quality of water to be applied and other economic considerations, methods of irrigation will vary. Irrigation water may be applied to the crops by flooding it on the field surfaces as surface irrigation, by applying it beneath the soil surface as sub irrigation, by spraying it under pressure as sprinkler or overhead irrigation or by applying it in drops around the root zone of the crop as trickle irrigation. The commonly used methods of irrigation are described in schematic diagram as follows

INTRODUCTION
 
The form genus Sclerotium was described by Saccardo (Saccardo, 1913) to include fungi that produce sclerotia and had sterile mycelia. Several fungi were inc1uded in this genus, and all were characterized by production of small, dark brown or black spherical sclerotia that were internally differentiated into a rind, cortex and medulla. Several plant pathogenic fungi with this sclerotial type and with no known sexual or conidial state were placed in the genus Sclerotium. However, as the teleomorphic states were discovered, affinities to the Basidiomycotina (Punja, 1988) or Ascomycotina (Krause and Webster, 1972) were established for some members of the form genus.

Vegetables: Three conditions shoul1d be met to be called a horticultural produce as a ‘vegetable’ viz.

• Vegetables are herbaceous plants
• They mostly serve culinary purpose
• They are also used in small quantity in a raw form.

Scenario

Area

• India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world, next to China. India’s share of the world vegetable market is around 14%.
• India produces 188.28 m tonns

In the last decade or so, the problem of determining the microbial content and their activities in dairy products has been under close scrutiny. The dairy industries still adopt the dye reduction test because it is cheap, simple and satisfactory. However, other new techniques have been introduced along with some modifications in traditional tests. The microbiological quality must be maintained. To assess the bacterial content and their activities in dairy products, various methods are available for the microbiological testing of milk. The specific tests should be chosen as per the application and other factors like cost etc. On the basis of public health and economic consideration it is necessary to test microbiological quality of milk at a number of points along the chain from producer to consumer which includes - raw milk supply, bulk milk arriving at processors premises, monitoring bulk milk during storage prior to processing and monitoring the procession & the quality control of finished products. The techniques for estimating bacterial numbers in raw material are divided into two categories.

Plant viruses, like all other viruses, are obligate intracellular parasites that do not have the molecular machinery to replicate without the host. The plant viruses are defined as viruses pathogenic to higher plants. The discovery of plant viruses causing disease is accredited to Beijerinck who determined in 1898 that the plant sap obtained from tobacco leaves with the mosaic disease remained infectious even after passing through a filter. This was in contrast to bacteria, which were retained by the filter. Beijerinck referred to the infectious filtrate as a contagium vivum fluidum, thus, he used modern term virus.

Viruses occasionally cause significant problems in vegetable crops. However, the prevalence and severity of viral diseases differ from year to year. Aphids spread many of the viral diseases observed in vegetables. There are two types of viral transmission by aphids, i.e., persistent and non-persistent transmission. It is important to understand the difference between these two because persistent and non-persistent viruses differ both in their uptake and behaviour within the insect vector, consiquently, tactics used to limit their and spread vary considerably. In persistent transmission, the aphid usually carries the virus for life. Uptake of virus requires extended feeding and after an incubation period of several hours or days, the virus replicates and circulates within the insect. Because of the time required for feeding before acquisition by an insect vector, the spread of persistent virus is favoured by colonizing aphid species that spend time in the crop. Controlling the aphid vectors with insecticides can reduce the spread of persistent plant virus significantly. In contrast, aphids can acquire non-persistent viruses (NPV) within a few seconds after sampling an infected plant. Winged migratory aphids can move quickly from infected plants onto healthy ones, transmitting the virus in the process. Aphids rapidly lose the virus particles from their mouthparts, which are cleaned when they feed on the next available plant and are unable to transmit disease to additional plants. Because of the speed in which aphids acquire and transmit non-persistent viruses, insecticides are not usually effective in controlling their spread. One of the most common viruses found in many vegetable crops is cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). This is transmitted by several aphid species in a non-persistent manner. There are several strains of CMV that can infect over 775 different plant species in 85 families including snap bean, peppers, tomato, lettuce, tobacco and sugar beets. Symptoms vary depending upon the plant species infected but range may be from yellow-green mottling on leaves and fruits to severe stunting of plants. The viral diseases affecting different vegetable crops are being discussed below:

5.1 Introduction

India ranks 10th in the world in pesticide consumption as its total consumption amounts to about 500 million tonnes. India is presently the largest manufacturer of basic pesticides among the South Asian and African countries, with the exception of Japan. The Indian pesticides market is the 12th largest in the world with a value of US $ 0.6 bn, which is 1.6% of the global market pie. India is one of the most dynamic generic pesticide industries in the world, having a total installed capacity of technical grade pesticides consisting of large and medium scale and 400 pesticide formulators (of all sectors) spread all over the country for use in agriculture, public health, household and plant protection. Overall, it can be said that there is a bright future for agro-chemical companies in India in the post-patent era. This paper focuses on the opportunities arising for companies dealing in pesticides because of the agrarian nature of the Indian economy. Besides, it presents a conceptual framework of the situation prevailing in the marketing of pesticides in India with special reference to Punjab.February 13,2009 (FPRC) — Indian Pesticides Industry - Vital for ensuring food security. Agriculture is the lynchpin of the Indian economy. Ensuring food security for more than 1 bn Indian population with diminishing cultivable land resource is a herculean task. This necessitates use of high yielding variety of seeds, balance use of fertilisers, judicious use of quality pesticides along with education to farmers and the use of modern farming techniques. It is estimated that India approximately loses 18% of the crop yield valued at Rs.900 bn due to pest attack each year. The use of pesticides help to reduce the crop losses, provide economic benefits to farmers, reduce soil erosion and help in ensuring food safety & security for the nation. The Indian pesticide industry with 85,000 MT of production during FY 07 is ranked second in Asia (behind China) and twelfth globally. In value terms, the size of the Indian pesticide industry was estimated at Rs.74 bn for 2007, including exports of Rs.29 bn.Globally, due to consolidation in the industry, the top five global MNCs control almost 78% of the market. In India, the industry is very fragmented with about 30-40 large manufacturers and about 400 formulators.The per hectare consumption of pesticide is low in India at 381 grams when compared to the world average of 500 grams. Low consumption can be attributed to fragmented land holdings, low level of irrigation, dependence on monsoons, low awareness among farmers about the benefits of usage of pesticides etc. India, being a tropical country, the consumption pattern is also more skewed towards insecticides which accounted for 64% of the total pesticide consumption in FY 07.

Food is essential for human survival. It provides the required energy and vital nutrients for sustainable growth and development. With the increase in population and awareness, the demand for nutritious, fresh and healthy food also increases. Although adequate food is produced in order to meet the increased demands, it fails to reach the consumers in need due to food Food Storage and Preservation Practices   35 wastage and spoilage occurring during various stages of harvesting, food production, storage and transportation. Gajanana et al., (2009) stated that there is a mammoth wastage of food post-harvest. It is estimated that 20 to 60 % of produce are wasted during and after post-harvest. 

Abstract

Genomics is playing an increasing role in generating new tools and databases with the rapid advances in genome technology which increases the eficiency and precision of crop improvement. With the emergence of new high-throughput technologies like next-generation sequencing (NGS) and reduction in their costs are bringing many more plants within the range of genomic and post genomic data along with the integration of information from the related fields of transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics. Translating the vast abundance data produced by genome technologies requires large generic databases which hold specific data types for a broad range of species, which act as a resource for the crop improvement. The development of custom bioinformatics tools and advanced databases has become an expanding challenge which systematically helps in storing, organizing, manipulating and analyzing large amounts of biological information computationally. In this review, we outline some recent advances in the features of plant genome databases and various platforms with the recent advances in technology.

Throughout human history, people across the globe have sought to understand and predict the ever-changing skies. From the scorching deserts of North Africa to the lush rainforests of South America, and from the snow-capped Himalayas to the vast Australian outback, ancient cultures developed unique methods to forecast the weather. These traditional knowledge systems, often passed downthrough oral traditions and  storytelling, reflected the specific environmental contexts, mythological beliefs, and spiritual practices of each community. In ancient China, royal astronomers meticulously recorded weather patterns and planetary movements to guide agricultural planning and imperial decisionmakingIn Greece, philosophers like Aristotle and Theophrastus wrote extensively on weather signs and forecasting methods. In Africa, tribal communities observed animal migrations and plant behaviors to anticipate seasonal changes. Native American tribes used lunar cycles and star constellations to predict weather patterns, while ancient Indians studied the movements of planets and nakshatras (lunar mansions) to forecast monsoon rains.

Introduction

This chapter outlines recently developed and traditional statistical techniques, which are increasingly being applied in social science research. The social sciences cover diverse phenomena arising in society, the economy and the environment, some of which are too complex to allow concrete statements; some cannot be defined by direct observations or measurements; some are culture-or region specific, while others are generic and common. Statistics, being a scientific method as distinct from a ‘science’ related to any one type of phenomena is used to make inductive inferences regarding various phenomena. The chapter addresses both qualitative and quantitative research a combination of which is essential in social science research and offers valuable updates for advanced level for researchers. In this chapter, I will attempt to addresses the gaps between the research and data analysis faced the professionals and researchers working under different environment with multitude of problems particularly in the social science sector. It provides students with theoretical perspectives and methodological tools to explore the social and cultural systems that influence policy interventions.

The Social Science: Social science is the field of study concerned with society and human behaviors. Social science covers a broad range of disciplines like demography and social statistics, methods and computing; education, social anthropology, and linguistics apart from anthropology, archaeology, criminology, economics, education, history, linguistics, communication studies, political science and international relations, sociology, geography, law, and psychology. Further, it covers development studies, human geography and environmental planning; law, economic and social history; politics and international relations; psychology and sociology; and social policy and social work. Social science is, in its broadest sense, the study of society and the manner in which people behave and influence the world around us. Social science tells us about the world beyond our immediate experience, and can help explain how our own society works from the causes of unemployment or what helps economic growth or what makes people happy. It provides vital information for governments and policymakers, local authorities, non-governmental organisations and others. Economics seeks to understand how individuals interact within the social structure, to address key questions about the production and exchange of goods and services. Management studies explores a wide range of aspects relating to management of fisheries activities, such as strategic and operational management, organizational psychology, employment relations, marketing, accounting, finance and logistics.

1.    Evolutionary relationships between groups of organisms are determined using comparisons of

(a) Biochemical pathways

(b) Nucleotide sequences

(c) Structural features

(d) All of these

2.    The different bacterial species can be subdivided into

(a) Serovarieties

(b) Biovarietites

(c) Subspecies

(d) All of these

3.    Kingdom Prokaryotae include

(a) Bacteria

(b) Protozoa

(c) Fungi

(d) None of these

Analytical methods development and validation play important roles in the discovery, development, and manufacture of pharmaceuticals.

Pharmaceutical products formulated with more than one drug, typically referred to as combination products, are intended to meet previously unmet patients need by combining the therapeutic effects of two or more drugs in one product. These combination products can present daunting challenges to the analytical chemist responsible for the development and validation of analytical methods. This presentation will discuss the development and validation of analytical method (Spectrophotometric, High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), & High performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC)) for drug products containing more than one active ingredient. The official test methods that result from these processes are used by quality control laboratories to ensure the identity, purity, potency, and performance of drug products.

Introduction

Therapeutic foods are products, which are multiutility food products that may be used as nutrition as well as medicine. A nutraceutical may be defined as a substance, which has physiological benefit or provides protection against chronic disease. Nutraceuticals are used to improve health, delay the aging process, prevent chronic diseases, increase life expectancy, or support the structure and/or function of the body. Oflate nutraceuticals are receiving considerable interest due to potential nutritional, safety and therapeutic effects. The examples of therapeutic foods are the foods used for feeding of malnourished children on an emergency basis or to supplement the diets of persons with special nutrition requirements, such as the elderly. Therapeutic foods can also form a part of treatment/prevention/reduction of other health conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, anaemia and any other lifestyle disorders.

The incidences of diet-related diseases are progressively increasing due to greater availability of calorie-rich foods and a sedentary lifestyle. Obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and neurodegeneration are major diet-related diseases. Nutraceuticals and functional foods represent a novel therapeutic approach to prevent or attenuate diet-related diseases.

There is always a requirement for cheaper formulations using locally available ingredients that are processed in a safe, reliable, and financially sustainable methods. Some of the literature available on health foods for various diseases is summarized below. However, since the burden of diabetes in India is staggering. In 2017, 72 million cases of people suffering from diabetes were reported and the figures are expected to reach 134 million by 2025, this chapter more emphasis is given on the safe, natural treatment/reduction of diabetes by herbal means.

4.1    Approaches for Drought Monitoring
    
4.2    Weather Network System in Different Countries
    
4.3    Drought Monitoring using Climatological, Hydrological and Combination Approaches in Different Countries
    
4.4    International Cooperation in Drought Monitoring
    
4.5    Drought Monitoring Mechanism in India
    
4.6    Early Warning and Decision Support System
    4.6.1    Software for Drought Detection, Monitoring and Early Warning
    4.6.2    Decision Support System for Droughts Developed Outside India
    
4.7    GIS and Drought Monitoring
        
References

Introduction

Floriculture is a fast emerging, rapidly expanding industry in the present scenario. The importance of flowers has been realized throughout the world and now it has been developed into an intensive form of agriculture. Flowers play an integral role in life of each and every human being. They are the part and parcel of day to day activities. There is common saying with flowers that a man is born with flowers, live with flowers and dies with flowers. This shows the importance of flowers in our lives since time immemorial. The flowers create an atmosphere of beauty, happiness and harmony. With the fast changing lifestyles, floriculture can become a lucrative business in India in view of low labour cost, varied agro climatic conditions and large collection of plant wealth.

Among flowers, loose flowers hold an important place in terms of high demand for usage in various religious and social ceremonies. They are mainly used for worshipping, making floral garlands, floral decorations in wedding, religious functions, interior decoration, self adornment etc. The earlier trend of using flowers for aesthetic value is changing slowly into business with the realization of its vast economic potential as value addition of flowers by drying, extraction of essential oils, colouring pigments, antioxidants etc. is also gaining importance.

In India, mostly loose flowers dominate the domestic market. Marigold, jasmine, tuberose, crossandra and china aster are the major loose flowers grown in India. Production technology of these flowers is described as: