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The 20^th century had seen unprecedented increase in fishing capacity; in terms of the vessel number, increase in size of the vessels and advances in the electronic and navigational equipment coupled with easily manufactured and durable fishing nets. The effect of these innovations sequentially, was the burgeoning in the fish production, plateauing of catches and the myth of inexhaustibility of fishery resources in the sea was proven wrong. A large number of stocks world over have declined and the stock status of many are now alarming, but still the trend towards larger, more powerful and faster vessels continues.

Global fisheries production has reached a plateau and is now hovering around 80 million tonnes during the last decade. It is also noted that the status of world’s marine fish stocks have not improved overall. About 31.4% of assessed fish stocks are fished at a biologically unsustainable level and therefore overfished. Fully fished stocks accounted for 58.1% and underfished stocks 10.5%. It is evident that most of the stocks are fully fished with no further potential for increase in production.

The importance of reducing bycatch and minimizing ecological impacts of fishing operations has been emphasized by scientists and fishery managers and recognized by fishermen. Trawl fisheries in different parts of the world are now being required to use bycatch reduction devices as result of pressure from conservation groups and legal regimes introduced by the governments. The Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (FAO, 1995), which gives guidelines for sustainable development of fisheries, stresses the need for developing selective fishing gears in order to conserve resources, protect non-targeted resources and endangered species. Although the problems of using non-legal gears and designs often with smaller mesh sizes are reported. Most of the problems due to generation of bycatch and damage to the ecosystem function, has been implicated due to trawling.

Quality of fish raw material plays an important role for the quality of the end-product. Once the fish raw material freshness and nutrition value is lost, it cannot be recovered in the processing stages. Products that are processed from low quality raw material are not always a safety risk, but the quality (nutrition value) and shelf life is significantly decreased. The quality deterioration can start right away during fishing and it continues all the way to the final user. Time-temperature abuse should be avoided at all stages of handling till landed fish reaches the consumer or the processor. In tropical countries more care in handling is necessary as fishes thrive in high ambient temperature has high body temperature and hastens spoilage.

Fish is highly perishable because of their chemical composition. It has high content of soluble substances in the flesh (many of which contain nitrogen and triglycerides characterized by polyunsaturated fatty acids) and high level of autolytic enzyme. After the death of the fish, spoilage starts due to the action of microbes, enzyme and oxidation. It is therefore, necessary to preserve fish after harvest if not consumed or disposed immediately.

Thermal processing also known as heat processing is commonly used processing method which helps in extending the shelf life of the food productswith high safety level, convenience and a healthy product.Seafood as a whole food is highly nutritious. Benefits to human health associated with the consumption of seafood is well recognized for multiple bodily organs and physiological functions but their high perishable nature is a concern. Seafoodundergoes spoilage due to autolytic, microbial action as well as oxidation of lipid. Proper handling and preservation is essential to maintain quality of fish. Heat processing is an age old preservation method practiced in many countries to extend the shelf life of food products. Heat treatment causes the destruction of microbes which increases the shelf life. There are number of thermal processing operations like- baking, blanching, canning, dehydration, extrusion, frying, pasteurization, sterilization, etc. All these operation serves various purposes and helps in manufacture of different food products.

Thermal processing is of utmost importance to low acid high water activity foods, where there are no hindrances to microbial growth. The proper delivery of heat is essential to cause the destruction of microbes to avoid food spoilage. In seafood’s processing, thermal processing through canning (retort pouch processing) is a common approach. In canning, the food is preserved by application of heat in hermetically sealed cans (pouches). Hermetic sealing means- complete airtight sealing. This prevents contamination from outside. Heating at very high temperature ranging from 110 to 135⁰C for a desirable time helps in killing all the vegetative forms of microorganisms as well as most heat resistant microbial spores. The amount of time needed for processing is different for each food type depends on hurdles present in the food and heat transfer characteristics. In thermal processing of seafood products, heat processing is aimed for the destruction of spores of Clostridium botulinum. A number of thermally processed ready-to-eat (RTE) products are available on market shelf.

Pre-processing of fish

Fish is a highly perishable food which requires proper handling and preservation to increase its self life and retain its quality and nutritional aspects. Therefore, fish pre-processing and preservation are become a very important part of commercial fisheries. Preservation means keeping the fish after landing in a condition of wholesome and fit for human consumption for a particular period. This preservation should cover the entire period from the time of capture of fish to its sale at retailer’s counter. The main aim of processing and preservation of fish is to prevent fish from deterioration. Methods which are commonly used to preserve fish and fishery products include the control of temperature using ice, refrigeration or freezing and control of water activity by drying, salting, smoking or freeze-drying etc (FAO, 2011). Fish has to be pre-processed in such a manner that it remains fresh for a long time with a minimum loss of flavour, colour, taste, odour, nutritive value and digestibility. Fish processing can be subdivided into fish handling which is the preliminary processing of raw fish and the manufacture of fish products.

Drying

Drying is one of the age-old techniques for preservation and value addition of food products. Generally, it means removal of moisture from the food products by evaporation. It is aimed at lowering the water content of food stuff, thereby arresting the growth of microbes, action of enzymes and other autolytic chemical reactions (Naidu et al., 2016). This preservation technique is predominately used for food materials which are regarded as “highly perishable”. The benefits of drying includes extended shelf-life, lower storage space, reduced packaging requirements, lower handling and transportation costs, off-seasonal availability and importantly diversified product for the ultimate consumers (Bonaui et al., 1996).

Fish drying

Open sun drying as a method of fish preservation is recorded in history by the primitive societies. However, open sun drying of fish has few draw backs which includes poor product quality, higher microbial contamination and complete dependence of weather conditions for drying (Bala & Mondol, 2001). In the later stages, drying developed into completely a controlled process in which drying air temperature, relative humidity and air velocity were precisely maintained at optimum level. The fish drying process is slightly different from other food materials mainly due to its gel like behaviour until considerable reduction of moisture. Moreover, significant amount of shrinkage takes place in fish during drying in addition to the other irreversible changes.

Bio-active compounds having beneficial health effect on human beings from terrestrial and marine sources are considered as “Nutraceuticals”. Nutraceuticals from marine origin are proved to have wide range of therapeutic effects viz., anti-obesity, immune enhancement, natural antioxidant, cardio protective, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory effects. These natural products do not have any side effects contradictory to many medicines available today, hence have attracted global market. Microencapsulation technique has been considered as one of the unique methods to encapsulate the bio-active compounds for target delivery. Importance and application of nutraceuticals from marine origin are highlighted.

Introduction

World over in the recent past, research in nutraceuticals has shown continuous growth and the progressive approach is aimed at identifying the potential nutraceutical compounds which are having health benefits in human beings. Awareness among the people is the prime reason for the growing demand for nutraceuticals.Today people are more aware about the nutrition and related health problems. Recently, researchers across the globe are exploring the possibilities to extract and isolate bio-active compounds from both terrestrial and marine sources.

Fishing is the most energy-intensive food production method in the world today and depends almost completely on internal combustion engines based on oil fuels. Energy is spent during the design, construction and operation of vessels. Energy loss can take place during different stages such as design, construction, operation and maintenance of boats and at harbor.

The energy costs for a particular fishery is determined principally by the technology in use, the local economic conditions, including taxes, subsidies, labour cost and operational cost. (O. Gulbrandson, FAO, 2012)

Only about one-third of the energy generated by the engine reaches the propeller and, in the case of a small trawler, only one-third of this is actually spent on useful work such as pulling the net.

The approximate distribution of energy created from the burning of fuel.

The term nanotechnology was coined by Prof Taniguchi, Japan in 1974 during conference of the Japanese Society of Precision Engineering. Nano technology is a domain of scientific activity oriented on synthesis, characterization, application of devices and materials and technical systems which functions at nano structures having 1 to 100 nm size. Prof R. Feynman American Physicist and Nobel Prize winner was the first person pointed out the importance and promising outlook for nano particles during his lecture entitled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom. An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics,” delivered on December 29th 1959 at the California Institute of Technology. He pointed out that “... when we have some control of the arrangement of things on a small scale we will get an enormously greater range of possible properties that substances can have, and of different things that we can do ... The problems of chemistry and biologycan be greatly helped if our ability to see what we are doing, and to do things on an atomic level, is ultimately developed”. Later scientists realized the potential of nano particulate materials during the last decade has tremendous advancement in nano research. Governments and private sectors of the world invested huge sums to reap the benefits from novel applications of nano materials.

Nanotechnology: The principle of nano technology is that the material with known properties and functions at normal size exhibit different behaviour and functions at nano scale. By decreasing the size of the material the surface area per unit material will increase enormously and this helps greater interactions with reactive sites. Nano technology implied that the process of fabricating and/ or controlling the material sized between 1 to 100nm.

Food is an important item in the life of consumer as it has a direct bearing on the sustenance of life. The food safety or over concern on the health hazards was not considered as an issue until recently, particularly in the developing countries. This clearly indicates the shift in citizen’s mind from availability of food to quality of food. This along with the changes in the food habits and type of products available in the market for his consumption, the incidence of food borne illness across the globe and his concern for his health contributed significantly to the development of food safety in the food arena.

Until recently food safety domain and regulation were confined to the government and its regulatory machinery. The globalisation of food and food products and the passage of food across international borders paved way for the increased food safety concern across the globe and stressed the need for ensuring quality and safety of food in international trade. The incidence of food borne illness increased with increase in the appearance of more and more derived products started in the market (Sivapalasingam, Friedman, Cohen, & Tauxe, 2004; Tauxe, Doyle, Kuchenmüller, Schlundt, & Stein, 2010). The production along the value chain, from primary production to the retailing happen in the world under different agroclimate conditions, in varied production lines from sinle handler to community production to large scale mechanised production and such a diversity led to concerns in the food safety system (McCullough, Prabhu, & Kostas, 2008). The individual operators in the chain operates a food safety management system based on the availablity and to suit his requirement based on the basic principles laid down by natinal and International bodies like Codex Alimentarius Commission. Now when you see the market at large, has plenty of FSMS system which includes both from the governmental and private sectors. Therefore, Food Safety Management System (FSMS) is the result of the implementation of available and relevant quality assurance guidelines and standards availble and in the primary production it could be the implementation of good practices including good hygienic proactices, good aquacultural priactices which have proved effective in the food sector. On the production and trade sector this may include good manufacturing practices, good hygienic practices, probably including Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles. In the process the FSMS may include essentially all the activites from equipment, procedures, programs, tools, organizational measures, and people necessary to execute the control and assuranceactivities aimed at ensuring chemical and microbial safety of fresh produce.

Indicator bacteria are types of bacteria that are used to provide an indication of poor hygiene, inadequate processing and or post - process contamination in seafood, water, feed, ice, equipments, workers, etc. Absence of indicator bacteria in seafood and aquaculture products provides a degree of quality assurance that the fishery products are hygienically good and have employed proper processing methods whereas their presence clearly indicates either severe problem or failure occurred during the processing, under-processing or post-process contamination. The indicator bacteria in fish and fishery products are mainly from enterobacteriaceae and coliforms group of bacteria. Traditionally, indicator micro-organisms have been used to suggest the presence of pathogens (Berg, 1978) and it includes the general microbial Process indicators, Faecal indicators, and Index and Model indicator organisms. The Process indicator is a group of organisms that indicates the efficacy of a processing and tested by Total Plate count (TPC)/ Total heterophilic count or total coliforms (MPN method). Fecal indicator is a group of organisms that indicates the presence of fecal contamination and could be tested for fecal coliforms, thermotolerant coliforms (MPN method) and E.coli (EMB and IMViC test). Index and model organisms are a group of organisms that indicates the presence of pathogens such as E.coli are an index for Salmonella and coliphages as model of human enteric viruses. The pathogenic indicator bacteria viz., Coliforms, Fecal coliforms, E.coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Citrobacter, Fecal Streptococci, Sulphite reducing clostridia, Clostridium perfringens, Bifidobacteria, Bacteriophages, coliphages and Bacteroides fragilis etc., are associated with food poisoning. In addition, pathogenic viruses, protozoa and parasites are also present in fecal matter. Fecal contamination is mainly from sewage of human source, livestock, poultry manure, pets and wildlife. Infection caused by these pathogens mainly depend on the level of microbial load.

Fisheries sector plays an important role in food security and fish is now traded internationally. Shift in the trading policies (import and export) of seafood/aquatic products are happening at a rapid pace and consumption of seafood increased globally in substantial quantum. It is estimated that aquatic products export from Asian countries outcompetes earlier contributions to their importing partners year after year. Aquatic products include chordates, mollusc and arthropods from freshwater, brackish and marine system. They are nutrient rich diet and perishable too in nature and this prompted the industry to process the seafood in to different forms such as frozen, canned, cured and dried to extend its shelf life and recently value addition step being followed to improve the customer satisfaction. Nevertheless, the risk associated with the transboundary exchange of pathogens of seafood importance and its antibiotic resistance cannot be disregarded. Majority of the pathogens are not a native flora of fish. Each step in the aquatic products production chain either in the captured or cultured fisheries involves the contact of the seafood to the environment where they are grown, various implements used, contact surfaces, handlers, water etc. This post harvest handling makes the seafood contaminated with the pathogens of seafood importance such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp, Clostridium botulinum, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Shigella sp, Aeromonas hydrophila, Plesiomonas shigelloides and viral pathogens such as hepatitis A virus etc. Among these pathogens, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp, Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella spp are non-indigenous to the aquatic environment and others are indigenous to the aquatic environment. Depending on the nature of the environment (contaminated water source), feeding habits (filter feeders), season of harvest (summer season) are very crucial factors which cause seafood inherently contaminated in nature.

Since the beginning of the Planning process, efforts have been made to ensure that the tribal people were included in the growth process. However, the strategy changed with each Five-Year Plan as new lessons were learnt from various developmental efforts. The First Five Year Plan emphasized the provision of additional financial resources through a community development approach to address the problems of tribal people rather than evolving a clear-cut tribal development strategy. Towards the end of the Plan (1954), 43 Special Multipurpose Tribal Development Projects (MTDPs) were created. These MTDPs could not fully serve the interest of the tribal people since the schemes were numerous and of a general nature. This approach continued during the second Five Year Plan. In the Third Plan, a different strategy for tribal development was evolved by converting the Community Development Blocks, where the concentration of tribal population was 66% and above, into Tribal Development Blocks (TDBs). By the end of the fourth Five Year Plan, the number of Tribal Development Blocks in the country rose to 504. The strategy of development through Tribal Development Blocks had its limitations as well, as it failed to address the cause of the tribal population of the country living outside the Tribal Development Blocks, which comprised more than 60% of the total tribal population. During the th on 5 Five Year Plan period, the exercise of identification of tribal majority blocks was undertaken. These were later constituted into 194 ITDAs/ITDPs in the country.

The present Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) strategy was initially developed by an Expert Committee set up by the Ministry of Education and Social Welfare in 1972 under the Chairmanship of Prof. S.C. Dube for the rapid socio-economic development of tribal people and was adopted for the first time in the Fifth Five Year Plan. The TSP strategy, with some modifications, continues till this day and the salient features concerning TSP for States, are given below:

Fish transport is a vast area comprising the problems of purely technical design on the one hand, and the chemistry of water, biological reactions of fish and the like, on the other. The above survey could only briefly mention and evaluate the relevant literature on these problems. Because of its purpose, the book was designed not only as an analytical-synthetic survey of pertinent literature but, at the same time, as a practical manual to be used for seeking at least partial answers to practical questions concerning fish transport. The live fish trade is a rapidly expanding component of commercial fishing and aquaculture industries.

Proper sanitization of all the equipment and accessories is one of the essential steps for the determination of oxygen uptake of fishes as well as all the other steps of fish transportation in this pandemic of COVID-19.

Introduction

Yak is a main source of livelihood for the high altitude residents in Ladakh. The domestic yak (Bos grunniens) is a long haired domesticated bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent as well as in the Tibetan plateau, Mongolia and Russia. They are originated from the wild yaks. Yaks are belonging to the genus Bos. The yak is the only bovine species (ruminant) which resides in the high hills of the Himalayas even at altitudes of 6000 meters above the mean sea level. The normal living range of yak is at 3000 to 4500 meters height from the mean sea level which are tree less uplands. Similar to domestic cattle and goat, Chromosomes number of yak is 60. Zoological name of yak is Poephagus grunniens or Bos grunniens.

Distribution

The distribution of Yak is majorly found in Northern Ladakh, the plateau of Tibet and part of the Kansu province in China. Within India, yak mostly found in Changechenmo valley in Ladak and spiti valleys of Himachal Pradesh, and also in North Eastern states, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland. Small number of yaks is also found in Garhwal district of Uttar Pradesh. It is native in Tibet country as well as surrounding countries in Central Asia. The yak is also found in Pakistan, Northern Afghanisthan, Bhutan, Mongolia and in China.

Introduction

Dairy farming is a profitable business for every class of people. It provides an excellent opportunity for self employment for unemployed youth. It is also an important source of income generation to small/marginal farmer and agriculture laborers. India is the largest milk producers in the world and having the first rank rank in world in milk production. Per capita availability of milk in India is 394 gm/day and in Jammu and Kashmir, it is 401 gm/day (2018-2019). The demand and supply of milk and milk products are increasing rapidly. There is a vast scope of dairy farming in our country.

The increasing cost of feed ingredients and its seasonal variability can be reduced by undertaking fodder cultivation. Before starting a dairy farm, the entrepreneurs/ farmers are advised to undergo training on dairy farming. Farmers can contact Local Animal Husbandry Staff/ Veterinary colleges/ Agriculture University etc. for this purpose. Farmer should also visit progressive dairy farmers and Agricultural University in the locality. Farmer must check the following points before starting a dairy farm.

The word soil is derived from the Latin word ‘Solum’ means soil. In general the top 15-20 cm cultivated layer is referred as soil. It is a loose and unconsolidated outer layer of the earth crust that is crumbly and powdery in nature. Soil below the plough layer is called subsoil.

Soil is formed by weathering of rocks. Weathering may be physical or chemical or both. Factors of soil formation are parent material, climate, living things-plants, animals and microorganisms, topography and time. Soil formation is a function of parent material (P), climate (C), topography (T_o), life (L) and time (T) which is represented by f(P C To L T).

Soil fertility is the ability of the soil to supply all the essential nutrients in optimum amount in balanced proportion in a form readily available to plants under conditions favourable for plant growth and should be free from toxic substances.

Soil productivity: Soil productivity is defined as the capability of soil for producing a specified crop or sequence of crops under defined set of management practices. It is measured in terms of outputs or harvests in relation to the inputs of production factors for specific kinds of soils under a physically defined system of management according to USDA (1957).

Plant growth is defined as the progressive development which is irreversible. It is expressed in terms of dry weight plants, height of plants, girth or diameter of the stem or tree trunks, spread of the tree canopy, number of branches or tillers. Plant growth is a function or various factors which may be expressed as G = f (x, x₂, x₃ x_n ).Some factors may be controlled while some cannot be controlled. The following are the factors which influence the plant growth.

Cropping system is the cropping patterns used on a farm and their interaction with farm resources, other farm enterprises, available technology and environment (Physical, biological and socioeconomic) which determine their makeup (Krantz et al., 1975). Cropping system is subsystem of the farming system.

The cropping system aims at increasing the benefits derived by crop production from available physical resources (land, climate, water resources etc.) that are not readily changed through optimization of input levels for a given crop or cropping pattern. The objective of any cropping system is to increase the efficiency of utilization of resources. The efficiency in measured by the quantity of product obtained per unit resource in a unit time in cropping system.

The problematic areas for crop production may be soils affected with acidity, high concentration of salts, water logged soils or soils in steep sloppy areas. These soils have limitations or ill effects for crop growth and productivity.

Alcoholic Beverages

These are the beverages which are prepared after alcoholic fermentation of sugars by yeast, contain varying amounts of ethyl alcohol (5-42%), and are consumed directly or after dilution in water.

Wine : Product made by alcoholic fermentation of grapes or grape juice unless otherwise specified, by yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and a subsequent ageing process. Alcohol content is 11-14 %, but may be as low as 7%.

Spoilage may be defined as the deteriorative process which renders the food inedible or results into reduction of quality.

Spoilage is Mainly of Two Types

Abiotic Spoilage: Less potential for causing health hazards to consumers. Occurs due to

With renewed interest in rainfed agriculture during 1970s, both the national (AICRPDA and CRIDA) and international institutions (ICRISAT) have studied several aspects of rainwater management. Recommendations have been made after their through testing both at the research Stations and on farmer’s fields. Initially these technologies were accepted by the farmers because of the pursuation by the Scientists and the incentives, but many of them are forgotten once the support is withdrawn. It is now time for us to examine whether the technologies themselves were weak or certain components were missing malfunctioning of the software may be due to a bug right from the beginning or it entered into the system at a later stage. It is also possible that we neglected certain critical inputs which became major constraints making the system defunct. Whatever the reason it should be identified and set right if the technology has to continue as tool for tackling the challenges of rainfed agriculture.

Main constraints of dry land agriculture to enhance the productivity are classified as follows:

Concept of nutrient availability: The ions in the soil solution are available to plant provided they can reach an active root or it can reach them. The concentration of ions in the soil solution at any given moment is however; usually low, except immediately after the application of water soluble fertilizers.

Most of the nutrients are taken up by the plant in the form of cations which are positively charged. Available cations either in the soil solution or held against leaching by negatively charged clay or humus particles are easily taken up by the plants. Other plant nutrients notably phosphorus, boron and molybdenum are taken up by the plant as anions which are negatively charged. The concentration of anions in the soil solution is usually low because they become converted to new less soluble forms e.g., soluble phosphate ions forms less soluble iron or aluminium phosphates. Minerals upon weathering and organic matter upon mineralization release nutrient ions.

Physical factors

However, much readily available nutrients a soil may contain various physical features of the soil make it impossible for the plant roots to absorb it. It then becomes positionally unavailable. These features include hard pans, undesirable soil structures, presence of hard clods, dry soil horizons and water logged situation.

Low soil cation exchange capacity leads to less retention of calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper and zinc.

A number of innovations have taken place towards ready to eat instant food mixes of traditional origin. These have helped people to eat traditional food in which ever part of the world they go.

MTR Company

In India the best example is of MTR company which manufactures a range of packaged foods which includes breakfast mixes, ready to eat meals, masalas and spices, snacks and beverages. Snacks, such as kodubale, khara boondi and masala groundnut are very popular as they are ready to eat packets and contain healthy food with less oil. The different spices used for mixes are procured from famous countries which give the perfect taste and avoid rancidity.As a summer launch, milkshake with canned chikoo, banana and cold filter coffee are available. MTR Foods Pvt. Ltd. is a subsidiary of Norwegian conglomerate Orkla and is an acronym of Mavalli Tiffin Rooms. According to the company, India is on the verge of explosive growth in packaged instant foods. MTR has an aim to target a market of Rs 30, 000 crore with their products of traditional meals, breakfast, snacks and desserts. The Nielsen India study has shown that in 2020, the number of consumers in this category will be 2.7 times than the current base.

Mother’s Recipe is a brand which make traditional pickles in bottles with a distribution network to 20 states in India and exporting the products globally. The manufacturing is done in-house and the raw materials are procured seasonally in large quantities. After cleaning they are cut according to the recipe. Each variety of mango pickle has its own cutting process. Some are automatically cut, while others need manual work. The use of right oils, spices roasted inhouse, and marination of the pickles according to the practices of the particular region allow many consumers to relish them. Bottling and packaging are done only when the orders come.

Soil microorganisms (Flora & Fauna) are just like higher plants depends entirely on soil for their nutrition, growth and activity. The major soil factors which influence the microbial population, distribution and their activity in the soil

Soil microbial biomass is an important parameter linking the plants to soil. It comprises about 2-3% of the total organic carbon in the soil and recognized as an important source of nutrients to plants. It is also a dynamic component of the soil associated with several functional properties of the terrestrial ecosystem. It represents the fraction of the soil responsible for the energy and nutrient cycling and the regulation of organic matter transformation.

Microbial biomass is a small but labile and living component of soil organic matter that is involved in most bio-geo-chemical processes in the terrestrial ecosystem. It interacts with crop productivity by regulating nutrient availability as a source; determining soil carbon storage- sink; and contributing to the atmospheric CO₂ from respiration. Thus it is the main agent that controls the flow of carbon and cycling of nutrient elements.

There is a close relationship between soil microbial biomass, decomposition rate, and nitrogen mineralization. It is also positively correlated with grain yield in organic farming and also contributes to soil structure and stabilization. Thus, there is the immense importance of microbial biomass in soil fertility as well as in agriculture.

Industrial microbiology is an important area of applied microbiology. In a broader sense, industrial microbiology is concerned with all aspects of business that relate to microbiology. It refers to the use of microorganisms in commercial enterprise. Cheap raw materials are converted to valuable products through the metabolism of microbes. Microbes for this purpose could be exploited in different ways.

Various commercial products of economic value made by microbes are :

Biofertilizers are one of the important components of organic farming and sustainable agriculture. Awareness among farmers is increasing on the biological fertilizers. But, the success of biofertilizer inoculation depends on the quality of the inoculant used. Because farmers are unable to judge the quality of the inoculants at the time of purchase or even at use. The inoculant producers are negligent to institute quality control programmes. Unfortunately much of the inoculant produced in the world today is relatively of poor quality. In such situation maintaining high quality inoculant products depend on the internal implementation of effective quality control systems by manufacturer. A major goal of a quality standard is to control the quality of inoculant to be used in any country.

Cape gooseberry is the native of Peru and Chili (South America), but widely cultivated in Cape of Good Hope and hence called so. It is known by different name in various parts of the world. It is commonly called ‘Poha’ in Hawaii; ‘Golden berry’,’ Pompelmoes’ or ‘Apelliefie’ in South Africa; ‘Lobolobophan’ in the Philippines. In India it is commonly called ‘Rasbhari’, ‘Makoi’, ‘Tiparee’ or ‘Tepari’. Cape goose berry (Physalise peruviana L.) belongs to the family solanaceae. Out of 80 species of genus physalis, only three are well known for their fruit value. These are: (i) P. pubescen L. (ii) P. Peruviana L., and (iii) P. ixocarpa Brot. However these three species, Physalise peruviana L is the most popular due to its pleasant flavour and acid-sweet taste.

The paddy grain contains a rough outer covering called husk. It accounts for about one-fifth to one - fourth of the weight of paddy. The inner kernel, called brown rice or dehusked rice, again contains some soft outer layers, jointly called bran. It accounts for about 6-8% of the brown rice weight, including the small germ (1-2% by weight) located in one corner. Rice milling is the process of removing the husk and a part of the bran from paddy in order to produce edible rice. Rice milling system ranges from the home-scale to the large, complex modern rice-processing installations. They include hand-pounding equipment, single hullers, emery sheller-cum-huller mills, emery sheller-cum-cone polisher mills and the modern rubber – roller rice mills. Rice milling industry does not only mill rice but it also carries many other essential functions, such as cleaning and grading, drying, storage, quality control etc. for the production of better quality rice. All these processes are discussed in this paper.

Unlike other food grains, rice is mostly consumed as cooked whole grain, Milling technology is therefore geared to obtain maximum outturn of milled rice and to reduce breakage to the minimum. The single huller mills are by and large located in villages or in localities where paddy is custom milled for produces and they still handle the bulk of the country’s production. The large-capacity rice mills located in urban or semi-urban areas for commercial milling are of ½ to 4 tones per hour capacity and handle the rest of the paddy milled. Some battery hullers are still in operation as large commercial mills, specially for milling parboiled paddy.

Human societies over the ages have depleted natural resources in different ways and degraded their local environments. Indiscriminate cutting down of trees and accelerating the construction works lead to global warming and climate change. Climate scientists believe that human-induced deforestation is responsible for 18-25% of climate change. Accumulation of greenhouse gases in the lower atmosphere is the main cause of global climate change. The concentration of these gases in the earth’s atmosphere is increasing, mainly due to deforestation and the combustion of fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide.

The earth receives heat energy constantly from the sun through radiation. Some of the heat is absorbed and some is reflected. Carbon dioxide works like an invisible blanket that wraps around the earth and traps the heat inside, similar to the function of a greenhouse. A greenhouse is a structure that is used in colder climates to grow plants. Even when outside temperatures drop below freezing point, greenhouses are still warm enough inside to grow plants. Greenhouses are made of glass, which allows solar radiation to enter. The heat is trapped inside the greenhouse, allowing plants to grow all the year round. Increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere insulate it like a greenhouse, leading to a gradual warming of the earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas, but there are others as well, including methane and nitrous oxide.

Mitigation means addressing the causes of climate change, while adaptation attempts to tackle its effects. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change defines mitigation as an anthropogenic intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases and adaptation as the adjustment in natural or human systems to a new or changing environment (IPCC, 2007).

In 1907, the Russian Nobel laureate, Dr. Elie Metchnikoff, fascinated by the unusual longevity of Bulgarian farmers, consuming beneficial lactic acid bacteria by way of traditional fermented milk products, suggested that regular intake of friendly microbes could benefit human health. Although Dr. Metchnikoff ’s recommended bacteria for the purpose proved largely ineffective, the theory was carried forward with moderate success until the war on bacteria began because of the advent of sulfa drugs and antibiotics (Scott, 2012). However soon after their rampant use and the realization of the rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance, researchers turned yet again to ecological notions and the time was fertile for the advent of probiotics. By the 1980’s the term had stabilized both in medical and veterinary literature. The mid 1990’s witnessed a surge of exponential studies on probiotics, the definition of Probiotics emerged in 2001 and the years thereafter saw tremendous progress in the science of probiotics.

Almost simultaneous was the study on the study of the intestinal microbiota when Alfred Nissile demonstrated that transferring members of the human gut microbiota to healthy typhoid carriers helped in Salmonella being cleansed from their system (Nissle, 1916). It was then, that the importance of the gut microbes in prevention of infection became evident. What followed was the advent of culture independent, modern biotechnological tools for whole genome sequencing and the successful launch of two most ambitious projects - Human Microbiome project (Turnbaugh et al., 2007) and the Met Hit project (Metahit, 2009; Qin et al., 2010). They provided fascinating insights into the highly complex microbial ecosystem harboured by the human body. The term Microbiome (refers to the collective genome of our microbial inhabitants) had entered literature in 2001 and the concept of gut microbiota in maintaining overall health gained wider attention.

Tannins: Group of plant phenolic compounds found in higher plants as secondary metabolites. Their main function is to defense against microorganisms, insects, and herbivores and in allelopathy.

Taxis (tactic orientation; formerly topotaxis): Movement of motile organisms, cells or organelles, the prevailing direction of which is determined by the direction of the stimulus.

TATA box (Hogness box): A sequence of nucleotides which serves as the main recognition site for the attachment of RNA polymerase in the promoter region of eukaryotic genes. Located at around 25 nucleotides upstream of the transcriptional start site. It consists of seven base consensus sequence, TATAAAA.

TCA cycle: Tricarboxylic acid cycle. It is also called as citric acid cycle or Krebs cycle, It is a step in aerobic degradation of glucose to convert into energy. During this cycle several intermediates are produced, which leads to several metabolic pathways. During this cycle, there is production of reductancts such as NADH, FADH and GTP.

Telomere: Sequences at both termini of each eukaryotic chromosome that facilitate replication.

Benefit of biofertilizers have been extensively studied for various agricultural and horticultural crops. However, the effectiveness of inoculated biofertilizers are influenced by several factors. If the use of biofertilizers have to be popularized in horticultural crops, the major factors affecting their performance particularly in relation to soil, plant, quality of the product and application methods have to be addressed. Factors affecting the performance of biofertilizers are:

4.1 Quality of the product

4.1.1 Production process

The high quality of biofertilizers are determined by the production process (Bashan et al., 2014). At the same time, the population density of mother culture and the quality of the final products are directly related (Stephens and Raskm, 2000). As the inoculum consists of a strain, the relationship among the microorganisms interaction in the rhizosphere have to be understood. In the case of more than one microorganisms, the efficiency depends on the various mode of action by various microorganisms which might overlap with antagonistic acitivities (Vassilev et al., 2001, 2006 b). The relationship of microorganisms with plants is not based on the taxonomic diversity, but their functional diversity (Maherali and Klironomos, 2007).

The efficiency of biofertilizers could be assured by enhanced shelf life of the inoculant and biological traits which are a challenge for developing a formulation (Bashan, et al., 2014). Hence, either single or consortia of microorganisms formulation with or without additives determines the efficacy of the biofertilizers. The formulation determines shelf-life during storage and transport, which enhances the persistence of the strain in soil and get maximum benefits to the host plants after inoculation (Manikandan et al., 2010; Schoebitz et al., 2012). Different kinds of carriers are used in the formulation process which affects the overall quality and efficacy of the biofertilizers (Bashan et al., 2014; Herrmann and Lesueur, 2013). Granular inoculants showed good results under stressed soil conditions (Clayton et al., 2004; Lupwayi et al., 2006). Encapsulation of the microbial strain into polymers allow diverse compositions and structures (Vassilev et al., 2005) but, have limitations for commercial production (Bashan, et al., 2014; John et al., 2011). Use of additives might improve the shelf life of the product (Bashan et al., 2014; Malusà et al., 2012; Herrmann and Lesueur, 2013) with introduction of specific substances to enhance the efficacy of biofertilizers.

Biofertilizers can directly or indirectly influence the growth of plant. The direct influence can be through production of phytohormones or making the nutrients available to plants. The indirect effect can be through management of plant pathogens through biological control. Therefore, the purposeful introduction of biofertilizer inoculants to plant microbiome represents an environmentally sound option that holds a prominent position in order to reduce the dependency on agrochemicals (Adesemoye and Kloepper, 2009; Abhilash et al., 2016; Aloo, et al., 2019).

Microbes in soil can rarely exists as single cells and survive near the plant root canopy or in bulk soils or endophytes or even on plant surfaces (Lorito, 2006). The soil microflora occurs as complex members of microbiota (Hacquard, 2015). Microbial consortia (MC) are unique mixture of organisms which respond to the environment stress and adapt to stresses due to internal beneficial interactions among the microbial community. Ecosystem’s physiological functions by microflora is carried out by more than one microbial species with the functional diversity and succession among different microbial components. The microbial balance among the different microflora of a MC will consist of a continuous shift between actively growing cells and non-dividing cells of the microbial consortia. It has been reported that different microbial populations “talk” to each other by “quorum sensing” mechanism in a given environment by exchanging specific chemical signals (Thompson, 2015). Natural microbial consortia holds many specific properties like stability, functional diversity and perform complex functions. The natural consortia have generated an interest in manpulating synthetic consortia for the benefit of application (Minty, et al., 2013).

The biofertilizer technology has paved way for the manufacturers and entrepreuners to establish a biofertilizer production unit due to an increasing demand and awareness among farmers. Biofertilizer production units have already been started with most of them in the southern states of India. The biofertilizers can be produced using different kinds of carrier materials (peat, coal, lignite, clays, inorganic soil), organic materials (composts, soybean meal, wheat bran, sawdust, etc.), or inert materials (e.g., vermiculite, perlite, kaolin, bentonite, silicates). Natural carriers like peat, plant waste materials, composts, sawdust, sludge lignite, clays, coal, vermiculite, perlite and bentonite and mixture of organic and inorganic materials may also be used.

The Government of India is also encouraging a low cost technology by providing a subsidy to establish a biofertilizer production unit . The major equipment’s and other materials required for a biofertilizer production unit with the capacity of 150 metric tonnes/annum are given below