eChapters

Introduction

Coccidiosis is the most economically harmful disease encountered in commercial poultry production. It is caused by single celled protozoan parasites of the genus Eimeria which are commonly referred to as coccidia. Williams (1998) reported that the annual worldwide loss is about $ 800 million. The total loss due to coccidiosis is found to be Rs. 1.14 billion in India. The important finding is that almost 70 percent of the estimated cost is due to subclinical coccidiosis, by impact on weight gain and feed conversion rate. One of the reasons for these remarkable finding is probably the difficult diagnosis of subclinical coccidiosis.

Chickens are susceptible to at least seven species of Eimeria. The most common species are Eimeria tenella, which causes the caecal coccidiosis, E. necatrix &E. maxima, which causes mid intestinal coccidiosis, E. acervulina which causes anterior intestinal coccidiosis and E. brunetti which causes posterior intestinal or rectal coccidiosis. E. mitis and E. praecox are generally mildly pathogenic and commonly occurring as co-infection/mixed infection in with other species. Coccidiosis is particularly difficult to combat because several different species of Eimeria exist in the field. Poultry may become infected with different species because the immunity that develops after infection is specific only to one species. Eimeria has direct and complex life cycle that involves many developmental stages within the host cells. Each Eimeria species has characteristic intestinal lesions and type of diarrhoea (with or without blood).

Introduction

• Objective of animal diet formulations to provide a palatable ration at minimumcost to meet nutritional and energyrequirements of the animal.

• To achieve this objective, it is important to have knowledge about the requirementsof specific nutrient ingredients and the nutrient composition of feeds, which are used to formulate the animal diet.

• Diet formulation is an important aspect to meet production and financial goals in the most economical way.

• A dietis called balanced if it providesenergyto meet lactation, production and specific level of health requirement.

• Economic as well as nutritional aspects should be considered while optimisingnutrient ingredients.

• These three factors are so intimately related to each other that cannot be separated during the process of feed formulation.

Preliminary Stages

• The first step in diet formulation is to define the objective of diet formulation. Depending on the objective of diet formulation (such as reproduction, lactation, live-stocketc.), requirementsfor nutrient ingredients are established

• This step includes individual units and overall requirement for diet ingredients. After defining the objective of study and diet formulation, requirements of nutrient intake are defined to achieve that objective

• While definingtherequirement, socialenvironment, internal, external and economical conditions should be taken into consideration.Nutrient requirements can be established by the empirical method and factorial method.

• The empiricalmethodisbasedonexperimental studies whereas the factorial method identifies the various functions within the animal that defines the needs of nutrient ingredients.

India has a primarily agrarian economy. A significant portion of the country’s land is utilized for agriculture, and many of its agro-ecological regions cultivate a broad spectrum of crops. With a production of 93.9 million tons (Mt) of wheat, 104.6 Mt of rice, 21.6 Mt of maize, 20.7 Mt of millets, 357.7 Mt of sugarcane, 8.1 Mt of fibre crops, 17.2 Mt of pulses and 30.0 Mt of oilseeds crops, in the year 2011-12, it is usual that a massive amount of crop residues are produced both on-farm and off-farm. The country produces approximately 500-550 Mt of crop residues per year in the country. Therefore, landholders are facing difficulties in managing crop residues in the country. The human population has grown four times in the last century. With a projected 9.7 billion people in the world by 2050, worldwide food consumption and the demand for meat and milk are likely to increase by as much as 73% and 58%, respectively. Improved agricultural and industrial practices have contributed to the population boom, which continues to put pressure on food supply to feed a growing population. Huge quantities of food resources will be needed, but again, the crop residues produced at these levels of global production pose major challenges.

Availability of Crop Residues

India produces more than 500 million tons (Mt) of agricultural residue on an annual basis. The quantity of residue produced has grown significantly due to the cultivation of wheat and rice. Crop residue output varies greatly, and the use of these residue is influenced by the crops cultivated, the intensity of cropping, and the productivity across different Indian regions. About 70% of the total crop residues (352 Mt) are contributed by cereal crops (rice, wheat, maize, millets), with rice contributing 34% and wheat 22%. The excess agricultural residues—that is, the residues left over after subtracting the amount used for other purposes—are often burned on the farm. The amount of surplus crop residues available in India is estimated between 84 and 141 Mt per year where cereals crops contribute 58. As an estimate, about 70 MTs of surplus crop residue are burned annually.

At present, approximately 1.4 million of the world’s species are described, but  majority are still unknown to science. Plant genetic resources have gained global attention in  recent past by agricultural and environmental institutions. Conservation and use of genetic resources attracted considerable attention. Value of biological diversity in economic terms is very important for human society. India is one of the major centers of diversity in world. A small part of plant and their culture is considered as floriculture. India is bestowed with varied types of agro-climatic conditions conductive for growing a wide variety of ornamentals including flowers. India has a rich heritage of ornamental floriculture.

In rural and hilly areas there are different types of colourful flowers and foliage at different seasons round the year. All these colourful flowers and foliage are wasted under natural process. In spite of aesthetic beauty, all these natural resources are totally unutilized due to unawareness of their use. All these flowers are available in wide range of colours but mostly dominated by yellow. The entire seasonal colourful vegetations can be converted into value added products by using simple dehydration technique developed at National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow. The technique is  suitable for dehydration of flowers and foliage. Present chapter will highlight how dehydration techniques can be utilized for preparation of value added products from seasonal unutilized floral vegetation of rural India.

Introduction 
Natural product scaffolds and heterocyclic ring-based organic compounds are crucial for developing bioactive substances and therapeutic drugs, serving as essential structural units for bioactive molecules and pharmacophores. Numerous experts have worked hard to design and develop organic synthesis, which could make it easier to obtain these crucial organic chemicals. Due to the multistep reactions involving several hazardous chemicals, conventional organic synthesis is neither commercially feasible nor environmentally benign. To overcome these issues, improvisation or developing a new synthetic approach with a superior atom and step economic procedure is always desirable. The biggest challenge in organic synthesis is functionalizing a carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bond in a molecule. This is generally achieved through radical intermediates and catalysis by enzymes or transition metals. The transition metal-catalyzed process is the most popular due to its high chemoselectivity, site-selectivity, and efficiency (Yamaguchi et al., 2012). Inert C-H bonds can be directly functionalized, offering appealing synthetic strategies that enhance both atom and step economy and provide an overall efficiency of multistep synthetic sequences, leading to a sustainable and greener approach. These optimizations provide atom and step-economical methods for synthesizing structurally complicated organic molecules with broad substrate scope and good to exceptional product yields (Ackermann, 2011; Gensch et al., 2016). Direct conversion from the substrate to the desired organic compound without pre-functionalization is attractive and cost-effective. However, it can be quite challenging to selectively functionalize particular C-H bonds due to the inertness of those C-H bonds having similar electronic and bonding properties and the ubiquity of C-H bonds in organic molecules (Sambiagio et al., 2018). Two main techniques have been explored to obtain selectivity in C-H bond functionalization (Brückl et al., 2012). The first is based only on the natural reactivity pattern of an organic molecule. This strategy is highly successful for some heterocycles with at least one specific reactive site due to the presence of heteroatoms. However, it produces inadequate selectivity for most aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. The latter is to direct further functionalization at a particular site using directing groups already present in the molecule (Kuhl et al., 2012). The development of directing groups that effectively control the regioselectivity of C-H functionalization has lately transformed this field, enabling the incorporation of desired groups in unfunctionalized sites (Docherty et al., 2023; Labinger & Bercaw, 2002). Employing directing groups, various functional groups are added to a molecule using this method. Directing groups are crucial for breaking a C-H bond in a transition metal catalysis reaction, where the metal center in the active catalyst complex is usually coordinated with the substrate through a weak interaction with the nearby C-H bond. This interaction is typically not selective; thus, the metal centre may activate numerous C-H bonds on the substrate. However, when a directing group is incorporated into a substrate, the metal center can interact more strongly and regioselectively with a specific region on the substrate as directed by the directing group. This causes selective cleavage

Introduction

With the perception that antibiotics should no longer be used as animal growth promoters, there has been widespread interest in natural methods of inhibiting detrimental bacteria. Their removal from the poultry diets is therefore brings with it consequences. This has lead to somewhat of a renaissance in research activity on the discovery and application of non antibiotic chemical compounds capable of either killing microorganisms outright or at the very least retarding growth sufficiently to limit their dissemination. Organic acids have a long history of being utilized as food additives and preservatives for preventing food deterioration and extending the shelf life of perishable food ingredients. In recent past organic acids have been used to control microbial contamination and replace antibiotic growth promoters in poultry (Ricke, 2003; Hassan et al.,2010; Adil et al., 2011).

INTRODUCTION

Digital libraries are a set of electronic resources and associated technical capabilities for creating, searching, and using Information; they are an extension and enhancement of information storage and retrieval systems that manipulate digital data in any medium. The content of digital libraries includes data and metadata. Digital libraries are constructed, Collected, and organized by a community of users and their functional capabilities support the information needs and uses of that community.

A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks. A digital library is a type of information retrieval system. Man is a communicator of information, not simply a user of tools. The history of civilization is the history of improved means of communication. Man always desires to improve the means of communicating. Documents are the artifacts of recorded knowledge that is information. Documents are meant for communication knowledge to larger audiences. Libraries have stored and served the documents to the users.

Thus, libraries have performed as one of the links between generators of information and its users. The developments of libraries from print paper based libraries to digital libraries seem an illustration of man’s never-ending desire to improve his means of communication. In the digital world highway, there is stress on three factors (a) Awareness of information: it provides breadth of vision (b) awareness of technology: gives the power to make the visions manifest, and (c) awareness of needs facilitates the insight to use professional skills and talents to greater effect.

Abstract
Aquatic weeds, such as duckweed, present a dual challenge and opportunity within aquatic ecosystems and the poultry feed industry. These fast-growing plants, often deemed nuisances due to their potential to disrupt ecosystems, offer significant potential as alternative feed sources. Duckweed, a floating aquatic plant, is particularly noteworthy due to its high protein content, rapid growth rate, and nutrient recycling capabilities. In freshwater systems, excessive growth of aquatic weeds can lead to decreased ecosystem productivity, hypoxia, and anoxia, making effective management crucial. However, duckweed’s ability to thrive in nutrient-rich conditions and its high nutritional value, including substantial protein and essential vitamins, position it as a valuable feed ingredient for poultry. The Indian poultry sector, growing at an annual rate of 8-10%, faces challenges such as rising feed costs and limited availability of conventional feed ingredients. Integrating duckweed into poultry diets can provide a cost-effective, sustainable alternative that reduces reliance on traditional feed sources and supports ecosystem management. This approach not only addresses feed shortages but also contributes to environmental sustainability by recycling nutrients and mitigating pollution. Despite its potential, challenges such as lack of standardized regulations and market acceptance remain. Continued research, policy support, and market promotion are essential to harness the full benefits of aquatic weeds.
Keywords: Aquatic, Duckweed, Poultry, Sustainable and Feed Additives

1. Introduction

Electronic journals are an important source for scientific technical research and development. This resource is widely used by research and development workers and other users of the libraries to carry out qualitative research, education and gain knowledge. In recent years there has been a surge in the number of electronic journals available to libraries for their users to access. More titles are made available by publishers and subscription agents. There is a common view amongst Liberians that libraries are forsaking traditional print resources in favor of electronic resources. With the application of information technology, particularly internet, there has been a shift from traditional print journal to electronic journals. This type of use survey is essential to improve the existing library services, to plan new services, rationalize the use of the limited financial resources in an economic way, evaluate the performance of the library and enhance the user satisfaction.

Abstract

Ectomycorrhizal symbionts are important natural resources to revive degraded and deforested areas. Artificial inoculum of these mycobionts improves the growth of tree seedlings in nutrient poor soils due to the formation of extensive network of fungal mycelium responsible for the transfer of water and nutrients to the plants. Seedlings of tree species like, Pinus insularis, Quercus griffithii and Schima wallichii with ectomycorrhizae formed by Suillus bovinus, Boletus edulis and Scleroderma citrinum were studied in field condition. The study was conducted at two different stages of degraded sites. Results of the study indicated that seedlings with ectomycorrhizae were able to generate numerous lateral roots of greater length and thereby utilize water and nutrients more effectively than non- mycorrhizal ones The degree of mycorrhizal development varied in different host species with different fungal species. There was a strong relation between the colonization by mycorrhiza and the survival of seedlings. The study has suggested that mycorrhiza has a potential in reclamation of soil and reforestation of degraded land. S. bovinus., B. edulis and S. citrinum successfully colonized and promoted the growth of P. insulates Q. griffithii and S. wallichii respectively in reforestation programmes of degraded lands of Nagaland.

1. Introduction
 
Today we are living in the Era of Information. Over last decade, electronic resources have become increasingly substantial components of academic library collection. This is due to the continuous development of Information Technology and its impact on library collection development policies due to changing demand of users for the pin pointed and exhaustive information within a short time. With the growing popularity of e-resources, the traditional libraries are gradually migrating from print documents to e- resources where providing access to information is considered more important than owning it. This is further augmented by the advent of Internet. Which has opened up windows of opportunity to different Information sources.

Essential oil obtained from aromatic plants is a mixture of several naturally arising biochemical compounds that occur in some plants which have scented flowers, leaves, bark, seeds, stem wood, or roots. As per the
biochemical view, the active ingredients of essential oils are tranquil of oxygenated hydrocarbons and several other types of hydrocarbons which may be clustered conferring to their biochemical structure into esters, terpenes, aldehydes, alcohols, phenols and ketones etc. Carbon is considered as the basic element for all kinds of essential oils. Majority of essential oil compounds are made of C, H, O, N and S atoms. The atom of these different kind of elements are joined to each other to make the essentia oil molecules. These biomolecules are made up of five carbon atoms is named isoprene. All essential oil compounds mainly consist terpenic compounds having two or more than two isoprene units (C5). These Isoprene units (C5) are generally attached to each other in head to tail fashion, hence ‘isoprene rule’ is followed. When two units of isoprene (10 C) are joint together, they form what is known as monoterpenes. Likewise, when three, four, five, six and eight units are united, they are called sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, sesterterpenes, triterpenes and tetraterpenes, respectively. These terpenes are colourless liquids and are generally lighter than water. They are highly refractive and insoluble in water. The ‘terpene’ term is usually restricted to hydrocarbon but on addition of oxygen in it, these are called terpenoids. These include menthol, cirtral, linalool, geraniol, carotenes, camphor, thymol, menthone etc. (Maheshwari, 1995).
Generally, the essential oil is extracted from aromatic plants through various methods but for production of essential oil for aromatherapy, the only suitable methods are those that are non-toxic. This contains cold pressing, distillation, and, in some cases, extraction by using the non-toxic solvents.

Major field operations for horticultural crops viz., fruit nursery/seedling preparation, post hole digging for planting, intercultural operation, aeration, training and pruning, irrigation, plant protection, harvesting, handling, packaging transport are completed through field tools and implements. The cultivation of horticultural crops is predominantly dependent upon human labour, since commercial cultivation is only on a limited scale. So animal/power tiller or tractor-drawn mould board ploughs, disc ploughs, harrows, cultivators and rotavators are available for land preparation and development of new orchards. The fruit plants are generally perennial plants. So different types of sprayers and dusters are available from manually to power operated such as knapsack sprayers foot operated sprayers, power operated mist blowers and dusters or plant protection equipments used for application of insecticides, pesticides and herbicides in the fruit orchards. Some of important implements and sprayers are enlisted below

Introduction

Food ingredients sector is indicating ample prospects for growth. The segment is an obligatory element for the growth of the food and beverage sector. These ingredients are also driving the development of the healthy functional foods industry to increase by 20% growth annually. Innovation in the food and beverage market, especially in the processed food domain, has created innumerable opportunities for new product development in the ingredients market as well. The segment is driven by the growing food processing industry and India is emerging as ingredients bowl of the future. Additionally, growing urbanization coupled with industrialization and changing lifestyles have led to growing demand for convenient food that offers health benefits, over and above the basic nutritional benefits of the foodstuff. There are nearly 10 to 15 broad classes of ingredients that include the very basic ingredients as well as certain value added ingredients that have niche applications. Key ingredients are preservatives, flavours, colours, hydrocolloids/stabilizers, emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners and value added health food ingredients such as omega-3-fatty acids prebiotics, probiotics etc. Until recently, there has been limited research into functional foods in meats, while functional foods in the dairy sector have been developed to a high degree. But meat is less allergenic than many other foods and much more research into the development and marketing of novel functional meat products is required. Such meat products would open up a new market for the meat industry. Nutraceutical and functional food industry is a very vibrant industry today with the claims and a clear mandate of health, wellness and prevention of diseases as one of its main goals.

Genomics-driven approaches to Genebank management

• Pre-breeding can facilitate the characterization and utilization of PGRs.

• Allele mining involves searching useful alleles of genes from a wide germplasm collection.

• Transformation of germplasm collections into bio-digital resource centres like

• DNA Barcoding,

• DNA fingerprinting.

Pre-breeding

• Pre-breeding is the step before practical breeding.

• Aim - To introduce new desirable traits/genes into an adapted genetic background. This will broaden the genetic base in a breeding material in pace with environmental changes.”

• The main link between the germplasm conservation and its use in plant breeding

• A vital contribution of pre-breeding is increasing the total genetic diversity in crops and finding specific genes and traits.

• Main link between conservation of PGR in gene bank collections and utilisation of these resources in agriculture and horticulture.

• Essential for linking genetic diversity arising from wild relatives and other unimproved materials for utilization.

• These activities are a collaboration between germplasm curator and the plant breeder who need to work germplasm collections and how new traits from these collections can bred into new varieties.

INTRODUCTION

The evolution of National Natural Resource Management System (NNRMS) towards fully harnessing the potentials of space remote sensing and the development of the series of Indian Remote Sensing Satellites, besides establishment of necessary ground based data establishment of necessary ground based data reception processing and dissemination systems as well as remote sensing facilities at National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Space Applications Centre (SAC) and Regional Remote Sensing Service Centers (RRSSCs) for efficient and effective analysis of remotely sensed data are the major steps accomplished in pursuit of this goal. With the establishment of Remote Sensing Applications Centers in several States under many Governmental organizations, remote sensing today has come to stay as an integral part of the national development efforts in the vital sectors of agriculture, hydrology, geology, forestry, oceanography, mineral resources and disaster management like drought, flood, cyclone, earthquake, landslides crop pests, forest fires etc., thus touching every facet of national development. Today, India has acquired a strong self-reliant base to harness the full potential of this technology and as a result, the national objective of achieving sustainable development at micro level is being addressed through the integration of remotely sensed data with other relevant collateral information to arrive at locale specific, environment friendly, economically viable and culturally acceptable treatment packages (Rao, 1991 and Jayaraman, el at. 1993).

Abstract

Aquifers are usually composed of permeable layers that can ways a considerable amount of groundwater. Usually, aquifer units are correlated through the concept of lithostratigraphy. For low-permeable aquifers, it is difficult to define the spatial distribution of hydrogeological units, and this study attempts to use geochemical methods to identify the groundwater flow paths in an area of Southeast coast of Tamil Nadu, India. Multiple geochemical analyses, including groundwater chemistry; stable isotopic compositions of d¹⁸O and 8D contents were performed.  Spatial distribution of d¹⁸O, dD, Cl-/HCO-₃ show that northeastern part of the study area seriously affected by seawater intrusion. The highly permeable aquifers at the east coastal region are characterized by high hydraulic conductivity as compared with other regions of the study area. Hydrogeochemical characteristics based on bivariate diagrams of major and minor ions show that changes in the chemical composition of groundwater are mainly controlled by the salinization process followed by cation-exchange reactions.

Abstract

The weather or climate is a natural resource and is an important basic input in agricultural planning and strategies. Every plant process, related with growth, development and yield of a crop and each of inseason and off-season farm operations (according to World Meteorological Organization) is more than 10 per cent and can reach up to 50 per cent in smaller areas and not a surprise even if it reaches to 100 per cent on micro scale. Amongst the various weather elements, temperatures, radiation and rainfall play major role in deciding the crop growth and yield levels. Precipitation is one of the important weather factors being responsible for atmospheric and soil moisture and therefore has more agricultural importance, especially in rainfed agriculture.

Keywords: Remote sensing, weather, agroadvisory, GIS

1.0 Introduction

India receives more than 70 per cent of its annual rainfall during South West monsoon season. Indian summer monsoon rainfall shows large intra - seasonal and intra-annual variability (Parthasarathy, 1960; Alexander et al., 1978; Mooley and Parthasarathy, 1984) and also changes in space and time, intensity and distribution. Borgaonkar and Pant (2001) have reported that Indian monsoon rainfall has shown trend less nature since 17^th century based on proxy data with large inter-annual fluctuations. IPCC (2001) has reported increase in rainfall over tropical and higher latitudes and decrease in rainfall over subtropics and mid latitudes.

While the fourth agricultural revolution has been sparked by technological advancements, humans still face many challenges in achieving agricultural resilience to meet the demands of the world’s expanding population, including declining croplands, depleting water supplies, the negative effects of climate change, and more. On the one hand, food and dairy products are in increasing demand due to the growing population. On the other hand, an increasing number of variables pose a threat to food security and sustainable food production, including globalization, climate change, scarce land and water resources, unsustainable land management techniques, pests and diseases becoming resistant to chemical pesticides, and the emergence of pathogens that have adapted to new hosts. The integration of geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and artificial intelligence (AI) in geospatial approaches offers a solid foundation for the sustainable management of agricultural resources with the goal of boosting agricultural output. These days, local, regional, and worldwide agricultural production uses these sophisticated instruments more and more. Growers have been more interested in implementing precision agriculture during the past ten years. Precision agriculture is a crop-management method that takes into account the temporal and geographical heterogeneity of soil and crops within a field. Another agricultural technique that is being promoted as a future development that will enable the world’s population to be fed sustainably is precision agriculture. The broad use of geographic methods for agricultural resource management, including crop disease monitoring and pest infestation control, is the main topic of this chapter.