eChapters

1. DEFINITIONS

Various definations of weed have been proposed. Weed is defined as a valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop. Weed means any undesirable or troublesome plant, especially one that grows profusely where it is not wanted. The weed have also been defined a plant considered undesirable. Weeds are commonly unwanted plants in human-controlled settings, such as farm fields, gardens, lawns and parks. A weed may be any plant that grows or reproduces aggressively, or is outside its native habitat. Some plants that often are considered to be weeds are Bermuda grass, creeping Charlie, dandelion, golden rod, poison ivy, ragweed, wild carrot, wood sorrel, nutsedge etc.

Crops belonging to family Cucurbitaceae are generally known as ‘Cucurbits’. It consists of a wide range of vegetables either used for salad purpose (cucumber) or for cooking (all gourds), pickling (West Indian gherkin) or as dessert fruit (muskmelon, water melon) or candied or preserved (ash gourd).  As a group, cucurbits occupy the largest area in India and in other tropical countries. Its use is not primarily because of calories, minerals or vitamins since they are generally low to moderate in nutrients with a few exceptions like bitter gourd (rich in vitamin C- 96mg/100g), pumpkin (vitamin A 1600 IU/100g ), Kakrol (high protein  3.1g/100g,), parwal and chow chow (calcium- 531 mg and  140 mg / 100 g respectively). From the nutritional point of view, cucurbit seeds are valued for their high oil and protein contents.  Seed proteins of cucurbits are comparable to that of legumes and are richer in methionine.

    1.    Rice is a
        a)    Edible fruit    b)    Edible Vegetable
        c)    Edible flower    d)    All
    2.    Major components in cereal seeds are 
        a)    Endosperm    b)    Germ or embryo
        c)    a & b    d)    None
    3.    Bran is composed of 
        a)    Pericarp    b)    Testa
        c)    aleuron layer    d)    All
    4.    Oats contains ______________ percent of hull
        a)    50    b)    40
        c)    30    d)    20

    1.    Laminar flow hood works on the principle of 
        a)    High-efficiency particulate air filter
        b)    High-energy particulate air filter
        c)     High-efficiency pressure air filter
        d)     None
    2.    Most of the organisms are killed
        a)    121°C for 5 min.    b)    15lb/in²
        c)     a & b    d)     None
    3.    Autoclaving is not recommended for
        a)    Oils    b)    Powders
        c)     Sensitive fluids    d)     All

Administration

Term Administration is derived from a Latin word Administaire which means to serve. The word administration is also derived from the English word administracioun, which is in turn is derived from the French word administration, which itself has its root from the Latin word administratio, which means ad (to) and ministratio (give service). The term administration is a more general and comprehensive connotation and may be defined as the universal process of organizing people and resources efficiently so as to direct activities toward common goals and objectives. Administration is a distinct skill and directed towards the guidance, leadership and control of the efforts of a group of individuals towards some common goal.

Administration is the art of guiding, coordinating and integrating policies established for any organizational unit to effectively and efficiently achieve the purpose of the organization.

Partitioning of assimilated carbon among sink organs is a critical factor that controls the rate and pattern of plant growth. Environmental stress often restricts resource availability while successful acclimation sets in motion processes that restore the supply. A key mechanism contributing to regulation of carbon partitioning is an expression of genes that control activity of the enzymes which initiate sucrose metabolism at specific sites and stages of ontogeny. Drought stress not only limits the size of the source and sink tissues but the phloem loading, assimilate translocation and dry matter portioning are also impaired. However, the extent of effects varies with the plant species, stage, duration and severity of drought. Crop production faces many challenges, due to changing environmental conditions and evolving needs for new plant-derived materials. 
The extreme temperatures those are consequences of present-day global climate changes are considered as major abiotic stresses for crop plants. Temperatures exceeding the limits of adaptation substantially influence the metabolism, viability, physiology, and yield of many plants. Plants exposed to extreme temperatures often show a common response in the form of oxidative stress. However, the extent of damage caused by extreme temperatures depends greatly on the duration of the adverse temperature, the genotypes of the exposed plants, and their stage of growth. Numerous research findings support the notion that induction and regulation of antioxidant defenses are necessary for obtaining substantial tolerance against environmental stress. Plant adaptation to either high temperature or low temperature is a multigenic response which is very complex in nature. Plant response to continuous light depends on plant tolerance and can be modified by alteration in temperature, light intensity, CO2 level, and other environmental factors.

1. 1 Introduction

Irrigation is the artificial application of water needed to the crop field. It is the process of uniformly wetting the root zone depth. The wetting may be done over the land surface or below of it. The application of water in excess to the requirement or accumulation of water in crop field due to rain or unplanned seepage is not considered as irrigation. However, irrigation is supplemental to rainfall. Irrigation water is considered as single most important inputs for crop production.

1.    Normally economic growth refers to ___________.

(a) Growth in actual nominal per capita output

(b) Growth in potential real per capita output

(c) Growth in actual real per capita output

(d) Growth in potential real per capita output

2.    Which one of the following is not true about economic development?

(a) Problem of under developed country

(b) Its discontinuous and spontaneous change

(c) It means more output only

(d) Its innovative process

Seed is the basic input of agriculture, and its importance has now well recognized in the food supply chain since the warranty for production could be succeeded only based on the availability of seed. Seed becomes the quality seed, on possession of specific characters, viz. germination, vigour, purity and health status, hence, seed production becomes the specified scientific technology with the foreseeing of quality and storability in addition to productivity. From time immemorial, seeds are being imposed with some management techniques for improvement in seed quality and thereby the productivity. These seed management techniques are known as seed treatments. Generally, seed treatment is the application of biological, chemical agents and physical techniques to the seed in order to obtain the benefit of plant protection, production and invigouration. Basically, seed treatments are intended to improve the quality of seeds since nothing can substitute poor quality seed, no matter how lavishly other inputs are spent on the crop established from such seeds. Even for a resource poor farmer, high quality seed would be a great advantage because it ensures the best utility of all inputs in addition to the augmentation of yield increase by 15 to 20%.

In general, seed treatment could broadly be classified into physical and physiological treatment. Physical treatment is external seed treatment, while physiological is impregnation of needy substances into the seed through various seed management techniques. Some of the germination augmenting physiological seed treatments are seed fortification, seed hardening, seed priming, dry permeation and pre-germination. In addition, some of the seeds are imposed with special treatments such as dormancy breaking treatment such as soaking in water, mechanical scarification, acid scarification, bio-scarification, scorching, warm stratification, cold stratification and electrical seed treatment. The common physical seed treatments are seed pelleting, seed coating/film coating and seed colouring. Seeds are also imposed with some other physical treatments that can act on the physiology of the seed such as irradiation, magnetic and electrical seed treatment. In addition, irrespective of seed, seeds are given with protective treatment when they are taken for storage, which are commonly termed as pesticide seed treatment. Seeds are also given with corrective treatment at their initiation reduction with seed quality characters during storage, which are termed as mid storage correction.

3. Contemporary Crisis in Global Agriculture
Over the past century, bunch of initiatives have been taken and achieved worldwide in expediting human welfare. Societies have also changed to great extent as a result of quantum leaps in technology, rapid globalization, and innovations in agricultural production systems. Perhaps the world ‘free of fear and want’ envisioned at the foundation programme of the United Nations is still a far cry.
Similarly, much work left to be fulfilled the vision of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and to make ‘a world free of hunger and malnutrition and one in which food and agriculture contribute to improving the living standards of all, especially the poorest, in an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable manner’.
Amidst great plenty, millions of people still face pervasive poverty, inequalities, joblessness, natural resource depletion, environmental degradation, displacement, migration, disease, and deprivation. Majority of humanity’s progress has reached at a significant cost to the environment. The impacts of climate change are already being felt, and if left unabated; definitely will intensify to a considerable extent in the years coming. Besides, population dynamics will radically change demographics over the decades ahead. Growth in the world’s population is projected to be concentrated in Africa and South Asia and in the biggest cities.
Then agricultural production has to maintain pace with those of rising population for atleast a sustainable world. Although, agricultural production more than tripled between the years of 1960 and 2015, where Green Revolution owes to robust crop production and a significant increment in the use of land, water and other natural resources for agricultural purposes. This period witnessed a remarkable progress in both of industrialization and globalization of food and agriculture. At the same time changes in the length of food supply chains took place as the physical distance from farm to plate has increased dramatically; the consumption pattern of processed, packaged, and prepared foods has changed simultaneously in everywhere though the most in rural communities.

Cucurbits account for the largest group of tropical vegetables, consisting of cucumber, muskmelon, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, sponge gourd, snake gourd, pointed gourd, bitter gourd, ivy gourd, wax or ash gourd, chow chow or chayote, pumpkin, summer squash, winter squash, watermelon etc. They all belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae. They are herbaceous in nature and are characterized by tendril-bearing vines and adaptation to warm climate of the tropics and subtropics. Among the different genera of cucurbit vegetables, three genera viz., Cucumis (cucumbers, melons), Cucurbita (pumpkins, squash), and Citrullus (watermelons), are economically important in the world while the others hold regional importance. Most of the cucurbits are grown for its immature fruits and are consumed as salads or cooked vegetable. While, muskmelon and watermelon are used fresh as dessert fruits. Pumpkin and squashes are used in confectionaries besides as cooked vegetables. Mature ash gourd fruits are used in sweet candy preparation.

Cucurbits are low in calories, minerals, or vitamins. However, bitter gourd is rich source of vitamin C, the squash, pointed gourd, and muskmelon contain good amounts of carotene, kakrol is high in protein, and pointed gourd is rich in calcium. Bitterness in some species of cucurbits was attributed by the varying degree of bitter principles, cucurbitacin. Bitter gourd is known for its hypoglycemic activity due to phytoceutical, cheratin in the fruit, which lowers blood sugar level.

1.    Introduction    71
2.    Microorganisms in Food Industry    72
    2.1.    Microorganisms as the agents of fermentation in  
        traditional fermented foods, 73
    2.2.    Microorganisms as the source of food, 83
    2.3.    Microorganisms as a source of food supplements, 86

3.    Microorganisms in Pharmaceutical Industry    92

    3.1.    Antimicrobial agents from microorganisms, 92
    3.2.     Microorganisms as probiotics, 97
    3.3.    Microbial enzymes in  pharmaceuticals, 98
    3.4.    Mushroom nutriceuticals, 98

1.    Introduction    174
2.    The Thermodynamic and Mechanistic basis of Cellular Metabolism    174

    2.1.      Adenosine triphosphate, 175
    2.2.    Coenzyme A, 176
    2.3.    Modes of ATP synthesis, 177

3.      Components of Electron Transport Chain    181

    3.1.    Electron carriers in ETC, 182
    3.2.    Complex I - NADH dehydrogenase (NADH coenzyme Q reductase), 185
    3.3.    Complex II - Succinate - coenzyme Q reductase, 187
    3.4.    Complex III - Coenzyme Q - cytochrome c reductase, 187
    3.5.    Complex IV - Cytochrome c oxidase, 188
    3.6.    ATP synthese, 188

3.1 Important Soil Physical Properties

3.1.1 Analysis of Soil Texture

Soil texture refers to the relative proportions of sand, silt, and clay on weight basis. Soil texture was recognized from very early times by experienced farmers from the feel of moist soil placed between the thumb and forefinger. The size groups arbitrarily classified by the International Society of Soil Science (ISSS) into clay (< 0.002 mm), silt (0.002 0.02 mm), fine sand (0.02-0.2 mm), and coarse sand (0.2 2.0 mm). Each soil textural name specifies the weight percent of each fraction falls within certain defined limits. The determination of the percentage of the soil separate present in a sample is called particle-size analysis.

Each type of particle present makes its contribution to the nature of the soil as a whole. Sandy soils are usually quite permeable to air, water, and roots, but they have two important limitations. One is their relatively low water-holding capacity; the second is that they are poor storehouses for plant nutrients. These limitations of sandy soils can, of course, be overcome if both fertilizer and irrigation water are available, but the costs are large.

Clay not only have a large surface area per gram, it also has electrically charged particles. These charges give clay the capacity to attract plant nutrient ions to its surface in forms available to plants, but sand lacks this capacity. Clay holds much more water than sands because they have a large surface area to be coated with water. One important problem with clay soils is their stickiness. When wet, they stick to ploughs, boots, or whatever they contact. Loam and silt loam soils are highly desirable for most uses. They have enough clay to store adequate amount of water and plant nutrients for optimum plant growth but not so much clay as to cause poor aeration or to make working with them difficult.

10.1 Introduction

During rain or heavy irrigation, a part of the rainfall or irrigated water moves below the effective root zone of the crop which moves further below and adds to the water table lying above the impermeable bed or hard rock which is called as  ground  water  reservoir. At  times  the  accumulated  surface  water  is  also recharged to the soil reservoir both naturally as well as artificially that add to the underlying ground water reservoir. This groundwater is an important source of water for irrigation as well as domestic uses. It is the most abundant fresh water resource of the earth. Underground water reservoirs contain large stock of fresh water resources. Total quantity of groundwater within 800 m distance below  the  ground  surface  is  more than  30  times  the  total  water  in  all fresh water lakes, more than 60 times the total water in soil and other unsaturated rock materials, more than 300 times the water vapour in the atmosphere and 3000 times the average volume of all rivers and rivulets in the world (Lenka, 2001). But the distribution of groundwater is not uniform.

11.1 Introduction

The laws governing the flow of water in wells are referred to as the hydraulics of wells. Just like surface water flows from a higher elevation to a lower elevation by gravity, groundwater also flows from a region of higher water table to a region of lower water table. This difference of water table measured by any two piezometers divided by the longitudinal distance between them is called as hydraulic gradient. Hydraulic gradient plays a dominant role in deciding the flow of groundwater. This hydraulic gradient together with the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer material forms the main law of well hydraulics called as Darcy’s law. An understanding of Darcy’s law together with some other laws as discussed subsequently in this chapter is essential in order to know the discharge of a well in a particular formation. Darcy’s law is valid for studying groundwater flow in alluvial formations. However, it is not valid for aquifers having hard rock areas.

1.    Introduction    302
2.    Raw Materials for Alcohol Production    304

    2.1.    Sugary substrates, 306
    2.2.    Starchy residues (cereal grains), 309
    2.3.    Cellulosic materials (crop residues), 314

3.    Microorganisms for Alcohol Production    316

    3.1.    Comparision of ethanol production by bacteria and yeasts, 318

Introduction of Food Industry

India is one of the major food producers in the world. The food sector contributes to about 28% of India's GDP. India stands at 1st position in the world for production of cereals, milk, livestock, banana and Mango, 2nd in producing fruits and vegetables and ranks amongst top 5 in producing rice, wheat, groundnut, tea, coffee, tobacco, spices, sugar and oilseeds. India's share in global production of fruits is 10% and vegetables are 13.7%. The current consumption of fruits and vegetables is approx Rs.2 lakh crores at current prices with an estimated growth rate of 11% per annum. The growth rate is higher than cereals and milk and comparable to meet consumption

Status of Food Processing Industry

The food processing industry in India is still in a sorry state. The rural population comprising 70% including small cities, consume less than 10% of the processed foods and vegetables, whereas 60% of the processed food is consumed in four major metropolitan cities and 30% in the state capitals and big cities. Another fact is that 40% of the processed food and vegetables produced in the country in terms of value are bought by institutional buyers like Hotels, Restaurants and Defense etc. The highest growth in domestic market has been in fruit drinks, tomato ketch up and Jams.

There is another fact that India is the largest milk producer in the world, however, organized industry accounts for less than 15% of the milk produce in India. It is estimated that there may be a total production of 1100 million tons of production of food products mainly food grains, oilseeds, sugarcane and fruits/vegetables during 2011-12 and leaving marketable surplus of 870 million tons.