eChapters

This chapter contains the description of the Indigenous Traditional Knowledge practices as subject wise manner viz, Traditional varieties, Crop management, Crop protection measures, Post harvest methods, Storage structures, Farm tools, Medicinal plants, Ethnoveterinary practices, Fisheries and others related to agriculture.

Moniliformis means ‘like a string of beads’ signifying the arrangement of flowers on the spike. The tree is native of tropical Australia. It is valued for afforestation and beautification. It grows in warm climate under both dry and moist atmosphere. It is a medium-sized, thornless, quick growing, evergreen tree of 13 to 15 m height.

Leaves: True leaves are present only in early seedling stage. The apparent leaves are the modified midrib called phyllode, leathery, sickle-shaped, tapered at each end, up to 18 cm long and 6 cm broad; nerves parallel.

Commercial ice cream represents a highly diversified category influenced by formulation, processing technology, regulatory standards, consumer preferences, cost structures, and market positioning. This chapter explains the meaning and characteristics of commercial ice cream, with particular attention to the Indian regulatory and market context. It examines major commercial product types, their compositions, ingredient functions, and differences from artisanal products. The chapter also discusses contemporary market trends and changing consumer expectations, including premiumization and alternative formulations. Quality challenges such as ice crystal growth, sandiness, shrinkage, weak body, coating defects, and cold-chain failures are considered, providing readers with a practical understanding of commercial ice cream production and positioning.

Annuals are the group of plants that complete their life cycle in one season or in one year during which they grow, flower and produce seed; and after this they wither out. A true annual (like zinnia) is a plant that will grow from seeds, flower, produce seeds and die in one season. Zinnias provide a succession of flowers for summer colour in any sunny location with good soil drainage.

5.1. INTRODUCTION

Mean and standard deviation summarizes the salient features of a data set. But they do not describe adequately the full characteristics of the data. For an adequate description of the characteristics of a data set, a convenient method is to plot a frequency distribution curve. Such curve is constructed by first drawing a frequency polygon, which may then be smoothened to a frequency curve, indicating the distribution. The frequency curve or distribution of specific biological variables generally has a specific form and plays a very important role in statistical theory and practice. It is customary to describe a curve in terms of its symmetry or assymmetry and its flatness or peakedness.

The following types of distribution are commonly seen in the biological world:

3.1. INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, we will study the measures of central tendency which is a numerical method to explain the data in brief. We can see examples of summarizing a large set of data in day to day life like average marks obtained by students of a class in a test, average rainfall in an area, average production in a factory, average income of persons living in a locality or working in a firm etc.

One of the most important objectives of statistical analysis is to get one single value that describes the characteristic of the entire mass of data. Such a value is called the central value or an ‘average’ or the expected value of the variable. This single value is the point of location around which individual values cluster and, therefore, called the measure of location. Since this single value has a tendency to be somewhere at the center and within the range of all values it is also known as the measure of central tendency. The purpose of computing an average value for a set of observations is to obtain a single value which is representative of all the items.

The branch of statistics which describes the data is called descriptive statistics. After collection, the data are presented in form of tables, diagrams or graphs. This facilitates the further analysis of data. The most basic form of data analysis is descriptive analysis of data collected and presented for the study. The descriptive statistics summarises the data and helps to find the representative value of the entire data set and the variation of the other values in the data set around the representative value. The descriptive statistics includes the measures of central tendency or averages, measures of dispersion or scatteredness, measures of skewness and the measures of kurtosis. Before going to discuss the R codes for various measures of descriptive analysis, we would first discuss in brief about these measure. This will help in better understanding of the R codes.

Measures of central tendency or averages: They are the representative values of the data series. They give an idea about the concentration of the values in the central part of the distribution of the data. There are five types of averages. They are 1. Arithmetic Mean (A.M.) 2. Geometric mean (G.M.) 3. Harmonic Mean (H.M.) 4. Median 5. Mode.

Introduction

Importance of basic statistics in everyday life cannot be stressed enough. Inclusion of basic statistics in high school curriculum is uncommon but proves highly beneficial to supplement certain careers in future. This field may be the most widely used of all and most people don’t even know they are using it. Many of today’s brightest business minds use this study to create charts and graph that allow them to stress a certain aspect of the business they are dealing with. Market research agencies, News rooms, marketing divisions of large corporations, NGOs, accounting firms etc. are full of people who specialize in basic statistics.

Statistics is concerned with the describing, interpreting and analyzing data. It is, therefore, an essential element in any improvement process. Statistics is often categorized into descriptive and inferential statistics. It uses analytical methods which provide the math to model and predict variation. It uses graphical methods to help making numbers visible for communication purposes.

Descriptive Statistics

• Descriptive statistics summarizes or describes characteristics of a data set.

• They help to make sense of large numbers of individual responses, to communicate the essence of those responses to others

• Helps exploring and making conclusions about the data in order to make rational decisions.

• Includes calculating things such as the average of the data, its spread and the shape it produces.

• Are displayed as tables, charts, percentages, frequency, distributions and reported as measures of central tendency

• Determine if the sample is normally distributed (bell curve) as most statistical tests require the sample to have normal distribution

• Determine if the sample can be compared to the larger population

Difference between Descriptive and Inferential Statistics

Nowadays, statistics is playing a major role in the field of research; that helps in the collection, analysis and presentation of data in a measurable form. It is quite hard to identify, whether the research relies on descriptive statistics or inferential statistics, as people usually, lacks knowledge about these two branches of statistics. As the name suggests, descriptive statistics is one which describes the population. On the other end, Inferential statistics is used to make the generalisation about the population based on the samples.

4.1. INTRODUCTION

Dispersion is the extent to which values in a distribution differ from the average of the distribution. To quantify the extent of the variation, there are certain measures namely:

1. Range
2. Quartile Deviation
3. Mean Deviation
4. Standard Deviation

Range and Quartile deviation measure the dispersion by calculating the spread within which the values lie. Mean Deviation and Standard Deviation calculate the extent to which the values differ from the average.

Introduction

Desert soils are the soils of arid regions that remain dry for most part of the year and support sparse xerophytes. The amount of water received by precipitation is far less than what is lost by evapotranspiration. Most deserts receive an average precipitation of less than 400 mm. Because of extreme imbalance between evapotranspiration and precipitation, many desert soils contain salts.

Distribution

Deserts occupy about one-third of the areas of Africa and Australia, 11% of Asia and about 8% of the Americas (Boul et al. 1997). Desert soils include both cold and hot desert. In India, desert soils occur in three agro-ecological regions (AER). The cold arid desert of extreme north (Leh, Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir ), the hot arid desert of north western India (Rajasthan, southern parts of Haryana and Punjab and northern parts of Gujarat) and the tropical arid desert of the Deccan plateau in South India represents AER 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The three different desert regions in India have characteristic climatic and soil conditions.

Introduction

Low and erratic precipitation, diurnal fluctuations in temperature and low humidity are the typical characteristics of deserts and their margins. Further, strong winds, sunny and very bright days and unpredictable periods of drought and famines are regular features. These lands are poor in fertility. Uninterrupted increase in human and animal pressures is violating carrying capacity of the natural resources, thus resultant is desertification.

Arid zones are described as a part of the drylands, and have the most severe edapho-climatic conditions. The major distinguishing feature for defining and for planning for the arid zone is the low rainfall (below 500 mm or Aridity Index <0.20) with more than 50% inter-annual variability. This makes a great difference in terms of the nature of the ecosystem, the socio-economic environment and the challenges for sustainability. High wind and solar regimes further increase the effect of rainfall variability and the whole complex makes a fragile ecosystem in which small disturbances may cause great loss to the sustainability, which are sometimes irreversible (Hou’erou, 1996). The hot arid zones of the world are economically and environmentally disadvantaged, with unique problems. The ecosystems of these zones are highly fragile with large risks that cause severe impediments to development programs. Of the total land area in the world, arid zones cover 18.8% and the hyper-arid zones account for 22.3% of the total arid zones (FAO, 1989).

Abstract

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa with a dry tropical climate characterised by a short rainy season and a long dry season. The annual rainfall varied between 300mm in the northern part of the country to 1200mm in the meridian part. Since many years, the degradation of climatic conditions is observed. Therefore, the annual rainfalls of the 1971-1981 period were inferior to those of the precedent periods, and also the deterioration of the climatic conditions led the limits of some ishoteques “isohyète” to move southward, more than 50km farther. Furthermore, the decennial rainfalls since 1920 were subjected to a latitudinal displacement to the south. For example the ishoteque “isohyète” 500mm which were located at the North of the 15°N outside Burkina Faso during the years 1950-1960 moved gradually year by year and reached the 14°N during the years 1970-1980 inside Burkina Faso.

Abstract

Conversion of an already arid land into a desert through indiscriminate human actions magnified by droughts. Such actions include overgrazing, repeated burning, intensive farming, and stripping of vegetation for firewood. One quarter of the earth’s surface is threatened by desertification - an area of over 3.6 billion hectares. Since 1990, Six million hectares of productive land are lost every year due to land degradation. Desertification threatens the liveihoods of more than one billion people and has already made over 135 million people homeless. Desertification does not occur in linear, easily mappable patterns. Deserts advance erratically, forming patches on their borders. Areas far from natural deserts can degrade quickly to barren soil, rock, or sand through poor land management.

Concept and Definition

Desertification is a major problem in the drylands of India, affecting the way of life for its inhabitants. The problem is more severe in the arid lands in the northwestern part of the country. There have been a few numbers of definitions of the word “Desertification”. However for simplicity of its origin and meaning we would refer to two of the frequently used ones; (1) proposed in 1991 by UNEP: “Land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting mainly from adverse human impact and (2) prepared for the Earth Summit at Rio, held in June 1992, for inclusion in Agenda 21, as “Land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from climatic variations and human activities. (Anonymous 1992).

Comparing two of these initial definitions, it would show that first one indicated desertification as a state of natural resources like soil and vegetation, mainly resulting from human activity while the second one included climate as a major cause. However, it reduced the emphasis of human activities as being the primary responsible factor and tried to link the possible impact of climate change on desertification. But the simplicity of the 1992 definition of desertification helped researchers to bring in sharp focus on the special environmental and socio-economic problems of the drylands.

So over the years, the key words that explains the term “desertification” has been changing or are being amended for specific purposes. This would at least mean that the problem of desertification is still debated world-wide, and its impact is not limited to some nations/regions as was presumed and discussed in first of UNCCD platforms. Therefore, as a precaution and combating this process, few catchy words like non-sustainable management, productivity, over-exploitation of natural resources, dryland livelihood, droughts are found to surround the word desertification. Earlier, some, people equated desertification with advancing boundaries of the existing desert and in India, examples of expansion / contraction of geographical boundary of Thar desert was a public debate among various researchers and planners. In the same time, some of the definitions tried to broaden its geographical scope so that greater populations suffering from adverse effects of land degradation would benefit out of various remedial measures.

Introduction

Desertification is now accepted as a major environmental issue because of the fact that 69.5 percent area of the world’s dry lands and more than 1.2 billion people in over 110 countries living in this habitat are affected by various land degradation processes. During last 20 years, researchers have focused their discussion either on a condition or a cause or a set of processes to assess different paradigms of desertification. Several studies carried out in arid western part of Rajasthan (Singh et al., 1992, Kar, A. 1993b, Kar, 1995, Dregne, H.E. 2000, Kar et al.2007) show that wind erosion is still a major problem. Though, there are many instances of location specific problems like water erosion, salinity/ alkalinity and water logging, about 75% area in arid western Rajasthan is affected by wind erosion hazard of different intensities (SAC, 2007, Kar et al. 2009). Decreasing rainfall gradient from east to west and increasing wind strength in that direction are responsible for the spatial variability in sand reactivation pattern. Water erosion in the form of sheet, rill and gully erosion is a major problem in areas, where average annual rainfall exceeds 350 mm, the rainfall intensity is high and the topographic and soil characteristics favour high run-off. Destruction of vegetation cover and excessive ploughing of shallow soils, especially on the sloping lands, accelerate the problem.

Introduction

Desertification, which is considered a major threat in the drylands of the world, is not about advancing boundaries of the existing deserts, but about land degradation in the arid, semi-arid and the dry sub-humid regions, which together form the drylands (Anon., 1995). Secular variation in climate that has resulted in periodic expansion and contraction of the desert boundaries and regional-scale changes in vegetation condition (Tucker et al., 1991; Nemani et al., 2003; Hickler et al., 2005) is one of the drivers of desertification. Human activities constitute the other major driver. According to Geist and Lambin (2004) the prominent core variables that drive degradation are climatic, economic, institutional, national policies, population growth and remote influences.

We let you know that the type of people in a given region is closely linked to the kind of resources found in the concerned region; and which are necessary for human beings to survive.

In fact, more than 100 countries possess arid lands, where more than 40% of the global population lives. The soils of these regions present too much fragility and they are too degraded that they can’t allow people to survive.

Let’s emphasize that in Africa, two third of the total area are arid zones. Thus, for Africans, the type of their struggle for adaptation to the context of their land, illustrates their ingenious capacity to model their hostile surroundings and to leave marks of their cultures all over prehistory and history.

Social organizations in those arid areas are closely linked to modes of exploitation and valuation of resources (water and land). However, human productions in those areas are doubly menaced; on one side by the action of humans who exploit resources for their immediate needs, and on the other side, by climate adverse effects during long periods of drought. It means that climate change and violent meteorological phenomenon worsen circumstances. That leads to environmental degradation and biodiversity reduction; alarming deterioration of vital conditions; and intensification of poverty, both in rural and urban areas; particularly among women and young. Consequently, there are non durable (viable) agricultural practices, overexploitation, overgrazing, excessive and illegal forestry exploitation; destruction of forests and bushes by non-controlled fires, pillages and conflicts with weapons; reduction of vegetation, due to the scarcity of rain; of water in general and menaces of heaps of sands.

Agroforestry systems are more complex than the agricultural systems. The long-term nature of trials involving woody species and the varying objectives of agroforestry trials demand that adequate caution be exercised in their design. Several characteristics of the trees like slow growth, long term effects on their surroundings, long life, age of trees, the area over which the influence of trees extend, etc. complicate the issue of designing experiments for these systems. Agroforestry experiments are often established on marginal sites which include sloping lands, and sites with infertile and degraded soils. It is thus difficult to find homogeneous sites of such problem areas, especially sloping lands where plots along contour lines are long and linear. Germplasm of many agroforestry tree species are usually collected from different origins which lack uniformity. Therefore, experimental materials in an agroforestry experiment may not be of uniform quality.

There are several features of agroforestry systems that require some modification of the methods usually used in agricultural experiments. Important issues related to agroforestry experiments include

Agroforestry systems are more complex than the agricultural systems. The long-term nature of trials involving woody species and the varying objectives of agroforestry trials demand that adequate caution be exercised in their design. Several characteristics of the trees like slow growth, long-term effects on their surroundings, long life, age of trees, the area over which the influence of trees extend, etc. complicate the issue of designing experiments for these systems. Agroforestry experiments are often established on marginal sites which include sloping lands, and sites with infertile and degraded soils. It is thus difficult to find homogeneous sites of such problem areas, especially sloping lands where plots along contour lines are long and linear. Germplasm of many agroforestry tree species are usually collected from different origins which lack uniformity. Therefore, experimental materials in an agroforestry experiment may not be of uniform quality.

There are several features of agroforestry systems that require some modification of the methods usually used in agricultural experiments. Important issues related to agroforestry experiments include

Introduction

In almost all biological studies, it will be impossible to account for every individual in a population. Therefore, it is necessary to examine a sub-group of the total population and extrapolate from this to the whole population. The process by which the sub-group of the population is selected is sampling. Nearly, all statistical tests make a fundamental assumption that sampling of individual will be at random from all the individuals that could possibly be sampled. It is very important that timing is taken into account either by sampling strategy or by later analysis. Most population will be affected by season, time of day and local weather conditions.

What is considered here is the problem faced by an ecologist working in the field and trying to design a suitable sampling strategy. The use of the very powerful statistical technique; analysis of variance (ANOVA) is more common in the situation of a controlled experiment, where, we are analyzing the effects of different levels of a treatment (e.g. feed, fertilizer, temperature etc.) on some measured aspect of population, Then, to get a true estimate of the effect of the treatment, experimental design will be of paramount importance.

Greenhouse refers to a structure which provide relatively better environment for plant growth. The goal is to create congenial temperature and relative humidity in desired range. The greenhouse covered with polythene sheet, also called as polyhouse, has polythene sheet (UV stabilized 200 micron LDPE sheet) as covering over a relatively rigid frame (made of GI pipes, angle iron, boomboo or wooden) which entraps the solar energy to increase the temperature and provide light for plant propagation. A normal greenhouse has four basic components: 1) frame made from rigid material like GI pipes, wood or bamboo; 2) glazing material, which is transparent to provide enough light for plant propagation; 3) climate control system, which may be natural ventilation or forced ventilation using fans with or without cooling pads, shading nets, pigment painting, etc. and 4) plant growing medium (soil or artificial media like cocopeats) with needful arrangement for supplying inputs (water, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.). The design of greenhouse involves structural design of frame with enough climate control mechanism. It mainly depends on shape, size, material of frame, local climatic conditions, wind pressure, and desired height from crop production point of view. Fabrication of greenhouse should be such that it provides enough structural stability with wind pressure and other factors, perfect joints, anchoring of polythene, and minimum hindrances in crop production practices.

Design and Construction of a greenhouse involves five distinctly different aspects viz. (a) Basic form or type, (b) structure/designs, (c) covering materials and its fixing, (d) foundation and constructional detail, and (e) crop-support, irrigation and drainage planning.

All the above aspects are interlinked. To have a clear idea, these individual aspects are discussed separately.

4.1. Basic Forms of Greenhouse

Before considering anything about construction, one should finalize the form of construction. There are different forms of greenhouses for different climatic and crop situations. These types of structures are planned according to the requirement of farmer/promoter and obviously according to the purpose. Now we will describe, in brief, some of the important form or type of greenhouses.

4.1.1. Greenhouse covered with transparent and impervious material

These structures are covered with water/rain impermeable transparent materials which allow necessary solar radiation for optimal growth of plants. Simultaneously it protects crops from temperature-fluctuation, rain, wind, and creates a favourable situation in respect of CO₂ and humidity. This covering is also used to prevent the re-radiation of heat energy and conserve the heat generated in daytime to raise night temperature inside.

Two principal hatchery systems are widely adopted in aquaculture: the large-tank hatchery system and the small-tank hatchery system. Recently, hybrid systems have emerged that integrate advantageous features from both approaches, particularly addressing constraints related to spawner availability.
KEY DETERMINANTS IN HATCHERY DESIGN
Three major factors govern the design of an aquaculture hatchery:
1. Target Species: The specific biological and ecological requirements of the species to be cultured are critical. Hatchery infrastructure must accommodate these needs, and as such, a clearly defined target species is essential before initiating the design process.
2. Production Target: The hatchery’s output goal is determined by market demand and available financial investment. For species such as Penaeus monodon, where fry production is reliant on wild spawner collection, output is naturally capped by spawner availability. In contrast, species like P. japonicus and white shrimp, which have abundant spawner supply, allow for scalable production targets.
3. Financial Inputs: Investment capacity influences not only the scale of operations but also the complexity and automation of the hatchery. In Japan, for example, large-scale hatcheries culturing P. japonicus feature tanks with capacities reaching up to 2,500 cubic meters. In Southeast Asia, where P. monodon is the primary hatchery species and wild spawner availability is limited, smaller tank capacities are the norm.

Introduction

Agriculture is the most important sector of Indian Economy. The agriculture sector accounts for 18 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) and provides employment to 50 per cent of the countries workforce. India has emerged as the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. Formerly agriculture was more dependent on nature and all the operations were carried out manually, however new technologies have been developed to increase the production and productivity of crops (Rangbhal, 2018).

Introduction

Technologies and tools that have developed in the recent information technology revolution can play a very vital role in overcoming most of the present problems related to agriculture and rural development. In order to achieve the goal of an economically sound and stable society through environmentally friendly systems of agricultural production, it is imperative to have a comprehensive data storage system. This will not only help in providing systematic and periodic information to the planners, decision-makers and developmental agencies, but also help to manage our limited natural resources efficiently. The development of a data warehouse is one of the recent tools in the field of information technology that can fulfill the demands of the information that is required in the field of agriculture research, management and education

1. Context

Women play a critical role in agriculture, and agriculture continues to remain the major livelihood strategy for women as well as millions of small, marginal and poor farming households in India. Despite this, farm women lack access to extension services as extension programmes rarely identify women as an integral client. Farm women and men have differential needs for knowledge, information, technology and skills as often they are involved in different activities spread over time and cropping seasons. Besides these, men and women farmers have differential access to assets, information, markets, credits, and other services that are necessary for using new knowledge, technologies and skills. Ignoring women while delivering services and technologies creates a gap as many of the agricultural operations are performed by women only.

It is estimated that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 per cent (FAO, 2011). Yields on plots managed by women are lower than those managed by men, as they do not have the same access to inputs. If they did, their yields would go up, they would produce more, and overall agricultural production would increase. It isn’t merely about enhancing productivity but also about being fair and equitable. Women are a significant part of the agricultural workforce and they deserve to be consulted prior to formulation of agricultural development plans and policies. SDG 5 on Gender Equality “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” is closely aligned to this aspect. Moreover, enhanced access to services can help women grow more food, have more say in the family, and could potentially lead to more income and food in women’s hands-leading to better food security and nutrition for the entire family as they are the major caregivers in the family.

Bottom or demersal trawling continues to be one of the most important fishing methods of the world. In India more than 35,230 trawlers of various sizes ranging from 9 to 30 m L_OA with engine power ranging from 45 to 495 hp @ 2000 rpm are in operation. Trawl is a bag net towed through water to filter out fishes, the mouth of which is kept open horizontally by means of a beam or otter boards and vertically by means of floats and sinkers. Horizontal mouth opening is also effected by dragging the net from two boats known as bull trawling or pair trawling. The principle of trawling is the movement of the net under water filtering the water through the mesh in the netting, without either permitting the fish to escape or gilling them (Fig. 1). Trawl net is fabricated using polyethylene netting after cutting and shaping the panels as per the design

Greenhouses should provide a controlled environment for plant production with sufficient sunlight, temperature and humidity. Greenhouses need exposure to maximum light, particularly in the morning hours. Consider the location of existing trees and buildings when choosing your greenhouse site. Water, fuel and electricity make environmental controls possible that are essential for favourable results. For this reason, use reliable heating, cooling and ventilation.

The greenhouse temperature requirements depend upon which plants are to be grown. Most plants require day temperatures of 70 to 80 degrees F, with night temperatures somewhat lower. Relative humidity may also require some control, depending on the plants cultured. Some plants grow best in cool greenhouses with night temperatures of 50 degrees F after they are transplanted from the seeding tray. These plants include azalea, daisy, carnation, aster, beet, calendula, camellia, carrot, cineraria, cyclamen, cymbidium orchid, lettuce, pansy, parsley, primrose, radish, snapdragon, sweet pea and many bedding plants. Some plants grow best in warm greenhouses with night temperatures of 65 degrees F. These plants include rose, tomato, poinsettia, lily, hyacinth, cattleya orchid, gloxinia, geranium, gardenia, daffodil, chrysanthemum, coleus, Christmas cactus, calla, caladium, begonia, African violet, amaryllis and tulip. Tropical plants usually grow best in high humidity with night temperatures of 70 degrees F.

ABSTRACT

Bio-engineering is the use of vegetation, either alone or in conjunction with civil engineering structures, to reduce instability and erosion of slopes. Such structures are advocated in hilly area mainly because they provide one of the best ways to armour slopes against erosion. Bio-engineering, in the context of upland slope protection and erosion reduction, combines mechanical, biological, and ecological concepts to arrest and prevent shallow slope failures and erosion. This chapter presents the design consideration and construction practices for stabilization of slopes using bioengineering technologies along with a brief review on the salient features and characteristics of the bioengineering processes.

Specifications

These structures are generally used for the storing grain in the bags. The length of the structure is about twice the width or greater than that. Special care should be taken to make the side walls, floor and roof in constructing the structure. The walls are made of bricks or stones laid either in lime mortar (1:2) or cement mortar (1:6). The thickness is restricted to a minimum of 37.5 cm or maximum of 45 cm. The height of the walls on which the trusses are placed is kept about 5.5 m. Each of the structures is provided with two large size doors of 2.4 × 2.4 m and top ventilators.

Aim

To design a belt conveying system

Theory

The design of belt conveying system is based on available space, horizontal conveying length, conveying lift, characteristics of the materials to be conveyed and capacity requirement.

On the basis of overall requirement and information, the belt width, belt speed, required horsepower, maximum belt tension and breaking strength of the belt, diameter of the pulleys and idlers and quantity of belt (thickness) are determined to design a belt conveyor (Fig.32.1).

Aim

To design bench terrace

1. Components of bench terrace

The bench terrace essentially consists of the four components namely: riser, outlet channel, platform and shoulder bund

Aim

To design a bucket elevator

Theory

The bucket elevator’s capacity mainly depends on bucket size, conveying speed, bucket design and spacing, the way of loading and unloading, the bucket and the characteristic of bulk material.

Bucket elevators with a belt carrier can be used at fairly speeds of 2.5 to 4 m/s. The speed of the belt depends on the head pulley.

If the belt speed is too low, the discharge of the grains become more difficult, with too high speed the buckets are not fed well.

1.0 General

 The design of canal involves following three major aspects:

 A Irrigation and drainage canal network planning.

 B Determination of discharge / capacities of  canals and drainages.

 C Determination of shape and size i.e. geometrical dimensions of the proposed canal section, generally

 known as design of canal section. More appropriately it can be called as design of internal section

 of canal. It can be further divided in three following parts viz.

 i. Design of unlined canals:

 ii. Design of lined canals: or a canal may be partly lined and partly unlined.

 iii. Choice between the unlined and lined canals. This aspect should be distinguished from the selection of type of lining. However, the scope of choice of lining may include both the aspects.

 The design of canal section remains incomplete without the design of its embankments, either in lined or unlined canal, so the next aspect is

 iv. Design of canal embankments. Still to complete the design of a canal one more aspect is required i.e.

 v. Canal aesthetics and canal arboriculture.

Aim

• To design the contour bunds

Design parameters

The design of contour bund includes determination of following parameters:

• Choice of bund
• Spacing of bunds
• Size of bund
• Alignment of bund

1. Choice of bund

The choice of bund should be selected weather the contour bund or graded bund depends on the annual rainfall, soil condition and types of outlets used.

Designing an earthen dam requires the coordinated evaluation of catchment runoff, reservoir capacity, site conditions, foundation properties, expected service life, and the consequences of failure. A selected return period is used to estimate extreme rainfall and runoff, while adequate spillway capacity and freeboard protect the embankment against overtopping. The dam must possess low permeability, stable upstream and downstream slopes, and sufficient resistance to seepage, settlement, erosion, and earthquake forces. This chapter presents design criteria, top width, dam height, side slopes, freeboard, seepage-control components, slope-protection measures, and stability considerations. It also explains procedures needed to create a safe, economical, and functional embankment.

13.1 Introduction

In 1935 Prof. Ronald A. Fisher laid the foundation for the subject in his monumental work entitled “The Designs of Experiments”. Experimental designs concern the arranging of treatments or variables in such a manner that the inferences and conclusions regarding the effects of these treatments can be easily done and their reliability measured. Experiments are made with a view to find the validity of a particular hypothesis and to have an idea about the extent of the reliability that can be placed on a particular conclusion arrived. The selection of the design will have a very great bearing on the accuracy of the ultimate results. By a random selection of experimental units it is possible to remove the ambiguity about the casual interpretation of the observed associations. Random sampling is the most essential ingredient of all experimental designs. Besides, there are many devices for increasing the precision of the inference and the calculations.

In 1935, Prof. Ronald A. Fisher laid the foundation for the subject in his monumental work entitled “The Designs of Experiments”. Experimental designs concern the arranging of treatments in such a manner that the inferences and conclusions regarding the effects of these treatments can be easily done and their reliability measured. Experiments are made with a view to find the validity of a particular hypothesis and to have an idea about the extent of the reliability that can be placed on a particular conclusion arrived. The selection of the design will have a very great bearing on the accuracy of the ultimate results. By a random selection of experimental units it is possible to remove the ambiguity about the casual interpretation of the observed associations. Random sampling is the most essential ingredient of all experimental designs. Besides, there are many devices for increasing the precision of the inference and the calculations.

To understand design of experiments, let us first get acquainted with some important terms and concepts associated with design of experiments:

• Experiment: Experiment is a scientifically planned method. The experiment is conducted draw a valid conclusion about a particular problem. The conclusion is based on statistically observation.

• Treatment: The object or the procedures under comparison in an experiment are known as treatment. For Example: Fertilizers, varieties, cultivation practices, irrigation level in case of agricultural experiments and drugs, breeds, farms, etc. in case of animal experiments.

• Yield: The response of the treatment is measured by some indicator such as crop production, milk production, body temperature, etc. Such an indicator is called yield. The treatments are applied to some units such as field plots, sample of cows, sample of patients, etc. and the effect on the yield is observed.

• Experimental material: The experimental material is nothing but a set of experimental units. In other words, the material which is used in experiment is known as experimental material. For Example: A piece of land i.e. Agricultural field in agricultural experiments and a group of cattle i.e. animals in animal experiments.

Design of Experiment was first elaborated by R. A. Fisher (1935).

• Design of Experiment: Proper allotment of treatments to the available experimental units.

• Treatment: It is the factor whose effect is to be studied. Example: Application of drugs, feeds, conditions, methods, etc.

• Experimental units: The subjects or individuals upon which an experiment is conducted.

Example: Laboratory animals like mice, rat, monkeys, primates; livestock like cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, poultry; plants, a plot of land, etc.

Necessity of designing an experiment

1. To get maximum information from the available resources.

2. To know the effect of treatment on experimental units and to make comparison between treatments.

3. To know whether the difference between the effect of two treatments is significant or not.

4. A well designed experiment has a well defined method of statistical analysis of data.

5. To minimize error in the whole experimental procedure.

6. An ill designed experiment is not likely to give proper estimates of parameters and comparisons between treatments with desired precision even if the method of data analysis is very good.

7. The design of experiment is essential to get all the important treatment effects to be compared independently.

A scientific experiment is a planned research to obtain new facts or to confirm or refute the results of previous experiments. Research is usually conducted in a controlled environment to study the effect of one or more variables on observations. The objective of research may be to answer a question, verify a hypothesis, or estimate the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable. After stating the research problem, we need to outline the methodology (or materials and methods) of the research, which includes developing an experimental design.

Scientific experiments are conducted to study the causal relationships between independent variable(s) and dependent variable(s). The researcher manipulates one or more independent variables and measures their effect on one or more dependent variables. Designing an experiment is planning an experiment. It is a complete sequence of steps taken before experimenting to ensure that appropriate data are obtained to perform a data analysis to get valid inferences about the problem. It must be seen that the data collected are relevant to the problem investigated. E.g., studying the effect of breed, age, feed, etc. on milk output. Here, the objects like breed, age, feed, etc. are called treatments. That is, any specific experimental conditions (like the addition of feed additives, new feed formula, etc.) applied to the experimental units are called treatments. The basic objects on which the experiment is done are called experimental units (E.g., a bird, an insect, an animal). However, the responses in all the experimental units receiving the same treatments may not be similar, due to the inherent differences in the experimental units, called experimental error, caused by extraneous factors.

12.1 Introduction
 
The design of the experiment includes (i) planning of the experiment (ii) obtaining the relevant information from it regarding the statistical hypothesis under study and (iii) making a statistical analysis of the data. Design of experiment may be defined as the logical construction of the experiment in which the degree of the uncertainty with which the inference is drawn may be well defined. It may also be redefined as the choice of treatments, the method of assigning treatments to experimental units and arrangement of experimental units in varies patterns to suit the requirement of particular problems, are combined known as the design of experiment.

An experiment is a systematic process or activity which leads to collection of information on certain objects to give an answer to the objectives of the researcher.

The experiment in which certain absolute values like average, correlation coefficient, median, mode, etc are worked out to describe the population is known as absolute experiment.

The experiment in which the effects of different objects under consideration are compared is known as comparative experiment.

The variable whose change we wish to study is called as Response variable. For example- yield, mortality rate of insects etc.

The variable whose effect on the response variable we wish to study is termed as Factor. For example - variety, fertilizer, insecticide etc.

Here factor is the independent variable and response variable is the dependent variable.

The various levels of a factor whose effect on the response variable we wish to study are known as Treatment.

Aim

To design a graded bunds

The procedure in design of contour bund is followed while design a graded bund. A stability of 10-25%, should be given to contour bund. This is called graded bund.

Example: Design a graded bund length of 500 m with an average land slope of 3.5% in a sandy loam soil. Vertical distance between consecutive bund is 2.5 m. Rainfall intensity for the time of concentration and for the recurrence interval is 18.5 cm/hr. The runoff coefficient is 0.3. For stability, the grade provided for first 100 m is 0.1%, for next 200 m is 0.15% and for last 200 m is 0.18%. For the sandy loam soil, side slope of the bund and slope of seepage line are 1.5:1 and 5:1 respectively is assumed.

Aim

To design the grassed water ways or open channel

Geometric characteristics of different waterways

The shape of open channel is dependent upon the field conditions and types of the construction equipments used.

The common shapes of open channels generally used are (i) Parabolic or semi circular (ii) Triangular (iii) Rectangular and (iv) Trapezoidal section.

The parabolic shape approximates a natural channel. The reason is that in natural course of channel flow, the trapezoidal and triangular sections tend to become in parabolic shape due to deposition of sediments and bank erosion.

Aim

To design of greenhouse cooling system

To determine the rate of air exchange in an active summer and winter cooling system.

Theory

Elevation factor (F_elev)

Elevation factor is directly proportional to the elevation. The values of elevation factors, used to correct the rate of air removal for a particular elevation. The rate of air removal from the greenhouse increase as the elevation of the greenhouse site increases.

Theory

Heat required for heating greenhouses is based on the quantity of heat lost through different structural components of greenhouses per unit time. Shapes of greenhouse (A-frame and quonset) and structural components (roof, wall, gable, curtain wall, curved covering and end) are mainly influencing the calculation of heat requirement. The amount of heat lost from a greenhouse depends on glazing materials, exposed surface area of the house, inside desired temperature, outside existing temperature, wind speed, and condition of house (old, new, tight or loose). The outside temperature should be based on the lowest average expected temperature during the heating season.