eChapters

21.1 INTRODUCTION

High population pressure has forced us to plough 46 per cent of our country area for food production. The present productivity is 12.36 tonnes/ha of fruits needs to be raised to 40.0 tonnes/ha by using N : P₂O₅: K₂O with other inputs, since recommended ratio is 0.75:0.50:1.00 only.

Since cost of the inputs like fertilizers and manures are very high, hence, efficient nutrient management is essential for sustainable fruit production and protection of the environment from different types of hazards occurring due to misuse of costly fertilizers.

The soils of India and especially of arid and semi-arid regions are impoverished to plant nutrients. Considering economy, energy and environment, it is imperative to use nutrients effectively by adopting the appropriate doses proper, placement and correct timings of application and to sustain the available nutrients in soil at the optimum level.

Wound healing is defined as any breach in the continuity of skin. Regenerative pharmacology aims to develop new therapeutic module to hasten the healing. Present study was aimed to evaluate the wound healing efficacy of goat milk based ointment vis a vis its molecular pharmacodynamics in full thickness excisional rat model. 96 healthy male Wistar rats were equally and randomly divided into four groups i.e. group I served as Healthy control/Sham Operated, group II served as silver sulphadiazine treated group and group III and IV served as group treated with 0.5 % and 1% goat milk based ointment, respectively. Square shaped wound of ≈ 2×2 cm2 (400 mm2) was surgically and aseptically created on the back of animals till the depth of panniculus carnosus. Animals were examined routinely till 21 day of the experimental study and healing potential of goat milk based ointment was ascertained by planimetric analysis viz. digital photography, wound area measurement, wound contraction percentage and biochemical assay using hydroxyproline, total protein and DNA content at different intervals i.e. on days 3,7,14 and 21 of the study.

In 1920, a 30-year-old Czech writer Karel Èapek, wrote a play called “R.U.R.” (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti or Rossum’s Universal Robots). For this dystopian work about a bad day at a factory populated with sentient androids, Èapek called the androids “roboti”, as suggested byhis brother Josef, a painter and writer. It was premiered in Prague on 25^th January, 1921.

Èapek was admired for his opinions:

My dear Miss Glory, Robots are not people. They are mechanically more perfect than we are, they have an astounding intellectual capacity, but they have no soul.

But surprisingly he was keen on gardening!

Drivers
• Unique aspects of the local climate and soil.
• Availability of resources and land labor.
• The current level of resource use.
• Economics of the proposed integrated farming.
• Farmer’s management skills

4.2.1. Gear boxes

It is a unit fitted after the clutch. Forms a part of transmission and provides speed and torque conversions from a rotating power source to another device using gear ratios. Its primary function is to change the speed of the tractor to cater to varying field, road and load condition. It also helps in reversing the tractor.

Gears are usually made of alloy steel. Since the tractor has to transmit heavy torque all the time, the best quality lubricants, free from sediments, grit, alkali and moisture, are used for lubrication. SAE 90 oil is generally recommended for gear box.

The description about gear boxes stated below pertains to major tractors manufactured in India. The number of teeth in each of the gear and the engagement between gears of the main shaft and the corresponding gear on the counter/lay shaft also change in different tractors evolved over a period of time. Hence, information hosted in this section is only indicative.

Sambit Sharma, Chairman, CTN Limited (CTNL) received a letter from the Chairperson of 3^rd Pay Revision Committee (PRC) for Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of India. The letter inter alia sought feedback on existing Performance Management System (PMS) at CTNL and suggestion for its continuity or modification, if any. In past also, CTNL's suggestions on various human resources (HR) matters had been valued by the Committee and many of those suggestions were retained in their final recommendations to the Government of India. Mr. Sharma, off late, had heard many stories, both positive as well as negative, about the PMS within CTNL and was therefore contemplating to thoroughly review the system. He marked the letter to Ratish Agarwal, Director (HR), CTNL to take necessary action.

This chapter traces the history of the electric quadcopter commonly known as the drone, prior to its use in agriculture.

As long ago as 1493, the versatile Italian Leonardo de Vinci, painter, sculptor, machine designer often inspired by his observations of Nature, made a sketch in one of his little notebooks of a screw-like machine next to which he wrote in his mirror-handwriting:

If this instrument made with a screw be well made – that is to say, made of linen of which the pores are stopped up with starch and be turned swiftly, the said screw will make its spiral in the air and it will rise high.¹

Four centuries later, in 1863, the Viscount Gustave du Ponton d’Amécourt, President of The Society for the Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier than Air Machines, published a forty-page monograph in Paris, entitled “The Conquest of the air by propeller. Account of a new system of aviation.” In this he took the Greek words helico and pteron, meaning “spiral” and “wing”, and combined them into the word hélicoptère (helicopter). D’Amécourt and his friends were among those very few who were passionately convinced that the future of flying was with heavier-than-air machines. To prove their point, having built a fragile flying machine model driven by clockwork springs, they watched it ascend vertically for a few seconds to a height of less than 3 metres (10 feet), only to crash back to the ground.

Aerial photography is objective of getting panoramic view of earth surface to analyze the features of earth and their interrelation at particular time period which may be changed in further events. In this concerned, the observation may play a vital role in achieving the goals of photography. Undoubtedly it is widely used in social function and so on, but still awaited for scientific or research use. Drone can measure the geometry of ground surface at lower altitude with more accuracy in the form of visual feature in natural colour. flight height of drone mainly limits the large area coverage due to lower flying and drone can work perfectly at low altitude planning with good quality feature/photography.

OVERVIEW OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) TECHNOLOGY
Agricultural drone technology employs drones equipped with cameras and sensors to assist farmers in monitoring crops, applying pesticides, and analyzing soil conditions. This technology assists farmers in making informed decisions, enhancing yields, and minimizing chemical application.
A drone is fundamentally a flying robot that can be operated remotely or autonomously through software-driven flight plans within its embedded systems, which integrate with onboard sensors and a Global Positioning System (GPS).
Drones are remotely operated or autonomous aircraft engineered to function without a pilot on board. They are also referred to as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). They has the capability to function alone or be managed by human operators.
• They have gained significant popularity in recent years owing to their extensive range of applications and uses. Drones are available in a range of sizes and configurations, from compact portable models to larger variants. They possess an array of equipment that enables optimal functionality.
• The fundamental components of a drone consist of motors, propellers, flight controllers, batteries, and remote control systems. The motor and propeller are essential for generating push to elevate the drone from the ground, whilst the flight controller functions as the drone’s brain, responsible for data processing and movement regulation.
• The battery energizes the drone’s electronic components, while the remote control systems enable the operator to maneuver the drone. The drone functions by an integration of electronic components and software algorithms.

Drone

Drones are one of the most innovative new technologies to emerge from the fourth Industrial Revolution. Indian farms may be significantly impacted by drone use in pesticide spraying, hence government cooperation is required for allowing supporting legislative environment.

Advantages

The following are the key advantages of using drones for pesticide spraying:

• Improved agrochemical application efficiency and accuracy. Crop protection products (CPP) are not wasted as a result, which improves pest management and crop output.

• Considerable decrease in operator exposure risk during spray operations.

• Drone-assisted spraying has a field capacity that is nearly 20 times greater in comparison to manual spraying.

• Lower water consumption.

Agricultural drones have emerged as important tools for precision farming, crop surveillance, and field-level data acquisition. This chapter introduces drones as aerial intelligence platforms capable of collecting high-resolution spatial and spectral information about crops, soil, and environmental conditions. It discusses drone architecture, sensing technologies, remote sensing, crop monitoring workflows, and crop health assessment. Artificial intelligence and machine learning enable efficient analysis of aerial imagery for disease detection, irrigation management, precision spraying, crop stress assessment, and yield prediction. The chapter also examines autonomous drones, drone swarms, IoT integration, edge computing, and digital twins. Operational limitations, regulatory considerations, data management, and sustainability implications are also addressed.

EAAMs (Electric Agricultural Aerial Machines) have emerged from drones used for both aerial filming, as toys and even as racing units. A Price water house Coopers’ study revealed that the global market for drone-powered business solutions was valued at $127.3 billion in 2016. For agriculture, prospective drone applications in global projects were valued at $32.4 billion. Stelios Kotakis and colleagues at market research firm IHS Markit projected that there would be around 400,000 shipments of drones to firms in the agriculture and forestry sectors in 2017. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations projects that by 2050 humanity’s ranks will likely have grown to nearly 10 billion people. Farmers will need to produce more with less, while preserving our environment for future generations. And society has a duty to help them achieve this. Although agriculture is perceived as a traditional economic sector, precision agriculture technologies have already boosted crop yields significantly in the last decades. The same study forecast that agricultural consumption would increase by 69% from 2010 to 2050.

Drought

There is no universally accepted definition of drought. Early workers defined drought as prolonged period without rainfall. Drought is a situation when the actual seasonal rainfall is deficient by more than twice the mean deviation. American Meteorological Society defined drought as a period of abnormally dry weather, sufficiently prolonged for lack of water to cause a severe hydrological imbalance in the area affected.

Prolonged deficiency of soil moisture adversely affected crop growth indicating incidence of agriculture drought. It is the result of imbalance between soil moisture and evapotranspiration needs of an area over a fairly long period as to cause damage to standing crops and to reduce the yields.

Importance

Drought is a climatic anomaly characterized by deficient supply of moisture, which may result from sub-normal, untimely and unevenly distributed rainfall. Among the various hazards of nature, drought is one of the major disasters because it brings innumerable miseries to the mankind. Almost every year some part or the other of the country suffers from such calamities. Drought is a recurring phenomena and its occurrence cannot be avoided. However, its impact can be minimized through application of science and technology by developing drought management plans.

The world’s drylands include hyper-arid, arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas where rainfall is highly scanty and variable. Droughts are common in areas / zones where water is the principal limiting factor for agriculture (https:// www.fao.org/3/t0122e/t0122e03.htm) . Dryland soils are characterized by low levels of moisture, organic matter, and biological activity, consequently such soils are very poor in fertility devoid of plant nutrients. When, these soils suffer further degradation in fertility, resulting in erosion, desertification, and salinization when crops are grown on such soils inappropriately without any scientific basis. However, the major factor limiting agricultural production on drylands is the lack of adequate moisture for crop growth or drought.

Low rainfall or failure of monsoon rains is a recurring feature in India. This has been responsible for drought and famines. The word drought, generally, denotes scarcity of water in a region. Though, aridity and drought are due to insufficient water, aridity is a permanent climatic feature and is the culmination of a number of long term process. However, drought is a temporary condition that occurs for a short period due to deficient precipitation for vegetation, river flow, water supply and human consumption. Drought is due to anomaly in atmospheric circulation.

Introduction

The study of abiotic stresses in plants has advanced significantly in recent years. However, the majority of experiments testing the response of plants to changes in environmental conditions have focused on a single stress treatment applied to plants under controlled conditions. In contrast, in the field, a number of different stresses can occur simultaneously. These may include conditions such as high irradiance, low water availability, extreme temperature, or high salinity and may alter plant metabolism in a novel manner that may be different from that caused by each of the different stresses applied individually. The response of plants to abiotic stresses in the field may therefore be very different from that tested in the laboratory (Cushman and Bohnert, 2000).

Drought is a situation when the demand for water is much greater than the availability of water. Drought is a creeping phenomenon and it is experienced only after it has set in. The scarcity of water compared to demand will have greater impact on every activity of human life including failure of crops, food shortages, decline in ground water table, drying tanks, lakes or reservoirs, acute shortage of drinking water for humans and livestock shortage for cattle etc.

Drought will have very serious impact on economy of households as well as that of nation. There are five different types of droughts depending upon the nature of shortage of water

10.1 Meteorological Drought

Meteorological drought occurs when the water received through rainfall during a given period is much less than long period average rainfall of the area. The meteorological drought is associated with either failure of rain or due to long gap between the successive rainfall events. In India, meteorological drought occurs due to failure of south west monsoon or long breaks in south west monsoon rainfall. In Tamil Nadu the drought occurs due to failure of north east monsoon rainfall during months of October to December.

Introduction

Drought is defined as “when a region receives below average precipitation,  resulting in prolonged shortages in its water supply, whether surface  or ground water or atmospheric. It can have a substantial impact on the  ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region.” When drought arises in  a particular area, obviously it affects the crop and livestock production. In  order to reduce the effect of drought on farm productivity and to stabilize farm  income, farmers have to take some systematic measures, and such measures  are referred to as drought coping mechanisms. The objective of the study was  to identify the determinants of the adoption of drought-coping mechanisms to  balance and stabilize the farm income of the stakeholders. The study also helps  to know how to mitigate the effect of drought on farmer’s livelihoods.

The existing literature on the adoption of drought coping mechanisms is  quite meager. Akwango et al., (2016), Chandan Kumar Jha et al., (2017),  Emmanuella Ellis (2017), Ronald Twongyirwe et al., (2019) assessed the adoption strategies by considering multinomial logistic regression and the  results state that the use of different tree planting, crop varieties, soil and water  conservation, early and late planting, and furrow irrigation. The data related to  the adoption of any agriculture technology have qualitative response variables  with two or more categories. Most of the studies used qualitative response  models such as the logit model, probit model, and multivariate techniques like  discriminant analysis to measure the farmer’s perception toward the adoption  of any agriculture technology. In this study, we chose machine learning models  such as Decision tree, to assess the classification ability and to determine the  factors influencing adoption.

5.1 Introduction

Out of the many climatic events that influence the earth’s environmental fabric, drought is perhaps the one that is most linked with desertification. Drought is a natural hazard originating from a deficiency of precipitation that results in a water shortage for some activities or some groups and is often associated with other climatic factors (such as high temperatures, high winds and low relative humidity) that can aggravate the severity of the event. Drought differs from aridity in that the latter is restricted to low rainfall regions and is a permanent feature of the climate. Drought occurrences are common in virtually all climatic regimes.

Widespread and severe drought conditions in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean in 2000 have raised serious concerns about the continuing vulnerability of the world community to extended periods of droughts and water shortages. In 2000, major droughts affected much of south-eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the area through central Asia to northern China. Especially hard hit was Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran and parts of China. In North America, months of above-average temperature coincided with below-normal precipitation through northern Mexico and much of the southern and western regions of the USA, leading to one of the worst wildfires in the past 50 years.

By August 2001, much of Western Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East was suffering the third year of a continuing drought that severely reduced many countries’ crop yields. The countries most affected were Afghanistan, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.

1. Introduction
Drought’ which apparently means lack of water, is one of most vulnerable natural hazards. It alone causes a huge crop loss annually. But history says it not only affects crop but destroys human lives.in the year 1972 almost 600000 people died due to starvation caused by huge drought in Northern India. In simple language drought means shortage of water mainly caused by abnormal climatic condition and damaging to the environment. Ideally there is no such proper definition of drought because it should be region specific and circumstances specific. A per McMahon and Diaz Arenas (1982) define drought as “a period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently prolonged for the lack of precipitation to cause a serious hydrological imbalance, carrying connotations of a moisture deficiency with respect to man’s usage of water”. Apart from these several general definitions have been provided by many authors. Beran and Rodier (1985) gave a definition based on hydrological aspect of drought that, ‘The chief characteristic of a drought is a decrease of water availability in a particular period and over a particular area’. India meteorological department (IMD) has defined drought as a situation in a subdivision in a year when the actual rainfall is less than 75% of the normal annual rainfall. Basically, to define drought the impact on environment and society and their complex interaction must be considered. Drought is defined as a state of total water capacity being within the range of 12-20% for a period of 16 days and can be distinguished from water deficit, which is the state of water capacity falling below 30%. Drought affects crop development, production, productivity and quality and on other hand soil physical, chemical and biological properties.
2. Classification of Drought
As per the hydrological point of view drought can be classified into different Categories: i) On the basis of source from which water is available: -a. Meteorological Drought b. Hydrological drought c. Agricultural Drought. ii) On the basis of time of occurrence: - a. permanent drought area b. Seasonal Drought Area contingent drought. iii) On the basis of medium: - a. soil drought atmospheric drought.

There are reports in financial newspapers that the ongoing (2010) drought affecting nearly 200 districts in the country may not have much effect on GDP, since the farmers in the drought-affected areas contribute hardly 3 per cent to GDP.  It is sad that such a measure of the impact of drought on the lives and livelihoods of millions of rural families is even considered. It is this mindset, typical of the growing insensitivity to human suffering in our country, that is responsible for India being the home for the largest number of undernourished and malnourished children, women and men in the world.  No wonder we are finding it difficult to achieve the first among the UN Millennium Development Goals, namely, reducing hunger and poverty by half by 2015.  Unless we realise that agriculture in India is not just a food- producing machine, but is the backbone of the livelihood of over 60 per cent of our population, rural deprivation and suffering will not only continue to persist, but will get worse, leading to severe social unrest.

Improving water use efficiency or enhancing agricultural water productivity is a critical response to growing water scarcity, including the need to leave enough water in rivers and lakes to sustain ecosystems and to meet the growing demands of cities and industries. Rainfall is the main source of water for the existence of life on the earth. Timely onset of rainfall and its distribution during the crop growing season determine the success of agriculture and food production. Unfortunately, the human life has hardly any control over nature and prevailance of delayed onset of monsoon and dryspells during different stages of crop growth are commonly observed in the dryland agriculture. Drought is a weather-related natural disaster which makes greater impact on food production and it reduces life expectancy and the economic performance of large regions or entire countries. Drought is a recurrent feature of the climate. It occurs in virtually all climatic zones, and its characteristics vary significantly among regions. Drought differs from aridity in that drought is temporary; aridity is permanent characteristic of regions with low rainfall. Drought is related to a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time, usually for a season or more. This deficiency results in a water shortage for some activity, group or environmental sector. Drought is also related to the timing of precipitation. Other climatic factors such as high temperature, high wind and low relative humidity are often associated with drought.

Drought, a recurring and often devastating feature of climate variability, presents a unique challenge due to its slow onset, complex nature, and farreaching consequences. Unlike hazards with clear event boundaries, drought manifests across diverse spatial and temporal scales and impacts nearly every facet of the environment and human activity. Effectively understanding and managing this phenomenon necessitates an equally comprehensive approach: drought monitoring. This chapter introduces the essential concepts and methodologies underpinning this critical field, highlighting the remarkable breadth required to capture the full picture of drought conditions. • The scope of drought monitoring is inherently vast. Geographically, it spans from tracking localized water stress affecting a single farm or watershed to assessing conditions across entire regions, nations, and continents. Temporally, monitoring efforts must consider short-term deficits unfolding over weeks or months (critical for agriculture) as well as long-term hydrological imbalances developing over seasons, years, or even decades (impacting reservoirs and groundwater). Understanding current conditions crucially relies on comparing them against a deep historical context, requiring decades of baseline data

Drought is a complex and multifaceted issue that affects various aspects of the environment, economy, and society. Its far-reaching consequences underscore the need for a comprehensive and collective approach to mitigate its impacts. 2.1 Drought Prone Area Delineation Drought-prone area delineation involves using scientific criteria like low and erratic rainfall, groundwater potential and agricultural indicators to identify regions susceptible to drought. Modern methods use GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to integrate data from satellite imagery, weather patterns, soil conditions, and vegetation to precisely map drought-vulnerable zones. This spatial analysis allows for targeted interventions such as improved water management techniques and sustainable agricultural practices in the most affected areas. Here are some additional details on the universal nature of drought and the benefits of a global response:

Introduction

Drought is the most common adverse environmental factor which limits crop production in different parts of the world. Often drought is accompanied by relatively high temperatures, which promote evapotranspiration, and hence could accentuate the effects of drought and thereby further reduce crop yields. Since these events occur more frequently in tropical and semitropical regions where most of the developing countries are situated, droughts are often associated with food shortages and an overall setback to developmental activities. Therefore, raising of drought-resistant crops is common sense to achieve stability in production and to enhance the possibility of self-suficiency in food. Consequently, breeding for drought resistance is a major objective of many research programmes in the international and national institutions. This has been so for the past several decades. But, it is disappointing that, there has not been any measurable success in these programmes compared with the success achieved in breeding for yield; or breeding for disease resistance or breeding for quality attributes. In fact, this was amply expressed by Arnon (1980) when he stated “Breeding for drought resistance has been a consistent theme for as long as I remember and probably the greatest source of wasted breeding efforts in the whole field of plant breeding.” However, the fact remains that we do hear of drought resistant varieties in many crops. For example, C-306 in wheat, Lalnakanda in rice and M 35-1 in Sorghum are some of the better known examples in India. It is also claimed that a large number of cultures among the Assam Rice Collection exhibit a considerably high degree of drought tolerance. Many land races and wild relatives of several crop species are said to contain drought resistant traits, which could be profitably utilised in breeding programmes. This situation is not unique to India alone but is a common experience in different parts of the world. However, to afirm a conviction a short questionnaire to assess the current state-of-art on breeding for drought resistance was distributed to 75 distinguished plant breeders and plant physiologists all over the world. The questionnaire and a summary based on the responses is as follows:

Introduction

Chickpea, the world’s third most important food legume, is currently grown on about 10 m ha worldwide, with 95% cultivation in the developing countries. India is the largest producer of chickpea in the world. Chickpea is grown under rainfed conditions in winter in India subjecting it to abiotic stresses. Consequently it experiences water deficit stress at one or the other growth stage(s) which affects the crop productivity.  Among the abiotic stresses to which chickpea is subjected to drought stands to be the number one problem in major chickpea growing regions because the crop is grown on residual moisture and the crop is eventually exposed to terminal drought (Johansen et al., 1994). A distinctive variation exists between the plant in sensitivity to water stress. Chickpea is considered relatively more tolerant, possibly because of its deeper root system is and its smaller leaves and canopy. Several adaptive mechanisms are evoked by plants in response to water stress (Chaves et al., 2003). These traits enable chickpea to ensure its survival in different environmental conditions.

4.1. INTRODUCTION

Water stress is the single most severe limitation to the productivity of rice in the rainfed ecosystem (Widawsky and O’Toole, 1990). Drought has been defined as the inadequacy of water availability, including precipitation and soil moisture storage capacity, in quantity and distribution during the life cycle of the crop to restrict expression of its full genetic yield potential. Drought is actually a meteorological event which implies the absence of rainfall for a period of time, long enough to cause moisture-depletion in soil and water deficit with a decrease of water potential in plant tissues. Under drought conditions, water stress develops in the plants as the demand exceeds supply of water; this may occur either/or both due to atmospheric or soil conditions, and is reflected in a gradient of water potentials developed between the soil or soil-root interface and leaf, the transpiring organ. Moisture stress is likely to develop to a different rate in different plant organs along with the gradient. Drought like many other environmental stresses has adverse effects on plant growth and yield.

Drought Early Warning Systems (DEWS) form the essential foundation for effective and proactive drought management strategies. These systems are crucial in facilitating a fundamental shift from reactive approaches, where responses are implemented after the onset of a crisis, to proactive risk reduction measures that aim to anticipate and mitigate the adverse effects of drought before they fully materialize. By providing timely and accurate information about impending drought conditions, DEWS empower governments, communities, and individuals to make informed decisions and take preemptive actions, thereby minimizing the potential economic, social, and ecosystem losses associated with these events (Fig.6.1). Recognizing the risks posed by drought in a timely manner is of paramount importance for ensuring an effective and comprehensive response that can alleviate suffering and reduce overall vulnerability. The implementation of robust drought early warning systems plays a critical role in minimizing the negative consequences of drought and building longterm resilience to this recurring natural hazard.

Imagine the lifeblood of a nation’s energy grid thinning to a trickle. This is the stark reality when prolonged droughts grip regions heavily reliant on the oncemighty force of hydroelectric power. While the allure of clean, renewable energy from flowing water has positioned hydropower as a cornerstone of electricity generation globally, its dependence on a consistent and abundant water supply renders it exceptionally vulnerable to the increasingly frequent and intense droughts sweeping the planet. This chapter embarks on a critical exploration of the intricate and often strained relationship between these two forces: the essential need for water in sustaining hydroelectric power and the devastating impact of its absence during drought conditions Moving beyond a simple definition, we will delve into the multifaceted ways in which droughts cripple hydroelectric facilities, from dwindling reservoir levels that starve turbines to the cascading effects on energy security, economic stability, and ecological balance. We will traverse the globe, examining compelling case studies from drought-stricken regions, revealing the tangible consequences for communities and industries. Furthermore, this chapter will unpack the complex interplay of factors that exacerbate

Drought, characterized by prolonged periods of abnormally low rainfall, is a recurring and devastating natural phenomenon with profound implications for global agriculture. Among the sectors most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of drought is livestock production. This chapter, “Droughts and Livestock Production,” delves into the intricate relationship between these two critical elements, exploring the multifaceted challenges and consequences that drought poses to livestock farming across diverse geographical contexts The chapter will examine how water scarcity, a hallmark of drought, disrupts the delicate balance of feed availability, animal health, and overall productivity within livestock systems. It will further analyze the varied impacts of drought on different livestock species, considering their unique physiological needs and vulnerabilities. Beyond the immediate 

The 21st century has ushered in an era of unprecedented drought challenges, with far-reaching implications for global ecosystems, economies, and human societies. The increased frequency, severity, and duration of droughts worldwide have pushed water resources, agricultural systems, and communities to the brink, underscoring the pressing need for comprehensive understanding and proactive management. • One of the most striking aspects of modern droughts is their capacity to affect vast geographic areas, transcending national borders and impacting multiple sectors simultaneously. The 2012 drought in the United States, for instance, affected over 80% of the country, leading to significant economic losses in agriculture and beyond. Similarly, the 2018 Cape Town water crisis brought the city to the edge of “Day Zero,” where the taps would run dry, highlighting the devastating potential of droughts on urban water systems. • The impacts of droug

Key Points

• Drowning is a common cause of accidental death in animals.

• Submersion in water or other fluids prevents atmospheric air from reaching the lungs.

• To diagnose drowning, trustworthy witnesses and a history of drowning at the accident location are required.

Introduction

Drowning or immersion is a type of asphyxial death caused by a body being submerged in water or another fluid medium and preventing atmospheric air from reaching the lungs. Drowning isn't always fatal. When a drowning causes death, it is known as a fatal drowning. Complete submersion is not required for lethal drowning; simply submerging the nose and mouth is sufficient. Drowning is a difficult process. It comprises liquid aspiration, struggle, involuntary movements, dyspnea, and cardiovascular responses. Drowning ultimately leads to hypoxia and death.

Although women work in household chores, agricultural activities, factories, and different workplaces in days of yore, their valuable work is still not recognized as a financial entity (Kathrivel and Sivakumar, 2003). The multiple roles performed by ‘Nari shakti share many working hours, but financial terms are off the records. Women’s power at construction work is greater utilization as labour and their daily routine employment. 

Agriculture is of paramount importance in most developing countries because large proportion of the population involved and the need to maintain national food production. It is generally accepted though not fully proven, that health and productivity are positively correlated. This is of particular  relevance because many agricultural tasks in developing countries demand high level of strenuous activity (Anonymous, 1987). Investment to improve agricultural worker’s health would be justified on both humanitarian and economic grounds. Nearly half of the available human resources in India are women.  It has been roughly estimated that women represent 50% of population and have contributed about 10% of income and own less than 1 % of the world’s property.  The population of farm women are involved in sowing, transplanting, weeding, winnowing, drying, bringing drinking water and firewood, cleaning and dehusking.  Most of the drudgery prone tasks for women in agriculture are cutting uprooting, transplanting, weeding and sowing and post harvest tasks like manual threshing of maize, millets and pulses, sieving and cleaning. For groundnut, after the harvesting, removal of nuts and cleaning of groundnut seeds are also performed  manually. Further, sieving, cleaning are performed by winnowing followed by traditional sieve. (Badiger et al. 2006).  Studies have pointed out that farm activities that are time and labour intensive, monotonous, repetitive and more drudgery prone are generally performed by women.

Introduction

‘Health is wealth’ is a common saying. Every individual should take care of his physical and mental health. During work performance, if an activity leads to any health problem it is referred to as an occupational health hazard, which needs urgent attention. In agriculture, occupational health problems sometimes amount to incurable diseases/disorders.

Meaning of Occupational Health Hazards

Occupational hazard is something that causes harm to a working person, in terms of injury or ill health, damage to property, workplace environment, or a combination of both. In India, farm women contribute as farmers, agricultural workers, and entrepreneurs. As per the 2012 census data, women’s share was 55%, which is projected to be 65% by 2025. They are the backbone of the agricultural rural economy but still are one of the most vulnerable groups. Though nowadays, mechanization is gaining importance due to various reasons, it has yet not reached farm women, who are still not recognized as ‘farmers’, and the machinery is designed to suit the men’s folk. The role of women in farming operations like transplanting, harvesting, post-harvest management, and packaging, which are drudgery-prone, are on the increase. Considering these facts, the tools’ designers should give due thought when designing agricultural tools and equipment, to address farm women’s drudgery.

The ability to inject a drug into a free ranging animal using a remote injection system is a main stay of zoo and wild life medicine and the accepted and routine procedures of today for anesthetizing free ranging, dangerous, or hyper excitable animals are to be well understood for the proper preventive medical procedures, medical treatment, surgery, or scientific study. However, all these were earlier existing only as a dream, until remote injection-based gadgets like darts, blow pipes and distant drug-delivery gadgets like pistol and rifle were duly developed, in conjunction with safer injectable anesthetics.

Summary

The process of administration of a drug into the human body to cure a disease is regarded as drug delivery. The common routes of administration of the drugs include oral, nasal, inhalational, transdermal, dermal, ocular, rectal and vaginal. In the current chapter, an attempt has been made to discuss about the various methodologies which are being used to deliver the drug to the human patients.

Abstract

Drug design is a complex computational process that involves studying the structural and physicochemical properties of biological moieties in order to identify new chemical or biochemical substances that can be used as drugs with specific pharmacological properties. The drug discovery pipeline is a crucial aspect of drug design that requires a detailed understanding of the various phases involved. In this chapter, we discuss the fundamental principles and phases of drug design. Additionally, we delve into the concept of docking, a critical step in the drug discovery process that involves predicting the orientation and affinity of a ligand binding to a protein target. The use of computational tools and techniques in drug design has revolutionized the field and is essential for the development of safe and effective drugs.

Medicinal plants and their various products are extensively utilized not only in traditional systems of medicine but also in modern medicine throughout the world. In recent times, they have also attracted attention of scientists encompassing various disciplines of medicine and biotechnology for search of new drug molecules and modern drug development. Although several research strategies are followed for drug development only the traditional, empirical and molecular methods/strategies are mostly applied. There is also need of scientific validation for safety, efficacy and rational use of traditional form of medicine along with development of standards for identity, purity and strength (Singh and Bagchi, 2002).

Approaches of Drug Developement

Following approaches are generally employed to discover and invent new therapeutic agents from plants viz. screening of plant materials, identification of active constituents, pharmacological and clinical evaluation and drug design.

Drug distribution
Drug distribution refers to the process of ensuring that pharmaceutical products, including controlled substances like narcotics, reach healthcare providers, pharmacies, and patients efficiently, safely, and legally. A well-organized drug distribution system ensures product quality, timely availability, and compliance with regulatory standards. Given the sensitivity around narcotics, their distribution requires enhanced monitoring to prevent diversion and misuse.
Definitions
In-Patient Distribution
This refers to the process of delivering medications to patients who are admitted to a hospital or healthcare facility. Medications are typically managed by pharmacists who ensure that patients receive the correct drugs based on their treatment plans.
Out-Patient Distribution
This involves dispensing medications to patients who are not admitted to a healthcare facility. Patients receive their prescriptions from outpatient pharmacies or clinics.
Individual Prescription Order Method
The individual prescription order method involves preparing medications separately for each patient based on a physician’s prescription. The pharmacy receives the prescription and dispenses a specific amount of medicine for the prescribed duration. This method is used in both in-patient and out-patient settings, though it is more common in the latter.

Tissue Collection

Rats are most commonly employed as test subjects to conduct the experiments related to drug metabolizing enzyme assays involving various enzymes i.e. microsomal and non microsomal enzymes. Rats are humanely sacrificed at the end of the exposure period of 28 days of any therapeutic agents or drug and the liver of all the animals has to excise and immediately wash with ice-cold normal saline, weigh and perfuse with ice-cold 1.15% KCl solution containing 0.05 mM EDTA. Livers are processed further for preparation of microsomes for determination of microsomal drug metabolizing enzymes.

Preparation of Microsomes

Livers tissues are homogenized in 3 volumes (1:3) of ice-cold (1-4o C) homogenization buffer containing 1.15% potassium chloride in 50 mM potassium phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.4). The homogenates are centrifuged at 15000 g for 30 min (Hitachi cs120GX II). The mitochondrial supernatant (8 ml) is transferred to ultracentrifuge tubes and spun at 105000 g for 1 hour in ultracentrifuge to sediment the microsomal pellet. Cytosolic fractions are collected from the middle separating the lipid layer on top in separate micro centrifuge tubes. The microsomal pellet is then washed by adding 8 ml of resuspension buffer (homogenization buffer containing 0.05 mM EDTA) and spun again 105000 g for 15 min. The microsomal pellet so obtained is resuspended in 4 ml of resuspension buffer and 1 ml aliquots are stored immediately at -80o C until assayed for drug metabolizing enzymes.

Introduction
Haemoprotozoan diseases are highly prevalent in tropical and sub-tropical countries owing to the ubiquitous distribution of ticks and blood-sucking flies which are natural vectors for the pathogens. In India, theileriosis, babesiosis and trypanosomosis are major haemoprotozoan diseases and cause substantial economic losses to the livestock industry. Though vaccination of the susceptible stock by attenuated schizont vaccine is available for the control of tropical theileriosis in cattle, chemotherapy is the mainstay for the control of haemoprotozoan diseases. However, the limited available antihaemoprotozoan drugs is being depleted by a combination of two factors viz. emergence of drug resistance and the failure to replace old drugs (de Koning, 2017). Drug resistance against parasites is one of the emerging problems affecting veterinary health sector. Since last few decades, development of drug resistance in haemoprotozoan parasites to several drugs has been reported (Tuvshintulga et al., 2019; Ali et al., 2022). Though, understanding of drug resistance in parasitic protozoa is progressing steadily but possibly not as rapidly as parasites are becoming resistant to drugs. The genetic changes in the target sites, the reduced uptake and increased efflux of drugs, and metabolic regulations are the possible mechanism for the cause of drug resistance (Fairlamb et al., 2016). Anti-protozoan drug resistance has been reported in many economically important protozoa to isometamedium, diminazene aceturate, quinapyramine, suramin, melarsomine dihydrochloride, buparvaquone. The resistance initially evolves at genetic level of parasite with genetic traits that allow them to survive exposure to a drug, which is transferred to the subsequent generation thereby potentially increasing the percentage of resistant parasite that can survive subsequent exposure to the chemical. The emergence of drugresistant parasites has serious implications for treating clinical cases, leading to increased morbidity and mortality among the animals and control of the diseases.

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Test
The routine use of the modified Kirby-Bauer method is recommended.
Material
• Sterile cotton swabs
• Soyabean – Casein digest broth or Tryptone soya broth
• Non selective agar such as nutrient agar.
• 0.5 Mc Farland turbidity standard:
Solution A
Bacl2, 2H2O. 1.75G
Make upto 100 ml with distilled water.
Solution B
H2SO4 1.0 ml
Make upto 100 ml with distilled water.
Stock Solution
0.5 ml of solution A + 99.5 ml of solution B. Dispense in 5 ml amounts.
Seal and store in dark.
• Glass vials or tubes 10 ml capacity
• Muller – Hinton agar
• Antimicrobial discs
• Sterile forceps
• Ruler or calipers

Therapeutic Aspects of Drug-nutrient Interactions
Drug-nutrient interactions are expressed as physical, chemical, and pathophysiological relationships between a drug and a nutrient. This reaction is multifactorial. The drug has the potential ability to interact with nutrients which may lead to a reduction or enhancement of therapeutic efficacy, nutritional risk, and drug toxicity. Even such interactions lead to the discontinuation of drug therapy. But these kinds of interactions vary from person to person. Infants and children are the most vulnerable group in this concern as they are in the developmental phase where there is a lack of proper drug-metabolizing enzymes and inefficient renal function. Generally, DNIs signify negative impacts on human health but sometimes these interactions work in a positive way by reducing irritation in the GI tract or by increasing the absorption of drugs. Proper updated knowledge about DNIs is important for the appliance of diet therapy simultaneously with drug therapy as both of these are important strategies to manage or treat public health issues (Table 10.1., Table 10.2.).

Q1. Halothane is metabolized in to

1. Trifluoracetic acid
2. Inorganic chloride
3. Bromine
4. All the above

Q2. Psychomotor stimulants causes

1. Excitement
2. Relieve fatigue
3. Increase motor activity
4. All the above

Q3. Repeated administration of barbiturate causes

1. Tolerance
2. Drug dependence
3. Toxicity
4. All the above

Pathogenesis of heart failure in animals and humans is a complex phenomenon. The major abnormality in heart failure is myocardial contractility failure, disturbances in rhythm and rate of the heart, disturbances of pre load and after load, forward failure, backward failure, fluid accumulation, RAAS activation, hypoperfusion of organs, oxidative stress, activation of proinflammatory cytokines etc.

Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.)  commonly known as drumstick or sehjna is a multipurpose tree of India and grown intensively in the tropics and sub-tropics. It is a vitamin rich, mineral packed and nutritious vegetable crop. The name drumstick is derived from the pod shape resembling the slender and curved stick used for beating drum. Fruits are also resembled with the siliqua of radish and hence the name is “radish tree’’. Ancient Indian literature mentioned that moringa is an interesting plant due to its widespread uses in socio-economic for food, medicine, agriculture and industry.

Moringa (Moringa oleifera) is one of the most popular perennial vegetables grown in South India. It is commonly grown as a unique vegetable. Its fruits, leaves and flowers are equally useful. They are cut into slices and used in the preparation of a number of food items. Moringa oleifera is the most widely cultivated species of a monogeneric family, the Moringaceae. The tree is indigenous to North West India. It is found wild in the sub Himalayan tract from the river Chenab eastward to the Sarda and in Tarai tract of Uttaranchal in India. Moringa is native to the sub-Himalayan tracts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. This rapidly growing tree (also known as horseradish tree, drumstick tree, benzolive tree, kelor, marango, mlonge, moonga, mulangay, nébéday, saijhan, sajna or Ben oil tree, radish tree, West Indian ben), was utilized by ancient Romans, Greeks and Egyptians. It is now widely cultivated and has become naturalized in many locations in tropics. It is a perennial softwood tree with timber of low quality, which for centuries was advocated for traditional medicine and industrial uses. The name drumstick is derived from the pod shape resembling slender and curved stick used for beating the drum. Fruits also resemble the siliqua of radish and hence the name “radish tree”.