eChapters

Process of life of an organism is defined, driven and depicted by its genetic constitution, or the genome. A genome is a collection of genetic material present in the cell as nuclear or organelle DNA. To be precise, it is the sum of all single copy genetic materials present in the cellular subcompartments. Thus a diploid organism having two copies of each chromosome contains genetic material constituting two copies of the genome, while a gamete of the same organism contains single copy of the same. Organelle genome is shared by chloroplast and mitochondria. In these two organelle genetic material is present in single copy per organelle, although many copies of organelle ensures that a cell harbours many copies of mitochondrial or plastid genome. Unraveling the structure and function of the genome is, therefore, the central objective of biological science. Technologies that would help to understand the basis of genetic, biochemical and physiological processes are pivotal to execute the knowledge for the betterment of mankind and environment.

Key facts

    
•    Arsenic (As) is a metalloid, with properties intermediate between those of a metal and a non-metal. Arsenic can exit in the environment and biological systems in various inorganic and organic forms (species). These are arsenite - AsIII, arsenate - AsV, monomethyl arsonic acid (MMAA), dimethyl arsinic acid (DMAA), arsenocholine, arsenobetaine and arsenosugars. 
    
•    Arsenicals have a wide range of toxicity. In general, inorganic arsenicals are more toxic than oragnoarsenicals to biota and trivalent arsenic (arsenite) is more acutely toxic than pentavalent (arsenate) form in the following orders:
    
    Arsenous acid (AsIII) ®  arsenic acid (AsV) ® MMAA ®DMAA ® arsenocholine ® arsenobetaine.
    
•    Under oxidizing and aerobic conditions, the predominant form of arsenic (As) in soil and water is arsenate (AsV), whereas under anaerobic and reducing/or waterlogged conditions, arsenite (AsIII) predominates.
    
•    Inorganic AsIII and AsV are the major As species in groundwater, soils, terrestrial plants, whereas the main species found in marine animals is Arsenobetaine (AsB), which is considered to be non-toxic.
    
•    The LD50 values of different arsenicals show that arsenite (AsIII) is most toxic (LD50 range 15-42 mg/kg) and arsenobetaine is least toxic (LD50 > 10,000 mg/kg).

Introduction

Cooking accounts for a major share of energy consumption in developing countries. Fifty per cent of the total energy consumed in India is for cooking (Fritz 1981). Most of the cooking energy requirement is met by non-commercial fuels such as firewood (75%), agricultural waste and cow dung cake (25%) in rural areas. The fuel wood requirement is 0.4 tons per person per year in India. In rural areas firewood crisis is far graver than that caused by a rise in oil prices. Marginal villagers have to forage 8 to 10 hours a day in search of firewood as compared to 1 to 2 hours ten years ago. One third of India’s fertilizer consumption can be met if cow dung is not burnt for cooking and instead is used as manure. The cutting of firewood causes deforestation that leads to desertification. Fortunately, India is blessed with abundant solar radiation (IMD, 1985). The arid parts of India receive maximum radiation i.e. 7600-8000 MJ m^-2 per annum, followed by semi-arid parts, 7200-7600 MJm^-2, per annum and least on hilly areas where solar radiation is still appreciable i.e. 6000 MJm^-2 per annum. Therefore, solar cookers seem to be a good substitute for cooking with firewood.

Principle of cooking

The different methods of cooking of food are boiling, frying, roasting, and baking. For boiling of rice, lentils etc. the temperature of food being cooked is about 100° C while for other methods, high temperatures are required. Heat is supplied at the bottom of the vessel for frying and boiling purposes in conventional cooking. Roasting and baking is generally performed on open fire or in ovens, wherein food is surrounded by hot surfaces and heat is transferred to the food by radiation and convection.

1.1. Introduction

Wildlife management often requires interventions to safely handle and transport animals. Chemical restraint, also known as immobilization or tranquilization, is a technique widely used to facilitate these processes (Hernandez, 2014). It involves the administration of drugs to temporarily immobilize wild animals, allowing for various procedures such as veterinary medical examinations, tagging, relocation, or rehabilitation. This chapter provides an overview of the principles, methods, drugs, and considerations involved in the chemical restraint of wild animals.

It has been often stated that the most important techniques required by the zoo veterinarian are those used in the capture and restraint of the patient. These techniques have developed into a highly technical science (Clarke et al., 2014). In the early days of zoos, the only practical method was to manually catch and hold the patient. Modern techniques, however, permit a veterinarian to shoot a CO2 powered gun, which discharges a projectile syringe at an animal resulting in complete immobilization of the animal (Jacques et al., 2009). This is accomplished without any physical contact between the patient and his captors.

Summary

Food production starts with a good soil. No matter the kind of seed and good agronomic practices that are put in place without a good soil yields will be low and hence income. ISFM is a technology that helps to solve the problem of soil infertility and production.
 
Farmers only accept and adopt a technology if they see it to be superior to what they have been doing and it makes business sense. Farmers will not worry about the bigger picture of food security or increased production – they need to make a profit to support their household.

Different diagnostic tools are designed to avert nutrient deficiency or sufficiency and if properly used both loss of yield and quality of crop can be minimized. Among several diagnostic tools, nutrient analysis of standing crop seems to be an efficient method in arriving at the need-based fertilizer scheduling for various crops.

Nutrient uptake by plants indicates the actual accessibility of nutrients in soil to the plants. Also, concentration of certain heavy metals in plant indicates their solubility in soil which leads to poor crop quality.Although, different plant species and even different varieties of same species may differ in their nutrient requirements, the concentration of nutrient element in plant can act as guide to support the soil test result in assessing nutrient supplying capacity of a soil and as a tool for correcting any deficiency if carried out early enough to prevent yield loss. However, analysis of harvested or mature crop is like a post mortem as this information only can help in nutrient management planning in subsequent years.

Like soil testingplant analysis also suffers from some limitations. Amongthem, the most important are the risk of sampling error as well as the chances of incorrect interpretation of test report in recommending fertilizers. Selection of right plant part and right stage of crop growth are very crucial for successful plant analysis.

1. INTRODUCTION

Admitably except for water and milk, no other beverage has earned such universal acceptance and esteem throughout the ages as wine. The aesthetic postures of wine can be gauged by the quotations like ‘wine is the most healthful and the most hygienic beverage (Louis Pasteur)’, ‘wine is a chemical symphony (Amerine). Man has been preparing and consuming since time immemorial a large variety of alcoholic beverages, ranging from mild stimulants to highly intoxicants liquors. Amongst the mild stimulants are the wines which have long association with human artistic, cultural and religious activities.

Grapes and wines are of immense importance to us and their sheer magnitude of production and associated investment, employment, enjoyment, tax revenue collected and the economic contribution is a justifiable. These play a major role in economics of major wine producing countries like Italy and France. Wine and brandy refer to the fermented by-products of grapes, member of genus Vitis notably the cultivars of V.vinifera L. as per the European definition. However, here these terms may also refer to the fermented by-products from any fleshy fruit or flower. Compared to the grapes, industry producing wine from other fruits is very small. Do these have any role to play especially in nutrition, health and economy of the horticulturally developed countries or are simply mild intoxicants consumed? Such queries at one or the other time may baffle the thinking of an inquisive reader. An attempt has been made here to discuss briefly the historical aspects, role of wine in the context of nutritive and therapeutic value, present status of Indian Wine Industry, research status and future strategies. Emphasis on its role in developing the horticultural industry would also be laid.

Genetics forms the basis of human life. All individuals have a physical and physiological self, determined by the interactions of genes and environment. Pharmacogenetics is the connotation used to study how heritability affects an individual’s response to drugs.494 The term ‘Pharmacogenomics’ represents systematic identification of all human genes, their products, interindividual variation and intraindividual variation in expression and function over time. It focuses on candidate genes and may include transcriptome and proteome information that affect drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics. It helps in predicting the patient’s response to a drug and to design new drugs495. Pharmacogenetics is study of single genes and the effects on drug response while pharmacogenomics is related to overall variation in genome. A gene is considered polymorphic when a mutation appears in more than 1% population, which may be present in the form of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), simple sequence length polymorphism (SSLP) and nucleotide addition or deletion. After the Human Genome Project, study in this field is accelerated dramatically. It was found that out of 1.4 million SNPs identified in the human genome, over 60,000 are present in the coding region496. These SNPs lead to miscoding of the various proteins that plays crucial role in the biological processes. If a point mutation is present in the gene coding region for various drug-metabolizing enzymes, drug target and drug transporters, it can lead to many non-therapeutic and unpredictable drug responses. In United States, over two million people suffer from severe adverse drug reactions per year and about 100,000 cases are life threatening497.

2.1. Introduction

There are few studies on the performance and efficiency of Indian commodity derivatives market. Despite a considerable amount of empirical literature, there is no general consensus on whether or not the markets are efficient. As far as the role of futures contract in agricultural commodity is concerned, several studies have been attempted to examine their contribution towards agricultural development of any state and/or country. This chapter presents the review of existing literature on the concerned topic based on interrelationship among the spot and futures market in agricultural sector, role of futures market in discovering spot prices, futures market and commodity price volatility etc.

1. Which portion of the sugarcane is the best for use as seed?

a) Top 1/3 to 1/2 portion

b) Top 2/3 to 3/4 portion

c) 2/3 portion of bottom

d) 3/4 portion of bottom

2. Flower drop and less fruit setting/fruit drop in chilli can be controlled by spraying

a) Sulphur (1.52%) at 10 days intervals at growing stage.

 b) Planofix (NAA) @ 2-3 ml per 10 litres water at flowering stage.

 c) Dicofol (0.25%) at flowering stage.

 d) Fipronil (5% SC) 1ml per litre at flowering stage.

Introduction

Fermented meat and fish products have been consumed all over the world since times immemorial and represent one of the most important groups of food. Meat offers its own natural microflora. Hence a wide variety of products have been prepared since ancient times by varying the mixture of meat and salt as well as by the addition of spices and seasonings. Thus, fermented meat products characterize a diversity of flavors and textures and are receiving increased interest from consumers all over the world. Most of these products still depend mainly on local, traditional manufacturing processes since little scientific information is available; but scientific knowledge is very important for consistent production of high quality and safe products.

Meat is an essential part of non-vegetarian diet. It is liked for its unique taste and is a rich source of nutrients like good quality animal proteins, essential amino acids and fatty acids, minerals, trace elements and particularly B-complex vitamins (Singh et al., 2013). The growing concern of consumers regarding health and safety issues has led to the development of functional meat products that promote health and well-being, beyond their nutritional benefits (Grasso, et al., 2014; Tyopponen et al., 2003). This has driven researches in the meat processing sector to increase their efforts in producing such functional meat products, which have incorporated functional ingredients, reduced salt, nitrates/nitrites, cholesterol and fat and modified product fatty acid profiles (Zhang et al., 2010). Fermentation of meat produces a wide range of physical, biochemical and microbial changes in the muscle-based product

Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and other one labelled as Reason (R).

 Assertion (A) : Ditch system of planting is common planting system in Diara land cultivation of cucurbitaceous crops.

 Reason (R) : To  manage   the  availability  of moisture  and higher temperature, the trenches are dug in North-West direction.

 In light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

The term entrepreneur is derived from the French word entreprendre, which translates to “to undertake. “In the context of business, this refers to the initiation of a business. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, an entrepreneur is defined as an individual who organizes, directs, and takes risks in a business or enterprise. An entrepreneur can be described as “a person who establishes, organizes, and directs any enterprise, particularly a business, typically involving significant initiative and risk. “ Peter F. Drucker (1985) characterizes an entrepreneur as a person who continuously seeks change, responds to it, and leverages it as an opportunity. Innovation serves as a unique tool for entrepreneurs, enabling them to perceive change as an opportunity for launching another business or service. An entrepreneur is often regarded as an innovator – a creator of new ideas and business processes. Essential leadership skills and effective team-building abilities are frequently considered crucial traits for successful entrepreneurs. Economist Robert Reich (2002) regards leadership, management skills, and team building as vital attributes of an entrepreneur. The realm of entrepreneurship is influenced by a variety of combinations of socio-economic, psychological, cultural, and additional factors, including caste/religion, family background, educational level, level of insight, professional experience, migration capabilities, entrepreneurial spirit, nature of the business, investment capacity, and ambition/moderation. Entrepreneurship is often defined as “the ability and desire to develop, organize, and manage business activities and associated risks for profit”.

Millets, represents groups of small seeded cereals and grasses cultivated in Asian countries from ancient time and used for domestic purpose as feed and food. Being capable to grow under adverse environmental conditions (high temperature, dry land with limited rain) millets are the main food commodity of low income groups in various developing countries around the world.

For any research endeavor, perusal of available literature is of paramount importance. Such an effort will highlight the attempt made and provide a clear comprehension of similar studies. A search on earlier research studies revealed that only a few have concentrated on Multimedia, Interactive Multimedia and Information Technology (IT) in transfer of farm technology. The available concepts and literature are presented under the following sub-heads.

2.1 IT in Farm Technology

2.2 Interactive Multimedia in Farm Technology Transfer

2.3 Selection of Farm Technology

2.4 Effectiveness of Different Extension Teaching /Learning Methods

2.5 Effectiveness of Knowledge Gain

2.6 Effectiveness of Symbolic Adoption

2.7 Farmers Perception about Farm Technologies and Modes of presentation

2.8 Relationship of Characteristics of Farmers with their Knowledge and Symbolic Adoption.

MOLECULAR BREEDING

Molecular breeding is the application of molecular biology tools, often in plant breeding.

Genetic markers

Genetic marker is defined as a gene whose phenotypic expression is usually easily discerned, used to identify an individual or a cell that carries it, or as a probe to mark a nucleus, chromosomes or locus (King and Stansfield, 1990). Three broad classes of genetic markers are morphological markers, biochemical markers and DNA or molecular markers.

(1) Morphological markers

Morphological markers are based on the visually assessable traits viz., morphological and agronomic traits. However, they are limited in number.

Features of morphological markers

i.They are easy to identify, there is no need of any complex analysis. Trait of interest can be identified visually.

ii.Morphological markers are inherited qualitatively or quantitatively.

iii.Frequency of availability of morphological markers is less in number i.e., morphological markers may not be available for all the traits of interest.

iv.They are influenced by environment.

v.Since they are influenced by environment, they are unstable in inheritance.

vi.They are stage specific i.e., a particular marker will be useful to identify in a particular stage of plant and not any stage of the plant.

vii.They are influenced by genotype and developmental stages of the plant.

Besides drawbacks, the morphological markers are useful to the plant breeders for the selection purpose in certain situation.

Although the thriving dye industry in many countries throughout the world is now predominantly serviced by synthetic dyes, the knowledge of the plants used to produce natural dyes still survives among some dyers, who use plant dyes to some extent. Nonetheless this indigenous knowledge is rapidly being lost as increasingly less information is being passed on to succeeding generations. Thus several countries are taking steps to revitalize this natural dyes industry. In this article the history of natural dye plants is presented; several plants from selected countries, which are used in the dyeing process are documented, together with some general methods of dye production and fabric dyeing; pattern production and the chemical constituents of some of these plants. The potential for the sustainable utilization of this important ecofriendly renewable natural resource is discussed.

Abstract

Wheat rusts, caused by Puccinia spp., are one of the major constraints for sustained wheat production. Significant progress has been achieved in the management of wheat rusts and understanding of wheat-Puccinia host-pathogen systems. The key research frontiers of wheat rusts research comprised disease epidemiology, the discovery of novel sources of resistance and their transfer into superior cultivars, pathogen surveillance for monitoring the virulence profiles of variants of rust pathogens, and the application of genomic technologies in cereal rust research. This chapter gives an overview of the research and development outcomes achieved to minimize the yield losses caused by wheat rusts during the last 90 years in the Indian subcontinent. Wheat rusts have been mainly controlled via genetic means; however, an integrated approach by combing the fungicides was carefully considered when needed. All efforts of managing wheat rusts in the future must cover the identification and transfer of genetically diverse rust-resistance sources with a reputation of durability into agronomically superior genotypes. The understanding of wheat rusts epidemiology globally and the region-specific virulence pattern of Puccinia spp. should be considered for gene deployment. The next-generation tools such as CRISPR-cas9 and other genome editing approaches are likely to be part of wheat rust management within a few decades.

1. INTRODUCTION

Agriculture plays a crucial role in addressing the needs of a growing global population, and is inextricably linked to poverty eradication, especially in developing countries. Sustainable agriculture and rural development are essential to the implementation of an integrated approach to increasing food production and enhancing food security and food safety in an environmentally sustainable way. Attaining food security has been our major concern since independence. Appropriate policy measures in agriculture made it possible to achieve food security as well as required national confidence to meet the growing food demands, despite a growing population. The increased agricultural production has been achieved largely through an increase in the yield of grain per hectare, rather than from an increased cultivated area. The increase in production has been the result of widespread cultivation of new high-yielding varieties coupled with a package of agricultural inputs that permit the genetic expression of their high yield potential. India is now even in a position to export agricultural commodities, fish products, milk products and earns a lot of foreign exchange. The present share of the agricultural sector in total exports is 15 to 17 percent. However, the export of many agricultural commodities show a high degree of fluctuations, caused by time lags between production decisions and delivery to the market. For the Government, unforeseen variations in export can complicate budgetary planning and increase risks for attainment of debt targets. For exporters, price volatility increases cash flow variability and reduces collateral value in the market. There is a need for an aggressive export growth-oriented policy to raise the share of agricultural sector in total exports to 25%. This should come through diversification of agriculture. In our country, the exports have been allowed only after domestic requirements are met, which is the major cause of fluctuations in exports from year to year. Modelling and forecasting such fluctuating data of commodities is crucial for the sake of Government as well as for the exporters.