eChapters

Introduction

Climate change has undoubtedly resulted in greater public and scientific involvement. Climate change refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity (IPCC, 2007). The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) defined it as a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity which alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. World Meteorology Organisation defines climate change as statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). 

Climate risk management in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) is one of the major challenges to achieving food security and development in India and large parts of sub-Saharan Africa and also in the case of Australia. Climate-induced production risk associated with the current season-to-season variability of rainfall is a major barrier in making rainfed agriculture sustainable and viable farm business. Since season outcomes are uncertain, even with the best climate information, farmers have limited flexibility in applying management with confidence. In fact in risky environments, farmers most often respond by adapting a risk averse strategy and are reluctant to invest in even risk reducing measures (Leathers and Quiggin 1991). In the SAT agro-ecologies, there are a limited range of enterprise or crop options to consider which may be further restricted by cultural traditions, food preferences or market opportunities.While there are fundamental differences between large scale commercial farms in Australia compared to the predominantly smallholder resource poor farms found in India, when it comes to climate risk management in the SAT, there are many commonalities. The purpose of this paper is therefore to (i) establish a framework for managing climate variability and transforming farming systems to be more resilient and sustainable for future climates; and (ii) provide some case study examples from climate risk management in low rainfall cropping system in Australia and consider how they may be applied in smallholder systems of the SAT.

Introduction

The major environmental issue of global nature is increasing green house effect, which is warming earth. Enhanced green house effect is mainly due to increased emission of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs. Because of the increasing concentrations of these greenhouse gases, there is much concern about future changes in our climate and direct or indirect effect on agriculture (Arora et al. 2011). Increases in atmospheric concentrations of green house gases and additional anthropogenic perturbations of the climate system affect the spatial and temporal distribution of weather regimes which contribute to shaping the diversity of agricultural activities throughout the world (Havlik et al. 2015). Consequences of changing climatic attributes such as rainfall, moisture regimes, temperature etc. affect qualitative and quantitative production of agricultural crops as well as livestock population by altering pasture quality and yield (Thornton et al. 2009). In the context of climate change mitigation, now a days adoption of climate smart agriculture work as an effective practice.

Introduction

Carbon on earth is stored primarily in rocks and sediments. Only a tiny fraction resides in mobile reservoirs – the atmosphere, oceans, soil and terrestrial biosphere – to play a vital role in biological, physical and chemical processes at the earth’s surface. The small fraction of C present in the atmosphere as CO₂ is especially important, as its abundance is a major regulator of the climate of the planet. The rapid increase in atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ over the past 150 years, reaching current concentrations of about 380 ppm, corresponds with combustion of fossil fuels since the beginning of the industrial age. Conversion of forest lands to agricultural use also redistributed C from plants and soils to the atmosphere and altered ecological balance through physiological effects on vegetation. The understanding of C sources and sinks has advanced enormously in the last decade. However, we cannot yet quantitatively define the global effects of human activities such as agriculture and forestry on climate change. An understanding on the long-term changes in atmospheric concentration will help enhance understanding on how the earth’s climate will evolve in future.

Cluster Sampling (Meaning and Concept)

Cluster sampling is a special type of sampling which is used when we have to make a large survey such as a survey for the whole country and whole state etc. to know the privilege. Under this method, the total population is divided into some recognizable subdivisions known as clusters. Out of all the clusters, a given number of clusters are chosen at random. All the items covered by the selected clusters are included in the sample.

A sampling technique in which we divide the whole population into groups or subgroups in such a way that there is heterogeneity within each group and homogeneity among the groups and then a simple random sample of n groups is selected from a total of N groups of population and finally all the units of selected clusters from our sample.

1.    Introduction
    
2.    Edible coatings used in Seafood Products
    2.1    Pre-dust
    2.2    Batter
    2.3    Breading
    
3.    The Coating Process
    3.1    Portioning
    3.2    Pre-dusting
    3.3    Application of batter
    3.4    Application of breading
    3.5    Pre-frying / Flash frying
    3.6    Freezing
    3.7    Packing and storage
    
4.    Coating Process Equipment
    4.1    Forming machine
    4.2    Pre-dusting machine
    4.3    Batter application equipment
    4.4    Breading application equipment
    4.5    Fryers
    4.6    Spiral freezers
    
5.    Coating Process Lines
    5.1     Single line breading system
    5.2     Tandem line breading system
    5.3     Tempura or batter-fry  Line breading system
    5.4     Tempura-Japanese Line breading system
    
6.    Coated Fishery Products
    6.1    Fish fingers
    6.2     Coated fish sillets
    6.3     Fish mince based coated products
    6.4     Coated shrimp products
    6.5     Coated squid products
    6.6     Coated bivalve products
    6.7     Crab claw balls
    
7.    Common Quality Problems Encountered during the Coating of Seafood
    7.1     Voids
    7.2     Blow off
    7.3     Pillowing
    7.4     Tailings
    
8.     Innovative Processes in the Production of Coated Products
    
References

Abstract
 
The climate is one of the main determinants of agricultural production. At present, climate change has been appeared as a tremendous global crisis and modern agriculture is responsible for anthropogenic emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) which are important causing factors.  The ill effects of global warming and climate change have been reflected adversely in agriculture causing threat to food productivity and security. Thus there is an urgent need for adoption of ecologically sound and economically viable farming practices to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming as well as climate change. Organic agriculture is one of the most prominent and widely practiced ecologically sound farming systems and it might be a suitable option as it is based on the principles of ‘care, health, ecology and fairness’ with the capability to reduce emission of GHGs. Moreover, organic agriculture provides several gains like contribution to the conservation of biological diversity and animal welfare, supply of local products of natural origin, reduction of fossils fuel energy and protection of the environment from pollution with chemicals, carbon sequestration and restoration of soil fertility, assurance to agricultural sustainability, and thus ensuring food security to ever growing population of the world.

The choice of hormones and drugs acting on reproductive system are important as therapeutic agents during reproductive disorders like anoestrus, metritis, pyometra, repeat breeder, retention of fetal membranes, delayed puberty, ovarian disorders etc.  The administration of specific chemotherapeutic agent is of paramount importance in treating reproductive disorders in dairy animals.  The dosage, route, frequency and indications of chemotherapeutic agents acting on reproductive system are mentioned in tabular form as below.

1    General line of treatment of poisoning in animals

2    Systemic antidotes-dosage and method of treatment large animals

3    Small animals

4    Plant toxins

5    Zoo toxins

Principal Scientist and I/c Head, Division of Social Sciences and Training IIHR, Hesaraghatta Lake Post, Bangalore – 560 089, Karnataka

Extension organizations are highly sociable organizations with a definite purpose of using the grass root principle and democratic leadership in bringing transience in the organization and society. In this direction the communication styles most suited for these extension functionaries in bringing these transitions need to be studied and understood and developed for effective functioning of these organizations as nucleus of change in transforming societies for development

Introduction

Two types of interactions, i.e. competitive and complementary, are found in ecosystems and agroecosystems (Callaway 1998), which shape community structure, plant diversity and system’s functions (Callaway 1995; Pugnaire et al. 1996; Bruno et al. 2003). Competitive interaction in ecosystems (Wedin and Tilman 1993) and agro-ecosystems (Pandey et al. 1999) is well documented. Mechanism of complementary interaction, however, is not much understood so far. Some studies (Bertness and Callaway 1994; Callaway 1998) argue that complementary interaction is facilitative, either facultative or obligatory, and occur generally in harsh physical environments. This suggests that habitat amelioration by neighbours is a common denominator of positive interactions (Bertness and Callaway 1994; Callaway and Walker 1997). Other studies report that complementary interaction is mutualistic (Boucher et al. 1982). Irrespective of whether facultative or mutualistic, it is now well established that complementary interaction is evolutionary (Bertness and Callaway 1994). But, it is still inconclusive how two species exist together in ecosystems and agroecosystems (Bertness and Callaway 1994).

Abstract
Proteins are comprised of domains, folds and motifs, which form its basic building blocks. Most efforts to understand protein evolution and its function have focused on domains as these can fold into a stable three-dimensional structure independent of the rest of the protein chain and generally perform a unique function conserved over the evolution. Genetic recombinant techniques allow reorganization of domains, called domain shuffling, resulting in different combinations of domains in different proteins. This along with swapping and insertion of domains results in complex architectures and are responsible for new protein functions in evolution. Protein domains are very useful in analyzing the mechanisms of protein folding and their stability and structural transformations in various conditions. This can be done reliably if a multi-domain target is considered only in terms of its constituent domains. The underlying goal is to reduce a complex protein structure to a set of simpler yet structurally meaningful units, each of which can be analyzed independently.

Introduction

Natural evolution gifted the biological world a treasure of diverse bio-molecules that take part in various cellular activities. Proteins, one of the vital molecules of biological function are wisely folded polymers comprising 20 different aminoacids. Function of each protein is encoded in its aminoacid sequence. Aminoacid residues can indulge in bonded or non-bonded interactions depending on the environment. These inter residue interactions with in a polypeptide drive its folding in to a compact conformation from a linear molecule. Biochemical properties as well as the linear arrangement of the aminoacids determines the three dimensional structure of a protein. These determinants of defined structure directly or indirectly dictates functional fate of the folded protein also.

Abstract

Biological Pathways represent system level sophistication of organisms. An exclusive peek into the extent of sophistication of an organism may provide proof of its past evolutionary struggle and position in the developmental trend from pathway point of view. This knowledge may not align with the traditional universally acknowledged standard 16s rRNA trend. Analyzing the reasons behind such discrepancy can constitute an important research work. To map sophistication of one organism with respect to other organisms, phylogeny is required. Here, we are mapping the level of sophistication in terms of enzymes among a set of TCA cycles belonging to different species, arbitrarily chosen from the KEGG/PATHWAY database. For this purpose, we converted the metabolic pathway information into simplified enzyme-enzyme relational (E-E-R) graphs. Similarity scores obtained from inter-genus, intra-genus as well as inter-species comparison of these graphs are used for phylogenetic tree construction. These phylogenetic trees throw light on the trend of development of metabolic pathways among different species. But peculiarly, these trees have less similarity with the conventional evolutionary phylogenetic trees constructed from NCBI taxonomy data. In this paper, we have tried to find some justifications for this dissimilarity among phylogenetic trees, by considering their habitats.

Abstract
Combined advancement in computer sciences and hardware with uniformly significant developments in molecular biology and chemistry are providing toxicology with a powerful new tool box. This tool box of computational models promises to increase the efficiency and the effectiveness by which the hazards and risks of environmental chemicals are determined. Computational toxicology focuses on applying these tools across many scales, including vastly increasing the numbers of chemicals and the types of biological interactions that can be evaluated. Apart from that, knowledge of toxicity pathways gathered within the tool box will be directly applicable to the study of the biological responses across a range of dose levels, including those more likely to be representative of exposures to the human population.  Although inappropriate pharmacokinetic properties are a major cause of abrasion in the safety issues are recognized as today’s single largest cause of drug candidate failure. It is expected that the right balance of in vivo, in vitro and computational toxicology predictions applied as early as possible in the discovery process will help to reduce the number of safety issues.

The advancements in the field of informatics, biology and allied fields of technology led to the emergence of an inter-disciplinary field known as ‘Bioinformatics’. This field is an expanding and challenging tool for the collection, storage, organization, integration, analysis and simulation of biological data for utilization in biotechnology.

Collection of Data for Bioinformatics

An epoch making revolution in Genomics in recent years in deciphering plant, animal and microbial genome sequences, Proteomics, Statistics, Instrumental techniques, Structural and Computational Biology have given input to fragmented pieces-and-bits of information on biological materials. Each data is a discrete piece of important but defragmented information regarding a molecule (protein, RNA, DNA, sugars or lipids etc) or a reaction or at best a pathway, supposed to be occurring in a living system independently at a given time and space. However, as in a living system each molecule or a process exists in unison with other entities of its kind, these fragmented data are to be stored, organized, and then integrated and analysed to form an integrated part of a whole chain of events – now called a ‘SYSTEM’. Storage and organisation of data Explosion of knowledge in the field of biology and generation of new informations (data) needs well storage, organization and a faster distribution among the scientific workers. The advent of super computers, high speed computing and development of algorithms for data formatting, assists in the storage of data at the site of origin and distributed through the hyperlinks in world wide web (www).

Livestock have the potential to be transformative; by enhancing food and nutrition security and providing the income to pay for education and for other needs, livestock can transform lives of many (Jimmy Smith et al., 2013). The projected growth of population is 9.6 billion in the year 2050 from the current population of 7.2billion (Gerber et al, FAO, 2013). The world demand for milk and meat in 2050 is expected to expand 58 and 73% respectively from their demand levels in 2010 (FAO, 2011). Nevertheless, the growth animal agriculture is not on par with the demand. Today, in a world of limited resources, in the face of climate change and a rising world population, a major issue is global food security (Augustine et al 2013). The key inferences of the latest approved summary for policymakers by the IPCC (2013) on climate change are 1). Warming of climate system is unequivocal and will continue beyond 2100. Global surface temperature change for the end of the 21st century is expected to exceed 1.5°C relative to 1850 to 1900 for almost all RCP scenarios 2). It is very likely that frequency of heat waves and heavy precipitation events have increased 3).

Modern research on life science is progressing at the nanoscale not only with the objective to reduce time and cost but also to ease the handling and working conditions. Application of nanotechnology in various domains of science has led to the enormous innovations. This field facilitates better understanding as well as treatment of living system, activate biotechnological processes, synthesizing new drugs for targeted delivery and biocompatible materials for sustainable environment. Throughout the world nano science is getting wide propaganda. Its application to medicine is increasing rapidly in order to develop nano-drugs with prolonged availability and efficient delivery through rearrangement of molecules at the nanoscale using molecular interactions for example van der Waals forces, H bonds, electrostatic dipoles and various surface forces.

Review of the state of art of Drought on impact assessment, monitoring and management with special reference to agricultural production has revealed that Drought is still a complex natural disaster and difficult to forewarn in spite of advancements in atmospheric sciences and computational procedures. It is realized only after it is set in and is not known when it is likely to withdraw. A long way one has to travel to predict its occurrence, spread and its continuation to the next season over a region. The existing net work of observational set up in developing countries in Africa, Asia and in South America need to be strengthened further for effective monitoring of significant weather events at regional and micro regional level. With the rapid expansion of communication system over the past two decades, establishment of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) at as many locations as possible even in remote regions should be taken up on priority basis and funding may be provided by the respective governments or by the International Organizations where ever necessary. Nations with limited resources may also be convinced to strengthen their weather observational net work in view of the increased occurrences of climate extremes and changing climate. Drought vulnerability regions over the globe were delineated based on sparse historical weather data which do not match with real surface conditions. Now, with the availability of weather data from more number of stations both temporally and spatially, drought prone regions over the world may be re-delineated. This would help the planners to allocate funds rationally to the affected regions. Globally every year, some regions or others may be experiencing droughts and more so in drought prone regions.

Appendix-'I'    :    Mock Drill Reporting Format
    
Appendix-'J'    :    Suggested Roles and Responsibilities of Stakeholders

Introduction

Inappropriate land use and cultivation practices are one of the main reasons for the poverty and food insecurity faced by smallholders in most parts of the rural regions in India and other developing countries. Unsustainable agricultural practices lead to an exhaustion of soil resources, which results in reduced land productivity, aggravated land degradation, and a reduction in biodiversity. Conservation agriculture (CA),  has shown to improve, conserve and use natural resources in a more efficient way through integrated management of available soil, water and biological resources. It is now widely recognized as a viable concept for sustainable agriculture due to its comprehensive benefits in economic, environmental and social terms. Its ability to increase grain yields to provide better economic performance and reduce production risks and to improve energy use efficiency has been well-documented. 

Introduction

Indian agriculture is entering in a new phase. The major research and development efforts in the Green revolution era focused on enhancing production and productivity of selected food grains crops and only in Indo-Gangetic plains. The new challenges demand that issues of resource and input use efficiency receive high priority to ensure past gains can be sustained and further enhanced to meet the emerging needs. Issues of conservation have assumed importance in view of widespread resource degradation and the need to reduce production costs, increase profitability and make agriculture more competitive. The conventional mode of agriculture through intensive agricultural practices was successful in achieving goals of production, but simultaneously led to degradation of natural resources. The growing concerns for sustainable agriculture have been seen as a positive response to limit both low-input, traditional agriculture and intensive modern agriculture (relying on high levels of inputs for crop production). Sustainable agriculture relies on practices that help to maintain ecological equilibrium and encourage natural regenerative processes. Agricultural systems relying on such approaches are not only able to support high productivity, but also preserve biodiversity and safeguard the environment. Conservation agriculture has come up as a new paradigm to achieve goal of sustained agricultural production. It is a major step toward transition to sustainable agriculture.

Introduction

The hills and mountains are one of the most important agro-ecosystems that supports life of half of the mankind either directly or indirectly. In India, hills are rich source of bio-diversity and possess enormous potential for sustaining agriculture, including horticulture and animal husbandry. The ecological fragility and vulnerability of the Himalayas to climatic aberrations, increasing demand for land to grow more food have been issues of concern for quite some time. Nearly 59% of the total work force in the Himalayas is engaged in subsistence agriculture which is barely enough to feed the growing population for 5-6 months in a year (Raizada et al., 2009). The North-West Himalayas (NWH) consisting of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand spreads to 33 million ha, habited by 25 million humans and 19 million livestock. Though, the whole economy of the region is based on agriculture, the total cultivable land is only 3.2 million ha of the total geographical area of the region (Srivastva et al., 2009).

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is defined as a process of ‘sustainable intensification of agriculture’ for enhancing and sustaining production at low cost, without deteriorating soil health and flow of environmental services. The process of agricultural intensification increases food production and spares land for the other uses including eco-system services. In line with the vision of Norman Borlaug, agricultural intensification is also known as ‘The Borlaug Effect’. Frameworks such as ‘Conservation Agriculture’, ‘Ecological Intensification’ and ‘Ever Green Revolution’ share a common view of cropping systems as agro-ecosystems designed to make maximum use of fixed resources (land, light and temperature etc.) with optimum use of agri-inputs for attaining sustainable production levels (Cassman 1999)’. Conservation agriculture is also considered as an important component of the overall strategy for ensuring food security, poverty alleviation, health for all, rural development, enhancing productivity, improve environmental quality and preserve natural resources. With limited scope for further expansion of area under agriculture, production gains can be accomplished through intensification of agriculture, achieved by pursuing one or more strategies (with rationale use of natural resources as well as external production inputs) enumerated as under:

Introduction

Cotton is a major commercial crop grown on nearly 12 m. ha area. About 65% of the area is rain dependent. It is grown on a wide range of soil types and climatic conditions. Soils supporting cotton in the rainfed areas are Vertisols (Vertic intergrades), Inceptisols and Alfisols. Rainfall ranges from 500-1200 mm in these regions. Both Alfisols and Vertisols have different potentials and problems but both need organic C improvement and soil moisture conservation measures to restore their productivity. This can only be achieved through resource conservation strategies. Conservation agriculture (CA) is one such strategy that focuses on resource conservation. It refers to a system of raising crops without disturbing the soil while retaining crop residues or soil surface. 

Introduction

Global agriculture is under tremendous pressure to meet the demands of rising populations using finite, often degraded, natural resources. Globally, these resources are predicted to be further stressed/degraded by the impact of climate change. The ongoing buildup of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere is prompting shifts in climate across the globe that will affect agro-ecological and growing conditions. In addition, agriculture and land use change are prominent contributing sources of global GHG emissions. Further, the application of fertilizers, rearing of livestock, and land clearing influences levels of GHGs in the atmosphere and in turn affects the soil carbon storage as well as sequestration processes. The 2010 World Development Report draws (WDR, 2010) on analysis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) to calculate that agriculture directly accounts for 13 percent of global GHG emissions in CO2 equivalents and indirectly accounts for an additional 18 percent of emissions, when land use and conversion for crops and pasture are included in the calculations. Therefore, whilst ongoing climatic changes are affecting agricultural production, the sector itself also provides opportunities for emissions reductions.

Introduction

The demand of cereals to meet the food requirements of the burgeoning population is increasing while on the other hand most vital inputs of agriculture viz. productive arable land, water and labour are depleting day by day. Rice is the major Kharif crop of India and it is estimated that rice is being grown in 43.97 million ha with 104.32 million tonnes of production during 2011-12 (Agricultural Statistics at a glance, 2012). In the eastern region of India, rice is produced by the conventional system of cultivation which involves puddling and transplanting which is basically water, labour and energy intensive thereby adversely affecting the environment. Therefore, to sustain the long term production of rice, more efficient alternative methods of rice productions are needed. For this, conservation agricultural practices which comprises of technologies which are water, labour and energy efficient along with eco-friendly characteristics will be a better alternative to conventional practices (Kumar and Ladha, 2011). 

Increasing consciousness about environmental and coupled health hazards with agrochemical usage in farming and resultant consumers’ preference to safe and chemical-free food are the major factors that lead to the interest in eco-friendly forms of farming in the world. Organic agriculture is one such broad spectrum of production methods in consonance with conservation agriculture that are supportive of the environment and is now practiced in not less than 130 countries to the tune of 30.4 mha in 0.7 million organic farms. In India, about 1.02 mha area is reported to be under organic farming (certified area and area under conversion) with nearly 0.5 lakh certified organic farms. It is believed that adoption of ecologically sustainable farming practices can provide twin benefits of reversing the declining trends in crop productivity and protecting the environment. The demand for organic food is showing an increasing trend with an average growth rate of 20-25% per annum.

Introduction

India, with only 2.5% of the world’s geographical area, is home to 17% of the global population. Population has increased from 361 million in 1951 to 1140 million in 2011, more than threefold increase over 50 years and expected to reach 1.5 billion by 2050. The food consumption levels of India will increase from the current level of 2400 k cal/ per capita/ day to about 3000 k cal/ per capita/ day in 2050 (Singh, 2009). The production deficits are expected for cereals and pulses not only to meet the growing food requirements but also to meet the growing demand for animal based products which require higher quantities of food grains. It is estimated that despite realizing the full irrigation potential in the country, nearly 40% of the net sown area will remain rainfed. Rainfed areas with nearly 60 per cent of the cultivated area contributes for 40 per cent of country’s food production in the country, home to about 40% of the human and 60% of the livestock population,

Introduction

Cycling of plant material is required for any production system for biological activity, humus formation and thereby formation of a dark colored top soil. Incorporation of biomass results in production and proliferation of soil biota. But under annual crops compared to forest, production is much less, the biomass is largely removed, the soil is tilled several times each year. Consequently, less food and moisture are available for earthworms, insects, micro-flora and fauna; and their habitats are repeatedly disturbed or destroyed. Therefore, the primary need of our agricultural activities is to feed soil organisms (bacteria, fungi, earthworms etc.) and to regulate their living conditions while protecting them from chemical and mechanical impacts.

Introduction

Agriculture is the most important sector in India accounting for 13.7 per cent of the country’s GDP and employs more than 60 per cent of the labour force. Our country has recorded the highest food grain production of 257 million tonnes during 2012-13, under favourable weather conditions those prevailed throughout the year. The mission of increasing food grain production, though realized to a commendable extent at present, but under risk due to climatic aberrations and reduced availability of land, water, nutrients along with poor and continuous degradation of the resources to cope up with the demands of increasing population. Although the country had attained self sufficiency in food grain production through intensification of agriculture with high–yielding varieties, fertilizer application and chemical pest control during the green revolution, productivity is still low and is stagnating.

Introduction

It is estimated that about 16 per cent of total geographical area of India (329 m ha) has moisture index value below - 66.6% and is thus classified arid. This area is further classified into hot arid (36.8 m ha) and cold arid (15.2 m ha) regions (Ramakrishna et al., 2000). The hot arid region is characterized by extreme temperatures, low (<500 mm) and erratic rainfall, very high wind velocities, low humidity, high PET (>1800 mm) and frequent severe droughts which occur once in three years to alternate years in general. The soil moisture and soil temperature regimes are aridic and hyperthermic, respectively. The hot arid region exists in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Karnataka (Fig 1).

In India, being predominantly an agricultural country, livestock is emerging as a driving force in the growth of agricultural sector. Contribution of livestock to agriculture GDP has been rising steadily during the last three decades from 13.88% in 1980-81 to 27.28% in 2010-11 (BAHS 2012). About 70% population of the Country is engaged in agriculture and more than 50% of people below poverty line are associated with livestock production. India is blessed with a rich genetic resource of bovines, with an estimated number of 304.76 million (Livestock Census, 2007), which is 19% of the world. India continues to be the highest milk producing country in the world with an estimated production of 121.8 million tonnes during 2010-11 of which more than 53% is contributed by buffaloes (105.34 millions). Similarly, India ranks first in buffalo, second in cattle and goat, third in sheep, fourth in duck, fifth in chicken and sixth in camel population of the world. India is the third largest egg producer in the world (BAHS 2012). India posses a large treasure of domestic animal biodiversity with 37 breeds of cattle, 13 breeds of buffalo, 23 breeds of goat, 39 breeds of sheep, 6 breeds of horse/pony, 8 breeds of camel, 2 breeds of pig and 15 breeds of chicken registered under National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal.

Introduction

Low and erratic rainfall, extreme temperatures, long sunshine duration, high wind velocity, high evapotranspiration, low fertility of soil and paucity of water resources characterize hot arid region of India. Despite these hostile conditions, the region supports a large number of human and livestock population. However, the ever increasing human and livestock population and developmental activities exerts enormous pressure on natural resources and posing serious threat to sustainability of the region. In these hostile environmental conditions, several indigenous agroforestry systems are being practiced by farmers of this region (Shankarnarayanan et al. 1987). The agroforestry, which is a dynamic, ecologically based natural resource management practices that, through the integration of trees and other tall woody plants on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversify production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits (ICRAF 2000). A number of studies have recognized the multiple benefits of agroforestry that include carbon sequestration, reducing forest degradation, biomass production, food security, income diversification, improvement and maintenance of soil biodiversity, provision of wildlife corridors, and a host of other ecological services and social benefits. In the last three decades, agroforestry has been widely promoted in the tropics as a natural resource management strategy that attempts to balance the goals of agricultural development with the conservation of soils, water, local and regional climate

Introduction

The rate of increase in anthropogenic CO₂ concentration of the atmosphere is increasing at an alarming rate from 1.7 µmol mol-1 yr-1 in 2009 (Tans 2009) to 2.2 µmol mol-1 yr-1 in 2013 (WMO 2013). At this rate, its level in the atmosphere will reach around 450 µmol mol-1 by the turn of century from its current concentration of 400 µmol mol-1, leading to increased global warming and concomitant climate change. There is, thus, a very strong scientific interest in finding ways to slow or reverse this trend. Mitigation strategy of diverting CO₂ from atmosphere to soil by adopting appropriate agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture (CA) is a recognized such method (Lal 2008 a, b). Broadly, CA has three major components- reduced tillage, crop residue management, and intensive cropping. Conservation tillage practices which include reduced tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT) have been amply demonstrated as the agricultural practices that are very helpful in this direction (West and Post 2002; Franzluebbers 2010).

Effect on SOC and N losses through runoff and soil erosion

With increase in population, agriculture is being extended to even marginal soils which were hitherto uncultivated. Such soils are more seriously prone to erosion losses (FAO 2008), mostly because of their topographical position. Overall, soil organic matter and nutrient rich surface soil erosion could become more serious threat in the wake of changing climate in future; therefore, it is necessary to find suitable remedy measures to sustainable food production while protecting the soil from erosion.

Introduction

The branch of science that deals with resolving the evolutionary relationships among organisms is phylogenetics. Phylogeny is the description of biological relationships, usually expressed as a tree. A statement of phylogeny among objects assumes homology and depends on classification. Phylogeny states a topology of the relationships based on classification according to similarity of one or more sets of characters, or on a model of evolutionary processes. In many cases, phylogenetic relationships based on different characters are consistent, and support one another. If different characters induce inconsistent phylogenetic relationships, they all are dubious. Conversely, note that the same similarity data may be consistent with different possible topologies or trees.
 
Molecular approaches to phylogeny developed against a background of traditional taxonomy, based on a variety of morphological characters, embryology, and from fossils, information about the geological context (stratigraphy).

Most banana producers in Africa, Latin America and Asia are small-scale farmers who grow bananas either for home consumption or local markets. Because bananas and plantains produce fruit year-round, they provide an extremely valuable food source during the hunger season (when the food from one annual/semi-annual harvest has been consumed, and the next is still to come). Bananas and plantains are therefore critical to global food security. However, the export trade of banana depends mainly on commercial plantations in Latin America, East Asia and Africa. These plantations are owned by multinational corporations.

Abstract

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is the one of the most important fruit crop of tropics and subtropics. Mango belong to group of plant in which there is an antagonism between vegetative vigour and flowering intensity. Therefore, any factor that reduces vegetative vigour without altering the metabolic activity and favors flowering which can be possible by the use of growth regulator. Growth retardant that has been widely used in mango crop is paclobutrazol (PBZ) or cultar. Paclobutrazol is N-containing heterocyclic, trizole compound which stimulate flowering by inhibiting gibberellic acid pathway by inhibiting oxidation of ent-kaurene to ent-kaurenoic acid by blocking cytochrome P450 dependent monooxygenase enzyme. It is applied at the rate 2-5g/m of canopy diameter 3-4 months prior to desired date of flowering either by foliar spray, soil drench or trunk application. However, soil application is found more efficient on mango quality production than other. Paclobutrazol has pleiotropic response on mango cultivars. It has been found that application of paclobutrazol is effective in enhancing the protein mobilisation, starch, carotenoid, lycopene, phenol and cytokinin, abscisic acid and enzyme content in treated plant that induce flowering. It has been found that paclobutrazol is capable to reduce mango malformation and make plant tolerant in stress condition.

Introduction

Crop regulation is also known as flowering/ fruiting cycle management. It can also be termed as management of vegetative-reproductive balance. Some of the fruit crops bloom throughout the year without any resting period and produces two or three crops (bahar) in a year but yield and quality is not so good in all crop harvest. It is very essential to understand the flowering and fruiting behavior of crops and which bahar will give good crop with considering all the factors associated with a particular bahar. It is important for the available time to be partitioned to give an appropriate balance between the making of sources of resources which capture and utilized resources efficiently in generating harvestable yield and the filling of sinks for resources; and sink must mature in desired time for harvest. Apart from their importance in the determination of crop yield

Issues of conservation have assumed great importance in view of widespread resource degradation and the need to reduce production costs, increase profitability and make agriculture more competitive. The growing concerns for sustainable agriculture have been seen as a positive response to limits of both low-input, traditional agriculture and intensive modern agriculture relying on high levels of inputs for crop production. Sustainable agriculture relies on practices that help to maintain ecological equilibrium and encourage natural regenerative processes such as nitrogen fixation, nutrient cycling, soil regeneration, and protection of natural enemies of pest and diseases as well as the targeted use of inputs. Agricultural systems relying on such approaches are not only able to support high productivity, but also preserve biodiversity and safeguard the environment. Thus, Conservation agriculture has come up as a new paradigm to achieve goal of sustained agricultural production. It is a major step toward transition to sustainable agriculture. 

For most of the past 50 years world food production has outpaced rising demand. World population has doubled since World War II, whereas food production has tripled. In the developing world the calories available per person per day increased from an average of 1,925 calories in 1961 to 2,540 in 1992. World food production has expanded due to the Green Revolution—adoption of crop rotation, the mass production and use of petroleum-based fertilizers and chemical pesticides, expanded irrigation, and the introduction of genetically superior, disease-resistant cultivars. The trend may now be changing for the worse, however. Since about 1990 global grain production has risen only slightly and, despite slower rates of population growth, grain supplies per capita have fallen. In the worst case, Africa now produces nearly 30% less food per person than it did in 1967. As per FAO estimates, world food production would have to double to provide food security for the 8 billion people projected for 2025. By 2050, when world population is projected to be over 9 billion, the situation would be even more challenging.

Introduction

Agriculture is the mainstay of livelihood activity of about 70% of the state’s population. Madhya Pradesh is an agrarian state and the state’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture. Considering the sector’s sensitivity to climatic parameters it can be easily understood that the sector would be highly impacted by any change in these parameters.

Madhya Pradesh has a subtropical climate with three distinct seasons’ viz. winter from December to February, followed by summer season from March to May and rainy season extending from June to October. During winters the mean temperature remains around 10ºC and mean maximum temperature remains 25ºC and the minimum temperature goes down to 1°C in some regions. During summers, the mean minimum temperature is 22ºC and mean maximum is 38ºC. The maximum temperature during summer can go up to 48ºC, especially in May and June which are the hottest months.

INTRODUCTION

Custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) is considered as one of the delicious fruit meant for table purpose. In India, during the year 2014-15 the area under cultivation of custard apple was 29870 ha with production of 228370 tones and productivity of 7.65 tones ha-1 (Anon, 2015a). In Maharashtra, the area increased by 9 to 10 times recently i.e. since 1990 onward, after start of Economic Guarantee Scheme (EGS) of Government of Maharashtra. Hence, Maharashtra is the leading state in custard apple production, wherein during the year 2014-15, the area, production and productivity of custard apple was 8660 ha, 59330 tones and 6.85 tones, respectively. This accounts about 25.98 per cent share of the state in the national production. This is followed by Gujarat, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. (Anon, 2015a). The largest area of nearly one third of the Maharashtra State is in Purandar tahsil of Pune district. An average production of custard apple in Purandar area is about six tons ha–1. The farmers fetch high economic returns at very low input cost. Besides, export quality fruits get very high price ranging from Rs. 70 to 800 kg-1 (Anon, 1998) in foreign countries.

Case Study    :    Orissa Super Cyclone 1999

Data Mining is the process of automatic discovery of novel and understandable models and patterns from large amounts of data. Bioinformatics is the science of storing, analyzing and utilizing information from biological data such as sequences, molecules, gene expressions, and pathways. Development of novel data mining methods will play a fundamental role in understanding these rapidly expanding sources of biological data. Data mining techniques are an automated means of reducing the complexity of data in large bioinformatics databases and of discovering meaningful and useful patterns and relationships in data. Bioinformatics, the application of computational techniques to analyze the information associated with biomolecules on a large-scale, has now firmly established itself as a discipline in molecular biology, and encompasses a wide range of subject areas from structural biology, genomics to gene expression studies. It provides an introduction and overview of the current state of the field. The main principles that underpin bioinformatics analyses look at the Data Mining in Bioinformatics and databases that are commonly used, and finally examine some of the studies that are being conducted, particularly with reference to transcription regulatory systems.

Introduction
Recently, there is a great need to analyze and exploit the huge amount of biological data information generated through high throughput modern technologies like phenotyping, allelic variation, gene expression, chromatography, DArT, molecular marker etc. Principal component analysis (PCA) has stronghold on modern data analysis - A black box that is widely used but poorly understood. The goal of this article is to dispel the magic behind this black box and to focus on building a solid intuition for how and why principal component analysis works in huge numbers of high throughput biological data set. It is a versatile and easy-to-use multivariate mathematical statistical method (Jolliffe et al, 2003) developed to extract maximal information from large data matrices containing numerous columns and rows. It also makes possible the elucidation of the relationship between the columns and rows of any data matrix without being one of the dependent variable. So the PCA is a projection method representing the original data in smaller dimensions.

Data mining is becoming an increasingly important tool to transform the data into information. In recent years, data mining has been widely used in area of Bioinformatics for better understanding of gene expression, drug design, and other emerging problems in genomics and proteomics. Data mining is used to understand gene expression analysis, searching and understanding of protein mass spectroscopy data, 3D structural and functional analysis and mining of DNA and protein sequences for structural and functional motifs. For the first several hundred years of research in biology, the main bottleneck to scientific progress was data collection. Our new found data-richness, however, has shifted this bottleneck from collection to analysis. Biomedical literatures have been increased at the exponential rate. To find the useful and needed information from such a huge data set is a daunting task for users. Text mining is a powerful tool to solve this problem and it is used for biological knowledge discovery.

Algae refer to an assemblage of polyphyletic organism that conducts oxygen evolving photosynthesis other than land plants. They are distributed widely throughout India in the sea, in fresh water and in moist situations on land. Algae also form an important component of biodiversity of Andaman and Nicobar Group of Islands. Database for Algae resources of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are created with an aim of providing an information pool to the researchers working in fields related to fresh water and marine water algae in Andaman and Nicobar Group of Islands. About 313 fresh water algal species belonging to 15 families and 57 marine algal species belonging to 18 families has included in this database among which 40 species has been found to be first time reported in India. Algae have a wide application in a variety of Industries such as Food, Fodder, and Fertilizer etc. They are also important sources of Protein, Iodine, Vitamins, Minerals and Substances of Antibiotic Nature.

Biodiversity conservation and sustainable use has, for many people, become associated mainly with issues related to plants and wild animals. Although much less discussed, the loss of farm animal genetic resources may well be much more serious than in crops because the gene pool is smaller and very few wild relatives remain. The fact that 32% of livestock breeds worldwide are at risk of becoming extinct and that the rate of extinction continues to accelerate (FAO, 2000) is thus a serious cause for concern. Animals of different characteristics and hence outputs suit differing local community needs.

The union territory of A & N Islands constitutes the farthest and the remotest part of Indian union. The islands are situated in the Bay of Bengal surrounded by sea. The neighboring countries are Burma in north east and Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in south east. The Union territory of A & N Islands is situated between 60 and 140 north latitude and 920 and 940 east longitude forming a broken row of continuous islands from. North to South direction. They can be divided into two groups namely Andaman and Nicobar groups. The dreaded 100 channel which is about 145 Kms wide and 400 fathoms deep, separates the two groups