eChapters

Protein Pea, French bean, cowpea, cluster bean, amaranth and broad bean. Carbohydrates Potato, sweet potato, dry beans, yam and tapioca. Vitamin-A Carrot, palak, amaranth, pumpkin, methi and paprika Vitamin-B Garden pea and Indian bean Vitamin-C Tomato, sweet pepper, green chilli, cauliflower, knol-khol, bitter gourd, amaranth, methi, palak and cabbage. Calcium Methi, kale, beet leaf, amaranth, broccoli, onion, beet root, Indian bean, and cabbage. Potassium Sweet potato, potato, bitter gourd, raddish, dolichos, onion and green leafy vegetables. Phosphorus Garlic, garden pea, bitter gourd, broccoli, onion, leek, kale, amaranth. Iron bitter gourd, amaranth, methi, poi, beet leaf, leek and spinach

Models Definitions

In social science research a model is a tentative description of what a social process, say the communication process or a system might be like. It is a tool of explanation and analyses, very often in a diagrammatic form, to show how the various elements of a situation being studied relate to each other.

The term model can also refer to a particular process or object, which is used as a point of reference, when an attempt to explain the unknown is being made. It basically comprises involving an analogy to throw up the similarities between the phenomena to be explained and one, which is well known, i.e., the model.

The simplest definition of a model is that it is an analogue. A model is a relatively well-developed analogy. Given two objects or processes which are dissimilar in many respects, one is an analogue of the other to the extent that the physical or logical structure of one re-presents the physical or logical structure of the other.

The advantage of models in communication research is that it allows the researcher to account for different variables in different communication situations. Models only represent systems or processes. Since they are not real, they are just symbolic ways of looking at systems to help us to think about them more lucidly. Again since models do now show every part of a system, they are usually incomplete in that sense. Even those that are shown are represented only in enough detail to help us look at the processes or features in which we are interested. Models give us an idea of complicated objects or events in a general way. They enable us to see how a particular communication event fits into the general pattern. They provide a classification for an old problems, and familiar events. They help us by providing a structure of references for purposes of study. Theories are not models and the most fundamental difference between a theory and a model is that the former is an explanation whereas the latter is a representation.

Herd management practices in the handling, nutrition, milking techniques, sanitation, and housing of dairy animals play key roles in predisposing the individual animal as well as herds to diseases. The key factor influencing the reduction of health issues are the decisions made by herd managers or animal owners.In order to maximize output and profitability through disease control, herd management approaches in conjunction with a veterinarian programme can be most beneficial.

The success of a rabbitry depends heavily on the equipment and hutches used. Climate, location, and budget all play a role in determining the type of equipment needed. Before constructing the hutches, careful planning is necessary to minimize labor and ensure optimum working conditions. A clean and efficient layout should also be considered in order to provide an ideal environment for raising rabbits. With a wide range of hutch designs available, it is important to choose one that best suits the specific needs and purpose of the rabbitry.

Early postemergence: The application of herbicide after plant emergence and during the initial growth phases of crop or weed seedlings.

EC: See emulsifiable concertrate.

Ecdysial cleavage lines: Preformed lines of weakness along which the shed cuticle of the cranium splits during ecdysis; cuticle in the region of these lines lacks the exocuticle (Fig. 100).

Cross-pollinated species, or outbreeders, are highly heterozygous, heterogeneous and carry a higher mutation load than the inbreeders. Their mode of reproduction bestows upon them considerable heterozygous balance under panmitic population structure. Inbreeding such species disturbs the natural rhythm and leads to inbreeding depression. It is, therefore, essential that if selfing has created any disturbance in outbreeders, the heterozygous structure be restored. Since artificial selfing and outcrossing can be carried out in such crops at will, all breeding methodologies, even those meant for self-pollinated crops, can be used for their improvement. In fact, allogamous crops have provided opportunities for innovating breeding procedures to achieve the maximum efficiency by combining selfing and outcrossing cycles.

Thus, the classical separation of breeding procedures for self- and cross-pollinated crops has become unnecessary, particularly, for outbreeders which are amenable to selfing. Exploitation of heterosis has been the major objective in cross-pollinated crops and most breeding procedures developed earlier aimed at maximising heterosis. In later years, with better understanding of genetic structure of populations and availability of efficient biometrical methods of estimating genetic parameters, newer procedures of accumulating desirable genes have been developed. The presently available breeding procedures for cross-pollinated crops can be broadly classified under two heads: (1) Hybrid development, and (2) Population improvement. Both these methodologies, though independent, are not mutually exclusive. The steps for operating the two procedures, however, have contrasting requirements. For hybrid development, fixation of genes through cycles of selfing is necessary whereas such fixation is avoided while developing populations. As can be seen from the scheme given below, in both cases the homozygosity attained through initial selfing is converted to heterozygosity at the end of breeding programme. Irrespective of whether hybrids, synthetics or composites are being developed, great emphasis is placed on the attainment of homogeneity in the end products.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Plant parasitic nematodes are among the major soil-borne crop pests that cause significant economic losses to a wide variety of crops. They cause an estimated annual crop-yield loss of US$78 billion worldwide which warrants for effective control strategies (Sasser and Freckman, 1987). Nematodes have the greatest impact on crop productivity when they attack the roots of seedlings or young plantlets (Ploeg, 2001). Nematode feeding also creates open wounds that provide entry to a wide variety of plant-pathogenic fungi and bacteria. These microbial infections are often more economically damaging than the direct effects of nematode feeding.

Introduction

Increased population pressure, reduced length of fallow, deforestation and improper agricultural practices have led to widespread soil degradation in many parts of the developing world which has culminated in appearance of determinative manifestations of environmental damage in form of inadequate replenishment of soil nutrients and organic matter. Phosphorus is second major plant growth limiting nutrient and despite being in abundance in soil (organic and inorganic form), P deficiency is becoming critical in many soils throughout world as these soils have free available P concentration (generally) not higher than 10mM even at most soluble slight acidic pH (Arnou, 1953). Moreover, consistent P deficiency threatens to disturb the use efficiency of applying other nutrients. Hence to preserve the sustainability of agriculture it is foremost to rebuild soil fertility and maintain/improve the soil biodiversity to reap hiked current levels of productivity and farm income.

Abstract

ICT is contributing in every sphere of human society and agriculture cannot be an exception. It can bring revolutionary changes in farmers’ life by improving accessibility to information and knowledge. Farmers certainly feel empowered and with confidence can opt for innovative approaches in business farming. Nearly 70 percent of the bottom fifth of the population in developing countries own a mobile phone. The number of internet users has more than tripled in a decade, from 1 billion in 2005 to an estimated 3.2 billion at the end of 2015. Thus, ICTs provide faster and newer ways of delivering and accessing information to many and are potential tools for poverty alleviation, health, education, judiciary, agricultural marketing and sustainable development. As per an ICAR report 80 per cent of the technologies generated by the researchers in agricultural sector are either not transferred to the ultimate users or they do not find applicability in the farmer’s field. Out of the remaining 20 per cent of the technologies, around 50 per cent do not impress the farmers due to mainly its ineffective technology transfer that range from language to effective demonstration using the available tools. Information and communication technology revolution is the latest milestone in Indian agriculture that can usher an era of knowledge flow from institution to farmers field in much systematic and organized way and eliminate hurdles in technology transfer and adoption. From the perspective of agricultural knowledge and information systems (AKIS), ICTs can be seen as useful in improving linkages between the research, extension and the market sub systems. Real-time information and customized knowledge provided by ‘eChoupal’ enhance the ability of farmers to take decisions and align their farm output with market demand and secure quality and productivity. The eKrishi project, Market driven Agricultural Initiative through IT enabled Agri-business Centres in Kerala, addresses the existing gap in agriculture information flow and transaction management. The touch screen kiosk with information on cattle health was tried and tested under a United Kingdom Department of International Development (DFID) – Animal Health Program (AHP) supported project on dissemination of animal health knowledge for development of landless dairy cattle owners in the peri-urban regions of Pondicherry. Being a global resource, and with billions of users, the Internet requires some degree of international cooperation on technical matters as well as on standards and norms that can ensure that it remains a global public good, facilitating information flows and contributing towards sustainable development.

The history of cakes traces back to ancient times where Egyptians first practiced advanced baking skills. However, the modern-day cakes are said to have evolved in Europe around mid of 17th century. Today cake products and its derivatives are widely found all around the world. Cakes are sweet baked products rich in sugar, fat and egg with a tender bite and a pleasant flavour. They are basically protein foams, stabilized by gelatinized starch. Quality of cake depends on number of factors like selection of ingredients, balancing of recipe, optimum mixing and baking procedures. Good quality cakes are characterized by large volume, uniform crumb with fine cells and pore size.

The management of a rabbit herd is a crucial aspect that requires careful planning and organization. As part of a larger scheme involving five medium-sized rabbit farms, the production and marketing of live rabbits and rabbit meat were streamlined into a single business. Although this may differ from the usual backyard production system, it serves as an ideal example of how one can modify their approach to suit specific needs. The success of this scheme lies in its detailed design, which ensures efficient management and optimal output for the herd. 

Farming is the intervention of man in the growth cycle of plants, animals or birds to get utility products of choice at maximum levels and of highest quality. The growing and caring of plants is called Crop Husbandry, and that of animals is called Animal Husbandry. Farming is our most basic activity. It is considered as the backbone of Indian economy. Farming not only nourishes the whole population, but also provides a means of livelihood to more than 60 per cent of our population. Our history, culture and community values are embedded in farming. Today when we think of farming, what comes to our mind are long stretches of farm land, farmer tilling the field, pumping water into fields, applying fertilizers or pesticides, plants with so many fruits, tractors with loads of farm produce, cross bred cows, a farm chicken, aquaculture, fish and so on. A more advanced image on this subject will be of the small plantlets in conical flasks or test tubes, what we call Tissue culture, High Yielding Varieties (HYV), Genetically Modified (GM) crops, Green House farming and other techniques that increase the crop yields. So all these activities are considered as the products of science that our scientists were able to develop over a period of time and helped the growing population to meet their food requirements.

The highly specialized organs that receive physical and chemical stimuli from the environment and various body parts, and transform them into stimuli are called sense organs or sensory receptors. These organs are closely associated with nervous system. The physical stimuli such as change of heat, light intensity and quality, acoustical stimuli and chemical stimuli like hear, taste, smell, touch, lateral line etc are received by the sense organs such as ear, eye, nose and others. These are more prominent sense organs. Less obvious ones in fishes are sensory crypts and papillae, ampullae of Lorenzini and Savi.

The crustaceans have various sense organs whose action are mediated through the nervous system. Crustacean antennae are important sites for the reception of environmental information, mainly chemical, and aesthetases, the olfactory hairs on the first pair, are usually well developed. The aesthetases help not only in locating food but also in recognizing other individuals and their sexual state.  The frequent grooming of the antennae by many decapods prevents fouling of the receptor sites (Bauer, 1971).

Introduction

Seed, the basic input of crop production technology, is exposed to various stress factors right from its formation to the completion of its germination. Even after germination, the stressed seeds may fail to emerge into a healthy plant and thus, the subsequent seed formation is also affected both quantitatively and qualitatively.

The stress factors may be abiotic, biotic or mesobiotic. Environmental factors such as climatic parameters, nutritional deficiencies, soil factors and conditions of storage are the examples of abiotic stress factors. Insects, fungi, bacteria, nematodes and other plant parasites constitute biotic stress factors whereas viruses, viroids and virusoids and similar agencies are the examples of mesobiotics factors that bring about stress over the seed. Apart from these conspicuous causes of stress, there are certain other factors also, which may affect the influence of stress over the total performance of the seed. For example, the crop improvement efforts bring about changes in seeds quality that can have considerable effects on the vulnerability of the seed to invasion by various biotic factors.

Abstract

Parasitic diseases are of great economic importance in livestock farming and are major obstacle in the health and productivity of animals. These may be due to endo-parasites that live inside the body or ecto-parasites such as ticks, mites, flies, fleas, midges, etc., which attack the body surface. Among ecto-parasites, ticks and mites are very important and harmful blood sucking external parasites of mammals. Blood sucking by large numbers of ticks causes reduction in body weight and anemia among domestic animals, while their bites also reduce the quality of hides. More than 250 species of mites can cause problems for humans and domestic animals because of their being vector for zoonotic diseases. Their attack may lead to problems of temporary irritation of the skin due to bites, persistent dermatitis due to mites invading skin or hair follicles, mite-induced allergies, transmission of pathogenic microbial agents, intermediate host of tapeworms, invading respiratory passages, ear canals and internal organs, fear of mites called acarophobia The economic or medical importance of the Acari increases with their ability to be vector for viruses, rickettsiae, spirochaetes, phytoplasmas, mycoplasmas and protozoa, or to harbor and transport nematodes, bacteria and fungi pathogens that affect plants, domestic and wild animals and humans. Ectoparasites were not considered serious problem till the introduction of exotic animals or exotic semen in India as the indigenous breeds were considered resistant to parasites and the damages occurred by them were totally ignored. Much awareness was not there about the diseases caused by ectoparasites like anaplasmosis therefore dairy producers had to bear losses both, in milk production and proper animal growth. Ectoparasites may be causing death of animals in certain cases. Losses in dairy, poultry, goatry and other livestock farming can be considerably reduced through strategic management of parasites. This needs timely detection, identification and development of effective control measures. 10-30% production losses are estimated by parasitic infestation. If profitability is the goal in livestock entrepreneurship then target has to be the animal health, productivity and quality produce through strategic management and awareness campaign on economic importance of parasites.

Plant diseases, in spite of the various measures adopted to control them, continue to be a major cause of crop losses. At times these losses have been so heavy that they have caused severe famines. Diseases are caused by a wide variety of organisms such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, mycoplasma and nematodes. The diseases may be partially or completely controlled by chemical, cultural and genetic methods. When no single method is effective in controlling a disease, integrated control constituting a combination of the three methods of disease control (chemical, cultural, genetic) may be effective. If host resistance alone is sufficient to check a disease, then it is to be preferred to other methods because it is the least expensive, has no adverse environmental effects and involves no specific action on the part of the farmer, even when only partial, genetic resistance supplements chemical control and makes it more effective in comparison with chemical control on a completely susceptible cultivar.

Many plant diseases have been successfully controlled by exploiting genetic resistance especially where differentiation in the pathogen with respect to resistance genes in the host is lacking. In some cases, even when pathotype differentiation occurs in the pathogen, genetic resistance in combination with other methods has given adequate control. Breeding for resistance to highly variable air-borne fungal pathogens has claimed much time and effort of plant breeders and success has often been transient. The reasons for the shortlived success have become clear from research during the last quarter of a century.

Organic food production is as much a state of mind as it is a production system. The organic farmer must understand how everything is interrelated and how one set of circumstances will influence other factors in how the plant grows. A strong, healthy plant is much more important in an organic system then a conventional system. A two to three year leaning curve must be accepted by anyone intending to switch from conventional to organic farming. What works one year may fail the next.

Most varieties of fruit plants have originated as chance seedlings or through somatic mutation and have been maintained and multiplied through vegetative propagation by fruit growers. The improvement of fruit plants through breeding has not yet attracted the serious attention of the research workers. Unlike field crops, fruit plant breeding is time consuming and laborious. Studies on the mode of inheritance of important economic characters of fruit plants are difficult because of the heterozygous nature of the plants. Moreover, varying degrees of sexual incompatibility have complicated the situation. Due to a long juvenile phase, it takes a long time to identify a useful hybrid. This factor has become a serious handicap because most research workers leave or shift from the programme before tangible results are obtained.

During the last two decades, considerable useful information has been generated on breeding methodology for the improvement of some of the important fruit crops. In this chapter fruits like mango, banana and papaya have been included.

8.1 Introduction

For maximization of yield of crops, it is essential to provide irrigation to crops. When either the natural sources like rainfall, dew, snowfall and other forms of precipitation or when the capillary rise of groundwater is not sufficient to meet the crop water demand, then there is need to supply irrigation. This irrigation water is a precious resource and need to be used cautiously. There are three important things need to be understood for optimum utilization of irrigation water with basic purpose to maximize the yield and returns.