eChapters

Abstract

Higher temperature and altered rainfall patterns accompanied by extreme weather events are being considered indications of climate change. These factors impact vegetation growth in natural forest, open scrub and in agriculture land. Vegetation index based on satellite data was used to analyse agricultural vulnerability in India to understand impact of rainfall variability. Time-series Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data products obtained from AVHRR (1982 to 2006) and MODIS (2000-2011) were analyzed to assess spatial and temporal variability. Coefficient of variation of maximum NDVI was assessed for the study period and results were corroborated with Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) instead of actual rainfall. Resolution of AVHRR time-series data facilitated study at regional-scale while MODIS datasets with 250m pixel resolution helped in identifying vulnerability at district-level. Study indicated that over 241 Mha areas in the country may not be vulnerable to rainfall variability induced climate change while over 81.3 Mha in arid, semi-arid and dry sub- humid regions may be vulnerable. Study indicated that over 12.1 and 1.81 Mha of Kharif cropland would be mildly and severally vulnerable while 6.86 and 0.5 Mha of Rabi cropland may be adversely affected in a similar manner. Study indicated that length of cropping season was decreasing due to delay in start of season. The paper also presents analysis of variations in SPI and resultant NDVI in typical drought and flood years in the country.

Keywords: MODIS, AVHRR, NDVI, Rainf ed Agricul ture, Vulnerability, Climate Change

Abstract

Anantapur is the driest district of Andhra Pradesh and hence, agriculture conditions are very often precarious. Groundnut grows where other crops fail and thus it is the predominant crop of Anantapur district. Groundnut is grown in about 7.5 lakh ha in Anantapur district; however the average yields are low at 500 kg ha^-1. Among various available vegetation indices, normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) is widely used for all reasons, which is a single numerical indicator of presence and condition of green vegetation. NDVI mapping at a regional scale helps to assess the spatial changes in the vigour of green vegetation and thus occurrence of any moisture stress. Climate tools have a great role in understanding the crop performance and estimating the yields. This study was taken up by using freely available MODIS data to understand NDVI in terms of abiotic stresses over Anantapur district and linking with the actual rainfall conditions, groundnut crop acreage and production. Results indicate that low groundnut yields in general could be related to NDVI-based stress measurements and rainfall quantum and distribution in the area however, with a few exceptions. It is hoped that by combining improved practices through IWM with climate-adapted crop varieties, rainfed farmers of Anantapur district can sustain their crop production under present climate variability and become resilient to future climate change.

Keywords: Climate, MODIS, NDVI, Anantapur, Groundnut, Integrated Watershed Management

Abstract

The weather or climate is a natural resource and is an important basic input in agricultural planning and strategies. Every plant process, related with growth, development and yield of a crop and each of inseason and off-season farm operations (according to World Meteorological Organization) is more than 10 per cent and can reach up to 50 per cent in smaller areas and not a surprise even if it reaches to 100 per cent on micro scale. Amongst the various weather elements, temperatures, radiation and rainfall play major role in deciding the crop growth and yield levels. Precipitation is one of the important weather factors being responsible for atmospheric and soil moisture and therefore has more agricultural importance, especially in rainfed agriculture.

Keywords: Remote sensing, weather, agroadvisory, GIS

1.0 Introduction

India receives more than 70 per cent of its annual rainfall during South West monsoon season. Indian summer monsoon rainfall shows large intra - seasonal and intra-annual variability (Parthasarathy, 1960; Alexander et al., 1978; Mooley and Parthasarathy, 1984) and also changes in space and time, intensity and distribution. Borgaonkar and Pant (2001) have reported that Indian monsoon rainfall has shown trend less nature since 17^th century based on proxy data with large inter-annual fluctuations. IPCC (2001) has reported increase in rainfall over tropical and higher latitudes and decrease in rainfall over subtropics and mid latitudes.

Abstract

Natural resources and agricultural production processes vary spatially. Capturing the spatial variations in data and knowledge of natural resources and production processes has been a major challenge for efficient and sustainable management of agricultural production systems. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) provide an effective platform for storing and mapping spatial data and modeling the relevant processes. Huge volumes of geospatial data on specific themes such as soils, water, climate, and other natural resources, are being collected by public and private agencies. However, currently it is difficult for most users to access the data and integrate them into a GIS platform to derive useful information and knowledge for specific applications. There is a need to create geospatial data and knowledge systems that can provide efficient, on-demand and remote access of spatial data to users to enable development of a variety of GIS applications for agricultural and natural resources management. The design of a prototype geospatial library to provide web-based access to geospatial data, services, and learning and knowledge resources that can support agricultural and natural resources management is presented. The design is scalable and sufficiently general to allow a range of agricultural and natural resources management applications across different spatial scales.

Keywords: Agriculture, GIS, Geospatial library, Knowledge Management, Natural Resources

Abstract

Customized application development can deliver/fulfill the specialized and specific needs of the users as well as it provides user- friendly environment to the users. There have been applications developed in the past but now applications developed and coupled with the advantage of GIS technologies for various data-handling, spatial analyses and visualization under variable inputs and spatial scales is an innovative approach developed during recent years.The present work encompasses Spatial Agricultural Information and Decision Support System having five modules - Agro-socio-economic-information, Bio- Physical Information, Crop’s Information & Management, and Agriculture DSS Module. This system, developed in a GIS framework, allows managers and planners to rapidly assess land attributes and link these attributes with maps and related infrastructure. Hence, it can facilitate efficient use of existing resource information. The primary database of the software has a Database Update feature which can be utilized by the user using the software to integrate own data into the primary database of the software. With this integration, the software adapts to new data entered and will enable this data to be visualized in GIS platform. The software has been designed keeping in view the requirements of the departments like Department of Agriculture, Department of Land Records etc. In comparison with the commercial GIS applications, the commercial applications are not cost effective if the primary requirement is visualization enabling decision making and basic spatial analysis. The most features available on such software remain un-utilized or they cannot be used without having GIS knowledge. This application is suitable in such scenarios, providing a simple customizable platform for GIS visualization. This software application fits in and serves the line departments and in a way promoting the GIS in the mountainous terrain as it requires very basic or no GIS skill set to operate.

Abstract

A huge technical improvement in Information Technology (IT) has made new instruments (e.g. WEB-GIS, Open Source platforms, DBMS with geometric data) available. Distributing geospatial information on the Internet is an enforcing factor for information providers. For dissemination of spatial data, Web-GIS technology can be used, which is amalgamation of several information technologies. Open Source is a philosophy of providing software with better quality, more flexibility, and lower cost. This paper explains the use of Open Source Web-GIS which provides a fast and globally reachable way not only to represent the information about natural resources through maps and statistics but also possibility of processing the information interactively on web.

Keywords : Web-GIS, Open Source, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, GeoServer, Wetlands

1.0 Introduction

India is blessed with diverse and abundant resources. India has been witnessing tremendous growth which has impacted practically every aspect of environment and the common man. Natural resource has been tremendously in use due to increase in population growth, thus generation, dissemination and sharing of information regarding natural resources and data amongst all stake holders have become a necessity. The utilization of modern technologies such as remote sensing, GIS which are effective in management of natural resources as user can store, retrieve and model the spatial information. Web media is playing a vital role in making people aware about the importance and conservation of natural resources. We are presenting such efforts with use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools.

Abstract

The social and economic development of any state is interlaced with the manner of its natural resource management. The unplanned use and overexploitation of resources are results in various kinds of land degradation, biomass deterioration and siltation of tanks. In addition, the low per capita availability of land, erratic and uneven distribution of rains, undulating topography, improper management, traditional cropping programmes and recurrence of droughts having cumulative effect leading to low productivity and high risk particularly in dryland farming. Further, developing dry land agriculture through sectoral approach did not bring in the desired results, as the efforts were not integrated. However, in nature all the resources are inter-linked and thus, the integrated developmental approach is the best solution for optimal development of any area. Further, development based on administrative units such as district, taluk, block and village have resulted in imbalance and sometimes, no overall development in some areas. Considering this, natural resources management through Geo- informatics tools like, remote sensing, GIS, GPS and other sensor based techniques are the possible ways for making agriculture sustainable. The paper mainly highlights theimportance of application of latest technologies in agriculture along with some field level case studies.

Keywords: Remote sensing, GIS, Watershed, CAPE, Precision agriculture

Abstract

The objective of the study is to build a framework of Geo-spatial Information System for effective decision making by empowering all the stake holders with spatial and non-spatial data. The Interface of this information system is developed as a deployable windows application using Map Objects in Visual Basic programming language with MS Access database. The practical utility of the proposed information system was explained with a case study in Aquaculture. This geo-spatial information system provides required information through maps based on spatial and attribute quarries. These dynamic maps help in taking effective decisions.

1.0 Introduction

Computer based information systems proved to be very efficient and effective tools for managing data and information to aid in decision making . FAO (2000) proposed agricultural knowledge and information system for rural development (AKIS/RD) to link rural people and institutions to promote mutual learning and generate , share and utilize agricultural technology , knowledge and information. This serves as vehicle for sharing ideas and principles with various stake holders addressing the problems and seeking solutions to rural development. Although the rural development planning is top-down prescriptive approach , in reality the decisions are made by the stake holders based on their perspectives, knowledge and priorities. Problems particularly related to environmental impacts are location specific and contextual. Geo-spatial technologies may serve as better vehicle to store and share all kinds of location specific data and information. The state of mapping and management of geospatial data changed during the recent years with the diffusion of modern geospatial information technologies such as GIS(Geographic information system), GPS(Global positioning system) and image analytical system for remote sensing(RS) data. Adinarayana et al., (2008) proposed a geographical information and communication technology (Geo-ICT) based information system called Grama Vikas( rural development) to assist the user in analyzing the rural information for rural development, planning . During the recent years there is a paradigm shift in GIS applications for rural development particularly in developing countries, by way of integrating top-down approach with bottom-up approach by the stake holders who stand to be affected by the decisions based on these technologies. Emerging concepts include “ community - integrated GIS”, “GIS in participatory research” and ‘participatory GIS”. (Abbot et al., 1998)

Abstract

GIS in marine fisheries has taken off much later than its application in land. But the strides made in this field since 1990’s has been quite significant, as many serious mapping studies and modeling initiatives have been recorded. With the third dimension added to the 2D spatial data, the marine GIS have all the ingredients of making it a fertile domain for research for decades to come. Most of the studies and products pertaining to GIS in fishery management had been revolving around mapping of habitats, geo-referencing of catch and effort data and modeling linking oceanographic and biogeochemical factors with living resources. Satellite remotely sensed information like ocean colour can act as a surrogate to fish biomass. Further remotely sensed SST, wind and other parameters can be effectively modeled to predict fish abundance, their habitat and related aspects. This manuscript pours into the various products and outputs based on GIS in marine fisheries around the world and the Indian initiatives.

Key words: GIS, marine resources, oceanography, primary productivity and climate change

1.0 Introduction

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been one of the most prolific scientific enhancements in recent past, which by virtue of out of box expansion of traditional database concept have opened up an entirely new vista of knowledge and opportunities. It’s probably one such unique application where information collation and analysis happen hand in hand resulting in palpable mining of data in perspective. A formal introduction to GIS would define it as a collection of computer hardware, software, data and personnel designed to collect, store, update, manipulate, analyze and display geographically referenced information. By virtue of its conceptualizations, there are no single GIS; systems can be assembled in an infinite number of ways. This is one such field, which probably always seeks the frontiers of innovations in the fields of ICT and modeling.

Abstract

Any naturally occurring phenomena varies both in space and time. This variability is a result of various natural process and hence deterministic. Geostatistics is a tool to help us to characterize spatial variability and uncertainty resulting from imperfect characterization of the variability. Geostatistics involves the theory of regionalized variables, which dates back to the early fifties and includes concepts of random function and stationarity. Geostatistical mapping can be defined as analytical production of maps by using field observations, explanatory information, and a computer program that calculates values at locations of interest. There area number of spatial prediction models depending on the amount of statisticsinvolved in the analysis. Kriging is a generic name adopted by the geostatisticians for a family of generalized least- squares regression algorithms and various kriging algorithms viz., punctual kriging, block kriging, co-kriging and universal kriging are explained in this paper. Applications of geostatistics can be found in many varied disciplines ranging from the geology to soil science, hydrology, meteorology, environmental sciences, agriculture and even structural engineering and some of its applications are summarized in this paper.

Keywords :Geostatistics, spatial variability, kriging, model

Abstract

GIS has several products that can be protected in India as copyright. The paper describes major provisions of copyright Act, 1957 that has been amended five times. GIS products qualify to be registered within various sections of the copyright Act. Patenting of software is permitted in some countries but not in India, a comparative account of these two forms of protection has been discussed with practical examples. General public licensing of open source software, translation, exclusive licensing and data sharing & accessibility policy are other areas covered in the present study and analytical learning.

Key words : copyright, patent, GIS, software, data sharing

1.0 Introduction

The copyright Act 1957 was mainly amended in 1994 and1999 to bring into complete harmony with Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), further major amendment has been done in 2012, that include wide range changes in ownership, term of protection, copyright security, cinematography and broadcasting provisions. In the same year government of India has initiated ‘National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP)’ which came into operation from February 2012. At present the copyright Act and data sharing policy are the two legal and administrative instruments which facilitate the intellectual property protection and appropriate sharing among stakeholders in the country.

THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

The word “democracy” is derived from the Greek roots - ‘cracy’ meaning ‘rule of and ‘demos’ meaning ‘the people’. It is governance of the people, by the people, for the people. Rule by majority is, no doubt, an important feature of this system of governance; but the more important ingredient is rule by consultation - consultation between the people’s representatives on one hand and consultation with the officers on the other. ‘Decentralization’ means devolution of central authority among local units close to the areas served. Where authority is devolved by this process on people’s institution, it is ‘democratic decentralization’.

At the instance of the Prime Minister it was decided to give the process of the three-tier administration the strictly Indian name, “Panchayati Raj” which means a system of government. Panchayati Raj was conceived system of democratic local self-Government. Earlier, Mahatma Gandhi also advocated panchayati raj as the foundation of India’s political system, as a decentralized form of government in which each village would be responsible for its own affairs. The term for such a vision was Gram Swaraj (“village self-governance”). The institution of Panchayat represented not only the collective will, but also the collective wisdom of the entire rural community.

The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee, headed by M P Balwant Rai Mehta, was a committee appointed by the Government of India in January 1957 to examine the work of the Community Development Programme (1952) and the National Extension Service (1953) and to suggest measures for their better work. The committee recommended the establishment of the scheme of ‘democratic decentralisation’ which finally came to be known as 'Panchayati Raj' which would be a 3-tier system - 'Gram Panchayat' at the village level, Panchayat Samiti at the block level, and Zilla Parishad at the district level.

This practical assignment is designed in a way that students will acquire knowledge on various development departments in the district, especially on organizational structure, functioning and activities of any agency like District Rural Development Agency (DRDA).

PURPOSE

To get the students acquainted with the organization and functioning of DRDA.

To give the students a brief idea about the organizational structure and functions of other development departments at district level.

This practical assignment is conceptualized and designed to acquire practical learning experience through various activities implemented by NGOs in improving the livelihood of the targeted group. The assignment also projects a clear picture about the objectives, structure, functioning and activities of NGOs.

PURPOSE

To make the students acquainted with the NGOs and their learning experience in rural development.

THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a not-for-profit organization that is independent from states and international governmental organizations. They are usually funded by donations but some avoid formal funding altogether and are run primarily by volunteers. NGOs are highly diverse groups of organizations engaged in a wide range of activities, and take different forms in different parts of the world.

This practical assignment is conceptualized and operationalized to understand various tools and techniques in conducting a PRA at the village level and help students in understanding their application in village development planning.

PURPOSE

To get students acquainted with the PRA tools and techniques and their application in village development programme

This visit gives students an exposure to mass media like radio, television studio and helps them in understanding elements, equipment and overall process of programme production used for disseminating information on agriculture and rural technologies.

PURPOSE

To get acquainted the students about the mass media by visiting the community radio and television studio

To know the operating system how a programme is delivered in the radio and television

This practical assignment is conceptualized and operationalized to study the settlement pattern, social stratification system, family resource base, ongoing development programmes and SHG of SGSY.

PURPOSE

To acquaint students with the first-hand knowledge about the village pattern and the on-going developmental programmes.
 To study about the extension programmes like SHG of SGSY and their structure and function.

This practical assignment is dealt with the appropriate extension strategies and methodologies adopted by KVK and ATIC in disseminating proven agriculture information and technologies to farmers through delivery mechanisms.

PURPOSE

To acquaint the first-hand knowledge of the KVK- Farm Science Centre and ATIC

To study the structure, function of the centre and the role of the centre in transfer of technology.

This practical assignment is associated with the evaluation of communication fidelity with in a communication process where in all the communication elements are responsible to contribute the same.

PURPOSE

To understand the communication gap which arises due to emergence of noise in the channel

To understand the importance of communicator’s ability to organize and treat the message for making communication effective

To understand the distortion (addition or deletion or alterations in the original message) in communication.

This practical assignment is dealt with the appropriate extension strategies and methodologies adopted by various extension institutes in disseminating proven agricultural technologies to various stakeholders under university extension system.

PURPOSE

To get acquainted with the university extension system.

This assignment focuses on various methods in identifying the rural or local leaders in the social system and helps the students in case of identifying the specialized roles of extension workers at grassroot level.

PURPOSE

To identify rural leaders for collecting information about the village.

To assess the role of rural leaders in transferring new technology to the villagers through rural leader.

This practical assignment deals with preparation of village improvement plan by analyzing the facts such as farming system, infrastructure, communication etc., facilities available at that particular village through participatory extension tools and methods. This assignment also helps students in designing a blueprint for developing the village into a model village.

PURPOSE

To develop the village in every aspect like agriculture, education, infrastructure, communication.

To prepare a comprehensive, realistic and practical blueprint for development of the village into a model village.

To improve the socio-economic condition of the farmer

This practical assignment is dealt with the appropriate writing of script for farm broadcast and telecast. Script writing is an art for disseminating the information to the users in an effective and interesting way. In agricultural journalism, script writing plays an important and crucial role to communicate the agricultural information to the farming community with its proper content and intent.

PURPOSE

To acquaint the students with the first-hand knowledge about the principles and technique of writing scripts for farm broadcast and telecast.

To provide the students an opportunity for developing and improving their skill in writing an effective radio/television script.

THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

One of the training methods used in management training and technical training is workshop method. The word workshop is borrowed from the area of industry. As the word says, in the workshop of industries, practical work is done by the workers. Similarly, through workshop method, some works are done by the participants who are actively involved in the same. One component which is common for all the methods is the person who conducts the proceedings of the method. We may call him a trainer or more appropriately for this method the director of the workshop. In using workshop method, the trainer needs a few experts who may be called as consultants or co-trainers. The trainer cannot handle the workshop situation single-handed.

A workshop schedule is very much important for planning an effective workshop method. It will help arrange all the necessary materials and the people well in advance to organise the workshop programme successfully and achieve the objectives of the workshop for which it is organised.

This practical assignment is conceptualized and designed to improve skill of the students on micro teaching for managing teaching situation.

Purpose

To get students acquainted with the micro teaching exercise.

To allow the students for progressive training for the management of teaching situation.

To improve specific micro-teaching skills involved in teaching.

This practical assignment is dealt with background and nature of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme MGNREGP works and students will gain first-hand information and will evaluate this programme in this assignment.

PURPOSE

To acquaint students with the first-hand knowledge about the work carried out in MGNREGP and how it progress.

To know the socio-economic background of the MGNREGP workers and nature of economic activities available in the villages under MGNREGP.

This practical assignment is focused on various methodologies and techniques in organizing group discussion and method demonstration. After completion of this assignment, student will be competent enough to organize group discussions and conduct method demonstration in the village.

PURPOSE

To acquaint students to solve the problem through discussion.

To evaluate information, ideas to solve the problem and understand the problem towards development of a programme of action relative to the problem.

This practical assignment is conceptualized in a way that students will gain a deeper understanding of the rural situation and can prioritize the rural needs which will eventually help in achieving overall development of the rural people.

PURPOSE

To gain a deeper understanding of the rural situation.

To encourage students to analyze the needs of the rural people on priority basis and thereby helping in planning effectively for rural development.

To acquaint the students with the areas that needs to be more strengthened in case of achieving overall development of the rural people.

This practical assignment is conceptualized and operationalized to plan for preparation and use of non-projected visual aids. In traditional and modern extension communication, the communication aids are helping the communicator to communicate the message in a better way. The examples of non-projected communication aids are poster, charts, flash cards, leaflets, folders etc.

PURPOSE

To provide precise and reliable scientific information told in simple language about a single practice or item of interest in the form of (Non-Projected Visual Aids) NPVA

To serve immediate needs of the farmer.

To catch the attention of the farmer and they can easily understand it.

This practical assignment is dealing with planning and preparation of agricultural information materials- leaflet, pamphlet and news stories, in this assignment required guidelines are provided for the students for preparing these agricultural extension material more effectively.

PURPOSE

To equip students in preparing Agricultural Information Materials like leaflets, pamphlets and news stories.

This practical assignment is associated with the planning, preparation and presentation of Microsoft PowerPoint slide. This assignment not only helps students in gaining first-hand knowledge on preparation of PowerPoint slide, but also improves their presentation skills while presenting a presentation before the audience.

PURPOSE

To acquaint students with first-hand knowledge about the power point slides and how to prepare it.

To get an idea about the presentation of power point slide in front of the audience.

This practical assignment deals with operational principles and functions of the Overhead Project which governs the appropriate handling and application of OHP in real situation and also guides students in preparing different types of Overhead Projector slides for presentation.

This practical assignment is designed for the students to give first-hand information on components, working procedure and handling of public address system (PAS) and liquid crystal display (LCD) projector.

PURPOSE

 To acquaint students with how to operate and handle the public address system.

 To acquaint the students handle LCD projector.

This practical assignment is related with listening, note taking, writing and oral presentation skill, after completion of these assignment students will improve their listening, notes taking, writing skills and will also acquires good presentation skills.

PURPOSE

 To get acquainted the students about the listening, note taking, writing skills and oral presentation skills. After completion of this assignment student will improve their listening skill.

This practical assignment is related to write the technical matters in simplest form to be digested by the common readers. It also helps in summarizing the entire matter related to new technology or innovation in a nutshell.

PURPOSE

 To acquaint the students how to write summary of a topic

 To improve technical writing skills

This practical assignment is related with indexing, footnote and bibliographic procedures for writing research articles, this assignment provides hands on experiences for the students on working with indexing, footnote and bibliographic procedures which eventually helps them during writing research articles.

PURPOSE

To make the students acquainted how to write indexing, footnote and bibliographic procedures.

1. Footnotes

Footnotes have a pronounced effect on style, general tone and clarity. Every footnote is a disgression from the main stream of thought. It interrupts the reader. If he reads it, his eyes must make an excursion to the bottom of the page; and when he is through, he must find the place where he departed from it. Lengthy footnotes can cause the reader to lose the thread of your message, to miss what you are trying to tell him.

It is of two types.

This practical assignment is dealt with collection, collation and maintenance of field and lab related information in a single compendium or diary.

PURPOSE

To make the students acquainted with the field diary and lab record

THEORETICAL ORIENTATION

Field Diary

There are two kinds of field notes

This practical assignment is conceptualized and designed to guide students in identifying and preparation of project proposals. This assignment provides an opportunity for the students to explore, thing and putting their ideas on paper.

PURPOSE

 To provide an idea about project in entrepreneurship development.

 To identify the project and its importance.

 To know about the preparation of project.

This practical assignment deals with identification of emerging enterprises in agricultural sector and helps students in identifying the emerging enterprises suitable for the study area on the basis of the situational analysis.

PURPOSE

 To provide a comprehensive idea about different enterprises.

 To acquaint the students with different factors which are essential for identifying emerging enterprises in agricultural sector.

This assignment is associated with the identification and recognition of different characteristics and features related to entrepreneurship development within the individual.

PURPOSE

 To make students acquainted with the characteristics favorable for entrepreneurial activity of people.

 To help the students develop their skill in identifying the entrepreneurial traits one can have within him/her.

This practical assignment deals with cost benefit analysis, and gives a clear picture of concepts of cost benefit analysis in determining the worth of an enterprise.

PURPOSE

 To make the students familiar with the concept of cost benefit analysis in determining the worth of an enterprise.

 To impart the knowledge and skill required to compute the cost benefit analysis process effectively for assessing the economic viability of an enterprise.

This practical assignment is associated with visiting any two public/ private sector agricultural enterprises. This assignment provides a platform for the students to study structure, function and activities of the enterprise and gives an opportunity to analyses the same.

PURPOSE

 To help the students visit and observe directly the structure and activities of both public and private sector enterprises.

 To enable the students to find out the differences between the public and private sector enterprises with respect to certain aspects.

This practical assignment is conceptualized and designed for preparation of enterprise business plan and provides students the preliminary information on developing a business plan

PURPOSE

 To equip students with the preliminary knowledge on how to develop a business plan for an enterprise.

 To acquaint the students with the important aspects of a business plan which are essential for developing and running an enterprise successfully.

Introduction

The book has been framed as a text book cum vegetable production manual for both under graduate and post graduate students of Agriculture/ Horticulture as well as commercial vegetable production professionals. This book has been oriented on different management practices of vegetable culture in open field condition viz., Classification of vegetable crops, Management of seedlings in the nursery, Water managent, Plant nutrient management, Pollination management, Integrated pest management, Biological management of diseases, Weed management and Production technology of different vegetable crops.

Classification of vegetable crops

Vegetables are defined as herbaceous plant origin material with generally low calorific value providing micronutrients, vitamins, antioxidants, fibre and induce alkaline reaction inside human body. Vegetable crops are not only botanically different but also their cultural and climatic adaptation shows wide variability. It is, therefore, necessary to classify the vegetable crops for their easy recognition. Vegetable crops can conveniently be classified “Botanically” for the purpose of vegetable breeding and according to “Method of culture” from the point of crop husbandry.

Botanical classification

The crops used for vegetable purpose in the world belong to 1200 species under 78 families and of them, more than 860 species under 59 families belong to dicotyledoneae and about 340 species under 19 families belong to monocotyledoneae. In the tropical and subtropical parts of the world, about 90 species of vegetable crops are cultivated, but hardly 20 of them are commercially important.

In the present botanical classification, over 140 different vegetable crops under 6 monocotyledoneae and 20 dicotyledoneae families have been included.

1. Seedling management in the nursery

Seedlings of many seed propagated vegetable crops like, tomato, brinjal, chillies, sweet pepper, cauliflower, cabbage, knolkhol, broccoli, Brussels sprout, kale, endive, chicory, celery, lettuce, parsley, onion, etc. are first raised in the nursery beds before transplanted in the main field although, many of these crops like, tomato, sweet pepper, onion, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc. are also direct seeded using precision seed drills in the USA, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy and other European countries. Many seed propagated vegetable crops viz., okra, peas, beans, radish, carrot, beet, turnip and all the cucurbits (e.g. bitter gourd, bottle gourd, pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon, muskmelon, snake gourd, sponge gourd, ridge gourd, etc.) are conventionally grown through direct seeding in the main field.

Transplant groups

1. Plants easy to transplant: They form new roots rapidly, put forth shoots rather slowly and absorb water readily e.g. beet, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Swiss chard, lettuce and tomato.

2. Plants transplanted with moderate ease: This group replace roots and grow shoots a bit slower than the previous group and do not absorb water very efficiently e.g. celery, brinjal, onion, pepper, leek and cauliflower.

1. Potato

Scientific name: Solanum tuberosum L.

Family: Solanaceae

Origin: South America

Chromosome No.: 2n = 4x = 48

Introduction

Potato is one of the four major food crops of the world and is also a very popular vegetable crop. It is extensively cultivated in China, Russian Federation, Ukarine, Poland, Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, South America, India and USA. Potato was brought from Peru to Spain by the Spaniards in 1565 when it was widely grown in Spain and Italy. They were probably brought to England about 1586 by Sir Francis Drake. Potato was introduced in India in early 17^th century probably by the Portuguese. Now it is one of the principal cash crops of India.

Importance and use

• Potato is the fourth major food crops of the world after rice, wheat and maize.
• Being a major source of carbohydrate it is often used as a substitute for cereals.
• It is one of the major vegetable crops of the world and is grown in almost every country.
• In India, it is considered as a staple vegetable and used either alone or mixed with other vegetables.
• Potato is used as vegetable in various forms such as, boiled, mashed, baked, fried and cooked in sambar and different curries of vegetable, fish and meat.
• Potato is processed into different commercially used dehydrated, canned and fried products like, shredded potato, sliced potato, chips, flakes, French fries, finger chips, granules, disc, cubes, flour, etc.
• It is used for several industrial purposes such as production of starch, alcohol, dextrin, glucose, etc.
• Potato starch is a large grained starch and contains 25 % amylase and 73 % amylopectin and high phosphate content.

Vegetables occupy an important place in diversification of agriculture and have played a pivotal role in the food and nutritional security of every growing population of our country. Vegetables are becoming important as cash crops for urban and export markets. Looking at the national scenario, vegetables have tremendous strength in terms of natural and genetic resources. A large number of wild taxa and indigenous germplasm are available in the country and many of them have not being fully capitalized. Though efforts have been made to tap the variability present among the vegetable crops in the country and many varieties have been released, it needs further attention so that the problems of biotic and abiotic stresses can also be minimized. The vast diversity of land, soil and agro climatic conditions prevalent in India also offers a unique competitiveness to grow wide range of vegetables. During the last four decades, India has made commendable progress in vegetable production (from 23.45 million tonnes in 1961-65 to 166.47 million tonnes in 2015-16), securing the position of second largest production of vegetables in world next only to China. The total world vegetable production is 1159.88 million tonnes from an area of 59.16 million hectares. In this, India contributes about 15.88 % with the production equal to 166.47 million tonnes from an area of 9.29 million hectares (NHB, 2015-16).

Significant achievements have been made in the food availability throughout the world over the last few decades. The estimated number of people in developing regions suffering from chronic malnutrition has declined (from 946 million people in 1969-71 to 870 million people in 2010-12), as the proportion of malnourished people from 36 percent to 20 percent, even though the world population has increased. Global food supplies (if distributed according to individual requirements) are sufficient to fulfill the energy needs. An estimated 20 percent of the people in developing world are chronically under nourished, consuming too little food to meet even the minimal energy needs. Approximately 192 million children under the age of five years suffer from acute or chronic protein energy malnutrition. According to WHO, 6.9 million children under the age of five died in 2011, from direct or indirect result of hunger and malnutrition. Moreover, more than 2 billion people, mostly women and children are deficient in one or more micronutrients, babies continue to be born mentally retarded as a result of iodine deficiency, children go blind from vitamin-A deficiency and enormous number of women and children are adversely affected by iron deficiency.

The overall growth in food availability resulting from the green revolution over the last two decades has eliminated the threat of famine for India’s entire population. Country’s production of food grains has reached over 257.07 million tonnes. However, malnutrition is still a serious problem in this region. Evidences suggest that micronutrient deficiency is far more prevalent in the area than protein energy malnutrition. The International Food Policy Research Institute has reported a rising trend in micronutrient deficiencies, which is becoming more serious than malnutrition from lack of major nutrients. Thus, the emphasis is now shifting from supply of basic food (calories & protein) towards supply of balanced diet (calories, protein & micronutrients which includes vitamins and minerals).

Vegetable research in India is of very recent origin. Research on vegetable crops was started by ICAR with the sanctioning of a nucleus ‘Plant Introduction Scheme’ at IARI, New Delhi in 1947-48. Simultaneously, the ICAR also started such ad-hoc schemes in different states like Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Tamil Nadu.

Prior to World War II, entire seeds of temperate vegetables were imported from European countries. When, during World War II, supply of vegetable seeds from Europe suffered a serious setback, the government of India felt the need for production of these seeds within the country. As a result of this, the government of India established a Vegetable Breeding Station at Katrain in Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh in 1949. This station was transferred to Indian Agriculture Research Institute in 1955 to undertake research on improvement of temperate vegetable crops, standardization of their seed production technology and to produce seeds of identified improved varieties of temperate vegetables. This research station is carrying out intensive research on all aspects of temperate vegetables including improvement, production technology and their seed production.

Further, a division of Horticulture was created at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi in 1956-57. However, vegetable research was organized on sound footing with the establishment of the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR) at Bangalore with a full fledged Division of Vegetable Crops in 1968. The vegetable research in India received a further boost when a separate division of Vegetables Crops and Floriculture was started at IARI, New Delhi in 1970. The floriculture work was separated from the division of Vegetable Crop and Floriculture, IARI, New Delhi in 1982 and the division was then named as Division of Vegetable Crops, which was assigned the research work exclusively on different vegetable crops. In the Sixth Five-year Plan, IIHR, Bangalore started two Central Horticulture Experiment Stations, one each at Ranchi, (Bihar) and Godhra (Gujarat) to intensify research on horticultural crops in important tribal areas of the country where research on vegetable crops was also started to meet the specific requirements of these regions. Establishment of Agricultural Universities and All India Coordinated Vegetables Improvement Project gave further fillip to vegetable research in India.