eChapters

Refers to induced chromosome manipulation

Aneuploidy-One or few chromosomes extra or missing from 2n.

Autoploidy-Genomes identical with each other.

Crop production is challenged by abiotic and biotic stresses results in low yield and high production costs.

Magnitude and intensity of stresses are increasing dramatically due to climate change causing recurrent droughts, increased temperature (heat) and emergence of new diseases and pests.

Methods for plant diseases control were first classified by Whetzel (1929) into exclusion, eradication, protection and immunization.

Two more principles - avoidance and therapy were created (NAS, 1968).

11.1. Storage fungi

Store fungi include all species of Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium.

Aspergillus flavus, A. candidus, A. niger, A. parasiticus, A. repens, A. rubber, A. versicolor, etc. Penicillia etc

Penicillia are more prevalent in cooler climate.

1.1. Above ground feeders

1.1.1. Feeding on flower buds, leaves and bulbs.

Seed gall nematode: Anguina tritici

Leaf and bud neamtode: Aphelenchoides

Stem and bulb nematode: Ditylenchus

3.1. Definition

Systems approach to reduce nematode to tolerable levels through predators and parasites, genetically resistant hosts, natural environmental modifications and appropriate nematicides.

Bioagents like insects, pathogens etc., and other animals are used either to reduce growth or kill weeds.

But, not possible to eradicate weeds.

9.1. Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited (AIC)

Formed 1 April 2003 took over implementation of National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) from General Insurance Corporation of India.

Also transacts other insurance businesses directly or indirectly concerning agriculture and its allied activities.

9.1.AGMARK

‘Ag’ means agriculture and ‘mark’ means certification mark.

Certifying agency: Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, Government of India

Effective region: India

Effective since: 1986

Product category: Agricultural products

11.1. Central Silk Board

Established in 1948 at Bangalore under administrative control of Ministry of Textiles.

14.1. Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)

Set up in January, 1965 in name of Agricultural Prices Commission (APC) on recommendations of Food grains Prices Committee headed by Shri L.K.Jha.

Prices for different agricultural crops by GOI on the recommendations of CACP are announced as minimum support prices, statutory minimum prices, procurement prices and issue prices.

18.1. Buffer stock

Refers to stock of food grains maintained by government to be used as a buffer to cushion shocks of fluctuating supply and price, to meet the emergency needs and to meet the situations arising out of serious unexpected shortages resulting from transport bottlenecks, natural calamities like war, flood, famine, earthquakes, and from the influx of refugees.

1.1. Extension

Educational process for bringing about maximum number of desirable changes among the people

Practice to calculate the weight / volume of reagents required to prepare the following standard solutions.

Preparation of Standard Solution - (1 M, 0.1 M, 1 N, 0.1 N, 0.5 N, 5%, 10%, 20%, 10 ppm, 20 ppm, 100 ppm)

5.1 Volumetric Techniques or Titrimetric Analysis

Acid Base Neutralization Reactions-Acidimetry & Alkalimetry

Oxidation –Reduction Reactions-Oxidometry (Permanganometry) & Dichrometry

Principle

Equal volumes of all acids / bases containing their gram equivalent weights per litre of the solution react completely with each other.

Principle

Soil moisture content is determined by drying a known quantity of soil sample in an electric oven at 105° C to 110° C and finding out the loss in weight.

Bulk density is the mass per unit volume of soil including pore space. The normal range of bulk density in most soils is ranging from 1.02 to 1.80 g / cm³. The bulk density of coarse textured soils will be on the higher side while organic soils will have lower bulk density.

Particle density is the mass of soil per unit volume excluding pore space. Pore space is that fraction of soil volume not occupied by solid particles.

Principle

The bulk density and percent pore space are determined from the apparent and true volumes of the soil measures by adding a known quantity of water to a measuring cylinder contain a weighed quantity of soil.

(Keen-Rackzowski/Hilgard Apparatus Method)

Principle

With the capillary rise of water, the soil immediately above a water table gets saturated. The height upto which the soil is saturated depends on the texture, structure and packing of the soil mass. The experimental technique discussed herein permits approximation of maximum water holding capacity while determining the amount of water held in the soil at the point of saturation.

The pH is defined as negative logarithm of hydrogen ion concentration or the log of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration (Sorenson, 1906).

Principle

A glass electrode in contact with hydrogen ions of the solution acquires an electric potential which depends on the concentration of hydrogen ions. This is measured potentiometrically against some reference electrode which is usually a calomel electrode. The potential difference between glass electrode and calomel electrode is expressed in pH units.

Two electrodes are used in the determination of pH. One is reference electrode which provides a standard voltage and is usually a saturated calomel electrode which has two layers of saturated solution of KCl and mixture of solid HgCl₂ and Hg. The outer tube is usually 5-15 cm long, 0.5-1 cm in diameter. The mixture of solid HgCl₂ + Hg paste is contained in an inner tube that is connected to the saturated KCl solution in the outer tube by means of small opening. The resistance developed by this type of electrode is 2000-3000 Ohms.

The outer electrode is glass electrode that consists of a tube enclosing a lead wire made up of Ag coated with AgCl. This wire is again enclosed in a wax insulation. To the tube at the bottom is attached a glass bulb made up of a special kind of glass which is sensitive to hydrogen ions. The thickness of the glass membrane varies from 0.03 to 0.1 mm and has a resistance of 50 to 500 mega Ohms.

When these electrodes are dipped in solution, the saturated solution of KCl comes out of reference through small holes and forms an invisible ionic bridge between electrodes through which current passes. The hydrogen ions are absorbed by glass electrode and depending upon the amount of hydrogen ions present in the solution, an electric potential develops between electrodes. This potential difference is measured in terms of pH units by suitable Galvanometer.

The Electrical Conductivity (EC) of the soil is a measure of soluble salts present in the soil and is expressed as millimhos/cm or dSm^-1.

Principle

As the amount of the soluble salts in a solution increases, the electrical conductivity also increases. This electrical conductivity is measured in terms of resistance offered to the flow of current using a conductivity bridge.

It is known that solutions offer some resistance to the passage of current through them, depending upon the concentration of the soluble salts present. Hence, EC is measured in terms of electrical Resistance between parallel electrodes immersed in the soil water suspension.

In such a system, the solution between the electrodes becomes the electrical conductor to which the physical laws relating to resistance are applicable. The electrical resistance ‘R’ is directly proportional to the distance ‘L’ between the electrodes and inversely proportional to the cross sectional area ‘A’ of the conductor.

1. Raw Materials

Culture of Bacillus subtilis

Talc powder - 300 mesh

Shelf life for Pseudomonas fluorescens (TNAU Pf-1)

Aim: To find out the shelf life of P. fluorescens (TNAU Pf-1) using different carrier materials

Product: The talc based P. fluorescens (TNAU Pf-1) product is used for the study on shelf life.

Selective medium (King’B medium) for Pseudomonads

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) carries the genetic instruction for the biological development and functioning of all cellular forms of life. It is the blue print which contains the instructions to construct other cell components. Molecular biology experiments often require isolation of DNA for a variety of purposes like construction of DNA libraries, gene cloning, PCR and other marker technology, etc. The extraction of DNA from actively growing tissue is relatively easier yielding higher quantities of DNA.

Principle

The cell wall is ruptured and the proteins associated with DNA are removed by detergent like SDS or by interaction with phenol. Lipids are extracted with alcohol and DNA is precipitated by isopropanol.

Materials Required

Maize seed samples, Liquid nitrogen, CTAB (Cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide), Chloroform, isoamyl alcohol, Sodium chloride, Glacial acetic acid, Isopropyl alcohol and 70% ice cold ethanol, TE buffer (5X) (24.2 g of Tris base, 5.71 ml of galcial acetic acid, 10 ml of 0.5M EDTA (pH 8.0) , dissolved in 1000 ml of distilled water). Prepare 1X TE as per the requirement.

Agarose gel electrophoresis is used for the fractionation and characterization of nucleic acids. It is a simple and highly effective method for separating, identifying and purifying DNA fragments of various sizes. DNA can be checked for size, intactness, homogeneity and purity by this technique. Agarose is a purified form of agar and forms a gel by hydrogen bonding of the agarose monomers. Increasing the Agarose concentration of a gel reduces the migration speed and enables separation of smaller DNA molecules. Shorter molecules move faster and migrate further than longer ones.

Aim: To study the size of the DNA extracted from the fungal culture.

Principle: Ethidium Bromide added to the gel interacts with the bases of DNA and fluorescence orange when irradiated with UV light.

Basically we need to mount and prepare the slide for observation of various stages of EPN as detailed below in Table.1

Electrical conductivity (EC) is the ability of a material to transmit electrical current. In the soil, the EC is the ability of the soil solution to carry an electrical current and is a measure of the total amount of soluble salts present in the soil. Pure water is a poor conductor of electricity and increases in soluble salts water result in proportional increases in the conductivity.

23.1. Sources of Soluble Salts in Soil

The soluble salts in soils consist mostly of the cations sodium, calcium, and magnesium and the anions chloride and sulfate. Constituents that ordinarily occur only in minor amounts are the cation potassium and the anions bicarbonate, carbonate, and nitrate. The original and, to some extent, the direct source of all the salt constituents are the primary minerals found in soils and in the exposed rocks of the earth’s crust.

While the mean chlorine and sulfur content of the earth’s crust is 0.05 and 0.06 percent, respectively, sodium, calcium, and magnesium each occur in the range of 2 or 3 percent. During the process of chemical weathering, which involves hydrolysis, hydration, solution, oxidation, and carbonation, these constituents are gradually released and made soluble. When carbon-di-oxide, of atmospheric or biological origin, dissolves in water, bicarbonate ions are formed. Water containing carbon-di-oxide is an active chemical weathering agent that releases appreciable quantities of the cation constituents as the bicarbonates. The concentrations of carbonate and bicarbonate ions are a function of the pH of the solution. Appreciable amounts of carbonate ions can be present only at pH values of 9.5 or higher.

Although plants can be grown to maturity in aerated nutrient solutions and other media, virtually all land plants, including those on which we depend for food, fibre and fuel, grow in soil. The soil has three-fold function to perform with respect to crop growth: physical, chemical and biological.

Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains began 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs, sheep and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture. This chapter discusses about the agriculture and robotics in agricultural field.

1.1 Introduction to Agriculture

The word agriculture is derived from a Latin word- “agri” means soil, and “culture” means cultivation of the soil. In modern terms, agriculture comprises “the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and rearing livestock.”

Farming is a complete system which includes inputs, processing, and outputs. The inputs are seeds, fertilizers, machinery, which undergoes operations like ploughing, sowing, irrigation, weeding, and harvesting. The final outputs are like crops, dairy and poultry products.

The communication module is a device which is used to control the communication between the stations. This chapter explores the different communication modules and their specifications.

5.1 WiFi

ESP8266 WiFi Module is a WiFi serial transceiver module. This chip has a full TCP/IP protocol stack with the computational power onboard. This makes the board simple to use as Wi-Fi connection board. The specification of this board includes, 32-pin QFN package, Integrated RF switch, Integrated RISC processor. It has on-chip memory with external memory interfaces, integrated MAC/baseband processors, Quality of Service management, on chip regulator, Integrated WEP, TKIP, AES, and WAPI engines, 11 b/g/n. It has integrated TCP/IP protocol stack and Integrated PLLs, regulators, DCXO and power management units. It has +19.5dBm output power in 802.11b mode and Power down leakage current of <10uA

5.2 Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless protocol. The recent introduction of Bluetooth with Low Energy extension is also as iBeacon. The advantage of BLE4.0 standard includes the low power consumption, which makes it a better option to be used in smart phones. This facilitates the setup of a mesh network of Bluetooth devices, with lower latency and higher range respect to standard Bluetooth.

This is a SMD BLE module based on TI cc2541 chip. It has low cost, small and easy to use. The preloaded firmware allows to build BLE communications with AT command. It supports communication with iPhone, iPad (iOS 5.0 or greater) and Android 4.3 or greater. It works on frequency: 2.4 GHz ISM band and modulation method is GFSK (Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying). It has transmission power: - DBM, 23-6 DBM, 0 DBM, 6 DBM, can be modified by the AT command. It works on baud rate 9600bps. It can operate on temperature range -40 ~ 125°C.

Another interesting board is the HC-05 Bluetooth module. Specifications of the works Master/Slave configurations. It operates on frequency of 2.4GHz ISM band with Modulation GFSK(Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying).

Theory

The volume of food material play an important role in design of storage bins, conveying equipments, separation equipments, etc. Volume of larger products such as fruits and root crops can be determined using the platform scale or water displacement method.

Aim

To determine the water solubility and absorption index of given food powder.

Materials required

Digital centrifuge machine

Graduated measuring cylinder

Beaker and distilled water

Aim

To determine the angle of repose of the given biological materials.

Materials required

Angle of repose apparatus
Grains
Scale

Theory

This type of moisture measurement is called brown-duvel fractional distillation method. The method is recognized as an official method for determination of moisture content. In this method, directly measures the volume of moisture in cubic centimeter. This apparatus consists of flask, burner, thermometer, condenser, graduated cylinder. This apparatus consists of flask in which grain sample is boiled with mineral oil.

Aim

To determine the effectiveness of the spiral separator.

Materials required

Spiral separator

Weighing balance

Sample divider

Stopwatch

Grain mixture (round and others)

Aim

To determine the contours by cross-section method using dumpy level.

Materials required

Dumpy level

Leveling staff

Measuring tape

Wooden pegs/chain pins

Field book

Aim

To determine the contours by radial line method using dumpy level.

Materials required

Dumpy level
Leveling staff
Measuring tape
Wooden pegs/chain pins
Field book

Aim

To measure irrigation water by volumetric method

Apparatus required

Siphon tube

Stop watch

Measuring bucket

What is that the grower wants to achieve while he nourishes the crop with costly fertilizer inputs? He would like to get maximum output (yield and quality) of the produce; and for the maximization of out-put the fertilizer input should be utilized by the crop to its maximum potential. Thus it is not higher fertilizer dose that decides the highest yield; but the highest efficiency in crop’s use of those fertilizers. The efficiency, yield/unit fertilizer can be enhanced by the following factors;

a) Plant roots absorbing (in-take) total quanta of applied fertilizer and minimizing the loss of applied nutrients by not having spare quantities lying around the soil profile. This is possible only if the quantum of application matches with the quantum of need.

b) Plants utilizing the absorbed nutrients for metabolic activities concurrent to absorption. This is possible only if the fertilizers are applied in times of need of the plants and not before or after. This compels the grower to know the physiological need of the nutrient during each developmental stages; which nutrient required when.

Here the grower must have a powerful tool or method to provide nutrients to the plants strictly following the above two factors. Fertigation offers an opportunity to practice nutrient inputs based on the above two factors: the grower is able to correctly decide the dose, type and time of providing the correct nutrient at precise quantity and at the required stage of plant/ crop development.

Thus the purpose of Agriculture, to maximize yield and quality of crops and minimize the costs of production while maintaining sustainability can be put into practice by fertigation. Two most important prerequisites to achieve all of these are the optimal and balanced supply of water and nutrients. Tuning of plant nutrient supply with the uptake and utilization rates by crops is essentially an art and is made doable by fertigation technology.