eChapters

Globally, the climate change is clearly evident in the form of changing weather pattern, and this has direct and indirect bearing on livestock production. Scientific evidence from multiple resources indicates that, without a doubt, climate is changing. It is also possible to suggest with increased confidence that climate is changing because of increased human activities which have serious repercussions on social and economic development. Greenhouse gases absorb heat from the sun in the atmosphere and reduce the amount of heat escaping into space. This extra heat has been found to be the primary cause of observed changes in the climate system over the 20th century. Livestock make a necessary and important contribution to global calorie, protein supplies and important micro nutrients such as B12, iron, calcium. They produce 17% of calories consumed globally and 33% of protein. Livestock can increase the world’s edible protein balance by transforming inedible protein found in forage into forms that people can digest. Climate change poses serious threats to livestock production. Various climate model projections suggest that by the year 2100, mean global temperature may be 1.1–6.4 °C

13.1 Introduction

Winds are the motion of air around the earth. This movement in air is caused by the uneven heating of the planet’s surface by the sun. The idea of using wind as a form of power is not new. The traditional applications of wind were primarily as sources of kinetic energy for rural, agricultural and a limited number of industrial uses such as pumping water and grinding grain.

Presently wind energy can be used for two major applications, such as wind mills for pumping water for drinking as well as for irrigation purposes and second application is as aero-generator for electricity generation for domestic and industrial uses. In addition to this, presently wind energy battery charger are also available, which can store energy for lights, radio communication, hospital equipment and to power various emergency related equipment.

The wind energy has an enormous resource, but the problems of utilizing the winds are many and varied. Wind energy is very diffuse in nature and local topographical features significantly alter the prevailing winds thus leading to the extremely site specific nature of wind energy.

Scientirsts have estimated that as much as 10 per cent of >the world’s electricity could be provided by wind generators by the middle of 21 century. India has estimated wind power potential of 45,000 MW. India now, ranks fourth in the world in wind power generation.

The world’s largest wind farms are in California, where wind turbines can generate power upto about 1120 MW. The first wind mill used as source of electric power was built in Denmark in 1890. Presently in India about 2382 MW of electricity is being produced through wind energy.

Laboratory Tests

Sampling procedures

Samples from number of containers- As soon as the cans are received at the reception dock, remove the lid, mix contents of each can with a plunger and draw equal quantities from each container and mix together. Draw approximately 80 – 100 ml of sample for testing. If the cans are of same diameter, Alternatively, milk from different containers are first poured into a vat and then the sample is drawn by thorough mixing as above..

Samples from storage tank – Before drawing sample from storage tank, switch on the mechanical agitator and allow the contents to mix for 15-20 minutes. Discard first 1.0 L of milk. Transfer 250-500 ml of the mixed milk from the outlet valve into a sample bottle.

Samples from rail / road tankers- Open the lid of the tanker and insert a big plunger through the main hole and move it forward, downward and backward bring the plunger to the surface at each stroke. Continue mixing for 15-20 minutes. Draw proportionate quantities of sample with the help of suitable dipper from different levels. Draw 250-500 ml of well-mixed sample into the sample bottle. The total volume of individual composite sample should not be less than 150 ml.

Introduction

India has progressed well on food production from 51 million tonnes (mt) in 1947, 286 mt in 2018-2019 owing to the largest contribution from wheat and rice (about 213 mt). But simultaneously our population has also grown to about 135 billion in 2018. Therefore, the impact of higher production is not realized in absolute terms. Indian agriculture has come a long way since independence achieving food security in major crops, declining rate of rural poverty, rise in agricultural incomes and nutrition levels have gone up. Higher production has also been recorded in sugar, cotton, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, milk, fisheries and poultry. All this has made us a proud with achieving self-sufficiency in food security. However, on the socio-economic front, the picture does not become rosy as we have a lower strength of socio-economic development indicators even among developing countries. Still the reports of under nourishment, hunger and poverty rings the bell. However, the importance of agriculture cannot be negated because it provides sustenance to mankind, food and employment to all. Considering the emerging challenges of climate change impacting agricultural productivity and increasing variability, poor investment in research, skill development of farmers, post-harvest losses etc. New strategies and innovations in agriculture, particularly on the development of climate resilient varieties with high productivity and better nutritive quality are called for, which has to be led by structural reforms and infrastructural augmentation.

Introduction

Biochemical techniques are fundamental tools that allow scientists to investigate the molecular intricacies of biological systems, including DNA, RNA, and proteins. These techniques are essential for understanding cellular processes, genetic functions, and disease mechanisms. By employing biochemical methods, researchers can dissect complex biological systems at the molecular, cellular, and genomic levels, paving the way for advances in basic biology and therapeutic interventions.

Organized retailing is spreading and making its presence felt in different parts of the country. The share of organized retailing in the total retail sector is set to increase from about 2 % to 8 -10 % by 2010. The retail sector generates 6 % of total employment in India. The reasons behind the increase in growth of retailing is changing life styles of Indian consumers. The key factors that drive the growth of organized retailing are:

• Rising urbanization
• Growing economy
• Higher disposable incomes
• Growing consumerism
• Entry of national/international business houses into retailing
• Increasing nuclear families
• Changing number of educated and employed women population
• Media proliferation and rising awareness level
• Brand proliferation
• Traveling by the working groups of the society
• Popularity within working and studying bachelors for convenience food.

The largest category of retail businesses are specialized retailers selling food, and beverages from fixed retail outlets. The major formats of retailing are furnished in Table17.1.

Q.1 We can apply the change of origin or change of scale or change of origin and scale both to the original data in case of applying ANOVA technique to make the analysis easy and speedy.

Q.2 The conclusions drawn from ANOVA based on transformed data or original data are different.

Environmental constraints that include abiotic stress factors such as salt, drought, cold, extreme temperatures and heavy metalsalready a major limitingfactor for crop productivity and will soon become even more severe due to climate change conditions.Together, these stresses constitute the primary causes of crop losses worldwide, reducing average yields of most major crop plants by more than 50% (Boyer, 1982; Bray et al., 2000; Wang et al., 2003). Current climate change scenarios predict an increase in mean surface temperatures and drought that will drastically affect global agriculture in the near future (Le Treut et al., 2007).
 
Abiotic stresses trigger many biochemical, molecular and physiological changes and responses that influence various cellular and wholeplant processes (Wang et al., 2001, 2003). For example, drought, salinityand low temperature stress lead to reduced availability of water (alsoknown as dehydration/osmotic stress) characterized by a decreasedturgor pressure and water loss (Dhariwal et al., 1998; Boudsocq and Lauriere, 2005). Osmotic stress promotes the synthesis of the phytohormoneabscisic acid (ABA)which then triggers a major change in gene expressionand adaptive physiological responses (Seki et al., 2002; Yamaguchi and Shinozaki, 2006; Shinozaki andYamaguchi-Shinozaki, 2007).

Abstract

Women empowerment is a buzz word of every platform starting from household issues to national politics. The best way to empower women is to make them economically self-reliant through entrepreneurial activities. In India agriculture is mainstay of the country and 70 percent women are farmers, so the best measure to empower them is through entrepreneurship in agriculture and allied sectors particularly organic agriculture as India currently holds a prominent position among 172 countries that actively practice it. At present, the country is home to more than 8, 50,000 organic producers, 699 processors, 669 exporters, and 7, 20,000 hectares under cultivation. Merely with 0.4 per cent of total agricultural land area under organic cultivation, India has attained global standing which infers that this industry still has a long way to go in terms of growth and opportunities for socio-economic development. Organic Food industry has been experiencing steadfast growth in past few years in India in spite of several challenges at producer, processor and consumer levels. With its annual turnover of Rs 4000 crore and annual growth rate of 25%, the country’s budding organic food market is transforming into world’s fastest growing organic food market with expected turnover of 10,000 crore by 2020. There is drastic change in consumer behavior and spending patterns in the country which has opened avenues for organic food industry at the national level besides export. This highscale opportunity is driven by the fact that organic food consumption is not even 0.1 percent of India’s $300 billion annual food consumption. Likewise, India’s share in the $100 billion global organic food market is less than 0.2 percent. Further, the scope of the opportunity is also driven by the increasing variety of organic foods hitting the market and the emergence of e-commerce as a channel in which to sell the product. India today is on the threshold of organic revolution where women participation will act as booster but need to be supported by Govts and technical institutions. Barriers to improving women’s agency include widespread deficiencies in policy support to women, and in fact to the organic farming sector as a whole. It is necessary to increase women’s research presence in organic research institutions (including at the higher levels). To enable women to conduct research in the field, it is important to allow women to set research agendas, and to work with their research needs and priorities. Food security as a priority for organic agriculture involves women’s empowerment since they hold a central role in providing nutrition for the household.

Statistics: Collection of methods for planning experiments, obtaining data,

and then organizing, summarizing, presenting, analyzing, interpreting, and

drawing conclusions.

Sir R.A. Fisher: Father of modern statistics.

Population: All subjects possessing a common characteristic that is being

studied.

Sample: A subgroup or subset of the population.

Parameter: Characteristic or measure obtained from a population.

Statistic: Characteristic or measure obtained from a sample.

Karl Pearson: Study of correlation and chi-square test of goodness of fit.

W.S.Gosset: Student’s t-test for small sample

Francis Galton: Regression analysis.

Descriptive Statistics: Collection, organization, summarization, and

presentation of data.

In the backdrop of a predominantly agrarian economy, India has made tremendous advances in modern agriculture to meet both the food and nutritional security. In recent years, horticulture has assumed great importance mainly to augment nutritional security and secondarily as a highly cost-effective, remunerative and eco-friendly enterprise having vast export potential. To meet the challenges of research and development, tracer techniques have added the much needed fillip as they can be ingeniously applied to resolve issues which are not ordinarily possible using conventional techniques.

A disaster is any event natural or manmade which creates an intense negative impact on people goods and services and or the environment and exceeds the affected community internal capability to respond prompting the need to seek outside assistance. In other words a disaster is a serious disturbance of a community or society interfere human resources losses and impacts on economically and environmentally or disaster means simply an event has unfortunate consequences on only on human but also on whole environment. Disaster can be two types’ Natural disaster and manmade disaster.

Horticultural crops are ideal and valuable assets of nature to mankind. They are popular among masses since time immemorial but their importance was realized only in the recent past due to their high nutritive value, good taste and pleasing quality. They provide essential nutrients and minerals for proper functioning of human body and aesthetic surroundings for peaceful living. India is an important centre of diversity and several horticultural crops  originated here.  The horticultural crops constitute 13.08% of total crop area and contribute about 28% to GDP. The sub-continent extends from 8° 04’ - 37° 06’ North latitude and 68° 07’- 97° 25’ East longitude and it has tropical, sub-tropical and temperate climates which favour successful growing of a large number of horticultural crops.  India has a wide variety of climate and soil on which a large number of horticultural crops like fruits, vegetables, potato and other tropical tuber crops, ornamentals, medicinal and aromatic plants, plantation crops, spices, cashew and cocoa are grown. Of late, major emphasis was laid on development of high yielding varieties and high production technologies and their adoption in areas of assured irrigation paved the way towards food security.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of writing this chapter is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the role of functions of water in plant growth and development. Water is essential to life on earth as the living organisms contain 80-90 per cent water. A typical crop or grassland will transpire approximately 500 ml of water per 10 g of dry matter produced. Water has a tremendous effect on the environment near the earth, which on regional basis we call ‘climate’. Ecological importance of water is due to its physiological importance because water affects the plant growth through physiological processes. All metabolic activities in the plant cell or tissue depend on water status of the plant. For example, in a maturing seed, respiration rate is highest as it moves towards maturation stage, water content decreases and hence rate of respiration slow down. At the harvesting stage, when the water content is 10-20%, the respiration rates become negligible. Now in a stored seed if the water content will be high it will result into higher respiration, thus release energy, which will increase the temperature and will finally destroy the seed.

Plant analysis includes tests on fresh tissue in the field and analysis of total nutrients in plants in the laboratory. Plant analysis is based on the relationship between nutrients in a plant and nutrient availability in a soil. Plant analysis is not a direct method of soil fertility evaluation, but it can serve as a valuable supplement to soil testing in the task of soil fertility evaluation. Plant analysis is useful in confirming nutrient deficiencies, toxicities and imbalance and identifying hidden hunger. Plant analysis generally provides more current plant-based information than soil testing, entails more effort in terms of sampling, sample handling and analysis and, perhaps, expensive.

Abstract

India has diversified agro-climatic conditions with significant variability in climatic factors viz, rainfall pattern, temperature, humidity, sunshine hours and wind speed etc. A no of fruit crops and vegetable crops are grown in India with significant differences in climatic requirements for sustainable growth and production of these crops. Attempt has also been made to have off season production of horticultural crops. Weather variability could also play a pivotal role in disease and pest incidence. So, forecasting of yield along with disease pest incidence should be given top priority to save the crop from weather vagaries and increase the crop productivity.

INTRODUCTION

Burgeoning human population and its elevated living standard have greatly demanded more agricultural production. But unfortunately agricultural crops suffer deadly due to many biotic and abiotic stresses. Of biotic stresses, phytonematodes, the hidden enemies of crops are real threat to successful and profitable cultivation of agricultural crops (Plate. 11.1). These, endoparasitic nematodes, Meloidogyne spp. and Heterodera spp., are mainly dreadful causing wrecking havoc to agricultural scenario. Chemical control of these, tiny parasites created residue, resistance, resurgence, hazardous and pollution problems to the growers as well as soil and atmospheric environment. To overcome these hazards, efforts are being made to go for non-chemicals means of nematodes management strategies in crops. Hence, a research work carried out on management of these endoparasitic nemas particularly Meloidogyne spp. and Heterodera spp., through non-chemical methods is reviewed in subsequent status.

I. General information

1. A group of ornamental plants which complete their life cycle in one season or in a year is called annuals
2. Time of sowing of summer annual seeds is February- March
3. Time of sowing of rainy season annual seeds is June- July
4. Time of sowing of winter annual seeds is September- October
5. Based on growing season, annuals are classified into summer, rainy & winter
6. Based on hardiness, annuals are classified into hardy, half hardy & tender
7. Based on photoperiodic requirement annuals are classified into short day, long day, day neutral, long short day, short long day & intermediate

I. General information

The nature of roots

The roots of palms are usually tough and thick, although slender and wiry types are existing. Some roots creep over the soil’s surface, while a few palms even develop aerial roots that may eventually make them appear to be growing on stilts.

A few palms develop aerial roots at or near the base of the trunk or stems. These include Crysophila warscewiczii (Rootspine palm) and Clinostigma exorrhizum. Other palms with aerial roots include Pinanga aristata, Verschaffeltia splendida (Seychelles stilt palm) and Socratea exorrhiza. Some of these develop into stilt or prop roots, which often form a cone and give the palm extra support, they usually occurs on plams native to wet soils and humid conditions, whereas the base of the palms is at risk from decay. Indeed, in a few instances, the lower part of the trunk withers and the palm is entirely supported by these roots.

ABSTRACT

Bio-engineering is the use of vegetation, either alone or in conjunction with civil engineering structures, to reduce instability and erosion of slopes. Such structures are advocated in hilly area mainly because they provide one of the best ways to armour slopes against erosion. Bio-engineering, in the context of upland slope protection and erosion reduction, combines mechanical, biological, and ecological concepts to arrest and prevent shallow slope failures and erosion. This chapter presents the design consideration and construction practices for stabilization of slopes using bioengineering technologies along with a brief review on the salient features and characteristics of the bioengineering processes.