eBook Chapters

INTRODUCTION
 
Growth and development are often used interchangeably, however, these describe separate events during the life cycle of a plant. To understand these precisely, let us take the example of multicellular organisms like annuals, monocarpic or flowering plants (angiosperms) including fruits, vegetables, flowers etc. which begins their life from a single cell fertilized egg, the zygote. The zygote develops into embryo through the cell division and differentiation. When we sow the seed in garden or pots, in a few days a young seedling emerge. With the passage of time, the seedling grow in size, the number of leaves increases, in perennial plants branching occurs for few years, and after putting forth the requisite vegetative growth plant begins flowering, produces fruits, seeds and finally the plant senesce at certain period. Generally three terms “growth”, differentiation” and “development” are used to describe the different events during the life cycle of a plant.

A. Bhattacharya    
    
4.1.    Factors of Abiotic Stress
    
4.2.    Light
    
4.3.    Temperature
    
    4.3.1.    Heat-stress Threshold
    4.3.2.    Low Temperature Stress
    4.3.3.    Plant Responses to Heat Stress
    
4.4.    Water
    
    4.4.1.    Drought
    4.4.2.    Flooding
    
4.5.    Soil
    
    4.5.1.    Soil Type
    4.5.2.    Soil pH
    4.5.3.    Soil Fertility
    4.5.4.    Soil Salinity
    
4.6.    Growth and Development
    
    4.6.1.    Phases of Development Sensitive to Temperature or Photoperiod
    
4.7.    Phenology
    
    4.7.1.    Changes in Phenology of Cropping Systems
    4.7.2.    Effect of CO2 on Flowering
    4.7.3.    Temperature and Effects on Phenology
    4.7.4.    Effect of Salinity
    
4.8.    Molecular/Genetic Aspects of Flowering Response to Climate Change
    
4.9.    Simulation of Phenology for Future Climate
        
    References

INTRODUCTION

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is an important fruit crop of India. It is a tropical fruit but also grows well under sub-tropical conditions. Guava is one of the commonest fruits liked by all the people and is known as ‘Apple of Tropics’. It is one of the major fruit of India and considered the fifth most important fruit in area and production after mango, citrus, banana and apple. Guava is quite hardly, prolific bearer and highly remunerative fruit which needs relatively less care as compared to other fruits. It excels most of other fruit crops in productivity and food value and as such has wide adaptability to soil and climatic conditions. Guava is such a fruit which is practically grown all over the country on commercial scale and especially in kitchen gardens and near the tubewell premises. The best quality of guava in India is grown in the area around Allahabad. Guava bear heavy crop every year and offer handsome economic return to growers.

1.    Introduction
    
2.    The Scenario in India
    
3.    The Concept of Hygiene in Indian Food Industry
    
4.    Food Safety- The Reality
    4.1      Food import inspection and certification
    4.2     Laboratories for export certification
    4.3      Food export inspection & certification
    
5.    What is HACCP? & What is in Practice?
    
6.    Where We Stand?

7.    Success of Application of Food Safety Management System
    7.1.    Pre-requisites for HACCP
    
8.    Logical Steps of HACCP
    8.1      Assemble HACCP team
    8.2     Describe product
    8.3     Identify intended use
    8.4     Construct flow diagram
    8.5     On site confirmation of flow diagram
    8.6     Principles of HACCP
    
9.    Conclusion
    
References
    
Further References

Index
    
About the Editors

1    Normal haemotological values

2    Blood biochemical values

Introduction
 
Food production systems in India are becoming increasingly vulner-able to climate variability and change which are largely characterized by altered frequency timing and magnitude of precipitation and temperature that trigger a series of other devastating events. High rates of snow and glacial melting, frequent floods and droughts, heat waves, hail and increased incidence of pests and diseases are already causing widespread damage and losses to agricultural sector in tropical and sub-tropical countries including India. Overwhelming direct damage to crops and livestock within few minutes can be caused by extreme weather events such as hail, wind­storm, or heavy frost. While occurrence, losses and post disaster management have been discussed extensively for natural calamities such as excess rainfall, drought and flood, little attention has been given to hail storm.

The various steps involved in frozen semen technology are vital as the quality of semen determines the conception rate.  The key factor enabling the successful long term storage of frozen spermatozoa is maintenance at ultra low temperature.  Effective semen storage depends heavily on good identification and stock control.  Frozen semen can be easily damaged in the process of repeated handling to establish identity.

India, as a developing country has reasons to be concerned about the adverse impact of climate change on its economy. A large part of its population depends on climate sensitive sectors for livelihoods which makes it highly vulnerable to climate change. Climate change can have serious impact on its crops, forests, coastal regions, etc. which can in turn affect the achievement of its important national development goals. The issue of climate change cannot however be taken up without linking it to developmental needs such as poverty, health, energy access and education. Traditionally climate change experts have focused on mitigation measures, adaptation measures have also been acknowledged of late as effective and equitable means to deal with climate change impacts. Most of the mitigation measures are high in terms of technology and capital. Therefore, while developed economies choose to mitigate climate change by making heavy investments, developing economies choose to adapt (Monika and Hooda, 2018). There is increasing recognition that the world’s current progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not occurring rapidly enough to avoid impacts from climate change in the coming century. Because of this, the world is “committed” to a certain level of global warming and therefore,

Occasionally some diseases can be noticed in male animals, which are responsible for the reduced reproductive performance of the bucks. Sometimes these diseases can damage or obstruct the male reproductive passage and responsible for the infertility and sterility in the bucks. This type of infertility may be associated with pathology of testes, epididymis, vas deferens, accessory sex glands, and urethra or may be associated with abnormal semen production due to congenital or hereditary causes or due to acquired causes.

Heat stress induced by climate change is a serious issue of livestock industries worldwide (Bajagai, 2011). When environmental temperatures move out of the thermo-neutral zone (or comfort zone) animals begins to experience either heat stress or cold stress. Both these stresses require the animals to increase the amount of energy used to maintain the body temperature so that less energy is available for productive processes. Atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, air movement and solar radiation are the major factors that determine the heat load on animal. Thermoregulation is the ability of the animals to maintain their body temperature in cold or hot environments. It consists of behavioural, physiological and anatomical responses that affect energy metabolism. At lower temperature as a physiological adjustment to maintain the body temperature the animal increases the metabolic heat production by increasing the basal metabolic rate and uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation. Hence the maintenance energy requirement of animals increases in a cold environment, which reduces the amount of energy available for production. From a practical point of view higher temperatures are much more dangerous for producing animals than a cold environment. Temperatures exceeding the higher critical level compromise animal performance not only by changing the energy and nutrient metabolism, but also by upsetting the body homeostasis, with detrimental consequences both for immune competence and for product quality. In general, livestock with high production potential are at greatest risk of heat stress, and require most attention.

1. Introduction

Thermal energy is transferred in the form heat from one body to another through conduction, convection and radiation or in combination of these modes. Some of the examples of heat transfer that occur during various agricultural processing is drying and dehydration, sterilization, pasteurization, evaporation, distillation, to name a few.

The basic equation of conservation of heat can be written as:

Rate of heat in + rate of heat generation= rate of heat out+ rate of accumulation of heat

3.1. INTRODUCTION

Heterosis is the superiority of the F1s over the parental forms. The term heterosis was first used by Shull (1910) to describe the interpretation of increased vigour, size, fruitfulness, speed of development, resistance to diseases and insect pests or some other characteristics manifested by out-breeding organisms as compared to corresponding inbreds. Exploitation of heterosis is gaining momentum due to increased yield, quality, uniformity, better desirable traits and management of biotic stresses. The future of most of the economic crops will be for hybrids for sustainable development of higher economic returns to the farmers. Sustainable increase in area under hybrid crops is witnessed by its popularity and adoption by the farmers.

Growth and development of plants are dependent upon the temperature surrounding the plant and each species has a specific temperature range represented by a minimum, maximum, and optimum. These values were summarized by Hatfield et al. (2008, 2011) for a number of different species typical of grain and fruit production. The expected changes in temperature over the next 30 to 50 years are predicted to be in the range of 2 to 3°C Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change (IPCC) (2007). Heat waves or extreme temperature events are projected to become more intense, more frequent, and last longer than what is being currently been observed in recent years (Meehl et al., 2007). Extreme temperature events may have short-term durations of a few days with temperature increases of over 5°C above the normal temperatures. A recent review by Barlow et al. (2015) on the effect of temperature extremes, frost and heat, in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) revealed that frost caused sterility and abortion of formed grains while excessive heat caused reduction in grain number and reduced duration of the grain- filling period. Analysis by Meehl et al. (2007) revealed that daily minimum temperatures will increase more rapidly than daily maximum temperatures leading to the increase in the daily mean temperatures and a greater likelihood of extreme events and these changes could have detrimental effects on grain yield. If these changes in temperature are expected to occur over the next 30 years then understanding the potential impacts on plant growth and development will help develop adaptation strategies to offset these impacts.

Introduction
Genetic research has been transformed by technological developments, and has by necessity become extremely quantitative, as massive quantities of varying complex data types can now be generated very rapidly. High-throughput data are being used in a variety of basic science investigations that have implications in the diagnosis and treatment of human disease: identification and characterization of genetic variants associated with a particular disease within and across populations; discovery of gene expression signatures associated with disease phenotypes; identification and testing of potential disease biomarkers. Methodological advances in the statistical treatment and interpretation of these data are needed in order to meet the pressing need for powerful, efficient and robust analysis.

1.1. INTRODUCTION

During the last 30 years, India’s food production nearly doubled from 102 million tons. Almost all of this increase resulted from higher yield in all food grains rather than increase in area, particularly wheat, rice, maize and some extent in pulses and oil seed crops. This has contributed to a significant reduction in poverty from 55% to 26% (Dar, 2011). The increase in yield is the result of scientific innovations in India and other parts of the world and their adoption in India.

In 1871, the Government of India created Department of Agriculture. The impact of these departments in enhancement of crop productivity was not remarkable. Later, the Government of India established the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute in 1905 in Pusa, Bihar to enhance the agricultural research and education. Later, the headquarter of Imperial Agricultural Research Institute has been shifted to New Delhi in the year 1936. The name of the institute has been changed in 1946 as Indian Agricultural Research Institute. To boost the agricultural Research activities, Imperial Council of Agricultural Research was established in the year 1929, subsequently, the name of Imperial Council of Agricultural Research has been changed to its present form of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in 1946. Since then, ICAR playing significant role in all sphere of agricultural research, education and extension. A number of varieties and hybrids of different crops have been developed and released by the scientists of ICAR. To test the outcome of the agricultural research, ICAR has started All India Coordinated Crop Improvement Projects, which provide an efficient channel for multilocation testing of newly evolved strains.

Abstract: The study reports the influence of biophysical and socio-cultural factors on composition, diversity and distribution of plant species in the homegardens of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago of India. In Nicobar mostly an aboriginal tribe the Nicobari predominates. The Nicobaries are Christians. However, in the Andamans people from different parts of Indian subcontinent have been rehabilitated in the mid twentieth century. Mixed culture prevails in South Andaman, but in the other Andaman islands either Bengali or Tamil culture predominates. Biophysically, South Andaman is hilly whereas Nicobar is flat. Rests of the islands lie in-between the two extremes. But, all are similar climatically. Twelve to thirty-four plant species are found in the homegardens that are planted, cared and harvested. These plants are: palm, fruit, spice and forest trees, formed three-storey structure in Andaman and two-storey structure in Nicobar’s homegardens. Floristic similarity among the homegardens of the Andamans is 82 to 92%. However, it is only 12-18% between the homegardens of Andaman and Nicobar. Compared to Nicobar, species richness is greater in the homegardens of the Andamans. But, diversity is higher and evenness lower in the homegardens of Nicobar. All plant species in the Nicobar’s homegardens are spontaneous in regeneration. Among the Andamans, proportion of spice trees is higher in the homegardens of South Andaman, mango and citrus in North Andaman, and pineapple and vegetables

Some of the Homeopathic remedies followed for common disease conditions of animals are listed in brief in the following chapter.

Insights into the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a protein are of great assistance when we plan experiments to understand protein function and in assistance of the drug design process.

Homology modeling
    
·    Homology modeling consists of the extrapolation of the structure for a new (target) sequence from the known 3D-structure (X-ray crystallographic or NMR) of related family members (templates).
    
·    Homology modeling is for those targets that have homologous proteins with known structure (>30% identity)
    
·    Homology modeling is for easy targets.
    
·    Homology modeling treats the template in an alignment as a sequence and only sequence homology is used for prediction.
    
·    When the sequence identity between the target and template sequence is low (<25%), homology modeling may not produce a significance result.

Introduction

India is a vast country with varied agro-climatic condition favor the growth of wild variety of natural and cultivated flora. The extensive area of forest and millions of acres of cultivated land sustains a large proportion of insects and honey bees (Thakar 1976). The honey bees are social creatures and taught us how we should live and cooperate with each other in the society. People have a high regard for honeybees for their carefulness, unity, sacrifice, tolerance, cooperation, coordination, division of labour, social service and usefulness. They live in large colonies, each consisting of a queen (mother of the colony), a few hundred of drones (males) and several thousand sterile female workers.  Workers, as their name implies, do most of the work ‘work’ around the hive. India has been known as ‘land of honey’. Since centuries, honey is used to tree a diversity of illness through a wide range of applications. Honey has a long history of human consumption, and most commonly consumed in its unprocessed state (i.e. liquid, crystallized or in the comb) in our country. It is taken as medicine, eaten as food, or incorporated as an additive in a variety of food and beverages.

Programme Coordinator, KVK, Gonikoppal, Karnataka

Horticultural extension also known as a horticultural advisory service plays a crucial role in boosting horticultural productivity, increasing food security, improving rural livelihoods and promoting horticulture as an engine of economic growth in rural areas. Horticultural Extension needs to provide a critical support service for rural farmers at the same time meeting the new challenges faced by them in their farming. Horticultural extension in remote and hilly terrains is difficult and time consuming, requiring some innovative methodologies to meet the farmers needs and expectations. At KVK we decided to experiment with an idea of a farmers collective organization, established and nurtured right from the beginning at KVK itself with support from its host organization (ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru) and NABARD, Kodagu. 

Former Director, ICAR-IIHR, Hesaraghatta Lake Post Bengaluru- 560089 Karnataka

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru, organized five- day National Horticulture Fair (NHF 2021) from February 8^th to 12th with the theme ‘Horticulture: for start-up and stand-up India’ in collaboration with several agencies. The fair was held on a dual mode with the approaches of virtual and physical. 

1.    Greenhouse Effect
    
2.    Global Warming
    
3.    Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
    
4.    Aerosols and Global Cooling
    
5.    Clouds and Global Warming/Cooling
    
6.    Ozone Depletion and UV Radiation

7.    Climate and Horticulture
    
8.    Climate and Cashew
    
9.    Climate and Cardamom
    
10.    Climate and Coffee
    
11.    Climate and Tea
    
12.    Climate and Cocoa
    
13.    Climate and Coconut
        
References

Introduction

Arid regions of the world are diverse in terms of climate, soils, vegetation, animals and life style and activities of people. The binding feature of all arid regions in the world is aridity. Of the total area of arid zones of the world, Africa, accounts for 46.1 % followed by Asia (35.5 %). Majority of rest 19.4 % of arid zones are spread over in Australia, North America (Mexico and Southern part of USA), and South America. The Indian arid zone covers around 12 % of country’s geographical area occupying 31.8 million ha of land of which major part is in northwestern India (28.57 Mha) and some in southern India (3.13 Mha). It covers parts of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan states of India (Table 1 and Fig. 1). The arid regions of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana together constitute Great Indian Desert, better known as Thar. As arid western Rajasthan accounts for 61% of hot arid region of country, therefore it is considered principle hot arid region. Major part of it occurs between Aravalli ranges on the east and southeast and Thal desert of Pakistan (Thal desert is simply the western extension of Thar, only name has been changed) which is spread up to Suleman Kithara ranges in extreme west.

Introduction

Farming and agriculture are respectively defined as the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock and the production of agricultural goods through the growing of plants and the raising of domesticated animals. In the developing countries frantic efforts have been made through research and enlightenment campaigns to encourage farming and thus ensure significant increases in agricultural production in order to feed and sustain the population that is increasing at geometric proportion. At present, the farmers concentrate mainly on crop production which is subjected to a high degree of uncertainty in income and employment to the farmers. In this context, it is imperative to evolve suitable strategy for augmenting the income of a farm.

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

Horticulture value chains are facing growing consumer expectations for variety, food safety and security. Most horticulture supply chains operate in a push-based approach rather than demand driven or pull based, which leads to a mismatch between demand expectations and supply side capabilities. In developed markets in, India, horticulture supply chains are experiencing by excess capacity, lack of differentiation and lower prices and ultimately leading to glut. 326 mt of Horticultural production for year ending 2019-20, the emerging market challenges are more related to supply shortage, lack of product variety, and safety and quality of the produce. 

1.    Placement
    
2.    Growing Media
    
3.    Media Preparation
    
4.    Containers
    
5.    Potting
    
6.    Propagation
    
7.    Watering
    
8.    Feeding
    
9.    Diseases
    
10.    Precautions
    
11.    Indoor Plants

5.1    Population Growth
    
5.2    Exponential Growth
    
5.3    Population Explosions
    
5.4    Over Population
    
5.5     The Causes of Rapid Population Growth
    
5.6    Ways and Means to Solve Over Population
    
5.7    Environment and Health
    
5.8    Family Welfare Programme
    
5.9    Human Rights
    
5.10    Child Welfare
    
5.11    Women Welfare

Abstract

Importance of organic sources of nutrients was recognized in current scenario in order to get higher yield without disturbing soil health. In this context integrated use of inorganic and organic sources of nutrients in crop production is becoming very crucial for assurance of food security on sustainable basis, which in turn not only improve the soil fertility for sustained crop productivity but also to reduce the cost of inorganic fertilizers. Among the various organic sources humic acid plays a major role in the sustainable production of vegetables. Humic acid is a natural bio-stimulant that is derived from leonardite and is among the most concentrated organic material available today. Humic acid is an organic chemical produced by decaying plants and animals residues by a process called Humification. Humic acid is not only increases the yield but also improves the soil fertility, soil productivity, soil structure and texture, promoting plant growth and resistance against various pests, diseases. In this context use of humic acid as organic sources of nutrients in crop production is becoming very crucial for assurance of food security, sustainability and improving soil health.

Introduction

Fresh fruits and vegetables are known for their nutritional and relishing nature. But, their fast perishability and season wise availability make them unavailable for a longer time. To enjoy and get benefited from their unique taste and nutritional value they are further preserved or converted into some value-added products such as jam, jelly, candies, juices, minimally processed fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, pickles etc. There are techniques which are developed to preserve them while in fresh and also when they are made into value-added products. Some require only one technique and other requires more than one in combination so that the product can be preserved for a longer period and available to maximum population even after their period of production/availability is completed.

10.1. INTRODUCTION

The development of hybrid breeding methodology in maize and its successful application to exploit heterosis is considered as significant achievement of plant breeding in the present century. 
Even though Beal (1880) suggested for commercial cultivation of F1 varietal hybrids. It was Shull (1909) on the basis of his experiment gave pure line method of corn breeding, which laid foundation for present day hybrid breeding. Pure line methods of maize breeding involve three steps. 
    
·    Large scale inbreeding to obtain many homozygous/nearly homozygous inbred lines. 
    
·    Testing the selected inbred lines in all possible crosses.
    
·    Practical utilization of inbred lines in seed production of single cross hybrids.

6.1. INTRODUCTION

After introduction of TN-1 (Taichung Native-1), Jaya, IR8 and other high yielding rice varieties during sixties and seventies, the productivity increased drastically and remained at plateau since last three decades. With no possibility to extend land area for rice cultivation in Asia, there is some scope for production advantages in rice through further expansion of high yielding varieties coverage in Pakistan, Thailand and India, expansion of area under irrigation in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, or expansion of boro rice in Bangladesh, India and Myanmar. Thus, utilization of heterosis has become one of the main methods for increasing yield. Hybrid is one of the viable and proven technologies to improve rice productivity. China is the first successful country to produce hybrid rice in appreciable quantity. This technology not only helped China to increase the rice productivity, but also to save land for crop diversification. The 'National Food Security Mission' has been launched envisaging increase of annual rice production by 10 million tons by 2011-'12. Here, hybrid rice may play important role to achieve the assigned target.

2.1    Reynolds Number
    
2.2    Darcy-Weisbach Equation
    
2.3    Hazen-William Formula
    
2.4    Hydraulic Characteristics of Distributors
    
2.5    Manufacturing Variation of Distributors
    
2.6    Irrigation Uniformity and Efficiency
        
Questions and Problems
        
References

1.    Introduction
    
2.    Bacteria of Public Health Significance in Fish Handling
    
3.    Sanitary and Hygienic Precautions to be Followed in Fish Handling
    3.1    Requirements for the fishing vessels
    
4.    Requirements for the Landing Sites/Auction Centres
    
5.    Requirements for the Processing Centres
    5.1     Use only potable water or clean sea water for washing fish
    5.2     Never put fish on sand or any unclean surface
    5.3     Lighting and ventilation
    5.4     Water supply
    5.5     Ice
    5.6     Utensils for fish handling
    5.7     Washing of utensils and fish contact surfaces
    5.8     Workers’ hygiene and health
    5.9     Rodent control measures
    5.10     Fly control measures
    5.11     Waste disposal
    5.12     Storage of toxic substances
    5.13     Toilet facilities
    
Acknowledgement
    
References

India is the second largest producer of vegetables after China with 14 % contribution in total World vegetable production (1160 million tonnes). After the advent of green revolution, more emphasis is laid on the quality of the agricultural product along with the quantity to meet the ever-growing food and nutritional requirements. Both these demands can be met when the environment for the plant growth is suitably controlled. Olericulture a vital component of Indian Horticulture, which includes science and management of vegetables, has made a rapid stride during the last decade, recording appreciable growth in production (162.90 million tonnes against 81.89 million tonnes in 2000-01) and productivity (17.4 t/ha against 12.2 t/ha in 2000-01), availability (210 g/capita/day against recommendations of 300 g/capita/day) and export (36,94,860 tonnes worth Rs. 14,36,487 lakhs.) during 2013-14. Vegetables play a major role in Indian agriculture by providing food, nutritional and economic security and more importantly, producing higher returns per unit area and time (Srivastava et al. 2013). In addition, vegetables have higher productivity, shorter maturity cycle, high value and provide greater income leading to improved livelihoods. The total production of vegetables during 2013-14 was 162.90 million tonnes compared to 21.19 million tonnes in 1960-61, 81.89 million tonnes in 2000-01 and 146.55 million tonnes in 2010-11. Although, olericulture has exhibited leadership role but challenges are much greater. Looking to the requirement, which is estimated to be 225 million tonnes by 2020 and 350 million tonnes by 2030, which has to be produced from declining land and water resources and in the scenario of climate change, the task to meet the needs of growing population would be difficult but not impossible (Singh et al. 2014).

1. Introduction

With increase in consumer awareness and lifestyle the interest for health promoting natural food ingredients has expanded in recent years. However, globally it has become a great challenge to the manufacturers to ensure that such compounds should remain in their active form during processing and storage with an emphasis to its bioavailability profile. Oxidative stress is the major contributor to the pathogenesis of a number of chronic and degenerative diseases including atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, DNA damage, carcinogenesis, cardiovascular and neuro degenerative diseases, allergies, premature ageing etc. (Gupta et al. , 2014; Svetli et al. , 2010). Endogenous antioxidant defense mechanisms are not always sufficient to fully scavenge the free radicals formed in the body during various processes. Therefore, dietary components having antioxidant properties, such as tea flavonoids, are very much necessary to supplement the activity of endogenous antioxidants. Tea is one of the most concentrated sources of flavonoids and phenolic acids which show antioxidant activity by sequestering metal ions and by scavenging reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (Frei & Higdon, 2003).

Introduction

Climate change and climate variability have become a reality. Recent climate changes have widespread impacts on human and natural systems including agriculture. According to Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007), climate change refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). For example, it could show up as a change in climate normal (expected average values for temperature and precipitation) for a given place and time of year, from one decade to the next. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcing, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. In last 130 years (1880-2012), the global averaged combined land and ocean surface temperature has increased by 0.85 [0.65 to 1.06] °C (IPCC, 2014). This increase in temperature is disturbing global climate system as a result we are observing climate change on entire continent. IPCC has projected the temperature increase between 1.1 °C and 6.4 °C by the end of the 21st Century (IPCC, 2007).

Evidence over the past few decades has conclusively established that significant changes in climate are taking place worldwide as a result of enhanced anthropogenic activities. The fast pace of development and industrialization and indiscriminate destruction of natural environment, more so in the last century, have altered the concentration of atmospheric gases that lead to global warming. The major cause for climate change and global warming has been ascribed to the increased levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) like carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) etc. beyond their natural levels due to the uncontrolled activities such as burning of fossil fuels, increased use of refrigerants, and enhanced agricultural related practices.

Introduction

Climate change is an important determinant of abundance and distribution of species. It is concerned with everyone since it posess potential threat to environment, and agricultural productivity and production throughout the world. It has implications for livelihood and survival of human beings. According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001), it is defined as “Change in climate over time, either due to natural variability or as a result of human activity.” As described by IPCC, the most of global warming observed over last 50 years is attributed to the human activities.

Introduction

Increasing evidence over the past few decades indicate that significant changes in climate are taking place worldwide and its effects are surreal. Major cause to climate change has been ascribed to the increased levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxides (N₂O), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) beyond their natural levels due to the uncontrolled human activities such as burning of fossil fuels, increased use of refrigerants, and enhanced agricultural activities. Global average sea level has risen since 1961 at an average rate of 1.8 (1.3 to 2.3) mm/yr and since 1993 at 3.1 (2.4 to 3.8) mm/yr, with contributions from thermal expansion, melting glaciers and ice caps, and polar ice sheets. The climatic changes are resulting in erratic weather patterns and the impacts are already being manifested in many parts of the world and coastal agricultural systems are nearing crisis point. The IPCC has projected that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further by 1.1 to 2.9 °C as per their lowest estimation model and by 2.4 to 6.4 °C as per their higher estimation model.

Introduction

Soil is considered one of the world’s limited, non-renewable resources. Under cropland conditions, it takes between 200 and 1000 years for 2.5cm of topsoil to form (Piementel et al., 1995). The continued maintenance of fertile soil is essential in order to meet basic human needs. It strengthens the provision of ecosystem services such as food production and climate regulation, and provides the basis of livelihoods for millions of people across the world (Ma, 2005). The multi-functionality of soils is key to the sustainable use of land and soils. A healthy soil performs six essential functions (Andrews et al., 2004) namely: i) Physical Stability and Support, ii) Water Relations, iii) Resistance and resilience- iv) Nutrient Cycling, v) Biodiversity and Habitat and vi) Filtering and Buffering. These soil functions are controlled by various soil properties. Among them soil structure is one of the most important properties of soil, which describes soil condition and has a great influence on crop production.

The arid and semi-arid regions of India are drought prone and the availability vegetation of these regions is more acute during summer when the quality of the pastures becomes vulnerable. Small ruminants in the semi-arid regions need to adopt special physiological function to maintain thermal equilibrium. The reproductive efficiency of different breeds of sheep inhabiting in the semi-arid regions of India is relatively low (Arora and Garg, 1998).The nature of nutritional resources and management problems differs with climate, soil and vegetation, the physical process which governs the animals reproductive performance are the same; the female must reach puberty, show behavioral estrus and shed one or more ova which have then to be fertilized. Dietary nutrition promotes the programming and expression of the metabolic pathways that enable animals to achieve their genetic potential for reproduction. Nutrition has an important impact on the reproductive performance in sheep, but the magnitude of the effect on reproduction may vary with the season (White et al., 1983). Sheep are more prone to neglect compared to cattle and often suffer from lack of feed and fodder. The animals during the grazing are exposed to combined stress (Sejian et al., 2010 ab, and 2011) .This leads to decrease in body weight and loss of reproductive functions. Concurrently, Rhind and Mc Neilly (1986) showed that ewes with low body fat reserves had fewer large ovarian follicles and therefore the potential for subsequent maturation and ovulation declined. 

Introduction  

Developing effective strategies for improving and stabilizing rainfed crop production continues to be a prime concern in the semi-arid region of western India. Rain water management is most crucial aspect in rainfed production systems. Growing uncertainties associated with rainfall pattern (Ali et al., 2007) add to the complexity of the challenge. The medium deep black soil region of Rajasthan is spread predominantly in Jhalawar, Kota, Baran, Bundi, and Sawai Madhopur districts of South-eastern Rajasthan (Fig. 1). This region is characterized by almost flat alluvial plains interspersed with hills of Arawali and Vindhyan ranges and rock outcrops. 

Increasing evidence over the past few decades indicate that significant changes in climate are taking place worldwide as a result of enhanced human activities. The inventions that were discovered during last few centuries, more so in the last century has altered the concentration of atmospheric constituents that lead to global warming. The major cause to climate change has been ascribed to the increased levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxides (NO₂), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) beyond their natural levels due to the uncontrolled activities such as burning of fossil fuels, increased use of refrigerants, and enhanced agricultural related practices. The temperature increase is widespread over the globe and is greater at higher northern latitudes. Land regions have warmed faster than the oceans. January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest decade on recordreported by NASA. These activities accelerated the processes of climate change and increased the average global temperatures by about 0.8°C (1.5°F) since 1880 (NASA,2010). Global average sea level has risen since 1961 at an average rate of 1.8 [1.3 to 2.3] mm/yr and since 1993 at 3.1 [2.4 to 3.8] mm/yr, with contributions from thermal expansion, melting glaciers and ice caps, and the polar ice sheets. Satellite data since 1978 show that annual average Arctic sea ice extent has shrunk by 2.7 % [2.1 to 3.3%] per decade, with larger decreases in summer of 7.4% [5.0 to 9.8%] per decade. Mountain glaciers and snow cover on average have declined in both hemispheres. It has also induced increased climatic variability and occurrence of extreme weather events in many parts of the world.

Wheat (T. aestivum) is a staple food of the vast majority of the human population in most part of the world; Europe, West Asia, South East Asia, Americas and North Africa. It provides more nourishment than any other food crop and leads all other food crops-rice, maize and potato on a global basis. The wide varieties of food products prepared from it make the crop popular and also a reason for its expansion even to non-traditional wheat cultivated areas. As a leading cereal crop, it is cultivated widely under varied agro-ecological regions and cropping systems throughout the world. It is one of the first plants domesticated and cultivated by humans, which played a critical role in the transition from hunter–gatherer groups to stabilized societies with an agrarian foundation. Wheat is harvested every month of the year somewhere in the world, from as far south as Argentina and as far north as Finland, and it is grown over a substantial area in almost every country of North and South America, Europe, and Asia (Fig. 32.1). Even though, the normal planting period of wheat falls in the same month across different countries, the harvesting period is different (Fig. 32.2).

5.1    Global Food Production
    5.1.1    Area Under Cultivation
    5.1.2    World Food Production
    
5.2    Variability in Global and Indian Food Grain Production
    
5.3    Impact of Phenomenal Drought During 2009 on Food Grain Production in Different Countries
    
5.4    Impacts on Livestock and Fisheries
    5.4.1    Livestock
    5.4.2       Milk Production
    5.4.3    Fisheries
    
5.5    Estimation of Food Grain Production in India using Rainfall indices
    5.5.1    Trend in the annual food grain production
    5.5.2    De-trended production index
    5.5.3    Construction of rainfall indices (RI)
    5.5.4    Development of model for estimation of production index
    5.5.5    Verification of model performance
    5.5.6    Estimation of Kharif Price Production
    
5.6    Forecasting of Agricultural Output Using Space, Agrometeorology and Land based Observation (FASAL)
        
References

6.1    Hydrological Cycle
    
6.2    Global Surface Waters
    
6.3    Surface Water over India
    
6.4    Ground Water Potentials in India
    
6.5    Influence of Drought on Water Resources, its Fauna and Flora
    6.5.1    Effects on Fauna and Flora
    
6.6    Influence of Changing Climate on Droughts and Water Resources
    6.6.1    Global warming and droughts at global scale
    6.6.2    Global warming on water resources at global scale
    6.6.3    Global warming and droughts at national scale in India
    6.6.4    Global warming impacts on water resources at National scale
        
References

Yak (Poephagus grunniens)is the most remarkable and multipurpose domestic animal living at high altitudes of the Himalayas. Features common to the environment in which yak live are extreme cold, mountainous terrain, high altitudes with reduced oxygen in the air, high solar radiation and short growing seasons for herbageanda variable assortment of herbage, sparse insome areas. Generally, the yak habitat ranges from 3000-6000 m abovemean sea level (msl), where the alpine pastures are found and there is no absolutely frost-free period during any part of the year. Wilted herbage provides some sustenance for the yak at other times of year, but not insufficient quantity for their requirements (Fig. 9.1). Many of thecharacteristics of the yak can be regarded as adaptations to these conditions, in which cattle of other species have difficulty in surviving (Wiener et al., 2003).The yaks are considered as the life line of the highlanders in remote terrain because yak is the only sustainable livelihood due to non-availability of arable land for major agriculture. Yak husbandry is one of the important and indispensable aspects of the Indianstates, namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim and Garhwal hills of Uttarakhand where other livestock species can hardly live but yaks can survive, reproduce and produce milk, meat, wool and other by-products.

Abstract

The development of nano technology creates an excellent opportunity to address complex technical  issues of food supply chain. Failure to embrace nano technology will deny the horticultural sector an opportunity to capitalize on improved product visibility, food safety, quality and security and associated economic benefits. Agricultural and food supply chain management is complex due to the diverse characteristics of agricultural products. There are numerous types of horticultural crops and products, many of which are perishable. In addition, the degree of standardization of some kinds of fruit products and their management is still low. In this regard, the potential application of nano technology to the horticulture is reviewed. Investigation confirms that incremental applicationof nano technology in the horticulture,

Introduction

Insects have a long history through many geological periods. They appeared in the world long before man. Over 750,000 species of true insects have already been described, for centuries man has fought insects as pests, carriers of disease and destroyers of his food. This combat will continue, for humans have never eradicated a single species. Insects such as flies, fleas, lice and mosquitoes directly attack man and domesticated animals. Others attack indirectly by transmitting dangerous diseases to man and animals.

Agricultural production in India is still vulnerable to vagaries of monsoon rainfall in spite of rapid technological advancements like 1) Availability of high yielding varieties 2) Improved crop management practices and increased irrigation availability and effective control of pests and diseases and etc, over last few decades. Majority of Indian farming community which broadly comprising of small and medium farmers are often subject to climate extremes such as droughts, floods, heavy rainfall events, heat and cold waves, frost, hail storms during the crop growing season. The probabilities of occurrence of such climate extremes and associated crop damages and production losses are common in tropical countries like India. Compensation to the resource crunched farmers in the form of crop insurance seems to be the best option for speedy recovery from the losses incurred during the season. It provides security and stability to farm income by protecting the farmers’ investment in crop production and then improves their risk bearing capacities. Crop insurance scheme is based on the fundamental principle of insurance business in which risk is distributed across space and time. For successful implementation of any crop insurance scheme operating presently in the country, proper monitoring of accurate weather parameters at the identified locations throughout the crop life cycle is important.