eChapters

The term soil organic matter (SOM) includes any material that is produced originally by soil organisms (plant or animal) that is returned to the soil and undergoes decomposition process. At any point in time, it consists of an array of materials, ranging from the intact original tissues of plants and animals to the substantially decomposed mixture of materials known as humus (Fig.1.1). Most soil organic matter originates from plant tissues. Plant residues contain 60 - 90 per cent of moisture and the remaining dry matter consists mostly of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, with smaller amounts of sulphur, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Though present in small amounts, these nutrients are of great significance from the standpoint of soil fertility.

3.1    Competitive and Collaborative Research
    
3.2    The Strategy to Protecting Plants : Plant Variety Protection Act
    
3.3    IPR Issues in Biotechnological Patents Haldi, Neem and Basmati Rice
    
3.4    Patent Litigation

Abstract

The irradiation process involves exposing the food, either prepackaged or in bulk, to a predetermined level of ionization radiation. In this process, it is important to know sources of ionization radiation, how energy is quantified, and its scope with advantages and limitations.The traditional methods like preservation, such as drying, smoking and salting have been supplemented with pasteurisation (by heat), canning (commercial sterilisation by heat), refrigeration, freezing and chemical preservatives. ‘Food irradiation’ is another technology that can be added to the list. By realizing its importance present chapter highlighted with some basic aspects as well as its applications and other related aspects of food irradiation. Food irradiation involves basic principles like; Pasteurization (Pathogen Reduction) 2. Sterilization 3. Sanitation 4. Disinfestation. As concern to dosage can be applied as  low, medium and high based on type of radiation, type of food, type of packaging material and time of application. It has broader range of application in preservation with this also has few limitations which have become bottlenecks in this technology. Though technology is employing much in developed countries rather than developing once. Prospectus should be given in those countries also.

INTRODUCTION

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam) belongs to family Moraceae. It is popularly known as ‘Poor Man’s food’ in eastern and southern India. It is also known as Kanthal, Kathal, Penasa, Kontaka and Phanas in India. Jackfruit is a very unique fruit crop and common tree of low land tropics and grows well without much care. It has considerable potential but it is yet to receive due attention. It is mainly grown in homestead for domestic uses and as a shade tree in coffee or cardamom plantations. It is cultivated in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Nepal. India is the second largest producer of jackfruit in the world and is considered as ‘Mother land of jackfruit’. In India, it is widely distributed in Assam, Tripura, Bihar Uttar Pradesh, and foot hills of Himalaya, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Maharashtra (Sidhu, 2012). It is seldom grown in an organized form as that of other fruit crops viz. mango, guava, etc. Most of the jackfruit trees are observed in kitchen garden or orchards of other fruit crops, roadside or in forests. Well managed orchards of jackfruit are seen in Panruti area of Pondicherry, where the production is at almost throughout the year. At present the area under jackfruit in the country is 157.58 (000’ ha) and the production is 1572.87 (000’ MT) (Anon. 2015).

INTRODUCTION

Jamun (Syzygium cumini (L) Skeels Syn Eugenia jambolana Lamk.) is an important commercial indigenous minor fruit of India and is highly suitable for avenue and for social forestry plantation. It belongs to family Myrtaceae. The other major plants belong to this family are eucalyptus, bottle brush and cloves. It is known by different names like black plum, Indian black berry, Ram jamun, jambolan, Jambul and Phalinda in different parts of country. Trees are found growing throughout the tropics and subtropics as an avenue plantation on road side, school, religious places and as wind break around the orchards. It is also occurs in the lower range of the Himalayas up to an elevation of 1,300 meters and in the Kumaon hills up to 1,600 meters above mean sea level. It is widely grown in the larger parts of India from the Indo-Gangetic plains in the North to Tamil Nadu in the South. The importance of this fruit is increasing day by day due to increasing awareness of hypoglycemic properties of this fruit against diabetics. It is adequately rich in antioxidants.

INTRODUCTION

Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa Chev.) also known as Chinese gooseberry, China’s Miracle Fruit and The Horticultural Wonder of New Zealand, belongs to family Actinidiaceae. It is native to Yangtze valley in north-west Hupeh and Szechuan provinces of China. The kiwifruit of international commerce are large – fruited selections of Actinidia deliciosa Planch and Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) 
C F Liang and A. R. Ferguson. The name kiwifruit was derived from the kiwi, a flightless bird and New Zealand’s national symbol. Although this fruit vine originated in China, yet its full economic potential was exploited by the New Zealanders, which accounts for over 70 per cent of world trade. In other countries of the world, its cultivation gained momentum after 1960’s and now is cultivated on a commercial scale in USA, Italy, China, Japan, France, Germany, Chile and Australia

Kiwifruit is a perennial climbing or scrambling vine. Fruits are rusty brown with hairy surface and looks like a sapota fruit. Flesh is light green in colour with decorative pattern of lighter colored rays radiating from the center and embedded in between are many small, soft and dark seed. It is mostly eaten as fresh fruit or combined with other fruits in salad and desserts.

Introduction

Lac insects, under Family Tachardiidae (= Lacciferidae), Superfamily Coccoidea, Order Hemiptera are commercially important species for resin, dye and wax production. Lac insects are naturally distributed in tropical and subtropical areas of south and south-east Asia. Out of the nine genera and 99 species of lac insects reported from the world, two genera and 26 species are found in our country. The family Tachardiidae is divided into two sub-families, i) Tachardiinae including true lac insects of resinous cell and ii) Tachardininae including pseudo-lac insects of non-resinous cells. In India, lac is cultivated in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and parts of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal primarily using Kerria lacca. However, natural populations of Kerria spp are distributed throughout India and K. chinensis in the north eastern states is also cultivated to a certain extent. Kerria lacca species is represented by two distinct forms, kusmi and rangeeni, differing for their host species preference, life cycle pattern, quality and quantity of the resin produced, settlement behaviour, etc. The two forms of the Indian lac insect, commonly referred as ‘strains’ in lac insect literature, were placed as infrasubspecific forms by Varshney (1977).

A. General
        
B. Turf Grass
        
C. Indoor Plants

Introduction

Landslides are simply defined as mass movement of rock, debris or earth down a slope and have come to include broad range of motions whereby falling, sliding and flowing under the influence of gravity dislodges earth material. They often take place in conjunction with earthquakes, floods and volcanoes. At times, prolonged rainfall cause heavy landslides, that block the flow of river for quite sometime.

Artificial Insemination (AI) is one of the most popular first generation assisted reproductive technology as well as a breeding tool, ever evolved for the genetic improvement of cattle and buffalo industry throughout the world. The advent of frozen semen has further revolutionized this technique. Presently, use of sex- sorted-semen in cattle breeding is also coming into vogue. Contrary to cattle and buffalo, use of AI in small ruminants has not gained such impetus.

It has been reported that lower pregnancy rates were obtained when ewes and does are bred with frozen or extended liquid semen using intra-vaginal or intracervical technique of insemination. The reason being anatomy of the cervix of sheep and goats; cervix is long and tortuous with presence of 4-7 cervical rings. Furthermore, these cervical rings are directed caudally hindering the lumen of the cervix thereby causing hindrance (more prominent in sheep) while passing the AI gun during intra-cervical or trans-cervical AI (TCAI). There are several reports which support the fact that, as the depth of semen deposition into the cervix increases, the pregnancy rates also improve due to availability of a greater number of motile sperms for fertilization.

Laparoscopy is an operative procedure performed through a key-hole opening with a rigid endoscope that allows visual inspection of organs.  The laparoscopy helps in arriving diagnosis of various reproductive and digestive disorders quickly.  By laparoscopy clinician can visualize the external surface of the abdominal organs.  Tumours, abscess, cyst, lesions, growth, hemorrhage, adhesions of the organs in the abdominal cavity can be readily diagnosed by this technique.  Aspiration of follicular fluid, biopsy of lesions and sterilization are commonly employed maneuvers by this technique.  It is having both diagnostic and therapeutic value.  The procedure consists of placement of transabdominal rigid endoscope after establishment of pneumoperitoneum in the body cavity.   The images of different organs are displayed on the TV monitor when the laparoscope is moved within the peritoneal cavity with the illumination through halogen light source.

INTRODUCTION

Litchi(Litchi chinensis) is an important sub-tropical evergreen fruit crop. The tree bears heart-shaped, conical, or spherical drupaceous fruits with a thin, indehiscent pericarp that surrounds the sweet, translucent, succulent, and juicy aril. Although litchi originated in the Asia-Pacific region, orchards are found in more than 80 countries. Having introduced into India by the end of the 17th century, litchi is an important fruit crop in India and is a source of livelihood to millions especially in the Gangetic plains along the foothills of the Himalayas where the crop is grown popularly. Bihar is the major litchi-producing state in India accounting for about 37% of both national acreage and production. Muzaffarpur is famous for its Shahi litchi and is popularly referred to as the ‘Litchi City’ or ‘Litchi Hub’.In India it is grown in an area of about 85000 ha with total production of 528000 MT. Bihar is followed by West Bengal, Jharkhand and Assam in terms of production, while the highest productivity of litchi (16 MT/ha) is reported from Punjab.

Introduction

Human civilization used to undergo several form of disasters throughout its life history. Most of such events are unpredictable, sudden and short in duration, and such events can easily classifiable as either natural (e.g. cyclones, earth quake, natural forest fires and tsunami) or manmade such as spread of toxic chemicals (e.g. Bhopal disaster 1984), nuclear explosions, civil war, diseases (Minamata, itaiitai, etc.). However, climate change is a real time prolonged disaster which is caused by both natural (caused by variation in solar irradiance, variations in orbital parameters of earth, volcanic activities, natural forest fire, methane release from thawing of permafrost from ocean floor, natural wetlands and cattle) and anthropogenic means (by greenhouse gases resulted from human activities-all kinds of combustion, industrial production of greenhouse gases and agricultural water lodging activities such as paddy cultivation and artificial wet lands, and deforestation).

Introduction

It is well known that, over 50% of requirement of food for the entire humanity is obtained from just three crops- rice, maize and wheat though 150 crops are commercialized globally. Ethnobotanically, over 7000 plants species are cultivated or harvested from the wild which represent immense agro-biodiversity. Most of these species are under exploited but have the potential for contributing to food security, health (nutritional/medicinal), income generation and environmental services. Examples include little millets which provide calcium and iron and vitamins like niacin and sulphur containing amino acids, having more fiber than rice and wheat. Some other species which have in the recent past contributed to income generation in Indian arid zone include ber, anola, karonda and gonda. Likewise the perennial grasses in this area are not only source of nutritious fodder but also the grains e.g. gramana (Panicum antidotale) are consumed during famine. They have acquired importance being alternative sources of income as also alternate life support system during crisis. They often have neutraceutical, medicinal uses or often multiple uses. Demand for traditional food in large multi-ethnic cities and metros have brought these species into sharp focus, Hence, these are being viewed now as potential candidate for diversification in the cropping system, conservation of bio-diversity, enhancing the limits of green revolution even during climate change and finally as provider of molecules for curing various ailments of men and animals.

Introduction

Rain fed agroecosystem occupies 68% of India’s cultivated area and supports 40% of the human beings and 65% of the livestock population. It produces 44% of food requirements, thus has and will continue to play a critical role in India’s agriculture (Singh et al. 2004). Besides their well established role in agriculture, livestock have crucial role in food security and as risk aversion mechanism for sustaining family, whenever there is crop failure. Indian hot arid zone which is about 12% of total geographical area of the landmass of 0.32 million km2 has maximum covering in western Rajasthan i.e. 61% of the total area whereas the other areas in arid region are available in the states of Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka accounting for 20, 5, 4, 7 and 3% of hot arid area whereas the cold arid area of 8.4 million ha lies in the state of Jammu & Kashmir covering the Leh and Ladakh region.

Over the past decades climate change and climate related disaster risks have become more important than ever. The effects of climate change are unprecedented today and thus pose serious risks for human wellbeing, livelihoods and life-supporting systems. They also present serious challenges to society, in addition, increased climate variability significantly undermine the socio-economic development and environment. The consequences of climatic change, such as increase in frequency and extent of droughts, floods, cyclones, mudslides and avalanches have impacts on all sectors of economy including water, agriculture, fisheries, health, forestry, transport, tourism and energy sectors. Amongst these sectors, the agricultural sector is one of the most vulnerable sectors to impacts of climate change, which can have multiplicative effects on other sectors, as well as the economy and overall human being. The projected climate change towards warming may affect not only the crop cultivation but also on agro-climatic conditions for growing pasture vegetation, forming of feed stocks in pastures and conditions for grazing livestock. Favourable conditions for grazing livestock are determined, on the one hand, by sufficient amount of forage in pastures and on the other, by the extreme weather conditions that restrict the use of these fodders.

Climate change is one of the most serious and long standing challenges facing livestock around the world and has moved up to the top of agenda among scientific community, civil society, business and government. Majority of scientific experts around the world believe that the climate change is already occurring by human activities, by use of fossil fuel, deforestation and agricultural practices, livestock rearing and that the developing countries in particular would be more vulnerable to the continuously changing climate. Rise in temperature due to climate change is likely to affect livestock production and health. Large deltas and low lying coastal areas would be inundated by a rise in sea level along with increased precipitation intensity. (DFID, 2004).Major contributors to the climate change are the man-made greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and hydroflurocarbons in the atmosphere. The accumulation of gas is causing the climatic change globally, as evident from the increased frequency of floods, droughts, cyclones and torrential rains in the recent past. The green house gases (GHGs) emission from agriculture sector alone accounts for 25.5% of global emission and over 60% from anthropogenic sources (FAO,2009)

INTRODUCTION

Loquat (Eriobotrya Japonica Lindl.) is an evergreen fruit tree and grown extensively in subtropical regions of world which belongs to family Rosaceae. It is also known as Japanese Plum or Japanese Medlar. The word Eriobotrya has been derived from two greek words i.e ‘erion’ and ‘botrys’ meaning wool and cluster respectively which stands for wooly inflorescence The plant is often planted in parks and gardens due to its ornamental appearance. The fruit of loquat is available in the months of March - April when very few fresh fruits are available and fetches maximum returns.

Global warming is the most prominent environmental issue across the world. It is caused by the increased concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere and leads to a phenomenon widely known as ‘greenhouse effect’. Amongst various sources of greenhouse effect, agriculture is considered a major contributor primarily through the emission of greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.

7.1    Drip Network
    
7.2    Performance of the Drip System
        
Questions and Problems
        
References

Food productivity is decreasing due to detrimental effects of various biotic and abiotic stresses; therefore minimizing these losses is a major area of concern to ensure food security under changing climate. Environmental abiotic stresses, such as drought, extreme temperature, cold, heavy metals, or high salinity, severely impair plant growth and productivity worldwide. Drought, being the most important environmental stress, severely impairs plant growth and development, limits plant production and the performance of crop plants, more than any other environmental factor (Shao et al., 2009). Plant experiences drought stress either when the water supply to roots becomes difficult or when the transpiration rate becomes very high. Available water resources for successful crop production have been decreasing in recent years. Furthermore, in view of various climatic change models scientists suggested that in many regions of world, crop losses due to increasing water shortage will further aggravate its impacts. Drought impacts include growth, yield, membrane integrity, pigment content, osmotic adjustment water relations, and photosynthetic activity (Praba et al., 2009). Drought stress is affected by climatic, edaphic and agronomic factors. The susceptibility of plants to drought stress varies in dependence of stress degree, different accompanying stress factors, plant species, and their developmental stages. Acclimation of plants to water deficit is the result of different events, which lead to adaptive changes in plant growth and physio-biochemical processes, such as changes in plant structure, growth rate, tissue osmotic potential and antioxidant defenses (Duan et al., 2007 and Shakeel et al., 2011).

Abstract 

Rainfed agriculture plays and will continue to play a dominant role in providing food and livestock for an increasing world population. Rainfed agriculture practiced on 80% of the world’ agriculture land area and generates about 70% of the world’s staple food including most of the food in poor communities in developing and least favoured areas. The most recent estimates have put global rainfed croplands at 1.75 billion ha (Bha) at the end of the last millennium, or about 5.5 times the irrigated area in the world . India ranks 1st among the countries that practice rainfed agriculture both in terms of extent 86 (mha) & value production. Agriculture water management deals with the administration of a key input to agricultural production & offers to hope that land and water use will be intensified .Scarcity of water resources and growing ofm competition for water many sectors reduces its availability for irrigation. Effective management of water for crop production in water scare area requires efficient approaches for increasing crop productivity and drought tolerance by genetic improvement and physiological regulation may be the means to achieve efficient & effective use of water. A single approaches would not be able to tackle the forthcoming challenge of producing more food and measures with engineering solutions (water saving ,irrigation method, deficit irrigation, proper deficit sequencing, modernization of irrigation system etc) and agronomic & soil manipulation (seed priming\ seedling age manipulation, direct or wet seeded rice. 

Introduction
Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence which is concerned with the development of algorithms and techniques that allow computers to learn. These techniques are tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth, and approximation. There have emerged many methods based on machine learning techniques, such as Artificial Neural Networks (NNs), Support Vector Machines (SVMs), Decision Tree (DT), Bayesian Networks (BNs), Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), etc. These techniques attempt to study, model, and analyze very complex phenomena  for which more conventional methods have not yielded low cost, analytic, and complete solutions.

Bioinformatics is the application of information technology to the area of molecular biology. The increase in the number and complexity of biological databases has raised the need for powerful data analysis tools and techniques. To fulfill these requirements, the machine learning discipline has become an everyday tool in bio-laboratories (Inza et al., 2010). Machine learning techniques have been successful in analyzing biological data because of their capabilities in handling randomness and uncertainty of data noise and in approximation.

The Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks is governed by two treaties. The first one is he Madrid Agreement, which was concluded in 1891 and revised at Brussels (1900), Washington (1911), The Hague (1925), London (1934), Nice (1957) and Stockholm (1967), and amended in 1979. The other one is the Protocol related to this agreement which was concluded in 1989. The aims of this protocol are to make the Madrid system more flexible and more compatible with the domestic legislation of certain countries or intergovernmental organizations that had not been able to accede to the Agreement. 

9.1. INTRODUCTION

Maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays 2n = 20), known as corn in some countries is an important cereal crop of the world. The scientific name from Greek word ‘Zea’ for a kind of grain and West Indian word ‘malnis’ for corn. Maize was domesticated in Mesoamerica and hence formed the Mesoamerican people’s identity and later it spread throughout American continent. Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other cereal grain. USA produces almost half of the world’s harvest (42.5%) and other top producing countries include China, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, India and France. During the year 2007, worldwide maize productivity was around 4970 kg per ha. Maize is the only cereal that can be harvested and used at various stages of plant development. The crop can be cultivated on a wide area from 580 N to 400 S from below sea level to altitudes higher than 3000 m and in areas with 250 mm to more than 5000 mm of rainfall per year (Shaw, 1988, Dowswell et al., 1996).

Introduction

The fruit crop acreage in Kashmir is rapidly increasing and is developing into perennial stretches of monocropping systems. The area of apple in Kashmir 143790 ha. Parallely this has led to increased pests and use of chemical pesticides. As a result, pest resurgence, pesticide residue in fruits, deleterious effect on biological agents and resistance build-up in insects have all complicated pest management (Smith, 1970).In view of the rising export potential of residue free fruits and the crisis situation created by indiscriminate use of pesticides, fruit crops need much more attention in terms of IPM input than what is getting now. It is therefore, necessary to develop and follow a rational approach with greater reliance on IPM to promote sustainability and to reduce the number of application of hazardous chemicals. Integrated pest management requires thorough preplanning even before establishing the fruit orchard which includes selection of suitable site,siol type, improved and pest free scion varieties, resistant rootstock compatible with scion, regular pest and weather monitoring in the orchard, balanced use of fertilizers, water management, proper training and pruning, improved cultural practices,augementation and conservation of parasitoids and predators and need based application of selective insecticides.The various strategies for successful management of economically important pests of temperate fruits are thoroughly discussed.

Cereal crops are interchangeably called grain crops. In many publications and correspondence, they are simply called grains or cereals. As of 2012, the top 5 cereals in the world ranked on the basis of production tonnage are rice (paddy), wheat, maize (corn), barley and sorghum. These crops are also among the top 50 agricultural commodities in the world with maize ranking second next to sugarcane. Rice (paddy) ranks third, wheat - 4th, barley - 12^th, and sorghum - 30^th. Another cereal, millet, ranks no. 42 (FAO Stat 2014, updated Aug. 18, 2014). According to Chapman and Carter (1976), “a cereal is generally defined as a grass grown for its small, edible seed.” They also explained that all cereals are angiosperms, monocots, and members of the grass family Gramineae. Similarly, Lantican (2001) defines cereal or grain crops as agronomic crops belonging to the grass family Gramineae or Poaceae which are utilized as staples; the word “cereal” is derived from the most important grain deity, the Roman Goddess Ceres. Among the food grains cereals occupies for most status in human food requirements. Cereals are grown under different agro-climatic (Upland, Low land & Rainfed) conditions and it is most important staple food of about 65% of Indian population. Cereals crop is attacked by a large number of insect pests right from initial to till the harvest of the crops. Brief descriptions of the major crops, major insect pest and appropriate control measures are given below:

1.    Breeding Systems Utilized in Production of Vegetable Hybrids
    
2.    Male Sterility-Theory
    
3.    Hybrid Seed Production in Chilli Using GMS
    
4.    Hybrid Seed Production in Muskmelon Using GMS
    
5.    Cytoplasmic Genetic Male Sterility
    
6.    Hybrid Seed Production in Onion Using CMS
    
7.    Hybrid Seed Production in Hot Pepper Using CMS
    
8.    Self-Incompatibility Systems
    
9.    Types of Incompatibility
    
10.    Hybrid Cultivars in Cauliflower and Cabbage
    
11.    Male Sterility in Tomato and its Uses in Hybrid Seed Production
        
References

• Introduction
• Characteristics of Management Information System
• Management Information Systems Advantage
• Outputs of a Management Information System

Abstract

Soil acidity poses a great problem for crop production due to very poor fertility status and nutrient imbalances in eastern and north eastern region and hence, it needs a special attention to address such acidity problems in relation to crop production. The integrated nutrient management system for the maintenance of soil fertility, sustainable agricultural productivity and improving profitability through the judicious and efficient use of mineral fertilizers especially secondary and micronutrients, organic matters, green manures, bio-fertilizers in acid soils. Rainwater harvesting, efficient storage of excess rainwater and subsequent uses as supplemental irrigation especially in the areas of rainfed situations as well as selection of crops and cropping systems in different acid soils region need to be developed. The management of secondary and micronutrients in acid soils can be made either by the addition of cost-effective lime or liming materials to counteract the abnormalities of soils by raising pH as the first step and subsequently by modifying agricultural practices and applying balanced fertilizers including limiting nutrients viz. S, B, Mo and Zn at optimal levels based on soil test values for maximum crop production.

Heat or thermal stress occurs when it becomes increasingly difficult for dairy cow to maintain a normal core body temperature of 101.5 to 102.8° F (rectal temp.). The thermo neutral or comfort zone (TNZ) for cow is at an environmental temperature of 41 to 77° F. Within the TNZ, heat production from normal metabolic functions is about equal to the heat loss from the body and maintaining a normal body temperature is relatively easy. Extent of heat stress can be measured by the Temperature Humidity Index (THI). A THI level above 75 is considered stressful for dairy animals. Two sources of heat impact the cow as the environmental temperature and the heat produced internally from basal nutrient metabolism. Heat produced from nutrient metabolism is a lesser factor than environmental heat sources. However, as milk production and feed intake increase, more heat from nutrient metabolism is produced aggravating any heat stress being incurred from environmental sources. Therefore, higher milk producing cow will be more affected by heat stress than low milk producing or dry cow. 

A typical repeat breeder cow or buffalo is an apparently normal cycling cow / buffalo with normal genitalia which has failed to settle to services or inseminations during three or more consecutive estrus periods. These animals can neither be considered as sterile nor can settle to subsequent services.  Age of the repeat breeder should not have exceeded beyond 12 years.

The causative factors for repeat breeder animals fall in two main categories as failure of fertilization and early embryonic death.

Introduction

The area under salt-affected soils in India is estimated to be 6.73 Mha spread over a number of states across the country. This 6.73 million ha are lying barren or produce very uneconomical yields of crops due to excessive accumulation of salts. These soils are agriculturally unproductive because of the high content of soluble salts which had harmful effects on plant growth due to moisture stress and toxicity/deficiency of some of the ions and the exchangeable sodium ions in clay complex lead to the unfavorable physical conditions of for the plant growth and water movement (Bhumla 1977). Saline and sodic soils have excess concentration of either soluble or exchangeable sodium, calcium and magnesium primarily in the form of chlorides and sulphates. Salt affected areas an expected to increase with spread of waterlogging and salinity due to increase in canal irrigation, and intensive exploitation of poor quality ground waters for agriculture in non canal commands. Certain states like Rajasthan and Haryana located in the western part of the country are endowed with 84 and 62% of poor quality ground waters, respectively. Continuous use of such waters for irrigation to agricultural crops is bound to increase the problem of salinity and sodicity in India (Yadav 1989; Minhas and Bajwa 2001). Introduction of irrigation without making proper provision for drainage is the major cause for the development of salinity in canal commands.It is severe on irrigated lands of the dry zone. It reduces crop yield and in severe cases causes complete abandonment of agriculture (Joshi and Dhir 1989; Joshi et al. 2000; Mahesh Kumar et al. 2016). The present paper deals with extent, causes, characteristics and management options of these soils for sustainability of agriculture in the area.

Introduction

Climate is the primary determinant of agricultural productivity. Plant systems, and hence crop yields, are influenced by many environmental factors such as moisture and temperature, may act either synergistically or antagonistically with other factors in determining yields (Waggoner, 1983). In the recent years, climatic change/variability is a biggest challenging factor that affects agriculture in India and elsewhere and concern has been expressed by world community regarding the potential effects of climate change on agricultural productivity. Climate change is expected to influence crop production, hydrologic balances, input supplies and other components of agricultural systems. Agricultural systems are managed ecosystems. The climate change induced atmospheric stress will be the primary cause of crop loss worldwide, reducing average yields for most major crop plants. Environmental stresses such as erratic and insufficient rainfall, extreme temperatures, salinity, alkalinity, acidity, heavy metal toxicity, oxidative stress and others limit yield and productivity of many cultivated crop plants. Drought, extreme temperatures and oxidative stress are interconnected and affect the water relations of a plant on the cellular as well as whole plant level causing specific as well as unspecific reactions (Beck et al., 2007). This leads to a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular changes that adversely affect plant growth and productivity (Wang et al., 2001).

1.    Marketing Scenario of Fruits and Vegetables
    
2.    Marketing Systems of Fruits and Vegetables
    
3.    Vertical Coordination in Food Chain
    
4.    Supply Chain Management
    
5.    Post Harvest Management
        
References

1. Introduction

Osmotic dehydration is a useful treatment of dehydration compared to the other dehydration processes, as other dehydration processes bring adverse and irreversible changes in physical and nutritional status of food material. Recently in many studies it was found out that since plant membranes are semi-permeable in nature, not only moisture but transfer of solute from osmotic solution to the food material also takes place. Another kind of transfer which was also noticed is the leaching of micronutrients from the cells of food to the osmotic solution, but the amount being very low, this transfer can be neglected. (Mayor et al., 2006). The mass transfer kinetics was studied for different food materials (Hawkes and Flink, 1978). Effect of different variables such as pressure and temperature were also studied (Rastogi and Niranjan, 1998). The effective diffusivities for both water loss and solute gain can be calculated by using various methods which gives the rate of diffusion of solute and moisture for the food material. The finding of solute gain and leaching of micronutrients pointed the requirement of maintaining the osmotic dehydration process, which could be done by maintaining the process variables of osmotic dehydration. Impact of various process variables on osmotic dehydration and their best levels at which maximum water loss and minimum solute gain could be obtained had to be calculated out. For this purpose, optimization of process variables through response surface methodology (RSM) could be best utilized (Uddin et al. , 2004). RSM is a statistical tool which gives the random combinations of input variables to give the best output result as required. Various works have been done on optimization of process conditions of osmotic dehydration taking different samples of foods. In this study, bamboo shoot species (Bambusa balcooa) was taken as sample for osmotic dehydration to optimize the process variables for osmotic dehydration of bamboo shoots using salt as osmotic agent followed by calculation of effective diffusivity of water and solute during osmotic dehydration of bamboo shoot.

Fruit Flies and Economic Importance

Fruit flies belong to order Diptera (true flies) with one of the largest, most diversified and fascinating acalypterate family Tephritidae. These are commonly called as fruit flies due to their close association with fruits and vegetables and are also known as peacock flies because of their habit of strutting about and vibrating spotted and striped wings. Of the 4500 known species of fruit flies worldwide, nearly 200 are considered as pests but 70 species are regarded as agriculturally important throughout the world (Clarke et al., 2005, Schutz et al., 2012). David and Ramani (2011) reported 325 species in the Indian subcontinent of which 243 in 79 genera are from India alone. Important fruits flies damaging fruit crops in India include Oriental fruit fly or mango fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel); peach fruit fly, B. zonata (Saunders); guava fruit fly, 
B. correcta (Bezzi); melon fly, B. cucurbitae (Coquillett) and ber fruit fly, Carpomyia vesuviana Costa, whereas important fruit flies in Punjab include B. dorsalis and B. zonata. Important host plants of B. dorsalis are mango, guava, peach, citrus, pear, ber and loquat but most preferred host of B. dorsalis is guava while that of B. zonata are guava, peach, mango, pear, ber, citrus and loquat but C. vesuviana infests only ber (Mann 1990, Sharma et al., 2005, Singh 2008b, Singh 2012, Singh et al., 2014a,b and Singh et al., 2015). Bactrocera dorsalis is considered to be the most damaging and aggressive fruit flies in the world (Leblance and Putao 2000). They are strong fliers and can fly upto two kilometers in search of food (Butani 1979).

The usage of different pure chemicals and their combinations in treating various disorders of the livestock has been listed in this chapter.

1. Introduction

Law of conservation of mass says that material cannot be created nor destroyed, which is the basic fundamentals of physical science. Many engineering analyses involve material balances. These balances are simply accounting processes that account for all material in processes of interest. The material balance is one of the most useful tools fundamental in the “engineering approach” to design new process. The law of conservation of mass tells that the total mass of all material entering any process must equal the total mass of materials leaving plus the mass of any material accumulated in the process.

Laboratory investigation of the samples assist in diagnosing, confirming the cases including veterolegal cases. The type of material, quantity of specimens & preservatives used and the method of dispatch to the laboratory  is tabulated in this chapter.

Abstract: Trees are known to reduce growth and yield of crops under their canopy in agroforestry systems through competitive interaction. This chapter describes the mechanism of competitive interaction between Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) and Leucaena leucocephala (Lam) De Wit in an alley cropping system. To know the mechanism of competitive interaction in agroforestry, three competition situations are created: crop + Leucaena shrub neighbour, crop + L. hedge neighbour and sole crop. In this study competitive interaction is studied in an alley cropping system having two alley width sizes i.e. 4m and 8m. Sunlight at ground, soil organic C and total N are measured in all the competition treatments at different distances from shrub and hedge neighbors. Sunlight is not reduced in crop + hedge treatment like that in sole crop treatment. Sunlight is reduced in crop + shrub treatment (36 to 82%), being the highest in 4m alley and the lowest in 8m alley size. Soil organic C is high but total N is low in crop + hedge and crop + shrub neighbour than in sole crop treatment. Comparing the two competitive treatments (crop + hedge and crop + shrub neighbour) it is observed that growth rate (42 to 55%) and crop yield (71 to 72%) are reduced greater due to aboveground than belowground competition. Belowground competition is 3.6 times greater in 4m than in 8m alley, suggesting that spacing is an important factor, which regulates tree/crop competition so does the crop yield reduction in an agroforestry system.

Introduction

In the present, India is food secure due to our self-sufficiency in foodgrains, but still,we have to achieve the goal of nutritional security. The horticulture sector is the one which alsoescapes the weather shocks and has the potential to help in poverty alleviation, nutritional security. Again, it has ample scope for farmers to increase their income and helpful in sustaining a large number of agro-based industries which generate a large number of employment opportunities besides helping to achieve the national goal of 4.0 per cent agricultural growth. India with more than 28.2 million tonnes of fruits and 66 million tonnes of vegetables, is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, next only to Brazil and China.Onshares, the world fruit production is 11% and vegetables 7%.

1.     Preparation of Liquid and Solid Media
    
2.     Isolation of Pure Culture
    
3.     Analysis Bacterial Growth Curve
    
4.     Study of Effect of Carbon Source on Bacterial Growth
    
5.     Gram Staining
    
6.     Aseptic Cell Transfers
    
7.     Prokaryote Cell Number by Dilution Plating
    
8.     Cell Mass by Measurement of Turbidity
    
9.     Isolation of Bactriophage from Sewage Sample
    
10.     Standard Plate Count
    
11.     Imvic Test
    
12.     Antibiotic Sensitivity Test on Microbes
    
13.     Study of Transformation In Bacteria
    
14.     Study of Bacterial Conjugation
    
15.     Effect of pH and Temperature on Bacterial Growth
    
16.     Immobilization of Yeast Cells and Alcohol Production
    
17.     Citric Acid Production using Aspergillus Niger
    
18.     Alcohol Production from Yeast and Estimation of Alcohol

ABSTRACT
Methanogenesis is an important biogeochemical process takes place in anaerobic ecological sites. It is the last step of terminal electron accepting process of anaerobic respiration. Methanogens synthesise CH₄ using acetate and CO₂ as precursor molecules. Former types of methanogens are referred as acetoclastic methanogens and the later ones as hydrogenotrophic methanogens. After biogenesis of CH₄, it is emitted to atmosphere and causes global warming. In aerobic ecosystem CH₄ is oxidised by methanotrophs to CO₂ a less global warming molecule. However, in anoxic environment CH4 acts as an electron donor and interacts with various electron acceptors. Methane modulates denitrification, Fe reduction, SO₄ reduction and organic matter decomposition. Manuscript elucidates methanogenesis and highlights the pathways of interaction between methanogenesis and cycling of electron acceptors in various anaerobic ecosystems in relation to global C and N balance.

ABSTRACT
Methanogenesis is a ubiquitous process primarily encountered in anaerobic environments. Methanogens are a group of diverse obligate anaerobic bacteria that produce methane from complex organic matter. Despite their differences in morphological characters and habitat, they show coherence in terms of methane-producing metabolic activity. Being distinctive from all other classical prokaryotes, these are grouped under another kingdom of Archea. Other distinctions of the members are based on their unique cell wall structures and membrane components, as well as differences in their highly conserved gene sequences. Methanogens likely owe their cosmopolitan status to their unique mode of energy metabolism of methane generation. They are active in various ecological niches, from rumens of animals to submarine volcanic vents, sewage digestors and landfills. Methanogenic bacteria are abundant in habitats where high affinity electron acceptors are negligible. Methane fermentation involves bacteria that obtain energy by catalysing anaerobically degradable organic matter to CH₄ and CO₂ by consuming H₂, CO₂, and low-carbon organic acids as their substrates. The gaseous products of methanogenesis are greenhouse gases, thus are major contributors to global warming. Methanogens could be used to produce renewable carbon-neutral energy substitute, biogas. Methane cycling archaea play a major role in global methane production as energy for the future.

Method of Maximum Likelihood Estimation (M.L.E.)
    
Method of Moments
    
Method of Minimum X²
    
Interval Estimation

An early and accurate diagnosis of pregnancy is a crucial factor for successful management and maintaining cost-effective production in scientific goat production for better economic returns. In addition, accurate information on the stage of gestation would also be useful to dry off lactating females at an adequate period. The techniques for pregnancy diagnosis in goats are mostly depend upon visualization of the conceptus or determination of its secretory products in the maternal blood or the milk are the most defined and specific methods for pregnancy. The choice of pregnancy diagnosis method in goats depends on the stage of gestation. Some methods have a higher degree of accuracy at the early gestation while others do at the late stage of gestation. Assessment of pregnancy in terms of hormonal assay of blood plasma, serum, or milk, and estimation of pregnancy-specific antigens or proteins give a higher level of accuracy within 30 days of pregnancy. There are many methods that are currently being used for pregnancy diagnosis in goats. Among those, the method applied should be safe for both offspring and mother and need to be low-cost and easy to apply. Various techniques have different kinds of limitations to their wide-scale use. These techniques are classified into 3 classes, which are as follows:

Introduction

Hi Tech horticulture is synonymous to cultivation of commercial horticultural crops using advanced scientific technology to make more profit. India is acclaimed globally for production of high value horticultural crops but there productivity is less as compared to many countries. One of the main reasons for low productivity is poor water and nutrient management. The Task Force on Agricultural Development constituted by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, Government of India in March 2015 has suggested to increase productivity, progress is required along three dimensions: (i) Quality and judicious use of inputs such as water, seeds, fertilizer and pesticides; (ii) judicious and safe exploitation of modern technology; and (iii) shift into high value commodities such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc. (Anonymous, 2015).  Hi tech horticulture meeting the entire requirement as suggested by the task force.