eChapters

Molecular characterization involves the use of techniques that are available to analyze variation in plants and animals at the DNA level. Differences in gene sequences can be directly observed and described with a precision previously impossible to achieve. Many of the techniques that have been developed have already been used in evolutionary and taxonomic studies. They have immense value in studies of accessions identity and for the detection of novel useful variation in the plant germplasm. Molecular markers provide genetic information of direct value in key areas of conservation both ex situ and in situ. For ex situ conservation the key issues are:

Floral Biology and Crossing

Pearl millet spikelets bear 2 types of florets, one being bisexual and the other staminate. A singIe pistil with 2 feathery and 3  anthers is enclosed between the lemma and palea. The unisexual staminate florets are sessile and borne below the bisexual flowers. These have 3 anthers and lack the female organs. Pearl millet is a highly protogynous species and thus  highly cross pollinated.
 
The time of panicle exertion from boot leaf varies in inbreds and hybrids. Bhatnagar and Kumar (1960) observed that spike takes 6 days to emerge from the sheath with the maximum emergence on the fourth or fifth day. The stylar branches protrude first from the florets at the tip of the head and gradually proceed downwards. Most of the stylar branches on the earheads emerge by the third day. There exists a great variation in the time taken for the complete emergence of the styles in the hybrids than in the inbred lines (Tewari et al.,1971). Anthesis in pearl millet is completed in two phases. The first involves the bisexual florets while the second involves staminate florets. It has been generally observed that the anthers in the sessile male florets emerge 2-3 days after the anthers have emerged in the bisexual florets. Thus most heads continue to shed pollen for 4-6 days.The largest number of anthers emerged between 8 PM and 2 AM. Environmental factors like temperature and humidity have significant role in the anther emergence.

Hybrid vigour in plants has long been noted, and the first suggestion that it be exploited in vegetables was by Hayes and Jones in 1916. F1 hybrid eggplants were used on commercial scale in Japan before 1925. Demonstration of the value of hybrids in corn in the early 1920’s gave impetus to a few exploratory studies in other crops. Methods of its application to large scale field production of hybrids in vegetable crops were first proposed in 1932 using the self incompatibility system in cabbage and in 1943 using the cytoplasmic genetic male sterility system in onion. Today hybrid varieties are common in several vegetable crops viz., sweet corn, onion, tomato, summer squash, ordinary cabbage, cucumber, watermelon, muskmelon, asparagus, sweet pepper, chilli pepper, spinach, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, eggplant, Brussels sprout, Chinese radish, red beet, celery, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, okra, etc. India figures prominently in commercial exploitation of heterosis in vegetable crops like cabbage, tomato, okra, watermelon, muskmelon, eggplant, bottle gourd, bitter gourd and cucumber.

BE it enacted by Parliament in the Seventeenth Year of the Republic of India as follows:

Short Title, Extent and Commencement
    1.    (1) This Act may be called the Seeds Act, 1966.
        (2) It extends to the whole of India. 
        (3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by   notification in the Official Gazette, appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act, and for different States or for different areas thereof.

Introduction

Indian Agriculture has made enormous strides in the past 50 years, raising foodgrains production from 50 million tonnes to over 200 million tonnes.  In the process, the country has progressed from a situation of food shortages and imports to one of surpluses and exports.  Having achieved food sufficiency, the aim now is to achieve food and nutritional security at the household level.

The increase in agricultural production, however, has brought in its wake, uneven development, across regions, crops, and also across different sections of farming community.  In the decade of the ‘nineties’, a marked slackening in the pace of growth has occurred, pointing to the need for infusing a new vitality in the agricultural sector.

Though the coconut palm is subjected to attack by a number of insect and non insect pests although only 8-10 species of insect pests are considered to be important. Others assume importance, once in a while at isolated locations.

Major pests

The major pests of coconut include the rhinoceros beetle, red palm weevil, black headed caterpillar, root grub and the perianth mite.

The cowpea aphid: Aphis craccivora: Aphididae

Hosts
 
Groundnut, red gram, peas, beans, safflower, lab-lab niger

Symptoms of damage
 
Both nymphs and adults cause the damage by sucking the plant sap from shoot tips, pods and leaves.  Infested pods become malformed and withered.  Severe infestation may result in complete drying of affected pods.  They also act as vector of virus diseases in pea. 

Abstract

Any environmental variable, can adversely affect the optimal growth conditions of the plants. The stressed environment makes the plants to alter their physiology for survival rather than reproduction. Prolonged drought, intense raining, frequent floods, cold waves high and low temperatures are the predicted abiotic stresses in the future due to climate changes. Water stress is one of the important growth limiting factor which decreases plant growth during vegetative stage. Crops grown under rain-fed conditions are the most affected by seasonal variations in rainfall. Therefore failure of monsoon, high temperature and salinity usually result in water stress. In addition, it causes serious negative impacts on crop growth and yields. A greater stress tolerance capacity could also be largely attributed to the plants by the symbiotically associating microorganisms capable of modulating stress factors. The microorganisms having close association with plants are referred as plant associated bacteria (PAB), which can be grouped into rhizospheric (in vicinity of root) and rhizoplanic (on surface of root), endophytic (inside the plant tissue)  and phyllospheric (on the leaf surface ) bacteria. Among the PAB, pink pigmented facultative methylotrophic (PPFM) bacteria belonging to the  genus Methylobacterium are well known for their intimate ubiquitous occurrence in the plant.

Abstract

Soil is the store house of 1/4^th of the global biodiversity. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi is one of the important group of organism occurring in soil. The beneficial effect of AM fungi in improving plant growth is well documented. Many of the functions performed by AM fungi can provide essential services to human society. These services include nutrient cycling, soil structure, plant growth promotion, resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses and bioregulation of plant development. These services are not only essential to ecosystem function but also a critical resource for the sustainable management of agricultural systems. Recent studies have brought out that both plant biodiversity and ecosystem productivity increases with the increasing number of AM fungi. Thus, it appears that the diversity of AM fungi in soil is a major factor contributing to the maintenance of plant biodiversity and the ecosystem functioning. The role of AM fungi in ecosystem services, plant diversity and land productivity are discussed in this review.

A disease is characterized by the sum total of symptoms as expressed by the host plant and the signs of the pathogen involved. As stated earlier, it is the core part of disease diagnosis because in every diseased plant there are some symptoms/signs of the problem regardless of the ease in their visibility. Even in latent infections there are certain clues or at least presence of the pathogen inside the host serves as sign of the pathogen. However, the term, ‘disease’ itself refers to an uncomfortable situation of the concerned host. It reflects in the form of reduction in the vitality and performance of the host to varying degrees depending on the quality and quantity of the factors involved in production of the disease. Study of the characteristics of disease is, therefore, important for its quick and accurate identification.

3.1. Natural cross-pollination

Breeding procedures in any plant species of economic importance are guided by its reproductive system particularly, pollination mechanism. In the cereal crops such as maize, pearl millet etc., where cross-pollination is facilitated by wind, the breeders have developed schemes for commercial exploitation of dominance and epistatic genetic variation through hybrid and population breeding. In contrast in self-pollinated crops, the efforts are always made to exploit additive genetic variation primarily through pedigree and mass selection.
 
In pulses, self-pollination is a rule and pigeonpea is no exception. However under field conditions, occurrence of hybrid plants in the populations is not uncommon; and it happens due to some degree of natural out-crossing that took place in the preceding generation. This type of partial natural out-crossing in pigeonpea is affected by a variety of insects (Fig 10) which forage on its large flowers to collect the nectar. These minor incidences of out-crossing are the primary source of varietal deterioration. Recently, the pigeonpea breeders converted this constraint into an opportunity for genetic enhancement of yield through exploitation of hybrid vigor and developing commercial hybrids.

Introduction

This chapter gives first hand information on PCR for beginners. PCR is used to amplify a short, well-defined part of a DNA strand. This can be a single gene, or just a part of a gene. As opposed to living organisms, the PCR process can copy only short DNA fragments; usually up to 10 kb (kb stands for kilo base pairs). Certain methods can copy fragments up to 40 kb in size, which is still much less than the chromosomal DNA of a eukaryotic cell-for example, a human cell contains about three billion base pairs (Kary Mullis, 1983).

Introduction

DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleotide order of a given DNA fragment. The most commonly used sequencing method is the dideoxy method. This method uses dideoxynucleotide triphosphates (ddNTPs) which have an H on the 3’ carbon of the ribose sugar instead of the normal OH found in deoxynucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs). Dideoxynucleotides are chain terminators. In a synthesis reaction, if a dideoxynucleotide is added instead of the normal deoxynucleotide, the synthesis stops at that point because the 3’OH necessary for the addition of the next nucleotide is absent (Sanger et al., 1977).

ABSTRACT

The law of intellectual property has assumed utmost importance the World over, in the recent past and it is being considered as one of the most important subjects of law in view of its implications on economic, social and cultural realms. The term “intellectual property” has come to be internationally recognized as covering, patents, industrial designs, copyrights, trademarks, know-how and confidential information or trade secrets. This paper presents an overview on nature and scope of these elements of IPR.

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an account on the origin of the concepts of IP, gradual development and their culmination at the TRIPS.

Introduction

Intellectual property rights form the most prominent and ever-expanding category of rights in the 21^st Century. It differs from other proprietary rights in many respects and prevails in most articles of law, which influence our daily life. The economic significance of intellectual property rights has made it a subject of global political interest. In the broader sense, the term “intellectual property rights” connotes different categories of rights such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, designs, plant varieties, semiconductors, geographical indications, trade secrets and data exclusivity with varying scope

Abstract

With increasing population and subsequent human requirements; the generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) has increased all over the world. In India, the safe disposal of the municipal solid waste still remaines a problem for the authorities concerned. Depending upon the nature and type of the MSW, there are physical and chemical methods for the disposal of the waste, but these methods have their own limitations. Those limitations may be overcome by biological methods. Higher number of microorganisms are present in MSW which may either be pathogenic or nonpathogenic. These microorganisms may play a vital role in bioconversion of MSW into compost. The compost thus produced is useful in increasing soil fertility and reducing the concentration of the waste.

Abstract

Microbiological synthesis of nanoparticles has emerged as rapidly developing research area in nanotechnology across the globe with various biological entities being employed in production of nanoparticles constantly forming an impute alternative for conventional methods. Simple prokaryotes to complex eukaryotic organisms including higher plants are used for the fabrication of nanoparticles. In the present article, the synthesis of important plant nutrients like Mg, Zn, Ag, Au, Ti, P and Fe nanoparticles from different fungal species, their characterization and application potential of nanonutrients in agriculture is elaborately discussed.

Summary

Over the past several decades, the exponential population and social civilization expansion have been accompanied by rapid industrialization. As such, there has also been a proportionate expansion in the global energy demand. Till date, crude oil has been the only source to meet the increasing energy demand. Nowadays ethanol is the most acceptable product in the fuel market. The importance of ethanol is increasing due to a number of reasons such as global warming and climate change, limited reserves of fossil fuel and reduction on imports of transport fuel. Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant renewable source for commercial alternative fuel. Maximum bioethanol production depends on the whole process and optimum process parameters itself. Bioethanol from lignocellulosics is a type of second generation biofuel. Many researchers have been focused on bioethanol production from renewable sources. This chapter highlights the processing steps for second generation bioethanol production from lignocellulosics.

The very basics in one’s life is whether he has judged his interests or decided goals of his life or has taken life casually. The first is to know what you wish to achieve in your life or in the words of our former president and Bharat Ratna APJ Abdul Kalam (14) what are your dreams ? If you have dreams than only you can achieve them hence it’s essential to know what is your passion ?, passion is the key to success. In pursuing your passion, all things become secondary ; in fact, desired changes occur within you, unnoticed and automatic to achieve your goals. It may not be out of contest to mention that basically I belonged to a business family and being eldest son in the family, my father asked me to join family business, after doing my intermediate, with the liberty to join part time BA classes while carrying business activities. But business was not my passion hence I struggled to join to the academics and carried all my Veterinary education with distinctions - because of my interests. I am not sure what would have happened to my life have I joined least interested business line- perhaps a failed business man.

Nano-material possess unique properties such as dimension, shape, specific surface area, surface mass ratio etc., that are highly influenced by the mechanical and physical properties. It is pertinent to understand the basic physical properties of nano-materials in order to apply them in a wide array of functions. In this context, this chapter is devoted to provide basic information on physical, mechanical and photo-luminescence properties of nano-materials.

Transmission electron microscope (TEM)

The transmission electron microscope (TEM) operates on the same basic principles as the light microscope but uses electrons instead of light. What you can see with a light microscope is limited by the wavelength of light. TEMs use electrons as “light source” and their much lower wavelength makes it possible to get a resolution a thousand times better than with a light microscope.

We can see objects to the order of a few angstrom (10^-10 m). For example, we can study small details in the cell or different materials down to near atomic levels. The possibility for high magnifications has made the TEM a valuable tool in both medical, biological and materials research.

Introduction

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is equipment that combines the features of gas-liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify different substances within a test sample. Applications of GC-MS include drug detection, environmental analysis include pesticides residue in soil, water and plant crop produce, greenhouse gas quantification, food toxicants, assessment of antibiotic compounds, estimation of volatile organic compounds from biological systems besides identification of unknown compounds.

Introduction

Fertilizers play an important role in improving soil fertility and productivity of crops regardless of nature of cropping sequence or environmental conditions. It has been unequivocally demonstrated that one third of crop productivity is dictated by fertilizers besides influencing use efficiencies of other agri-inputs. In the past four decades, nutrient use efficiency (NUE) of crops had hardly exceeded 35-50%, 18-20% and 30-35 % for N, P and K, respectively, despite our relentless efforts. The remaining nutrients stay in soil or enter into the aquatic environment causing eutrophication. In addition to the low nutrient efficiencies, Indian agriculture facing a problem of low organic matter, imbalanced fertilization and low fertilizer response that eventually caused crop yield stagnation (Biswas and sharma, 2008).

Introduction

Fungicides are biocidal chemical compounds or biological organisms used to kill or inhibit fungi or fungal spores. An insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. Pyrethroids are widely used insecticides in agriculture as they control pests and diseases effectively in plants. Because of their low biodegradability and high persistence, they are extensively found in environmental samples such as air, water, soil, sediments, food and biological tissues [1-4]. Moreover, these chemicals induce cancer and act as endocrine disrupters in several organisms due to their high degree of toxicity. Although the use of most pyrethroids has been prohibited or limited in developed countries, they are used in many developing and under developed countries for controlling of pests and insecticides [5-8].

Introduction

Food packaging is a critical technology addressing the ever-increasing demands for convenience, freshness, ease, shelf-life, safety and security of food products.
 
The main purpose of food packaging is to protect the food from microbial and chemical contamination, oxygen, water vapor and light. The type of packaging used therefore has an important role in determining the shelf-life of the food. Nanotechnology can be intervened to achieve the purpose of food packaging and it will become one of the most powerful forces for innovation in the food packaging industry.

Summary

This chapter looks at the various approaches available to the farmer for the management of soil fertility. In general there are four approaches, namely, physical, biological and chemical approaches as well as the cropping systems or agronomic approach.This chapter discusses three approaches, physical, biological and cropping system or agronomic approaches. Chemical approach has been treated in chapter 7 of this book. Inoculation is an important technique in legume production. This chapter also looks at inoculation and how it is done.

Summary

The use of organic resources in modern agriculture implies the production of crops through organic farming without doing any damage to the environment. Synthetic chemicals are never used in organic farming. This avoids having much pressure on nature’s non-renewable resources used in farming activities. In this unit, we shall discuss many organic resources, their quality and management within ISFM.

Sources of plant nutrients include residual soil nutrients, crop residues, green manures, animal manures and biosolids, biologically-fixed nitrogen and manufactured fertilizers. Crops use plant nutrient from all sources but the nutrient elements must be transformed into the ionic forms before being taken by plants. The amount of nutrients provided by different sources varies between and within agro-ecosystems. Integrated plant nutrient management identifies and uses all available sources of plant nutrients

Abstract

In order to fill the gap between the protein sequences and their 3D structures available in the public databases, the computational prediction of protein structure has become the need of the hour. Therefore, the present chapter aims to highlight various methods and strategies for computational protein structure prediction by established ab initio, threading and homology modeling methods. Ab initio, threading and homology modeling methods are mainly based on the low sequence similarity, similarity between 25-30% and similarity more than 30% with the template structure respectively. Hybrid methods are preferred which club together a number of features such as structural alignments, solvent accessibility and secondary structure informations.

Abstract

Cyanobacteria  evolved during  the  Precambrian  era and are believed to be the first  one  to  introduce oxygen  into  the  initially  reducing  atmosphere  by  oxygenic  photosynthesis. Thus being the main primary producers of organic matter at that time and thereby contributed to a major global transformation leading to the development of aerobic metabolism and the subsequent rise of higher plants and animal forms. Reactive  oxygen  species  (ROS)  in  cyanobacteria  are  commonly  generated during  normal  growth  and  development.  However  abiotic  and  biotic stresses  enhance  the  level  of   ROS  which  in  turn  pose  the  danger  of oxidative  stress.  Ability  to  perceive  ROS  and  to  rapidly  initiate  antioxidant defenses  is  crucial  for  their  survival.  Therefore cyanobacteria evolved four lines of defense mechanisms to combat the damages caused by oxidative stress. Inretrospect  to  their  ecological  adaptivity, ubiquitous  presence  and  efficient  source  of   compounds  of biotechnological  significance, this chapter aims to elucidate various mechanisms adopted by cyanobacteria to combat oxidative stress.

The coastal agro ecosystem is very important among the different agro ecosystems of our country both economically and environmentally. It spans over a length of 8129 sq. km. covering 9 states and 2 Island ecosystems. Agriculture and allied activities constitute the single largest component of India’s economy, contributing nearly 27 per cent of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the year 1999-2000 (TERI, 2002). Agriculture exports accounts for 13 to 18 per cent of total annual exports of the country (MoF, 2002). However, given that 62 per cent of the cropped area is still dependent on rainfall (MoEF, 2002). Coastal agricultural region comprises of hinterland, which has a varied geometric and topographical features of mountains valley, coastal plains, riverine systems, climatic conditions, different soils and water bodies, vegetation ranging from rich tropical rain forests to coastal mangroves and a wide range of crops that are cultivated in this region (Table 1). The agro climatic conditions of the coastal zones are congenial for growing various field and horticultural crops.

India is an agricultural country. The geographical area of India is about 328 mha out of which 147 mha of land under cultivation and 84-mha land is under irrigation. The population is increasing at an alarming rate that requires producing more food for the growing population. This problem can be solved either by increasing the land under irrigation or using different soil water conservation techniques. It is well known fact that during rainfall a considerable amount of water goes to sea due to high rate of runoff. It is highly needed to trap as much as water falling in the form of rainfall and recharge the groundwater so that it is made available for irrigation purposes.

Participation means different things to different people. They way participant is defined largely depends upon the context and back ground in which participation is applied. While the Economic Commission for Latin America (1973) considers contribution by the people to public programmes to the complete exclusion of any involvement in the decision making process as participation. Cohem and Uphoff (1977) maintain that participation tools includes the peoples involvement in the entire decision making process. Like Cohem & Uphoff, FAO (1982) emphasizes participation in all the decision making processes but by the people’s organization and through self organized action. Paul (1987) introduces the concept of enhancement of well-being in terms of values cherished by the communities as being the ultimate objective of participation.

The world’s population is increasing exponentially. Projected totals for the year 2050 vary but it is acknowledged that access to sufficient quality and quantity of food, water and living space and other natural resources will be limiting factors for the human population. The environmental impact of this huge population and its everyday activities will be significant and possibly irreversible. There is urgency therefore, in addressing issues of sustainable food production, water and land use for the coming decades. Endemic hunger (due to carbohydrate-protein malnutrition), hidden hunger (induced by deficiencies of vitamins and minerals) and transient hunger (caused by natural calamities such as drought, flood, earthquake, tsunami etc.) can be overcome only by integrated strategy with sustainable and equitable use of agricultural biodiversity.

ABSTRACT

Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Good Dairy Farming Practices (GDFPs) is the need of hours because of the several burgeoning issues like-climate change, low food quality etc. GDFPs concept was introduced in 2004 by International Dairy Federation/Food and Agriculture Organization (IDF/FAO) and it was later updated in 2011. GAPs ensure quality food produce that ultimately leads to better heath. Good Agricultural Practices for dairy farmers is about implementing sound practices on dairy farms – collectively called Good Dairy Farming Practices. These practices need to ensure that the milk and milk products produced are safe and suitable for their intended use, and also that the dairy farm enterprise is viable into the future, from the economic, social and environmental perspectives. Since, dairy farmers are in the practice of producing food for human consumption, they must have confidence in the production of safety and quality of the milk. Since the introduction of the concept in 2004, the importance is growing in various countries, and agencies including private, individual farm house or farmers etc. GAPs and GDFPs underpin the production of food and milk that satisfies the highest expectations of the food industry and consumers. Both of these practices are capable of bring good prices to the farmers at their door steps. But the real issues are that both the practices are labour intensive and requires extra care — so, here the concept of ‘family farming’ may come handy. Today, in Punjab and Haryana due to urbanization the land has become too costly and that’s way these days the whole attention of the farmers including their sons’ are on real estate and that is threat to our sustainable development. So, if we want to attract and retain youth in Agriculture then GAPs and GDFPs are panacea for that- as both have greater scope to fetch fair and remunerative prices of the agricultural produce and product.

1. Machine Learning

Learning denotes changes in a system that enable a system to do the same task more efficiently the next time (Simon, 1983)or Learning is constructing or modifying representations of what is being experienced (Ryszard Michalski et al., 1986). Machine learning is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as sensor data or databases. A learner can take advantage of examples (data) to capture characteristics of interest of their unknown underlying probability distribution. Data can be seen as examples that illustrate relations between observed variables. Discover new things or structure that is unknown to humanseg. data mining.A major focus of machine learning research is to automatically learn to recognize complex patterns and make intelligent decisions based on data.

Abstract

Last few decades have witnessed an immense technological advancement in the education sector in India. With an advancement of technology, new gadgets are flooding the Indian market continuously bringing an immense opportunity for the education sector to improve upon the course delivery system. Higher education sector in India is adopting such new technologies in course delivery at a slow pace; however, there remains still a far way to traverse for the Indian education sector in order to achieve a perceptible and effective technology-infusion in the academic delivery arena. This paper is devoted to present an expository review on the usefulness of new gadgets, like smart phones, e-book reader as well as tablet PC, in both class-room education-delivery segments as well as in distance education sector in India.

Abstract

The potato research in India was started systematically after the establishment of Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) in 1949. Forty-one potato varieties having attributes of early, medium and late maturity vis-à-vis resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses have already been developed indigenously for varied agro-ecoregions in the hills and sub-tropical plains. After the establishment of CPRI, collection of potato germplasm was made mandatory. Presently there are over 2,700 accessions including 133 wild species (related to potato) in the germplasm collection of CPRI. Despite the large collection of potato germplasm at the institute the genetic base of all 41 Indian potato varieties released so far can be traced to only about 50 parents and most of these represent tetraploid potato cultivars while only a few of the exotic diploid wild species have been used in improvement of potato varieties in India. Under utilization of wild species could be mainly due to the pre- and post zygotic crossability barriers inherent in many species of genus solanum. Nevertheless, about seven wild species have been used in potato breeding for introgression of resistance genes for various biotic and abiotic stresses in the improved Indian potato varieties.

Abstract

Temperate ornamental plants, owing to their special functions, are always in great demand due to their possible uses in temperate landscape plantings (both outdoor and indoor). This ever increasing demand has led to urgent need for their mass-scale multiplication on commercial scale. At present, most of these plants are being multiplied and supplied on a limited scale by concerned Government and private agencies but this is not sufficient. Progressive orchardists of temperate zone and particularly those inhabiting marginal lands which no longer yield regular income, can specially incorporate the element of commercial floriculture in the vacant places in their orchards or through establishment of small polyhouses. Introduction, multiplication and production on large scale of commercially important ornamental trees, shrubs, climbers, bulbous plants, herbaceous perennials, cut flowers, potted plants and seed production of important annuals and perennials by the progressive orchardists in their orchard will yield fruitful returns through their sale and will narrow the constant demand for these plants in the urban and rural areas and will definitely improve the fragile ecology of the hills in the long run. The interested orchardists can collect germplasm of these plants from various Govt. and private agencies. Such an intervention in the existing orchard cropping system will definitely increase the income of the farmers from the same available area and will be a right step towards diversification.

The complement system is a group of about 20 heat labile plasma proteins which constitute nearly 10% of total serum proteins. These are important in activation of phagocytes, control of inflammation and cytolysis. They form one of the major immune defense systems of the body. The complement system plays important role both in innate and adaptive immune system. The main functions of complement are chemotaxis; opsonization and cell activation; immune clearance of immune complexes from circulation; lysis of target cells; triggering and amplification of inflammatory reactions and development of antibody responses. Evolutionary, the system is very ancient and is present even in invertebrate organisms like starfish and worms.

Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a closely linked cluster of genes which have codes for cell surface proteins known as  MHC molecules. These molecules have very important role in presentation of processed antigens to the T cells in initiation of an immune response as T cells recognize an antigen only when it is presented along with MHC molecule. These are highly polymorphic and are the major barrier to organ/tissue transplantation. All vertebrates have MHC. MHC differs among members of a species and are thus called alloantigens. MHC participates in the development of both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses.

To streamline the slaughter activities throughout country and to produce the quality meat for domestic as well export market, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) formulated certain standards related to abattoir and other food items. It also harmonizes the standards as per the requirement of importing country. So that traders can easily meet out the demand of importing country. Under the standard provisions of BIS, each and every aspect of abattoir as well as its processing aspect is very well described in these standards. These standards are written and documented and easily available to know how about their implementations.

The aim of pre-slaughter care of animals is to arrange physiologically normal animals for slaughtering without loss of weight and to minimize stress to the animals. Pre-slaughter care of meat animals includes proper handling of animals during loading, unloading, transportation, lairage care and handling of animals just prior to slaughter. Thus due care must be adopted in this stage not only for welfare point of view but also for production of good quality meat. Proper care and handling is also essential to reduce the chances of bruises, cuts, tears and deformities on the animals/birds body.

Meat cutting and fabrication is a skilled process in which separation of carcass into wholesale primal cuts is done to facilitate meat trade requirements, consumer preference and easy handling to the butchers. The person engaged in cutting and fabrication of carcass cuts must be skilled and expert in their job. He/she must have the expert knowledge of carcass configurations and location of retail cuts in animal carcasses. To obtain good quality retail cuts, carcass should be essentially chilled and temperature of meat cutting room should be 15-20oC with relative humidity of about 80%.

Hides and skin are the important and widely used animal by-products of slaughter house industry. Human beings are utilizing animal skins since time immorial and nomadic people still depend upon them for shelter, clothing, weapons, food containers etc. In general on live weight basis yield of hide is 7 percent while skin is around 11 percent.  Though it is also obtained from the fallen animals but the superior quality hide is always of slaughtered animals. Source wise slaughtered animals account 20-25 percent of hide and 80 percent of skin whereas fallen animals contributes around 75-80 percent of hide and 20 percent of skin. So the major sources for hide are fallen animals and skin is from slaughtered animals.

India is one of the chief carpet wool producing and exporting countries of the world. A large quantity of carpet wool is exported to the developed countries. Wool production in Indian subcontinent is mainly dependant on distinct type of sheep producing wool in a particular geographical area. For example small and course wool is produced by Bikaneri breed in North Western India, course wool by Deccani breed and hair type breed by Mandya breed in Peninsular India and fine wool is produced in Himalayan region. In general, tropical breeds of sheep are mainly producing course wool which is highly suitable for carpet manufacture. Most of the Indian sheep breeds are producing low fleece yield. The annual total yield of greasy wool is in the range of 1-1.5 Kg. Overall great quantity of wool is produced in southern hemisphere but consumption is in northern hemisphere.

Wool is a natural fiber and considered as renewable, sustainable and environmental friendly. It is capable to keep the body warm and can be utilized as casual bears and also in formal bears and provide comfort to the human body in both of the active and passive situations. So to maintain a standard quality of wool for fabric development it is utmost important to test the wool fiber for certain qualities. Testing of wool fiber is also important to retain the unique physical and chemical properties of wool which makes this fiber versatile. Fiber quality is in real sense is a set of characteristics and defects in the fleece; both inherited and acquired, which influence its end use. The term quality testing includes a process of critical examination of material to draw the information’s related to qualitative or quantitative aspects of wool fibers. There are number of standard test procedures are in prevalence but most commonly followed test procedures for wool are American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM), British standards, Indian Standard Institution (ISI) or International Wool Textile Organization (IWTO) etc.

Azospirillum is a spiral-shaped nitrogen fixing bacterium. It also produces hormones and vitamins. Important species are Azospirillum brasilense and Azospirillum lipoferum. It is widely distributed in soils and grass roots.The genus Azospirillum belongs to family Spirillaceae with four commonly available species viz. A. brasilence, A. lipoferum, A. amazonense and A. halopraeferens or A. seropedicae (Fig. 8.1).

The market of organic products is growing globally every year. This organic market expansion makes it possible for farmers to reap the benefits of a trade with relatively high price premiums. Organic farming is carried on in almost all countries of the world. The share of organic farms in overall farmland and in terms of numbers of holdings is growing continuously. The market for organic products is also growing very rapidly, not only in Europe, North America and Japan, where the largest markets are to be found, but also in many emerging economies in transition. In India, an organic movement is now emerging on different levels i.e. producer groups, trainers and advisors, certification bodies and processors and traders.

In simple words natural resources can be defined as any part of our environment such as land, air, minerals, forest, rangeland, wild life, fish and human beings.

The sum total of all physical, chemical, biological and social factors which compose the surroundings of man is referred to as environment and each component of these surroundings constitute a “resource”.  The natural resources are land, water, air, minerals, forests, rangeland, wild life or even human beings known as natural resource.

The five basic natural resources are energy, matter, space, time and diversity.

Phosphorus (P) is a critical nutrient in crop production, due to its low bioavailability in soils (Feng et al., 2004). Phosphorus is the vital component of DNA, RNA, ATP and photosynthetic system and catalyses a number of biochemical reactions from the beginning of seedling growth through to the formation of grain and maturity. Many factors influence soil P availability like type of parent material from which the soil is derived, degree of weathering and climatic conditions. In addition to this, erosion, crop removal and phosphorus fertilization and soil phosphorus levels also affect P availability in soil. Rock phosphate is the key raw material used for manufacturing phosphatic fertilizers on which the food production depend.