eChapters

1. Introduction

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed”

Mahatma Gandhi

Natural resources form the core of ecology that is put to economic use. It is usually defined in terms of materials created in nature that are used to satisfy human needs. Soil, water and energy supplies (eg. coal, natural gas) that serve to satisfy human needs and wants comprise the major natural resources (Barsch and Burger, 1996). Based on the impact on an environment, cost of extraction and rate of exhaustion, natural resources are broadly categorized into renewable and non-renewable resources. Major renewable sources comprise of wind, solar energy, tidal energy, geothermal energy, forest etc. which have the potential to be renewed or replaced through natural processes over time, once consumed. Unlike this, nonrenewable resources such as coal, petroleum, natural gas and similar types have finite reserves that cannot be regained once consumed. However, environmental degradation, aggravated by the growing population and climate change vagaries, has intensified the competition for these scarce resources in recent years. This has necessitated sustainable natural resource management strategies and advanced experimentations to convert nonrenewable energy sources to renewable forms as they form the basis of all present day development and economic growth. Increasing demands on natural resources have warranted a more prudent and diligent efforts in ensuring sustainable natural resource management. The dichotomy of unlimited human wants and limited resource availability is at the heart of all natural resource management principles that guide economics of resource allocation and optimum utilization.

1. Introduction

The intricate relationship between agriculture and women has been widely featured in the development discourse for long. Globally, more than 400 million women are engaged in farm work directly or indirectly. In other words, 42 per cent of economically active women are engaged in agriculture and they comprise about 43 per cent of the total workforce in agriculture (Dash and Srinath, 2013). In India, agriculture and allied sectors continue to be the most immediate avenues of employment and income for about 160 million rural women who work as farmers, co-farmers, farm labourers and farm entrepreneurs (Oxfam 2017; Sadangi et al., 2009). It is estimated that about 65 per cent of rural women workers are engaged in agriculture as cultivators and agricultural labourers in the country as opposed to 49.8 per cent of male workers. In these capacities, women perform multiple tasks such as land preparation, sowing, transplantation, harvesting and rearing of animals. Most of these operations are labour intensive and not mechanized (Pachauri, 2019). Besides, they are engaged in off-farm domestic activities such as cooking, cleaning, childcare, water and fuel collection and community activities. Shrinking remunerative opportunities in the farming sector has triggered migration of rural male folk to urban areas and also there is a shift in their job priorities to pursue employment in the rural non-farm sector in recent years. Since women did not feature predominantly in either of these trends, most of them are still engaged in agriculture, mostly as labourers and cultivators (Mehrotra, 2020). Vindicated by the fact that the number of female agricultural labourers in India increased by 24 per cent between 2001 and 2011, even though 7.7 million farmers left farming during the corresponding period. During the period when up to 34 per cent of men in rural areas migrated in search of employment and better economic opportunities, the corresponding figure for rural women is merely 3.6 per cent. A recent study of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) found that 55 per cent of employed women in India

1. Introduction

Gender remains a critically important and largely ignored lens to view development issues across the world (Jayaraman, 2017). Gender inequality is the greatest human rights challenge of our time and also a critical economic, moral and social challenge (UN, 2015). There exists a significant gender gap in various sectors such as health, labour market opportunities, education and political representation all over the world. This mostly cause the restriction of women to stay at home for household chores. However, the associated disempowerment resulting from the adverse effects of restricting their way around outside world are seldom addressed in the development evaluation and monitoring processes (UNICEF, 2019). Therefore, gender equality and women empowerment are made explicit throughout the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Drawing urgency to these efforts, SDG5 aims on full gender equality and women empowerment as a cross-cutting theme along with more than 30 related targets across other SDGs.

According to FAO (2011), rural women constitute about 43 percent of world’s agricultural labour force and are the agents of change and resilience builders. Even then they undergo greater constraints compared to the men counterparts in accessing technological interventions, productive resources, market information, services and financial assets. The contribution of women to food security often remains undervalued and invisible (FAO, 2011). This leads to inadequate reflection of women’s role in policy, legal and institutional frameworks. These have created difficult situations for them to address the multiple tasks of natural resource management, child rearing and family well-being, without more rural women inclusive development interventions. There would be a drastic reduction in the number of hungry population and malnourished children in the world if women had the same access as men to productive resources which in

turn helps to increase yields on their farms significantly (FAO, 2018). Furthermore, they are also under-represented in grassroot level institutions and administrative mechanisms and assumed to have less decision-making ability. In addition to these constraints, women face an imprudent work burden, at the same time much of their labour remains unpaid and unrecognized under the prevailing gender norms and discrimination. It is high time to include them in decision making process within the households, communities and institutions and thus to enhance women’s participation in governance (Bayeh, 2016).

The Context

The global food system is dynamic, with newer challenges every day with altering production and consumption subtleties. Roles played by various stakeholders of the global agricultural food system and rural development has changed tremendously in the last few decades. Smallholder farmer stakeholders to multinational companies are affected differently by the present difficulties likethe pandemic, climate change, and other factors. The various stakeholders respond, play roles to the challenges differently, and eventually become the agricultural value chains. The newer challenges affect the vulnerable actors like women, smallholder farmers, etc., who constitute asignificant portion of the value chains. This is specifically so in developing countries like India, where the processes of the ‘feminization of agriculture’progresses exponentially. Managing sucha value chain is highly challenging as access and sustainability of various actors differ considerably. Agro-advisory service toolkit for gender-responsive value chain analysis and development aims to select and analyze value chains for opportunities to improve the vulnerable situation and its actors seeking for resilience and reducing gender inequalities. It is now considered a development strategy to promote economic growth. There is an urgent need that thesmallholder farming systems are integrated into the value chains to serve local, national, regional, and global markets.

The chapter presents a brief overview of the gender-responsive value chain concept, factors that limit women’s participation in the value chain, interventions to improve the efficiency of value chains in a gendered perspective, and the development of value chain tools for addressing gender inequitiesin the agricultural system, and the challenges faced.

Soil

Soil is the upper most crust of earth surface which supports plant growth. It is defined as a three phase system in which plants grow. These phases are solid, liquid, and gas are essential. Solid part is frame which provides space for other two. It consists of minerals, clay minerals and organic matter. The soil is also a living system with millions of microbes that breakdown organic matter. The microbes are very essential and survive only when soil is well aerated and rich in organic matter and devoid of waterlogged conditions. Texture of soil depends on the size of solid particles and classified as gravel, coarse and fine sand, silt and clay. Soils are classified according to the relative distribution of these particles. Likewise, arrangement of these particles is referred as structure. Generally loamy soils and crumb structure are most growing preferred for fruit crops. According to level of organic matter, soils are classified as mineral soil or organic soil and soil having more than 20% organic matter is organic soil like peat and muck etc. Minerals and salts lend chemical properties to the soil like pH, alkalinity, sodicity, salinity and cation exchange capacity which influences the availability of nutrients in soil. Therefore, for making choice for soil, soil analysis in terms of following criteria isessential to decide on land capability. Maximum numbers of fruit orchards in India are depleted from micro and macro plant nutrients which interrupted the growth and development of the fruit plants and their quality. Therefore, like growers are not attain profit desired. To obtain marketable fruits, nutrients managements are highly beneficial to the fruit growers rainfed areas. Analysis of soil is useful to determine the level of the elements available in the orchards to get maximum yield.

Introduction

Food ingredients sector is indicating ample prospects for growth. The segment is an obligatory element for the growth of the food and beverage sector. These ingredients are also driving the development of the healthy functional foods industry to increase by 20% growth annually. Innovation in the food and beverage market, especially in the processed food domain, has created innumerable opportunities for new product development in the ingredients market as well. The segment is driven by the growing food processing industry and India is emerging as ingredients bowl of the future. Additionally, growing urbanization coupled with industrialization and changing lifestyles have led to growing demand for convenient food that offers health benefits, over and above the basic nutritional benefits of the foodstuff. There are nearly 10 to 15 broad classes of ingredients that include the very basic ingredients as well as certain value added ingredients that have niche applications. Key ingredients are preservatives, flavours, colours, hydrocolloids/stabilizers, emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners and value added health food ingredients such as omega-3-fatty acids prebiotics, probiotics etc. Until recently, there has been limited research into functional foods in meats, while functional foods in the dairy sector have been developed to a high degree. But meat is less allergenic than many other foods and much more research into the development and marketing of novel functional meat products is required. Such meat products would open up a new market for the meat industry. Nutraceutical and functional food industry is a very vibrant industry today with the claims and a clear mandate of health, wellness and prevention of diseases as one of its main goals.

Introduction

Hippocrate, an ancient physician, a great thinker and also often referred as father of medicine, for the first time conceive the idea nearly 2,500 years ago that a disease is caused due to natural factors such as environmental factors, diet, and living habits. He advocated the secret of healthy living in healthy food in his famous quote “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. But unfortunately, this wisdom about food has faded with the time and we became dependent on synthetic medicines and drugs for even life style disorders. In the last century, research advancement in the field of food science and nutrition established food not only as a source of nutrition but also a source of active food components that aid specific functions and rejuvenated the Hippocrates concept. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, USA, daily diet of a person, plays a crucial role in 5 of 10 diseases which are the leading causes of death, such as diabetes (noninsulin dependent or type 2), stroke, coronary heart disease (CHD), specific type of cancer, and atherosclerosis. In the mid-1980s, term “functional food” was introduce in Japan and defined as food that contain active components either from plant or animal origin and provide physiological benefits in addition to the basic nutritional needs.

7.1 Introduction

Soil is an essential component of ecosystem sustaining all living vegetation, microorganisms, herbivores and carnivores. It is the outermost layer of the earth. It varies greatly in its physical and chemical properties which depend on its age and on the conditions (parent material, climate, topography and vegetation) under which it was formed. Processes such as leaching, weathering and microbial activity combine to make a whole range of different soil types, each of which has particular strengths and weaknesses for agricultural/ horticultural production.

The materials present in the soil are mostly in three states, i.e., solid, liquid and gaseous. They differ in their percentage from soil to soil. A good soil should have 5% organic matter, 45% mineral matter, 25% air and 25% water. So, while establishing an orchard, whole soil profile should be taken into consideration. Digging a pit shows the different layers of soil profile. Usually these are same and not distinct in many areas. Inorganic materials are the major component of most soils. They consist largely of mineral particles with specific physical and chemical properties which vary depending on the parent material and conditions under which the soil was formed. It is the inorganic fraction of soils which determines soil physical properties such as texture and has a large effect on structure, density, water retention and aeration. Air and water percentage in soil vary significantly with soil texture and weather conditions. The soil texture is a property which is determined largely by the relative proportions of sand, silt and clay particles content in it. The classification of soil based on particle size is termed as textural classification of soil. As per USDA classifications, clay particle size is less than 0.002 mm, silt size varies in between 0.002 to 0.05 mm and sand size in between 0.05 to 2.0 mm. On the basis of percentage of these particles present in a soil, the type of soil can be easily determined.

11.1 Introduction

• Pest problems in fruit production has increased the cost of tree/plant protection and squeezed the profit of the fruit growers.
• In India, there are several existing or potential key pests for each fruit trees whose population densities must be kept at sub-economic levels to sustain higher per unit production at the farmers’ fields.
• During the second part of 20th century, the major emphasis was on pest control, which involved a set of actions to avoid, alternate or delay impact of pests on crops, which mainly involved pesticide application with the sole aim of eradication.
• Since horticultural crops like fruits are intensively cultivated that allow more inputs cost, the use of insecticides for the control of specific pests of a particular fruit crop has increased manifold during the last few decades. However, the toxic materials generated from chemical use in crop production has polluted the environment, because majority of them are not biologically degradable. They have harmed consumers’ and farmers’ health.
• Uses of broad-spectrum chemicals for pest control have a very negative impact on our efforts to conserve biodiversity. Because of their broad-spectrum nature of effect, it not only kills enemy insects but also useful insects like honey bees.
• The pest control option based on pesticide applications virtually eliminates the bee keeping activity.

Botanical Name: Borassus flabellifer L.

Family: Arecaceae

Chromosome No: 36

Place of Origin: Tropical region of Africa, Asia and New Guinea

5.1 Introduction

Palmyrah is a monocotyledon and perennial crop. The word “Borassus” was derived from a Greek word and it means the leathery covering of the fruit and “flabellifer”, means fan-bearer. The distinguishing characters of palm in this genus are their palmate, fanlike leaves and dioecious character, i.e., male and female flowers are borne on separate trees (sex ratio 1:1), allotetraploid (X= 8 or 9, n = 18), the male tree has a heteromorphic XY pair of chromosomes while the female has an XX pair (Sankaralingam et al., 1999). Next to coconut, palmyrah is the most abundant palm found in the world. Palmyrah thrives in arid conditions and is grown extensively in Tamil Nadu. Palakkad district of Kerala is popularly known as land of palmyra trees. Palmyra trees are known as the icon of this district and have a vast cultural, heritage and literary association.

13.1 Introduction

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), an economically important fruit plant species, belongs to the family Punicaceae. It is an important fruit crop of arid and semiarid regions of the world and has been believed to be the symbol of fertility and abundance. Pomegranate is a highly remunerative crop for replacing subsistence farming and alleviating poverty. The plant is drought tolerant, winter hardy and can thrive well under desert condition. It is a good source of protein, carbohydrate, minerals, antioxidants, vitamins A, B and C, and has also been used in controlling diarrhoea, hyperacidity, tuberculosis, leprosy, abdominal pain and fever. Pomegranate juice contains antioxidants such as soluble polyphenols, tannins, anthocyanins and can be used in the treatment of cancer and chronic inflammation. It has enjoyed a reputation for its healthy dietetic and medicinal properties.

Indian Council of Food and Agriculture organized SEED WORLD-2019 (World Seed Trade and Technology Congress) from 18-21 September, 2019 at The Hotel Lalit Ashok, Bangalore and presented SEED INDUSTRY SCENARIO REPORT (ICFA, 2019; www.icfa.org.inwww.seedworld.in). The information as given below is largely based on this report and other presentations made during the congress, particularly one by Kapur (2019).

Varietal release and notification comes under the purview of the Seeds Act which aims to provide for regulating the quality of certain notified seeds for sale and for marketing and for the matters connected therewith. Released and notified varieties are offered for seed certification by the seed certification agencies which ensure that the varieties under certification meet certain prescribed field and seed standards failing which they stand to be rejected during the process of seed certification.

Black gram (Vigna mungo, L. Hepper, 2 n = 2 x = 22, family Leguminosae/ Fabaceae, essentially self-pollinated) has a global production of 3.2 million tons where India is the largest producer accounting for more than 70% of the global production followed by Myanmar and Thailand. Indian black gram area, production and productivity in 2010-11 were 3.25 million ha, 1.76 million tons and 522 kg/ha. The corresponding figures for 2015-16 were 3.62 million ha, 1.95 million tons and 537 kg/ha and the corresponding figures for 2016- 17 were 4.48 million ha, 2.83 million tons and 632 kg/ha. For 2017-18 (IV advance estimate), the figures were 5.44 million ha, 3.56 million tons and 655 kg/ha (Directorate of Pulses Development, 2018). These figures show a steady rise in black gram area, production and productivity over the years. This is the third important pulse crop in India after gram and pigeonpea. The three states namely, Madhya Pradesh, UP and Andhra Pradesh alone account for about 50% of the black gram area and production in India.

Characters

Mouthparts biting type

Wing venation usually well developed with numerous cross veins.

Cerci present

Common characters

Modification of mandiblate mouth parts into sucking-piercing or suctorial type.

Absence of anal lobe in hind wing.

Late Blight

Phytophthora infestans

• Phytophthora in Greek means “plant destroyer”(phyto=plant, phthora= destroyer).

DEFINITION OF ENTREPRENEUR & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurs: The word ‘Entrepreneur’ is derived from the French verb ‘ENTREPREDRE’, which means ‘to undertake’. The term is used to refer to anyone who undertakes the organizarion and management of an enterprise with independence and risk as well as the opportunity for profit. An Entrepreneur is a person who has a possession of any enterprise or venture and accepts significant accountability for the inherent risk and outcome.

Definitions of Entrepreneurs by Several Social Scientists are as follow

According to J.B. Say: An Entrepreneur is an economic agent, who unites all means of production, such as- Land, labour and capital to produce products.

1. The first impression of a food is usually visual and major part of our willingness to accept a food depends upon its
   1. Size
   2. Shape
   3. Colour
   4. Texture
2. Colour can serve as a useful criterion of
   1. Quality
   2. Nutrition
   3. Texture
   4. Acceptability

2.1 Communication comes from word

‘Communi’ means common. To establish commonness between two individuals is communication. Communication is to share information, idea, and attitude or tuned together for a particular message.

1 The causative agent of red water fever in cattle is

a) Babesia bigemina b) Leptospira interrogans

c) Theileria annulata d) Theileria parva

Sending a message from one place to another place, which are physically separated from each other, is called Communication. The Communication Engineering or Communication Technology deals with the design and development of engineering systems to transmit information from its source, and at the same time, to receive the same information at a remote destination with reliability, accuracy and quality.

The term ‘geo’ is a Greek word, it means the earth, and the term ‘spatial’ means parameter/feature measured, mapped or modeled with reference to distance or space. The geospatial technology refers to the technology that measure, model, analyze, map, or predict the features or phenomena that occur on earth and its surface.

With the invention of bitcoin in 2008, the world was exposed to a new technology paradigm called blockchain. Blockchain was conceptualized by an unknown person named as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is still not known. Nakamoto proposed the design of blockchain which uses digital signature and timestamps to enable secure and trusted online transaction without the need of any trusted regulatory or third party.

1. Agricultural biotechnology: Agricultural biotechnology is a collection of scientific techniques used to improve plants, animals and microorganisms.

2. Gel electrophoresis: Analytical technique by which usually large biomolecules (proteins, DNA) are separated through a gel by application of an electric field.

1. Ideotype : It is a biological model which is expected to perform in a predicted manner in a defined environment.

2. Shuttle breeding: Growing of segregating generation in different environments.

Plant biotechnology can be defined as the introduction of desirable traits into plants through plant tissue culture and genetic engineering techniques. The recombinant DNA technology is used to modify the expression of genes already present in the plants or to introduce new genes of other species with which the plant cannot be bred conventionally.

Complementary DNA (cDNA) is a double stranded DNA which is an exact copy of the mRNA, i.e. it consists of group of molecules possessing the information contained in various mRNAs but with termini equivalent to or related to those produced by restriction endonucleases. The use of cDNA is an absolute prerequisite for the expression of eukaryotic proteins in bacteria.

The researcher desires to make a study on the socio-cultural aspects of cyber spatial interactions. As you are aware, cyber space or Internet has emerged as a powerful medium of communication. The survey is meant purely for academic purpose and therefore, shall not be passed on to any one and the data obtained from the respondents shall be kept confidential for all practical purposes. The researcher sincerely requests your honest responses. The questions are of people in general, and that there is no right or wrong answers.

A hunting governor is ……….
(A) Less sensitive       (B) More sensitive
(C) More stable           (D) None of these is correct

Q. 1 Operating speed of power sprayer varies from
(A) 2 - 5 km /hr          (B) 4.8 - 8 km /hr
(C) 10 - 20 km /hr      (D) 20 - 35 km /hr

Q. 1 Unit of refrigeration is:-
(A) Quintal    (B) Gram
(C) kg            (D) Ton

Q. 1 The question below consists of a pair of related words followed by four pairs of words. Select the pair that best expresses the relation in the original pair. 

Unemployed : Worker
(A) Fallow : land     (B) Unaware : sleeper
(C) Wit : jester        (D) Renovated : house

Barbarea vulgaris var. taurica (DC) Hook. f. & Anders. (syn. Barbarea vulgaris R. Br.) (Brassicaceae): [W]. A herb of damp soils inhabiting water bodies. Flowers yellow. Leaves used for healing of frost bites.

Laburnum anagyroides Med. (Fabaceae): Eng.- Golden Rain Tree [NI]. An upright, small sized ornamental tree with hairy, grey-green young shoots. Leaves dark- green above and grey-green beneath, having 3-elliptic-obovate leaflets. In late April to early May, produces bright yellow flowers in dense racemes

Rabdosia rugosa (Wallich ex Benth.) Hara (Lamiaceae): [W]. An erect branched leafy shrub or under-shrub growing as high altitude shrub above 2000 m altitudes on alpine slopes.Leaves ovate, wrinkled, hairy, coarsely toothed, conspicuously grey-woolly beneath, in contrast to green wrinkled upper surface. Flowers tiny, fragrant, white, spotted with purple. Shrub is of great significance for honey bee colonies.

Q.1 If the sampling units of the population are of heterogeneous nature then stratified random sampling scheme is suitable for sample survey to be conducted.

Q.2 In stratatified random sampling scheme, the strata are homogeneous within themselves but heterogeneous between themselves.

Q.1 According to prof. R. A. Fisher “ANOVA” is not the separation of variance assignable to one group of causes from the variance assignable to another group of causes.

Q.2 The basic purpose of ANOVA technique is to test the homogeneity (equality) of several means.

The following plants have been worked out in the laboratory of Prof. N. Raaman: Cynodon dactylon, Artemisia pallens, Leptadenia reticulata, Clausena dentata, Tylophora indica, Aristolochia bracteolata, A. indica, Cissus quadrangularis, Hypericum mysorense. and Solanum trilobatum. Out of some of the data of these plants have been included in the previous chapters. In this chapter, compound isolation (CD1) from Clausena dentata (worked by Dr. R. Kamaraj) and characterization of the compound are given in detail.

Phenolic compounds constitute a major class of plant secondary metabolites that are widely distributed in the Plant Kingdom. Plant phenolics are biosynthesized through the shikimate/phenylpropanoid pathway leading to different compound classes. They may occur in their natural sources in free forms, as glycosylated or acylated derivatives, and as oligomeric and polymerized structures, such as hydrolyzable and condensed tannins, phlorotannins or lignins. They may also be found linked to plant matrix components such as cell walls, carbohydrates or proteins. It should be indicated that although the terms “plant phenolics” and “polyphenols” are indistinguishably used by some authors, they are not synonymous.

A nursery is a place, where seedling, saplings, trees, shrubs, and other plant materials are grown and maintained until they are placed in a permanent place.

Advantages of Nursery

1. The area being small and compact, it is convenient and easy to grow large number of seedlings per unit area.
2. Management of favourable growing conditions becomes easy and feasible.
3. Easy management of pests and diseases in compact area.
4. Establishment of disease free and virus free scion bank.
5. Ensure optimum utilization of labour, water, nutrients and other inputs.
6. Ensure easy and cheap availability of plants.
7. Promotion of export through supply and processing of quality plant materials.

1. INSECT- PESTS OF MANGO

1. Mango hoppers: Idioscopus niveosparus, I. clypealis, Amritodus atkinsoni (Cicadellidae: Hemiptera)

Management

• Avoid close planting, as the incidence becomes very severe in overcrowded orchards.
• Orchards must be kept clean by ploughing and removal of weeds.
• Pruning of dense canopy to facilitate aeration and sunlight.
• Avoid excess use of nitrogenous fertilizers.
• Immediately after withdrawal of monsoon (September-October), off-seasonal trunk spraying with Malathion 50 EC @ 15 ml in 10 lit of water suppresses the adult hoppers from multiplying further and hinders their oviposition and also kills the newly hatched nymphs.
• Avoid application of all other synthetic pyrethroids as they have been reported to cause resurgence of hoppers.
• If overlapping generations of hoppers are found, spray imidacloprid @ 3 ml or acetamaprid 4 gm in 10 litres of water at panicle emergence stage.

3.1 Control statement in python

Python statements are executed one by one in the same order as they appear in the program. But there may be some requirement when we want to execute the statements based upon a condition. Even there may be some situation where we want to execute a single statement or multiple statement (block of statement) “n” times till the condition is true. So in order to control the flow of execution of the program python provides us control statements.

There are two types of control statements:

(a) Selection statement

(i) if

(b) Looping condition

(i) While (ii) for

12.1 Introduction Basic Functionality

By now, we learnt about the three Pandas DataStructures and how to create them. We will majorly focus on the DataFrame objects because of its importance in the real time data processing and also discuss a few other DataStructures.

12.2 Series Basic Functionality

Let us now create a Series and see all the above tabulated attributes operation

Example

import pandas as pd

import numpy as np

#Create a series with 100 random numbers

s = pd.Series(np.random.randn(4))

print(s)

Its output is as follows:

0 0.967853

1 -0.148368

2 -1.395906

3 -1.758394 dtype: float64

20.1 Unit Testing in Python Programming

The process of testing wheather a particular unit is working properly or not is called unit testing. A unit test checks small component in your application

Example

def testsum1():

assert sum([1,2,3])==6 def testsum2():

assert sum([1,1,1])==6 #assertion error

testsum1()

testsum2()

20.1.1 Step Involved in Unit Testing

(1) Import unittest from library.

(2) Create a class for test and inherit (unittest.TestCase).

(3) Write the test function in the class.

(4) Call unittest.main()

Introduction

Pastoralism involving rearing of different livestock species makes significant contributions to the economy of developing countries, both in terms of providing employment and income opportunities and in supplying nutrition to rural poor. Pastoralism generally has a mobile aspect, and movement of animal herds in search of fresh pastures and water is a key feature qualifying pastoralism. The term nomadic is used when mobility is high and in irregular patterns; transhumant when there are regular back-and-forth movements between relatively fixed locations; and sedentary for the rest. Pastoralists inhabit zones where the potential for crop cultivation is limited due to steep terrain, extreme temperatures and low and highly variable rainfall. Within this unpredictable, vulnerable and dynamic environment, they have developed successful mechanisms of adaptation to maintain an ecological balance between themselves and the natural environment. Thus, pastoralism is a successful strategy to support a population on less productive land that adapts well to the environment. Transhumance is the seasonal migration of livestock and pastoralists between higher and lower pastures.

Introduction

Though, India is bestowed with large livestock population (512.05 million) to which cattle buffaloes, goats and sheep contribute 190.90, 108.70, 135.2 and 65.07 numbers in millions, respectively (DADF, 2018), but at the same time, facing with a great shortage of crop residues, greens and concentrates for animal sustainability (NIANP, 2013). The shortage of these conventional feeds and fodders tropical and sub-tropical regions has already been documented and well recognized (Maneerat et al., 2015). The feed and fodder resources are gradually decreasing throughout India owing to many factors like shrinkage of common property resources and shift towards the cultivation of commercial crops etc. (Biradar and Kumar, 2013). Based on feed production and feed requirement calculated as above, India falls short by 219.2 Mt of green fodder and 226.73 MT of dry fodder (Earagariyanna et al., 2017). India faces a green fodder shortage of 63.5 percent and a dry fodder shortage of 23.5 percent and if the current situation continues then India's green fodder shortage will reach 66 percent and dry fodder will reach 25 percent by 2030 (Jitendra, 2017). This scenario demands the utilization of alternate non-conventional feed resources to sustain and economize livestock farming. The issues can be addressed by those unconventional resources like agricultural wastes which are widely available at low or zero cost and too with minimal treatment may serve as potential nutritional feeding material for animals.

The field is ploughed once and harrowed twice or thrice until the soil becomes well puddle. Beds are made slightly raised of 1 – 1.5 m in width and conveniently large in size and drainage channels in between the beds. The total area of nursery required to plant one hectare of land is 20 cents (800 m2 ). This method is suited where assured irrigation facilities are available. The beds should not be allowed to dry because they develop cracks and the seedlings will get spoiled. This method keeps down the weeds in the nursery. Seedlings are transplanted at 21-25 and 25-30 days age for SDV and MDV, respectively. Sparse sowing is recommended in case of hybrid rice. One kg of hybrid seed is sown in one cent area of nursery. This helps in good tillering and robust seedlings and makes it possible to transplant single seedling per hill. Seedlings are planted at 20-25 days.

Sorghum is probably originated in Africa. Because of the great diversity of types grown in East Central Africa, in and around Ethiopia and Sudan, it seems probable that it originated in that area (De Condole, 1884).

Finger millet (Ragi/ Mandua) is the principal small millet grown in South Asia. It is believed to be native of India (De condole, 1886) but according to Vavilov (1926) it originated in Abyssinia.