eChapters

The difficulty in conducting a factorial experiment in an RBD is that, as the number of factors and/ or that of levels of the factors increase, the number of treatment combinations to be compared increases too. This in turn necessitates use of large sized blocks to accommodate all the treatment combinations i.e in a 2^4 – experiment there should be 16 plots in a block. But it has been found that the experimental error increases with an increase in the size of a block, for then it becomes less effective in controlling the heterogeneity of the units. A remedy has been found out : this is to divide a replicate (a complete block) into a number of equal blocks (incomplete blocks) and then to allocate the treatment combinations to these blocks so that only the unimportant treatment comparisons gets mixed up or entangled with the block comparisons. These treatment comparisons are then said to be confounded or mixed up with block effects. These effects cannot be separately tested or estimated. But the remaining treatment effects, which are not confounded with the block effects, are still capable of separate estimation and testing.

Congenital anomaly of newborn buffalo calves is quite common in new born calves. Most common encountered are atresia ani, rectovaginal fistula etc. Sometimes, developmental defects interfere with physiological processes viz. in urination and defecation. Therefore, such cases, if not corrected well in time can cause death of the patient. In the present report, few newborn calves were brought to the veterinary clinic with the following abnormalities:

Agenesis of Urogenital System Without Anus

Five newborn buffalo calves were brought to the veterinary clinic with the complain of not passing urine and feces. There was no visible external genitalia and anal opening. At the site of vulva, there was only an impression of vulvar lips and below it, a cord like structure was hanging.

There was an impression of round structure below the skin; in some cases it was outside giving appearance of scrotum which was located in between the two thighs. On ventral side of abdomen, preputial sheath was not present, therefore, it was very difficult to decide about the sex of the calves and site of external preputial-orifice. There was an indication of both sexes, but organs were not developed, therefore it was difficult to decide about the sex of the calves. In some cases, impression of the anal sphincter was visible but there was no visible external anal opening. There was slight deviation of the tail from its base also. Intake of milk was normal. Abdomen was distended bilaterally. Respiratory rate was higher than the normal with slight discomfort .Heart rate was elevated. Blood picture revealed increased total blood cell count with neutrophilia. Radiography of the abdomen showed distended urinary bladder at the floor of pelvis indicating formation of the urogenital system without development of the external opening. Barium meal study revealed marking of gastrointestinal tract and stagnation of the barium up to the rectum.

Aim

To know the use of Conjoined ‘U’ Plate with Padded ring for fracture side immobilization.

Site to be immobilized

Upper 3^rd metacarpus, Carpo - meta carpo joint dislocation, Radio - Carpal Joint dislocation. Lower Radius & Ulna fracture are can also be immobilised with this device

Use of conjoined Thomas splint for bilateral tibia fibula fracture for large animal.

Aim

To know the immobilization technique for both tibia-fibula fracture in large animal practice.

Instruments

Conjoined Thomas splint (Fig 1).

Product Development and Marketing

Several efforts are being made on the research front for development of novel products from fish which have enhanced shelf life, retain the freshness and nutrients and are safe to consume. During the course of product development, which are in many stages, studies are conducted prior to commercialisation to ensure the acceptance of a product.

In a business, understanding consumer behaviour plays an important role in success. To be in a business for a long time, it is essential to know what the consumer prefers and why. Consumers make the buying decisions based on a number of factors. The purpose behind studying the buying behaviour and consumer preference is to produce and market products which may better meet the needs of a consumer. The emerging fastfood culture among the young and affordable has brought focus on processed food and its demand in the domestic food market in India. Domestically, spending on food and food products constitutes the largest portion of the Indian consumer’s spending – more than a 31% share of wallet. Evaluation of consumer preferences before introducing a new product will help the marketer to refine the product for better reach.

Conjoint Analysis

Conjoint analysis is a popular technique used in marketing research to study the features a product that should possess to have a wide consumer reach. Conjoint analysis was initially conceptualised by Luce and Tukey (1964) and further developed by Green and Rao (1971) for marketing research. It employs a decompositional method to estimate the structure of consumer preferences and consumer utility values of different attributes of a product or service. It is a decompositional method that disaggregates the structure of consumer preferences into utility values. The relative importance of a product can also be estimated using this method.

1. INTRODUCTION

The concept of product management in market research is all about tradeoffs. Whether the objective is to increase market share, profit margin or revenue, every product manager makes trade-offs—quality vs. cost, time to market vs. breadth of features, richness of the offering vs. ease of use, etc. So, how does anybody know what the market wants? What market segments exist? What those segments prefer? What will they pay? or what trade-offs to make? The answer is to get the market to make the trade-offs. The conjoint analysis is the tool to measure the trade-off i.e. to understand customer preferences, values and choices. Conjoint analysis is used for many marketing decisions, including new product development process, selecting among alternative product designs, targeting, and pricing. It is also used to predict their choices for future products and services. Conjoint Analysis assumes that a product can be “broken down” into its component attributes. For example, a car has attributes such as colour, price, size, miles-per-gallon, and model style. Using Conjoint Analysis, the value that individuals place on any product is equivalent to the sum of the utility they derive from all the attributes making up a product. Further, it assumes that the preference for a product and the likelihood to purchase it are in proportion to the utility an individual gains from the product. It is generally inappropriate for products which are evaluated by consumers on the basis of their “image”, such as beer or cigarettes, rather than on the basis of their constituent attributes. It is so widely used in market research that helps to understand the market’s preferences including product development, competitive positioning, pricing, product line analysis, segmentation and resource allocation.That gives the better insight to the market revenue, share, profit which in turn helps to provide the better market intelligence. The present chapter deals with the genesis, usefulness and analysis procedure of conjoint analysis in different software with example.

Abstract

Dual inoculation of Rhizobium + VAM coupled with recommended NPK doses was found to produce the highest bean pod (6.38, 6.40 qha-1) and straw (35.11,35.35 qha-1) dry matter production and resulted in higher macro and micronutrient contents in bean leaves which were to the tune of 4.05, 4.06%N,0.44, 0.49 %P, 2.65, 2.66 %K, 2.65, 2.67%Ca, 64.67, 64.59 ppm Zn, 242, 242.2 ppm Fe, and 36, 36.33 ppm Mn. Under this treatment increase in bean pod and straw dry matter production during the years 2002 and 2003 was to the tune of 130, 131 and 81, 83 per cent, respectively over control.

Introduction

Genetic variability is essential for the evolutionary success of all organisms. In diploid eukaryotic the processes of crossing over exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes and meiosis contributes to his variability. In haploid, asexually reproducing prokaryotic organisms, genetic recombination may occur by conjugation transduction, and transformation. In this experiment only the process of conjugation is considered.

Conjugation is a matting process during which a one direction transfer of genetic material occurs at physical contact between two sexually differentiated cell types. This differentiation or existence of different mating strains in some bacteria, is determined by the presence of a fertility factor of F factor, within the cell. Cells that lack the F factor are recipients (females) of the genetic material during conjugation and are designated as F^- . cells possessing the F factor have ability to act as genetic donors (males)during the mating. If this F factor is extra chromosomal (a Plasmid or episome), the cells are designated as F⁺; most commonly only the F factor is transferred during conjugation. If this factor becomes incorporated into the bacterial chromosome there is a transfer of chromosomal genes, although generally not involving the entire chromosome or the F factor. The resulting cells are designated as Hfr, for high frequency recombinants.

India is one of the few countries in the world, which has contributed richly to the international livestock gene pool. Small animal particularly sheep and goat biodiversity in India is characterized by high degree of endemism in different agro climatic regions, and has led to the development of various breeds/strains that are well adapted to specific set of environmental conditions. These breeds have generally been named after their place of origin and some based on their prominent characteristics. Indigenous sheep and goat contribute greatly to the agrarian economy, especially in areas where crop and dairy farming are not economical, and play an important role in the livelihood of a large proportion of small and marginal farmers and landless laborers. Sheep and Goat rearing and production has been the important source for sustainable livelihood of the rural people mainly in arid, semi-arid and temperate regions of India as it serves their various needs and provides an unceasing source of income round the year.

Introduction

There is a widespread degradation of natural resource, e.g., soil erosion, nutrient loss, water-logging, salinity, alkalinity, acidity, decline in soil organic carbon (SOC) content, ground water depletion and micronutrient depletion. The major causes are washing away of topsoil and organic matter due to water erosion, intensive deep tillage and inversion tillage, dismally low levels of fertilizer application, mining and other commercial activities, faulty agricultural practices, no or low use of organics, indiscriminate use of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides etc. Other cause is loss of organic matter with higher temperatures, which increase rate of microbial decomposition of organic matter due to adverse effect of climate change. Climate change due to global warming as a result of increased concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere is a well-established fact. Impacts of climate change are experienced throughout the world. Increases in global mean temperature, rise in sea-level, and occurrence of extreme events are the consequences of climate change. These changes may deplete the SOC pool and soil structural stability, increase soil’s susceptibility to water runoff and erosion, disrupt cycles of water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur and other elements, and cause adverse impacts on biomass productivity, biodiversity and the environment. Climate change is likely to have a variety of impacts on soil quality. In order to restore soil quality, enhance productivity, it is of utmost importance to focus on conservation agriculture practices on long-term basis. Conservation Agriculture (CA) is gaining importance as an alternative to conventional agriculture.

Introduction

The Indo-Gangetic Plain is one of the world’s major foodgrain producing regions. The Indian states falling under this region, viz. Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, are also the major rice-wheat growing states spread over 10.5 million hectares in the country. During the past 30 years, agricultural production growth in this region has been able to keep pace with population demand for food in the country mainly due to adoption of green revolution technologies inducing yield growth, followed by area expansion. But this opportunity is ceasing very fast due to limited scope for increasing the availability of arable land and natural resources. The other issue is the conservation of the basic resources of land and water for sustainability of agriculture in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It is generally believed that the rice-wheat system has strained the natural resources in this region and more inputs are required to attain the same yield levels (Swarup and Singh, 1989; Kumar and Yadav, 1993; Lal et al., 2004). It is, therefore, imperative now to promote alternative technologies that would help conserve the much needed but gradually depleting natural resources while boosting productivity growth in the long-run by maintaining soil health and production environment. As a part of this strategy, conservation agriculture and resource conserving technologies play a major role in sustaining and enhancing the productivity of the rice-wheat system at a lower cost of production.

Conservation agriculture (CA) has potential to changes soil physical, chemical and biological soil quality parameters compared to conventional tillage (CT) systems. CA can also affect the functional diversity of soil microbes that essential for improved soil quality, crop production and many ecosystem services.

Conservation Agriculture is a farming system that promotes minimum soil disturbance (i.e. no tillage), maintenance of a permanent soil cover, and diversification of plant species. It enhances biodiversity and natural biological processes above and below the ground surface, which contribute to increased water and nutrient use efficiency and to improved and sustained crop production.

Three principles of Conservation Agriculture

Introduction

Intensive soil tillage, burning of crop residues and over use of fertilizer and irrigation water under current agricultural practices has accelerated the pace of degradation in Indian agriculture. Intensive soil tillage increases soil erosion and nutrient runoff into nearby waterways. Crop residue burning resulting in loss of plant nutrients and release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. Imbalanced use of chemical fertilizer leads to soil compaction, slows down the fertilizer utilization rate and contaminates the local environment. Increasing demand of irrigation water causes water shortage and harms the environment in several ways including increased salinity, nutrient pollution, and the degradation of flood plains and wetlands. In the face of these management and environmental challenges, there is a need to formulate such agricultural practices which improve the productivity of natural resources as well as of external inputs and help to prevent soil degradation. Conservation agriculture (CA) practices such as reduced tillage, residue retention and proper crop rotations offer such solutions. CA also helps in making agricultural systems more resilient to climate change and safeguard ecosystem services.

Introduction

India agriculture is now at turning point as we have travelled a long way after the advent of green revolution. Over the past four to five decades our strategies, policies and actions were guided by goals of ‘self-sufficiency’ in foodgrains production via green revolution. Indian agriculture has been successful in achieving increased food grains production albeit at a low level of satisfaction. While the mission of increasing foodgrains production stands somehow achieved, these gains were accompanied by widespread problems of resource degradation and high factor productivity, which now pose a serious challenge to the continued ability to meet the demand of an increasing population and lifting our people above the poverty line (Tan et al., 2010). Indian agriculture has reached a point where it must seek new directions – those by way of strategies, policies and actions which must be adopted to move forward addressing sustainable intensifications. The past strategies to increase food grains production, however, have resulted in massive exploitation of natural resources, contributing to unsustainable growth; there is need to change this approach in the future. This will call for strategies, which are different than the ones we adopted in the ‘green revolution’ era. High levels of fertilizer use and decreasing resource use-efficiency are increasingly contributing to groundwater pollution and increased emissions of green-house gases (GHGs) (Gupta, 2004). High level uses of pesticides in many areas have become a major health hazard. Thus, with continuously deteriorating resources, widespread problem of soil and water contamination and eroding ecological foundation, sustainability of agriculture is becoming highly questionable (Conway and Barbier, 1990). There is need to seriously debate on the strategies required to ensure that agriculture continues to play a critical role in the overall development.

Introduction

The challenge of increased food production to meet food security needs still persists 50 years after the start of the Green Revolution as population growth continues to increase in many developing countries. There appears to be no alternative but to increase agricultural productivity and the associated individual factor productivities (such as water, labor, nutrients, energy and capital) to meet the food demand by 2050 and to alleviate poverty and hunger. Thus, needs technological initiatives for further agricultural intensification. But already happening negative effect of crop production intensification on essential natural resources such as soil, water, biodiversity, and associated ecosystem services has forced agriculture stakeholders to search for novel initiatives that focus on sustainable production optimization rather than just intensification. Furthermore increased food supply is a necessity though not sufficient for eliminating hunger and poverty. What is important is who produces the food, has access to the technology and knowledge to produce it, and has the purchasing power to acquire it. Of the developing world’s 5.5 billion people, 3 billion live in rural areas – nearly half of humanity. Of these rural inhabitants, an estimated 2.5 billion are in households involved in agriculture, and 1.5 billion are in smallholder households (World Bank, 2008 and Herren, 2010). Poor farmers need low-cost and readily available technologies and practices to increase local food production and to raise their income. At the same time, land and water degradation is increasingly posing a threat to food security and the livelihoods of rural people who generally live on degradation-prone lands. There are several other key issues while relating the situation to Indian context.

Conservation agriculture is an approach to managing agroecosystems for improved and sustained productivity, increased profits and food security while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) defines conservation agriculture as a farming system that promotes maintenance of a permanent soil cover, minimum soil disturbance (i.e., no tillage), and diversification of plant species.

Conservation agriculture (CA) defined as minimal soil disturbance (no-till) and permanent soil cover (mulch) combined with rotations is a recent agricultural management system that is gaining popularity in many parts of the world. Cultivation is defined by the Oxford English dictionary as “the tilling of land”, “the raising of a crop by tillage” or “to loosen or break up soil”. Other terms used in this dictionary include “improvement or increase in (soil) fertility”. All these definitions indicate that cultivation is synonymous with tillage or ploughing.

The other important definition that has been debated and defined in many papers is the word “sustainable”. The Oxford dictionary defines this term as “capable of being borne or endured, upheld, defended, maintainable”. Something that is sustained is “kept up without intermission or flagging, maintained over a long period”. This is an important concept in today’s agriculture since the human race will not want to compromise the ability of its future offspring to produce their food needs by damaging the natural resources used to feed the population today.

8.1 Introduction

Conservation agriculture (CA) is an approach to regenerative agriculture and land management practices based on three interlinked principles: (1) continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance using no-tillage or reduced tillage based crop cultivation, (2) maintenance of permanent soil cover using crop residues and cover crops and (3) diversification of cropping system using economically, environmentally and socially adapted crop rotation including legume crops and cover crops coupled with other complementary agronomic management practices (FAO, 2014).

Introduction

The Indian agriculture is very complex and carrying out multi-functionalities of providing food, nutrition and ecological security besides employment and livelihood for over 700 million people. Indeed, India has made a marvelous achievement in attaining self-sufficiency in food grain production after the induction of Green Revolution which eventually resulted in maintaining all-time high buffer stock in warehouses of our country. Such rosy picture in production trends turned to be bleak in the past few years. There are various reasons behind this. Shrinking resources of prime lands, deforestation and accelerated erosion, deterioration of soil physical environment, increasing waterlogging and salinity in canal irrigated areas, declining water table in well-irrigated areas, poor management of rainwater, lower efficiency of inputs such as water, fertilizers and agrochemicals, rapid industrialization coupled with pollution and environmental degradation and hazards have aggravated the problem. At the same time, increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses (GHG), of which the most common is carbon dioxide (CO₂), is the primary cause of global warming and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) estimates that the current greenhouse gases (GHGs) concentrations are 30% more than the pre-industrial level. C is accumulating in the atmosphere at a rate of 3.5 Pg (Pg = 1015 g or billion tons) per annum, the largest proportion of which resulting from the burning of fossil fuels and the conversion of tropical forests to agricultural production. Under such circumstance, there is an imperative need to produce more from less arable land and water through meticulous management of basic agricultural resources such as soil, water and biological inputs.

Introduction

The green revolution is exemplified by too much adoption of high soil disturbance, modern varieties, energy exhaustive technologies, high amount of capital investment and simplification of farming systems (Meeus, 1993), resulting in uniform and featureless landscapes (Nassauer and Westmacott, 1987) in the most intensively farmed arable areas. In post-green revolution epoch, we had experienced a period of remarkable escalation in food productivity, despite rising land values and increasing land scarcity. Farmers from both developing and developed countries get exposed to several production constraints for achieving a sustainable, cost-effective and assured return from their field. Depending upon the circumstances and the scale of farm activities, farmers face varying degrees of climate risk, biotic invasion, and economic uncertainty. Thus, from the context of economical ambiguities, volatile food prices, social pressure to buffer ups and downs of agricultural production and achieving food security for ever growing population and curtailing poverty, farmers must be equipped with novel cultural practices to achieve a sustainable and assured cost-effective grain production. Research experiments throughout the globe found that the principal indicators for unsustainability of agricultural systems are: (1) intensive tillage induced decrement of soil organic matter (OM), structural degradation of soil, accelerated water and wind erosion, reduced water infiltration rates, surface sealing and crusting, soil compaction, (2) insufficient return of organic materials into soil, and (3) monocropping.