eChapters

Abstract

Health-conscious consumers are increasingly seeking functional foods in an effort to control their own health and well-being. The field of functional foods, however, is in its infancy. Claims about health benefits of functional foods must be based on sound scientific criteria. A number of factors complicate the establishment of a strong scientific foundation. These factors include the complexity of the food substance, effects on the food, compensatory metabolic changes that may occur with dietary changes, and, lack of surrogate markers of disease development. Additional research is necessary to substantiate the potential health benefits of those foods for which the diet-health relationships are not sufficiently scientifically validated. Research into functional foods will not advance public health unless the benefits of the foods are effectively communicated to the consumer. Finally, those foods whose health benefits are supported by sufficient scientific substantiation have the potential to be an increasingly important component of a healthy lifestyle and to be beneficial to the public and the food industry. Mounting evidence supports the observation that functional foods containing physiologically-active components, either from plant or animal sources, may enhance health. It should be stressed, however, that functional foods are not a magic bullet or universal panacea for poor health habits. There are no “good” or “bad” foods, but there are good or bad diets. Emphasis must be placed on over-all dietary pattern, which follows the current Dietary Guidelines, and is plant-based, high in fiber, low in animal fat, and contains 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

Weeds can be considered a significant problem because they tend to decrease crop yields by increasing competition for water, sunlight and nutrients while serving as host plants for pests and diseases. Since the invention of herbicides, farmers have used these chemicals to eradicate weeds from their fields. Using herbicides not only increased crop yields but also reduced the labor required to remove weeds. Today, some farmers have a renewed interest in organic methods of managing weeds since the widespread use of agro-chemicals has resulted in purported environment and health problems. It has also been found that in some cases herbicides use can cause some weed species to dominate fields because the weeds develop resistance to herbicides. In addition, some herbicides are capable of destroying weeds that are harmless to crops, resulting in a potential decrease in biodiversity on farmers. It is important to understand that under an organic system of weed control, weeds could never be eliminated but only managed. In organic agriculture weeds are the resources as they are mostly native to the field/areas of existence (Children’s of the soil)

Sensor is a physical device used to detect manifestations or variations in a process value and collect data in real time assessment mode for measuring and predicting system/device performance and finally analyzing it to attain a specific task or application. Sensor technology is now-a-days used for interdisciplinary applications for data collection, system analysis and monitoring.

Introduction

The interest in soil as a natural body originated from its ability to produce and sustain crops. The scientific study of soil probably started in the mid-nineteenth century and was dominated by geologists, chemists and plant physiologists. Justus von Liebig (1840) in his famous publication, Chemistry Applied to Agriculture and Physiology, put forward the theory that plants assimilate mineral nutrients from soils which varied in their capacity of nutrient supply. The ‘Law of Restitution’ propounded by him states that whatever is being taken by plants from the soil needs to be restored to maintain the nutrient supplying capacity of the soil.

To combat malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, nutrition-sensitive agriculture is a food-based strategy to agricultural development that emphasizes dietary diversity, fortification, and consumption of nutrient-rich foods. This strategy recognizes the importance of consuming a wide range of foods for optimal nutrition and acknowledges the social and economic significance of the food and agriculture industries in supporting rural livelihoods (WHO, 2014)

The overarching goal of nutrition-sensitive agriculture is to enhance the ability of the global food system to produce nutritious outcomes. An increasing number of governments, donor agencies, and development organizations are endorsing nutrition-sensitive agriculture as a means to achieve their developmental objectives. However, relying solely on nutrition-specific interventions falls short of meeting global targets for improving nutrition. Agriculture, with its significant potential to influence nutrition outcomes, must also play a role. 

Ear plug: A device made of a pliable substance, which fits into the ear opening; used to protect an ear from excessive noise or from water.

Ear protector: A device, such as a plug or ear muff, used to protect the human ear from loud noise that may be injurious to hearing, such as that of jet engines.

Earned value: The budgeted cost of the work performed for a given project.

Earth moving: Tillage action and transport operations utilized to loosen, load, carry and unload the soil.

Earthmover: A machine used to excavate, transport, or push earth.

1.     Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory
    
2.     Cleaning and Sterilization of Glass Wares
    
3.     Media Sterilization
    
4.     Media Composition and Media Preparation
    
5.     Callus Culture in Carrot
    
6.     Culture of Shoot Tip (Vanilla)
    
7.     Anther Culture of Datura
    
8.     Subculture of Carrot Callus
    
9.     Hardening of Plantlets
    
10.     Isolation of Protoplast from Plant Leaves

The word ‘remote sensing’ was coined by Evelyn L. Pruitt, an American Geographer in 1960. Remote sensing is defined as collection and interpretation of information about a target without being in physical contact with it. Remote sensing is the science and art of obtaining information about an object, area or phenomenon through the analysis of data acquired by a device that is not in contact with the object, area or phenomenon under investigation (Lillesand and Keifer, 1994).

The information needs a physical carrier to travel from the objects/events to the sensors through an intervening medium. Any force field such as gravity, magnetic or electromagnetic could be used for remote sensing. However, the electromagnetic radiation is conventionally used as an information carrier in remote sensing. Remotely sensed data may be gathered by different devices, including sensors, film cameras, digital cameras and video recorders. Instruments capable of measuring electromagnetic radiation are called sensors.

Remote sensing is nothing but opposite of astronomy. In astronomy, man looks from the earth to the sky to understand and gain more knowledge about the celestial objects. But remote sensing refers to going upward in the sky to look downwards to understand and gain more knowledge about terrestrial objects. In remote sensing, the aerial sensor technologies are used to detect and classify objects on earth by means of electromagnetic radiation.

3.0. Introduction

A hazard is any factor that may be present in the food or food products and can cause harm to the consumer either through injury or illness. Hazards may be biological, chemical and physical. It may be a biological, chemical or physical property or condition of food with the potential to cause an adverse health effect. Therefore, these hazards can be grouped into three broad categories (Fig 3.1). Further, various stages during which processing hazard can takes place in a food industry is illustrated through Fig. 3.2. Effect of different potential hazards on human health along with symptoms is presented in Annexure IV.

Introduction

Tripura is a small state blessed with rich flora and fauna. The small scale aquaculture with other agricultural enterprises and allied economic activities are common practice followed by majority of the farmers in rural areas. The small scale aquaculture is not only common in rural areas but is also practiced in the backyard ponds in urban which have multiple uses. The homestead fish production is common in Tripura because fish is highly preferred food item in the diet of about 95% people of Tripura. But due to the subsistence level of aquaculture practices in the state, productivity and production of fish is quite insufficient to meet out market demand for fish. Though the state Government and other stakeholders of fish production systems are making relentless effort to enhance the production to the level of 74 MT to meet the current market demand, the average fish productivity in the state is comparatively lower as compared to many states of the country. The lower productivity is an important issue and one of the major impediments in enhancing fish production in the state. The experts and research finding have identified several factors such as short culture period, acidic nature of soil and water, more iron content, poor quality of seed, improper feeding, lack of technical knowhow etc are the main reasons behind the lower productivity. Still, there are many other issues uncovered and unaddressed which may be the lower growth of fishes and consequent lower fish productivity. For instance, factors like pond size and number of species in the culture system at farmers’ level may also have impact on the farm productivity. It is necessary to adopt region-specific models for furthering freshwater aquaculture in view of the available aquatic biodiversity as well as the consumer preferences and economics of operations in different parts of the country (Ayappan et al, 2009). This is particularly important considering polyculture is the major form of aquaculture in the state. Datta 2015, has opined that due to consumer’s preference, high market value as well as conservation-revitalization of various cultivable species, importance of diversification in culture of various species has been found of immense importance in the present aquaculture scenario. Among the species, endemic minor carps, catfishes in monoculture, perches, murrels live species are important. In this study, an attempt has been made to analyse level of species diversification at the farm level and their socio-economic and scientific significance at farm level.

Internet of Things (IoT) is networking of physical objects, devices, machines, systems etc to interconnect each other for exchanging data through standard internet protocols. The IoT is also termed as Machine-to-Machine (M-to-M) communication. The term ‘Things’ in IoT includes objects embedded with sensors, actuators, mobile phones, routers, hubs, computers, wearable’s and smart devices etc.

Introduction

Biochemistry is branch of life science which deals with the study of chemical reactions occurring in the living cells and organisms. The term biochemistry was first introduced by German chemist Carl Neuberg in 1903. Since biochemistry is associated with the biological reactions and energy changes associated with these reactions or transformations within the living cell, biochemistry may thus be treated as a discipline in which biological phenomenon are analysed in terms of chemistry. The branch of biochemistry for the same reason has been variously named as “Biological Chemistry” or “Chemical Biology”. Modern biochemistry has two branches descriptive and dynamic biochemistry. Descriptive biochemistry deals with qualitative and quantitative characterization of the various chemical components of cell and the dynamic biochemistry deals with the elucidation of the nature and the mechanism of reactions involving these chemical cell components.

Qualitative analysis of biological sample deals with the examination of the organic or inorganic cell associated components in order to determine its composition. It denotes the presence of various biomolecules, elements or groups of elements that are present in the sampling population. It is possible to determine whether a particular component is present or absent in a sample by performing a qualitative analysis of the sample. Qualitative analysis is the identification of elements, species and/or compounds present in a sample.

SYNOPSIS

India has been conspicuous as one of the most malnourished nations, as every child out of two is malnourished. Moreover, the levels of under nourishment is substantially high among tribal communities. The present investigation has been made to examine the levels of food insecurity at the micro level in four regions identified in the tribal dominated areas of Maharashtra on the basis of macro level indicators. A comparison of food insecurity between the two communities reveals a high incidence of food insecurity among the tribal as compared to that of non-tribal. The nutritional status of tribal children is much lower than that of their non-tribal counterparts.

Introduction

Understanding the variation in grain protein content is the pre-requisite of its improvement in modern rice varieties. The measure of quantitative and qualitative aspects of grain storage protein content includes estimation of soluble and total grain protein, quantifying various fractions, viz. glutelins, prolamins, globulins and albumins and their profiling through SDS-Page and  estimation of amino acid. As traditional chemical methods for protein content determination are destructive in nature. All these estimates comprehensively give insight into the diversity of storage protein in rice germplasm. The standard procedures followed for all these estimates are briefly stated in the  following sections.

Estimation of Total Grain Protein Content in Rice

The total protein is estimated via estimation of total N through the Kjeldahl method whereas soluble protein is estimated through Lowry method, Dumas method and Bradford method. But for estimation of large number of genotypes all these processes are tedious, time-consuming, and costly. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), as a non-destructive detection technique, can achieve rapid quantitative determination of protein contents and become an important development direction to replace traditional chemical detection methods.

INTRODUCTION TO FLIGHT PLANNING FOR AGRICULTURAL DRONE
Flight planning for agricultural drone operations entails selecting the appropriate drone, preparing the drone and its equipment, and devising a flight trajectory. Drone flight planning software enhances safety and ensures compliance.
Why is Drone Flight Planning Important?
Effective drone flight planning establishes the groundwork for effective mapping and surveying operations. It entails formulating a comprehensive flight plan for the drone, guaranteeing that data acquisition is precise, effective, and secure. Inadequate preparation exposes operators to the risks of missing data, overlapping imagery, or delays in mission execution. Principal advantages comprise:
• Precise Data Acquisition: Strategically organized flights provide uniform overlap among photos, essential for producing high-quality orthomosaics and 3D mappings with a drone.
• Optimized Resource Utilization: Efficient flying trajectories reduce energy consumption and time allocated for data acquisition.
• Improved Safety: Pre-arranged missions circumvent impediments and comply with airspace laws, thereby mitigating dangers. COMPONENTS OF DRONE FLIGHT PLANNING Defining the Mission Objective Each mapping or surveying endeavor commences with a clear comprehension of the precise purpose. The mission aim dictates the necessary data and the appropriate tools for land surveys, construction site inspections, or agricultural mapping.

Gadget: A slang word applied to any small, handy appliances or devices.

Gagging tape: A metal measuring tape used to determine the depth of liquid in a tank.

Gal.: The unit of acceleration in the centimeter-gram-second system, equal to 1 centimeter per second square; commonly used in geodetic measurement. Formerly known as Galileo, symbolized as Gal.

Galling: A characteristic of metals, which causes them to seize when, brought into intimate contact with each other. A material, which is subjected to galling, is one, which will seize or ‘freeze’ when brought into close contact with like material under pressure and no lubricant.

Gallows plough: An animal-drawn plough, the end of the beam rests freely on a bolster fixed to two front wheels, which is drawn through the front wheel assembly.

Galvanic corrosion: The accelerated corrosion of one metal when it is connected with a more noble metal, e.g. if steel and copper are connected together in seawater, the steel will suffer accelerated corrosion and the copper will be protected.

Introduction

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is the largest edible fruit in the world. It is a seasonal fruit found in almost all the humid tropical regions of the world. It is very popular all over India and is believed to be of Indian origin. Flesh of jackfruit is starchy and fibrous and is a source of dietary fiber. Varieties are distinguished according to characteristics of the fruit’s flesh. In Kerala, two varieties of jackfruit predominate: varikka and koozha. Varikka has a slightly hard inner flesh when ripe, while the inner flesh of ripe koozha fruit is very soft and almost dissolving. Strong aroma of the fruit accounts popularity of its processed products. Each year, approximately 30-50% of the total harvested fruit is spoiled because of lack of post-harvest processing in India

Jackfruit has more protein, calcium, thiamine, riboflavin and carotene than banana. Edible bulbs of ripe jackfruit are consumed for their fine taste and pleasant aroma. The fibre content helps to protect the colon mucous membrane by decreasing exposure time as well as binding to cancer-causing chemicals in the colon. Fresh fruit has small amounts of carotenoid and flavonoid pigments such as ß carotene, xanthin, lutein and cryptoxanthin-ß. Together, these compounds play vital roles in antioxidant and vision functions.

Half round file: A file, which is flat on one side and curved on the other. The amount of convexity never equals a semicircle.

Half section: In mechanical drawing, a sectional view that terminates at the centreline, showing an external view on one side of the centerline and on the other side an interior view.

Hammer: An instrument or tool used for striking blows in metalworking, driving nails, etc. Hammers are of various kinds, each bearing a name according to the purpose it has to serve.

Hammer mill: 1. A type of impact mill or crusher in which materials are reduced in size by hammers revolving rapidly in a vertical plane within a steel casing. Also known as beater mill. 2. A grinding machine, which pulverizes feed and other products by several rows of thin, hammers revolving at high speed.

India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world, accounting for 33 per cent area and 25 percent production. Pulses are mostly grown under rainfed conditions in marginal to sub-marginal lands. Once a net exporter it is presently one of the largest importer of pulses as our demand outstrips domestic production. While the traditional cropping pattern almost always included a pulse crop either as a mixed crop or in rotation, the commercialization of agriculture has encouraged the practice of sole-cropping. As a result, the annual import has increased from 0.50 million tonnes to 1.80 million tonnes during the last five years and contribution of pulses in the national food basket reduced from 17% to 7%. Pulses are generally grown on marginal and sub-marginal lands under rainfed conditions with low inputs and suffer heavily due to biotic and abiotic stresses, resulting into low productivity. Challenges for pulses in India are decline in area of pulses, low genetic yield potential, low realized yield, instability in production, climate change, biotic and abiotic stresses, poor seed replacement rate, post harvest losses, wide fluctuation in price, no regular MSP/procurement policy, poor availability of critical inputs in productivity zone and poor transfer of technology.

7.1 INTRODUCTION

Gardening is a practice of growing different kinds of horticultural crops in a particular land area as a part of horticulture either for consumption or sale, export, beautification etc. Basing on the crops grown, gardens are named accordingly, e.g., for raising vegetables, it is vegetable gardens; for fruit crops, it is orchard; for plantation crops, it is estate plantation; for ornamental plants, it is gardening and landscape etc. The history of gardening is not new. In ancient time kings, emperors, rulers, sages were establishing different types of gardens for different purposes.