eChapters

1. Introduction

The remains of almond, found in several archeological sites, show the importance of this crop since centuries. Being storable after drying, the fruits can be transported everywhere, this is the reason why, these nutritious nuts have followed the human migration. The easy adaptability of this species to poor soils has favored their spread. It is an elixir for good health and a panacea for all ills. Almonds have long been an integral part of India’s cultural heritage, especially during festive seasons and weddings. In an increasingly health-conscious nation like India, the demand for almonds is ever increasing. However, several problems plague production and limit output which has led to high import.

1.1. Nutritional value

Almonds are good source of fat, in which 80% is in the form of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) which decreases unwanted cholesterol of body. Almonds contain omega-6 fatty acid which is good for heart. The amount of saturated fat is very less in almonds. Almonds have high amount of phosphorus and calcium which is required for bone growth. Magnesium, manganese, vitamin B6 and Vit. E are also available in almonds. Almond oil contains glucosides, minerals, vitamins and is rich in protein. Nutritive value of almond has been presented in Table1.

9.1 INTRODUCTION

The annual production of organic carbon by photosynthesis on land is about 6x 10¹⁰ tonnes (Table 9.1), most of which eventually decomposes on or in the top 50 cm of the soil. This organic matter can be in lumps as big as a mature oak tree (say 0.5xl0²m³) or as small as a bacterium (0.5 x 10~¹⁸m³). It can be in material as resistant to decay as oil palm nuts, which persist for years in soil in the humid tropics, or as transient as mammalian protein. Yet in the long run, no fraction of the organic matter in plants and animals can withstand decomposition to carbon dioxide and water. If this were not so, any completely resistant fraction would by now cover the surface of the earth. Although under normal conditions organic matter does not accumulate indefinitely in soil, exceptions can occur, as, for example, when a soil becomes permanently waterlogged. When a geologically stable surface has been under the same vegetation for a long time, the soil approaches steady state conditions, with the annual losses of organic matter balancing the annual input. Thereafter the organic matter content of the soil remains constant, until the next vegetational change or geological catastrophe. This process, in which losses and gains proceed simultaneously, is described as turnover and may be defined (for carbon) as ‘the flux of carbon through the organic carbon in a given sample of soil’. Turnover time is then the amount of carbon in the soil system (or part of that system) divided by the annual input of carbon into the system (or part of that system). Turnover and turnover time will be discussed more fully in Section 9.2.5.

SCAPULA

OX: It is a flat, triangular bone situated on the antero-lateral part of the thorax. It is directed obliquely downward and forward. It has two surfaces, three borders and three angles.

The lateral surface is traversed by the scapular spine which divides it into the supraspinous and the infraspinous fossae. The spine is rough and tuberous in the middle and is prolonged downwards to form the acromion process (Fig.2.1). The medial surface presents subscapular fossa and its upper part presents anteriorly a triangular rough area and posteriorly a rough line (Fig.2.2).

The United States of America (USA), European Union (EU), Brazil and China are four of the largest agricultural producers and users of agricultural pesticides in the world. Comparing the inclination and ability of different regulatory agencies to ban or eliminate pesticides that have the most potential for harm to humans and the environment can provide a glimpse into the effectiveness of each nation’s pesticide regulatory laws and oversight.

Key facts
    
•    Pesticides are chemicals that are broadly used to protect crops, livestock and other animals and plants from pests and diseases. They are classified according to the type of pest to be controlled (algicides, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides).
    
•    Commercial production of DDT began in 1943. At that time, DDT was considered to be a wonderful invention. It was cheap to produce, very toxic to insects and much less toxic to mammals and its usage resulted in a sharp decline of mosquito borne diseases. In 1962, it was discovered that DDT was causing egg-shell thinning in bird eggs and thus was leading to the near extinction of bird species such as peregrine falcons and bald eagles.
    
•    Pesticides use has greatly helped to increase and improve the world food production. Use of pesticides also increases farmer’s profits by preventing crop losses due to pest attacks and weed infestation.

A. Diseases

1. Alternaria leaf spot

Occurrence & severity status

In the years 2012 and 2013, black leaf spot disease was observed on ramie plants in Hunan and Hubei Provinces, China (Yu et al., 2016). Yu et al. (2016) claimed that their report was the first report of Alternaria leaf spot of ramie in China.

Symptoms

In the field, the symptoms of this disease included dark green to black big spots on leaves (Fig. 20A), often resulting in upwardly curled leaf margins (Yu et al., 2016).

With the increasing health consciousness of consumers, there has been an increasing concern over the use of thermal processing methods like blanching, pasteurization, sterilization etc. for enhancing the shelf life of foods as these methods fail to preserve the fresh like nutritional, therapeutical and sensory qualities of the food. With the increased consumer demand for fresh and fresh-like foods, interest in minimal processing of foods is increasing. The trend is also shifting from the traditional heat processing to those technologies that employ no or minimum heat application, thereby retaining the quality to a maximum level. One of the ways to accomplish this is via use of non-thermal processes. Over the past few years a number of non-thermal processes or cold preservation methods have been invented and developed. These methods are being evaluated in pasteurization and sterilization of various foods or in the extension of shelf life of various packaged foods. Some of such novel technologies and the products prepared, have been discussed here under.

1. Extrusion

Extrusion is a size enlargement process wherein small granular food or powdered particles are re-formed into larger pieces with different shapes, textures, colours and flavours from the basic ingredients. In extrusion food is compressed and forced to pass through a fine opening (die). As soon as it comes out of the opening, the outside pressure is very less as compared to the pressure inside the screw of extruder and the food expands instantaneously. If the food is heated the process is called as extrusion cooking. It is a process which combines several unit operations including cooking, mixing, kneading, shearing, compressing, shaping and forming. Extrusion adds a variety to the products by changing shape, size, texture and even some of the minor ingredients of the food and at a reduced cost than most of the other processing methods. Extrusion cooking (not extrusion) is a high temperature short time (HTST) process that reduces microbial contamination and inactivates enzymes.

1.     Isolation and Purification of DNA from E.coli
    
2.     Isolation of Plasmid DNA
    
3.     Gel Electrophoresis of DNA
    
4.     Southern Blotting
    
5.     Restriction Digestion

S    :    Second.

S    :    Sedimentation coefficient. OR Svedberg unit.

S phase    :    The period during the cell cycle when the chromosome is replicated.

S7P    :    Sedoheptulose-7-phosphate.

The family Enterobacteriaceae belongs to the order Enterobacterial. The family comprises 25 genera such as Escherichia, Salmonella, Klebsiella, Yersinia, Proteus, Providencia, Shigella, Enterobacter, Morganella, Edwardsiella, Budvicia, Cedecea, Citrobacter, Ewingella, Hafnia, Kluyvera, Leclercia, Leminorella, Moellerella, Pantoea, Rahnella, Tatumella, Trabulsiella, Serratia and Yokenella, out of which the first 10 genera are consistent pathogenic in humans, animals and birds.

Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli were first isolated by Theodor Escherich in 1885 from the faeces of infants. It was named in honour of the German pediatrician and its major natural habitat (colon). Previously it was also known as Bacillus coli or Bacterium coli (B. coli).

Dairy byproducts constitute an important segment of dairy industry. An important criterion in the economic choice of any process is the efficient utilization of byproduct that is produced along with the main product. The main byproducts of dairy industry are skim milk, buttermilk, whey and ghee residue. Each and every component of milk must be judiciously processed into edible form not only to improve the profitability of dairy industry but also to make best use of the unique nutritional value of the precious milk constituents on one hand, and to prevent environmental pollution, on the other. However, dairy plants, particularly in India, are usually confronted with the problem of byproduct utilization, especially that of whey and ghee residue in economical manner.

Skim milk is a byproduct obtained during the manufacture of cream. It is rich in solids-not-fat content and has high nutritional value. In dairy plants, it is mostly utilized either in standardization for the manufacture of main dairy products or preserved by removing moisture in milk powder form. The skim milk when utilized in either of these two forms or consumed as liquid, is not considered a byproduct. It is regarded as a byproduct only when it is either not economically utilized or utilized for derived byproducts, like casein and other related products, co-precipitates, protein hydrolyzates, etc.

Buttermilk is the byproduct obtained during butter manufacture. Sweet cream buttermilk resembles skim milk in gross chemical composition and is usually admixed with bulk of skim milk for further spray drying or even product manufacture in dairy plants. Desi buttermilk, on the other hand, has long been an important domestic beverage in India. It has high nutritive and therapeutic value. It also finds its way in the preparation of a host of culinary dishes such as kadhi, dhokla and idili. Also a number of federations and private plants sell salted and spiced buttermilk in 200 ml pouches.

In recent years, there has been a considerable interest in the new technological interventions for enhanced livestock productivity in the Indian sub-continent, because of the increased demand for livestock products for human consumption. Bypass nutrients defined as a nutrients fed in such a form that provides an increase in the flow of the nutrient (s) unchanged to the abomasum, yet is available to the more important nutrient (high BV) should escape from the rumen or face minimum ruminal fermentation. The reasons for protecting different nutrients are based on their mode of utilization in the rumen. The literature on the effect of the bypass fat and protein on nutrient utilization, milk production and reproductive performance has been reviewed and presented in following subheads

12.1 Introduction

Man is the most beautiful of all God’s creations and like man, his environment too is beautiful with rivers to quench his thirst with sweet water, atmosphere to provide him oxygen, land and fire to provide him food. Primitive man ate uncooked food and lived in caves. Soon he learnt the use of firewood for cooking of raw meat and provided the first instance of ‘Pollution from food processing’ in history. As man shifted from one place to another, this sort of living never polluted the environment. But as the man ascended the ladder of civiliz ation, his needs grew in arithmeti c progression but corresponding pollution grew in geometric progression. With increase in agriculture produce, a need was felt to preserve the glut production in the form of processed foods giving rise to massive development of food processing industries all over the world. The rapid industrialization of agriculture and horticulture, increased the pollution load many folds especially the biodegradable waste from food industry [41].The wineries and distilleries (distill wine to make brandy) are no exception. Nevertheless, the waste is a precious source of several useful materials as such or after fermentation [1,31,46,86]. Thus, development and environment are two sides of the same coin.

From time immemorial, the biosphere is acting as a sink for all the waste products and recycles them to make good the loss so that every generation finds it the same as one before it. But, of late, this self-cleaning and equilibrium maintenance of biosphere is disastrously disturbed as the waste produced from man’s activities is continuously exceeding the capacity to purify herself. Consequently, our biosphere is becoming more and more poisonous and days are not far away when this planet will become inhabitable.

Distillation, leaching, and extraction

A. Distillation

Distillation is a widely used separation process in various industries, including chemical, pharmaceutical and food processing. It is particularly important in the production of alcoholic beverages, essential oils, and purified water. Distillation works on the principle of exploiting differences in the volatility of components in a liquid mixture to separate them based on their boiling points.

Principles of Distillation

Distillation is a time-tested and versatile separation technique employed across a myriad of industries for separating components of liquid mixtures. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to leverage differences in boiling points among the various constituents of a mixture.

In addition to farm ponds, irrigation to crops can be met from other sources. The main sources can be broadly classified as: (i) Canal irrigation, (ii) Well Irrigation and (iii) Lift irrigation. In arid and semi arid areas, where availability of water is scarce, pitcher irrigation is practiced. These sources of irrigation are briefly mentioned as follows.

13.1 Canal Irrigation

To feed the world population of 8 billion in 2025 AD, it is necessary to bring more area under irrigation because irrigated farms typically get higher yield under provision of irrigation. The food production will have to increase by about 50 percent to feed some two billion more people by 2025 AD, and a large part of that increase needs to come from irrigated agriculture. It is reported that the yield of different crops are generally 2-3 times higher than the crops grown under rainfed conditions. Furthermore, it is possible to raise 2-3 crops round the year under irrigated agriculture whereas hardly a single crop is successfully grown in a year under rainfed condition. It is reported that about 40% of the world’s food production comes from only 17% of the irrigated land of the world (Sivanappan, 2000). Everybody is aware of the fact how the irrigation played a crucial role to make the Green Revolution in India successful. A major part of irrigation is achieved by canal irrigation through different irrigation schemes.

A project that makes use of weir or a barrage for providing irrigation to fields is called as direct irrigation scheme. On the other hand, a storage irrigation scheme makes use of storage reservoir by construction of dams. In order to provide irrigation by both the schemes, it is necessary to have a network of canal systems including main canals, branch canals, distributaries, minors and watercourses. It is imperative to design the canal systems properly for a certain realistic value of peak discharge that must pass through them so as to provide sufficient irrigation to the command areas. These canals have to be aligned and excavated either in alluvial soils or non-alluvial soils; depending upon which they are called alluvial canal or non-alluvial canal.

Genetic resistance is the more efficient and the more environmentally friendly way to protect crops against phytonematodes. Nematode management is complex, hence, the prevention of an initial phytonematode infestation in pathogen-free areas is of fundamental importance. However, after the entry of the nematode into an area, it is virtually impossible to eradicate because it is a soil-dwelling organism. In this regard, the genetic resistance of plants to nematodes is considered one of the most efficient and economically feasible methods to prevent production losses (Matsuo et?al?, 2012). Thus, breeding for nematode resistance is essential in crop management to obtain a high yield and stable production.

The jackfruit tree or jack or simply known as jak (Artocarpus heterophyllus) belongs to the mulberry family (Moraceae) and its fruit, jackfruit, is known as the “poor-man's food” (Bose, 1985; Haq, 2006; Ramanani and Rao, 2001; Rowe-Dutton, 1976; Sonwalkar, 1951; Verheji and Coronel, 1992). It is believed to be native to Southwestern India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka (Answers.com, 2009). It is possibly also native to the Philippines and also East to the Malay Peninsula. The fruit is large, oval and covered with a thick rind that has hexagonal protrusions. Inside the fruit, we find the yellow, fleshy and banana-flavoured carpel or large "bulbs" (which are botanically the perianths) massed among narrow ribbons of thin, tough undeveloped perianths (or perigones), around a central, pithy core. Each bulb encloses a smooth, oval, light-brown coloured "seed" (endocarp) covered by a thin white membrane (exocarp).

5.1 Irrigation Channels
Canal or channel is an artificially made conduit through which water is supplied to the field from river, tank, reservoir or wells. The open channel is the most common type of water conveyance system. If the pipes and drains are partially full behave like open channel. The irrigation channel may be lined or unlined and the flow is either uniform or varied.

The canal may be classified in following ways.

a) Classification based on the source of supply i) Permanent or perennial canal ii) Inundation canal

A canal is said to be permanent when it is fed by a permanent source of supply and has permanent networks of distribution of supplies. Inundation canals draw their supplies from river usually when water stage exceeds a predetermined level. Headworks are not provided for diversion of river water to canal. However, canal head regulators are provided to regulate the canal head as required time to time to accommodate the changing pattern of river course.

5.1. Australia’s Experience and Approach to Pest Risk Analysis

Australia applies the principles of pest risk analysis for the identification and management of sanitary and phytosanitary risks associated with new trade proposals and, where the need is identified, to the review of sanitary and phytosanitary risks of existing trade. One such trade activity is the intentional importation of exotic plant species not yet established in Australia.

Of approximately 250 000 plant species in the world, 30 000 have been intentionally introduced to Australia since European colonization, along with an unknown number of unintentional introductions, of which about 2 700 have naturalized (Cunningham et al., 2003). Some become problematic plants of which about 300 have become serious weeds of agriculture and natural ecosystems. Clearly, the majority of plant species have yet to be introduced to Australia and some of these would become weeds if allowed into the country.

The weed risk assessment (WRA) system is a decision support tool that is employed by Australia in applying the principles of pest risk analysis to the review of sanitary and phytosanitary risks associated with the intentional importation of exotic plant species not yet established in the country. The WRA system is used specifically to assess the weed potential of such species. It generates a score for a species based on its history as a weed in other parts of the world, climatic suitability to Australia and biological attributes. The weed risk assessment (WRA) system is one means by which the assessment component of pest risk analysis is addressed. The WRA system is a question-based scoring method that can be operated using a computer or manually using paper-based forms. A Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet version of the system, including documentation, has been made available through the International Phytosanitary Portal

6.1. Leaf Spot, Blight, and Blast

Leaf spots are irregular or round blemishes found on either side or both sides of the leaves. A typical spot is “zonal,” meaning it has a definite edge and a darker border. When lots of spots are present, they can grow together to cover the larger areas of the leaves. Different fungi are responsible for the leaf spots and sometimes a particular fungus causes a peculiar type of leaf spot and includes the fungi.