eChapters

Before carry out any ethnobotanical work, first define the goal of the assignment or study before selecting the approach, which best suits the interests, budget and schedule. Most of the methods used in ethnobotanical studies are time taking and costly because several field trips are required in several seasons for covering different ritual occasions and seasonal farming activities which are continue for a number of years for completion of an assignment. In this way, an assignment may be very long or short as per selection approach of an ethnobotanist. Long-term assignment or projects may be continue for several years and they require sufficient financial input. When sufficient financial add and time does not available to accomplished long term assignments, in that case a Rapid Ethnobotanical Appraisal (REA) can be done.

Introduction

Mulberry (Morus spp.) is a most important crop which is used as food for silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) belonging to the genus Morus and family Moraceae. In tropical and temperate countries, mulberry is cultivated as shrubs and tree respectively. The total area under cultivation of mulberry in India is around 2,82,244 ha. The largest mulberry producing state is Karnataka (1,66,000 ha) followed by Andra Pradesh (38,084 ha). All over the world there are almost 68 species of Morus genus among 1000 varieties were commercially cultivated (Central silk board, Mysore). The nutritive values of mulberry leaves are affected by many diseases like leaf spot, powdery mildew, rust, root rot and bacterial blight which are causing severe yield loss up to 10-30%. In addition it also affects the growth, development of silkworm and cocoon yield due to feeding ofthose diseased leaves. (Sastry, 1984; Sundareswaran et al. 1998). Occurrence of these diseases based on some factors such as season, temperature, humidity and variety of mulberry (Sukumar, 1996). This chapter will be discussed about the disease causing organism, epidemiology and their management practices.

Cercospora leaf spot

Economic Importance

Cercospora leaf spot is an economically important disease causing abundant damage by reducing the leaf quality of mulberry (Siddaramaiah and Krishnaprasad, 1978). During July-December it causes yield loss of 10-15% and the disease present till January-February.

1. Horticulture sector covers % of total cropped area.

 a) 10% b) 15%

 c) 20% d) 25%

 2. Among all floricultural products, the contribution of dry flowers in total exports is:

 a) 40 b) 50

 c) 60 d) 70

 3. Protein synthesis takes place in:

 a) Nucleus b) Nucleolus

 c) Ribosome d) Mitochondria

The Government of India has established a comprehensive institutional framework to promote natural farming through various schemes and initiatives that provide financial support, technical assistance, and policy backing to farmers transitioning from conventional to sustainable agricultural practices. These government interventions represent a strategic shift toward recognizing natural farming as a viable solution to address environmental degradation, input cost escalation, and farmer distress while enhancing agricultural sustainability and food security. The National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) represents the flagship government initiative specifically designed to promote chemical-free and climate-smart agriculture across the country. The Union Cabinet approved the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) on 25th November 2024 as a standalone Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, with a target to initiate one crore farmers into natural farming over the next two years. The mission builds upon the earlier Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP)

Climate Change has emerged as one of the most serious environmental concerns of recent times. The most imminent climate change is increase in atmospheric temperature due to increased levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and hydrochlorofluoro carbons (HCFCs). Because of increasing concentrations of the greenhouse gases in atmosphere, there is much concern about future changes in the climate system viz., Atmosphere, Lithosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Cryosphere. Direct or indirect effects on the society linked sectors like water, forestry, agriculture, animal agriculture, fisheries, land and marine biodiversity and health due to climate change/variability are many-fold and economic impact of climate change is enormous. The recurrent drought and desertification threaten seriously the livelihood of over 1.2 billion people who depend on land for most of their needs.

1. INTRODUCTION

Water is the source that upholds every part of life on earth and is a key element of sustainable development. It is essential to the survival of healthy and safe lives of mankind. Ecosystems are inevitably linked with water. Lack of access to ample and safe drinking water is a serious setback among human population. Noxious substances from industries when enter into lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, and other water bodies, they get dissolved or lie suspended in water or get deposited on the bed. This results in the pollution of water whereby the quality of the water deteriorates, affecting aquatic ecosystems.

The strain of escalating population, growth of industries, urbanization, energy intensive life style, loss of forest cover, lack of environmental awareness and implementation of environmental rules and regulations, environment improvement plans, untreated effluent discharge from industries and municipalities, use of non-biodegradable pesticides/fungicides/herbicides/ insecticides, use of chemical fertilizers instead of organic manures, etc are basis of water pollution. The pollutants from industrial discharge and sewage, besides finding their way to surface water reservoirs and rivers are also percolating into ground to pollute ground water sources, threatening food security, access to safe drinking and bathing water and providing a major health and environmental management challenge. Contaminated water from inadequate waste water management provides one of the greatest health challenges restricting development and increasing poverty through costs to health care.

Water pollution is a sensitive problem all over the world. In the wake of increasing urbanization and industrialization, the pollution potential is gaining thrust day by day. Monitoring of waste water quality parameters is currently a subject of growing concern globally. Oxygen, although poorly soluble in water, is fundamental to aquatic life. In the absence of free dissolved oxygen, aquatic systems become inhabitable to most aquatic flora and fauna. Because the solubility of oxygen in water is so low, even little decrease in dissolved oxygen levels can compromise the health of natural water systems. Organic pollutants requiring oxygen for their decomposition exert a rapid and direct influence on the ecology of these environments. Therefore it is required to monitor the load of organic pollutants in the waste water.

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that variability in rainfall represents a significant variability of agriculture production. But urbanization of the cities on one hand and climate change on theother hand areaffecting the agriculture. Surprisingly, there have been very few analyses exploring the link between rainfall variability and urbanization on agriculture production. Therefore an attempt is made in this paper to know the affect of rainfall variability and urbanisation on the cropping area. For this purposeNDVI analysis is carried out in the catchments of Osmansagar and Himayathsagar Reservoirs by using the medium to high spatial resolution multi spectral data provided by remote sensing satellites, such as Landsat TM, IRS-1C/1D LISS-III and IRS-P6 LISS-III has been used for the years1989, 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2008 for Kharif season, 1975, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2003 and 2008 for rabi season which is collected from NRSC (National Remote Sensing Centre). From this analysis it is found that the increment is more in rabi season compared to kharif season due to the increment of non-monsoon rainfall intensities and ground water withdrawal structures. The increased utilization of the groundwater is causing the reduction of inflows to the reservoirs in the recent years because whatever the rainfall that occurs in the catchment, first utilised for meeting the depleted soil moisture and ground water consequently reducing the surface runoff.

Keywords : Climate change, Urbanisation, Inflows, Cropping area, NDVI

1. The total annual rainfall of India is about:

 a) 1190 mm b) 1250 mm

 c) 1050 mm d) 1350 mm

 2. Net cultivated area of India is:

 a) 142 mha b) 150 mha

 c) 140 mha d) 152 mha

 3. Amrapali is a cross between:

 a) Neelum x Dushehari b) Dushehari x alphonso

 c) Ratna x Alphonso d) Dushehari x Neelum

Synonyms :  Weil’s disease, Stuttgart disease, Infectious jaundice, Haemoglobinuria, Rice field worker’s disease, Swine handler’s disease, Sugarcane worker’s disease, Canine typhus

Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonosis. According to the occupational groups involved and the nature of the disease presentations, different names have been used, e.g. seven-day fever found commonly in Japan, Cane cutter’s disease in Australia, Rice field Leptospirosis in Indonesia and Fort Bragg fever, which appeared as an outbreak in the US. Weil’s disease, which is one of the severe forms of this disease, occurs in many countries, including India and other South-East Asian Countries, China, continental Europe and England. Leptospirosis exists in all the five inhabited continents and in a large number of countries. It occurs in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones.  Leptospirosis is also an important cause of abortions, stillbirths and reproductive failures in cattle and pigs.  Periodic ophthalmia in horse is commonly associated with leptospiral infections. Leptospirosis was first recognized in humans in 1886 by Weil and characterized by icterus.  Leptospira have been isolated from a variety of animal species and humans manifesting various clinical syndromes such as mud fever and swine herd disease.

Introduction

Protected cultivation practices can be defined as a cropping technique where in the micro environment surrounding the plant body is controlled partially or fully as per plant need during their period of growth to maximize the yield and resource saving. Protected structures can play important role to minimize the impact of temperature fluctuation, over/under precipitation, fluctuating sun shine hour and infestation of disease and pest. The controlled environment can be utilized for growing early season /off-season vegetables and high value vegetables. This may become relevant to those farmers having small land holding who would be benefitted by a technology, which helps them to grow more crops each year and save them from adverse situation. Vegetable crops are very sensitive to climatic vagaries and sudden rise in temperature as well as irregular precipitation at any phase of crop growth can affect the normal growth, flowering, pollination, fruit development and subsequently decreased the crop yield. Apart from that high input cost and higher labor wages make vegetable cultivation less profitable under open field condition. Again, in the present scenario, more people are demanding early season/off-season vegetables and high value vegetables at higher price which are not possible to grow under open field situation.

Present status in world: In world, China has the largest area (2,760 thousand hectares) under greenhouse cultivation followed by Korea having 57.44 thousand hectares (Nair and Barche, 2014). The advent of protected cultivation technology in India materialized during the early nineties, post globalization.

India: India is the second largest producers of vegetable in the world, however as per medical council of India, the production is much less than the requirement if balanced diet are to be provided to every individual. The advent of protected cultivation technology in India materialized during the early nineties, post globalization. In India, the area under protected cultivation faced with constraints of land holdings, rapid urbanization, declining crop production, declining biodiversity and ever increasing population, demand for food, especially vegetables has increased manifold and protected cultivation has offered a new dimension to produce more in a limited area. Today Dutch protected cultivation is one of the most intensive farming systems in the world with high levels of output by using the latest technologies.

Agriculture is the lifeline of India that provides livelihood to about 70 per cent of its population dwelling in about 6 lakh villages. In spite of so many projects, programmes and schemes launched from time to time after independence by Government of India through Ministry of Agriculture and Indian Council of Agricultural Research, State Agricultural Universities and Departments of Agriculture, agricultural food grains production was not realized on ìsustainable basisî. Even ìGreen Revolutionî which came to fore during 1967-68 in the irrigated areas alone, could not sustain the productivity of rice and wheat. Rather, the productivity of these crops has either got declined in many cases and/or in other cases it has stagnated.

1. The first Indian scientist who won the ‘World Food Prize’ is:

 a) Sanjay Rajaram b) M.S. Swaminathan

 c) Vergese Kurien d) G.S. Khus

 2. Seed rate of paddy (kg/ha) in SRI (System of Rice Intensification) method of cultivation is:

 a) 5-6 b) 8-10

 c) 12-14 d) 18-20

 3. AVRDC is situated at:

 a) Phillipines b Taiwan

 c) Japan d) India

“Activities which develop individual knowledge, talents, skills, and behaviour and improve institutional structures and processes so that the organization may efficiently accomplish its mission and goals in a sustainable manner” it refers as a capacity building. One of the crucial elements of capacity building is training.

Training for Development

Training is becoming an integral component of HRD. It has developed into one of the elements that allows any institution to produce its personnel who are the most productive and qualified.

Introduction
Next-generation sequencing (NGS), a High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) methodology, sometimes referred to as deep sequencing or massively parallel sequencing, has completely changed genomic research and DNA sequencing. Compared to the traditional Sanger sequencing approach, which took more than ten years to finish the human genome project, this state-of-the-arttechnology allows scientists to sequence a full human genome in a single day (Behjati and Tarpey, 2013). Although Sanger sequencing has mostly been replaced by NGS in research areas, it is still not widely used in clinical areas (Slatko et al., 2018). High-throughput DNA sequencing techniques have developed quickly over the past 20 years, and new approaches are constantly being developed. A greater range of applications in the basic and applied sciences become available as these technologies advance (Reis-Filho, 2009).
Overfishing, pollution, and climate change are putting the world’s aquatic ecosystems, which are home to a wide variety of fish species under previously unheard-of strain (Prakash, 2021). For effective conservation and management, accurate and efficient monitoring of fish diversity is therefore essential (Meinam et al., 2023). Techniques like physical capture and morphological identification have been used historically, but they can be intrusive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. A new age of fish diversity monitoring has been brought about by the development of NGS technologies, which provide a potent and noninvasive substitute (Kumar and Kocour, 2017). Rapid and thorough genetic material analysis is made possible by NGS, which offers previously unheardof insights into the distribution, composition, and population dynamics of species.

Introduction

The increasingly precarious situation facing the world’s hill regions has been the focus of a growing level of awareness over the past two decades. The high altitude regions offer a challenge to agricultural development agencies which is shared by many hill areas of the world characterized by marginality, extreme diversity, environmental fragility and complex smallholder farming systems. There is justifiable concern relating to the conservation of hill and mountain ecosystems, to the extent that the concept of sustainability has been adopted as a broad slogan by the environmental movement (Lele, 1991).

Conditions specific to mountain regions, such as inaccessibility and diversity have placed a high premium on large families, encouraging population growth. Children are essential to family subsistence strategies offering free labour, and they are consequently considered to be a source of wealth. Population control measures in these regions have ignored this scenario (Sharma and Banskota 1990; Jodha, 1991).

Summary

ISFM is important, cost-effective and has the potential of improving farming efficiency and crop productivity. This is only possible when farmers understand the concept and follow recommended practices in the ISFM approach.
 
The challenge is how to effectively disseminate ISFM practices to farmers for sustainable crop production.

Major Families

This chapeter deals with indigenous knowledge on use of various plant species in traditional medicine, food, dye, wood and in tanning etc.

Malvaceae

The family Malvaceae is also known as Mallow family, characterised by mainly shrubs and herbs. The plants of this family frequent have stellate trichomes, persistant sepals, epicalyx present, stamens numerous and monadelphous, anthers monothecous, carpels 5 or more.

Abroma angusta (Devil’s Cotton)

Paste of the leaf is applied to heal wounds and to relieve joint pain or back pain. Young shoots are used as food. Roots are used to cure itching.

Abutilon indicum (Kanghi)

The whole plant is used to make brooms. Plant also has medicinal value and its sap is used against ulcer, leprosy, piles, dysentery and fever.

Introduction

One of the main properties of fermented foods whether alkaline or acidic is the presence and activity of beneficial organisms which themselves make these foods functional. These functional micro organisms have varied roles like conversion of the native constituents of raw materials to forms in which they are more bioavailable, formation of taste, colour and flavouring compounds thereby imparting pleasantness to foods, removal of anti-nutritive factors in food by converting them into much less harmful compounds or degrade certain native toxic elements present in food, formation of biopreservatives which will extend the shelf life of foods and provide microbial security, as pathogens and spoilage microorganisms fail to readily grow in such hostile conditions. These functional microorganisms also produce in foods certain health-promoting bioactive compounds like enzymes, vitamins, minerals or increase the digestibility which may not have been in the original food or raw material before fermentation. In other words they improve the nutrition profile of the foods or naturally fortify foods. Some of these beneficial effects may also lead to the formation of certain compounds which show antioxidant properties in foods. These very roles played by these functional micro-organisms form criteria in their selection for use in food fermentations when they are intentionally added to foods both to initiate and accomplish desired fermentations.