eChapters

Slaughtering and dressing of different kinds of animals and birds is an age old practice. Initially slaughtering was done by cutting the throat or stabbing the throat or breast. But today’s world of progress and scientific evolution slaughter methods has undergone material changes. Scientifically there are two essentials of slaughtering i.e. humane slaughter to avoid unnecessary pain and sufferings to the animals and complete bleeding. Legislations require stunning of animals to render them unconscious before bleeding except in Jewish and Muslim slaughter. The animals subjected to slaughter must be clean which is generally achieved by cleaning. The premises and transportation vehicles should also be maintained in good hygienic and sanitary conditions. All the facilities required for slaughter animals and birds arranged well in advance. In commercial plants and export units, slaughtering and dressing is performed on overhead rails but for domestic use, booth and simple rails may serve the purpose due to low throughput. The requirements and systems of overhead rail are mentioned in chapter 1. Some of the requirements are listed in following table

Levitical Law of Old Testament initially authorized meat animals for food of man who had to part the hoof and chew the cud. So man started eating the animals and their edible parts of animals who consume grass and other arable crops.  Examples were cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, pigs, horses, deer, reindeer, yak, camel etc. Now poultry have become major meat producing species while rabbit, guinea pigs, various game animals and birds provides substantial meat. Advancement of knowledge on quality and safety enforced the man to evaluate and grade the live animals and carcasses for values decision in marketing.

Meat cutting and fabrication is a skilled process in which separation of carcass into wholesale primal cuts is done to facilitate meat trade requirements, consumer preference and easy handling to the butchers. The person engaged in cutting and fabrication of carcass cuts must be skilled and expert in their job. He/she must have the expert knowledge of carcass configurations and location of retail cuts in animal carcasses. To obtain good quality retail cuts, carcass should be essentially chilled and temperature of meat cutting room should be 15-20oC with relative humidity of about 80%.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point is a comprehensive food safety system of food which starts from production to the ultimate consumption. HACCP monitors each and every step of production process, identify the specific hazards, implement the effective control programme and also verify the procedure. However, it is not a zero risk programme and there is possibility of risk of hazards in the process but the theme of programme is to minimize the risk of hazards upto a level which will be considered as safe. Thus HACCP programme is termed as risk management tool. It involves the management of all types of hazards like microbiological, chemical and physical.

By-products or offal’s are basically every part or particle which is not included in dressed carcass. It can also be explained as everything produced from the animals except dressed meat is considered as by-products. Meat industry now demands the full utilization of by-products to make the industry profitable and economically sustainable. It is also important for environmental management and to enhance the social image of the meat industry. The yield of animal by-products ranges between 50-60% of the live weight.

The vast livestock population requires proper harvesting of animal by-products to generate income to the farmers and to provide the employment to marginally educated masses. The density of livestock in our country demands atleast one animal by-product processing plant in each fifty kilometer range. Proper utilization of animal by-products will also serve in reduction of environmental pollution through slaughter house. Ultimately image of the meat industry can be enhanced by proper utilization of animal by-products. The proper disposal of animal slaughter house and by-products waste is further necessary to reduce the environmental pollution and to enhancement the livelihood of neighourers.

Term rendering is generally used to recover the fat from animal material by heating. However, today rendering word is applied in broad sense in by-products industry to recover stock feed, fertilizers and fats from slaughter house offals, parts and condemned material from animal body. Today many products are recovered by rendering process and can be utilized in different ways. Some of them may be categorized as edible and inedible. The major examples are lard and tallow which may be edible and inedible depending on the processing. Other valuable products include chemicals, meat meals and bone meals. To get these valuable products, various animal by-products are processed like viscera, bones, trimmings, dead stock, feather and other poultry materials.

Blood is a first by-product of animal slaughter house. It accounts about 5-7 percent of animals live weight. It is highly nutritious material particularly rich in protein (17-18%) and essential nutrients. Blood is a rich source of amino acids like leucine, lysine, valine, phenylalanine, histidine etc. It is also rich in haem iron which is biologically most available form of iron. Protein efficiency ratio of plasma is 2.5 while 1.0 for globin. It contains about 80 percent water and responsible for effluent problems. It is a great source of pollution because BOD₅ of whole blood is 250000 mg/litre. It should be collected and processed as soon as possible because whole blood clots easily and is capable to clogs the drainage system, grease traps and septic tank of meat plant or abattoir.

Hides and skin are the important and widely used animal by-products of slaughter house industry. Human beings are utilizing animal skins since time immorial and nomadic people still depend upon them for shelter, clothing, weapons, food containers etc. In general on live weight basis yield of hide is 7 percent while skin is around 11 percent.  Though it is also obtained from the fallen animals but the superior quality hide is always of slaughtered animals. Source wise slaughtered animals account 20-25 percent of hide and 80 percent of skin whereas fallen animals contributes around 75-80 percent of hide and 20 percent of skin. So the major sources for hide are fallen animals and skin is from slaughtered animals.

Bones of the animal body makes a skeleton system and helps in locomotion and support soft tissues. The proportion of bones in animal body varies with the animal species as they contribute 12-28 percent in cattle and buffalo, 17-35 percent in sheep and lambs, 50percent in bobby calves, 25 percent in veal calves, 12-20 percent in pigs and 8-17 percent in poultry. As the age advances bones becomes rigid due to ossification of cartilages but in older age bones becomes brittle and fragile due to reduction in bone organic matter.

Stomach and intestines are important part of animal body.  Stomach mainly constitutes rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasums. In which rumen, reticulum and omasum are utilized in form of edible uses, petfood and meat meal while abomasums can be converted into petfood and meat meal but abomasums of suckling calf can be utilized in extraction of rennet. Sheep rumen can also be utilized as haggis casings and pig stomach can be processed as petfood, pepsin, haggis casings and chitterlings. Organic content obtained from stomach and intestines can be utilized in form of compost, fertilizer and sometimes as feed. Intestine is also constitutes large intestine (colon, caecum and rectum), small intestine and oesophagus. In which large intestine and small intestine if not in condition to convert in casings can be utilized by rendering in form of meat meal.

India is bestowed by nature with a vast livestock resources comprising of 190 million cattle, 108 million buffalo, 135.17 million goats, 65.06 million sheep, 10.29 million pigs, 729.2 million poultry, 0.29 million mithun and 0.07 million yak (Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, 2014). The livestock sector is an important segment of agriculture and contributes nearly 25.6 percent of value in agriculture, fishing and forestry sector. The total share of livestock in GDP of India is 4.11 percent and meat is an important sector to generate foreign revenue by export. The share can further be extended by utilization of animal by-products because it is a sector of livestock neglected most. It is an old saying that ‘each and everything comes from animals can be utilized except last cry of animals’.

Abattoir is a structure meant to recover the edible portions of slaughtered animals for human consumption. These structures are used to cater the need of domestic purposes as well as some of them are utilized for export purposes. The demand of Indian meat and meat products is increasing day by day not only in our country but also around the globe. Therefore, millions (about 15 million cattle and buffalo and 1 million sheep and goat) of food animals are slaughtered every year to meet the current demand. Such large scale slaughter of food animals generates huge amount of wastes but due to lack of proper sanitary measures in majority of slaughter houses of our country their wastes not only deteriorate the hygiene of meat and meat products but also pose a potential threat to the environment. Therefore, it is an urgent need for safe and proper disposal of slaughter house and meat processing waste for food safety and human health. It is also important to protect the environment and to improve the quality and hygiene of meat and meat products.

The sanitation word is derived from a Latin word sanitas, meaning “health.” In true sense sanitation is the creation and maintenance of hygiene and healthful conditions in abattoir or meat processing plant. So that produced food provides full nutrients with minimal contaminations and hazards to the human health. It creates the aesthetic environment in the workplace which ultimately enhances the work efficiency and satisfaction to the workers. It helps in maintenance of clean environment, less pollution, proper waste disposal and improves ecological balance. It is a prerequisite of food safety, good hygienic practices and total quality management.

Animal Fibers                   The animal materials like wool, hair, fur, mohair and silk used for weaving, knitting or felting into a fabric are                                                      generally termed as animal fibers. Animals used for the purpose are sheep, goat, llama, alpaca, camel, vicuna                                                and silk worm.

India is one of the chief carpet wool producing and exporting countries of the world. A large quantity of carpet wool is exported to the developed countries. Wool production in Indian subcontinent is mainly dependant on distinct type of sheep producing wool in a particular geographical area. For example small and course wool is produced by Bikaneri breed in North Western India, course wool by Deccani breed and hair type breed by Mandya breed in Peninsular India and fine wool is produced in Himalayan region. In general, tropical breeds of sheep are mainly producing course wool which is highly suitable for carpet manufacture. Most of the Indian sheep breeds are producing low fleece yield. The annual total yield of greasy wool is in the range of 1-1.5 Kg. Overall great quantity of wool is produced in southern hemisphere but consumption is in northern hemisphere.

Wool is a thick and wavy animal fiber makes fibrinous protective covering of sheep. There are 170 different types of proteins are found in wool but the major and foremost protein is keratin. It is insoluble in nature and forms most of the part of wool. True wool fiber is basically modified hair that is not shed like the hair of most farm animals and medulla is absent in true wool. Wool contains excessively scaly surface but hair surface is mostly smooth, less elastic. The matured keratinized fiber extruding above the skin is considered dead tissue. Wool fiber is basically originated from follicle situated in dermis or middle layer of skin. Wool fiber is elastic, hygroscopic, retains warmness, durable, non inflammable and transmits ultra-violet light.

Wool is a fibre basically composed of amino acids and have excellent absorbency, moisture regain capacity, tend to warm the human body if used in form of cloths and others, good in elasticity and resiliency but poor in resistance to alkali but acid tolerance is good. To get better utilization of wool, they may be classified into various categories based on their origin, fleece quality, fineness of wool fibres etc.

Shearing is an operation of clipping the wool from sheep body. It is essential to get the wool from animals as well as to provide comfort to the sheep and enhance the economic status of sheep farm. The time of shearing is twice in a year preferably once at beginning of summer (march-April) and second at the start of winter (September – October). However, for veterinary reasons and other requirements of animals, shearing can be performed any time.

Wool is a natural fiber and considered as renewable, sustainable and environmental friendly. It is capable to keep the body warm and can be utilized as casual bears and also in formal bears and provide comfort to the human body in both of the active and passive situations. So to maintain a standard quality of wool for fabric development it is utmost important to test the wool fiber for certain qualities. Testing of wool fiber is also important to retain the unique physical and chemical properties of wool which makes this fiber versatile. Fiber quality is in real sense is a set of characteristics and defects in the fleece; both inherited and acquired, which influence its end use. The term quality testing includes a process of critical examination of material to draw the information’s related to qualitative or quantitative aspects of wool fibers. There are number of standard test procedures are in prevalence but most commonly followed test procedures for wool are American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM), British standards, Indian Standard Institution (ISI) or International Wool Textile Organization (IWTO) etc.

Abstract

Agriculture continues to be the most important sector of the Indian economy and agriculture is a  more or less a compulsion for livelihood of millions of farmers. Land and water resources have almost reached their limits, price of commodities are fluctuating almost every day, profits are negligible for most of the marginal and small farmers and most of all getting information is cumbersome. In present day agriculture, soft resources like knowledge and skills are as important as hard resources like inputs, and sometimes more important. But estimates indicate that 60 per cent of farmers do not access any source of information for advanced agricultural technologies resulting in huge adoption gap. The requirement of field level extension personnel is estimated to be about 1.3 -1.5 million against the present availability of about 0.1 million personnel. The mobile phone comes into the picture here.

Abstract

Agriculture, which was once a livelihood for millions, is now turning into a not -so-profitable occupation. The interest has reduced especially among the youth because of its input intensive nature. Among all other  things, the most important input in profitable and sustainable agriculture is timely information. However, with the increasing value of the ratio of farmers to extension personnel, getting timely information is a challenge. Then again, rationally used, we are surrounded by communication devices and the most essential and affordable of all are mobile phones. They have made communication easier, faster, affordable and profitable. The boom in mobile based agro-advisory services in the developing countries around the world has found its own subscriber base among the bottom of the pyramid farmers in rural areas and has been developing their economic conditions. Their services range from crop information, market price alerts to holistic agricultural information which are available free of cost and under subscription.

Abstract

The chapter examines the relationship between the agricultural value chain and mobile apps. Using email survey data from mobile app developers, supplemented with basic desk research, the chapter reviews and analyzes 55 mobile apps based on their location within the value chain, the format of content delivery, the types of device used, the stage of deployment as of  2012, the type of business model used, and the geographic focus of the app. The analysis generally reveals an even distribution of apps within the three main components of the agricultural value chain but when it comes to the sub-categories within the agricultural value chain, skewed distribution was observed. Feature phones remain the dominant device for delivering agricultural information to users, however, increasing number of smartphone-specific applications gaining market. Most of the devices use text format for content delivery with voice, image and video as supplements.

Abstract

In the past decade, many knowledge-centric mobile phone initiatives in Indian agriculture have emerged, either substituting or supporting extension services by providing farmers with access to agricultural information. These knowledge-centric mobile phone platforms have the potential to reach many farmers directly with timely and accessible content. But the content that these deliver has more relevance if it is localized and context specific, as this improves the value and actionability of the information, which can have important impacts on farm management. The localization of content is influenced by how the projects access, assess, apply, and deliver content.

Abstract

Knowledge and communication is an important resource for agriculture and can contribute substantially to ensure food security and sustainability by creating awareness and skill development through access to information. The initial and most prominent player of knowledge delivery is public sector extension services, which from past few years, are usually criticized for their ineffective targeting, poor reach and the huge administrative cost of delivering information. Since past few years, the drastic increase in mobile penetration even in rural areas has lead to evolution of ICT-based extension services models to disseminate agriculture related information.

Abstract

In Cyprus the National Agricultural Research System is mainly under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment (MANRE). One of its departments, namely the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), is the only recognized public institution engaged exclusively in applied agricultural research, covering the wider domain of crop and animal production. Another department of the MANRE, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has as its main mission the development of the agricultural and livestock sector through the education and guidance of the farmers, the planning and the implementation of development programmes. 

1. Introduction

One of the most recent running questions of agricultural extension is the potential of rural areas to benefit from mobile communication. Actually, today the increase of the use of mobile phones (MP) is even more rapid in both urban and rural world.

1. Introduction

A cooperative agricultural extension service has been implemented in Japan by both national and prefectural governments to support small-scale farmers who emerged as a result of land reform after the Second World War (Yamada, 2008).  In recent years, however, the scope and level of agricultural extension advisors’ activities have become more sophisticated and diversified because of technological progress and a wider range of activities, from production and selling to promoting relevant political measures.  On the other hand, the number of agricultural extension advisors has been decreasing for several years because of a cut in government expenditure for the cooperative extension service.  For this reason, information and communication technology (ICT) is needed to promote advanced and efficient extension activities (Yamada, 2010).

Abstract
 
Nigeria has a very large domestic market, but consumers, farmers, processors and other agribusiness investors are often faced with challenges getting timely and relevant information. However, it has been found out that in Nigeria many people preferred receiving information over a mobile phone than a computer. The problems farmers encounter in exchanging information and that more than half of Nigeria’s population are mobile phone subscribers of which majority of them are farmers necessitate overview of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)  and agricultural development in Nigeria. Literatures were consulted, secondary data, and personal observations were tools used to compile the chapter contribution.

1. Introduction

For the last years, Peru’s GDP has been continuously growing, and in 2010 the agricultural sector has played a significant role in this process. According to the National System on Agricultural Innovation, the sector has an important contribution in economic and social aspects.Regarding the former, national agrarian production represents 8% of global GDP.
 
Statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture of Peru show that the agricultural sector includes 31% (3 million people approximately) of the country’s Economically Active Population (EAP), and 65% of the EAP in rural areas. The latest agrarian census indicates that almost 5.5 million hectares are used for agricultural activities, which accounts for 15% of the total surface.

Abstract

The contribution of agriculture to the Tanzania’s economic growth has not been fully realized due to the sector’s’poor performance. This is attributed to a combination of constraints, which are often aggravated by lack of access to timely, relevant and reliable agricultural information. The traditional approach of delivering agricultural information through extension services has been criticized widely as there are weak information flows amongst agricultural actors.

Abstract

With the evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Agriculture as the major employer of Ugandans population with over 82% of the population, agricultural information is a key component in improving small-

Agriculture is undoubtedly the largest livelihood provider in rural India. As we enter a new post WTO Scenario and IT revolution, new inventions are happening day by day in every sphere. Agriculture is not culture now, it is agri business! Agriculture constitutes over 25% of India’s GDP. In recent years, much emphasis has been given by the Ministry of Agriculture on commercializing agricultural production in the country. Adequate production and distribution of food has become a high priority and global concern. In the fast changing world and increasing competition in a globalized economy, there is a need for exploiting the available resources to the maximum level and use of best technologies available world over, to cope up with domestic demand of food and also to target export market. This will be particularly relevant in South India, where farmers grow a number of crops, but have technical constraints in enhancing production and productivity because of inadequate exposure to high technology & inputs coupled with advanced production practices, logistics and marketing. In addition, shortage of labour is a major concern for progressive farmers of South India who are ready to offer more wages to labourers. Therefore, they are forced to become machinery-dependent in their farm operations. As a result, Southern India is emerging as one of the hottest destinations as well as a strong market with buying potential for farm machinery and equipment.

2.1 Introduction

Microbes are the oldest form of the life on earth. These organisms date more than 3 billion years to a time when they were discovered with oceans. They are so tiny in size that million microbes can fit into the eye of a needle. Without microbes, we can’t live. Thus, understanding microbes is vital to understanding past and future. Microbes play many roles in the earth’s environment recycling dead plant and animal matter through the soil, removing CO2 from the atmosphere by photosynthesis in the oceans and nitrogen from the atmosphere to form nitrogenous fertilizers plants. Microbes play an important role in nutrient recycling, management, organic matter, decomposition and increasing the crop productivity and quality and protection against diseases (Panwar et al., 2009). Over the past century, many of the basic scientific principles of plant nutrition and soil fertility have been explained. In developed countries, inorganic chemical fertilizers have been widely accepted as a major source of improving and maintaining soil fertility.

Biofertilizers can be defined as the preparations containing strains of micro-organisms which can augment the microbiological process viz. nitrogen fixation, phosphate solubilization or mineralization, excretion of plant growth promoting substances or cellulose or lignin biodegradation in soil, compost or other environments. Biofertilizers can be divided into nitrogen fixing bacteria, phosphate solubilizing and mobilizing microorganisms and organic matter decomposers as (Table 3.1 and Fig. 3.1):

On the basis of Nitrogen Fixation: On the basis of N₂ fixation, they are divided in to two sub categories as

Under agricultural conditions, the nitrogen removed is usually greater than the nitrogen input. To maintain fertility, nitrogen must be returned to the soil. This takes place mainly by biological nitrogen fixation, which is responsible for the major reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia that is used by the plants. Biological nitrogen fixation accounts for most of the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen in to Ammonium, thus representing the key entry point of molecular nitrogen into the biogeochemical cycle of nitrogen (Fig.4.1). Some bacteria can convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium. Most of this nitrogen fixing prokaryote is free living in the soil.

The role of leguminous plants in improving the soil fertility is known for centuries. The nitrogen uptake in legumes by some unknown process was demonstrated through agronomic experiments by J.B Boussingault in 1838, which was opposed by Liebig and others. The presence of bacteria in the roots nodules of legumes was observed by P.G Lachmann (1858). M. Woronin (1866) further examined and observed them to be rod-shaped and motile.

Azolla is a free-floating water fern that floats in water and fixes atmospheric nitrogen in association with nitrogen fixing blue green alga Anabaena azollae. Azolla fronds consist of sporophyte with a floating rhizome and small overlapping bi-lobed leaves and roots. Rice growing areas in South East Asia and other third World countries have recently been evincing increased interest in the use of the symbiotic N2 fixing water fern Azolla either as an alternate nitrogen sources or as a supplement to commercial nitrogen fertilizers. Azolla is used as biofertilizer for wetland rice and it is known to contribute 40-60kg N/ha per rice crop. The agronomic potential of Azolla is quite significant particularly for rice crop and it is widely used as biofertilizer for increasing rice yields. Rice crop response studies with Azolla biofertilizer in the People’s Republic in China and in Vietnam have provided good evidence that Azolla incorporation into the soil as a green manure crop is one of the most effective ways of providing nitrogen source for rice.

The first species of the genus Azotobacter, named Azotobacter chroococcum family Azotobacteriaceae, was isolated from the soil in Holland in 1901. Azotobacter represents the main group of heterotrophic free living nitrogen-fixing bacteria principally inhabiting neutral or alkaline soils. Azotobacter chroococcum and Azotobacter agilis were studied by Beijerinck (1901). In subsequent years several other types of Azotobacter group have been found in the soil and rhizosphere such as Azotobacter vinelandii, Lipman (1903); Azotobacter beijernckii, Lipman (1904); Azotobacter paspali, Döbereiner (1966), Azotobacter nigricans, Krasil’nikov (1949); Azotobacter armenicus, Thompson and Skerman (1981); Azotobacter salinestris, Page and Shivprasad (1991). A. paspali while A. agilis was categorized  under the genus Azomonas (Table 7.1).

Azospirillum is a spiral-shaped nitrogen fixing bacterium. It also produces hormones and vitamins. Important species are Azospirillum brasilense and Azospirillum lipoferum. It is widely distributed in soils and grass roots.The genus Azospirillum belongs to family Spirillaceae with four commonly available species viz. A. brasilence, A. lipoferum, A. amazonense and A. halopraeferens or A. seropedicae (Fig. 8.1).

BGA belong to a class of prokaryotic photosynthetic microorganisms also known, as cyanobacteria are capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen aerobically. Most abundantly found in tropical zone, never form fibrous growth and are enveloped by a sheath. The trophic independence of algae for C and N makes them responsible for a natural fertility buildup of rice field soils. The nitrogen fixing ability of BGA was first recognized by Frank and Prantil in 1889. The occurrence of the BGA in the rice field was reported by FE Fritsch in 1907.

Phosphorus is the second important key element after nitrogen as a mineral nutrient in terms of quantitative plant requirement (Donahue et al., 1990), which is required in optimum amount for proper growth of plants and soil micro-organisms. Being a constituent of ATP, it is involved in various processes such as cell division, energy transduction through photosynthesis and biological oxidations and uptakeof nutrients. The average soil contains 0.05% phosphorus, but only one tenth (1/10) of this is available to plants due to its poor solubility and chemical fixation in soil (Barber, 1984). About 98% of Indian soils have inadequate supply of available phosphorus (Ghosh and Hassan, 1979). A survey of Indian soils showed that out of 363 districts, only 2.2% were high, 51.5% medium and 46.3% were low in phosphorus content (Ghosh, 1982).

11.1 Introduction

Our Country is a fast developing nation for the overall development and has proved that the country which was known for a begging bowl for food grains has turned up towards self-sufficiency and also has excess production to feed the present level of population. From about 50 MT of food grain production in 1950-51, harvest in 2010-11 reached over 241 MT, highest ever along with high production of fruits, vegetables, milk, egg and fish. This increased food production in the country has mainly been achieved through productivity gains, as the net sown area has remained static for the last four decades.

Most trees legumes thrive in tropical regions but N2 fixing non leguminous trees are prevalent in temperature conditions. Callatiam and coworkers from U.K. cultivated Frankia for the first time in 1978 in pure culture. A number of non-leguminous shrubs and trees as Alnus, Myrics, Hippophae, Casuarina and Elaeagnus are nodulated by N₂ fixing Actinomycetes, Frankia with Frankiaceae (Actinomycetes), the only acyinomycete reported to fix nitrogen to date. The so called actinorhizal plants include 7 orders, 8 families, 17 genera and 173 species of dicotyledons plants reported by Gaur, (2010), whereas 200 plants and 23 genera were reported by Diagne et al. (2013). Some of the important non-leguminous families and genera are given in Table 12.1.

Earthworms have been on the earth for over 20 million years. In this time they have faithfully done their part to keep the cycle of life continuously moving. Their purpose is simple but very important. They are nature’s way of recycling organic nutrients from dead tissues back to living organisms. Many have recognized the value of these worms. Ancient civilizations, including Greece and Egypt valued the role earthworms played in soil. The Egyptian Pharaoh, Cleopatra said, “Earthworms are sacred.”

14.1 Introduction

The green revolution brought amazing consequences in food grain production but with insufficient concern for agricultural sustainability. The availability and affordability of fossil fuel based chemical fertilizers at farm level in India have been ensured only through imports and subsidies which are largely dependent on GDP of the country. Dependence on chemicals for future agricultural needs would result in further loss in soil health, possibilities of water contamination and calculated burden on the fiscal system. Indiscriminate synthetic fertilizer usage has polluted the soil, water basins, destroyed micro-organisms and eco-friendly insects, made the crop more susceptible to diseases and depleted soil fertility at the primary levels as of today (Pindi, 2012). India is an agricultural based country.

Biofertilizer is still an unclear term. It can be easily found that biofertilizers are identified as plant extract, composted urban wastes, and various microbial mixtures with unidentified constituents, and chemical fertilizer formulations supplemented with organic compounds. Likewise, the scientific literature has a very open interpretation of the term biofertilizer representing everything from manures to plant extracts.  Quality control of biofertilizers involves several major aspects such as isolation and identification of various strains, screening of the pure isolated strains, fermentation and quality control and finished product.

In nature, microbes are found as a mixed population. The types that encounter the most favourable environmental and other growth conditions emerge in abundance while others that find the environment less favourable are fewer in number. However, for any kind of study on them or for their use as a pure species, they have to be separated from other species. The nutritional media or culture media are different for different species. As the medium is specific for certain species, it checks or restricts the growth of other microbes for which it may not be suitable. However, some growth of and contamination by unwanted species may occur.

The microbial community is a gold mine for gene(s) and pathway(s) that encode novel biocatalysts for biosynthetic or biodegradation processes, including degradation of pollutants, synthesis of biofuels and production of novel drugs. Sequencing of the microbial genome will also provide insights into the ecology of  microorganisms that are beneficial to, or threaten, crop production, and that ensure the quality and provision of ecosystem services. These unique genetic and biosynthetic capabilities of microorganisms have made them likely  candidates for solving particular difficult problems in the agriculture. For many years microbiologist and microbial  ecologists have tended to differentiate microorganisms as beneficial and harmful according to their function and how they affect soil quality, plant growth, and yield and plant health.

The quest for drugs from the sea has yielded a remarkable di versity of natural products mostly from invertebrates such as sponges, tunicates, bryozoans etc. These molecules are either in late stages of clinical trials or have already entered the market. There has been an increased emphasis on marine microorganisms as sources of bioactive compounds over the past decade. Marine bacteria alone constitute 10% of the total living biomass carbon of the Earth’s biosphere and they have unique metabolic and physiological capabilities to ensure their survival in diverse habitats. In the marine environment, some microorganisms associate with living and non-living surfaces and the competition amongst these microbes for space and nutrients leads to the production of bioactive secondary metabolites.