eChapters

The earlier products of bio-fertilizers were carrier (solid) based where lignite is usually added as a carrier material. Lignite is hazardous to the production workers. Also, the shelf life of carrier based bio-fertilizers is only 6 months and is difficult to transport. Liquid Biofertilizers (LBFs) on the other hand have a shelf life of minimum one year, with no health hazards to production workers and are easy to transport. Additionally, LBF can be used in drip irrigation and as a component of organic farming. The liquid Bio fertilizers are suspensions having agriculturally useful microorganisms, which fix atmospheric nitrogen and solubilize insoluble phosphates and make it available for the plants. The use of this biofertilizer is environment friendly and gives uniform results for most of the agricultural crops and directly reduces the use of chemical fertilizer by 15 to 40%. The shelf life of the liquid bio fertilizer is higher (in the range of one to two years) compared to that of solid matrix base biofertilizer.

3.1 Definition

Liquid biofertilizers are liquid formulation containing the dormant form of desired microorganisms and their nutrients along with the substances that encourage formation of resting spores or cysts for longer shelf life and tolerance to adverse conditions. The dormant form on reaching the soil, germinate to produce fresh batch of active cells. These cells grow and multiply by utilizing the carbon source in the soil or from root exudates.

“A preparation comprising requirements to preserve organisms and deliver them to the target regions to improve their biological activity” or “A consortium of micro-organisms provided with suitable medium to keep up their viability for certain period which aids in enhancing the biological activity of the target site”.

This chapter deals with the objects used in R which contains the data in various formats. The data types used in R has also been mentioned in this chapter. The chapter also includes the functions used in R as the codes for accomplishing several jobs related to data analysis.

Unlike C language and Java, the variables in R are not declared as some data type. The variables are assigned with R object and the data type of R object becomes the data type of the variable. The commonly used R objects in R are vectors, lists, matrices, arrays, factors and data frames. The vector object is the simplest one and other R-objects are built upon the vectors. The different data types of these vectors are logical, numeric, integer, complex, character and raw. The objects in R are stored by the name of a variable and the data type of the object is determined by its content. To know the data type of a variable the class() function is used. The various data types are described as below:

The words ‘system’, ‘sub-system’ & ‘practice’ are commonly used in agroforestry literature. In a broad sense, a system is defined as a group of associated elements forming a unified whole and working together in a well-defined regular relation for a common goal. An agroforestry system refers to a type of agroforestry land-use that extends over a locality to the extent of forming a land utilization type of the locality. Sub-system and practice are lower-order terms in the hierarchy with lesser magnitudes of role, content and complexity. However, these terms are used loosely, and almost synonymously.

Classification of agroforestry systems is necessary in order to understand and provide a practical framework for evaluating systems and developing action plans for their improvement. Any classification scheme should satisfy the following criteria (Nair, 2008).

Introduction

The entire living organism from the smaller creatures viruses to the advanced human beings are composed of a set up of biochemical reactions which form the metabolism. These set of metabolic reactions are responsible for the life of organism. The rate of these reactions is a major concern for effective working of organism which is governed by biocatalyst. These biocatalysts are known as enzymes, which accelerates rate of biochemical reaction. These are not utilized in reaction. In 1877, Wilhelm Friedrich Kuhne (Kuhne, 1877) proposed the term enzyme which means ‘in yeast’ and is derived from the Greek word; inzume “leavened” or “in yeast”. At the molecular level of study it is observed that enzymes are proteins which are functional as tertiary and quaratanary structures. Enzymes have active site for the binding to substrate. The active site has two positions; binding and catalytic site (Ogeston, 1948). The former help to bind the substrate with the enzyme followed by the catalysis of reaction by the catalytic site.

Chilli (Capsicum annuum, 2n = 2x = 24, family Solanaceae) also known as hot-pepper, classified as often-cross-pollinated crop is consumed both as fresh green and dry spice type. It is a rich source of vitamin C and pungency to the consumers and world food industries. The global area and production statistics often run into different figures due to inclusion of some times only fresh green chilies, sometimes red-dry chillies and sometimes inclusion of sweet peppers also in this broad category. The global production of fresh and dry chillies in 2014 has been reported to be 32.32 million tons where China alone accounted for 16.12 million tons followed by India with over 5 million tons of production. Other major countries growing chilli are Mexico, Indonesia, Spain, Turkey, USA, Korea, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Thailand and Ethiopia. More than 65% of global green and dry chillies production is in Asia, while Europe contributes 12% and Africa around 10%. China is the leading producer of green and dry chillies, Area under chillies in China is less than that in India, but productivity is almost double than that in India.

2.1 Nitrogenous biofertilizers

These biofertilizers augment nitrogen to the plants through fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, either symbiotically or asymbiotically. The major nitrogenous biofertilizers are:

2.1.1 Rhizobium

The word Rhizobium is a Greek word where “rhiza” refers to root, and “bios” refers to life. Rhizobium was first named by Frank (1889) which means ‘root living’ in Latin (Fig. 3). Some species of Rhizobium were later moved to new genera based on phylogenetic analysis. It consists of 49 rhizobial species and 11 non-rhizobial species.

1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF SOILS

Soils are the medium in which crops grow, and so they are essential to the provision of the food and fibre to sustain mankind. But besides the immense importance of this role they are an essential component to life as we know it because of their action as a buffer to control the flow of water between sky, land and sea. They are also a sink, and usually a safe sink, for many of the chemicals that might otherwise make life difficult or unpleasant.

As with other natural resources, it is important that soils are used conservatively, so that the advantages we enjoy from them now can continue to be enjoyed in the future. To do this we need to understand them, to understand the flow of nutrients from soil to plants, and back to the soil or the sea in food chains and water flow. We need to understand the processes by which rocks alter to form soils, and how fast or how slowly the process occurs in different conditions. We need to understand the decay of plant materials in the soil, and how the products of decay help to make the soil a better place for plants to grow.

The chemistry of the constituents of soils, and of the processes by which changes occur, is not simple. Nevertheless we have learnt much about it, and can apply that knowledge to ensure that soils continue their important functions, and are not exploited so that they become infertile, nor used in such a way that the fertile topsoil is lost by erosion by wind or water.

Historic Cities Of India: Description And Its Classification

At this stage it is vital to take a look at ‘historic’ cities of our country with a view of better understanding, it is important to understand the basic components that constitute a historic city. Can we arrive at the number of such cities presently in India.

In the absence of an official definition of a ‘historic city’, it is hazardous to answer the above question in terms of a specific number. The census of India does define ‘urban area’ but does not venture to define historic cities. Considering the long history of its culture, it may be said that a majority of the Indian cities are historic.

Review of literature revealed that Indian historic cities need to be addressed with a deeper concern than they have been so far. The general trends of transformations of historic cities including Indian historic cities exhibit a recognizable pattern and it is possible to identify Indian historic cities on the basis of at least two indisputable grounds

1. INTRODUCTION

The growing demand of consumers for fresh, safe, chemical, additive or preservative free and minimally processed foods has compelled the food scientists and technologists to develop many non-thermal food processing technologies which cause minimum nutritional and sensory qualities impairment in the processed foods. In this endeavour, consumers prefer minimally or non-thermally processed foods rather than the thermally processed one. Today, non-thermal technologies like High Pulse Electric Field (HPEF) processing, High Hydrostatic Pressure (HHP) processing or Hight Pressure Processing (HPP) food irradiation, ultraviolet light, ultra sound, arc discharge, oscillating magnetic fields, light pulses, plasma, chemicals (ozone, carbon dioxide, argon), and the combined methods of these technologies are the major areas of research in the process and food engineering in order to find their suitability for processing of various food products.

7.1 The purpose and type of models

Sometimes the simplest way to estimate the effect of a physical process is to use an established equation, or formula, or charts and diagrams based on existing knowledge. The current fashion is to call such aids and solutions models, and they tend to become increasingly complicated and consequently dependent on computers to handle the mathematical processes.

It is important to identify the exact objective and purpose of models which are designed to estimate soil erosion. Two main divisions are models for prediction and models to assist with explanation. If the purpose is to predict amounts of erosion under alternative management practices then empirical models such as the USLE are efficient and effective. For an understanding of the processes of erosion it is necessary to turn to physically-based or deterministic models. The two objectives should not be cross-threaded onto the wrong kind of model, i.e. the USLE should not be seen as a vehicle for research studies on the mechanics of erosion. Neither should sophisticated simulation models be used as the basis for evaluating conservation practices which are better designed on the basis of experience, and evaluated by direct testing in the field.

The different kinds of models need a short explanation:

An empirical solution or model is one based on observation or experiment, and not derived from theory. It fits observed facts, and allows us to predict what will happen in certain circumstances, because we know what has happened before in those circumstances. The reliability of such methods depends on the database of experience: we might say This will certainly happen’ (because it always does), or “Will probably happen’ (because it usually does), or ‘it may happen’ (because it sometimes does). An empirical solution may be a simple approximate relationship or a complex multiple regression equation.

11.1 INTRODUCTION

The heavy metals which, by definition, are elements having a density greater than five in their elemental form, comprise some 38 elements. However, the term usually, and here, refers to twelve metals that are used and discharged by industry, i.e. Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sn, Zn. Most of the present discussion will centre on those metals that may represent potential hazards to plants or animals; these are Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn.

The heavy metals are widely distributed in the environment, in soils, in plants and animals and in most of their tissues. The concentrations of individual metals in living tissue are ordinarily very low and must be maintained within narrow limits to permit the optimum biological performance of most organisms. Some heavy metals are essential in trace amounts, namely Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Zn for plants and, in addition, Cr, Ni, Sn for animals; Cd, Hg, and Pb, have not been shown to be essential for either plants or animals. Deficiencies of the essential metals have been frequently reported and substantial benefits have arisen from correcting these by addition to the soil and subsequent transfer from soil to plant is for most increasing concern about the entry into soil of some heavy metals and the possible adverse effects that they might have on plants and animals and, in turn, on human health. The main sources of these heavy metals are: (i) urban industrial aerosols, created by combustion of fuels, metal ore refining and other industrial processes; (ii) liquid and solid wastes from animals and man; (iii) mining wastes; or (iv) industrial and agricultural chemicals. Although in some circumstances there are direct atmospheric inputs to plants, addition to the soil and subsequent transfer from soil to plant is for most heavy metals the major route of entry into the living tissues of plants, animals, and man. The fate of heavy metals added to soils, including their mobility and reactions in the soil and their subsequent uptake and distribution in plants, is therefore of critical importance in relation to man’s health.

1. Introduction

Agriculture and its allied sector is the largest economic sector in India and Indian economy depends heavily on the performance of this sector. Along with production, changes are occurring in supply, machinery, processing, distribution and marketing in the agriculture sector. All over the world, agriculture is passing through a phase of transition, and elements such as discrimination free trade, fair trade, transparency and its resulting predictability, scope for fair competition are being facilitated in to the agriculture sector through different norms and agreements. Due to the concerns about the environment, requirement of clean fuel which can be derived from vegetable sources are also getting increased. All these developments have created new opportunities and scopes for agriculture and agribusiness. Agripreneurship is considered as an employment in the strategy in the country especially for rural people. It promotes our economy by improving productivity and integrating the products into different markets including international markets. It helps in the reduction of cost and avoiding the uncertainties related to markets. To promote micro to medium scale industries, agripreneurship has a major role. Agripreneur faces constraints in related to identification of scope, proper time management and allocating budget etc. and proper project management skills are required to counter these constraints. Agripreneur should also consider sustainability, social and economic factors also (Gupta et al., 2017).

The male-centered business models were considered as the norm till the advent of the present century. But now we have entered an era where there is consensus that women entrepreneurs’ have huge role in the national economic development. Moreover, a significant number of studies show that even though there is a gap between the number of men and women entrepreneurs, the contribution from

women entrepreneurs has been constantly on the rise. This is despite the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs with respect to availability of credit, training, networks and information access and policy constraints. In order to ensure sustainable economic growth, it is necessary to embrace women’s entrepreneurship as it gives new market opportunities and greater development impact. In this chapter, emphasis is given to women entrepreneurship and its contribution to national economy, social empowerment and national integration. Also the challenges and opportunities faced by women in agri-entrepreneurship and changes in the perceptions on women entrepreneurship are discussed.

5.1 Introduction

A system is a group of interacting components, operating together for a common purpose, capable of reacting as a whole to external stimuli; it is unaffected directly by its own outputs and has a specified boundary based on the inclusion of all significant feedbacks. For example, the human body is a system — it has a boundary (e.g., the skin) enclosing a number of components (heart, lungs) that interact (the heart pumps blood to the lungs) for a common purpose (to maintain and operate the living body) (Rana and Rana 2011).The main aim of orchard management in tropical and sub-tropical fruits, is to increase land use efficiency by use of inter-crops, multiple crops, multi-storeyed crops systems etc. in obtaining maximum income from the available land. Apart from these, cover crops, sod culture, herbicides, minimum tillage etc. are also common.

5.1.1 Cropping Systems

It is an important component of a farming system that represents a cropping pattern used on a farm and their interaction with farm resources, other farm enterprises and available technology, which determine their makeup.

Rust

The rust of wheat has been studied more than any other disease in the world. In India, K.C Mehta and his associates studied this disease with exemplary zeal. Three rusts of wheat are known. These are Black stem rust, caused by Puccinia graminis tritici, Brown rust (leaf rust), caused by Puccinia recondita, and Yellow rust, caused by P? striiformis. Brown and yellow rusts cause more damage thant the black rust, because of early appearance in the season.

Introduction

With ever-increasing population growth, waste management has become a major challenge threatening environmental sustainability. The total solid waste generation was recorded to be 1.3 billion tonnes per year by the world’s cities in 2012, with an ecological footprint of 1.2 kilograms per person/day. With the intensity with which the population growth is happening coupled with urbanization, predictions are made that by the end of the year 2025, 2.2 billion tonnes of municipal waste will be generated (The World Bank, 2018). 

MARKET & MARKETING: CONCEPT OF MARKET AND CLASSIFICATION OF MARKETS

Meaning of Market: The Term Market is derived from Latin word ‘Markatus’ means Merchandise, Wars, the Traffic, Trades or Place where business is conducted. The Market means a place, as an open space (in the village) or a larger building, where actual buying and selling takes place. The market is an assembly or a meeting of people for their private purchase and sale of goods at a stated time and place. Example-Village Fairs or periodical markets.

Q. 1 The high moisture grain should be kept in
(A) Air tight structure     (B) Aerated structure
(C) Pucca kothi             (D) Gunny bags in closed room

Q. 1 In building material RCC stands for
(A) Revised cost calculation
(B) Revised construction cost
(C) Reinforced central construction
(D) Reinforced cement concrete

Sagittaria sagittifolia L. (Alismataceae):Eng.- Old World Arrow Head; Hindi- Chotakut; Kash.- Kyou [W]. Perennial herb inhabiting shallow water ponds, swampy rice fields. Leaves arrow shaped. Flowers have small sepals and three white petals, numerous purple stamens.Tubers edible (Figs. S 1, 2).

It is an established fact that there is no further scope for horizontal expansion of area under plough, as the per capita land is decreasing every year due to unabated increase in human population. Hence, the future need of food has to be met through vertical expansion i.e. more intensification of agriculture. Nearly 40 million tonnes of nutrients in the form of chemical fertilizers will have to be utilized to feed upon an estimated population of 1.5 billion by 2050 AD (Sakai, 2001). However, presently the crop productivity especially rice and wheat has stagnated not only in India but in other South Asian countries also (Mahajan and Gupta, 2009). 

Endocrine glands are organs which secrete chemical substances called hormones into the bloodstream. Hormones are chemical substances that are produced in one tissue, released into the bloodstream, and carried to other tissues, where they act through specific receptors to bring about changes in cellular activities. The term hormone is derived from the Greek root meaning to excite.

Antibodies, also called immunoglobulins, are the proteins produced by the immune system against antigens. These are the protective proteins which interact with antigens and neutralize their effects. Antibodies are produced by B lymphocytes. An immunoglobulin has a Y-shaped structure consisting of four polypeptide chains.

In agriculture, the ideal management practices were developed for individual crops through regular research and feedback received from the farmers. However, farmers are growing various crops in different seasons based on their adaptability to a particular season.

Refrigeration mean cooling i.e. lower the temperature by artificial means. It is a process of attaining lower temperature of the space or product below the surrounding temperature. It further involves maintaining the lower temperature achieved.

Mechanical power is usually transmitted from one shaft to another by using belts, ropes, chains, gears and clutches.

1. Belts and ropes are utilized if distance between the shafts is large. Belts and ropes are flexible and bend easily. But slip occurs between the belt and the pulley.

Eventhough nematodes occupy nearly every habitat on earth, they are remarkably similar in morphology and life stages. Despite their structural complexity, certain basic principles are common to all nematodes. Nematodes are triploblastic, bilaterally symmetrical, unsegmented, pseudocoelomate, vermiform and colourless animals.

Soil is generally defined as the upper layer of earth in which plants grow. It is regarded as a source of nourishment to all animals, moving or static. From agriculture or crop production point of view, soil is loose earth surface that supports vegetation, its quality, type and density. It is generally treated as a dynamic living entity and its physic-biochemical properties are responsible for its nutritional index. Precision production technology with suitable management is the key factors for its longer sustainability.

Bread, cloth and house (Roti, Kapra and Makan) are the basic need of human life and linked directly with agriculture because agriculture provides livelihood for nearly two-thirds of the population in India and it currently accounts for 14.2% of the GDP and also employs 55% of country’s total workforce. The sharp fluctuations in agricultural growth are mainly attributed to the vagaries of monsoon. Rainfed agriculture is spread over 55% of net cultivated area, contributing over 40% to the national agricultural production.

All food legislation is predicated on the food law, which protects public health and consumers’ regarding food. The regulation is applied to stages beginning from producing the food, processing and finally distributing the food and feed, apart from domestic use by consumers.

Global warming is the hottest issue facing life in our times. The gradual average increase in air temperatures near Earth’s surface over the past one to two centuries is leading to the phenomenon called global warming. It is this global phenomenon that triggers climate change, threatening the entire life on Earth. Earth’s climate has changed over all conceivable geological timescales, but that was all on account of the natural phenomenon. But, human activities are making the phenomenon more pronounced since the beginning of the Industrial Age, now emerging as a dominant triggering factor in influencing the overall climate fabric of the planet.

Microbial life abounds on a solid substrate. Water and some nutrients are sufficient to allow the microbial construction called biofilm. Biofilm-associated infections (BAI) can enhance chronic infections in which the bacterial pathogens can persist causing cross-contamination of the food products.

Giaouris et al. (2014) worked on the meat processing and biofilm formation by foodborne bacteria. Work on seafoods has been well worked by Mizan et al. (2015). Habimana et al. (2010) studied them in feed industry on Salmonella versus host resident flora strains. Lin et al. (2017) have studied the characteristics of some food borne pathogens. In a study by Rao et al. (2020) cold atmospheric plasma can be a solution to prevent biofilms.Ferriol-Gonzalez et al. (2020) worked out that bacteriophages can be helpful to remove biofims. According to Przekwas et al. (2020) in early stage of growth of the biofilm use of ascorbic acid can be helpful for the removal of biofilms. Apples can be protected from pathogenic bacteria by protecting them using harmless bacteria. It leads towards the development of alternative foodborne-pathogen-control strategies. Listeria monocytogenes is a big concern in the NE part of India.

Being an agricultural country with 1/5^th of the world’s population of cattle and half of the world’s buffaloes. The cows and bullocks are the backbone of agriculture and play major role in the rural economy. India stands first in milk production in the world. Corresponding increase in human population, the per capita availability of milk is 145 gm/day which is far lower than the recommended level of 285 gm/day/head.

Importance of Livestock Management

• Provides milk and milk products. Milk is a perfect food as it contains proteins, fat, milk sugar, minerals and vitamins. It is the only source of animal protein in vegetarian diet.
• Livestock gives us meat.
• Provides farmyard manure

Abstract

Bioprocessing is much greener than chemical methods, since biocatalysts (enzymes or cells) involved are extremely selective, producing higher product yield with less or no by products, which are basically difficult to separate. Biotechnology can offer both economic and environmental benefits to the chemical industry and thus has great potential to achieve the sustainable production of existing and new products from renewable feedstocks. Fuel and energy production from biomass are major market sector for bioprocessing. They are considered in the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals, food, food additives, chemicals, and several other products. Generally, a bioprocess involves feedstock pretreatment, fermentation or biocatalysis, and downstream processing for obtaining product and its purification. It is explored for the production of xylitol, fatty alcohol, butanol and biorefinery. Deep understanding of the process is required to create robust control strategy. Based on the requirements, sophisticated instrumentation and complex control laws or simple control law having intricate monitoring system can be selected. Supercritical fluids (SCFs) are advantageous for bioprocessing due to its transport properties, high diffusivity and low viscosity facilitate mass transfer phenomena, variation of pressure and/or temperature are adjusted providing high flexibility in the extraction of metabolites from cells. Microfluidic devices in which small amounts of fluids (10^-9 and 10^-18) are manipulated have emerged for high throughput applications. Automation of the optimization processes is enabled through microtiter plates with simplicity and operate with very small volumes. Therefore, more research is necessary to develop integrated processes that will allow combining one or more techniques to enhance bioprocessing at lower costs.

Abstract

Fermentation in food processing is the process of converting carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids using microorganisms; yeasts or bacteria under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation usually defines the desirable action of microorganism to enhance food safety by inhibition of pathogens, modify their sensory properties, improve their nutritional value by removing anti-nutritive compounds and by enhancing bioavailability of components. Pulses and Legumes are the major source of dietary nutrients all over the world. Fermentation can be the most simple and economical way of improving their nutritional value, sensory properties and functional qualities. Pulses and legume based fermented food products offer opportunities to include probiotics, prebiotics and fibers in the human diet. In the Indian subcontinent, making use of fermented food and beverages using local food crops and other biological resources is very common, although the nature of the products and the base material varies in different regions. This chapter focuses on some of the indigenous fermented foods produced in the country that have not received the scientific attention they deserve in the last decades. Products produced from different pulses and legumes substrates fermented by lactic acid bacteria, yeast and/or fungi are included.

Introduction

The apple (Malus x domestica) is an important temperate fruit and is grown in areas where winters are cold, springs are frost free, and summers are mild. The main ancestor of cultivated apple M x domestica is M. sylvestrii, Thomas Andrew Knight produced the first apple cultivar of known parentage. Apple is disomic and has complex polyploidy, tetraploid and partially hexaploid. The apple (Malus x domestica) is the most widely grown temperate fruit in the world. First in India, the apple was introduced by Captain Lee in 1865 in the Kullu Valley of H.P. Later on, red-coloured Delicious group varieties were introduced at Kotgarh in the Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh in 1917 by American missionary Mr. Satya Nand Stokes. The region that includes South Western Asia, the Caucasus, Soviet Central Asia, and the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region is thought to be the primary centre of apple origin. The apple plant is deciduous without spiny branches. Climacteric fruit. Dry temperate region is most suitable for apple cultivation in India.

A marketing strategy of a business is the game plan of an organization for approaching its target market effectively. Marketing strategy is also used to target the prospective customer and converting them into loyal consumers for the brand and services being offered by the companies.

A marketing strategy is the building block of a marketing plan and consists of the value which the company wants to offer, its key message which the company wants to convey to the target market and other elements which are key in the area of marketing.

Farming system is a complex inter-related matrix of soil, plants, animals, implements, power, labour, capital and other inputs controlled in part by farm families and influenced by varying degrees of political, economic, institutional and social forces that operate at many levels. In farming system there is integration of farm enterprises such as cropping systems, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry, sericulture, poultry etc.

Brinjal (Solanum melongena Linn.) is one of the widely used vegetable crops and is popular in many countries viz. Central, South and South-East Asia, some part of Africa and Central America (Gurubban, 1977). It is also known as the aubergine, eggplant, melongene, guinea squash etc. Various data indicate that from the several species that evolved in Africa, one (Solanum incanum), gave rise to a distinct species which spread to South-East Asia as the wild ancestor of Solanum melongena (Lester, 1998).

Endowed with varied agro-climatic situations, topography and soil type, India has been a leading vegetable producing country in the world occupying the second
position in vegetable production after China with an annual production of 87.53 million tonnes from 5.86 million hectares having a share of 14.4 per cent to the world production. With commercial cultivation of as many as 61 annual and 4 perennial vegetables, India is the most diverse vegetable growing country in the world (Prakash et al., 2006).

Biotic stresses include diseases and insect pests which cause serious damage to the crop plants and ultimately yield loss. Biotic stresses can be listed as follows:

• Diseases caused by pathogens which include fungi, bacteria, and viruses
• Insects
• Nematodes
• Parasitic weeds

Another category of stresses are called as abiotic stresses which are caused by environmental factors as:

• Water stresses (water logging, drought)

3.1 Introduction

Cauliflower is a cruciferous vegetable that is naturally high in fibre and B-vitamins. It is said that the cauliflower has originated around the Mediterranean Sea. Ancestor of cauliflower is Brassica cretica which has been descended from the wild cliff cabbage, Brassica oleracea var. sylvestris, a native of coastal region of Europe and Africa. Cauliflower is cultivated worldwide in different climatic conditions ranging from temperate to tropics during most of the cropping seasons and is available round the year. Curd is the economic part of cauliflower and is an intermediate stage between vegetative and reproductive stage. It was introduced in India during the Mughal period. In 1822 a botanist Dr Jemson, In-charge of Company Bagh, Saharanpur, U.P introduced it in India from Kew Garden London. 

1. Introduction

Thermodynamics is science of energy and may be defined as “The branch of science which deals with the Interoction between the heat and work is referred as Thermodynamics

’Thermo’ means heat and ’dynamics’ means motion. It deals with energy interaction when work is converted into heat energy or vice versa. Precisely, thermodynamics may be defined as a science which deals with energy transformation from one form to another and dealing with relationship among the properties ofthe system. In power plants, internal combustion engines, boilers, nozzles, diffusers etc. are the example where heat is converted into work. In compressor, turbine, cooling of engines by water, application of brakes in a vehicle etc. are the examples where work is converted into heat.

1. Introduction

Milk is a source of abundant nutrition has been a vital part of human civilization since prehistoric times. However, because of its perishable nature, it requires immediate processing to improve the shelf life and safe consumption .With the advancement of processing techniques in dairy and food processing, there is a widespread option being utilized to improve the milk shelf life byeither thermal technologies (pasteurization, sterilization, and ultra-high temperature) or nonthermal technologies (high pressure processing, high pressure homogenization, pulse electric field and ultra sonication). Still, pasteurization and sterilization are the two foremost process is used for milk industries. Pasteurization is the thermal inactivation of microorganisms at temperatures below100°C that enhance the safety and quality of milk and milk products and extends the shelf life to an extent. 

Ducks are members of the order Anseriformes and belong to the family Anatidae. Ducks, swans and geese are all members of the Anatidae family; however, ducks are smaller and have a shorter neck. Ducks are tough birds that require little care or management. People all over the world enjoyed and consume duck meat and eggs. Ducks produce more eggs than hens. The size is also larger than that of a chicken. Ducks require less attention and perform well in scavenger hunts. Ducks are second only to chickens in many countries for meat and eggs. Ducks can be raised commercially or on a small scale for meat or eggs, even in backyards with other birds or animals. 

Introduction

Until the 1960’s poultry in India remained largely a backyard dual purpose activity for eggs and meat. People from low social order and economically weaker sections in villages and suburbs generally took to poultry keeping primarily to supplement their diet with more nutritious eggs and meet, and secondly to enrich their livelihood. Despite on a small scale, the activity attracted sizeable proportion of population contributing immensely to the egg and meat supply. The Indian society, though largely vegetarian, gradually accepted eggs and meat in their diet. As demand for poultry products increased, small units transformed into larger well organized farms paving way for a poultry products supply network throughout the country.

13.1. Introduction

Any written, printed, or graphic matter that is present on the label and serves the purpose of promoting the sale of any product is known as food label (WHO). It is believed in general that food packaging and proper labelling plays an important role in food safety as it gives information regarding allergens present, manufacturing site, expiry date, nutritional information etc.

Consumption of unhealthy diet leads to many non-communicable diseases. Therefore, it is the responsibilities of food manufacturers and regulating bodies such as FSSAI and BIS to work hand in hand to provide safe and healthy food to the consumers. Labelling is an important tool useful to disseminate nutritional information to the consumers. Labelling promotes healthy eating among consumers and gives them an option at the time of purchase to choose healthy food. Information in labelling the enables consumers to choose appropriate food according to their diets and lifestyle (Grunert and Wills, 2007). In addition, the information related to nutritional content of the food must be present in such a way that it well understood by every consumer (Wills et al., 2009).

The term “plant pest”, mainly applied to insect micropredators of plants, has a specific definition in terms of the International Plant Protection Convention and phytosanitary measures worldwide. A pest is any species, strain or biotype of plant, animal, or pathogenic agent injurious to plants or plant products. Worldwide, agricultural pest impacts are increased by higher degrees of interconnectedness. This is due to the increased risk that any particular pest problem anywhere in the world (as a system) will propagate across the entire system.

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety entered into force on 11 September 2003. It is a legally binding international agreement under the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

What is a protocol ?: A protocol is a binding international instrument, separate from, but related to, another treaty. It is a separate instrument, that must be individually negotiated, signed and eventually ratified. It is only binding on States that become parties to it. It thus has its own parties, and creates separate rights and obligations for them, as any other treaty.

The unique characteristic of a protocol is that it is related to a ‘parent’ treaty, through substantive, procedural, and institutional links. Most importantly, a protocol under a specific treaty must comply with the parent treaty’s provisions authorizing and regulating the adoption of protocols under its auspices. 

Potato is an important crop of the world and grown in almost all the states in India. Apart from India, potato is grown in more than 100 countries but the intensity of cultivation varies considerably. For example in the Netherlands 19.6% of the total arable land is cultivated with potatoes. The figures for Germany, Peru and USA are 10.1%, 5.6% and less than 1% respectively. India ranks fourth in area (1.29 m ha) and third in production (25.23 m ton) in the world. The productivity of potato depends mainly on the quality and quantity of planting materials and the agronomic management practices adopted. Most of developing countries including India experience release of high yielding varieties, development of adequate agronomic and pest control measures but the gap between supply and demand of good quality adequate quantity seed has to be the major constraint in increasing its productivity.