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Starch is the storage form of carbohydrates in plants which is abundantly found in roots, tubers, stems, fruits, and cereals. It is a polysaccharide made up of glucose monomers with a chemical formula of (C6H10O5)n. Starch is composed ofamylose and amylopectin. The linear polymer amylose is the most basic form of starch while amylopectin is the branched form. Foods that are high in starch content are a good source of nutrition. Food starches are used in the food industry as thickeners and stabilizers. During the ripening of fruits, the starch is converted into sugars. Therefore, the presence of starch in fruits is used as an indication of maturity and ripening.
Principle: For estimation of starch contents, the sugars present in the sample are leached out and starch is hydrolyzed using either acid or enzymatic hydrolysis. Stach is then calculated as invert sugars.
Starch content by Acid Hydrolysis method
Reagents: Ethanol 95%, /50%,Concentrated HCl, Concentrated H2SO4, 1N NaOH solution, Phenolphthalein indicator, 10% alcoholic solution of Alphanaphthol.

non-herbaceous plants that are accessible for animal foraging.
Flour: It is soft, finely ground meal of a grain which mainly consists of gluten and starch.
Fodder: Fodder covers various agricultural products specifically intended for the nourishment of domesticated animals. The term “fodder” is particularly associated with the provision of food to these animals, which may include plants that are harvested and delivered to them, as opposed to the food they gather independently through foraging. Any green plant or crop meant for animal feeding for supply of nutrients and bulk.
Forage crop: A crop of cultivated vegetation or portions of plants, excluding detached grains, that is grown specifically for grazing or harvesting to serve as animal feed. Forage and roughage these two terms are used interchangeably. Forages include hay, straw, silage and pasture while roughage include rice husk, groundnut shells.
Forage crops: It denotes the wild as well as cultivated green plants used for feeding of domestic animals like cattle, buffaloes, goat, sheep, horses, etc.
Forage: Forage includes consumable plant materials, including grasses, legumes, herbs and shrubs, as well as hays and silages. These materials are either grazed or ingested by livestock to meet their nutritional needs and dietary requirements within agricultural ecosystems.
Germ: It is the embryo of any seed. eg. Wheat germ meal (25% CP and 7% EE)
Gluten: When flour is washed to remove starch, a tough, viscid nitrogenous substance remains which is known as gluten. eg. Corn gluten.
Herbage: Herbage denotes the various plants, grasses, or vegetation that are specifically designated for the nourishment of livestock. This term generally encompasses the softer, green portions of plants that are appropriate for animal grazing.

Pure water is a poor conductor of electricity. Water may carry electricity fairly well when it contains electrolytes such as Acids, bases and salts. Electrolytes in the solution dissociates with cations and anions and pass on electrical conductivity. Hence, more electrolytes concentration in water, more its electrical conductance. The following ions are crucial for adding conductivity to water.
i) Cations: Mg 2+,Ca2+, Na+ and K+
ii) Anions: Cl-, S4
-, CO3
-, HCO3
-and NO3
-
In the International System of units (SI) the reciprocal of ohm is the Siemens (S) and conductivity is reported as millisiemens per meter (mS/m). 1 mS/m = 10 µS/cm = 10 µmhos/cm and 1 µS/cm = 1 µmhos/cm Principle
The quantity and kind of ions present in a solution affect conductivity, which is a numerical representation of a water sample’s capacity to conduct electricity. Since the majority of dissolved inorganic compounds in water are ionised, they add to conductance. The definition of conductance G is the reciprocal of resistance R.

The ultimate success of commercial propagation depends on the capacity to transfer plants out of culture on a huge range, at low cost and with high survival rates. The plants multiplied in vitro are exposed to a unique set of growth conditions (high levels of inorganic and organic nutrients, growth regulators, sucrose as carbon source, high humidity, low light, poor gaseous exchange) which may support rapid growth and multiplication but also induce structural and physiological abnormalities in the plants, rendering them unfit for survival under in vivo conditions. Poor control of water loss and heterotrophic mode of nutrition are main cause of deficient growth of in vitro plants.  Hence, gradual acclimatization is necessary for these plants to survive transition from culture to the greenhouse or field. During acclimatization the in vitro formed leaves do not recover but the plant develops normal leaves and functional roots. Once roots are well formed the plants are ready to be transferred into soil.The procedure of acclimatization of regenerated plantlets are: 

The condition in the young subject is as follows:

The two parietals are united with each other and also with the interparietal and supraoccipital. The resulting mass is somewhat horse shoe shaped. Its occipital part (planum occipitale) forms the greater part of the posterior wall of the cranium and bears about its centre the tubersity for the attachment of the ligamentum nuche. From either side of this a line curves outward and divide the surface into an upper smooth area and a lower area which is rough for muscular technique. The upper borderjoins the frontal bone and concurs In the formation of the frontal eminence. The temperal part (Plana temporalla) are much smaller and are concave externally; they join the frontal above and the squamous temporal below. A median occipital crest extends ventrally from the external occipital protuberance.

Botany: Cashew belongs to the Family Aricardiaceae. A small evergreen tree native of tropical America from Mexico to Peru and Brazil but now cultivated largely in Malabar, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and to some extend in Maharashtra, Goa, Odisha and West Bengal

The commercial production is mainly confined to India, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya; Brazil, Philippines, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.Cashew is an important foreign earning crop of India, remarking second (29%) in the international trade of the nuts. It is a crop of marginal lands and can be grown under rainfed conditions.

Soil and climate: It grows up well in all soils. Red sandy loam is best suited. Plains as well as hill slopes upto 600 - 700 feet elevation are suitable for cultivation. Season: June - December. Propagation: Soft wood grafting, air layer and epicotyl grafting. Requirement of plants: 200 plants/ha. Preparation of field: Pits of 45 cm3 size are dug and filled up with a mixture of soil + 10 kg FYM + one kg neem cake and 100 g Methyl parathion 1.3 %.

Family: Apiaceae

Flowering: November-January

Fruiting: February-April

Botanical description: The plant is an erect, freely branching annual herb with finely dissected, lacy, blue-green leaves. The leaves are about 1 ft long and divided pinnately three or four times into thread like segments each about 1 in long. The dill plant grows about 3-5 ft tall.

The communication module is a device which is used to control the communication between the stations. This chapter explores the different communication modules and their specifications.

5.1 WiFi

ESP8266 WiFi Module is a WiFi serial transceiver module. This chip has a full TCP/IP protocol stack with the computational power onboard. This makes the board simple to use as Wi-Fi connection board. The specification of this board includes, 32-pin QFN package, Integrated RF switch, Integrated RISC processor. It has on-chip memory with external memory interfaces, integrated MAC/baseband processors, Quality of Service management, on chip regulator, Integrated WEP, TKIP, AES, and WAPI engines, 11 b/g/n. It has integrated TCP/IP protocol stack and Integrated PLLs, regulators, DCXO and power management units. It has +19.5dBm output power in 802.11b mode and Power down leakage current of <10uA

5.2 Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless protocol. The recent introduction of Bluetooth with Low Energy extension is also as iBeacon. The advantage of BLE4.0 standard includes the low power consumption, which makes it a better option to be used in smart phones. This facilitates the setup of a mesh network of Bluetooth devices, with lower latency and higher range respect to standard Bluetooth.

This is a SMD BLE module based on TI cc2541 chip. It has low cost, small and easy to use. The preloaded firmware allows to build BLE communications with AT command. It supports communication with iPhone, iPad (iOS 5.0 or greater) and Android 4.3 or greater. It works on frequency: 2.4 GHz ISM band and modulation method is GFSK (Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying). It has transmission power: - DBM, 23-6 DBM, 0 DBM, 6 DBM, can be modified by the AT command. It works on baud rate 9600bps. It can operate on temperature range -40 ~ 125°C.

Another interesting board is the HC-05 Bluetooth module. Specifications of the works Master/Slave configurations. It operates on frequency of 2.4GHz ISM band with Modulation GFSK(Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying).

Pure water is a poor conductor of electricity. Water may carry electricity fairly well when it contains electrolytes such as Acids, bases and salts. Electrolytes in the solution dissociates with cations and anions and pass on electrical conductivity. Hence, more electrolytes concentration in water, more its electrical conductance. The following ions are crucial for adding conductivity to water.
i) Cations: Mg 2+,Ca2+, Na+ and K+
ii) Anions: Cl-, S4
-, CO3
-, HCO3
-and NO3
-
In the International System of units (SI) the reciprocal of ohm is the Siemens (S) and conductivity is reported as millisiemens per meter (mS/m). 1 mS/m = 10 µS/cm = 10 µmhos/cm and 1 µS/cm = 1 µmhos/cm Principle
The quantity and kind of ions present in a solution affect conductivity, which is a numerical representation of a water sample’s capacity to conduct electricity. Since the majority of dissolved inorganic compounds in water are ionised, they add to conductance. The definition of conductance G is the reciprocal of resistance R.

Family: Aizoaceae

Flowering: July-September

Fruiting: October-December

Botanical description: The plant is a succulent herb with prostrate forked branches, growing up to 20-45 cm long. Stems are prostrate or rising, somewhat succulent, up to 50 cm long or more, smooth or sparsely velvety. Leaves are flat, elliptic to obovate, 1-2 cm long, 0.4-2 cm wide, margins entire, tip blunt with rounded base. Leaf stalks are 0.5-2.5 cm long, expanded into a sheath joined with leaf base to form a cup. Flowers are pinkish or white in colour, borne solitary, stalkless, largely hidden in leaf axils. Capsule with a lower scarious or membranous portion and an upper brown. Seeds are black in colour with muricate concentric lines.

Fundamentals of writing farm stories

1. Use of plain and simple language: A farm journalist would have translated technical terms into their plain language.

2. Presentation of novel ideas: People are open to new concepts that are logically explained and will increase their return on investment as a whole.

3. Keep the message brief and to the point so that farmers can recall it. The information should be focused on the benefits that can be attained without using an excessive amount of wording.

4. Use of visuals: Visuals add interest, are more memorable, and have deeper significance. A statement is more understandable and pleasing to the eye when there are more visuals present.

5. Farmers are very receptive to messages that are recent, reliable, realistic, and relevant (the “4Rs”).

6. The audience appreciates and accepts the message that is centred on their environment, locations, and selves.

Fruit pulps are semi-finished products that are used for manufacturing finished value-added products like jam, ready-to-serve beverages, squash, appetizers etc. According to Food Laws, pulp refers to an unfermented but fermentable product, pulpy, turbid or clear, obtained by a mechanical process from sound ripe fruits/vegetables. These are preserved either by heat processing or by using chemical preservatives. The maximum preservative permitted under Indian Food Laws is 1000 ppm sulphur dioxide added in the form of potassium metabisulphite.
Mango, guava, apple, pineapple, papaya, bael, guava, peach, plum, apricot etc., are the most suitable fruits for making pulp for use in finished product preparation.
Procedure
i. Select fully mature and ripe fruit like mango, guava, apple, peach, apricot, kiwi, etc., and wash thoroughly.

The total amount of salts dissolved in water is known as salinity. Salinity of water is denoted as ppt, g/L, psu. Salinity of different water has been classified as Freshwater 0-0.5 ppt, Brackish water 0.5-30ppt and Marine water > 300 ppt.
Reagents
1. Silver nitrate (AgNO3) (0.1N): Dissolve 4.25 g silver nitrate in distilled water and make the total volume 250 ml by shaking.
2. Potassium chromate (K2CrO4) indicator (5%): Dissolve 2.5 g potassium chromate in distilled water and make the total volume 50 ml by shaking.
Procedure
1. Salinity in estuarine and coastal water can be estimated by this method.
2. Take 10 ml of water sample in a 50 ml conical flask.
3. Add 3-4 drops of potassium nitrate indicator solution to it.
4. Titrate against 0.1N Silver nitrate till the yellow colour changes to brick red.

Family: Fabaceae

Flowering: September-October

Fruiting: November-January

Botanical description: Thye plant is a small diffused herb, with erect to creeping habit. Leaflets are 1-4 cm long, 8-35 mm broad, obovate to oblong-wedge-shaped, tip rounded to notched. The flowers of the plant yellow in colour, bloom in 8-20-flowered clusters, with a stalks 3 mm long and sepals nearly equal, shorter than or as long as the tube. The fruit is 1-2 cm long, 2-3 mm broad, linear, sharp tipped, curved and 4-8-seeded.

All animals with cataract are not suitable candidates for surgery. Pre-surgical assessment of a candidate is essential to make a safe judgement for surgical procedure to perform lensectomy. Failure in canine cataract surgery can be associated with poor case selection. A thorough ocular and physical examination should be performed to rule out other ocular diseases prior to cataract surgery. The cataractous lenses in both eyes must be mature to cause functional loss of vision. (24).

The following prerequisites should be fulfilled before cataract extraction is recommended (6):

1. The affected eye should have a significant visual deficit.
2. For the patient to regain vision, its retina must be healthy and functional. if the fundus cannot be examined thoroughly (because of the cataract), retinal function should be evaluated with electroretinography (ERG) to ensure that retinal degeneration is not present as the patient history, signalment, and the speed of pupil contraction

The decreased ability of water to transmit light which is caused by suspended particulate matter ranging in size from colloidal to coarse dispersions is refers as turbidity.
Principle
Turbidity is measured by its effect on the transmission of light, which is termed as Turbidimetry or by its effect on the scattering of light, which is termed as Nephelometry. Turbidimeter can be used for sample with moderate turbidity and Nephelometer for samples with low Turbidity. Higher the intensity of scattered light higher the turbidity.
1 mg SiO2/L = 1 unit of turbidity

Family: Fabaceae

Flowering: December-January

Fruiting: February-March

Botanical description: The plant is an erect, annual and strongly smelling herb growing up to 10-50 cm in height. The Leaves are trifoliate with leaflets 1-3 cm long, 5-15 mm broad, obovate to inverted-lanceo shaped. Flowers are cream or yellowish-white, in colour, 1-2 together in leaf axils and 1.2-1.8 cm long. Pods are oblong, straight or falcate with age, 7.5-10 cm long with a long beak and 20 seeded.

Dietary fat, which is not degraded in upper part of digestive tract (rumen) of animal, but gets digested in lower alimentary tract is known as bypass fat. Rumen protected fat is another name for this bypass fat. Immediately following calving, dairy animals lose a significant amount of energy through milk, although their feed intake is decreased. Animals continue to have negative energy balances as a result.