eChapters

Green energy can be classified as any form of energy resource that results in zero greenhouse gas emissions and zero toxic byproducts. These constitute the alternate source of energy such as Solar, Bio, Hydrogen, Wind, Water etc. Renewable Energy is energy that is not depleted or expen- ded. Previously the pressure to reduce CO2 emissions dictated the energy sourcing. With recent findings from experimental evidence, global warming may not be attributable to CO₂ emissions in relation to other over-weighing causes. However the pressures to develop renewable sources continue since the cost of Oil is increasing in many countries. It is desirable and a necessity to develop renewable non-toxic energy resources. The global economy and welfare of all earth depends on it even if CO₂ is not the cause of global warming (GW). There are some factors not in the control of even the most technologically advanced society. These are solar activity such as sun spots which have huge and tremendous influence on the Earth’s climate. However we should strive not to cause any undue imbalances in the proportion matter and composition of Earth’s atmosphere. Although CO2 is a small contributor to GW in comparison to H₂O, we still have responsibility to maintain the right balance of the gases in the atmosphere by not causing undue changes to the Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen cycles! We are far way off from a Oil-free technology. Most transportation is still petrol driven.

A family of about 15 genera and 705 species showing cosmopolitan distribution. About 35 genera and over 195 species have been reported from India. Some of the largely represented genera along with the number of their world over reported species are Smilax (350), Aloe (300), Asparagus (300), Dracaena (150). Ornithogalum (150), Haworthia (150), Tulipa (100), Fritillaria (85), Lilium (80), Colchicum (65), Sansevieria (60), Yucca (40), Asphodelus (12) and Ruscus (7).
Lilium is a bulbous ornamental plant commonly known as lily. The flowers are associated with religious feasts and symbolism. In the language of flowers, the lily is the symbol of purity, and innocence. It is one of the sixth major genera of flower bulbs produced worldwide. Lilium ranks 4th among cut flower trade in international market. Certain species of Lilium are edible, and valued for medicinal properties also.
Tulip is one of the most important bulbous geophytes in the world and popular due to its beauty and economic value. It is the top rated flower bulb in the international cut flower market. Modern tulip cultivars, predominantly T. gesneriana, are grown for bulb production, cut flowers, flowering potted plants, and landscaping. The current commercial assortment still consists mainly of cultivars from T. gesneriana. The second group of cultivars, the Darwin hybrids consists has been obtained from interspecific crosses between cultivars T. gesneriana and genotypes of T. fosteriana. Tulipa suaveolens, a kind of tulip discovered wild in southern Europe, has played an important role in the evolution of the garden tulip (Bailey, 1963).

Introduction 
In the constantly changing field of environmental science and technology, researchers are increasingly adopting eco-friendly and sustainable approaches to address the widespread problems of contamination and pollution. A potential perspective that demonstrates a harmonic fusion of nature and nanotechnology is the creation of nanoparticles (NPs) utilizing secondary metabolites derived from plants. Due to their low toxicity, catalytic effectiveness, and biocompatibility, iron oxide nanoparticles (IO NPs) and silver oxide nanoparticles (Ag2O NPs) have become essential materials for environmental remediation. The production of these NPs depends heavily on secondary metabolites found in plants, including flavonoids, polyphenols, and tannins. These bioactive substances function as reducing, stabilizing, and capping agents during the creation of NPs, essentially serving as natural biofactories (Mittal et al., 2013) (Figure 1). The reduction of metal ions to NPs is driven by organic reaction mechanisms, such as redox reactions mediated by these metabolites, guaranteeing an environmentally benign and effective fabrication method. (Jadoun et al., 2021) Additionally, the incorporation of organic groups to the NPs’ surface, these metabolites greatly increases their catalytic activity and selectivity. IO NPs synthesized from plant extracts, particularly in forms like magnetite (Fe2O4) or hematite (Fe2O3), which exhibit special surface characteristics and remarkable magnetic behavior (Logeswari et al., 2015). These qualities guarantee a low environmental effect by making it easy to recover and recycle them after application. The organic functional groups obtained from plant metabolites give them increased stability and dispersibility, which increases their efficacy in remediation methods. Similarly, Ag2O NPs generated from plants display exceptional catalytic and antibacterial capabilities, expanding their use in combating environmental contaminants (Ettadili et al., 2022). It is essential to develop materials that meet stringent performance and sustainability criteria. By following green chemistry principles and guaranteeing non-toxicity, biodegradability, cost-effectiveness, recyclability, and ease of recovery, plant-derived NPs meet this requirement (Bao et al., 2021). These qualities maximize its usefulness while reducing ecological problems. Optimizing nanomaterials for practical uses is still difficult, though surface engineering and creative synthesis methods are required to address problems such as aggregation, instability, possible toxicity, and high recovery costs. Organic functional groups derived from secondary metabolites play a crucial role in this context, stabilizing NPs and enhancing their selectivity and activity for specific remediation tasks (Jebali et al., 2011) from plant extracts are examined in this chapter. It highlights the organic reaction processes involved, the critical role of secondary metabolites which play in the synthesis process and, on the other hand, the surface functionalization plays in boosting their catalytic activity for environmentally friendly remediation (Jeevanandam et al., 2022).

The primary purpose in plant breeding is to develop better varieties. In order to realize the potential benefit from an improved variety, it should be distributed widely and sufficient seed must be produced so that the variety can be grown on farms in the areas to which it is adopted.  Otherwise much of the breeders work would be wasted.

Variety is a synonym of cultivar and has been defined in the International Code for the Nomenclature for cultivated plants (Anon 1980.) in article 10. ‘’The international term cultivar denotes as assemblage of cultivated plants which is clearly distinguished by any characteristics (morphological, physiological, cytological, chemical or others) and which, When reproduced (sexually or asexually) retains its distinguishing characters”. Indian Seeds Act, under its sub-section 16 of section 2 defined variety as “a sub-division of a kind identifiable by growth, yield, plant, fruit, seed or other characteristic”. Both definitions emphasize that variety should be distinguishable from others and capable of retaining its distinguishable features under multiplication. Therefore production of genetically pure and otherwise good quality pedigree seed is an exacting task requiring high technical skills and comparatively more financial investment. During seed production strict attention must be given to the maintenance of genetic purity and other qualities of seeds in order to exploit the full dividends sought to be obtained by introduction of new superior crop plant varieties.

The machine parts, which have relative motion, rub against each other. The rubbing surfaces are never perfectly smooth, even when they are highly polished. If they are observed under a microscope, one sees small depressions and elevations which get interlocked when the machine parts are under pressure, and give rise to a resisting force called frictional force. Due to friction, the parts get worn out and become useless. Friction produces heat, which, in this case, represents loss of work. To reduce this wear and loss of power caused by friction, certain foreign substances are introduced between the rubbing surfaces which keep them apart. These substances are called lubricants; and lubrication is the science of reducing friction by the application of a suitable substance between the rubbing surfaces of bodies having relative motion.

A. Answer the following question

1.    What is Gross Energy?

Ans: Gross energyistheamount of heat givenoffwhen a substance is completelyburntor oxidizedtooxidationproducts like carbon dioxide,waterandothergases ina bombcalorimeter containing 25-30 atmospheric oxygen psi.

2.    What is BTU?

Ans: It istheamount of energyas heat required toraise temperature of 1 pound of water by 10F

3.    What is Heat Increment (HI)?

Ans: The increase in heat production after the ingestion of feed when the animal is in a thermoneutral environment is known as heat increment.

4.    Why digestible energy (DE) is called apparent DE?

Ans: It is calledapparent because thefaecalenergyincludes energy of undigested feed; microbial cell residues spent digestive enzymes and abraded intestinal mucosa (FEm).

5.    WhyME values are higher in non-ruminants than ruminants?

Abstract

Spot blotch of wheat is devastating disease as one of the yield limiting factor especially in north eastern plains zone and also in north western plains zone of India. Chemical fungicides play an important role in controlling the spot blotch in India due to non availability of spot blotch resistant commercial varieties. To identify the suitable chemicals method and time of application, various fungicides thiram 37.5% WP, carboxin 37.5% WP +, propiconazole 25% EC, tebuconazole 25% EC and mancozeb 75% WP) were evaluated either as seed treatment or foliar sprays or in combination under artificial epiphytotic in vivo conditions for two crop seasons. Seed treatment (ST) by thiram + carboxin @ 2.5 g/kg of seed along with Foliar spray (FS) of propiconazole @ 0.1% at boot leaf stage on Flag-1 leaf followed by second spray at 20 days interval (two sprays) resulted in best management of spot blotch in severe conditions. It was found that the fungicide treatment not only reduced the spot blotch disease but also increases the grain yield.

Sclerotinia Stem Rot
Diagnostic Symptoms
• Early symptoms of the disease are noticed forty days after sowing.
• Stem is usually infected at or near the soil line.
• Brownish lesion develops at the base of the stem and eventually girdles the plant. A white fan-like inoculum growth forms over the infected tissues and often radiates over the soil surface.
• Silky appearance of plants can be spotted from a distance and a row effect can be observed in heavily infected soil. Later the entire plant withers and dies.
• The lesion grows up the stem, destroying the cortical tissue and leaving the fibrous vascular strands as the tissues dry out.
• White cottony mycelium and mustard seed type sclerotial bodies are conspicuous on the affected stem near soil level. This also causes collar rot in the seedling stage (Fig.2).

Remote sensing is a technology that enables us to acquire information about one object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object. Generally, we are used to take observations in site or at the site. Development of remote sensing technology is now making it possible to quickly and almost simultaneously to collect information from the earth surface and other planets as well. Remote sensing is used to measure the thermal complexity and structural complexity of microclimates and how organisms respond to environmental changes. The thermal complexity is a result of the response and behaviour of different characteristics of the earth surface including vegetation, soils, structures, water bodies etc. Optical remote sensing makes use of visible, near infrared and short-wave infrared sensors to form images of the earth’s surface by detecting the solar radiation refl ected from targets on the ground. Different materials refl ect and absorb differently at different wavelengths. Thus, the targets can be differentiated by their spectral refl ectance signatures in the remotely sensed images (Fig.18.1). Satellite Refelcted Solar Radiation Forest Water Grass Bare Soil Paved Road Built-up Area Atmosphere Incident Solar Radiation Sun
Structural complexity is defi ned as minimum number of numerical specifi cations required to describe an object in physical space. Structural complexity is a key ecological factor that describes the three-dimensional physical structure of the ecosystem. It is often linked with biodiversity.

The rapid growth of Large Language Models has produced remarkable advances in artificial intelligence but has also increased computational requirements, energy consumption and environmental impact. This chapter examines the relationship between large-scale AI development, energy efficiency and sustainable computing. Modern AI models may contain billions or even trillions of parameters and require extensive datasets, powerful accelerators and energy-intensive data-centre infrastructure for training and inference. The chapter investigates the environmental consequences associated with model development, including energy consumption, carbon emissions, cooling requirements and resource utilization. It examines model-level optimization techniques such as pruning, quantization and knowledge distillation as methods for reducing computational demands. System-level approaches, including specialized hardware accelerators, energy-efficient data centres, improved cooling systems, renewable energy and intelligent workload scheduling, are also considered. The distinction between energy efficiency and broader sustainability is emphasized, with attention to metrics such as energy per inference, total energy consumption, carbon emissions and hardware lifecycle impacts. The chapter further highlights the importance of transparent sustainability reporting, green computing and governance policies. Sustainable AI development requires balancing model performance and innovation with responsible resource use and long-term environmental objectives

Introduction

Indian agriculture contributes to 25 per cent of the National Gross Domestic Product. As per Census of India, 2001, India’s total population was 1,028.6 million and the percentage of decadal growth of population during 1991- 2001 was 21.34 per cent. Thus, the main challenge is to produce enough food for increasing population.

Many new agricultural technologies and improved practices are being developed in agricultural research stations. Effective communication of these agricultural innovations to millions of farmers in rural area is essential to bring about accelerated agricultural development. The impact of demographic pressure on reducing farm size further on the one hand and the need for longer or optimum sized farms to take more advantage of modern technology on the other hand would bring into sharper focus the growing contradiction in the farming sector.

Marketing Information System (MIS)

Market information is crucial to effective marketing management. Business success now requires a sustainable and cutting-edge knowledge base. Information becomes knowledge when it is discriminated, classified, processed and assembled in an appropriate manner. Knowledge is the final entity in the sequence.
Marketing decisions are based on marketing information and research. The scientific decisions are based always on the facts and figures. The information based decisions are useful for solving day to day problems. Marketing information are the facts and figures required for taking the marketing decisions. Marketing information assists marketing decisions in right perspectives. The marketing managers are expected to get all the relevant information. They have to evaluate the information for their purposes. The utilities of each source of information are assessed to have optimum use of the resources. Good information improves decision making process. The marketing managers have to make decisions based on available information and try to collect adequate and correct information from all sources. Establishment of an effective marketing information system (MIS) is essential for adequate and correct marketing decisions.

Water is the most critical component of life system. Irrigation plays vital role in rising and stabilizing yield and maintaining quality of fruit crops grown in tropical or sub-tropical climate. Micro irrigation is one of the modern and advanced methods of irrigation which is becoming popular in areas having problems like water scarcity and poor quality of water. Since the competition for water between agricultural and non-agricultural sector is increasing day by day, the efficient management of water resources is very essential to meet the water requirement. It is anticipated to reduce water use for agriculture by 70% in the coming decade, where the present day share is 80%. Demand for water is increasing in non-agricultural sectors like industry, energy, domestic use etc. Hence, policy makers and researchers consider water as the main obstacle for growing enough food crops in the coming years. In India where population is increasing at alarming rate, the area under irrigation should go up from 60 million hectares to 114 million hectares by the year 2050. In this context, micro irrigation plays a major role under limiter water agro ecosystem.

4.1 Introduction

Apart from an optical source, the optical detector is another important component of the optical fiber sensor. The optical detector converts the optical signal to an electrical one. The signal is then processed either to record or display. There are various kinds of optical detectors but the commonly used in sensors are semiconductor diodes. In some of the cases photomultiplier tube has been used. In this chapter we shall describe the basic principles of optical detectors and their operational characteristics.

ABSTRACT

Presence of mangrove ecosystems on coastline, save lives and property during natural hazards such as cyclones, storm surges and erosion. This study is undertaken to assess the distribution of mangroves in Tamil Nadu. Geographical Information System, Remote Sensing and GPS (Global Positioning System) were used for mapping the mangrove forests. Mangrove wetland map and species zonation maps have been done using didital analysis of Remote Sensing data and ground truth information. The total area of mangroves found in Tamil Nadu and in Puducherry is around 4100ha.

1. INTRODUCTION

Mangroves are typical, tropical specialized trees growing in the saline and brackish water system. Mangrove plants live in muddy and wet saline soils. They are trees associated with shrubs, growing both on the sheltered coast and inland, lining the bank of estuaries and rivers. They are an ecological group of evergreen plant species, belonging to different families, but possessing marked similarities in their physiological characteristics and structural adaptations. Mangrove areas are associated with high leaf production and leaf fall and rapid decomposition of the litter.

Mangrove forests perform multiple ecological functions: They produce woody trees, provide habitat and detritus food for fish and shellfish and act as spawning ground for a variety of fishes, prawns and shellfishes. They harbour a variety of valuable fauna, including migratory birds. They also protect the coasts from storms and tidal waves and help in the formation of land by trapping sediments brought by the coastal community.There are many threats to mangroves. Deforestation is one of the major threats.

Introduction

Gerbera is one of the most important commercial flowering crops growing in the world as a cut flower as well as garden decoration, which belongs to family compositae and native in South Africa and Asiatic region. Presently, its demand and utility are rising up continuously in India both in urban as well as rural areas throughout the year. Peoples prefer this flower, because of its unparallel diversity in colour and long vase life; whereas farmers took this crop in relation to high margin of profit and long post harvest life over some others flower. Now, people are showing their keen interest towards use of this flower in their daily life and for celebrating a colorful festival. As per report of NHB (2014), total crop area is 820 hactors, where flower marketed of 3.96 and 17.84 MT of loose and cut flowers respectively. The prime producing states in India for gerbera flower production are Karnataka, Maharastra, Assam, Uttrakhand, Telangana, Tamilnadu and West Bengal. There are some constrains identified in gerbera cultivation under protected situation, like initial investment is too much, protocol of the technology is very much restricted, regular supervision is an essential and all local festivals regulates quantity of consumption etc. However, before adopting this technology for implementation as taking part of business, users should upgrade their knowledge by seeing and believing at different production centers. Details about latest technology are summarized under mentioned, which may be helpful to the students and farmers to some extent for ready references.

1.1. Floral biology

1.1. 1. Types of inflorescence

Group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches.

Introduction

The term “Remote Sensing” was coined in 1950s by Ms. Evelyn Pruitt, a geographer with the U.S. Office of Naval Research, and the term is now commonly used to describe as the science and art of identifying, observing, and measuring an object on the earth surface, without having any direct contact. This process involves the detection and measurement of radiation of different wavelengths reflected or emitted from distant objects or materials through which they may be identified and categorized by class/type, substance, and spatial distribution (National Aeronautics and Space Administration—NASA). Remote sensing technology has been widely applied in various applications such as water resources, agriculture, geological studies, forestry, land use, resource exploration, etc.

Elements of Remote Sensing

The remote sensing process involves an interaction between the incident radiation and the targets of interest, exemplified by the use of imaging systems in which the following seven elements are involved; however, remote sensing also involves sensing of emitted energy and using non-imaging sensors

A family of about 244 genera and 4,225 species, Malvaceae are distributed widely in tropical and temperate regions. About 22 genera and 125 species of Malvaceae have so far been reported from India. Some of the larger
genera, along with their common names and/or number of reported species in parenthesis, include Hibiscus (rose mallow, 300), Sida (200), Abutilon (Indian mallow, 100), Alcea (60), Malva (mallow, 40), Lavatera (25), Gossypium (cotton, 20) and Althaea (12). The family is recognized by Hibiscus rosasinensis (Rose of China) because of its beautiful large flowers and hundreds of its known cultivated varieties.
Hibiscus commonly called as ‘Chinese hibiscus’ or ‘Rose of China’ or ‘Hawaiian hibiscus’ or ‘Blacking plant’ or ‘Shoe flower’ is a flowering plant of hot and warm climate, and hence, known as ‘Queen of Tropics’. Florida is the
prominent hibiscus growing centre of the world. The commercial species have wide variety of uses including fibers, food, medicinal and ornamental, either as a potted plant, fence or hedge plant or as a landscape shrub. Ethno medicinal value of hibiscus is documented

Definition of advocacy, approaches to policy advocacy-advising, media campaigning, lobbying, Activism, Information Education Communication (IEC) and Behavior Change Communication (BCC), Advocacy for Rural Advisory Services (RAS), Policy advocacy strategy
Introduction
The word “Advocacy” is defined as any action that promotes, urges, justifies defends, or pleads on behalf of another person is referred to as advocacy. In all its manifestations, advocacy works to make sure that people, especially those who are most sure people, especially those who are most at risk in a group or society can:
• Have their opinions taken into account when decisions about their lives are being made
• Speak up for matters that are important to them.
• Defend and protect their rights
• Have their voice heard on key subjects.