eChapters

Nano-material possess unique properties such as dimension, shape, specific surface area, surface mass ratio etc., that are highly influenced by the mechanical and physical properties. It is pertinent to understand the basic physical properties of nano-materials in order to apply them in a wide array of functions. In this context, this chapter is devoted to provide basic information on physical, mechanical and photo-luminescence properties of nano-materials.

Major cucurbits grown in India are cucumber, watermelon, muskmelon, ash gourd, pumpkin and squashes, snake gourd, ridge gourd, smooth gourd, bottle gourd, round gourd, bitter gourd, pointed gourd, ivy gourd,pointed gourd and oriental pickling melon. After independence,a lot of breeding work were done in these crops at many research institutes in the country which  resulted in  release of several high yielding/disease resistant varieties/hybrids.

Being warm season crops, cucurbits are tropical in origin, mostly in Africa, Tropical America and Asia. Flowering in cucurbits normally start in 40 to 45 days after sowing depending on weather conditions. Sequence of flowering follows a set pattern, namely the first 4 to 6 flowering nodes would bear staminate flowers and later pistillate flowers appear. Many sex forms are seen in cucurbits viz., monoecious, dioecious, gynoecious,trimonoecious, gynomonoecious and andromonoecious. Sex modification is also possible in cucurbits by exogenous application of plant growth regulators. GA₃ and AgNO₃ are used for inducing male flowers in gynoecious lines. Conversely,ethrel and TIBA  are used to promote greater number of female flowers. This kind of sex modification is more useful and practicable in  cucumber and bottle gourd where continuous and simultaneous flowering, fruit set and fruit picking take place.

Nematodes are the most numerous metazoa on earth. They are either free living or parasites of plants and animals. Although currently only about 4100 species of plant parasitic nematodes have been described (i.e. 15 % of the total number of nematode species known), their impact on humans by inflicting heavy losses in agriculture is substantial. Most of the developing countries including India lie in tropical or sub tropical regions where climate is suitable for activity and multiplication of nematodes almost throughout the year. Sandy and warm soils such as found in India other developing countries in the arid zone are very favorable for nematode infection, especially in irrigated areas which are used for crop production continuously. The percentage of crop losses caused by plant pathogens, insect pests and weeds world wide has been estimated to 42% according for $500 billion worth of damage. The estimated overall annual yield loss of world’s major crops due to damage by plant parasitic nematodes has been reported to the extent of 12.3% (Sasser & Freckman, 1987). Estimated losses due to nematodes attack on different cultivated crops all over the world by FAO are around 400 million dollars. Annual crop losses in India is Rs. 242.1 billion. A large number of plant parasitic nematodes have been found associated with pulse crops in allover India but pathogenicity has not been proved for all. Plant parasitic nematodes are one of the most unwanted organisms in agricultural soils. They parasitize the roots of our carefully nurtured crops, reduce their ability to produce yields, make them weak and perhaps vulnerable to many pests and diseases. They reduce the crop yields that may equal those associated with more severe and easily identifiable plant diseases and we do not even realize their presence. Damage to crops by nematodes often goes unnoticed or attributed to other causes such as lack of fertility, deficient soil moisture. Sandy and warm soils such as found in India other developing countries in the arid zone are very favourable for nematode infection, especially in irrigated areas which are used for crop production continuously (Taylor, 1967).

Abstract

Plant research often involves growing new plants in a controlled environment. These may be plants that we have genetically altered in some way or may be plants of which we need many copies all exactly alike. These things can be accomplished through tissue culture of small tissue pieces from the plant of interest. The latest list of ISO recognizes 109 spices, but only a few are important commercially such as black pepper, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, large cardamom, cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, garlic, saffron and celery. They are extensively used in flavouring food and confectionery, perfumery and soaps and also as colouring materials. Many of these groups of crops have medicinal properties and are used in many Ayurvedic and Unani medicines. Inspite of the rich diversity and importance, the productivity of spices is low in India. Spices are an important group of economic plants with large genetic diversity in the Indian subcontinent and need to be conserved through in- vitro methods. Conservation of the germplasm using traditional method of field maintenance is problematic, normally labour intensive and also face risk of germplasm loss due to pest/pathogen attack or natural disasters. To minimize the problems of their conservation and increasing interest has been shown to use plant tissue culture. In vitro conservation of germplasm has been reported in various crop species including the spices black pepper, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, large cardamom.

In India, there are two accreditation systems for authorizing Certification and Inspection agencies for organic certification. National Programme on organic Production (NPOP) promoted by Ministry of Commerce is the core programme which governs and defines the standards and implementing procedures. National Accreditation Body (NAB) is the apex decision making body. Certification and Inspection agencies accredited by NAB are authorized to undertake certification process. The NPOP notified under FTDR act and controlled by Agricultural Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA) looks after the requirement of export while NPOP notified under APGMC act and controlled by Agriculture Marketing Advisor, Directorate of Marketing and Inspection looks after domestic certification. Currently 20 certification agencies have been authorized to undertake certification process.

National Programme on Organic Production

National Program on Organic Production (NPOP) was launched during 2001 under the Foreign Trade & Development Act (FTDR Act). The document provides information on standards for organic production, systems criteria, and procedures for accreditation of Inspection and Certification bodies, the national organic logo and the regulations governing its use.

Introduction

The word cooperation is of Latin origin and it means to work together (Filley, 1929).Cooperatives are founded on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. Based on the founding principles of co-operatives, members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others (Canadian Business Service Centre, 2004). A fishery co-operative society can be defined as “An autonomous association of people united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically controlled fishery enterprise or fishery activities.”

Attitude implies that the individual is no longer neutral toward the referent psychological objects. The person would be positively inclined or negatively disposed in some degree towards the referents (Campbell, 1963; Allport, 1966; Newcomb, 1966; Zanden, 1977; Burr, 2000). The response in this connection is a lasting one, as long as the attitude in question is operative. Attitude refers to a psychological individual’s stands about objects, issues, persons, groups, or Institutions. The definition of attitude proposed by Triandis (1971) suggests that attitude has three components: (a) a cognitive component (the idea), (b) an affective component (the emotions), and (c) a behavioural component (the action).

Soil erosion refers to detachment and transport of soil and soil particles from one place to other by the action of water, wind or gravity. Soil erosion consists of (i) detachment of soil particles from surface (ii) their transport from one place to other and (iii) deposition in another place.

Soil erosion are of two types: Natural erosion and accelerated erosion. The natural or geological erosion is steady, nondestructive and slow process of nature. On the contrary the accelerated erosion caused due to human activities like cutting of forest, intensive cropping, construction of roads and building is very rapid and destructive. Surface one inch of soil which is formed in thousand years can be lost within one year due to accelerated erosion.

In India, out of total 175 million hectares of degraded land, soil erosion due to water and wind accounts for 150 million hectare. Soil erosion due to shifting cultivation, salinity, alkalinity, water logging and shifting of water courses account for 25 million hectare.

Average soil loss from various land surfaces in India has been estimated to be 5334 million tonnes per year out of which 29 percent is permanently lost to sea, 10 percent is deposited in reservoirs and 61 percent is transported from one place to other. The plant nutrients lost through 5334 million tonnes of eroded soils was estimated to be 8.4 million tonnes which includes 2.5 million tonnes of N, 3.3 million tonnes of P and 2.6 million tonnes of K.

Siltation of reservoirs through water erosion is a major concern in India. This accelerated silting has considerably reduced the estimated life span of major reservoirs. The rate of siltation depends on the catchment area, soil erodability, topography and rainfall pattern. Larger the catchment area, smaller is the siltation load in the reservoirs because, the coarse fraction of eroded particles may be settle down in the stream valley before the water enters into the reservoir.

Introduction The onion (Allium cepa) is one of the world's oldest cultivated crops, with a history dating back over 5,000 years (Gorrepati et al., 2014). At present, India is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of onions. At the time, India ranked second in onion production with a yearly production of around 23262 TMT and an average yield of 18.10 MT/ha (Prajapati and Saini, 2019; Horticulture Statistics at a Glance, 2018; Tripathi and Lawande, 2016). Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Telangana are the major onion producing states in India. Maharashtra alone covers 55-60% of countries total production. Solapur, Satara, Dhule, Jalgoan, Osmanabad, Beed, Latur, Aurangabad are the major onion producing districts in Maharashtra (Tripathi et al., 2005). Unfortunately, India witnessed around 40-50% post-harvest losses of onions every year (Prajapati and Saini, 2019).

Introduction

Soil organic matter is an indispensible component of soil health management. It plays an important role in improving soil physical, chemical and biological environment. Soil health refers to the capacity of the soil in terms of physical, chemical and biological properties for maintaining ecosystem services. With respect to agricultural lands, soil health implies the capability of the soil towards improving crop growth and yield, while also supporting environmental sustainability. Some important determining properties of soil health maintenance are soil reaction, salinity or alkalinity, soil organic matter, soil texture, soil structure/aggregation, water holding capacity, porosity, internal drainage, and nutrient retention capacity. Simultaneously, the key properties maneuvering soil health are soil aeration, internal drainage, nutrient cycling, susceptibility to erosion etc. Except some of the basic properties (soil texture) and processes (soil erosion), most of the determinant properties and processes are maneuvered by the presence of soil organic matter. A healthy soil must have strong resistance to degradation processes and able to recover following a perturbation because of inherent resilience (Magdoff 2001).

Laying and broiler breeding are the backbone of the poultry industry. Fertility and hatchability are the two most important reproductive traits of breeder birds that highly influence the supply of quality day-old commercial chicks and growth of poultry industry. Fertility and hatchability are parameters of economic viability (King’Ori, 2011; Malik et al., 2015) and interrelated heritable traits that vary among breeds, variety and individuals in a breed or variety. Fertility refers to the average percentage of eggs that were fertilized and hatchability refers to the proportion of chicks hatched from the total number of eggs set for incubation (hatchability on the basis of total egg set), and based on the total number of fertile eggs (hatchability on the basis of fertile eggs set) (Wolc et al., 2019).

Introduction

Drought is an evolutionary process often triggered by precipitation deficiencies and may result in enormous economic losses. Effective early drought warnings and predictions may be beneficial for the farmers. To determine drought and its severity level, meteorological drought indices such as the standardized precipitation index, effective drought index etc. are utilized. Drought events can be foreknown using prediction models and by predicting these indices. Many studies on prediction have primarily focused on statistical approaches such as Holt-Winters, auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), etc. These statistical techniques are insufficient for providing long-term predictions. However, with improvements in machine learning techniques, there seems to be a mechanism to forecast drought in the long run with high accuracy. Frequently used machine learning algorithms in drought forecasting are artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine, etc. Machine learning techniques have a powerful and versatile data-driven algorithm for capturing and representing complex input and output relationships.

Introduction

Modern intensive livestock and poultry production has achieved phenomenal gains in the efficient and economical production of high quality and safe animal products and by-products. Furthermore, the overall performance of livestock can be increased by improving nutrients utilization, health status, fertility and efficiency of production. The use of feed additives has been an important part of achieving efficient livestock production. Feed additives are non-nutritive substances, preparations and micro-organisms that are added to animal feed to improve productive, reproductive and health performances. Any substance is considered as a feed additive when, not having a direct utilization as nutrient, is included at an optimum concentration in diet to exert a positive action over the animal health status or the dietary nutrient utilization. Hutjens (1991) defined feed additives as a group of substances that can cause a desired animal response in a non-nutrient role, such as pH shift, growth, or metabolic modifier. Feed additives are added deliberately to animal feed which may favourably influences characteristics of the animal feed, feed intake, gastro-intestinal flora, digestibility of the animal feeds, animal production, health, fertility and characteristics of animal products. Because of their chemical nature as active principles, additives are generally included in very small proportions in diet.

Introduction

Rainfall is a crucial component of the Earth’s climatic system that affects various aspects of human life. It has a direct impact on the ecosystems, water resources, agricultural production, and overall water management. Dependence on rainfall is particularly high in regions where it is the primary source of water, making it essential to have an accurate understanding of future rainfall patterns. Given its importance, rainfall forecasting is a critical concern for a wide range of stakeholders, including governments, businesses, risk management organizations, and the scientific community. However, predicting rainfall is a complex task as it is a random occurrence influenced by numerous factors (Samantaray et al., 2020). Even in similar weather conditions, the possibility of rainfall may vary. This makes historical data and predictive analytics crucial in forecasting future rainfall and taking necessary actions to manage its effects (Avinash et al., 2022). The impact of rainfall extends beyond water management to affect various human activities, including power generation, construction, tourism, and forestry, among others. Therefore, it is crucial to accurately forecast and analyze rainfall patterns to help mitigate the risks and consequences associated with it (Hernandez et al., 2016).

3.1. INTRODUCTION

Heterosis is the superiority of the F1s over the parental forms. The term heterosis was first used by Shull (1910) to describe the interpretation of increased vigour, size, fruitfulness, speed of development, resistance to diseases and insect pests or some other characteristics manifested by out-breeding organisms as compared to corresponding inbreds. Exploitation of heterosis is gaining momentum due to increased yield, quality, uniformity, better desirable traits and management of biotic stresses. The future of most of the economic crops will be for hybrids for sustainable development of higher economic returns to the farmers. Sustainable increase in area under hybrid crops is witnessed by its popularity and adoption by the farmers.

Introduction

Aquaculture, also known as aqua-farming, embodies the procedure of the farming of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatic plants, algae, and other organisms. Aquaculture involves cultivation of freshwater and saltwater fish-populations under controlled conditions (Wikipedia, 2019). Aquaculture industry has undergone a lot of change in the last two decades. The application of the sophisticated technologies in the aquaculture industry has greatly altered the face of the industry in special relation to the Western and developed countries. New tools related to the measurement of the different environmental parameters needed to be controlled in different layers of the production process like Hatchery, Nursery and Grow-out have come up. Lots of data generated from the above stages relate to include the parameters, like, cost of production, health condition of produced fish, etc., which ultimately leads to the generation of the appropriate pricing of produce. With the advent of globalization, all aquaculture product companies need to look for exporting their respective products along with meeting the full satisfaction related to the demand from the domestic markets with an ultimate objective to increasing the profit. Export of the fisheries products in the western countries needs proper certification on the quality of the products duly by the appropriate authorities. The certification authorities need to check the detailed production process related to the fisheries- products in order to be sure about the quality imbibed in the same. The development of integrated software maintaining the details of the production process makes the task easy for both the production company and the certification authority, thus satisfying the needs of the end-customers in the western markets. Useful ERP software needs to maintain all relevant information on the production process commencing from the very early stage of the production till the act of selling the products in the market.

Transport systems are crucial to survival. Unicellular organisms rely on simple diffusion for transport of nutrients and removal of waste. Multicellular organisms have developed more complex circulatory systems. The circulatory system is responsible for the transport of the various essential compounds and other factors around the body, as well as the removal of the metabolic wastes that accumulate in the tissues from body activities to places of elimination.

Introduction

Time series data is data that has been collected in a specific pattern with time stamps. (Nayak and Ghosh, 2013). This type of time-oriented data is collected at regular intervals, such as hourly, daily, monthly, or weekly. Time series data can be used to make accurate predictions in a variety of fields and domains, such as foreign currency rates, stock market trends, energy consumption estimates, and climate change. Machine learning and data mining techniques can be used to uncover hidden patterns in historical data and forecast future trends (Aftab et al. 2018a, 2018b, Mishra et al. 2017).

Weather forecasting based on historical data is a complex but very beneficial task that comes with several issues that must be resolved to achieve optimal results (Wu and Chau, 2013). Weather data includes attributes or features such as temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind speed. Machine learning techniques are used to forecast future weather conditions by identifying hidden patterns and relationships in historical weather data (Aftab et al. 2018b). Prediction of precipitation is an important part of the weather forecasting process. The use of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques is regarded as a critical component in farmer services and policy formulation. Farmers require weather forecasting to plan their activities following the predicted weather. Accurate and timely rainfall prediction in farming, in particular, can be extremely beneficial in planning and security measures for operations, agricultural tasks, water reservoir systems, and construction and transportation activities (Chau and Wu, 2010). Forecasting rainfall will become increasingly important in the future.

Changing Dynamics in HM

HM has transformed significantly; a lot because of changes in consumer behaviour, technological advancement, economic developments, regulatory changes, and growing consciousness of sustainability (Samaddar & Mondal, 2024). These changing dynamics have pushed customer’s expectations toward better and more personalized service (Law et al., 2024). Initially, the focus was on basic services and manual processes, but since then, the HM industry has embraced smart technologies like mobile apps, AI, IoT, and big data analytics. These developments have revolutionized the way customers interact; from merely checking in with their mobile phones, and controlling their room settings, to house-keeping and service delivery, thanks to AI-powered customization and automation. Using cloud services for managing properties and improving cyber security helps keep operations smooth and keeps data safe. Efforts to use energy and water more wisely show the industry's move towards being more sustainable. As the HM continues to evolve, industry stakeholders eye towards more personalized, efficient, and sustainable guest experiences. This would reflect the ongoing commitment to excellence and adaptation efforts to strive and evolve in the dynamic global landscape.