eChapters

Introduction

Millions of dollars are lost each year due to insect crop devastation, and the use of chemical pesticides has unwanted side effects such as resistance and unintentional impacts on species that are beneficial (Kumar et al. 2019). For farmers, authorities, and academics, finding additional target-selective pest management techniques is of utmost importance. Enhancing performance, cost-effectiveness, and increasing the markets for bio pesticides are all made possible by biotechnology. Molecular methods are used to detect and track the emergence and spread of particular types that are natural enemies (Tipvadee, 2002). It offers chances for the growth of beneficial insect natural enemies with features including pesticide resistance, cold tolerance, and sex ratio change.

The economics of migration has drawn attention of many economists and social scientists over the years. Decision making in migration has certain inherent complexities as it takes into account the characteristics of both areas of origin and areas of destinations. Similarly it involves the status of agricultural productivity and efficiency, extant of urban informal sector along with various other amenities available in the destination urban areas. The subject of rural-urban migration and its inter-linkage with urban informal market and agricultural productivity have received considerable attention in theoretical framework as well as in empirical research. Among these vast literatures, the study has reviewed some of them and made a synoptic assessment on these issues in general. Moreover an attempt has been made to review the existing literature on rural-urban migration in West Bengal.

2.1 Migration Decision Making

Migration decision can be two types: individual decision making and family decision making. These two sets of migration decision involve distinctly different sets of factors. Stark (1991) has rightly pointed out that “….the family, should not be treated as if it were an individual”. So there are differences between individual migration decision and family migration decision. Migration decision depends on a host of factors, some are economic, some are demographic and some are sociological in nature. However, individual and family migration decisions are determined by two distinctly different sets of factors.

Introduction

Due to global population growth, rising wages, and urbanisation, the demand for animal products has been expanding quickly in many areas of the world (FAO, 2018). Meeting the rising demand for animal products, which is expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030 (FAO, 2018) as the world’s population is projected to increase by 80 million per year (Preisinger, 2012), is one of the biggest difficulties facing modern farm animal industry (Eggen, 2012). Animal products and value-added foods are being consumed as a result of urbanisation and income growth (Hoffmann, 2005; FAO, 2011). By 2050, the world’s population will be close to 10 billion, even as the economic conditions continue to improve the demand for animal products will significantly rise. In order to boost animal production, it will be necessary to acquire a more in-depth understanding of animal biology through genomics and other related f ields of study. Understanding animal physiology remains a significant problem in the context of sustainable agriculture and animal husbandry, particularly for developing animal farming systems that cater to the new and diversified consumer demand. Livestock and poultry productivity has been greatly increased through traditional selection based on genetic merit estimated from phenotypic and pedigree data. Most breeding plans do not take population impacts on genetic diversity into consideration, and selection is geared more towards the best genetic response for the upcoming generation than the best long-term response (Meuwissen, 1997). Breeders have employed genetic analyses to find superior animals for more than 40 years.

Market information

As defined by Philip Kotler, Marketing information system is continuing & interacting structure of people, equipment & procedure designed to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing decision makers, to improve their marketing planning, execution and control.

It is the job of collecting, interpreting and disseminating large variety of data which are needed for the smooth operation of marketing processes. In many countries Government agencies undertake this function and sometimes organisations such as chambers of commerce, board of traders etc. perform this function. The Directorate of Economics and Statistics and concerned state marketing departments collect data regarding a) quantity of various products produced in different areas, b) quantities of products held in storage, c) arrivals in various markets, d) prices prevailing in local, regional, national and international markets. The informative data so collected is disseminated through radio, television, news papers, weekly and monthly bulletins. Daily prices are published in most of the news papers. The informative marketing data is also collected through sales executives and from those personnel who are specially appointed as specialists by various trading firms.

Defining Wellbeing
The notion of wellbeing is not new, it is much more difficult to come up with a consensus definition since the phrase is frequently ill-defined and under-theorized (Camfield, Streuli & Woodhead, 2009). The problem of definition inconsistency is exacerbated by the fact that the phrases “wellbeing” and “happiness,” “flourishing,” “enjoying a good life,” and “life satisfaction” are frequently used synonymously, although having quite different connotations.
Defining wellbeing is tough because it's talked about in many different ways across local and global media, literature, and daily conversations. So many voices, so many angles. But that makes the journey of understanding it all the more fascinating! At first, there were two distinct schools of thinking on wellbeing: hedonic and eudemonic. From a hedonic perspective, happiness is defined as the sum of all happy experiences.
Philosophers like DeSade, Bentham and Hobbes defined wellness as the “pursuit of sensations and pleasure” Hobbes as “a pursuit of human appetites,” and Husain (2008) as “the good society is built through maximizing pleasure and self-interest.” Being loyal to one’s inner self and having a eudaimonic viewpoint on wellbeing are synonymous with the concept of eudaimonia. Maslow (1970) developed a notion of self that builds upon the eudaimonic idea of wellbeing. The conditions that exist in life and the ways in which a person or community makes use of those situations directly affect the quality of life that an individual or community experiences. Wellbeing has become “something everyone seemingly aims for and arguably has a right to,” according to McCallum and Price (2016).

Introduction
Agroforestry, social forestry, community forestry, village forestry, and farm forestry are all practices that involve tree cultivation primarily outside designated forest reserves. Agroforestry, in particular, is a land-use approach that integrates trees with agricultural crops, shrubs, pastures, or livestock. This combination of trees and shrubs within land management systems can be structured in a spatial arrangement or occur in a sequential manner over time. The term ‘woody perennials’ is sometimes used to describe these trees and shrubs, referring to all long-lived plants that persist for more than a year, including bamboos and palms. In agroforestry systems, trees may not always be deliberately planted; natural regeneration may be encouraged by protecting emerging seedlings, or mature trees may be intentionally retained in fields and pastures. These woody perennials are often categorized as “multipurpose trees” (MPTs) or “multipurpose trees and shrubs” (MPTS) due to their diverse uses. While most trees can be considered multipurpose, this distinction highlights the varied benefits trees offer in agroforestry systems, as opposed to singlepurpose timber plantations focused solely on wood production.
Conversely, tree cultivation in designated forest areas is often directed toward industrial needs, commonly referred to as industrial forestry. The promotion of MPTs in agroforestry holds great promise for addressing land-use challenges and improving livelihoods by enhancing environmental sustainability and economic opportunities for local communities. Agroforestry research has now advanced to a stage where suitable tree-crop combinations, their management practices, and genetically improved planting materials can be recommended for specific conditions. Furthermore, continuous advancements in research by international and national agroforestry organizations are contributing to the benefit of farmers. The availability of information on multipurpose tree species (MPTs) for many species has facilitated the adoption of agroforestry as a viable land-use system. However, for certain MPTs, a lack of fundamental data on growth rates, breeding patterns, resilience to environmental stress,

Genus   : Prunus
Species : avium cerasus, mahaleb L.
Family : Rosaceae
Chromosome No. : 2n = 16, 24, 32

Records indicate that cherries were in cultivation ever since the beginning of civilization. Cherries exhibit vast genetic variability as is evident from the different species which vary in their ploidy level. Sweet cherries (Prunus avium L) are diploid while sour cherries (P. cerasus, L.) are tetraploid, and commercially more important than the other species. Duke cherry has resulted from hybridization between sour and sweet cherry with intermediate tree and fruit characters. Successful cherry cultivation revolves around climatic factors, prime being the extent and spread of rainfall, variation in day and night temperature, occurrence of frosts, high heat day largely determine the type of cherry that will grow successfully in a particular areas. Hence cherry improvement around the world has so far been localized to few selected areas where different cherries have been successfully grown.

Bioinformatics is a discipline that deals with computation of biological information. Bioinformatics is a newly emerging interdisciplinary research area spanning a range of specialties that include biology, biophysics, computer science, mathematics & statistics. It makes use of scientific and technological advances in the area of computer science, information technology and communication technology to solve complex problems in life sciences particularly problem in Biotechnology.

Explosive growth in biological data from large sequencing projects that are producing nucleotide sequences continuously at a faster rate and the content of the nucleotide database is doubling in every 14 months. The latest release of Gene bank (v.102) exceeded one billion base pairs. To cope with this huge volume of data, a new scientific discipline has emerged comprising bioinformatics, biocomputing & computational biology.

ABSTRACT

Groundwater geochemistry is largely a function of mineral composition of aquifer through which water flows thus, differences in aquifer composition are reflected as differences in groundwater chemistry. To understand water quality and flow pattern multivariate statistical analysis are used due to its relative importance in combining chemical variables and organize voluminous data and group into variables of similar characters. R-mode factor analysis is used in the field of hydrogeochemistry to interpret complex hydrogeological process. A total of 216 samples representing complete lithology like peninsular gneiss, Charnockite and calc gneiss for four different seasons was collected and analyzed for major ions like Ca, Mg, Na, K, HCO₃, Cl, SO₄, NO₃, PO₄, F and H₄SiO₄. Correlation analysis reveals Mg, Cl and Na are spinal and others seasonal. Factor analysis indicates ascendancy of anthropogenic basis followed by lithological weight. Factor score superimpose indicate governing hydrogeochemical regimes spread in western and eastern part. In southern part the same has superior influence than northern part.

Tropical forest bird community

Species richness at Silent Valley and Mukkali were similar. Most of the birds at Silent Valley were sighted with in a distance of 4m during the census. At Mukkali this distance was up to 9m. Yellowbrowed Bulbul was the most common and dominant species found at Silent Valley. Most common species found at Mukkali was Black Drongo and dominant species was Jungle Babbler. A total of hundred and thirty-seven species of birds were recorded from the study area. There is no significant difference in bird species richness between years during monsoon and summer seasons at Silent Valley. But a significant difference in species richness is obtained between years in both seasons, at Mukkali.

Four endemic and threatened species of birds were recorded from the study area. This shows the conservation value of the study area. Total number of birds sighted in each month showed significant difference at Silent Valley and Mukkali. This is due to the movement of birds influenced by the climatic and other parameters. Overall density of birds was high at Silent Valley (1122 birds/km²) and low at Mukkali (780 birds/km² ). This indicates the ability of tropical evergreen forest to harbour more birds than tropical moist deciduous forest. The number of individuals/km² recorded is comparable to other tropical forests in the world and from this observation we can also conclude that the study area is supporting a rich bird community.

1. _____ is the study of all the activities, agencies and policies involved in the procurement of farm inputs by the farmers and the movement of agricultural products from the farms to the consumers.

a) Agricultural marketing

b) Supply chain

c) Agricultural production

d) Value chain

2. The subject of agricultural marketing comprises of _____

a) Product marketing

b) Input marketing

c) Both a & b c) None of the above

3. Changing the raw material into a finished good creates ____

a) Form utility

b) Time utility

c) Place utility

The overall number of animals kept as livestock in India comes to 535.78 million, making it the country with the greatest livestock population. According to the 20th Livestock Census, India has a total bovine population of 302.79 Million. This includes Cattle, Buffalo, Mithun, and Yak. There are a total of 109.85 million buffaloes living in the country. The number of goats in the country currently stands at 148.88, while the total number of sheep in the country is 74.26 Million. Most of the breeds in India have evolved naturally through adaptation to varied agro-ecological conditions and have generally been named after their place of origin or on the basis of prominent morphological characteristics. The number of registered breeds in India has increased over time. Majority of livestock breeds are reared by smallholder farmers are of non-descript type. Indiscriminate crossbreeding is extensively occurs resulting in herds of females that may have very complex ancestries.

Mental wellbeing in youngsters is not merely the absence of mental illness; it encompasses a state of positive psychological functioning, where individuals are able to manage their emotions, build healthy relationships and navigate the challenges of life. This period is characterized by significant physical, emotional and cognitive development, making it a critical time for establishing the foundations of mental health.
Mental wellbeing is a crucial aspect of overall health, especially during the formative years of childhood and adolescence. In the contemporary scenario, for youngsters, the journey to mental wellbeing is a complex interplay of biological, psychological and social factors. This journey is increasingly shaped by rapid societal changes, technological advancements, academic pressure, family dynamics and global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. These influences have profound implications for the mental health of young people, making it essential to explore the current challenges and opportunities in promoting mental wellbeing among this demographic.
Psychological Development During Adolescence
Adolescence is a time of significant psychological change, marked by the development of identity, self-concept and emotional regulation. During this stage, youngsters begin to form their own beliefs and values, separate from those of their parents or guardians. They also develop the capacity for abstract thinking and moral reasoning, which allows them to engage with complex social issues and make independent decisions. These developmental processes are influenced by a range of factors,

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

Introduction

Climate is one of the main determinants of agricultural production. Throughout the world there is significant concern about the effects of climate change and its variability on agricultural production. Researchers and administrators are concerned with the potential damages and benefits that may arise in future from climate change impacts on agriculture, since these will affect domestic and international policies, trading pattern, resource use and food security. The climate change is any change in climate over time that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (IPCC, 2007).

Presentation of data is done in form of diagram and graphs.

Diagrammatic Presentation: The data are presented in form of diagrams

The important diagrammatic presentations are simple bar diagram, multiple bar diagram, component bar diagram, percentage bar diagram & pie diagram.

Selection of diagram depends upon the nature of classification, number of characters involved and the type of comparison required to be made. In all the diagrams, the groups or classes are represented on the X-axis and the volumes or frequencies are represented in the Y-axis. The title of these visual aids should be self-explanatory.

1. Simple Bar Diagram: Simple bar diagrams consist of vertical bars of equal width. The height of these bars is proportional to the magnitude of the attribute. All bars are separated from each other by equal intervals. Simple bar diagram is used if the classification is based on attributes and if the attributes are to be compared with respect to a single character. For example, the area under different crops in a state, the production of mangoes in different years for a state, the yield of a variety at different fertilizer level, etc, can be represented by the simple bar diagram. Also the yield performance of different varieties of a crop, the effects of different treatments etc, can be compared using simple bar diagrams.

Introduction

Attaining food and nutritional security for a growing population and reducing poverty while sustaining agricultural production under the current scenario of depleting natural resources, increasing cost of inputs and impending negative impacts of climatic change are the major challenges the country is currently facing (FAO, 2009). In addition to these challenges, decline in soil organic matter, consequent deterioration of soil health, large scale erosion of fertile top-soil are the other bottle-necks for increasing agricultural productivity from a finite land resource base. These constraints are evolving mainly due to: (1) intensive tillage induced soil organic matter decline, soil structural degradation, water and wind erosion, reduced water infiltration, surface sealing and crusting, soil compaction, (2) insufficient return of organic material to soil owing to prevalent crop residue removal and burning (Prasad et al., 1999) and (3) mono-cropping. Conservation agricultural (CA) is a panacea to address these challenges the farming community of this country is presently facing. The CA system incorporates a holistic approach to agriculture that results in improved soil health and water quality, lower water and nutrient consumption, reduced soil loss, strategic land use and healthy biodiversity. It involves minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover through crop residues or cover crops, and crop rotations for achieving higher productivity (Hobbs et al., 2008).

An Overview of Fish and Shellfish Health Management in Aquaculture in India

Aquaculture in India in particular freshwater fish culture comprised mainly of Indian major carp cultivation has a long history. Since 1980s commercial carp culture expanded, particularly in Andhra Pradesh and in few years became an Asia model. Then on, it is slowly and steadily expanding to different parts of the country particularly Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Orissa and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Of late, culture of Pungasius (Basa) has come up on large scale in AP. In addition, there is also growing small scale commercial cultivation of catfish, murrels, tilapia and freshwater prawn(Macrobrachium rosenbergii). Aquarium fish breeding is also expanding to establish itself as an industry in India.

Brackish water culture has been practiced traditionally in India in Pokkali fields of Kerala, Bheries of West Bengal and Ghaznis of Karnataka since hundreds of years. From 1990 onwards, commercial shrimp culture came into existence along the coasts of India. High export value, support from government and short culture period encouraged private entrepreneurs to pursue shrimp farming in a big way. There is vast potential for fish culture in brackish water and at the present efforts are on to popularize culture of Asian seabass, mullets, Eutroplus and milk fish. Mariculture is still at infancy but increasing at a slow and steady rate.

Aquaculture health management has to be viewed from the incidences and outbreak of diseases due to growth and expansion of the industry. Aquaculture has expanded tremendously in the last three decades, growing at 6-7 % annually. Contribution of fish production from aquaculture in the country is around 60 % compared to 10 % it was 40 years ago. In few years to come, aquaculture contribution may go up to 80 % of total fish production. Today 2.43 m ha of freshwater and 1.15 m ha of brackish water are under culture. In addition, 8.62 m. ha of irrigated inland area mainly in Haryana, Maharastra and Karnataka which have become saline and unsuitable for agriculture are slowly being reclaimed for aquaculture. Farmers are growing acclamatized saltwater fish and shrimp spp in inland saline waters and a shift like this may favour pathogens with different virulence to cause disease. Overall, it can be seen that in addition to increased conventional areas in fresh and brackish water, aquaculture is being practiced in unconventional areas like saline soils. Performance of fish and shellfish in these non conventional water bodies in the long run needs to be studied from their health point of view.

Pollution
The Latin word “polluere,” which meaning to “soil” or “defile,” is the source of theEnglish word “pollution.” Unwanted changes in our environment that negatively impact humans, animals, and plants are known as pollution.
Any unfavorable alteration to the physical, chemical, or biological properties of any element of the environment (air, water, or soil) that has the potential to negatively impact a variety of life forms and property is referred to as environmental pollution.
Substances that are produced by human activity and are present in greater quantities than they would naturally be—solid, liquid, or gaseou —and that negatively impact our environment are referred to as pollutants.
Three Categories of Contaminants Exist
• Pollutants that break down or are not persistent: Natural processes rapidly decompose them. For instance, leftover veggies, home sewerage, etc.
• Pollutants that degrade slowly or are persistent: These are bad for the environment and take decades to break down. For example, most plastics and DDT (pesticides).
• Non-biodegradable contaminants: These have long-term negative effects on the environment and public health since they cannot be broken down by natural processes. For instance, radioactive waste and toxic materials like lead or mercury.