eChapters

Soil is a mass of large variability and thus its sampling is the most challenging problem for any soil analyst. Practically, soil sampling is a two step process which includes (i) collection of soil from homogeneous unit and (ii) processing which in turn includes drying, grinding, sieving, mixing, partitioning and storing.

1.1. Sources of Error in Soil Chemical Analysis

Different sources of error involved starting from soil sampling to chemical analysis of a sample can be divided into three main groups:

1. Sampling error : This error results from variability among the different samples drawn from same soil unit with respect to the objective of sampling.
2. Sub-sampling error : This error is due to variability introduced among sub samples of the same soil sample.
3. Analytical error : This error introduced due to variability from one chemical determination to another on same sub sample.

Abstract

Women make up almost half of the agricultural labour force in developing countries (43 per cent according to UN Women data). Empowerment of women is central to achieving the objective of inclusive, equitable and sustainable development. Between the period 2007-08 and 2009-10, the share of person-days in casual employment in MANREGS to the total person-days in all economic activities has also increased. The increase was marginal for male workers but significant for female workers. This again confirms that female workers have been the largest beneficiaries of MANREGS projects. The share of female participation in these public works is more than the share of their male counterparts. The survey shows that women comprise only 13.76% of the total entrepreneurs, i.e., 8.05 million out of the 58.5 million entrepreneurs. Among the states, the largest share in number of establishments under women entrepreneurship is of Tamil Nadu (13.51%) followed by Kerala (11.35%), Andhra Pradesh (10.56%), West Bengal (10.33%) and Maharashtra (8.25%). Average employment per establishment for women owned establishments is 1.67. The main challenges that women face in business are educational and work background, balancing their time share between work and family, problems of raising start-up capital, difficulty in borrowing fund, thought-cut completions endangered existence of small companies, problems of availing raw- materials access to export market without intermediaries, as well as an overall psychological barrier on the part of banks, suppliers, and clients alike. Govt of India and different bodies such as NGOs, voluntary organizations, self-help groups, institutions and individual enterprises from rural and urban areas are active to help the women entrepreneurs in their ventures.

Abstract

Keeping in view the increasing demand of off-season and high value vegetables in several big cities of the country, there is an urgent need for diversification from the traditional agriculture by production of high value vegetable crops under different protected conditions for increasing their productivity and quality not only for getting high returns but in a Horti-Business / Veggie-business model. Nursery raising under protected cultivation is highly suitable for such Horti-business model or can be adopted as an agri entrepreneur business in major vegetable growing areas of the country by unemployed youths who are graduates in agriculture or post graduates in horticulture. Low cost protected technologies like plastic low tunnels or walk in tunnels, shade net houses can be used for off season vegetable cultivation for getting high returns. Similarly, insect proof net houses can be used on a large scale for safe vegetable cultivation by way of minimizing the use of pesticides in vegetable cultivation and virus free quality seed production in large number of vegetables in a horti-business model. Some of the technologies like low pressure drip irrigation and low cost nursery raising technology can also be replicated in other parts of the country even among the resource poor and tribal farmers.

2.1 Introduction

The different breeding strategies (methods) that can be employed for improvement of fruit crops include introduction, open pollinated selection, clonal selection, hybrid breeding, polyploidy breeding, mutation breeding, molecular breeding, in vitro breeding and transgenic breeding. Combining traditional approaches with biotechnological approaches will speed up the rate of genetic improvement. Thus, what is required is to adopt a coordinated approach involving breeders, biotechnologists, horticulturists, pathologists, entomologists and statistician for making the cultivation of fruit crops more scientific and more profitable and thereby contributing more to improving the health of the people in a sustainable manner.

Introduction

India is bestowed with a lot of potentials to produce a variety of organic products due to its diversified agro-climatic regions and this is very true in case of Dehradun district of Uttarakhand. It offers a variety of geographic locations suitable for cultivating various food crops such as: fruits, vegetables, food grains etc. Globally, organic farming is cultivated in an area of 57.80 million ha. However, India accounts for just 2.59% of the area. The organic farming is followed in India in almost all the regions with three states Madhya Pradesh (34.34%), Maharashtra (13.19%) and Rajasthan (11.67%) accounting for about 59% of the total organic area of the country. The cultivated land under certification has substantially increased from 1.74 lakh ha in the year 2005-06 to 1.78 million ha in the year 2017-188 (https://www.researchgate. net/publication/338209816_Impact_of_farmer_producer_organization_on_ organic_chilli_production_in_Telangana_India) Agriculture and its allied sectors are the largest source of livelihoods in India. However, India still has many growing concerns. As the Indian economy has diversified and grown, agriculture’s contribution to GDP has steadily declined from 1951 to 2011. (Source: http://www.fao.org/india/fao-in-india/india-at-a-glance/). One of the main reasons is due to the lack of competence in Indian farmers for selling the crop in remunerative prices in the market. Some of the critical constraints and bottlenecks are lack of infrastructure for storage, transportation, quality control, packaging, price risk management, cool chains, market led extension, and framework for promotion of contract farming (Gohain, 2018). Realizing these issues Government of India under the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation identified Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) as the most appropriate institutional form to mobilize farmers and build their capacity to collectively leverage their production and marketing strength(Ministry of Agriculture, 2013).For analyzing the potential, importance and contribution of FPO in the agriculture sector, the present study aims to discuss the role of FPO in uplifting small and marginal farmers and its impact on the basis of the project undertaken by Silgur Bizat SwayattSahkarita FPO in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand.

Introduction

• At present, horticulture is recognized as a potential sector to enhance agricultural production, improve house hold nutritional security and income generation through diversification and employment, value addition and export.

• Inspite of the enormous success achieved in horticulture sector, several constraints still exist.

• Besides new emerging challenges, poor productivity per unit area continues to be a concern in most of the horticultural crops with climate change impacting the productivity further.

3.1 Role of root stock in fruit crops

• The role of rootstocks and its use in different fruit crops has significant impact on fruit crop production by influencing canopy architecture, nutritional uptake, flowering, yield and fruit quality.

• Besides, it can also confront biotic and abiotic stresses such as soil pathogens, thermal stress, salinity and nutritional stress.

• Due to limited availability of arable land and high market demand for fruit crops, they are frequently cultivated under unfavorable soil and environmental conditions like thermal stress, drought, flooding, salinity and contamination of organic pollutants.

• One way to substantiate or reduce these losses in production would be the use of appropriate rootstocks, which are capable of reducing the effect of external stresses on the scion.

• Rootstocks have a primary role in determining orchard efficiency.

• They are responsible for water and mineral uptake and provide anchorage for the tree.

Apart from honey, bees also generate several other valuable products— beeswax, propolis, royal jelly, and pollen—all of which offer significant nutritional, therapeutic, and commercial benefits. In natural beekeeping systems, these secondary bee products are collected carefully to maintain ecological balance and avoid disrupting the natural functioning of the hive. Each of these substances plays a crucial role within the colony and finds diverse applications in healthcare, cosmetics, traditional medicine, and small-scale industries. When harvested responsibly and kept free of synthetic additives, they serve as sustainable income sources for beekeepers and contribute to environmental conservation and biodiversity.

HONEY

Among all bee products, honey is the most recognized and widely used from ancient times to the present day. Human cultures have celebrated honey for centuries, embedding it in literature, folklore, and religious symbolism. The earliest known references to honey use involve religious offerings, possibly among the first non-animal sacrifices. It was often presented alongside milk, butter, ghee, oil, or incense.

ABSTRACT

The main function of extension is to bring a desirable change in human behavior. The extension workers, thus are essentially educators and their most important job is to communicate useful and practical research findings to the farmers in such a way that they understand, accept and adopt. In order to achieve this objective, the extension agencies are disseminating new technologies through different means including mass media like radio, T. V, and print media. Considering the wide areas of coverage, exposure and frequent use by people, the mass media such as television, newspaper and radio play an important role in the transfer of technology. Mass media are increasingly becoming a veritable instrument and tool for transforming agriculture. Hence, mass media play a vital role in agricultural extension. There is a gap between the agricultural researchers and the farmers. A lot of findings from the research institutions and laboratories are not used by the farmers, either because of the information did not reach them, or the received information was not implemented by them. To overcome this problem, mass media play a vital role in diffusing scientific knowledge among the mass. This is used to link researchers and extension workers and collecting the feedback from farming communities. Further, agricultural technology information acquired by farmers through mass media. Generally, the agricultural technology information includes techniques of applying fertilizer, insecticides and fungicides to crops, improved methods of cultivation and conservation techniques of planting, maintenance, harvesting and storage of crops. There are also new technologies of animal husbandry as well as processing and marketing various agricultural products. Hence, mass media is the most effective means of reaching people with new ideas and persuading them to utilize these innovations. The appropriate use can create knowledge and catalyze behavioral change among farming communities for better family farming.

Jamun fruit holds a dear place in Indian literature and religion. One such tale states that when Rama was exiled from Ayodhya, he lived on nothing but jamun for 14 years. Hindu mythology also likens Krishna’s blue skin to the color jamun. Its correlation with Krishna is one reason why the fruit is planted near temples honoring him, even today. Another text states how the Puranas split the cosmos into seven continents. The continent at the center and the one on which humans live was regarded as the island of jamun. At the center of the earth was a single jamun mother tree that produced fruits so large that, upon falling, gushed life-giving rivers for all to enjoy.

Quality Standards and Laws

Quality is how well a product or service satisfies the needs of the customer. This includes all aspects related to the needs of the customer such as quality specifications, safetgy, delivery method or date, price etc. Quality can be interpreted in several ways as conformance to the standards, meeting customers’ preference/ satisfaction for desired quality attributes, degree of excellence and zero defect products etc. Because of education and consequent greater understanding of implications of poor quality commodities in recent years, consumers have become quality conscious and this fact is also applicable to food and food products. In order to strengthen competitiveness, quality must be incorporated throughout the value added chains right from the harvesting, handling, manufacturing, processing, packaging, storage, marketing and distribution stages, especially in the case of food and food products.

A close relationship between the mode of reproduction of a cultivated plant and the methods to be employed for its improvement is now well accepted. Crop plants are broadly placed in two groups according to the mode of their reproduction: sexually reproduced and asexually propagated or reproduced plants. Asexual reproduction does not involve the union of gametes and/or reduction in chromosome numbers.

Plants may reproduce asexually in a variety of ways. In 1980, Mayo has identified the following methods of asexual reproduction on the basis of the classification made earlier by Stebbins in 1941 and Brown in 1972.

INTRODUCTION

‘Library is to Education’ as ‘Soul is to Body’. Library has always been central to education and self-improvement. Library is like an ocean of knowledge. One can find information in a library in almost all areas, be it history, politics, economics, geography, science, fiction, computers, or technology a library has it all. A library is like the whole world encompassed in one room. It is very essential to the education and school system. Libraries are an integral part of the education system and one is incomplete without the other. Francis Bacon quoted that Libraries are the shrines where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed.

EDUCATION SYSTEM IN INDIA

India consists of 28 states, 6 union territories and a national capital territory having a rich and diverse culture spanning many years. The Constitution of India distributed the powers between the Union and the States in three lists such as Union list, State list and Concurrent list. Education is in the Concurrent List. Under the State list, state governments are exclusively responsible for education in their respective states. Union government is responsible for maintaining national and integrative character of education under the Union list. But both state and central government share responsibility for education in case of partnership under the Concurrent list.

Introduction

India has been advancing excessively in terms of workforce engagement as a lot of women have started seeking space in the business arena. The new age has given way to a new trend of entrepreneurshipwhich is flourishing without the quantification of gender. Needless to say, India has been dealing with a very bad history of patriarchal class arrogance and work division that cannot fully provide all the freedom to women who want to prosper in their professional lives.

The female entrepreneurs have to undergo a lot of obstacles right from the initiation of the idea till the plan operates. Sometimes, the existence as a women itself comes with a baggage of responsibilities. Indian women are bound to fulfill their responsibilities towards their family, community and work, balancing everything equally and in an efficient manner.

The conventionalism, ethnicity, social and cultural principles, parenthood, the tag of feeblest sex and insecurity curb the confidence of women in comparison to their male counterparts. Even though there have been considerable changes found in the women dwelling in urban areas, the rural women still have numerous hindrances blocking their path. The perceptive of the opponent sex is irrational in rural areas due to the lack of education and it becomes hard for the women to resist men in such cases.

The Indian customary draws a thin line between the capability and responsibility allotted to different gendersMohsen B., and Zouari S. (2014). It has even threatened the employment chances of females in the traditional and eccentric sphere of fiscal exercises. The present scenario has not broken the undeterred confidence of women who sought to make a career in business, since the last decade. With the alteration in technology, globalization and rivalry accentuation has made the operation of business more multifaceted and vibrant.

The climate crisis is one of the most pressing issues of our time, with farreaching consequences for global agriculture, ecosystems, economies, and societies as extreme weather events, shifting rainfall patterns, and rising temperatures threaten crop yields and food security. However, the climate crisis is not a new phenomenon. Its roots can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution, when human activities such as8 burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and land-use changes began to release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In the 1960s and 1970s, scientists began to sound the alarm about the potential consequences of human-induced climate change. The first climate models were developed, and researchers such as Roger Revelle and Charles David Keeling began to track the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The 1980s saw the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has since become the leading international body for assessing climate change science.
1.1 Climate Crisis
Despite these early warnings, the climate crisis has continued to worsen. The past decade has seen a proliferation of extreme weather events, from heat waves and droughts to floods and storms. The year 2024 was the hottest on record, with global temperatures averaging 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels (Fig. 1.1). The consequences of climate change are already being felt, from melting glaciers and sea-level rise to devastating wildfires and water scarcity.

Abstract
 
Adoption of agricultural practices is cost effective bioremediation techniques to mitigate arsenic problems and can contribute substantially to the cause of removal of arsenic and other heavy metal contamination of soils and water thereby quality enrichment in marketable agricultural produce leading to increased crop productivity in the area of intensive cropping under irrigated eco system. Though the farmers are already practicing some traditional techniques to mitigate the arsenic problems in soils and water, like cultivation of crops which are less affected to arsenic and heavy metals pollution, growing hyper accumulating crops and so many practices wherein the modern methods are not prevalently used by the farmers due to the lack of scientific validity of these techniques, particularly in the context of prevailing socio-economic conditions. Moreover, acceptance of these improved practices by the small farmers of this region is an evolutionary process and should be intensively proved. Hence, extensive studies need for bio or phyto-remediation of heavy metals including arsenic contamination for quality marketable agricultural produce, which ultimately can realize better crop productivity.

• The seed production of varieties and hybrids should be carried out carefully by following various techniques in the region where they are well adopted.
• The various factors affecting quality seed production includes,
  1. Agro climatic factors / Ecological factors - edaphic and climatic factors
  2. Production factors
  3. Post harvesting handling of seed
  4. Seed quality control factors

Good cataract outcome depends on pre-operative selection of patients, the skills and knowledge of the eye surgeon, the surgical technique, the surgical facilities and environment, the post-operative care and the optical correction provided.

Preoperative Procedures

Owners are advised to instill antibiotic eye drop such as Moxifloxacin @ two drops b.i.d. for 7 days and eye drop tropicamide @ two drops b.i.d. for 2 days before the cataract surgery for proper dilation of pupil. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory eye drops such as Flubriprofenis started t.i.d on the day before surgery. Further, tropicamide (1%) used as mydriatic agent is instilled 30 minutes before operation at the rate of two drops every 5 minutes in the eye to be operated. 0.5% povidone iodine drops are instilled on cornea prior to surgery.

Natural beekeeping presents a valuable economic opportunity for farmers, rural populations, and aspiring entrepreneurs by blending ecological farming methods with sustainable income generation. This approach emphasizes low-cost, environmentally conscious practices that align with the natural behavior of bees, thereby minimizing production expenses while delivering high-value outputs such as honey, beeswax, pollen, royal jelly, and propolis.

One of its key strengths lies in reduced dependency on costly inputs like synthetic drugs, chemicals, and advanced machinery. By employing traditional hive models, natural pest control methods, and organic feeding practices, operational costs are kept low, making the venture accessible to small and marginal farmers with limited capital resources.

Natural beekeeping yields multiple marketable products beyond honey, enabling producers to diversify their income. Products like beeswax and royal jelly are in demand in premium sectors, both domestically and globally. With multiple harvests across seasons, this diversity ensures consistent revenue and improved economic resilience.

Global consumer trends increasingly favor natural, organic, and chemical-free products due to their health and environmental appeal. As a result, natural honey and related derivatives are gaining traction in wellness, skincare, and gourmet food markets, creating promising opportunities for certified natural beekeepers to access niche segments and export markets.

This chapter introduces chrysanthemum as one of the world's important commercial cut flowers, particularly suited to controlled production because flowering is strongly influenced by environmental conditions. It discusses standard and spray types, origin, genetics, botanical characteristics, varieties and greenhouse cultivation. Temperature, humidity, light regulation, carbon dioxide, nutrition, irrigation, pest and disease management, harvesting, grading and storage are covered. The chapter also highlights the use of modern breeding and protected environments for year-round production.

Abstract

The species of liver flukes of the genus Fasciola (Platyhelminthes: Digenea: Fasciolidae)are obligate parasitic trematodes residing in the large biliary ducts of the herbivorous mammalian hosts causing fascioliasis worldwide. While Fasciola hepatica has a cosmopolitan distribution, the other major species, i.e., F. gigantica is reportedly prevalent in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia. To determine the phylogenic location of Fasciola sp. of Assam (India) origin based on rDNA molecular data,ribosomal ITS regions were sequenced (Accession numbers- EF027103 and EF027104) and compared with other species of trematodes in the family Fasciolidae that includes, Fasciolopsis buski and Fascioloides magna besides the species of Fasciola. NCBI databases were used for sequence homology analysis using BLAST; multiple sequence alignments were performed using ClustalW program.The phylogenetic trees constructed based upon the ITS (I & II) sequences by multiple tree building methods in MEGA revealed a close relationship with isolates of F. gigantica from China, Indonesia , Japan, Egypt and Zambia, the isolate from China with significant bootstrap values being the closest. Using the novel approach of molecular morphometrics that is based on ITS2 secondary structure homologies, phylogenetic relationships