eChapters

ABSTRACT

Genetic improvement of crop plants through conventional plant breeding has made tremendous contributions to the breakthrough in the global agricultural production. Recently, an array tools and techniques in the field of molecular biology has become available for supplementing the conventional genetic approaches. Consequently, new integrated approaches are being designed. One of the approaches employs molecular markers for genome mapping, gene tagging and marker assisted selection (MAS). With the complete sequencing of whole plant-genomes and a large number of random cDNAs in many different crop species, newer opportunities are emerging. This presentation is an attempt to briefly describe the current applications of molecular markers and to highlight their future prospects.

Molecular markers

Molecular markers are heritable differences in nucleotide sequences of DNA at corresponding position on homologous chromosomes of two different individuals, which follow a simple Mendelian pattern of inheritance. These differences are detected employing two basic techniques: (a) Southern blot hybridization and (b) Polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) is the first molecular marker system to be conceived and developed. It is based on the southern blot technique. Markers such as random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), sequence tagged site (STS) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) are generated by enzymatic amplification of DNA by extension of oligo nucleotide primers and therefore, are based on PCR. Single/simple nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers are based on DNA sequence differences as revealed by sequencing and assayed by various techniques.

Introduction

Growth is the irreversible gain in body weight, size, length, and circumference. It is accomplished by two fundamental processes: hypertrophy (increase in tissue, cell volume and progressive accumulation of intercellular substances) and hyperplasia (growth as a result of cellular multiplication by mitotic division). Animal growth is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors.

Animal body growth and weight gain play a critical role in reproductive performance. It also acts as one of the traits to evaluate the breeding value, optimize management & feeding practices, and prepare the correct dose of therapeutic pharmaceuticals to treat animal diseases. As a result, measurement of body growth is essential for the selection of superior germplasm, feeding & housing management, health care management, and optimizing other environmental conditions that have an impact on animal growth for an economically viable animal industry.

Introduction

Agricultural and Animal husbandry extension continues to be in transition worldwide. Governments and international agencies are advancing structural, financial and managerial reforms to improve extension. Decentralization, pluralism, cost sharing, cost recovery, participation of stakeholders in development initiatives and the decisions and resources that affect them - these are some of the elements in extension’s current transition.

Public sector extension was severely attacked in the 1980s for not being relevant, for insufficient impact, for not being adequately effective, for not being efficient and, sometimes, for not pursuing programmes that foster equity. In the context of meeting the holistic needs of increasing agricultural production in a sustainable manner in India, agricultural extension has a crucial role to play. Reforms in the system envisaged an extension service which is more broad-based and holistic in content and scope and beyond agricultural technology transfer.

Vacreation: The pasteurization of the milk or cream under reduced pressure by direct steam is called vacreation.

Vacuum: The state of negative pressure.It is equal to atmospheric pressure minus absolute pressure.

Vacuum cooling: A technique of cooling vegetable (leafy vegetables, asparagus Brussels sprouts) having a high surface to volume ratio rapidly and uniformly by boiling off some of their water at 10C and at low pressure (5 mm of Hg) into a sealed container. The produce is cooled by evaporation of water from the tissue surface and is more rapid than hydro cooling.

Vacuum drier: A drier used to dry heat sensitive products where low pressure lowers the temperature, helps to retain natural flavour and minimizes oxidation and browning is called vacuum drier (Plate 325).

Vacuum gauge: A gauge indicating degree of rarefaction (state or region of minimum pressure in a medium) below atmospheric pressure.

Vacuum packed: A packhaving much of the air removed before being hermetically sealed is called vacuum pack (Plate 326).

Introduction
Among flowers, the rose enjoys the greatest adorable position over the world. In real sense, rose almost hypnotised the man most by its colour and fragrance. Apart from its aesthetic value, the roses are of high economic benefits, and religious significant. Besides, it finds it place in art and culture from times immemorial. The rose thus merits pride of place as the ‘Queen of flowers’.
Origin
The damask rose is originated in ancient Persia (now Iran), and later on spreading over Europe and Northern Africa. Further, widespread farming of R. damascena for rose oil manufacturing began in Turkey and Bulgaria. Many countries of the world grow scented roses for extraction of the volatile essential oil. The genus Rosa grows wild in many parts of the temperate and sub-temperate regions. The major growing countries are Bulgaria, France, Italy, Turkey, Russia, China and India. Bulgaria is the principle European country for supply of rose oil to the world market. Among different species, Rosa centifolia Linn. is largely grown in France and Italy, whereas Rosa
damascena Mill. in Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia and Persia. Rosa damascena Mill. was first introduced successfully in middle east countries during 1680, resulting in the establishment of entire area as ‘Valley of flowers’. It belongs to family rosaceae.

Advances in technology are revolutionizing the detection of metabolic diseases in animals, making diagnostics more precise, rapid, and non-invasive. From wearable sensors and metabolomics to AI and nanotechnology, these tools are enhancing animal health and productivity. As these technologies become more accessible, they promise to transform veterinary medicine and animal husbandry, ensuring early detection, effective management, and improved outcomes for animals.
Sensor-based technologies have emerged as a game-changer in the detection and management of metabolic diseases in dairy animals. These tools provide continuous monitoring, early detection, and real-time insights, enabling better health management and increased productivity. This chapter explores the most promising sensor-based technologies used for diagnosing metabolic diseases in dairy animals, their applications, and the future of sensor-driven animal health management.
Metabolic diseases like ketosis, milk fever (hypocalcemia), acidosis, and displaced abomasum significantly impact dairy productivity and animal welfare. Early detection is critical for reducing treatment costs, improvingrecovery rates, and minimizing production losses. Traditional diagnostic methods are accurate and often invasive, time-consuming, and not feasible for large-scale monitoring. Therefore, sensor-based technologies offer a solution by enabling continuous and non-invasive monitoring of physiological and biochemical parameters.

Tea tortrix/flushworm: Homona coffearia:Tortricidae

The tortrix is  an important pest of tea leaves. The larvae make leaf nests by webbing the leaves using silken threads and feed from inside. A single caterpillar makes several cases. Young larvae prefer tender leaves, while the older larvae are seen in mature leaves. The economic produce being the leaves, and since chemical control is not advised, especially during the picking phase, the pest becomes a management problem.

Introduction

The Indian agriculture is very complex and carrying out multi-functionalities of providing food, nutrition and ecological security besides employment and livelihood for over 700 million people. Indeed, India has made a marvelous achievement in attaining self-sufficiency in food grain production after the introduction of Green Revolution which eventually resulted in maintaining all-time high buffer stock in warehouses of our country. Such rosy picture in production trends turned to be bleak in the past few years.

Promotion of perennial crops is a good alternative for food security since they offer more consistant, year-round production without any break. Agathi and Chekkurmanis are the two nutritive perennial greens that can be easily grown in hot and humid tropical climate.

Introduction

Rainfall is the principal source of water in arid areas, which augments soil moisture, groundwater and surface flows. Agriculture and several of the other economic activities in arid areas depend on rain. This region is devoid of any well defined perennial river system. Under such circumstances every drop of water becomes very precious. Of the total water use about 85% of water is used for irrigation and remaining 15% is used for drinking, industrial and other purposes. About 65% of irrigation water and 30-40% of drinking water is subjected to serious losses. Hence, increasing water use efficiency coupled with increasing availability of water through rainwater harvesting and management is of prime importance for sustainable development of arid areas. Rainwater harvesting, its conservation and efficient utilization can solve problem of water scarcity to the greater extend. Rainwater harvesting in small ponds (nadis), underground tanks (tankas), Khadins (Low lying areas) etc. is an age-old tradition in arid zone of Rajasthan. These traditional rainwater harvesting structures vary in design, shape and size. These traditional methods have undergone several changes for being more economical and efficient. Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur since its inception in year 1959 is continuously working for development and refinement of water efficient techniques for crop production, individuals and for the communities for development in hot arid zone of India.

9.1. STATISTICAL METHODS

Measures of central tendency : Three measure of the central tendency of a frequency distribution are mean, median and mode.

1. Mean / average / arithmetic mean : It is sum of all of the data values divided by the number of data values and it affected by extreme values.
2. Median : It is the middle value of the data set when it has been arranged in ascending or descending order. This is not at all affected by extreme values.
3. Mode : It is the value that occurs most often in a distribution. Not affected by extreme values. It used to find the ideal size of different age group. eg: size of readymade garments, shoe size

   Harmonic mean : Reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocal of a given value. It deals with rate, price and speed.

Measures of dispersion : It is the degree to which the data tend to spread about the mean value is called dispersion.

1. Range : The range of a distribution with a discrete random variable is the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value.
2. Standard Deviation (SD) : It is the square root of the arithmetic mean of the squares of the deviations measures for the mean or square root of the variance.
3. Variance : It is the average of the squared deviation from the mean or the square of the standard deviation
4. Standard Error (SE) : It is the measure of the mean difference between sample estimate of mean (X) and the population parameter (μ).
5. Coefficient of Variation (CV): It is defined as the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean. This is expressed as percentage.

8.1. Ecological Soundness

Conservation of natural resources essentially means maintenance and improvement of ecological status and not permitting them for further degradation. The natural resources are soil, water, forest, mountain and animal resources. An attempt was made to find out whether the respondents adopt certain recommendations for preservation of these natural resources irrespective of source of advice.

i. Soil Health

Soil is considered as an important ingredient of ecological soundness of an area. Adoption of soil health measures, like adding of organic manures, following of crop rotations, use of balanced chemical fertilizers, green manure and bio- fertilizers are some of the recommendations to maintain soil health. While examining the adoption of these measures, the following results were obtained.

Abstract

Any naturally occurring phenomena varies both in space and time. This variability is a result of various natural process and hence deterministic. Geostatistics is a tool to help us to characterize spatial variability and uncertainty resulting from imperfect characterization of the variability. Geostatistics involves the theory of regionalized variables, which dates back to the early fifties and includes concepts of random function and stationarity. Geostatistical mapping can be defined as analytical production of maps by using field observations, explanatory information, and a computer program that calculates values at locations of interest. There area number of spatial prediction models depending on the amount of statisticsinvolved in the analysis. Kriging is a generic name adopted by the geostatisticians for a family of generalized least- squares regression algorithms and various kriging algorithms viz., punctual kriging, block kriging, co-kriging and universal kriging are explained in this paper. Applications of geostatistics can be found in many varied disciplines ranging from the geology to soil science, hydrology, meteorology, environmental sciences, agriculture and even structural engineering and some of its applications are summarized in this paper.

Keywords :Geostatistics, spatial variability, kriging, model

This fruit plant is fast-growing when young, but soon become slow-growing tree thrive well under tropical, sub-tropical and temperate region. Mostly this crop is being cultivated for rearing of silkworm and wind break rather than fruit crop. This crop not specific with climatic requirement so can be grown in arid, marginal soil, barren land without much care.

The different plant parts viz., stem, bark, twigs, leaf, fruit etc are being utilized in different ways. Stem use for making agricultural implement, house artisans’, sports items, fodder for animals and fruits use as fresh dessert and in processing for making of different value added products like jam, beverages etc. Apart from these, its different plant parts also have medicinal properties use mainly in folk, ayurvedic and unani medicines.

28.1 Introduction

The stress that is caused by biological agents or factors such as diseases, insect-pests and parasitic weeds is called biotic stress. The term disease can be broken into two words: “dis” (means negative, reverse or opposite) and “ease” (means comfort, or freedom from pain or discomfort). Hence, plant disease can be defined as any harmful alteration from the normal functioning of physiological processes. Diseases may be bacterial, fungal or viral. A wide range of insects infests various crop plants. The extent of damage caused to crop plants by various organisms is usually in the order fungi > bacteria > viruses > nematodes = insects. But the relative importance of these organisms varies to a great deal in different crops. Breeding of cultivars resistant to diseases and/or insect-pests is the cheapest, safest and most dependable means of limiting the losses due to them. Resistant cultivars form an important component of integrated management of diseases and insect-pests.

28.2 Breeding for Resistance to Biotic Stresses-Diseases

Agrios (1970) has defined disease as: “Disease is a series of invisible and visible responses of plant cells and tissues to a pathogenic microorganism or an environmental factor that result in adverse changes in form, function or integrity of plant and may lead to partial impairment or death of the plant or its parts.” The organism causing disease is called pathogen, while the plant affected by the disease is called host.

The principles underlying breeding for resistance to diseases are much the same as for other characters, except for one important difference, i.e., the diseases caused by pathogens are the product of interaction between two genetic systems, that of the host and that of the parasite. Both systems are capable of variation and evolution and affect the interaction between host and pathogen. Here the breeder is required to deal with the heritable traits of both the host plant and the pathogens invading it.

Climate change is exerting profound effects on global agriculture, posing significant challenges to food security, agricultural productivity, and rural livelihoods. This article explores the intricate relationship between climate change and agriculture, examining how changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events impact crop yields, livestock, and farming practices. It delves into the economic, social, and environmental repercussions of these changes, highlighting vulnerable regions and populations. The article also discusses adaptation and mitigation strategies, emphasizing the roles of technology, policy, and sustainable agricultural practices in building resilience. By understanding the multifaceted impact of climate change on agriculture, we can develop comprehensive approaches to ensure food security and sustainable development in an increasingly unpredictable climate.

1. _____________ is a fertilize ovule consisting of intact embryo stored food and seed coat, which is viable and has got the capacity to germinate. (Seed)
2. The content of other than seeds such as straw, soil particles, small stones and seeds of other species is called_____________. (Inert material)
3. Initial seed obtained from the selected individual plants of a particular variety or parental line, used to produce breeder seed and forms the basis of the total seed production chain is_____________ seed. (Nucleus)
4. The loss of weight of a sample when it is dried due to decrease in_____________. (Moisture)
5. A specified quantity of seed, physically identifiable in respect of which an international analysis certificate may be issued is called_____________. (Seed lot)
6. The blowers are used for_____________. (Purity of seeds)
7. A type of seed that is not certified but the labelling is done to indicate the quality or standard in a truthful manner is called_____________ seed. (Truthfully labelled seed)
8. The reagent used for biochemical test for determining seed viability is_____________. (Tetrazolium chloride or Bromide)
9. The food material contained in_____________that nourishes the embryo during its development. (Endosperm)

Introduction

“Non-monetary inputs are defined as those cultural operations which help to achieve high yield at no extra cost and whose cost does not change with the level of output”.
 
After the advent of green revolution, nutrient management has received the significant attention by farmer as well as researchers; as a result of which and coupled with the requirement for high yielding varieties, consumption of plant nutrient (N, P and K) increased tremendously. Variability was observed in fertilizer consumption between the states. 

The term ‘Horticulture’ is derived from two Latin words, Hortus meaning Garden and Cultura meaning Cultivation. In ancient days the gardens had protected enclosures with high walls or similar structures surrounding the houses. The enclosed places were used to grow fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants. Horticulture differs from agriculture and forestry in specializing the cultivation of garden crops. The garden crops include fruits, vegetables, flowers, ornamental trees, spices, plantations, medicinal and aromatic plants. Horticultural crops do not give food grains. The products of horticultural crops such as fruits and vegetables are highly perishable so that they are utilized in the fresh state. In general horticultural crops need more intensive cultivation (i.e. need more work) than the agricultural crops.

Special Features of Horticulture

As horticultural crops generally need intensive cultivation, they require a large input, capital, labour and technology per unit area of land.

Many cultural operations are specific to horticultural crops. The cultural operations such as propagation, fertilization, training, pruning, harvesting and marketing are skilled operations and these are specific to horticultural crops.

Mostly the horticultural products are utilized in the fresh state and are highly perishable.

Most of the horticultural crops are the rich sources of vitamins and minerals.

Gratification or aesthetic sense is an exclusive phenomenon for horticultural science.