eChapters

Introduction

Increasing consciousness about conservation of environment as well as health hazards associated with agrochemicals and consumers’ preference to safe and hazard free food are the major factors that lead to the growing interest in environmental friendly forms of farming in the world. Organic agriculture is one such broad spectrum of production methods that are supportive to the environment. The basic requirement in organic farming is to increase input use efficiency at each stage of farm operation.

Introduction

Throughout the arid zones, there is no dearth of problems, but rapidly increasing desertification (some call it land degradation) is a problem of worldwide dimension. Water is a scare commodity in arid zones. Much of rainfall is lost by evapo-transpiration and as a result, ground water recharged only by seepage through soil profile. However, it is a common phenomenon in arid zones of the world that ground water is frequently used at the rate that exceeds recharge. The situation in arid tropics of India, which is spread over an area of 31.7 million ha, is no more different. Considering the role of agriculture in the social and economic progress of developing countries, the vulnerability of agricultural systems to the impacts of climate change has received considerable attention from the scientific community (Fischer et al. 2002; IISD 2003; Kurukulasuriya and Rosenthal 2003). Much of the available literature suggests that the overall impacts of climate change on agriculture especially in the tropics will be highly negative, although in a few areas there may be minor increases in crop yields in the short term (Maddison et al. 2007). Research on agroforestry as an adaptation to climate change and as a buffer against climate variability is in the process of evolving.

Introduction

Cycling of plant material is required for any production system for biological activity, humus formation and thereby formation of a dark colored top soil. Incorporation of biomass results in production and proliferation of soil biota. But under annual crops compared to forest, production is much less, the biomass is largely removed, the soil is tilled several times each year. Consequently, less food and moisture are available for earthworms, insects, micro-flora and fauna; and their habitats are repeatedly disturbed or destroyed. Therefore, the primary need of our agricultural activities is to feed soil organisms (bacteria, fungi, earthworms etc.) and to regulate their living conditions while protecting them from chemical and mechanical impacts.

ALL LIVING ORGANISMS ARE MADE UP OF UNITS CALLED CELLS

All living creatures are made from 1 or more cells

All cells are produced from previously existing cells (no spontaneous generation)

All cells appear to be descended from the first cell which existed about 4 billion years ago

For a species to exist its reproductive cells must be potentially immortal (no aging)

Our bodies start from a single cell and contain about 100,000,000,000,000 (10^14) cells at maturity

Abstract

The Nilgiri Mountains of South India is one of the Landslide prone hill ranges in India. The landslides, in general, are due to the independent, interdependent and the combined effects of natural earth system processes, triggering phenomenon and anthropogenic activities. So the scientists, technocrats and the academicians from all over the world have started studying the landslides using various techniques and advanced tools in mapping the morphology, preparing the vulnerability maps and carve out mitigation strategies. But the discrimination of active slides is a difficult task and also needs continuous monitoring and further a time consuming process too. So, in this context, an attempt has been made to study the signatures of active sliding in one of old slides namely the “LINGASLIDE” in which frequent minor sliding events are often reported. In the study, Total station based large scale topographic survey was carried out in LINGASLIDE and from the same 50 cm topographic contours were generated. From such large scale contours, Digital elevation Model (DEM) was generated and from the DEM, shaded relief map was generated.Uutilizing both the contours and shaded relief maps, small slides were mapped in the LINGASLIDE from the well exhibited subsidiary crowns, toes and the traverse cracks. Resistivity tomography surveys were also carried out along two longitudinal profiles and one traverse profile to identify the subsurface geology, the slip surface and the zones of moisture accumulations, if any. The subsidiary crowns, toes, the conjugate fracture systems and the resistivity tomography showed that the LINGASLIDE is active and the sliding is going on towards easterly because of the easterly compression,resulted from the higher slopes caused by the settlements raised over Lingaslide and the obstruction provided by the retaining walls at the toes in the east. Such compressive forces are clear from the NW-SE and NE-SW fractures seen in Lingaslide and the sliding is clear from the cracks seen and monitored in the buildings constructed over Lingaslide.

Anthracnose

Colletotrichum lindemuthianum

(Sexual stage: Glomerella lindemuthianum)

Diagnostic Symptoms

• The pathogen attacks all aerial parts of plants and at any stage of their growth.
• Initial symptoms are circular, black, sunken spots with dark center and bright red orange margins on leaves and pods.
• In severe infections, the affected parts wither off.
• Seedlings get blighted due to infection soon after seed germination.
• The infected pods have discolored seeds.

Land is merely an area of the earth’s surface comprising all physical, chemical and biological environments that influence the land use (FAO ,1976). Land refers not only to soil but also to climate, landforms, hydrology, geology, natural vegetation including fauna and flora. The land use simply means management of a land for specific uses to meet the human needs in all rural, urban and industrial context, whereas the land use plan refers to a coherent set of decisions about the ways to achieve the desired level preferably on economic background. Thus, the land use planning is the systematic evaluation and assessment of a land and associated attributes for the purpose of identifying the best land use options beneficial to landowners or users without degrading the land resources or environment. It includes not only the landowner or users, but also the policy or decision makers as well as economic experts for financial measures from planning stage or logistic planning to execution.

Land cover

Relates to the type of feature present on the surface of the earth e.g., Fields, trees, concrete high ways.

Land use

Relates to the human activity associated with a specific piece of land. The same land would have a land cover consisting of roofs, pavements, grass and trees. The land use in an area is really an intervention by the people over the existing natural eco-environment for satisfying their needs.

Land cover is distinct from land use despite the two terms often being used interchangeably. Land use is a description of how people utilize the land and socio-economic activity - urban and agricultural land uses are two of the most commonly recognised high-level classes of use. At any one point or place, there may be multiple and alternate land uses, the specification of which may have a political dimension.

West Bengal

In West Bengal, mangroves are present in Sundarbans, the large deltaic complex of three major rivers, the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, and 62% of total area is shared by Bangladesh and 38% by India. The Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (SBR), at the confluence of the Bay of Bengal covering an area of 9,630 km², lies between 21°40′N and 22°40′N latitudes and 88°03′E and 89°07′E longitudes, spreading in districts of South and North 24-Parganas in West Bengal, India. The major portion of SBR is designated as Reserve Forest, covering nearly 4260 km² and the area under mangrove vegetation is 2112 km² (FSI 2019). Compared to 2017 assessment there has been a decrease of 2 km² area of mangroves. The mangroves and their associates in the SBR exhibit great generic and species diversity and it is abode to rare and highly endangered flora and fauna, as well as, the only mangrove-tiger (Royal Bengal Tiger - Panthera Tigris tigris) kingdom in the world. Recognizing importance and uniqueness, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the Indian part of Sundarbans as a ‘World Heritage Site’ in 1987, and also designated the ‘Sundarban Biosphere Reserve’ under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program in 2001. Recently, Sundarbans has been declared as a Ramasar Site, considering ecological significance. Totally 33 true mangrove species belonging to 21 genera and 13 families have been identified in Indian Sundarbans. Among the mangrove species listed, Rhizophora apiculata, Bruguiera parviflora, Ceriops decandra, Kandelia candel, Aglaia cucullata, Excoecaria indica, Xylocarpus moluccensis, Xylocarpus granatum, Heritiera fomes, Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea, Brownlowia tersa, Nypa fruticans, Acanthus volubilis, Dolichandrone spathacea and Phoenix paludosa are under serious threat in Sundarbans (Kathiresan 2008; Gopal and Chauhan 2006). Particularly Heritiera fomes (locally called Sundari, from which Sundarbans derives its name), Nypa fruticans and Phoenix paludosa are declining rapidly due to the reduction of freshwater input (Gopal and Chauhan 2006).

This chapter serves as an essential primer on R, providing step-by-step instructions for installing both R and RStudio, one of the most popular integrated development environments (IDEs) for R. Additionally, the chapter covers important aspects such as importing data into R and setting the working directory.

Install R and RStudio

R and RStudio can be installed on Windows, MAC OSX, and Linux platforms. RStudio (the IDE of R) offers a code editor, a unified console, and a suite of visualization tools. It simplifies the use of R, making it more accessible and efficient for data analysis and statistical computing tasks.

Steps to install R and RStudio

1. R can be downloaded and installed from the Comprehensive R Archive

Network (CRAN) webpage (http://cran.r-project.org/).

2. After installing R software, install the RStudio software available at:

http://www.rstudio.com/products/RStudio/.

3. Launch RStudio and start using R inside R studio.

Introduction

Extension is a form of education, and extension services provide information, advice, and education for rural development in many countries. It was used for sharing ideas, beliefs, knowledge, and information with rural people in an informal way. In the mid-nineteenth century, extension services were institutionalized, and public funding was spent for organized extension activity in rural areas.

Extension Education

The word ‘extension’ is derived from two Latin roots, namely ‘ex’ meaning ‘out’ and ‘tensio’ meaning ‘stretching.’ Hence, extension means stretching out Figure 1.1.

Extension does not have a universally recognized definition. According to Webster, education is a process of teaching to develop the knowledge, skills, and character of students. Sociologist Rodney Stark declares that “Education is the cheapest, most rapid and most reliable path to economic advancement under present conditions.” Education is a lifelong process, and it is necessary to transfer experience and knowledge to the next generation for political and socio-economic development.

University extension started at Cambridge University, London University, and Oxford University before the nineteenth century. The success of extension in Britain led to the initiation of extension education in the United States later. In India, university extension was introduced after the establishment of State Agricultural Universities in a similar pattern to Land Grant Colleges in the United States.

Extension as a form of education facilitates the learning or acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, and habits. As an education, it can be informal, formal or non- formal. It can also be categorized as child education, adult education, technical education, health education, social science and humanities, etc.

Formal education: It is an institutionalized, chronologically graded, and well- structured system of education that starts from schooling to higher education. Formal education is usually given in structured classrooms in schools and colleges with a fixed syllabus, course curriculum, and certificates awarded after examination. In formal education, only qualified teachers impart education to the students.

Naïve panel: It refers to the sensory evaluation panel that has not been trained specifically regarding the product evaluation being undertaken in the study. It is untrained panel of sensory evaluation.

Nano technology: It is the art of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale to build microscopic devices. The word “nano’ meaning ‘dwarf” in Greek language refers to dimension / magnitude of the material / particle in the order of 10-9. Nanotechnology is nothing but manipulating of particles into very small particles called nano-particles. These particles have dimensions in the scale of nano-meter and used to design / build materials and devices. Nanotechnology has been provisionally defined as relating to materials, systems and processes which operate at a scale of 100 nanometers (nm) or less. It will allow many things to be manufactured at low cost and with no pollution. The concept of nanotechnology was first given by Nobel Laureate physicist Richard P. Feynman in Southern California in 1959.

NaNO2 : Pink colour of cured meat is preserved by NaNO2 . It is effective against Cl. Botulinosm

Nanogram: It is one billionth of a gram.

Nano-materials: Nano material have been defined as having one or more dimensions measuring 100 nm or less, or having at least one dimension at this scale which affects the materials behavior and properties (Plate 438).

1. _____________ coined the term wildlife. (William Hornday)
2. National Biodiversity Board is situated at_____________. (New Delhi)
3. The term biodiversity was coined by_____________. (Edward Wilson)
4. The study of combination of animal behaviour and ecology is called as_____________. (Ethology)
5. _____________ is the place where an organism or community lives. (Habitat)
6. _____________ is the living medium of the habitat in a wetland. (Water)
7. _____________can be defined as the functional status of an organism in an ecosystem or the role played by a species in its natural habitat. (Niche)
8. The food which is totally non-nutritive and is consumed by the animals only to fulfil its stomach is called ___________. (Stuffing food)
9. The period in which the food is not sufficiently available and causes trouble to the animal, is called __________. (Pinch period)

Drought, a sporadic yet impactful event, presents a significant challenge to agricultural systems and economies globally. A notable observation in this context is the tendency of policymakers to readily claim success for their governance during years of favorable weather, while conversely attributing agricultural failures in drought years primarily to natural causes. This inclination often masks an underlying lack of consistent focus and investment in proactive drought-proofing measures. This international comparison examines the contrasting approaches to drought management between developed and developing nations, highlighting how this lack of focus, coupled with varying capacities and resources, shapes their respective policy responses. Understanding these disparities is crucial for fostering more effective and equitable drought resilience measures worldwide, moving beyond the simplistic attribution of agricultural successes to policy and failures solely to weather

Successful preservation of high-moisture forage and other crops depends upon the controlling the activities of microbes, particularly bacteria. Ensiling generally controls microbial activity by a combination of an anaerobic environment and a natural fermentation of sugars by lactic acid bacteria on the crop. The silage microflora plays a key role in the successful outcome of the conservation process. Therefore, it is important to understand both the microorganisms that are present on the crop at ensiling and how ensiling preserves the crop, inhibiting detrimental microorganisms. The crop at ensiling contains both aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms and a range of both bacteria and fungi that affect silage quality.

Objective Methods: Objective Methods are used for evaluation of food quality. These are based on recognized standard scientific tests to any sample of the product without regard to its previous history. They represent the modern idea in quality control (QC) because the human element has been excluded. This method divided into three groups like physical, chemical and microbiological. The devices are used in this evaluation.

Obligate aerobes: These microbes grow only in the presence of oxygen (Plate 450).

Obligate anaerobes: These microbes do no grow in the presence of oxygen (Plate 450).

Obligate parasite: Obligate parasites is host specific and grows on living host only and attach limited range of host and are very difficult or impossible to grow on artificial culture/media.

Obligate thermophile: These microorganisms grow at a temperature between 38-80oC.

Oenology: Treatments used to prevent spoilage of wine is called oenology. It is synonym to that of enology.

Offal: It is the viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal removed in dressing of meat. It is by-product of slaughtering process.

Introduction

According to an estimate by World Health Organization (WHO), about one million cases of pesticides poisoning and 20, 000 deaths occur every year due to pesticide residues in food chain including cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruits, oils, milk and milk products (including mother’s milk), fishes, poultry, meat and water. At global level, chemical pesticide worth US$ 30 billion is being used annually for the management of diseases and insect pests. In spite of this, epidemics of diseases, infestations of insect pests and colonization by weeds results in significant losses in agriculture production worldwide. As a result of crop improvement programs to incorporate resistance to pests, devastations epidemics and infestations are rare. Nevertheless, pests continue to exert a heavy toll in terms of yield losses. The last global estimate of yield losses due to pests, made crops like rice, wheat, maize, cotton, soybean, barley and coffee were equivalent to approximately US $ 250 billion annually during the period the period 1989-1990 (Table 1). Since these eight crops occupy only half of the global cropped area, yield losses due to all pests on all crops would be much high. The estimates indicate that 42 per cent of the total global attainable production of the eight major crops is lost due to pests, of which 16, 13 and 13 per cent losses are due to insects, diseases and weeds, respectively. Post harvest losses are estimated to cause an additional 10 per cent loss. Developing countries incur higher losses than industrial countries. (Table 2).

Issues of conservation have assumed great importance in view of widespread resource degradation and the need to reduce production costs, increase profitability and make agriculture more competitive. The growing concerns for sustainable agriculture have been seen as a positive response to limits of both low-input, traditional agriculture and intensive modern agriculture relying on high levels of inputs for crop production. Sustainable agriculture relies on practices that help to maintain ecological equilibrium and encourage natural regenerative processes such as nitrogen fixation, nutrient cycling, soil regeneration, and protection of natural enemies of pest and diseases as well as the targeted use of inputs. Agricultural systems relying on such approaches are not only able to support high productivity, but also preserve biodiversity and safeguard the environment. Thus, Conservation agriculture has come up as a new paradigm to achieve goal of sustained agricultural production. It is a major step toward transition to sustainable agriculture. 

Threats

There are sixteen threat factors have been identified from Indian mangroves (Kathiresan 2010). However, habitat conversion for agriculture and aquaculture activities, environmental pollution by upstream anthropogenic activities, Climate change processes (e.g. sea level rise; increasing frequency of cylones, etc.) are the major threat factors for mangroves. Mangroves are able to cope up with short-term oscillations and long-term fluctuations of climatic conditions, but the consequences of global climate change, such as increased extreme events, will have unprecedented effects on biota and threaten the resilience and recovery potential of the ecosystems (Harris et al. 2018; Sippo et al. 2018). Despite conservation measures, the mangroves still experience an annual loss of 0.2-0.7% during 2000-2012 and they remain the most threatened ecosystem of the world (Hamilton and Casey 2016).

With Judicious Use of Herbicides

Herbicides are the chemicals used for killing or suppressing the growth of weed plants from field / horticulture / plantation crops as well as non-cropped areas/ water bodies etc. The herbicide is said to be an ideal herbicide when it is very safe to the crop on which it is applied and on the other hand, it must control all associated weeds effectively. Also, ideal herbicides should leave no residual effects on the succeeding crop(s). Herbicides are of two types i.e.

1. Selective herbicides and
2. Non-selective herbicides.

A selective herbicide is that which is very safe to crop plants but unsafe to weed plants e.g. atrazine in maize, clodinafop in wheat etc. On the other hand, non-selective herbicides are those which kill all green plants including crop and weed plants which come in their contact e.g. paraquat and glufosinate ammonium.

The ancient partnership between agriculture and weather forecasting, initially rooted in observational knowledge and rudimentary tools, has been fundamental to sustaining human populations for millennia. Traditional agricultural meteorology has diligently documented climate patterns, analyzed weather phenomena, and established empirical relationships between meteorological variables and crop yields. This foundational knowledge remains invaluable. However, the stark realities of the 21st century, dominated by the accelerating and often unpredictable impacts of climate change, necessitate a radical departure from conventional thinking. The comfortable reliance on historical data and linear projections is increasingly inadequate in a world characterized by unprecedented c limate variability, intensifying extreme weather events (as you‘ve extensively researched), and the urgent need for enhanced food security for a growing global population.
• The limitations of traditional agricultural meteorology become increasingly apparent when confronted with the complexities of climate change. For instance, relying solely on historical rainfall patterns for irrigation planning becomes precarious when those patterns are drastically altered by shifting climate regimes. Traditional pest and disease forecasting models, often based on established temperature and humidity thresholds, may fail to accurately predict outbreaks as these thresholds themselves are disrupted by climate anomalies. The need for real-time, localized, and predictive insights into the dynamic interplay between the atmosphere and agricultural systems has never been more critical.
• This is where the transformative power of emerging technologies steps in. The next generation of agricultural meteorologists stands at a pivotal juncture, tasked with leveraging advancements in diverse technological domains to revolutionize the field. Consider the sheer volume of data now available from a constellation of sources – weather satellites providing high-resolution global coverage, dense networks of ground-based sensors capturing hyperlocal environmental conditions, agricultural drones offering detailed field-level monitoring, and IoT devices collecting real-time soil and plant health parameters. This deluge of information dwarfs anything