eChapters

SUMMARY

Seed quality comprises the sum of all properties or characteristics, which determine the potential level of the seed or seed lot performance and crop establishment. Once the seed is sown many factors (biotic, abiotic etc.,) influence its survival and potential. Seed priming is one of the short–term and most programmatic approaches followed to improve the quality of seed so as to exhibit maximum possible potential even under adverse conditions. Seed priming is a method that well fit in to the one or more principles of sustainability, as it is practiced as a low-cost, low-risk interventions that increase and stabilize yields to have a large and direct impact on the livelihoods of farmers. Various priming methods viz., hydro priming, halo priming, matrix priming, bio priming are in practice for advancement in seed germination, better crop growth and yield. The adoption of seed priming as a successful technology is widely practiced across the Globe for various benefits at farm level. On-farm seed programme is one such   successful programmes adopted under UK aid across 11 countries towards sustainable agriculture campaign.

Two schemes of labeling are in common use today. One variant labels a single sample, either radioactively or fluorescently. Radioactive labeling is used, e.g., in conjunction with hybridization on nylon membranes (Lennon and Lehrach, 1991). The company Affymetrix synthesizes sets of short oligomers on a glass wafer and uses a single fluorescent label (Lipshutz et al., 1999). Alternatively, two samples are labeled with a green and a red fluorescent dye, respectively. The mixture of the two mRNA preparations is then hybridized simultaneously to a common array on a glass slide. This technology is usually referred to as the Stanford technology (David Duggan et al., 1999). Quantification utilizes a laser scanner that determines the intensities of each of the two labels over the entire array. Recently, companies like Agilent have immobilized long oligomers of 60 to 70 base pairs length and used two-color labeling.

Northern Blot

The northern blot is a technique used in molecular biology research to study gene expression by detection of RNA (or isolated mRNA) in a sample.

1 The focal point of any disease investigation in animal is making of

a) Treatment b) Diagnosis

c) Management d) Prognosis

Goats remain an important and instant source of income as well as livelihood for the majority (70-90 %) of small and marginal farmers in India. Goats are the animals with multiple utility like milk, meat, hide, fibre and manure. They are more tolerant to harsh environment (better resistance to heat stress and drought, better utilization and digestibility of pastures) and give more production per unit investment. Goats are spontaneously ovulating, poly-estrous animals and show seasonal pattern in reproductive activity related to the annual variations of photoperiod. Onset and length of their breeding period throughout the year is dependent on different environmental and physiological factors viz. latitude and climate, feed and fodder availability, breed and breeding system. This in turn affects round the year availability of meat and milk to full fill the market demands. When kids are born out of season, adequate supply of pastures along with good management practices must be ensured in order to minimize kid’s mortality and promote their optimum growth.

Growth and development are two important stages in a plant. Plant growth and development are under the control of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Growth is one of the fundamental characteristics of all living things. Even in Plants, the growth is visible but not measurable easily. Development in plants is actually a sum of two processes i.e. growth and differentiation.

Principles involved in plant growth and development: The various principles involved in plant growth and development are discussed below.

1. Totiopotency: Living plant cell has the potential to reproduce all the characteristics of the plant since it possesses all the genetic information.
2. Competence: It is the potential of cells or tissue to develop in a particular direction. Development of competency into a particular kind of cell(s), tissue or organ also may require special signals. These may originate internally within the plant or may originate externally as an environment signal, e.g. Internal change in type of growing point such as vegetative to flowering or initiation of adventitious roots on cuttings may be associated with a shift in the activity of specific hormones, external parameters i.e. application of growth regulators, or environment. It is mainly internal potential of meristem that gradually shifts from a vegetative shoot to one that produces flowers.

Introduction

Agricultural extension has been developing from past more than 100 years. The term was first used by Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, in the year 1867. Chinese people have been following extension approximately from past 2000 years. There are four generations of agricultural extension in Asia: colonial, diverse top-down, unified top-down and diverse bottom-up extension. Communication takes place mainly in two ways in extension system: paternalism versus participation and persuasion versus education, which aims to change behaviour of rural people. Many approaches have emerged in extension which includes ICT based extension.

In agroforestry systems the various components like tree, crop and pasture exist in different proportions and orientations. It is difficult to find out which agroforestry system is the best suited for a given land situation. Similarly, it is to be decided which technologies are required for refinement and improvement of the existing agroforestry practices. But without sufficient knowledge of the existing system in a particular land situation, it is very difficult to set the research priorities for modification and development of this system. Diagnosis and Design (D & D) is a systematic and objective methodology developed by International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) to initiate, monitor and evaluate agroforestry programmes. D & D is based on the philosophy that knowledge of the existing situation (diagnosis) is essential to plan and evaluate (design) meaningful and effective programmes in agroforestry research for development. The methodology plays a strategic role in all the phases of the agroforestry research process. D & D in agroforestry is unique and it has been specially developed for the following purposes.

Nomenclature should not be confused with terminology which deals with terms, like antenna, abdomen, radius etc. Names of animal and plants may be either vernacular or scientific.

Vernacular names or local names of plants and animals are different from region to region, from language to language.

Scientific names or Latin or International names are used universally all over the world. Without them we would not be able to communicate and to use the knowledge accumulated about animals and plants in literature. These international names are under certain rules or nomenclature.

Nomenclature

No-men-cla-ture means a system of names. It is derived from Latin Nomen means name and calor means to call, which means to call by names. Nomenclature is the “language of Zoology” and the rules of nomenclature are its grammar. Since all zoologists work with animals and used their names, it is essential that the general principles of zoological nomenclature be familiar to all zoologists.

Gardens around the religious places / structures such as temple, mosque, shrine etc. have been developed since very old times. In fact gardening practice actually started with the temple gardens for growing flowers for worship purpose. The main purpose of these gardens is to create scenic beauty and a pleasant atmosphere where one can relax, mediate and spent some time in tranquility besides making prayer and worship.

Design

The garden around such structures depends on its type, requirement and number of visitors of that place. In case, large number of visitors visiting the place daily, garden areas need to be fenced with grill or hedge so that no damage is done to the garden, particularly walking through lawn, flower beds, plucking of flowers, leaves etc. Architectural beauty and position of the structure (temple, mosque, shrine), availability of space (area and allocation - front, side, back) should be taken into account while preparing design. In case of big areas with boundary, trees may be planted along the boundary wall. Remaining area is to be divided into blocks for accommodating other features like shrubbery border, flower beds, water bodies, fountain etc. as per availability of space and suitability. Gradation for making change of elevation by way of earth work or construction of retaining walls must be well planned and completed at the initial stage of garden construction. Other facilities for the public like seats, shelters, public conveniences are also to be taken into account.

1.1. History of Cultivation

Prehistoric people lived as hunters and gatherers. About ten thousand years since now they unveiled the mystery of germination and engaged themselves in production of plant from seed. Since then it was practiced in the open field fully exposed to sun, rainfall, ambient temperature & humidity, etc. Gradually, with the development of society, they improved the package of practice and became accustomed to produce better crop in accordance with these natural conditions.

Backdrop of modern agriculture technology: Since the late 19^th century, population all over the world increased rapidly, which demanded more food production. This situation prompted crop production as a profitable business. New scientific inventions were incorporated in farming practices to increase the production per unit area (yield). On the other hand, repeated cultivation of same or similar crops in the same land, year after years, gradually reduced the productivity of soil. Hence, need arose for increase of crop yield through further improvement in farming technology.

First-phase development: The incorporation of ‘chemicals’ into the soil as plant nutrients(fertilizers) coupled with the use of ‘high-yielding varieties’ changed the scenario of crop production in the sixties of last century. This, along with ‘mechanization’, increased crop yield many-fold and helped to bring large areas under the plough. Countries, which developed these technologies, made good amount of money/profit from this development. Gradually, the rest of the world adopted or purchased these technologies particularly to meet up the rising demand of food in their respective country.

Subsequent problem: This systemof cultivation solvedthe food scarcity problem initially but use of chemicals, cultivation of similar crop over a large area etc. destroyed the agro- ecological balance. These technological developments, coupled with adoption of labour saving technologies, gradually created problems like gradual loss of soil health, lowering of nutrient-use-efficiency and subsequent yield. This invited severe attack of pests like insect, disease, weed and related social problem like unemployment.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is branch of pharmacology that deals with study of chemical substance intended to kills or inhibits the growth of invading microorganism or foreign cell without harm to host cells. Paul Ehrlich coined the term chemotherapy and is known as father of chemotherapy. Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk discovered sulphonamide (sulfonamidochrysoidine). First commercially available sulphonamide marketed in the form of Prontosil dye, for which he received the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. SelmanAbraham Waksman discover streptomycin and several other antibiotics from soil actinomycetes and actinomycetes is called treasurer house of antibiotics.

α-lactam antibiotics- includes penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems, monobectum and beta-lactamase inhibitors. It inhibits bacterial cell wall synthesis due to inhibition of transpeptidation reaction thus inhibits peptidoglycan synthesis. Penicillins contain 6-animopenicillanic acid (((lactam ring + thiazolidine ring) eg. natural penicillins, beta-lactamase-resistant agents, aminopenicillins, carboxypenicillins, and ureidopenicillins. Discovery of penicillin was done by Alexender fleming from penicillium mold in 1928 from Penicillium notatum. Now a day’s Penicillium chrysogenum mold is a major source of penicillin production. Benzathine penicillin G is a repository salt of penicillin. Probenicid competitively inhibit renal tubular secretion of penicillin and increase the half- life of penicillin. Procaine penicillin G should not administer by i.v. route due to adversely affect the cardiac conducting system. Beta-lactamses inhibitors are calvulenic acid (Streptomyces clavuligerus), salbactum, tazobactam. They are called suicidal /progressive inhibitors. Main adverse effect associate with penicillin is immediate type of hypersensitivity reaction due to Antigen+ IgE antibody reaction.

1 Hypoxia caused due to defective oxygenation of blood in pulmonary circulation

a) Anoxic anoxia b) Anaemic anoxia

c) Stagnant anoxia d) Histotoxic anoxia

Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy in different developing countries and it is not only nourishing the population, but also contributing a major share in country’s gross domestic product (GDP). During the second half of the twentieth century and after, modern agriculture encouraged intensive cropping with high cost and consumption of fossil-fuel based energy. Yield enhancement was achieved by adoption of modern technologies, but that was at the cost of ecological unbalance.

The feeding is an important operation in aquaculture, it is the process of providing nutritious supplements or live feeds to the culture animal. The equipment used for this purpose is named as feeders. Equipment that is connected with fish feeding can be divided into three major groups, as follows

Introduction

Cherry (PrunusaviumL.) is considered as one of the most important temperate deciduous fruit and is the season’s first tree fruit to reach the market. Cherries are rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals and have more calories than apple. Most of the present day cherry cultivars are of European origin. The annual world production as of 2012-13 of cultivated cherry fruit is about 2.5 million tonnes. Around 40 per cent of the world production originates from Europe and 13 per cent in the United States. The other important global players during 2012-13 were Turkey (4,80,740 MT), United States (3, 84,646 MT), Iran (200,000 MT) and Italy (1, 04,766 MT) (FAO, 2012). Important sweet cherry cultivars include Bing, Brooks, Tulare, King, Sweetheart, Rainier etc.

Agriculture is the backbone of rural livelihoods in many developing countries, providing employment, income, and food security for millions of people. However, agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods are increasingly vulnerable to climate-related stresses, such as droughts, floods, and extreme temperatures. The impact of climate variability and change on agricultural systems is a major concern, particularly in rural areas where people have limited capacity to adapt to these changes.
1.1. The Role of Agricultural Meteorology
Agricultural meteorology plays a critical role in supporting sustainable rural livelihoods by providing weather and climate information to farmers, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Operational agricultural meteorology involves the application of weather and climate information to improve agricultural decisionmaking, reduce climate-related risks, and enhance agricultural productivity. By integrating weather and climate information into agricultural decision-making, farmers can make informed decisions about planting, irrigation, pest management, and harvesting, ultimately leading to improved crop yields and reduced losses.
1.2. Objectives and Scope
This book aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of operational agricultural meteorology in supporting sustainable rural livelihoods. The book will explore the current state of agricultural meteorology, its applications, and its potential to improve agricultural productivity and reduce climate-related risks. The book will also discuss the challenges and opportunities in implementing operational agricultural meteorology, including the need for capacity building, infrastructure development, and policy support. This book is intended for a wide range of stakeholders, including:
• Agricultural meteorologists and researchers
• Policymakers and decision-makers in agriculture and rural development
• Farmers and agricultural extension agents
• Students and academics in agricultural meteorology and related fields
• Development practitioners and NGOs working in rural development and agriculture.

Introduction

In India, concern for the protection of intellectual properties took place way back in 1911 through the Indian Design Act.  Since then laws (Indian Patent Act, 1970 and its amendments) were enacted for the protection of various intellectual properties. However, the subject matter of intellectual property did not receive attention in agricultural sector, although scientists and farmers have been developing new plant varieties for almost the entire part of our agricultural history.  The development of new crop varieties on a scientific basis began only in the last 50 years with advanced knowledge of genetics and plant breeding. The entry of genetics into plant breeding resulted in major advances culminating in the development of high yielding hybrids and varieties. Indian agriculture witnessed the arrival of hybrids and high yielding crop varieties in the 1960s, during the Green Revolution.

At times, we hear our young generation questioning the need for obtaining degrees for conducting any research work. To some extend they are right. If we look back, there are many examples where persons without any former degree attained what is impossible by many degree holders. Tulsidas has written ‘Ramacharitmanas’, incorporating so many principles of Vedas and stories from Puranas without obtaining any degree. Srinivasa Ramanujan (21) narrated mathematics theorems without any degree in mathematics. His achievements may be appreciated by the fact that we celebrate his birthday 22nd December as National Mathematical day.

1 Ovine ketosis is more common during

a) Early lactation b) Late Pregnancy

c) Early Pregnancy d) Late lactation