eChapters

8.1 Introduction

In the modern world, the most elementary desire of every common man is to have sufficient food and mental peace. With the increasing world population, pressure on both peace and availability of food are continuously increasing. Advancing agricultural research can explore a possibility to feed to all living beings. Agricultural crops are highly susceptible to climatic conditions and crop productivity which are mainly influenced by extreme weather conditions; including temperature and water availability. In open field conditions, during long dry weather condition, soil moisture reduces and increases the transpiration.

Plants are very important to all forms of life on the earth because they consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and produce oxygen. In addition, plants make up the base of the food web. Basically, plants need five things in order to grow and these are: sunlight, proper temperature, moisture, air and nutrients. These five things should be provided by the natural or artificial environments where the plants live. If any of these elements are missing, they can limit plant growth. If any environmental factor is less than ideal, it limits the plant›s growth. People began putting plants indoor to avoid the damage from cold weather and this practice led to development of greenhouse. With the improvement in living standard and upgradation in agricultural technologies, off seasoned cultivation is also possible by providing desired artificial environmental conditions. The environmental stress weakens a plant and makes it more susceptible to disease or insect attack. In the modern engineering era, plant production systems have become more sophisticated. The desired climatic condition to grow plants and its control have changed from manual to automated digital operations and control computers have become faster and more capable.

Environmental control techniques are essential for protected cultivation and are not only for greenhouse’s cultivation but are also applicable to tissue culture and space farming as well. Environmental control in the present protected crop cultivation practices has been profusely supported by computer and sensor developments which is sometimes aslo called controlled environment agriculture.

Introduction

Despite environmental, bio-physical, and resource constraints in most parts of Rajasthan, even though the state’s geography can be classified into three distinct climatic zones: hot arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid, from a horticultural perspective. These diverse zones have excellent vegetable production potential, a wide range of crop plants, and varied opportunities for resource utilization. However, extremes of high (March–October) and low (December–January) temperature situations associated with abiotic stresses in arid regions restrict the choice of crops and their genotypes, quality of product, and productivity levels. Thus, vegetable exploitation with adaptive and native crop plants is generally found to be most productive and stable under the dry-land climate of the state that receives 150–650 mm of rain and has problems from abiotic factors owing to climatic variability, extremes in temperatures, drought, frost, hot and cold winds, and soil and water quality.

Vegetable production in the country is largely uneven and concentrated, mainly in the limited states and areas where the climate is much more favorable and mild for their production. In addition, emphasis is given only to the few numbers of vegetables that are grown with high inputs and irrigations. To meet the increasing vegetable demand and utilization of indigenous resources, there is the utmost need for massive and integrated efforts with unconventional, under-scored, and perennial vegetable production. The increase in vegetable production can be achieved first by developing high-yielding crop genotypes suited to the prevailing conditions of the targeted zones and resource-based technologies under climatic variability. The second approach is to exploit native resources, i.e., varied and untapped land-areas and under-scored horticultural species with vegetable potentialities.

INTRODUCTION
To turn raw spices into usable products like ground powders, whole spices, or blended mixes, a number of processes are involved in spice processing. The procedure guarantees that the spices are safe to eat and appropriate for longterm storage in addition to preserving their flavor and aroma. When processing spices, it is essential to use specialized equipment for tasks like cleaning, grinding, blending, and packaging.
Since they add flavor, color, and aroma to any dish, spices have long been a useful addition to the kitchen. Spices like coriander, cumin, and turmeric are now more than just ingredients; they are a thriving industry. Anyone working in the food industry or just curious about how spices are transformed from unprocessed farm produce to the fine powders we use in recipes needs to understand the processing of spices. Establishing a productive, economical, and superior spice processing facility can have a significant impact on those in the industry. Spice processing might be the solution if you want to improve the quality of your spices. This guide explains the steps involved in processing spices, how it operates, and the advantages it provides.
SOURCING THE BEST RAW MATERIALS
Careful raw material selection is the first step in the processing of spices. To guarantee a consistent and superior supply of spices, Indian spice manufacturing companies form solid alliances with regional farmers and growers. Selecting the right raw material is crucial because it establishes the flavor and aroma that will characterize the finished product.
Second, Cleaning and Sorting
The raw spices are carefully cleaned and sorted once they arrive at the manufacturing facility. In order to eliminate contaminants, foreign materials, and impurities that might have been introduced during cultivation and transportation,

ABSTRACT

Communication is now one of the central issues in developing societies. Knowledge expansion, information technology and technology dissemination are the three very important dimensions of any development system be it agriculture, industry and whatever. Revolutionary changes in communication policies, techniques and strategies are needed in order to make information is a fundamental right to the poor rather than making communication a privilege enjoyed by the rich and powerful. Transfer of agricultural technology generally aims at speedy diffusion of novel agricultural information from the place of invention to the place of adoption. In the current Information and Communication Technology (ICT) era, human dependency on computer and allied modern electronic gadgets for executing day to day activities is inevitable. All fields are being influenced by the interventions of ICT and agriculture is in no way an exception to it.

Introduction

India is the second largest producer of fruits crops in the world but productivity of arid fruit crops especially in western Rajasthan is miserably low.The productivity as well as the quality of fruit crops is affected to a greater extent due to various physiological disorders. The extremes of environmental variables like changing environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, unbalanced soil nutrients, inadequate or excess of certain soil minerals, extremes of soil pH, poor drainage and deficiency of micronutrients as well as macronutrient causes many more disorders (Kumar and Kumar, 2015). At present, the climatic scenario of arid region is also changing and the problems like frost, temperature fluctuation, moisture fluctuation, high evaporation and low precipitation as well as nutrient imbalances are becoming a challenge for cultivation of many arid fruit crops. Reasons of low productivity in hot arid ecosystem of western Rajasthan are primarily physiological or stress related disorders such as styler-end browning in ber, fruit cracking in bael and pomegranate, internal necrosis in aonla and black and white nose in date palm. The world wide approximately 70% of crop yield reduction is the direct effect by abiotic factors (Acquaah 2007). In this chapter, we discussed the problems associated with ber, pomegranate, aonla, date palm & bael especially physiological disorders which will certainly help the farmers in timely overcoming of these maladies for getting satisfactory remunerative prices from arid fruit crops under hot ecosystem of western Rajasthan.

Abstract

Agroforestry is an ancient practice that farmers have adopted throughout the world. There are innumerable examples of traditional land use practices combining production of trees and agriculture crops on the same piece of land. In India, the organized agroforestry research began in 1979 when a Seminar on Agroforestry was organized at Imphal by the ICAR, New Delhi. As a follow up to this, ICAR launched an All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Agroforestry (AICRPAF) was started in 1983. The diagnostic survey and appraisal revealed that there are enumerable agroforestry practices prevalent in different agro- ecological zones of India occupying sizeable areas. However, spatial technologies like Geographical Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Positioning System (GPS) have yet to be implemented extensively in this field in India. The spatial technologies have shown great potential in natural resource management through out the world, especially in developed countries in the fields like forest cover mapping, agricultural planning, watershed management, land use planning, etc. In India the agroforestry land use occupy large areas but use of these technologies to estimate area has been initiated in year 2007 with DST sponsored project entitled ‘Spatial and Temporal analysis of agroforestry interventions in North-western India using GIS and Remote Sensing’ The area under agroforestry systems has been estimated/ mapped in two districts viz., Yamunanagar (Haryana) and Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh), where intensive commercial agroforestry was predominant. Besides, the methodology developed as an out come of this study may be replicated for agroforestry systems existing in other parts of the country.

Keywords: Agroforestry, Geo-spatial, Mapping, Natural Resources, Remote Sensing.

Introduction

Carnation is one of the most beautiful and commercially important flower crops. It occupies prime position in the international cut flower trade and is a good commercial cut flower for internal market as well. Carnation flower can easily withstand long distance transportation as it has an excellent keeping.

The major breakthrough in carnation flower industry was evolvement of cultivar William Sim. This cultivar was produced in 1938 to 1939 by William Sim of the USA. From this red variety there have been mutations to white, pink, orange and different variegated forms.

The first genetically modified carnation variety Moondust was released in Australia by Florigene Company. They release another transgenic variety, i.e., Moonshadow.

In India carnation is grown intensively in Nasik, Pune, Srinagar, Bangaluru, Coimbatore, Delhi and Kolkata. Places having congenial climate like Kalimpong, Simla, Solan, Kullu, Ooty, Nainital, Chaubattia, Yercaud, Kodaikanal, etc. are most suitable areas for the production of cut flowers. From Himachal Pradesh and Ooty, rooted cuttings are supplied by the growers to the different parts of the country.

9.1 Introduction

The increase in world’s population and respective food demand has brought the global concern. The climate change alone has put a tremendous burden on the farming communities, and has become the major challenge to feed the burgeoning population. It has been estimated that by the end of the year 2050, the global population will be around 10 billion, meanwhile, the food demand will also be increased by 70-100 %. The traditional method of agricultural practices are not sufficient enough to meet the rising food demand. Therefore, to meet the increasing food demand, agriculture is intensified by the use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, which deteriorat the soil health. Thus, new automated/ mechanised systems have been introduced into the agriculture sector to ensure precision farming. These systems are quick in action, and satisfing the requirements along with generation of billions of employment worldwide. In a developing country like India, 65-70 per cent of the total population resides in rural areas, of which, most of the households are dependent on agriculture. The agriculture sector in India accounts for 18 per cent of the country’s GDP, and provide employment to 50 per cent of the total work force. The agriculture sector is one of the most sensitive sectors of Indian economy which supports all other sectors, and spreading its benefit to the far-reaching areas. Therefore, it becomes important for the developing country like India to develop agriculture sector to boost-up the rural economy.

With the advent of technology, a rapid transformation has been occurred in various industries, while agriculture remains the least digitized. Though, the application of aircraft/ drones in agriculture for fertilizer/ pesticides applications, image capturing, access to real-time quality data has adopted in some developed countries like Australia, USA, Japan, and some of the European countries. Moreover, these unmanned aerial vehicles could provide data of soil health, monitor crop health, assist in irrigation scheduling, yield estimation, and weather data analysis too. However, such development in agriculture is still lacking in developing countries. The agriculture development in the modern era could be done by taking the biological information and agricultural knowledge through integration of modern agriculture information technology with traditional agricultural practices. These knowledge integrations with mobile internet, cloud computing, and machine learning could enable to control the agricultural production system over stressed climate condition easily. Thus, Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is a sort of machine intelligence, an inbuilt set of programme and algorithms similar to the human brain in the current world is gaining more attention in agricultural application for precision farming.

Introduction

Since long time fermentation process is in use for the production of functional food products for human welfare. SSF is a cost effective industrially important method that could be used by food industries to improve the nutritional profile of natural substrates (Salar and Purewal, 2016; Postemsky et al., 2017). The process is being carried out by trained microbiologists in the presence of aseptic conditions using suitable starter culture on steam sterilized substrates. Steam sterilized substrates possess minimal amount of moisture so as to support the microbial growth during the fermentation period. Growth of microbial strains on specific substrates during the fermentation time results in formation of koji (antioxidant rich fermented product). Selection of substrates and starter microbial strains is an important step in the fermentation process which will determine the nutritional properties of fermented product. One of the major advantages of SSF at industrial level is its potential to be utilized on cereal grains, fruits, vegetables and even agricultural wastes (Salar et al., 2012; Postemsky and Curvetto, 2015; Bhanja et al., 2009). Most common substrates that are being used as solid platform for the growth of microbial strains are cereal grains.

7.1. Summary of Findings

This study dealing with the examination of various advantages of commodity futures market to farmers, RMC traders and RMC officials along with the level of awareness about this market among these selected beneficiaries is presented in brief. This chapter summarizes the findings. It begins with the interpretation of the significant findings derived from both secondary and primary analysis. This is followed by suggestions, the section on major contributions of the present study to the existing body of knowledge, on the role of commodity futures market in agricultural development of the state.

1. INTRODUCTION

Stone fruits belonging to family Rosaceae (sub family-Prunoideae) include several important fruit crops like peach, plum, apricot, cherries, nectarines etc. The World production of these stone fruits is approximately 45.49 million tones; out of which 39.61 million tones stone fruits are grown in Asia and India contributes 6.67 million tones of stone fruits annually. Among all the stone fruits Peach, Plum and Apricot production in world is 24.98, 12.05 and 4.11 million tones, respectively whereas India alone produces 287778, 261903 and 17862 metric tones of peach, plum and apricot, respectively (Table 1). These stone fruits are grown extensively in USA, Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, Morocco, Iran, Africa and Australia. In India, these are grown in J&K, Himachal Pradesh sub-mountainous tracts of Punjab, Uttarakhand, North East States and to the limited extent in the Nilgiris hills. Primarily, these stone fruits are used for table purposes or processed to prepare various types of value added products like jam, jelly, marmalades, preserves, baby foods, nectar, juices, squashes, concentrates, ready-to-serve beverages, wines and also processed into dried products.

Technical Term            Definition

Infiltration                    Infiltration is movement of water from the surface into the soil or ground.

Abstract
Abstract: India’s entrepreneurial landscape has evolved significantly, from ancient trade during the Kanishka Empire to the modern startup boom catalysed by the liberalization of the computer industry in the 1980s and the establishment of NASSCOM in 1988. The startup ecosystem gained momentum post the dot-com bubble, with historical roots tracing back to early 20th-century firms like IBM. The launch of the “Startup India” initiative in 2016 accelerated this growth, positioning India as a global startup hub. This study focuses on Maharashtra, India’s leading state with 3,661 recognized startups, ranking first in 2018 with 2,787 registrationsaccording to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. With Mumbai and Pune as key startup hubs, the study explores the vibrant ecosystem, analysing its growth, challenges, and contributions to India’s economic landscape.
Keywords: Startup India, Entrepreneurship, Maharashtra, Startup Ecosystem, Liberalization, NASSCOM, Dot-com Bubble, Mumbai, Pune, Economic Development

Plant pigments impart colour to the different components like leaves, flowers, fruits etc. They in turn are responsible for the colour of raw food, we eat. Pigments like chlorophyll, anthocyanins, flavonoids, tannins, xanthones etc. are the different pigments that are present in plants. The primary function of pigments in plants is photosynthesis, which uses the green pigment chlorophyll along with several red and yellow pigments that help to capture as much light energy as possible. Chlorophyll is green in colour. Carotenoids like a, b, and g, carotenoids are yellow in colour. Lycopene is red in colour. Flavones and falvonols are also yellow in colour. Anthocyanins are purple and magenta in colour. Other functions of pigments in plants include attracting insects to flowers to encourage pollination. The assay of pigments is mostly based on their native colour.

Abstract

Twelve different cyanobacteria strains from different locations in Syria were collected and analyzed. They were identified as strains from Anabaena, Nostoc, Phormidium and Chroococcus. All strains produce mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) as UV-screens upon UV-radiation. Composition of the MAAs and amount of UV-induced MAA production differ between the strains. In order to evaluate the long-term stability of completely encapsulated cyanobacteria aliquots were transferred into hermetically closed vessels. The survival was non-invasively determined by means of pulse-amplitude modulated fluorescence and by delayed fluorescence detection. It was found that 4 strains (one Chroococcus, two Anabaena and one Nostoc species) show photosynthetic performance after 4 years of encapsulation. In addition, many cyanobacteria are desiccation tolerant and are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen. They may play an important role in biological life support systems e.g. in space research.

Definition 

Radiation poisoning, also called “radiation sickness” or a “creeping dose” is a form of damage to organ tissue due to excessive exposure to  radiation. The term is generally used to refer to acute problems caused by a large dosage of radiation in a short period, though this also has occurred with long term exposure to low level radiation. Many of the symptoms of radiation poisoning occur as ionizing radiation interferes with cell division.

The clinical name for “radiation sickness” is acute radiation syndrome . A short exposure can result in acute radiation syndrome; chronic radiation syndrome requires a prolonged high level of exposure. A chronic radiation syndrome does exist but is very uncommon; 

6.1    Introduction
    
6.2    Fertilizers in Drip Fertigation
    
6.3    Drip Fertigation Systems
    
6.4    Rate of Fertilizer Application
    Questions and Problems
        
References

1 Professor (Retired) Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Agricultural College & Research Institute, Madurai-625 104

Introduction

The word ‘Extension’ was first coined in U.S.A. in the mid-part of the nineteenth century, to connote extension knowledge of improved practices in agriculture and home economics from Land Grant Colleges to the farmers and their families in their fields and homes. The literary meaning of Extension is ‘Ex’-out; Tensio’-to stretch i.e. Extension means stretching out. Extension, in the context of rural community development, means educating rural people and it implies production of changes in human behaviour -in terms of attitude, knowledge and skill. Extension is often misconceived as disbursement of subsidies and providing certain material incentives; it is certainly not.

There are several conventional extension techniques approaches and tools for transfer of any farm -related technologies, be it any enterprise, crop or their mix. Extension teaching aids are broadly classified as:

The over emphasis on the use of chemical pesticides and their improper use by the farmers has led to several complications such as residue in food, feed, fodder, development of resistance, resurgence, secondary outbreak, etc. and above all, environmental pollution, leading to a condition known as Pesticide Treadmill characterized by the need to spray ever greater quantities of chemical pesticides. In 1962, Rachel Carson in her book ‘Silent Spring’ aroused worldwide concern about the excessive use of pesticides, which eventually led to the concept of Integrated Pest/Disease Management as an environmentally sound alternative to the sole use of chemicals.

The IDM Concept

In disease management, all the alternate control measures like cultural, biological, mechanical, resistant varieties, physical etc, are utilized in anintegrated manner in order to maintain the disease below economic injury level. If the disease increases and reaches the economic threshold level, pesticides are used to bring the disease down. This is concept of an Integrated Disease Management in which minimum pesticides are used keeping in view of agro- ecosystem. Actually, we do not go for 100 percent control in disease management rather the disease is allowed below which can be tolerated i.e economic threshold. This also provides opportunity for bioagent to survive, managing upon the diseases keeping them at certain equilibrium level. Thus, the Integrated Disease Management concept aims at managing the disease through all the available tactics with favorable economic, social and ecological consequences.

Introduction

India is a second largest producer of fruits after China contributing about 11 per cent to the global production. India leads the world in productivity of papaya, grapes and banana but average productivity of country is much below as compared to other leading countries, which is merely 11.6 t/ha. Abiotic stress is the primary cause of crop loss worldwide, reducing average yields for most major crop plants by more than 50%. Drought and salinity are becoming particularly widespread in many regions, and may cause serious salinization of more than 50% of all arable lands by the year 2050 (Wang, 2003). This leads to a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular changes that adversely affect plant growth and productivity. There are various factors, which contributes to low productivity like limited availability of quality planting materials, old and senile orchards, poor orchard management practices, insect pest and diseases, poor post-harvest management practices etc. There is a much scope in expansion of horticultural crops in arid region and it has vast potential for changing scenario of horticulture of the country. Land resource, surplus family labors, increasing canal irrigated area, developing infrastructural facilities, plenty of solar and wind energy, etc. are the strength in the region for research and development of arid horticulture. Further, low incidence of diseases/insects in the region provides good scope for production of quality seed and planting material of horticultural crops (Sharma et al., 2013).