eChapters

Transgenic plants are those plants, in which a foreign gene(s) has/have been introduced and stably integrated into the genome. The inserted gene sequence is known as Transgene. Almost three decades ago, in early 1983, the first cloning of the recombinant genes in tobacco signified the beginning of plant molecular biology in its own right. Since then the number of genes transferred and studied in plants has increased exponentially and the first transgenic crop (‘FlavrSavr’ tomato) was commercialized on May 18, 1994. However, the impact of transgenic crops was perceptible only after 1995 when transgenic maize, soybean and cotton were released for cultivation in USA.

2.1    Cereals
           Maize
    1. Turcicum leaf spot                
    2. Common rust
    3. Leaf spot or Leaf blight
    4. Head smut
    5. Common smut or Maize smut    
    6. Bacterial stalk rot
    7. Banded leaf and sheath blight
    8. Fusarium stalk rot of maize
    9. Downy mildew
      
    Bajra
    
    1. Green ear or downy mildew
    2. Ergot
    3. Smut
          
    Sorghum
    
    1. Anthracnose (foliar, head, root and stalk rot)
    2. Charcoal rot
          
    Pulses
           Moong/Mash
    
    1. Cercospora leaf spot
    2. Bean blight
    3. Anthracnose
    4. Web blight
    5. Powdery mildew
    6. Yellow mosaic disease
    7. Root rot
        
    Rajmash and Cluster beans
    
    1. Bean rust
    2. Bacterial wilt
    3. Common blight
    4. Halo blight
    5. Alternaria leaf spot
    6. Angular leaf spot
    7. Anthracnose
    8. Powdery mildew
    9. Rust
    10. Fusarium root rot
    11. Pythium root rot
    
    Cowpea
    
    1. Leaf spot
    2. Root rot
    3. Ascochyta blight
    4. Bacterial blight
    5. Brown rust
    6. Cercospora leaf spot
    7. Fusarium wilt
    8. Yellow mosaic virus
    
    Oilseeds
    Sesame or Til
    
    1. Phytophthora blight or stem blight
    2. Alternaria leaf spot
    3. Bacterial blight and bacterial leaf spot
    4. Phyllody
    
    Groundnut
    
    1. Collar rot
    2. Botrytis blight
    3. Charcoal rot
    4. Cylindrocladium black rot
    5. Circular leaf spot

The organic constituents of soils or soil organic matter is the most essential components of soil consisting of plant and animal residues at various stages of decomposition, cells and tissues of living or nonliving organisms and the substances synthesized by their decomposition. Soil organic matter exerts profound effect on soil productivity as it acts as source and sink of plant nutrients especially nitrogen and sulphur. It also involves in major biochemical processes to transform or release of plant nutrients into their available forms. Thus, it plays vital role in soil fertility maintenance, through increasing cation exchange capacity and improving soil physical properties, such as bulk density, aggregation, water retention capacity and also supports all kinds of biological activities in soil. The soil organic matter mostly concerns only with dead organic fractions formed from the decomposition of original plant and animal residues using as a source of food and energy by the soil microorganisms. It can be distinguished into –

Introduction

Mangroves are the special group of plants or the ecosystem in a holistic scence on the inter-tidal coastal areas, edges of the islands and major estuarine mouths. The frequently tidal inundated forests on coastal areas, wetlands and the inter-tidal zones of sheltered bays or shore lines, estuarine mouths, sides of the tidal creeks, backwater, lagoons, marshes and mud-flats of the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Globe are the major mangrove habitats or zones. Mangrove ecosystem form an important ecological asset and economic resources of the coastal marine environment. These mangrove ecosystem is the most productive ecosystem, which can efficiently fertilize the sea and estuarine water and also physically protect the coastal zone, estuarine mouth from frequent natural calamities and vitally serves as the breeding ground, nursery and grazing place of diverse species of fish, shrimps, prawns, crabs and vast group of other marine and off-shore species.

Nine cyanobacterial strains viz., Anabaena variabilis, A. fertilissima, Nostoc muscorum, N. punctiforme, N. linckia, N. commune, Spirulina platensis, Westiellopsis prolifica and Hapalosiphon sp. were cultured in the laboratory. The growth curve for each culture was studied by growing them in Erlenmeyer flask using BG-11 growth medium. They were examined to determine the early stationary phases of their life-cycle, which are believed to be the most appropriate period for the production of secondary metabolites by an organism. After 23-25 days of incubation period, each culture was harvested and spent medium was collected by filtration of the biomass. Hexane, ethyl acetate, dichloromethane and methanol were used as the solvents for obtaining the extracts from biomass and spent medium of each culture which were then investigated against five pathogenic bacteria viz., Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella typhi. Antibacterial activity of different cyanobacterial sp. has been shown in various tables.

Introduction

The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), with geographical coverage of over 5.3 lakh km², constitutes a large proportion of the hotspot and, therefore, contributes greatly to richness and representativeness of its biodiversity components at all levels. Out of this 5.3 lakh km², 33.13 million ha area is being constituted by the North-Western Himalayas.^. Further, most of the water used to grow maize crop in the sub-humid foothill region of northwest Himalayas, is derived from rainfall. Erratic rains, fragile ecosystems and traditional indigenous management practices are mainly responsible for the current situation (Kukal and Bhatt, 2010). IHR covers 11 states entirely (i.e. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya), and two states partially (i.e. hilly districts of Assam and West Bengal). The region represents nearly 3.8% of total human population of the country and exhibits diversity of ethnic groups which inhabit remote terrains. Further it is reported that the Northwestern Himalayan region (NWHR) which spreads to an approximate area of 33.13 million ha, comprising of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand is 10.1% of country’s total geographical area, supports 2.4% and 4% of human and cattle population of the country, respectively. This region has a diverse climate, topography, vegetation, ecology and land use pattern. The annual average rainfall varies from 80 mm in Ladakh to over 200 cm in some parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The major natural resources are water, forests, floral, and faunal biodiversity. Forests constitute the major share in the land use of the region with only 15% of the net sown area and 162% cropping intensity (Bhatt, 2011).

Abstract

The Khasi tribe of Meghalaya depends on wild medicinal plants for curing a number of ailments since ages. The traditional knowledge systems which evolved through trial and error method are an integral part of their culture. The objectives of the present study were to highlight the medicinal plants used by the Khasi tribe to treat various diseases, provide scientific validation of the medicinal plants by pharmacological screening using secondary literature and suggest strategies for its sustainable management. A total of 363 plants distributed in 283 genera and 129 families were documented. The life forms of these plants were in the order of herb > tree > shrub > climber > parasite > epiphyte. The herbal remedies for treating various ailments are prepared by using the whole plant either individually or in combination with other plant parts. Cross validation with the help of secondary literature showed the presence of active compounds in these plants. Therefore, it is suggested that traditional knowledge should be properly documented and scientifically explored with more emphasis on species specific phytochemicals and their mode of action.

Introduction

Conventional agriculture is highly dependent on fossil fuel based mineral fertilizers to compensate for removal of plant nutrients by crops. Chemical fertilizers are not only in short supply but also are very costly. The preparation and use of organic manures are not being practiced in a scientific manner to harness the plant nutrients removed by plants, animals and humans.

The application of chemical fertilizers to soil alone and in an imbalanced way has resulted in deterioration of soil health and its quality. The use of chemical fertilizers has to be reduced to check the soil and water pollution and simultaneously the role of soil microorganisms has to be augmented by different ways such as greater use of biofertilizers. Moreover, the demand for organic food particularly both in developed and developing countries is on rise which opens up immense possibility to use organic manure and biofertilizers for production of foods grains, fruits, vegetables, spices, tea and coffee. Therefore, the production and the use of biofertilizers assumes greater significance and could be an excellent biological alternative to chemical fertilizers.

Classification means the process of ordering or grouping of objects having large number of population and wide variations into shorter one in a systematic manner with selected characteristics. Soils being the natural objects have no exception with other objects to classify them in a best possible way. Thus, soil classification refers to the systematic categorization of soils into various groups, classes or any simpler form based on the similar properties and other distinguishing characteristics. The main purposes of soil classification are to organize knowledge, easy remembering of the soil properties for each group and better understanding about the components and the relationships among individuals and various groups of soils. Various soil classification systems have been evolved during the past for categorizing the soils into various groups but the Soil Taxonomy has been now accepted as most scientific system of classification.

Spices are those plants, the products of which imparts strong flavour and aroma to the food. This is attributed to the presence of compounds such as volatile oils present in the plant parts. India is renowned for wide variety of spices and is designated as land of spices. Spices are indispensable ingredient in almost all Indian dishes and cuisines foreign invaders invaded India for spices in ancient times. India is figured as the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices and spice products in the world. Turmeric and Ginger are the major rhizomatous spices of vegetable origin widely cultivating and using in India. They are known for its antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, hence using in medicines for the treatment of various ailments. Apart from these rhizomatous spices, India is also contributing a major share in the production of seed spices. Around twenty spices among sixty-three spices growing in our country are classified as seed spices. Major seed spices of India are coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, dill, ajowain, celery, anise, nigella, caraway etc. These seed spices are extensively cultivated in the arid to semi-arid region of India as Rabi crop.

It is estimated that, spice production in our country increased from 67.64 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to 106.79 lakh tonnes in 2020-21 with an annual growth rate 7.9%. There is a corresponding increase in the area of cultivation also. An increase in area from 32.24 lakh hectare to 45.28 lakh hectare was observed. Among the major spices, cumin (14.8%), garlic (14.7%), ginger (7.5%), fennel (6.8%), coriander (6.2%), fenugreek (5.8%), red chilli (4.21%) and turmeric (1.3 %), showed significant growth rate in production. The export of spices contributes around 41% of the total export earnings from all horticulture crops in the country and it ranks fourth among agricultural commodities, after marine products, non-basmati rice and basmati rice.

In India, the agricultural research and technology generation are supported in five agro-ecosystems, viz. irrigated agro-ecosystem, arid agro-ecosystem, rain-fed agro-ecosystem, coastal agro-ecosystem and hill & mountainous agro-ecosystem. Each system with its varied socio-economic and agricultural features, demands appropriate technologies to augment the productivity of various enterprises with sustainable development and economic returns. Unfortunately, the conventional development efforts, which often follow “top-down” approaches in planning and implementation, don’t address the constraints and developmental potentials of farm household systems in a comprehensive way. To overcome these shortcomings, reversal of approach, i.e. from “Top down” to “Bottom up” is recommended. This can be achieved through site-specific assessment and refinement of technologies with farmer’s participation where the farmers of different agro-ecosystems have right to plan, implement and own their developmental projects (Johnkutty et al., 2001).

Bulbous and rhizomatous plants refer a large group which include both flowering and foliage types. Plants having underground modified stems in the form of bulb, corm, rhizome and tuber generally come under this category. This group effectively contributes beautification of the gardens by their flowers and is very popular. BuIbous and rhizomatus plants are perennial in nature, hardy and require less maintenance. In summer when there are few flowers in the garden, these plants help to keep the gardens in a presentable form by their magnificent flowers. Large number of bulbous and rhizomatous plants are in use for this purpose. The common flowering genera include - Amaryllis, Anthurium, Canna, Cooperia, Crinum, Eucharis, Gladiolus, Haemanthus, Hedychium, Hemerocallis, Lilium, Narcissus, Ornithogalum, Pancratium, Polianthes and Zephyranthus. Some of the popular genera of foliage type are - Alocasia, Asparagus, Caladium, Calathea, Kaempferia.

Classification

According to the climatic requirement for growth and flowering, these are grouped into following two main classes.

Warm Climate - These bulbous plants produce flowers during summer-rainy season. The important ones are - Amaryllis, Crinum, Canna, Haemanthus, Hedychium, Hemerocallis, Ornithogalum, Pancratium, Polianthes, Zephyranthus etc.

Nitrogen Content in Indian Soil Because of tropical and subtropical climates Indian soils have very low nitrogen content and in the majority of cultivated soil it varies from 0.02% to 0.13%. Low levels of N in Indian soil is primarily attributed to climate and secondarily to cropping. Climate plays the dominant role in determining the nitrogen content in soil through the effect of soil organic matter content. Generally heavy textured soils have higher N content than loamy or sandy soils. Other factors remaining the same, total N content in soil decreases with the increase in annual temperature at a given humidity level, on the other hand, it increases with increasing humidity level at a given annual temperature. Maximum N content in soil occurs in the surface layer of soils and decreases with depth in soil profile. The variation of distribution of N content in soil with depth is attributed by varying accumulation of organic matter in soil profile.

1.    Introduction    232
2.    Photosynthesis and Biomass Yields    232
3.    Biomass Properties    233
    3.1.     Polymeric and chemical composition, 233
    3.2.     Fuels analysis, 235
    3.3.     Physical properties, 236

1. Introduction

Movement of fluids from one location to another is an important unit operation in food processing. Various types of systems are used to convey fluids based on their flow behaviour. Understanding fluid flow behaviour is therefore important for designing of fluid flow systems. The fundamental mechanism involved in fluid flow is the momentum transfer occurring in moving fluids during various unit operations (fluid flow, aeration, drying, fluidization, filtration, centrifugation, sedimentation, mixing, etc.). This chapter deals with the basic concepts of fluid flow, viscosity, pressure measurement, conservation of mass and energy, boundary layer, momentum and velocity profile of fluid flowing in a pipe, flow metering devices, and pumps.

Crops are grown with the use of plant protection chemicals to boost production, enhance quality, and lengthen shelf life. Wherein the enormous use of pesticides which are having the longer half life period led to leave the residues in the different bodies of the ecosystem. Pesticide residues refer to the residual presence of pesticide active ingredients, their metabolites, or breakdown products in various environmental components subsequent to their application, accidental release, or disposal.

Analysis of residues gives insight on the type and extent of chemical contamination in an area, as well as how long it has been there. Before governments will approve the use of pesticides, they require comprehensive testing of their efficacy, environmental impact, and toxicology. A possible risk to human health arises from the presence of chemical residues and/or breakdown products in agricultural goods. Selective sampling plans can be used to learn more about pesticide traces in the environment, how they move about, and how quickly they degrade.

Pesticide: The act defines “pesticide” as any substance or other substance or product that is used to stop, kill, repel, or control insects, rodents, fungi, weeds, and other plants and animals that humans don’t need.

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is recognised as the cheapest edible oil-yielding crop and has become one of the major oil crops in the world. The most productive oil-bearing crop, oil palm yields about three times the oil yield of coconut, seven times that of rapeseed, and ten times that of soybean. In terms of world production, palm oil maintains second place after soybean as a source of vegetable oil and has overtaken other crops such as rapeseed, sunflower, groundnut, and cottonseed. Under good agricultural management, a hectare of oil palm yields 5 to 7 tonnes of oil / year (Henson, 1991). The crop is unique in producing 2 distinct types of oil- palm oil and palm kernel oil- used for culinary and industrial purposes. Being rich in b-carotene, palm oil contributes substantially to nutritional and energy requirements of masses.

Introduction
Eversince green revolution was introduced in 1960’s, the Indian agriculture has taken a series of transformations that resulted in paradigm shift from tradition farming to precision agriculture with an intend to address a wide array of challenges including burgeoning population, shrinking farm land, restricted water availability, imbalanced crop nutrition, multi-nutrient deficiencies, crop yield barriers and decline in soil organic matter. Agricultural scientists were looking for alternative strategy to tideover the bundle constraints with a single stop solution. Nanotechnology deals with atom-by-atom manipulations to evolve processes and products precised to overcome the farming challenges altogether that hardly possible to achieve by the traditional systems. Nanotechnology applications in agriculture include diagnostic devices for early detection of plant diseases (Chen and Hu, 2013), nano-agricultural inputs such as nano-fertilizer (Subramanian et al., 2015; yuvaraj and Subramanian., 2018; Nongbet et al., 2022; Verma et al., 2022; Mohanraj et al., 2024), nano-herbicides (Abigail and Chidhambaram, 2017; Forini et al., 2022) and nano-insecticides (Wang et al., 2022), nano-seed science, plant health management (Subramanian et al., 2016), nano-food systems (Anusuya et al., 2016; Jincy et al., 2017; Jan et al., 2023) besides environmental remediation (Rajkishore et al., 2023).
Even though the nanotechnology is being exploited in wide array of disciplines such as energy, environment, electronics, health sciences and few areas in agricultural sciences, the literature on the application of nanotechnology in plant breeding and genetics is scanty. Nanotechnology is a key component in the creation of genetically enhanced crops (Servin et al., 2015) with an increase crop yield or disease resistance (Kerry et al., 2017). Using genetic engineering or plant breeding, nano-enabled approach aids in the development of resilient and better plant genotypes (Patel et al., 2014). Plant breeding and genetic modification to create better crops frequently utilise nanotech-derived devices (nano sensors and nanoparticles) (Kumar and arora, 2020). Nanobiotechnology is to better understand the biology of various crops and the breeders may be able to increase agricultural yields or nutritional value (Sah et al., 2014). Atomically altered seeds, plant cells with silica beaks, hormone and antibiotic delivery in plants, particle farming, and iron seeding are a few examples. (Prasanna et al., 2018; Jha et al., 2013). Particle farming is the process of cultivating plants in predetermined soils to produce nanoparticles for industrial purposes. Plant production and growth are negatively impacted by abiotic stress. Salinity and drought are the two abiotic stressors that affect plants the most widely (Lavania et al., 2015; Zhao et al., 2017). Nano-enabled crop improvement can be achieved through four important aspects such as (1) genome editing, (2) genetic engineering, (3) abiotic and biotic stress management and (4) plant performance.

Climate Change: Understanding our Earth and Atmosphere

Our Mother Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system and the third from the sun. It is also the sole planet whose name comes from old English language only, and not from names of any other celestial bodies, whose names originated mostly from Greek/Roman mythology. Earth has a diameter of 6378 km, of which the earth crust (uppermost skin) is only 24 km. Earth is the only planet where water exists as liquid and 71% of its surface is covered by water. The earth’s atmosphere is made up mostly of nitrogen (77%) and oxygen (21%) gases. CO₂ consists of a very small (trace) fraction (0.03%) of atmosphere, but is most vital for the life cycle. When earth was created, it has got much higher CO₂ than today, and all of them have been sequestered in rocks as carbonates and dissolved in oceans and a negligible amount is distributed in plant communities. This extremely small quantity of CO₂ is keeping life on earth, by maintaining earth’s temperature at a comfortable 14°C (without CO₂, earth’s temperature would have been -21°C). This effect is called the ‘greenhouse effect’, revolving which all issues of climate change exist. It is also to be noted that water vapour is also an important greenhouse gas (GHG). It is to also to be noted that in spite of substantial increase in solar constant, earth’s average temperature has remained stable for billions of years. It is understood that this was possible through variation in CO₂, and it is the biological processes (Earth biosphere) that controlled the environment over years (Gaia hypothesis).

Introduction
Detailed understanding of the gene structure and functions are achieved in respect of the genes present in the nuclear genome. The knowledge of the gene functions is being applied in plant genetics and plant breeding. The different kinds of genetic variants are well captured and explained in crop improvement programmes. The organelle genomes, namely, chloroplast and mitochondria that are present outside the nucleus have not received much attention to understand this organization, structure, functions and in utilizing their genetic endowments in many of the plant development and functions. The organelle genomes present in the cytoplasm are providing cytoplasmic effect, cytonuclear and inter genome interactions that impact plant development, plant fertility and agronomic traits expression. It is estimated that 80% of the metabolites are affected by the variations in organelle genomes. The organelle genome also influences and regulates the activity of nuclear genes. The The chloroplast genome encodes proteins that are central to plant photosynthetic activity for plant photosynthesis producing sugar and mitochondria genomes as the energy powerhouse for the cells and they are very essential to provide support to the plant functions and biomass production that is converted to the crop yield. Together, the organelle genomes have disproportionate effects on the nuclear gene functions.
These two organelle genomes that exist outside the nuclear genomes, active in synthesizing food and energy for cell functions, are not as much considered and relied upon by the plant breeders although they are basic biological machineries. This chapter on the organelle genomes is designed to present the structure and genetic endowments and functioning of the chloroplast and mitochondrial