eChapters

Introduction

There has been a slow evolution of information technologies in fruit crop production as innovators combined their prior field experience with an attitude of learning by doing while looking for practical applications for farm management. As a suite of technologies became available for use in agriculture production, a new management strategy that combined information with decision making became known as Precision farming. Precision farming is the emerging technology which involves maintaining of crop inputs on site specific basis with reducing waste, increasing the profits and maintaining the quality of environment. The main tools involved in this are Geographical Information System (GIS), Variable Rate Technology (VRT), Global Positioning System (GPS), Yield Monitoring and Remote Sensing.

Abstract

Horticulture crops play significant role in improving the productivity of land, generating employment, enhancing exports, improving economic conditions of the farmers and entrepreneurs and providing food and nutritional security to the people. For better management of the existing crops and to bring more area under horticulture crops, updated and accurate database is necessary for systematic planning and decision making. Remote sensing (RS) is an advanced tool that aids in gathering and updating information to develop scientific management plans. Many types of sensors namely microwave radiometers, laser meters, magnetic sensors and cameras collect electromagnetic information to derive accurate, large-scale information about the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. Because these data and images are digital, they can easily be quantified and manipulated using computers. RS can be used in efforts to reduce the risk and minimize damage. The same data can be analyzed in different ways for different applications. A number of studies were aiming at identification of crop, area estimation, disease and pest identification, etc. using satellite data in horticulture. The potential use of RS techniques in Horticulture is briefly reviewed in orde

Introduction 

Conservation tillage has been defined based on percent cover of the soil surface with crop residue (CTIC, 2000). Quantifying crop residue cover on the soil surface is important for improving estimates of surface energy balance, net primary productivity, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration. Quantifying crop residue cover is also an important factor in controlling soil erosion and evaluating the effectiveness of conservation tillage practices (Barnes et al., 2003). Collecting this information by conventional method of survey and line transact are time-consuming, labor intensive, costly and can involve destructive sampling (Morrison et al., 1993). Moreover, field data are limited because they provide point, rather than area information. Remote sensing technique revealed as promising tool in providing such spatial data over a large area in a time and cost-effective manner.

Introduction

In India, Fruits and vegetables comprises nearly 90% of the total horticulture production. India is now the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world and leader in several horticultural crops, namely mango, banana, papaya, cashewnut, arecanut, potato, and okra (National Horticulture Board, 2015). The total area occupied by horticultural crops in India was 23.69  million ha and total production was 283 million tonnes in 2015-16 (Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare). Different horticultural crops like fruits, vegetables, spices, medicinal plants and plantation crops comprises a large chunk of the total crop sales value of the country and also secures nutritional security of the persons of the country. For systematic and efficient management of existing crops and to bring more area of the country under the cultivation of horticultural crops to increase overall horticultural production in term of time and area, a database must be created for decision making and planning. 

Production is based on reproduction and health of reproductive system. Economy of livestock industry is directly attached to the maintenance of high fertility in the herd so controlling the reproductive diseases in cattle is a must.  Reproductive health may be disturbed by reproductive infections like Brucellosis, Leptospirosis, Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and Bovine viral diarrhea.

1    Large animals

2    Canines

3    Suggested antimicrobial/antifungal agents for intra-uterine administration

4    Commercial preparations of hormone(s) and recommended dosage protocol in cows

5    Drugs safe & contra indicated in pregnancy

The  information on normal reproductive traits in domestic animals like calving interval, age at first calving etc, is essential for getting the maximal reproductive efficiency of the animal by the farmer. It also helps in improving the reproductive efficiency of the animals by different required means viz nutrient/mineral supplementation, antibiotic, hormonal therapy etc.

Introduction

The Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) is of great importance for the food security of India. It extends over 1,600 km with a width of 320 km, including the arid and semi arid environments in Rajasthan and Punjab and the humid and per humid deltaic plains in west Bengal (Shankaranarayana, 1982). During the green revolution period in the early 1960s, production increased through area expansion and intensification of the rice –wheat system. Driving forces included suitable thermal regimes for rice and wheat cultivation, development of short- duration, nitrogen responsive cultivars, expansion of irrigation and an ever increasing demand for food from the rising population. The rice –wheat system, covering an area of around 10 million hectares (mha), is the major cropping system in the IGP. These two crops together contribute more than 70 % of total cereals production in India from an area of around 25 mha under wheat and about 40 mha under rice. The small states of Punjab and Haryana contribute 20 % of the total national grain production and 50 % and 85 % of the government procurement of rice and wheat, respectively (Singh, 2000).

Conservation agriculture (CA) refers to a set of agricultural practices involving three basic principles of proven scientific soundness. These include continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance; permanent organic soil cover with crop residues or cover crops; and diversified, efficient, economically viable, appropriate spatial and temporal crop sequences providing opportunities for saving on inputs (labor, fuel, machinery etc.), improving resource use efficiency (water, nutrient, energy etc.) and mitigating GHGs emission with climate change adaptation. Recently research efforts have been made to refine the crop management technologies which are more resource efficient, improve production and income, and reduce GHGs emission compared to the conventional practices. Resource conserving technologies (RCTs) are increasingly being adopted by farmers in the rice-wheat belt of the Indo-Gangetic Plains because of advantages of saving on labor, water, fuel and cost along with timeliness in operations particularly early planting of wheat.

Introduction

The subject of conservation agriculture CA has emerged as a need given the declining productivity of land and increasing costs of input that is putting tremendous pressure on the farming community. Higher yield expectation from land given also brings pressure to the subject of food security. Considering the markets with the globalisation influence is beyond a farmer’s means of influence and price realisation is not a point of control, the situation has deteriorated to their disadvantage. Climate change and soil degradation on the other hand is a reality and agriculture is both a sufferer and contributor, and cannot ignore this reality. Good physical management of soils is one of the key factors to maintain or improve agricultural productivity, in tropical and subtropical regions, and to reduce soil and environmental degradation (Lal, 2000). Tropical soils often have a stable structure and are well aggregated but management practices like intensive ploughing or avoiding the use of cover crops can lead to rapid deterioration (Madari et al., 2005).

Introduction

Rice is grown 43.7 m ha land in India. It is cultivated in 39.51 m ha under kharif and 4.26 m ha under rabi season. As a whole, rice production in India was 104.32 m t (2011-12) with an average productivity of around 2.6 t ha-1. Majority of rice grown in India in the eastern part of the country comprises the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand. Maximum area under rice in eastern India in West Bengal (5.94 m ha) with a production of 15.04 mt. Productivity was maximum in West Bengal followed by Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, Orissa and Chattisgarh (DOSE, MOA, GOA, 2011). There is a plenty of scope to increase the productivity of these region with proper policies and technological interventions. Rice area in eastern region (23.4 m ha) would be divided in different ecologies, namely, irrigated (23.2%), rainfed upland (17.9%), rainfed lowland (43.1%) and flood prone areas (25.1%).

Climate change is a statistical variation in properties of the climate system that includes changes in global temperature, precipitation, etc due to natural or human drivers over a long period of time. It may affect distribution and quality of natural resources thereby influencing livelihood security of the people (Status of Indian Agriculture, 2013). Recent climate change activities is the increase in earth’s temperature by 0.74^ºC between 1906 to 2005 (IPCC 2007) due to increase in anthropogenic emissions of green house gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), ozone (O₃), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs). Increase in concentration of green house gases influence future climate as well as agriculture (Mall et al., 2006; IPCC, 2001; Aggarwal, 2003: Bhatia et al., 2004). For Indian region under South Asia, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007 projected a rise in temperature from 0.5-1.2^ºC by 2020, 0.88-3.16 oC by 2050, and 1.56 - 5.44^ºC by 2080. This may anticipate greater instability in agricultural production (Aggarwal, 2008). Beside this, climate change also affects the dynamics and frequency of extreme events like tropical cyclones, associated storm surges, and rainfall events. Low lying regions are more vulnerable to climate change as increase in temperature melt down the glaciers causing floods, submergence, and degradation of these regions. Therefore, there is a need for a ‘wake up call’ at this stage to aware farmers about the climate change, extreme weather events like hailstorm, heat and cold waves, drought, flash and river floods and landslides, and its affect on crop and agriculture, and strategies to overcome it.

1. Introduction

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical fruit having good sensorial characteristics such as, mechanical properties, flavor, acidity/sweetness ratio, color; and nutritional. Pineapple is known to be a good source of vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin B and antioxidants. The free radical scavenging activity of pineapple is found to be much higher than banana and is comparable to that of guava (Alothman et al., 2009). However, it is a perishable cash crop that grows in abundance in a short time. This necessitates protecting the perishable fruit against quality loss during storage and distribution.

Fruit leathers are an economic and convenient substitute for natural fruits with high nutritional components. Leathers are made by removing moisture from wet pulp until the desired cohesive “leathery” composition is obtained. Since it is light and low in moisture it has minimum storage problems and is economical to ship (Moyls, 1981). Therefore, making fruit leather from fresh fruits is an effective way to preserve fruits (Maskan et al., 2002). Furthermore, fruit leather has far fewer calories, less than 100 kcal per serving (Huang and Hsieh, 2005) and have a far greater nutritional value (e. g., especially in terms of energy, minerals, antioxidants and fiber) than the fresh fruits because all nutrients are concentrated. There are large numbers of fruit leather available in the market, such as mango leather, apricot fruit leather, grape leather, berry leather, kiwifruit leather, and jackfruit leather (Torres et al., 2015).

4.1. INTRODUCTION

Rice (Oryza sativa) is the major food crop in the world. Nearly 40% of the world population consumes rice as the major staple food. Most of the people, who depend on rice as primary food, live in the less developed countries.  Archeological evidence on rice in India dates back to 1500-1000 B.C. Since the dawn of civilization, rice has served humans as a life-giving cereal in the humid regions of Asia and, to a lesser extent, in West Africa. Introduction of rice into Europe and the America has led to its increased use in human diets. There are 42 rice producing countries throughout the world but China and India are major rice production centers. Rice is grown in wide range of agro-climatic conditions ranging from mountainous (Jammu) lands to low land delta areas (Sundarban), spanning an area from 53° latitude north to 35° south of the world but about 90% of the crop is grown and consumed in Asia. Rice provides fully 60% of the food intake in Southeast Asia and about 35% in East Asia and South Asia. The highest level of per capita rice consumption (130-180 kg per year, 55-80% of total caloric source) takes place in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Vietnam (Kenneth and Kriemhild, 2000). In many cultures of the world rice is the central part of people’s life and culture. Rice is an excellent food and is an excellent source of carbohydrates and energy.

Eastern India is frequently affected by weather hazards, such as drought, flood and heat wave. The region consists of Orissa, West Bengal, and Bihar. The coastal states of Orissa and West Bengal frequently face cyclones, while Bihar and eastern U.P. face cold wave. Due to unfavorable seasonal weather, crop productivity is poor. However, the recent change in climate induced by global warming has further threatened the agricultural productivity in the region. Rice is the principal crop of Eastern India and rice based cropping systems has long been practiced in the region. While rice-rice is the most dominant cropping system in Orissa and West Bengal, rice-wheat is in Bihar and eastern U.P. Besides, rice-groundnut occupies a considerable area in the region. It is now doubtful whether the resilience of these cropping systems would continue sustaining the productivity under the climate change. The major aim of the proposal was to identify suitable adaptation measures of crop production under projected climate change. Climate change is expected to alter precipitation pattern, increase temperature, change in humidity level and decrease sunshine. As a result it is like to influence right from land preparation to the harvest and post harvest process. Thus the project aim was to revisiting the existing package of practices of selected cropping systems by simulation modelling, deduce suitable adaptation measures and validate these by OTC experiments.

13.1    Biochemical Changes During Banana Ripening
    
13.2    Commercial Ripening

Principal Scientist and I/c Head, Division of Social Sciences and Training IIHR, Hessaraghatta Lake Post, Bangalore - 560 089, Karnataka

Introduction

The word ‘risk’ derives from the early Italian risicare, which means ‘to dare’. In this sense, risk is a choice rather than a fate (Bernstein, 1996).

It is an inherent trait in humans to take chances. We believe that even though the future is uncertain we can make calculated choices based on our knowledge of past occurrences and the outcomes will be skewed in our favour. 

Introduction

Among vertebrate pests such as birds and wild animals, Well-known rodents include mice, rats, squirrels, dogs, gerbils etc., are great importance. Among rodents, rat and mice come under class Mammalia. They are small mammals belonging to order Rodentia and under sub family Murinae in the Family Muridae. Rat and mice cause severe damage to various crops like sugarcane, rice, maize etc. both directly and indirectly by gnawing, spoilage, contamination and hoarding activities. Beside this, it is big problem in house, store godown, warehouse, urban cities and industries. Rats and mice have caused more human suffering and more economic damage than any other vertebrate pest. It is also known to introduce secondary pest like fleas, mites and ticks into premises cause additional problem.  Statisticians estimate that rats and mice destroy 20 per cent of the world’s food supply every year directly by feeding and indirectly through contamination. It has adapted to nearly all human environments. They live in granaries, fields, city sewers, attics, basements, street trees, on top of 30-story buildings, and inside subway tunnels. Rats may be also responsible for the spread of many diseases. Some of the more important diseases associated with rats are plague, murine typhus fever, rat bite fever, salmonella food poisoning, and trichinosis. Adult mice have a small, triangular head with a small nose and little delicate feet as compared to the body. The mouse ears are very large relative to their heads. Rat ears are smaller relative to their heads. Rats have thicker tails than mice.

Abstract: Agroforestry, is a sustainable land use system being practiced since long time through out the country. A diverse climatic, edaphic, and environmental conditions prevailing in the country has made it possible to practice different kinds of agroforestry systems. Karnataka state has four major agro-ecological regions and coffee agroforests are prevalent in the region of Western Ghats of Karnataka, which has tropical climate. With in Karnataka, Kodagu district has highest area under coffee agroforests with a total area of 1,00,079 hectares and is the largest producer of coffee in the country. The area under coffee agroforests is increasing at the cost of natural forested landscapes, which is considered as a looming threat to biological diversity. But, at the same time there are arguments that these coffee agroforests also supports high level of biological diversity. There are very few studies to justify this argument. With this background the present study is an attempt to enumerate the biological diversity of coffee based agroforests of Kodagu.

The importance of Plant Pathology has been realized over the years owing to number of crop failures in different parts of the world. Plant disease control is indispensable for qualitative production and to compete in global agricultural trade. There is great need of sensitization of our research in various aspects which shall guide the generation to come for managing plant diseases not only for enhancing crop production but also in facilitating trade by conserving the biodiversity and environment.

Research Trend in Plant Pathology

Like in other sciences, there has been a change in the trend of research in Plant Pathology with passage of time. Up to the late 1960s most of the interest in plant pathology was concentrated in crop diseases mostly caused by fungi. Physiology of microorganisms and physiology of parasitism became increasingly popular fields of interest in 1960s.