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The relevance and need for an eco-friendly alternative farming system arose from the ill effects of the chemical farming practicesadopted worldwide during the second half of the last century. The methods of farming evolved and adopted by our forefathers for centuries were less injurious to the environment. People began to think of various alternative farmingsystemsbased on the protection of environment which in turn would increase the welfare of the humankind in various ways like clean and healthy foods, an ecology which is conducive to the survival of all the living and non-living things, low use of the non-renewable energy sources, etc. Many systems of farming evolved as an outcome of the efforts of many experts and laymen. However, organic farming is considered to be the best amongall of them because of its scientific approach and wider acceptance all over the world.

Organic farming means farming in the spirit of organic relationship. In nature, organic relationship is a pervasive phenomenon. Everythingis connectedwith everything else. Hence, organic farmingis not mere non-chemicalism in agriculture. Since, organic farmingmeans placingfarmingonintegral relationship, wehave to know therelationship between soil-water and plant; betweensoilandsoil microbes andwasteproducts;between the plant and animal kingdom of which the apex animal is the human being; between agriculture and forestry; between soil, water and atmosphere etc.It is the totality of the relationship that is the bedrock of organic farming. However, the understanding of this totality of relationship is not sufficient for success in organic farming. Understanding the local specificity in respect of each of these aspects of these multiple relationship is also important (Pal, 2006).

Indian agriculture is characterized by small farm holdings. The average farm size was only 1.21 hectares during 2005-10 and it would be 0.68 ha by 2030. Around 85% of farmers have land holdings smaller than 2 ha and they cultivate nearly 60% of the available land. The contribution of agriculture sector to the total (GDP) has decline from 38% in 1980 to 29% in 2000 and 15% in 2010-11. The per capita availability of land was 0.15 ha in 1999-2000, which will reduce to 0.11 ha by 2020. As per estimates, India would require about 345 million tones of food grains for feeding about 1.5 billion populations by the year 2020. Approximately 90% of total farm holdings are categorized as small and marginal. There is hardly any scope of horizontal area expansion. The situation is, further, aggravated due to globalization of market and trade relaxations, which call for competitiveness and efficient agricultural production system to face never challenges on the ecological, climatic, equity, social justice and employment front. In areas, endowed with adequate irrigation resources, short duration pulses, oilseeds and other high value crops will find their definite niche as sequential or intercrops, rather than replacing the major cereal crops having higher yield potential combined with high stability. Hence, an increased cropping intensity will contribute substantially to additional demands of food and cash crops.

Pulse production in NE states in still too low as compared to whole India. However, there is very good potentialfor enhancing pulse producity in the region and contribute to food grain production of the country. In view of these constraints, prospects for increasing pulse production from this region have been visualized.

Pulse production scenario

Despite immense importance of pulses in humanand animal nutrition, the share of north-easternregion inthe total pulse areofIndiaistoolow (0.76%)andthisregion contributesonly176.44 thousandtons(0.99%) in the all Indiapulse production (Table 1). WithinNE Region, mostof the pulsearea isoccupied by Assam and 47% of total N.E. Region’s pulse production is contributed by this state alone. After Assam, Nagaland and Tripura are major pulse growing states with 33.5 and 14.5 thousand hectares of area and 36.46and 24.20thousandtons ofproduction, respectively. In Meghalaya, pulseswere grownon4 thousandhaarea and4.2 thousand tonnesof pulses wereharvested in 2010-11. Thefactthat theaverage pulse productivity of NE region (883.0kg/ha)is much higher thanthatof whole India (689kg/ha) offers opportunityfor increasingarea and production of pulses in the region.

India is the largest producer of pulses in the world with 24% share in the global production. During 201011, the total production was 18.09 million tonnes from an area of 25.6 million hectare (Table 1). The important pulse crops grown in India are chickpea (48%), pigeonpea (15%), mungbean (7%), urdbean (7%), lentil (5%) and fieldpea (5%). The major pulse producing states are Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which together account for about 80% of the total production. The pulses production does not keep pace with the domestic requirement and consequently, the nation has to import 23 million tonnes and the per capita availability of pulses has declined progressively from 41.6 g in 1990 to 37 g in 2008 (Indian Council of Medical Research recommends 65 gm/day/capita). Thus, increasing production from the current level poses a serious challenge for the nation.

Even with the best of efforts, pulses production and productivity has more or less remained stagnant. Due to the low productivitylow input nature, pulses are grown as residual/alternative crops on marginal lands after taking care of food/income needs from high productivityhigh input crops like rice and wheat by most farmers. Also, they grow as rainfed crops with little or no modern yield enhancing inputs. The low priority accorded to pulse crops may be related to their relatively low status in the cropping system. As a crop of secondary importance, in many of these systems, pulse crops do not attract much of the farmer’s crop management attention. In deficient soils, the application of micronutrients has also been found to be remunerative, yet the farmers hardly use these inputs. Seeds of newly developed varieties are not available to the farmers in the required quantities. As a result the seed replacement rate is hardly about 2 to 5%. In addition to this, these crops are adversely affected by a number of biotic and abiotic stresses, which are responsible for reduced yield. Lack of onfarm storage facilities and the vulnerability of pulses to store grain pests also results in considerable losses. Stray cattle and blue bulls are responsible for a lot of damage to the pulse crops especially during offseason, thus affecting adversely the cultivation of crops like mungbean, urdbean, pigeonpea, fieldpea and lentil in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana also resulting in instability and low yields.

India has witnessed a phenomenal increase in foodgrains production since Independence and from a food deficit state producing about 51 million tons in 195051 it become food surplus country with a record harvest of more than 250 million tons in 201112. This particular year also saw a remarkable record production of pulses at about 18.1 million tons. However, to meet the increasing demand of the continuously rising population about 23 million tons of pulses have to be imported every year costing the country about Rs.3000 crores in foreign exchange. Despite the changes in the dietary habits in which the large middle class has moved away from traditional cereals towards high value dairy, meat, fruits and vegetable products, pulses in India are still considered an important source of proteins, particularly for the poor. Pulses are not only an excellent source of protein (2040%), carbohydrates (5060%) and minerals (24%) but also provide calories almost equal to that of cereals energy to the tune of 300 to 540 Kcal/ 100g (Ofuya and Akhidue, 2005). Thus, pulses play an important role in achieving food and nutritional security for small and marginal farmers. However, the per capita availability of pulses has been declining over the time – it has declined from 60.7 gm/ day in 1951 to about 32 gm/day in 2010 – mainly due to stagnant production (except in recent years), rising demand for consumption and other uses. Pulses not only are used for consumption, but also play an even greater role in maintaining and enhancing soil fertility through nitrogen (N₂) fixation. Though the estimates of Nfixed by pulses depends on crop species, soil type, agroclimatic zone and crop management practices, it was reported that early, medium and long duration pigeonpea varieties fix 7, 55 and 69 kg/ ha¹, respectively, in Vertisols of Patancheru (Kumar Rao and Dart, 1987). Pulses ^N2 are grown not only as sole crops but also as intercrops and the biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) of pulses substantially benefits the associated or succeeding crops in terms of nitrogen contribution (1668 kg/ N₂ ha¹ for succeeding cereals). Thus on a conservative estimate, the BNF (@46 kg/N₂ ha¹) by pulses, excluding the intercrop area, alone amounts to 1.06 million tons annually.

Pollution is the term used to denote the hindrances caused to living organisms by way of contamination of their physical environment. Pollution to air, water, soil etc. is the major problem faced by the living community. Measures to control the emission of pollution into air, water or soil will certainly reduce the level of pollutants. Mitigation of pollution can be best achieved by combining nature with technology that increases the effectiveness of plants in removing pollution. Use of vegetation is an effective means of pollution control and many researchers have reported their advantages in mitigating pollution.

So far, the main approach has been to dig the polluting chemicals out of the ground and transport them to a landfill. However, after a decade of research, scientists in the early twenty-first century found that hundreds of species of plants, along with the fungi and bacteria that inhabit the ecosystem around their roots, seek out and often break down chemical molecules that can harm most other life.

In the mid-1980s, Dr. B.C. Wolverton and fellow researchers at NASA conducted several studies to determine whether plants could halt indoor pollution and provide a natural way to deal with the problem. It has been suggested by NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) that plants are major pollution-absorbing devices: the common indoor plants might provide a natural way of helping combat “SICK BUILDING SYNDROME”. Common indoor plants may provide a valuable weapon in the fight against rising levels of indoor air pollution. These plants are not only decorative, but are also surprisingly useful in absorbing potentially harmful gases and cleaning the air inside modern buildings.

Trees are major capital assets in cities Just as streets, sidewalks, public buildings and recreational facilities are a part of a community’s infrastructure, so are publicly owned trees. Trees — and, collectively, the urban forest — are important assets that require care and maintenance the same as other public property. Trees are on the job 24 hours every day working for all of us to improve our environment and quality of life. Urban forest provides many environmental benefits to our community. Aside from the obvious aesthetic benefits, trees within our urban forest improve our air, protect our water, save energy, and improve economic sustainability.

In other words, since most trees have been planted much of the tree cover is in urban areas as opposed to “natural lands”. Therefore, estimated pollutant uptake rates are higher for residential compared to natural or unmanaged lands. Possible management implications of these estimates are that air pollutant uptake benefits from tree planting may be optimized by planting in areas where air pollutant concentrations are elevated and where relatively high planting densities can be achieved thereby enhancing the health of urban dwellers.

Landscaping is both science and art and is an aspect of the environmental impact of a hotel that needs to be addressed. Understanding and blending the elements of both nature and construction is effective landscaping. Whether Landscaping is extensive or small consumes a large amount of water, fertilizers and herbicides and generates solid waste.

Ecogreen’s Greenscaping Operation provides cost-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions for landscaping. Greenscaping operation deals with two aspects:

1. Solid Waste Management, and

2. Water Conservation

Tourism is a phenomenon, which has taken off immensely in the past three decades. It concerns us all, be it by allowing us to travel long distances as tourists, or by forcing upon us a mass of visitors to our part of the world. In the past, people did not travel half as much. Financial obstacles and responsibilities to land and animals stopped them from doing so. Only in 1845 did Thomas Cook of Leicester, England, organize the first package tour, making this experience available to people outside of the privileged classes by cutting down on expenses. By 1939, an estimated one million people were traveling abroad each year. Nowadays, the population of the Mediterranean swells to double over the summer, from 130 million resident inhabitants during the winter to 260 million in high season. There were about 698 million international tourist arrivals worldwide in 2000. All regions in the world grew, and the fastest developing region continued to be East Asia and the Pacific. Tourism has become the largest industry in the world. And just like all thriving industries, though it has a lot to give, it also takes a lot in turn. Unfortunately, the toll that we pay for it has been rising steadily. While the prospect of people traveling less in the future seems improbable, to say the least, a new idea has already sprung up: If we cannot stop tourism, let us at least travel sensibly.

Green business, is enterprise that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies. In general, business is described as green if it matches the following four criteria:

1. It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions.

2. It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replace demand for non-green products and/or services.

3. It is greener than traditional competition.

4. It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations.

A sustainable business is any organization that participates in environmentally friendly or green activities to ensure that all processes, products, and manufacturing activities adequately address current environmental concerns while maintaining a profit. In other words, it is a business that “meets the needs of the present world without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” It is the process of assessing how to design products that will take advantage of the current environmental situation and how well a company’s products perform with renewable resources.

3.1. SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Solid waste management includes the transportation, processing, recycling and disposal of our waste materials. We live in a disposable world in many ways with the modernization and convenience of our world we have cluttered it with our refuse.

Sustainability has recently become an important factor in the engineering world. Landscape architecture is a discipline that attempts to improve the way humans interact with the environment. That interaction can be improved in various ways such as water conservation, energy conservation, or urban planning. landscape architecture encompasses urban design, community and regional planning, interior and exterior garden design, parks and recreation, historic site and natural area preservation, energy and water conservation, landscape restoration and management, among others. The varied list is an example of the dynamic essence of landscaping and provides insight into the many areas which can be improved by implementing sustainable practices.

Sustainable development practices aim to protect the quality of life of future generations. This can only be done by understanding how the natural environment operates as well as how human interactions affect it. Sustainable Landscape Architecture focuses on enhancing the holistic knowledge of the surrounding landscapes, including the complex processes which naturally occur to maintain it. Employing this knowledge within the planning phases of development should result in the reduction of negative environmental impacts due to the same. The traditional consequences of land development can be eliminated or mitigated when developers are able to foresee the consequences of their work. Many times, replicating undeveloped conditions and/or native landscapes within the overall site design will prove very useful in achieving the goals of sustainability. All of the sustainable topics covered in this chapter involve the application of a technology that resulted from better understanding the natural environment.

Green energy can be classified as any form of energy resource that results in zero greenhouse gas emissions and zero toxic byproducts. These constitute the alternate source of energy such as Solar, Bio, Hydrogen, Wind, Water etc. Renewable Energy is energy that is not depleted or expen- ded. Previously the pressure to reduce CO2 emissions dictated the energy sourcing. With recent findings from experimental evidence, global warming may not be attributable to CO₂ emissions in relation to other over-weighing causes. However the pressures to develop renewable sources continue since the cost of Oil is increasing in many countries. It is desirable and a necessity to develop renewable non-toxic energy resources. The global economy and welfare of all earth depends on it even if CO₂ is not the cause of global warming (GW). There are some factors not in the control of even the most technologically advanced society. These are solar activity such as sun spots which have huge and tremendous influence on the Earth’s climate. However we should strive not to cause any undue imbalances in the proportion matter and composition of Earth’s atmosphere. Although CO2 is a small contributor to GW in comparison to H₂O, we still have responsibility to maintain the right balance of the gases in the atmosphere by not causing undue changes to the Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen cycles! We are far way off from a Oil-free technology. Most transportation is still petrol driven.

Azadiractin (1%) was found effective for the control of Hadda beetle on Ashwagandha. Nineteen arthropods were recorded on isabgol. Among them, 13 were phytophagous species belonging to order Lepidopteran (09), Hemipteran (03) and Homopteran and six predatory species belonging to order Coleoptera (03), Neuroptera (01) and Odanata (02). The sequential occurrence of arthropods revealed the presence of aphid (Aphis gossypii) from second week of January to fourth week of February, whereas Lepidopteran (Helicoverpa armigera, Trichoplusia ni, Thysanoplusia oricalchae, Spliarictia sp. Hyposidra successari and Olene mendosa and true bugs (Graptostethus servus and Spilostethus pandurus) were observed associated during early crop growth stages (i.e. from second week of December). Infestation of aphid was uniformly severe, whereas that of Lepidopterans and true bugs were sporadic and less severe. However, presence of these pest arthropods caused significant reduction in seed yield.

Isabgol (Plantago ovata Forsk.)

The crop requires cool and dry climate during the growing season. Sowing of seeds at 4 kg/ha in 0.25-0.50 cm depth during November 20 to December 20 was recommended. In medium black cotton soil of Malwa region, second week of November was reported to be optimum time for sowing. Broadcasting of seeds followed by light sweeping with broom found to give uniform germination. A spacing of 30x 45 cm found to be most ideal to get higher seed yield in Isabgol under Madhya Pradesh situation. Response of chemical fertilisers was found low. However, a fertiliser dose of 25 kg/ha each of N and P₂O₅ as basal dose and 25 kg/ha N as top dressing at 30-42 DAS was recommended for commercial cultivation in Gujarat while 50 kg/ha N reported to increase the seed yield in Madsaur areas of Madhya Pradesh. At Anand three irrigations viz. first at the time of sowing and subsequently at 30 and 70 days after sowing (DAS) proved to be beneficial. However, four irrigations at sowing, 10,25, and 50 DAS at Mandsaur are recommended. Chemical weed control was found to be economical and a pre-sowing or pre-emergence application of Isoproturone (0.5 kg ai/ha) was recommended for weed control. One spray of Metalaxyl + two sprays of Mancozeb were found significantly superior in controlling downy mildew. In Gujarat, Pearl millet in Kharif and Isabgol in Rabi season are advocated as a suitable crop rotation. Groundnut-Isabgol rotation gave higher economic return followed by Soybean-Isabgol and Pigeon pea-Isabgol rotations in Maharashtra.

A high-yielding cultivar Vallabh Medha of mandukparni (Centella asiatica) was identified. Fresh herbage yield (12,331 kg/ha) and dry herbage yield (2,113 kg/ ha) of this variety were far more than the local variety (2,050 and 392 kg/ha respectively), besides higher active ingredients. Among mucuna selections, IIHR PS 15 with long duration, IIHR PS 6 with medium duration and IIHR PS 14 with short duration recorded significantly higher yield and high L-dopa yield/ plant. In Coleus, a promising hybrid, Hy 08-53, recorded significantly higher root yield (60.22g) and higher forskolin yield/plant (0.58 g). In ashwagandha, IIHR- WS 3 was found to be the best yielder (11.65 q/ha).