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Plant hormones (also known as phytohormones) are chemicals that regulate plant growth, which are termed ‘plant growth substances’.

Plant hormones are signal molecules produced within the plant, and occur in extremely low concentrations. Hormones regulate cellular processes in targeted cells locally and, when moved to other locations, in other locations of the plant. Hormones also determine the formation of flower, stems, leaves, the shedding of leaves, and the development and ripening of fruit. Plants, unlike animals, lack glands that produce and secrete hormones. Instead, each cell is capable of producing hormones. Plant hormones shape the plant, affecting seed growth, time of flowering, the sex of flowers, senescence of leaves, and fruits. They affect which tissues grow upward and which grow downward, leaf formation and stem growth, fruit development and ripening, plant longevity, and even plant death. Hormones are vital to plant growth, and, lacking them, plants would be mostly a mass of undifferentiated cells. So they are also known as growth factors or growth hormones..

Phytohormones are found not only in higher plants, but in algae too, showing similar functions, and in microorganisms, like fungi and bacteria, but, in this case, they play no hormonal or other immediate physiological role in the producing organism and can, thus, be regarded as secondary metabolites.

Aims and Objectives

It has become evident that in order to achieve the food production targets of the future, a major effort will be required to enhance the seed replacement rates of various crops. This would require a major increase in the production of quality seeds, in which the private sector is expected to play a major role. At the same time, private and Public Sector Seed Organisations at both Central and State levels, will be expected to adopt economic pricing policies which would seek to realise the true cost of production. The creation of a facilitative climate for growth of a competitive and localised seed industry, encouragement of import of useful germplasm, and boosting of exports are core elements of the agricultural strategy of the new millennium.

Biotechnology will be a key factor in agricultural development in the coming decades. Genetic engineering/modification techniques hold enormous promise in developing crop varieties with a higher level of tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. A conducive atmosphere for application of frontier sciences in varietal development and for enhanced investments in research and development is a pressing requirement. At the same time, concerns relating to possible harm to human and animal health and bio-safety, as well as interests of farmers, must be addressed.

Globalization and economic liberalization have opened up new opportunities as well as challenges. The main objectives of the National Seeds Policy, therefore, are the provision of an appropriate climate for the seed industry to utilize available and prospective opportunities, safeguarding of the interests of Indian farmers and the conservation of agro-biodiversity. While unnecessary regulation needs to be dismantled, it must be ensured that gullible farmers are not exploited by unscrupulous elements. A regulatory system of a new genre is, therefore, needed, which will encompass quality assurance mechanisms coupled with facilitation of a vibrant and responsible seed industry.

India’s economic security continues to be predicated upon the agriculture sector, and the situation is not likely to change in the foreseeable future. Even now, agriculture supports 58% of the Indian population, as against about 75% at the time of independence. In the identical period, the contribution of agriculture and allied sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fallen from 61 to 13%. As of today, India supports 16.8% of world’s population on 4.2% of world’s water resources and 2.3% of global land resources. Also per caput availability of resources is about 4 to 6 times less than that of world average. This will further decrease due to increasing demographic pressure and consequent diversion of the land for non-agricultural uses. Around 51% of India’s geographical area is already under cultivation as compared to 11% of the world average. The present cropping intensity is 136% and it has been registered an increase of only 25% since independence. Further, rainfed and dry-lands area constitute approximately 65% of the total net sown area. There is also an unprecedented degradation of land (107 million ha) and groundwater resource, and also fall in the rate of growth of total factor productivity. This deceleration needs to be arrested and agricultural productivity has to be doubled to meet growing demands of the population by 2050. Efficiency-mediated improvement in productivity is the most viable option to raise production of various commodities including horticulture.

Plant biotechnology can be defined as the introduction of desirable traits into plants through plant tissue culture and genetic engineering techniques. The recombinant DNA technology is used to modify the expression of genes already present in the plants or to introduce new genes of other species with which the plant cannot be bred conventionally.

An electrocardiographic unit has a compact electrocardiograph machine, power cord, patient cable, thermal recording ECG paper roll, and conducting gel.

Electrocardiographic Unit

The Electrocardiograph is a sensitive galvanometric device that is capable of recording difference in electric potential up to 1 mV (1/1000 of a volt). The machine has a voltage meter and amplifier combined with a strip recording device (Fig.5) to provide a permanent record. Various basic features viz. running (paper) speed of the machine , sensitivity, lead selector, off/on switch, f ilter etc are displayed on the screen (Fig. 5). Electrocardiographic machine can record electrocardiogram at the paper speed of 25 or 50 mm per second as per our selection. The sensitivity switch controls amplitude of the waves. The amplitude or sensitivity can be selected as 0.5,1. or 2.

Mastitis is a consequence of interplay between the infectious agents and managerial practices. The mammary glands of cows are frequently exposed to potential pathogens, but on most of the occasion, cows get mastitis because their immune systems are not adequate to prevent infection. Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary gland in response to injury for the purpose of destroying or neutralizing the infectious agents and to prepare the way for healing and return to normal function. The average incidence of subclinical mastitis has been found to be 49% in cows and 28% in buffaloes. Similarly, clinical mastitis is prevalent in 7% of cows and 4% buffaloes. Besides this, 17% of the cows and 8% of buffaloes have been suffering from various udder and teat lesions such as udder/teat warts, bovine ulcerative mammilitis, udder impetigo and teat chaps etc. These lesions pre-dispose the animal to mastitis and cause a great discomfort at milking and hence markedly decrease the milk yield. The economic losses due to mastitis worldwide have been estimated at $35 billion. Current annual economic losses due to mastitis in India have been estimated to be Rs. 7165.51 crore that include Rs. 4151.16 crore and Rs. 3014.35 crore due to subclinical and clinical mastitis, respectively. Mastitis causes a reduced milk production, not only at its occurrence but throughout the rest of the lactation, increases the risk of new cases of mastitis and increases the risk of culling. Besides, mastitis impairs the quality of milk and milk products. Approximately 70-80% of losses are due to subclinical mastitis. Subclinical mastitis is also important due to the fact that it is 15-40 times more prevalent than the clinical form. It usually precedes the clinical form, is of longer duration, difficult to detect and constitutes a reservoir of micro organisms that lead to infection of other animals within the herd.Besides this, presence of mastitis causative organisms and antibiotic residues in milk following therapy of mastitis poses a major threat to the consumer health. Mastitis results in increase in the somatic cell count (SCC) and bacterial load of milk. The European Union has set up a threshold of 400,0000 cells/ml of milk from healthy quarter of a cow. The high SCC in mastitis milk has lipolytic effect on fat and there is increased tendency for rancidity of milk and milk products. Also, the mastitis milk with total bacterial count of more than 100,000 cfu/ml could release hydrolytic enzymes, which spoil the milk and milk products. It has been also observed that mastitis milk inhibits the growth of starter bacteria and results in decreased cheese production.

The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR) was established in 1976 in New Delhi by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The mandate of the Bureau was to act as a nodal institute for the acquisition and management of indigenous and exotic plant genetic resources (PGR) for agriculture and to carry out related research and human resources development for sustainable growth of agriculture. As we know our country is a mega-diverse country with 2.4% of the land area, accounting for 7.8% of the recorded species of the world spread over 45,968 (11.18% of world) species of plants and 91,212 species of animals (7.43% of the world) that were documented in its 10 bio-geographic regions. India shares four biodiversity hotspots, namely Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, the Himalayas, Indo-Burma, and Sundaland, and one third of our species of higher plants are endemic. Out of 45,968 plant species, 5150 are endemic and distributed in 141 genera under 47 families, corresponding to about 30% of the world’s recorded flora, which means 30% of the world’s recorded flora is endemic to India. The plant genetic resources are fundamental to human welfare and their effective management is a crucial for conservation of genetic variability. As of today, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR), New Delhi, India has conserved about 4.6 lakh accessions of 1900 species in its gene bank, and about 6900 accessions of intermediate species have been conserved in cryobank. The Bureau not only conserve PGR safely to meet the needs of future generations but also provides these to the nation’s crop improvement programs to sustain continued advances in agricultural productivity and stabilize production. ICAR-NBPGR is the nodal agency for import and export of all PGR for research purpose, adhering to guidelines of National Biodiversity Act, 2002.

Structure of a business or legal framework

1. Sole proprietorship: A private company is a form where an individual is the exclusive proprietor of the business. It constitutes a straightforward setup where the owner is one person who manages the everyday operations of the company. In this case, the business is not regarded as an independent entity. Therefore, earnings and debts are merged into their personal accounts, which are assessed and taxed at the individual level.

Advantages of the sole proprietorship structure include

• Complete Control: As a sole proprietor, you have the right to make all business decisions and do not have to negotiate with other partners, managers or shareholders as in other structures.

• Easier Startup: The creation of a private company does not necessitate completing forms or remitting a state fee. This can ease the procedure and render it more affordable.

• Simple tax reporting: Because a business is not legally a separate entity, your income tax return includes the expenses and income of the business. As an added bonus, you can use business losses to offset your earned income, which can result in a higher taxable income.

• Privacy: Sole proprietors do not have to file annual reports with state or federal governments. Therefore, the company is not disclosed in the same way as in other structures.

One of the major discoveries that gave birth to the field of microbiology was the development of instruments that could magnify, so that objects too small to be seen with the naked eye could be visualized. Robert Hooke in 1665, using an instrument with two sets of lenses (a crude compound microscope), was the first person to describe cells as life’s smallest structural units. In the early 1670s Anton van Leeuwenhoek used a simple magnifying lens to observe microbes he called ‘animalcules’ in rainwater, and was possibly the first person to observe microorganisms. The development of electron microscopes in the 1930s enabled magnifications of a further hundred times greater to be achieved.

A microscope can be defined as an optical instrument consisting of a lens or a combination of lenses for getting magnified images of minute objects. A simple microscope is essentially an ordinary magnifying lens held on an adjustable stand. It can give magnification up to 20 times the size of the object.

Meaning and Importance

Genetic purity denotes the percentage of seeds (by weight) belonging to the variety/hybrid under certification. It is one of the primary criteria of seed quality. The efforts of plant breeders become fruitful only when sufficient quantities of good quality seeds of improved varieties/hybrids reach farmers / growers. This is necessary to take all round care at every step of seed multiplication before the seed is delivered for marketing. Hence, genetic purity testing is of critical importance not only to farmers but also to plant breeders, seed producers as well as quality control enforcing agencies. Increasing emphasis on hybrid cultivars due to their better performance and quality produce, more money and expertise have been put in further research of hybrid development. In this context, protection of parental lines is assuming critical importance and for that purpose, several breeding institutes do adopt various strategies for identification, characterization and protection of their parental lines as to avoid pilferage and misuse of their proprietary lines by other organizations. Use of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and other molecular markers for evaluating seed purity of F₁ hybrids and their parental lines are closely related, thus, helps in assessing contamination of F₁ seeds even with the seeds of sib (inbred seed and seed from self-pollination of parental lines). For genetic purity testing of hybrids seeds, it is imperative that parental lines of hybrid be adequately characterized on the basis of maximum number of distinguishable descriptors (morphological, biochemical or molecular markers).

Abstract

The sustainable management of plant genetic resources is of great concern as increasing population and rapid technological strides are putting enormous pressure on this country’s nutritional and food security. Management of plant genetic resources at national level generates and uses enormous data and analysis of these data is crucial to the effectiveness of PGR management process and can add significantly to the value of genetic resources. A GIS is a database management system that can simultaneously handle data representing spatial objects and their attribute data. GIS allows us to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. It can play an important role in the management of large and complex PGR datasets. The article analyses the potential uses of GIS in plant genetic resources management in India covering various activities such as germplasm exploration and collection, characterization and evaluation, plant health management, documentation and conservation.

Key words : plant genetic resources, germplasm, conservation, documentation, DIVA-GIS,

1. INTRODUCTION

Colour affects every moments of our lives, strongly influencing the cloths we wear, the furnishing in our house and garden, and the appeal of foods. Not only this, colour aids the recognition of food and also has psychological appeal on the enjoyment of food. It is also one of the first characteristic perceived by our senses and help in determining acceptability, judging the quality and basic aesthetic value of food. Addition of colour to the food ensures the uniformity and intensifies the naturally occurring pigments in our food. To achieve this, historically natural or bio-colours have been used extensively till the end of 19^th century, when synthetic colours called ‘coal tar dyes’ were developed that acquired a widespread acceptability. But unfortunately, these are not totally safe for human consumption; for example high levels of erythrosine intake causes thyroid tumors, while Ponceau 4R, tartrazine and sunset yellow were found to be allergic. Many dyes used as colourant have been proved to be carcinogenic. The consumer wants to see the food looking natural as the synthetic colours have been proved to be carcinogenic to humans. Thus, increasing consumer awareness for natural products with almost no chemical additive and certified dyes (which was earlier considered safe) has necessitated the need to exploit food colourants of natural origin. Natural colours are generally extracted from materials of biological origin like fruits, vegetables, seeds, roots and microorganisms, and are often called as ‘Biocolours’. Microorganisms like Rhodotorula, Sarcina, Chromobacter have been proved to be a good source of biocolour.Colour has also been successfully produced from microorganisms using apple pomace as a base for the growth medium of biocolour producing microorganisms.

Introduction

Soil is a silent foundation and a dynamic part of Earth’s complex ecosystem. It sustains life, influences plant growth and is involved in various environmental processes. However, the balance of this vital resource is increasingly threatened by the pervasive effects of climate change, manifested by rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and changes in atmospheric conditions. As global temperatures rise and weather patterns change, the relationship between soil and climate poses transformative challenges with far-reaching consequences. This research addresses the complexity of this interaction and examines how climate change affects agriculture, soil health, composition and functionality. Soil health, a holistic concept that includes physical, chemical and biological aspects of soils, is closely linked to climate change. A notable consequence of climate change is the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods. These events disrupt the delicate balance of soil ecosystems and lead to erosion, loss of topsoil and reduced fertility. Additionally, increased temperatures contribute to soil moisture depletion, reducing water availability for plants and microorganisms and further compromising soil health. A central issue at the interface between soil science and climate change is the role of soil as a carbon sink. Soils store large amounts of carbon in the form of organic material, thereby influencing the environment.

More information, more accurate and timely decision. In present high tech world, the more information you have it is easier to make an accurate decision. The information comes in many different ways, from reports to digital photos. A new way to analyze data is a geographic information system (GIS). GIS allows to bring all types of data together based on the geographic and locational component of the data. GIS is a useful tool for seeking innovative ways to solve the problems.

9.1 What is GIS?

A geographic information system (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store manipulate, analyze, manage and present all types of geographically referenced data. GIS can be defined as a computer-based system for digital entry, storage, transformation, analysis and display of spatial data. A geographic information system integrates hardware, software and geographically referenced data for further analysis. GIS allows users to interpret the georeferenced data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns and trends.

The State of Kerala under the Humid Tropics is one of the wettest places in the Humid Tropics where annual rainfall is of the order of 3000 mm, ranging from less than 1000 mm to greater than 5000 mm. About 68 per cent of the rainfall is obtained during southwest monsoon while 16 per cent in post monsoon and the rest from summer (14 per cent) and winter rainfall (2 per cent). Bi-model rainfall pattern is noticed towards southern districts due to influence of both southwest and northeast monsoons while uni-model rainfall pattern towards northern districts of Kerala. Coconut productivity is better towards south despite dreaded disease of root-wilt when compared to that of northern districts due to less dryspells during summer. Floods during monsoon adversely affect paddy production in the State while prolonged droughts during summer in the absence of post monsoon rainfall adversely affect plantation crops’ production to a considerable extent. The wetlands in Kerala are rich sources of water during summer and act as sink during monsoon season. Such wetlands are fast declining in Kerala and converted as garden lands. Decreasing wetlands might be one of the reasons for frequent floods and droughts in Kerala in recent years. The forest cover of Kerala also declined from 70 per cent to 24 per cent over a period of one- hundred- and - fifty years due to deforestation and forest fires.

Improvements in microscopes enabled scientists to study the ‘invisible’ organisms – that is, those too small to be seen with the naked eye. They were able to show that certain of these microscopic creatures are responsible for the infectious diseases of higher organisms. Most of them are harmless, some are essential for life and some are used in the manufacture of products that are of benefit to humans.

Ecology of a place is influenced by a number of biotic and abiotic factors. An agroecological zone is broadly homogeneous in climatic and edaphic factors, but not necessarily contiguous, where a specific crop exhibits roughly the same biological expression. On the other hand, the characteristics of an agroecological zone influence the crops and cropping patterns of the zone. Thus, there are considerable variations in the types and management practices of agroforestry systems being followed in different agroecological zones.

AGROFORESTRY FOR HUMID AND SUBHUMID TROPICS

Humid and subhumid tropical regions have much variation in biological, social and economical parameters. The characteristics of humid tropics include high mean annual rainfall of more than 1500 mm, dry season of less than four months in a year and mean annual temperature of more than 22oC. Rainfall usually exceeds the evapotranspiration. However, demographic pressure has caused excessive deforestation and overgrazing which developed soil related problems like low soil fertility, low organic matter, high acidity and high rainfall erosivity. The agroforestry practices designed for this region should aim for improved fallows, soil fertility improvement and conservation, food production, etc. Thus, the common agroforestry systems in this zone are taungya, homegardens, alley cropping, plantation-crop combination, windbreaks, silvipastoral systems and various intercropping systems. Shifting cultivation is a common practice in tropics which should be discouraged as it causes environmental degradation and ecological imbalance, soil erosion and soil nutrient loss.

Introduction

Arid and semi arid parts of the India are known as Seed Spices Bowl (Rajasthan and Gujarat) and contribute more than 80% of total seed spices production. Total 109 spices are listed by ISO and 63 spices are grown in India and out of which 20 are being classified as seed spices. Out of 20 seed spices, ICAR-NRCSS working on 10 most important seed spices namely cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, ajwain, anise, caraway, celery, dill and nigella (NRCSS Vision, 2050). Seed spices also grown in some other states on considerable areas such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Punjab, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Since there is a large scope of seed spices by introducing them in new areas, the higher yields can also be achieved effortlessly by implementing new technologies. Among seed spices, maximum area is under cumin followed by coriander, fennel fenugreek, ajwain, celery, nigella, dill, anise etc. Being seasonal crops, these are grown extensively in rotation with food crops and also as inter/mixed crops under rainfed/irrigated conditions. All these crops mostly grown in rabi season. India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of seed spices in the world. Out of total area and production in spices, seed spices contribute about 51.79% of total area and 19.06% of production of spices in the country. The area under seed spices is about 1.74 million hectare and 1.45 million tonnes. India is consistent source of seed spices for importing countries worldwide. There has been ever increasing demand of seed spices and importing countries look at India for quality produce of seed spices.

Motives of joining SHG

Sensitization for joining SHG does not alone help to achieve immediate result. Motives when combined with inspiration, an individual is tempted to act so also the case with sample SHG who expressed motives for joining SHG as follows.