eChapters

ABSTRACT

Phosphorus is a macro nutrient, acts as a limiting factor in most ecosystems. Phosphorus immobilization is a major issue in most agricultural soils of India. Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB) help in the solubilization of insoluble mineral phosphates by the production of organic acids. The aim of this research was to isolate, identify and characterize phosphate solubilizing bacteria from different agricultural crop soils of river banks of Yamuna, Delhi. Experiments were established in the laboratory to isolate phosphate solubilizing bacteria from various soil samples. Biochemical tests were performed to identify and characterize phosphate solubilizing bacteria. The phosphate solubilization efficiency of bacteria was measured. Organic acid production by different PSB for solubilization of insoluble phosphates were estimated. PSB from the soils of four agricultural crops such as Fennel, Spinach, Coriander and Mustard were isolated, identified and their ability to solubilize mineral phosphates by the production of organic acids were studied. Different PSB isolated were characterized as Citrobacter sp., Pseudomonas sp., Staphylococcus sp. and Bacillus sp. The PSB varied in phosphate solubilizing efficiency and production of organic acids. Pseudomonas sp. produced the maximum amount of organic acids and hence was the most efficient PSB. These PSB can be used as biofertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers and lead to sustainable agriculture.

Introduction

In the past few decades, persistent change in climatic variables coupled with global warming lead to the genesis of climatic stress. Currently climatic stress is considered as the most serious ultimatum to livestock’s growth, development, production and reproduction in tropics and subtropics including India. Livestock’s in tropical countries are most commonly affected by the menace of climatic stress. It has been shown that, climatic stress upsets animal’s body homeostasis resulting in grievous decline in livestock’s production and productivity across the world. In general, livestock adapt to the climatic insults via behavioural, physiological, biochemical, metabolic, endocrine and molecular responses. Despite of these thermal adaptation mechanisms, livestock’s witnesses the perils of climatic stress thereby incur major loss in their production and productivity. Therefore, in this changing climatic scenario, it is imperative to rigorously understand and explore the precise mechanism of thermal adaptation to generate climate resilient species which could upsurge the socio-economic status of the farmers as well as the country.

26.1 INTRODUCTION

India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables and ranks next to Brazil and China, respectively. With the commensurate total production of 63.5 and 87.2 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables, the country shares about 11 per cent of total production under fruits and 13 per cent of total production under vegetables, respectively (Anon., 2008) in global scenario. Horticultural produce undergoes spoilage at the time of harvesting, handling, storage, marketing and processing resulting in huge wastage. Efficient management of this waste can help preserving essential nutrients of our food and feeds and bringing down the production cost of processed product, besides minimizing pollution hazards and purifying the environmental condition. Recycling of horticultural waste is one of the most important aspects of utilizing it in a number of new ways to yield new products and meeting the requirements of essential products required to mankind.

In advance countries like USA, Australia, Brazil and Israel, more than 50 per cent of fruits and vegetables productions are processed into different products, whereas, in India it is less than 2.0 per cent of total production. Generally, post harvest losses in fruits and vegetables range between 25-30 per cent of total production, valued at more than 57,000 crores annually due to lack of availability of appropriate post harvest infrastructure (Guleria and Verma, 2008). Horticultural crops are grown all over the country incurring wastes everywhere. There are different stages of waste from farm to fork.

Introduction

The search for order in the location and size of settlements continues. Certain geographers examined the size of distribution of settlements and described in graphical form the relationship between the number and size of settlements. Their methods were radically different in that they were not deterministic, rather than making a set of assumptions, deriving a theory and testing it against reality, they observed the size and number of settlements in various countries and noted a common characteristic, which was called the rank size rule. Having once observed this order in the real world, they then sought to explain it. A relationship which is observed on several occasions is called an empirical regularity. The rank size rule is one such empirical regularity.

The rank size rule was first observed by Auerbach in 1913 but was proposed and popularized by G.K. Zipf in his book “Human Behaviour and the Principle of Least Effort”. Since then, many writers have attempted to explain it but the basic aim has always remained the same: to find a graphical description to the size distribution of cities which would apply to the situation prevailing in many countries.

Rank Size Rule: Theoretical Base and Concept

Rank size rule is a theory describing numerical distribution of settlement, which recognises an empirical regularity whereby the product obtained by multiplying a city’s rank by its size is equal to a constant, the population of the country’s largest city such that for a given settlement system

Introduction

Commercial poultry farming in India has creating profitable business opportunity for entrepreneurs. Poultry farming business can provide a great employment source for the job seeking people. This is such as business in India that can never dry up. All types of poultry product have a great demand in the market inside India. There is no religious taboo about consuming the poultry meat and egg. Highly productive local and foreign breeds are available for commercial production. Requirement of initial investment for poultry farming is not too high. You can start small scale production and elaborate it gradually. Bank loans are available throughout the country. Numerous forms are available and you can easily learn about poultry farming from those established farmers. Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Samba and Animal Husbandry department of Jammu & Kashmir are providing lot of scheme and vocational training regarding poultry farming for betterment of farmers.

The biocontrol use had almost completely disappeared due to the growth and success of the synthetic pesticide industry in the mid-1940s. The publication of Rachael Carson's 'Silent Spring' (Carson 1962) which condemned the use of agricultural pesticides and emphasized their harmful environmental effects on wildlife. Due to public outrage over this controversial book, there was a need for pesticide alternatives, which presents an opportunity for wider use of biological control (Barratt et al. 2010; Gay 2012).

Successful management strategies require an understanding of the pig reproductive system. Profitability in pig production farm is primarily limited by reproductive efficiency. Increasing reproductive efficiency lowers the cost of each pig sold. Increased pig marketing per female could reduce the number of sows required or increase the overall number of pigs marketed per year. Nonetheless, improving reproductive performance requires time. There are no quick fixes for enhancing reproductive performance. To improve the reproductive parameters of swine farms, sound management approaches and a rigorous genetic selection programme are required.

Agri portals

• Website that serves as a gateway or a main entry point (‘cyber door’) on the internet to a specific field of interest or an industry.
• A portal provides at least four essential services.
  1. Search engine(s).
  2. Email.
  3. Links to other related sites and.
  4. Personalized content.
  5. It may also provide other facilities such as chat, members list, free downloads, etc.

8.1. Pepper

8.1.1. Phytophthora foot rot / quick wilt: Phytophthora capsici

Symptoms

• Die back

• Discoloration occurs and rotting progress upwards and downwards resulting in die-back.

• Lateral branches of affected vines break off at nodes and fall off.

• Foot rot or collar rot

• Stem near ground level get infected and rotting and death of vine within 2-3 weeks.

• Affected portion emits bad odour.

• Root rot

• Infection starts at main root or at feeder root.

• Leaves become yellow and defoliate.

Site of incision: Make an incision from distal end of cranial margin of stifle joint to coxal tuber and extend it dorsally up to mid dorsal line of the body. Make another incision at mid caudal of thigh from stifle region to tuber ischii and extend it to mid dorsal up to the base of the tail and then connects the distal ends of both previous incisions and reflect the skin up to mid dorsal line of the body.

Microbes play a crucial role in floriculture by enhancing plant health, growth and resilience. Beneficial microbes such as bacteria, fungi and mycorrhizae, form symbiotic relationships with plants, aiding in nutrient uptake and improving soil structure. These microorganisms decompose organic matter releasing essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which are vital for flower development. They also produce growth-promoting substances such as hormones and enzymes, stimulating root and shoot growth. Moreover, certain microbes act as biological control agents, protecting plants from pathogens and pests by outcompeting harmful organisms or producing antimicrobial compounds. The use of microbial inoculants and biofertilizers in floriculture can reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides, promoting sustainable and eco-friendly practices. By fostering a healthy microbial community in the soil, floriculturists can enhance the aesthetic quality, color and longevity of flowers, contributing to the overall success and sustainability of the floriculture industry.Different microbes can be used for the floriculture has been discussed.

In the preceding chapters, we embarked on a comprehensive journey through the realm of vegetables, covering a wide range of species that belong to different botanical and culinary groups. These chapters provided an indepth exploration of the characteristics, growth habits, and environmental requirements of various vegetables, as well as the effects of weather conditions on their productivity.
However, the diversity of vegetables is vast, and there are several other important species that were not covered in the earlier chapters. These vegetables may be regionally specific, possess unique characteristics, or have distinct environmental requirements. Despite their importance, they have remained outside the scope of our previous discussions.
This chapter aims to fill this knowledge gap by providing an overview of these additional vegetables, with a focus on understanding the impact of weather conditions on their growth, development, and productivity. By examining the effects of temperature, moisture, light, and other environmental factors on these vegetables, we can gain valuable insights into their cultivation requirements and optimize their production.
Through this chapter, we hope to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the vegetable kingdom, highlighting the diversity of species, their environmental requirements, and the strategies for maximizing their yields. By expanding our knowledge of these lesser-covered vegetables, we can promote their cultivation, conservation, and sustainable use, ultimately contributing to global food security and nutrition.

Web-education Technology

“Educating the people through web” this process is called web-education. The World Wide Web provides new opportunities and hopeful future for distance education over the Internet and the distance education is becoming a widespread used for quite a long time through Newspapers, Radio and TV. Now-a-days mostly the World Wide Web (WWW) getting vital role in distance education, e-learning and distance learning since the networking technologies are emerging very rapidly in the media dominant era. The connectivity of the internet to different kind of people around the world is increasing steadily, like TV and Radio. The World Wide Web and other Internet–based collaborative modern communication technology tools have significantly enhanced the ability to train and educate people electronically.

Diseases of metabolic origin are commonly known as metabolic disease viz., bloat, acidosis, milk fever, hypomagnesimia, pregnancy toxaemia etc. However, few common metabolic diseases encountered in herd/ flock management are discussed in the chapter. Among these diseases bloat, acidosis and ketosis are generally occurs due dysfunction in rumen. In the rumen, microbial fermentation occurs due to unique structures and environment. Microbes converts fibrous feeds which are of no use for human beings to important product viz., milk meat, hair and fibre etc. Some bacteria and protozoa have isolated from rumen by the researchers and with their fermented products and pathways. Name of the fermented products with the products is presented in the following Table 24.

Genus : Annona 
Species : cherimola Mill.
Chromosome No. : 2n = 14, 16

Other species
A. squamosa 2n =14, 16 L.
A. reticulata 2n =14, 16 L.
A. muricata 2n =14, 16 L.

Collectively all the Annona fruits technically are syncarpous is composed of more or less numerous carpels coherent with the fleshy receptacle. Fruit has been described as ‘Deliciousness itself’ compared to pineapple, mangostean and cherimoya the finest fruits of the world. Its native place is the mountains of Ecuador and Peru as terra-cotta models of cherimoya fruits are frequently obtained from prehistoric graves in Peru. The word cherimoya is from the Peruvian name ‘cherimuya’ meaning cold seed. Although originated close to the equator the fruit attains best quality or performs better where climate is cold and relatively

Introduction to Swine Farming

World pig population in the year 2007 was 918,278,000 when the pig population in India was 14,000,000. The per head agricultural land holding is decreasing continuously because of a high rate of increase in population leading to excessive pressure on land. This lower land holding per person leads to lowered production per person forcing people to move to urban areas for better incomes. Excessive population pressure on urban areas itselves has its own demerits and limitations. To prevent this drift of village people to the urban areas they should be encouraged to adopt agriculture based professions which give the villagers a good return in short time span. Swine industry provides the same opportunities to villagers who can get better income with a minimal investment in short time intervals. In India for varied reasons the swine industry is not much developed. The breeds yield less and also the littre size is small in comparision to the better breeds available in many parts of world. In India, the desi swine survives on garbage and looks very unhygienic. Thus, most of the people in India feel uncomfortable to consume swine. Indian swine industry has a great potential but needs attention with respect to raising of better productive breeds with lesser cost for hygienic feeding and management.

            Pig is mainly reared for meat, skin and manure. Growing pigs for meat is little different from other production processes because here the daily live weight gain relates to the daily feed supply and the efficiency of output production depends upon the total quantity of input (feed).

1. Introduction

The culinary banana (Musa ABB) of Assam and North East India (locally known as kachkal) is an important and cheap source of vegetable in the diet of local people. It is considered as one of the potential sources of carbohydrates, starch, polyphenols, micronutrients and functionally important bioactive compounds (Khawas et al., 2016). Native starches have limited use in food application as it has many weakness such as narrow peak viscosity range, poor process tolerance, low shear stress resistance, hydrophilicity, thermal decomposition, high retro gradation, and synersis and cooked starches will formed a weak, cohesive and rubbery paste. These facts motivated the employment of modified starches as important functional ingredients in processed foods in recent years because of their improved functional properties over unmodified starches (Fleche et al., 1985).

To overcome these problems physical. Chemical and enzymatic modification of Starch is done. Chemical modification of starch generally involves esterification, cross linking, etherification or oxidation of the available hydroxyl groups on the β-D-glucopyranosyl units that make up the starch polymer.

With increasing industrialization, water sources available for consumption as potable water are being adulterated with industrial, animal and human wastes. As a result water has become a formidable factor in disease transmission. Polluted water usually contains large amount of organic matter which forms nutritional base for growth and multiplication of microorganisms. Usually the water with non-pathogenic organisms, like autotrophs and saprophytic heterotrophs, are not of major concern, but presence of intestinal contaminants of fecal origin are of great concern. These pathogens are responsible for intestinal infection such as bacillary dysentery, typhoid fever, cholera and paratyphoid fever.

The detection of all the intestinal pathogens on a routine basis would be a tedious and difficult task, however, it would be easy to demonstrate the presence of some of the nonpathogenic intestinal organisms like Escherichia coli and Streptococcus faecalis. These are always found in intestine but their detection confirms the contamination of water with fecal material. Such organisms are also called pollution indicator.

Integration of Enterprises

In agriculture, crop husbandry is the main activity. The income obtained from cropping is hardily sufficient to sustain the farm family throughout year. Activities such as dairying, poultry, fish- culture, sericulture, biogas production, edible mushroom cultivation, agro- forestry, agri- horticulture etc. assume critical importance in supplementing their farm income. Assumed regular cash flow is possible when cropping is combined with other enterprises. Judicious combination of enterprises keeping in view of the environment condition of a locality will pay grater dividends. At the same time it will promote effective recycling of residues/ wastes.

Integrated farming system seems to be the answer to the problems of increasing food production. For increasing income and for improving nutrition of the small scale farmers with limited resources without any adverse effect on environment and agro- eco-system. In a cropping system the amount of by products can be as high as or higher than marketable produce. This may go to waste if not utilized in an animal waste component and to reduce the cost of production of the economic produce of component two and finally to entrance the net income of the farm is whole.

Livestock is the best complementary enterprises with cropping, especially during the adverse years. Installation of a biogas plant in crop- livestock system will make use of the wastes, at the same time provides valuable manure and gas for cooking and lighting.