eChapters

Introduction 
It is a common vegetable crop of rabi season which belongs to the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). Due to prevalence of protandry condition, the crop is cross pollinated in nature and self-pollination within individual flower is restricted. It comprised of three distinct cultivated varieties grown over the world for various economic purposes and classified as below depending upon usefulness of different parts.
Origin
It found is globally distributed in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Mediterranean basin, and South America, whereas Argentina and Chile are the richest sources. Habitat is extensively ranging from Egypt, Algeria, and Abyssinia to Sweden.

The Concept of ‘Clean Milk’ Production

Although milk is nature’s most ideal and perfect single food both for the newborn and the mature human beings, the possibility of it being a source of biological and chemical hazards cannot be excluded. In view of the immense dietary importance of milk, the need for production of safe, clean and wholesome milk is emphasized. The term ‘clean milk’ does not mean milk in which all visible dirt is absent or milk from which it has been removed; rather it does denote raw milk from healthy animals, that has been produced and handled under hygienic conditions; that contains only small number of harmless bacteria and that possesses a good keeping quality without being treated by heat. In other words, the unhygienic production of milk may lead to inferior keeping quality as a result of rapid microbial multiplication under favourable storage conditions apart from serving as a potential health hazard. These microorganisms cause the milk to sour quickly, putrefy and develop undesirable flavours, colour defects, ropiness and bitterness. On the other hand, the pathogenic microorganisms, which may gain entry through various sources, may cause many diseases to the consumers.

ABSTRACT

The domestic buffalo occupies an important niche in agricultural systems by providing milk, meat and draught power. Indian buffalo population which is about 1/3 of the cattle population contributes more than half of the total milk production of the country.  Several biological and socio-economic problems restricted the efficiency of buffalo production which needs careful and intensive research. Studies pertaining to reproduction are one of the important areas in buffalo research. The reproductive process in buffalo is complex in nature, which differs on many aspects with the cattle. There is a need to undertake separate strategies to understand buffalo reproduction to disseminate the information to the livestock owners and researchers.

ABSTRACT

A Distributed Database is a database that is under the control of a central database management system (DBMS) in which storage devices are not all attached to a common CPU and may be dispersed over a network of computers interconnected through internet. To ensure that the Distributive databases are up to date and current, there are two processes: replication and duplication. Replication involves using specialized software that looks for changes in the distributive database. Once the changes have been identified, the replication process makes all the databases look alike. The replication process can be very complex and time consuming depending on the size and number of the distributive databases. Duplication on the other hand is not as complicated. It would basically identify one database as a master and then duplicates that database. This is to ensure that each distributed location has the same data. In the duplication process, changes to the master database only are allowed. This is to ensure that local data will not be overwritten. Both of the processes can keep the data current in all distributive locations. The most commonly used databases are DB2, MySQL, Oracle, MS-Access, Ingres, Firebird, MS SQL Server, Teradata, Sybase, Informix and Postgre SQL. Use of single or combination of databases depending on the requirement is key to success. This distributed data management with different levels of transparency like network transparency, fragmentation transparency, replication transparency, etc. Increase reliability and availability of data to the users as well as reduces the database downtime and increase the database performance, reduces network failure due to reduction of network traffic.

Introduction

The poultry industry is under pressure to produce safe and good quality meat in the welfare conditions. Many areas such as genetics, biosecurity, and immunoprophylaxis were improved, and hatchery is one of the areas in which welfare could be improved for better production output. Under commercial hatched conditions, poults hatch over a 36 to 48 hour period (called hatching window) and after additional processing are transported to the farm. Hatch window is the time gap from first chick hatched to last chick hatched (Noiva et al., 2014). This causes early hatched chicks to be deprived of feed for longer duration (Kadam etal., 2013). 

Calcinosis is a condition characterized by the abnormal deposition of calcium salts in soft tissues, often leading to significant morbidity in affected animals. This condition is particularly relevant in grazing animals, as it can be associated with dietary imbalances, exposure to toxic plants, and metabolic disorders. Depending on the etiology, calcinosis can present as dystrophic, metastatic, or calcinosis circumscripta. Understanding the pathogenesis, clinical signs, diagnosis, and management is crucial for prevention and control in grazing animals.
Types of calcinosis
1. Dystrophic calcinosis: This type of calcinosis occurs when calcium deposits in damaged or necrotic tissues despite normal blood calcium levels. Associated with trauma, infections, or localized inflammation.
2. Metastatic calcinosis: This type of calcinosis results from hypercalcemia, which leads to calcium deposition in normal tissues.
Common causes include:
Nutritional imbalances (excessive calcium or vitamin D intake),
Toxic plants (e.g., Cestrum diurnum),
Chronic renal failure, causing disturbances in calcium-phosphorus metabolism,
Paraneoplastic syndromes associated with tumors.

In the modern industrialized world, cancer has become the most feared of all diseases. Cancer has gained considerable relevance in animals now-a-days owing to the increased awareness among people towards animal sufferings and pain. The diagnosis and management of neoplasm, therefore, represent the major challenges faced by a veterinary oncologist. With the emergence of multitude of interdisciplinary and subspecialty fields of cancer science like tumour biology, cancer chemotherapeutics, immuno-pathology etc, different managemental modalities like excisional surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy have evolved. These therapies either alone or in combination make all neoplasm patients to have an improved quality and quantity of life if not always cures. The quality of life of the animal should always be prioritized.

The adjustment and maintenance of soil pH at a value suitable for optimal crop production is the first step in soil management, because soil pH affects soil properties, nutrient availability and plant nutrition. In India, about 30M ha cultivated  land  suffer from high soil acidity (pH < 5.5). These soils are critically degraded and are of poor health producing crop yields, which are often less than 50% of that in normal soils. Due to this, farmers use much less fertilizers for crops (50 to 80 kg NPK ha^-1), since this is not profitable.

GENETIC ENGINEERING

Genetic engineering is a means of improving the food supply even before harvest or slaughter by improving yields, increasing disease resistance, and enhancing the nutritional qualities of various foods. Broadly speaking, genetic engineering refers to any deliberate alteration of an organism’s DNA. Genetic engineering has been practiced for thousands of years, ever since humans began selectively breeding plants and animals to create more nutritious, better tasting foods. In the past two decades, genetic engineering has become increasingly powerful as scientific advances have enabled the direct alteration of genetic material. Genetic engineering is alternately called as ‘ recombinant DNA technology’ or ‘gene cloning’. Genes have been cut and pasted from one species to another, yielding, for example, disease- resistant squash and rice, frost-resistant potatoes and strawberries, and tomatoes that ripen-and therefore spoil-more slowly.

Genetically modified organism (GMO) is a microbe or more complex plant or animal in which DNA has been altered for a particular purpose such as manufacturing proteins, making improvement to the organism, research into the nature of genes and biological process, correcting genetic defects.

Introduction

A solar collector, the special energy exchanger, converts solar irradiation energy either to the thermal energy of the working fluid in solar thermal applications, or to the electric energy directly in Photovoltaic (PV) applications. For solar thermal applications, solar irradiation is absorbed by a solar collector as heat which is then transferred to its working fluid (air, water or oil). The heat carried by the working fluid can be used to either provide domestic hot water/heating, or to charge a thermal energy storage tank from which the heat can be drawn for use later (at night or cloudy days). Solar collectors are usually classified into two categories according to concentration ratios: non-concentrating collectors and concentrating collectors. A non-concentrating collector has the same intercepting area as its absorbing area, whilst a sun-tracking concentrating solar collector usually has concave reflecting surfaces to intercept and focus the solar irradiation to a much smaller receiving area, resulting in an increased heat flux so that the thermodynamic cycle can achieve higher Carnot efficiency when working under higher temperatures.

11.1 Introduction

In chapter 10, we have discussed the different types of variation, namely, genetic, environmental and genotype × environment interaction variations. We have also learnt how to estimate the phenotypic variance and its components including genotypic (also called genetic), environmental and g × e interaction variances from trial data. Now in this chapter, we shall discuss on the genetic components of polygenic (quantitative) variation and its implications on breeding strategies.

11.2 Genetic Components of Polygenic Variation

In this chapter whenever we call genetic variation, we mean polygenic (quantitative) variation, and we know that variation is usually measured in term of variance. However, variation, variability and variance are almost used synonymously. The genetic variance has been classified into different components by various workers. Fisher (1918) divided genetic variance into three components: additive, dominance and epistatic (interaction) variances. Wright (1935) classified genetic variance into two components: additive variance and non-additive variance (dominance and epistatic variances). Mather (1949) classified genetic variance into two components: heritable fixable variance (additive variance and additive × additive epistatic variance) and heritable non-fixable variance (dominance variance, and additive × dominance and dominance × dominance epistatic variances). Later, Hayman and Mather further divided the epistatic variance into three categories: additive × additive, additive × dominance and dominance × dominance.

Abstract
Milk, recognized globally as a complete food, is rich in essential nutrients like calcium, amino acids, and bioactive compounds, offering numerous health benefits such as antimicrobial, antihypertensive, and anti-carcinogenic properties. India, the world’s largest milk producer with 170 million tonnes annually (20% of global production), is witnessing rapid growth in its dairy industry, projected to reach a market value of Rs. 10 trillion by 2025. The sector, driven by modernization, cooperatives, and increasing consumer demand for value-added products like ghee, cheese, and probiotics, presents vast entrepreneurial opportunities in dairy farming, processing, retail, and machinery manufacturing. However, challenges such as poor hygiene, inadequate cold chains, and livestock health issues hinder quality and scalability. Emerging processing technologies and adherence to FSSAI regulations can enhance product quality and market potential, making dairy enterprises a cornerstone of India’s food industry and rural economy.
Keywords: Dairy Industry, Milk Production, Agri-preneurship, Value-Added Products, Food Safety, FSSAI Regulations, Livestock Management, Probiotics, Cold Chain, Sustainable Development

INTRODUCTION

Molecular tools generally refer to molecular genetic tools. Although the first use of these tools began more than four decades ago, whenLewontin & Hubby (1966) used allozymes to find out the amount of genetic variation present in wild populations of Drosophila, the lack of expertise and high cost of these tools have prevented their widespread use among ecologists in general and behavioural ecologists in particular. But recently the accessibility and costs of these techniques have come down a lot and with the right kind of collaboration, lack of expertise is no longer an issue.

As was mentioned above, the Lewontin & Hubby’s (1966) investigation was done using allozymes. Although still an option, user-friendly neutral nucleotide markers are more preferred by investigators nowadays. The discovery of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 1983 by Kary Mullis was the single landmark in this field, if one has to mention one. The use of molecular markers has totally revolutionized the field of ecology. It has provided ecologists the tool to ask questions, which were hitherto impossible to tackle and also to answer questions with much more precision and accuracy than was possible till now. It has toppled long held beliefs, sometimes, romantic ones, by ecologists.

Looking forward, it is clear that traditional and western medicine have the potential for rich collaboration that benefits both disciplines. There is growing interest in this partnership, as shown by the number of international journals now dedicated to such research, such as Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, eCAM, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, and the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Even the WHO has taken note of the rich possibilities of the future of TM, having put out such documents as ‘WHO General Guidelines for Methodologies on Research and Evaluation of Traditional Medicine’ and ‘WHO Guidelines on Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) for Medicinal Plants’. Despite this enthusiasm, there are several areas where the international community will need to focus their attention if the goal of integrating botanical medicines for the good of human health is to be reached.

Introduction

Water is the primary source of life for mankind and one of the most basic necessities for crop production. The demand for water to irrigate the crops is increasing. For sustainable production from agricultural farms, irrigating the crops at right stages is highly important. Even in rainfed situation, lifesaving irrigation during long dry spell has also been found beneficial for crop survival and to obtain the targeted yield. Considering the depletion of groundwater below the critical zone in most part of the country, energy intensive pumping for irrigation is not a viable option. Therefore utilization of available runoff water through surface storage systems followed by pumping may be a potential solution to achieve the set goal of ‘crop per drop’ mission. In this connection, micro-irrigation system including drippers and sprinklers is of great importance. However, ensured power supply is essential to operate the micro-irrigation system even in remote areas. Reliable solar photovoltaic (PV) pumps are now emerging in the market and are rapidly becoming more attractive than the traditional power sources. These technologies, powered by renewable energy sources, are especially useful in remote locations where a steady fuel supply or electricity supply is problematic. About 16 million electric pumps and 7 million diesel pumps are in operations in the country for irrigation purpose; however they are highly energy intensive. Moreover, diesel operated and electrified pumps directly or indirectly emit large amount of CO₂ gas in atmosphere and hence are not environment friendly. To meet the energy demand for irrigation, solar PV pumps have been introduced under the off-grid power generation category of National Solar Mission (NSM) with a target of 1000 MW by the end of phase II (2013-2017). The target has been revised in 2015 to a total grid connected solar power generation of 1,00,000 MW comprising 40,000 MW roof top generation and 60,000 MW grid connected solar power plants (Resolution of MNRE, Govt of India, No. 30/80/2014-15/ NSM dated 1^st July 2015).

12.1 Introduction

Allowing certain plants from the population to reproduce, while barring others, comprises selection. This permission for reproduction may be granted by nature or by the plant breeder. In the other words, both nature and breeder exert selection pressure. Natural selection operates through differences of fertility among the adult individuals of parent generation as well as through differences of viability among the individuals of offspring generation. Artificial selection, i.e., the selection from action of the plant breeder in the choice of parents, produces its change of gene frequency by separating the adult individuals of parent generation into two groups, viz., the selected and the discarded, that differ in gene frequency. So, selection simply implies the retaining of desirable types or culling of unwanted or undesirable types.