eChapters

Any kind of developmental programme needs a proper integration of different parts of the society i.e. stakeholders of that programme. Apart from the nodal body, many implementing agencies take part in the implementation, monitoring of those programmes. Non-Government Organizations are one of those who actively participated in developmental activities not only as an implementing agency but also in mobilizing the resources, proper utilizing that and also effectively utilizing the resource towards development. NonGovernment Organization is an organization that is independent in nature, politically, socially unbiased and has a proper legal stand with developmental orientation.

Biotechnology has emerged as a transformative force in agriculture, offering innovative solutions to enhance crop production. This article explores the extensive role of biotechnology in crop production, tracing its historical development and highlighting key technologies such as genetic engineering, marker-assisted selection, and genomics. The applications of these technologies in developing pest-resistant, herbicide-tolerant, nutritionally enhanced, and climate-resilient crops are examined. Benefits such as increased agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability, economic advantages for farmers, and improved food security are discussed. Challenges, including ethical concerns, environmental risks, socioeconomic disparities, and regulatory issues, are also addressed. The article concludes by considering future prospects for biotechnology in crop production, emphasizing the potential of advanced genetic technologies, synthetic biology, and sustainable agricultural practices.

Principles
The principles involved in thermotherapy is that the pathogens present in seed material are inactivated or eliminated at temperatures nonlethal for the host tissues.The exact mechanism by which heat inactivates the pathogen is not fully understood. However, it is universally accepted that heat causes inactivation and not immobilization of the pathogen by heat. Th rate at which the pathogen is inactivated is determined by temperature, the higher the temperature, the faster is the inactivation. At constant temperature, the drop in the density of pathogenic inoculum.
Methods
Following physical methods are employed for reduction or elimination of primary inoculums that may be present in seed, soil, or planting material.
i. Hot water treatment (HWT)
Hot water treatment is widely used for the control of seed borne pathogens, especially bacteria and viruses. A list of various important diseases claimed to have been controlled by hot water treatment is given in Table-1.

The success of mechanized transplanting largely depends on the quality of seedlings used, making seedling raising an essential component of the process. This chapter revolves around the techniques and practices involved in raising seedlings that are optimized for transplanters. Proper seedling raising ensures that the plants are healthy, uniform, and robust, thereby improving the efficiency of the transplanting process and enhancing crop yields. We will explore various methods for preparing seedlings, including the use of specialized nurseries, seedling trays, and appropriate handling techniques to prevent damage. Understanding these techniques is important for achieving optimal performance from transplanters, reducing labor costs, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices. Transplanting is a common method for controlling weeds in wet or puddled fields. It uses less seed than direct seeding but requires significantly more labor. Additionally, transplanted crops tend to take longer to mature due to transplanting shock.
TECHNIQUES OF MANUAL TRANSPLANTING
Manual transplanting can be performed using two different methods:
Random Method
In the random method, seedlings are transplanted without maintaining a set distance or spacing between plants. While it’s difficult to establish equal distances between each hill in this method, it is crucial that the estimated distances are neither too close nor too wide. The spacing should range between 10 cm and 25 cm to ensure effective weed control through early shading from the rice canopies.

Rapeseed
Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.), a member of the Brassicaceae family, is one of the primary oilseed crops cultivated for biodiesel production, particularly in Europe and Canada (Hoekman et al., 2012; Demirbas, 2009). Its seeds contain 40-45% oil, making it one of the most efficient oil crops for biofuel production (Ramos et al., 2009). The extracted oil is known as canola oil, which is preferred for both food and fuel applications due to its low erucic acid and glucosinolate content (Atabani et al., 2012). Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.), is one of the biofuel species that has achieved global attention, primarily due to its high yield, climatic versatility as well as its low environmental impact than fossil fuels (Singh et al., 2010). The crop is being grown all over the temperate region because its ability to resist cold temperatures and pests is a major advantage for the practice of sustainable agriculture. Moreover, the rapeseed has been positively affected by the development of biotechnology and the utilization of hybrid breeding that has been significantly increasing the oil yield and disease resistance of rapeseed, thus, facilitating the biodiesel production from this plant (Zanetti et al., 2013). Biodiesel from rapeseed has ecological advantages, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 50% compared to regular diesel (Hill et al., 2006). It also supports rural economic development through the diversification of farmer income and diminishing reliance on imported petroleum (FAO, 2021). The increasing price of the biofuel, chiefly supported by sustainable energy policies and reducing carbon footprint policies, is one of the driving factors for increasing demand of rapeseed as global demand for renewable energy sources rises (Euopean Commission 2021).
Sunflower
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an important oilseed crop used for biodiesel production, especially in temperate regions like Europe and North America (Demirbas, 2009). The oil content of sunflower seeds ranges from 25-50%, making it a suitable feedstock for biofuel (Atabani et al., 2012). The characteristics of sunflower oil, such as the high content of unsaturated fatty acids, lead to better cold flow properties of its biodiesel (Ramos et al., 2009). In addition, the creation of high-oleic sunflower varieties allowed considerable improvement in oxidative stability and led to the fact that sunflower biodiesel is more suitable for storage and combustion (Dimitrijevic et al., 2017). A second

ABSTRACT

Over the last three decades, SAC has been engaged in the development and dissemination of remote sensing and GIS technologies for national development. These developments have originated from various initiatives related to national projects, sensor related research and in-house research and development on applications. A large multidisciplinary team of scientists develop technologies in various fields of applications like agriculture, coastal zone management, urban planning, forest and environment, etc. In addition, significant efforts are directed towards technology development for generic applications like photogrammetry and applications involving synergistic usage of remote sensing, GIS, GPS and satellite communication. Some specific examples of recent technological developments pertain to simulation modeling of crop yields, horticultural crop management, site selections for aquaculture, location of cold storage plants, large area crop production forecasting, base map creation, telegeoprocessing, mobile satellite services for fleet management, automated procedures for linear infrastructure planning, urban land use allocation planning.

An overview of these technologies and the modalities for their effective utilization by government, industries and users are summarized. Dissemination of these technologies for public bodies and private sector has been taken in the form of promotion of consultancy services in different application areas. Some major areas where these sectors have benefited through consultancies are estimation of cash and other field crops, city development planning, site selection for industry, land use change detection studies for environmental impact assessment, coastal regulation zone compliances and land use scenario, forestry related applications like catchment area treatment, forest fires monitoring, etc. Examples of consultancy services for private sector are included.

Keywords : Technology dissemination, technology development, remote sensing applications.

Seed is defined as “Fertilized and ripened ovule, consisting of the plant embryo, varying amounts of stored food material and a protective outer seed coat”. It is one of the most vital and important inputs for increasing production of crops. Commercial flower seed production is an international business involving highly specialized growers. Demand of flower seed production increased due to recent advances in commercial production of bedding plants, plug production technology, increased area of gardening, flower growing in home gardens and cut flowers with highly viable seeds and very high percentage of uniform seedlings. It seems to have great scope for expansion in developing countries like India, especially under north Indian climate having favourable growing conditions, skilled and cheap labour.

The world germplasm contains more than 1500 different varieties of flowers and ornamental crops. Each species of flower grown for seed has its own specific time, culture, problem of pollination and harvesting and storage requirements. Growing flower from seed is an important component of commercial flower production and their uses in landscape gardening.

Abstract

Agriculture provides food, feed, fiber and many other desired products for survival of human beings in the world. Modern agriculture emphasizes on use of hybrid seeds, high yielding varieties and chemical fertilizer to increase the crop productivity within a short period. Indiscriminate use of synthetic fertilizers has led to environmental pollution and deterioration of soil health, which results in depletion of essential plant nutrients and organic matter in soil. On account of the environmental hazard and soil infertility, biofertilizer concept was developed. Biofertilizer are natural fertilizers including bacteria, fungi and algae alone or in combination that augment availability of nutrients to the plants. However, due to its short shelf life period it may not be a suitable candidate for modern agriculture. Thus, it is the need of the hour to develop an economic and eco-friendly nano-biofertilizer for sustainable agriculture.

Precision agriculture represents a paradigm shift in farming, leveraging advanced technologies and data analytics to optimize agricultural practices. This article explores the comprehensive role of precision agriculture in modern farming, tracing its evolution and examining key technologies such as GPS, GIS, remote sensing, and IoT. The applications of these technologies in soil management, crop monitoring, irrigation, pest control, and yield prediction are discussed. Benefits, including increased productivity, resource efficiency, and environmental sustainability, are highlighted alongside challenges such as high costs, data management complexities, and the digital divide. The article concludes by considering future trends in precision agriculture, emphasizing the potential of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain in further revolutionizing farming practices.

Distribution
Thrips tabaci is present in the central and southern regions of India, occupying about 36.4% of the land area under the current climate conditions. In central India, the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and parts of Rajasthan offer highly suitable habitats. In the northern region, areas such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, & parts of the northeastern states are favorable. In southern India, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, & Tamil Nadu are particularly suitable.
Biology Adults: Adult onion thrips overwinter in soil in onion, small grain, and hay fields. More mobile than immature stages, adults can fly and are attracted to white and yellow colours, often landing on clothing or skin. They are elongated, with body colour ranging from yellow to brown, and have pale, fringed wings. Adults measure 1.0–1.3 mm for females and 0.7 mm for males. Their lifespan is 16–42 days on garlic and 28–30 days on onion. Females lay eggs for up to three weeks after a one-week preoviposition period. In spring, adults emerge, colonize weed hosts, & can fly or be carried by wind to new plants.
Eggs
Females lay eggs individually in leaf tissue, with one end near the surface for immatures to emerge. The eggs are microscopic, kidney-shaped, and initially white or yellow, turning orange with reddish eye spots as they mature. On onion, eggs average 0.23 mm in length and 0.08 mm in width. The incubation period is 4–5 days on onion, with hatching occurring in 2–3 days in the lab, but 5–10 days in cooler field conditions.

6.1 Introduction

Biomass pellets are one of the most common types of biomass fuel. It is generally composed of wood waste, agricultural biomass, grasses, and forest residues, and is one of the most popular types of biomass fuel available today. Pelletization of biomass results in significant savings in terms of transportation, and storage, as well as the ease of handling biomass as a whole. In terms of flowability, dense cube pellets are similar to cereal grains in terms of their characteristics of being dense and cube-shaped. Due to their regular geometry and small size, biomass pellets are easily fed through an automatic feed system with fine calibration thanks to their regular shape. Because pellets are so dense, they can be stored in a compact way and transported over a long distance in a rational and efficient manner, because of their density. Furthermore, pellets can also be produced with a low moisture content, even though they are extremely dense. This allows them to burn with a high degree of combustion efficiency due to their low moisture content.

Wafer: A thin crisp cake, candy, cracker or chips is known as wafer.

Waffle: A crisp cake of batter baked in a waffle iron is called waffle

Warner-Bartzler Shear: It is one of the oldest but commonly used devices used to measure the tenderness of meat. It is used to test the quality in the cooked meat (Plate 331).

Wastage: Wastage is a term that can not be precisely defined by even moral value / judgment and defined on the context / situation on which it is used.

Waste water: Water that has been used in a manufacturing process and goes waste is called waste water. Wastewater i.e. effluent generated from various points at the plant such as outlet of Westfeling separator and Treatment tanks etc. is polluted and it must be given a treatment before draining so that pollution control board norms are met. It is achieved through a specific treatment in a plant called Effluent Treatment Plant. ETP treats the waste/polluted water coming from the plant and make it able to dispose off in the river by neutralizing its toxicity.

Water: Water (H2 O) is a clear transparent, colourless, odourless and tasteless liquid; neutral in reaction; boils at 100oC, freezes at 0oC and has maximum density (1 g/cm3) at 4oC. It exists as snow, ponds, lake, rivers, seas, oceans etc., also occurs as rain and is there in the form of moisture in atmosphere. Pure water is bad conductor of heat and electricity. Water is an essential part of the body structure as a carrier of nutrients and regulator of a number of body functions. Fruit and vegetables contain > 80% water and sometime upto 95% water e.g. cucumber, lettuce, marrow, lettuce, melon. The starchy tubers and seeds, for example yam, cassava and cork, contain less water, but even > 50%. So water content must be optimum at the harvesting time. The human body comprises of about 65 % water, while that of fruits and vegetables 80-90% water.

Introduction
Basil/Tulsi is a popular name given to any aromatic herb that belongs to genus Ocimum and family Lamiaceae (Labiatae). The word ‘basil’ was derived from Greek word ‘Basilica’ which means the royal plant. It comprises over 160 species spread over the tropical, sub-tropical, and warmer part of temperate regions of both the hemisphere ranging from sea level to 2000 m height with their diversity met in West Africa. Tropical Africa has maximum diversity with 59 species, followed by sub-tropical region of South Africa with 19 species and India with 9 species only.
 

Introduction

Any project is undertaken and an investment is made with expectation of realizing benefits out of it. This applies to projects both in the private domain as also in the public domain. Hence, it is imperative to assess the benefits derived from the project investment over its entire economically viable. The extent to which project contribute to various aims of development (benefits) and make use of scarce resource (costs) can differ widely. A proper project preparation requires an assessment of the various benefits and costs associated with execution of a project. Methods to determine, analyze and assess the relevant benefits and costs of a project are known as cost-benefit analysis. The cost- benefit analysis ensures that all the relevant factors that contribute to a project’s net benefits are systematically taken into account, whether they relate to an individual, a firm, a social group, the public sector or the country as a whole.

There are many tools or criteria for the financial evaluation of projects. However, the important and commonly used evaluation criteria are simple Rate of Return, Payback Period, Net Present Worth, Benefit- Cost Ratio and Internal Rate of Return.

Economic appraisal and evaluation helps the decision makers who are saddled with the responsibility to prioritize measures in a situation with enormous needs and quite limited resources. Government planners as well as donor agencies are all in need of enough data in order to make rational choice or decision in selection of investment alternatives. Most of the economists believe that economic analysis cannot give the final answers. There will always be lack of data, uncertainty about the future, disagreement on the methods, and similar issues. However, economic analysis, if properly done, can indeed be of much help to decision makers.

29.1 Introduction

An environmental factor that interferes with the complete expression of genotypic potential of a crop is called stress. The stresses may be biotic (pathogens, insect-pests, etc.) or abiotic. The main abiotic stresses are drought, mineral deficiency/toxicity and heat or cold. The losses due to abiotic stresses can be minimized by:

Crop management: The degree of stress can be reduced by suitable agronomic/soil management practices, e.g., irrigation to relieve drought stress, soil amendments to reduce salinity.

Development of resistant cultivars: This offers the cheapest, easiest to apply and most eco-friendly approach to reduce losses due to any stress.

Indirect breeding: Evaluation of materials under stress often helps in identification of a resistant line that may become an important commercial cultivar.

???????Direct breeding: It is deliberate breeding of materials for stress resistance. When a genetically variable material is grown under the stress environment, selection can be based on survival, yield and other traits contributing to stress resistance.

M13 is a single stranded filamentous DNA phage. Vectors have been developed from M13 phase by Joachim Messing (1983), which are suitable for preparation of single stranded DNA required for sequencing by Sanger’s method. These are derivatives of M13 wild type (size 6.407 kb).

Introduction

Animal behaviour is the study of how animals interact with one another, other living things, and their environment. Animals display a variety of behaviours in response to both external stimulus and their own pathophysiological state. Almost all domestic animals express a variety of behavioural responses throughout their lifespan, like feeding, sexual behaviours, etc. But every species responds to the same stimuli in a different way. This is why; the study of animal behaviour helps in efficient breeding, feeding, and reproductive management. It also serves as a reliable indicator of overall health and well-being.

Background and Technology Intervention

The primary resource affected by the climate change is water. In arid and semi-arid regions of India, any shortfall in water supply due to climate change will enhance competition for water use for a wide range of economic, social and environmental applications. The population growth with the improved living conditions also increases the demand for food production and thereby increasing the demand of water in multiple folds in the river basins (UNESCO-WWAP, 2009). The major portion of water available in the Indian River basins are used for cultivating rice and thus poses major challenges to water management, especially during unfavourable climatic conditions.

Metamorphosis and immature stages

The change in growth and development (form) of an insect during its life cycle from birth to maturity is called metamorphosis. There are four basic types of metamorphosis in insects.

Ametabola: (No metamorphosis) e.g. Silver fish.

These insects have only 3 stages in their life cycle namely egg, young ones and adults. It is most primitive type metamorphosis. The hatching insects resemble the adult in all respects except for the size and called as juveniles. Moulting continues throughout the life.

Hemi-metabola: (Incomplete metamorphosis) e.g. Dragonfly, damselfly and may fly.

These insects also have 3 stages in their life namely egg, young ones and adults. The young ones are aquatic and are called naiads. They are different from adults in habits and habitat. They breathe by means of tracheal gills. In dragonfly naiad, the lower lip (labium) is called mask which is hinged and provided with hooks for capturing prey. After final moult, the insects have fully developed wings suited for aerial life