eChapters

INTRODUCTION

Anthuriums are a perennial herbaceous plant of great beauty and grown either for their showy cut flowers or for their attractive foliage. They are valued for their colourful long lasting spathe and spadix. The cultivars contribute elegance and attractiveness, which are pre-requisites for quality and floral design. It is also known as Flamingo flower or Flamingo lily. What is usually considered the flower is comprised of a colourful, modified leaf (spathe) and hundreds of small, botanical flowers on the pencil like protrusion (spadix) rising from the base of spathe. Anthurium have been cultivated from many decades for cut flower production. Since the mid 1980’s its popularity has increased dramatically and has now become a popular addition to many foliage growers. The economic life span of anthurium is around 6-8 years.

In India the cut flowers of Anthurium andreanum are cultivated for considerable length of time although still in small scale. Commercial viable production should be estimated of approximately 5 ha, which is far below the market demand. The anthurium is getting increasing popularity in the Indian market and therefore, most of the locally produced anthurium is sold in the domestic market against reasonable prices. Its export possibility appears very promising as the flowers are already exported to the Middle East. The development of main flower distribution centre in Dubai offers important possibilities for Indian floriculture.

INTRODUCTION

Alstroemeria is still a relatively new cut flower in the world market and the interest in it is continuously growing. This increase is due to the fact that this flower crop is fairly easy to cultivate and does not require special demands. Its flowers are beautiful and have a very long vase life. It is commonly known as Brazilian Parrot lily or Peruvian lily or Incan lily or Red Parrot Beak or New Zealand Christmas Bell. In the Dutch market, it is an important cut flower and gaining popularity in the international market. Recently some efforts have been made to popularize this flower in India as cut flower and pot plants by some multinational companies. Its cultivation has been started around Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. Recently it has been introduced in Palampur, Solan, Srinagar and Ooty, to popularize this crop among growers for domestic and export markets. This crop can be grown successfully on the hill areas of Uttaranchal. Mid and high hill areas are very suitable for growing it. Alstroemeria is a typical greenhouse crop, but can be grown in open under mild environments with partial modifications. It is a potential, low volume and high value crop for hill horticulture.

In India, the agricultural research and technology generation are supported in five agro-ecosystems, viz. irrigated agro-ecosystem, arid agro-ecosystem, rain-fed agro-ecosystem, coastal agro-ecosystem and hill & mountainous agro-ecosystem. Each system with its varied socio-economic and agricultural features, demands appropriate technologies to augment the productivity of various enterprises with sustainable development and economic returns. Unfortunately, the conventional development efforts, which often follow “top-down” approaches in planning and implementation, don’t address the constraints and developmental potentials of farm household systems in a comprehensive way. To overcome these shortcomings, reversal of approach, i.e. from “Top down” to “Bottom up” is recommended. This can be achieved through site-specific assessment and refinement of technologies with farmer’s participation where the farmers of different agro-ecosystems have right to plan, implement and own their developmental projects (Johnkutty et al., 2001).

Introduction

Programme for self-employment of the poor has been an important component of the anti-poverty programmes implemented through government initiatives in the rural areas in India. The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) is the major ongoing programme for the self-employment of rural poor at present. The programme was started with effect from 01.04.1999 after restructuring of Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), and allied programmes namely Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Supply of Toolkits in Rural Areas (SITRA) and Ganga Kalyan Yojna (GKY) and Million Well Scheme (MWS). Govt. of Orissa have launched ‘Mission Shakti’ programme in 2001 with an aim to have at least three lakh WSHGs by the end of 2008. By the end of March 2008, 3.73 lakh WSHGs have been formed under Mission Shakti (Annon, 2007-08). SGSY has contributed substantially in carrying forward the Mission Shakti activities in the state. A study was conducted by the Center for Management and Development, Thiruvananthapuram for concurrent evaluation of the implementation of the SGSY. It was established that the performance of SGSY in Assam, M.P., Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar was the lowest among the major states (Anon, 2002-03). SGSY is implemented in a very deterministic and top down manner, ignoring the participatory approach that is envisaged in the design. Good governance for poverty alleviation programme seems to be more of rhetoric than reality (Shylendra and Bhirdikar, 2005). The Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India has set guidelines for successful implementation of the scheme within the framework of targets under each head. As per the guidelines, all the states are directed to fulfill the targets. After 10 years of implementation of the scheme, an evaluation of the programme in district level and state level is in dire need. Hence, it is attempted to evaluate the physical and financial achievement of the SGSY programme operated at Orissa.

Introduction

At the very outset, the varied aspects which govern the agricultural scenario in India have been taken up. Basically, India is a land of diversity and Indian climate defies an easy generalization. It comprises a wide range of weather conditions prevailing across a large geographic scale existing in the midst of varied topography. A systematic analysis reveals that Indian climate can be partitioned into six major climatic subtypes, ranging from deserts in the west, to the alpine tundra and glaciers in the north, to humid tropical regions supporting rainforests in the southwest and the island territories. The landform pattern is also found to be widely varying over places. Interestingly, tIndian soils can be divided into six categories, namely, alluvial soils, regular soils, red soils, laterite soils, mountain soils as well as the desert soils. Being a populous country whose sixty percent of the population earns its livelihood on agro-based incomes, directly or indirectly, it is important to review the robustness of the system followed in the actual practice in the Indian scenario towards the process of raising crops which ultimately feed more than hundred crores population. The review reveals that the agricultural production and farm incomes in India are frequently affected by the natural disasters such as droughts, floods, cyclones, storms, landslides as well as the earthquakes, and, indeed, the susceptibility of Indian agriculture to these disasters is compounded by the outbreak of epidemics and man-made disasters such as fire, sale of spurious seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, price crashes etc. As a sequel, the farmers are severely affected through the loss of production of agricultural crops and consequently, the loss of farm income due to occurrence of such events, and it is no denying that the management of or coping with such factors remains beyond the control of the farmers.

Introduction

Developments in both hardware and software sectors of computer science raised high expectations and strong vision to solve number of problems in all sectors of economy. Introduction of personal computers (PC) in 1970’s created vision of paperless offices, simplified computing, automated process control, management information system, expert system etc. Initially, it had greater impact on agricultural research and development in developed countries in the form of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Growth of companies with promises to provide specialist software to farmers and growers during 1980’s is a clear indicator of the high expectation and visualization of ICT in the field agricultural research and development. A review of agricultural software availability and use has been made by an international team in 1997 called FARMSOFT. This review covered on eight countries viz. Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain and The Netherlands. It was found that in 1996 out of 1315 software related to agriculture, 39% were in category of management, 26% were in category of animal husbandry, 8.9% in category of crop production, 7.0% in category of machinery and process control, 0.1% in category of irrigation and 19% in others category. Comparison of change in software inventory in 1996 with respect to 1994 revealed that there is around 15% growth in the agricultural software development. The higher positive growth was in the category of management software (38.40%) followed by animal husbandry (10.45%) and others (10.44%). However, highest negative growth was observed in the category of irrigation (-163.15%) followed by crop production (-53.85%) and machinery and process control (-30.95%). This indicates that overall agricultural software inventory was growing but while growth in the software related to agricultural management was sufficiently high, there was sharp decline in categories of irrigation and crop production. This change in pattern may be attributed to saturation of software and bottlenecks due to limitation of related technological innovations, socio-economic adoption and infrastructural facilities.

Introduction

Technological advances of the past two decades have profoundly reshaped and enhanced all aspects of medical research and practice. Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications of medical informatics with the latest technique and approaches are essential for every one pursuing in the medical IT field. Improvements in healthcare delivery in recent years are rooted in the continued industry-wide investment in information technology and the expanding role of medical informatics. The main goal of this chapter is to collate and provide innovative and creative ideas so far published on healthcare in one article for use by the researchers, practitioners and other related with health care system for improving communication environments in health and to explore all new technologies in medical informatics and health care delivery systems.

Medical Informatics can be defined as a discipline concerned with all aspects of understanding and promoting the effective organization, analysis, management, and use of information in health care (American Medical Informatics Association, 2007). In recent years, medical informatics has become a well-recognized branch of medicine.

Introduction

The advancements in the field of informatics, biology and allied fields of technology led to the emergence of an inter-disciplinary field known as ‘Bioinformatics’ (Kumar 2006, Madhan Mohan 2006). Explosion of knowledge in the field of biology and generation of new information (data) needs collection, storage, organization, integration, analysis, simulation of biological data and a faster distribution among the scientific workers (Mehrotra et al. 2005). The advent of super computers, high speed computing and development of algorithms for data formatting, assists in the storage of data at the site of origin and distributed through the hyperlinks in world wide web (www).

The vast field of Bioinformatics is beyond the scope of this article. However to elucidate the concepts that led to the the development of Bioinformatics vis-à-vis is given in brief before explaining the new and emerging area of ‘fluxomics’.

Introduction

Aquarium fish keeping has become increasingly popular in industrialized countries and has been rated as the second biggest hobby and the most popular type of pet (Oliver, 2001). The National Pet Owners Survey 2007-08 revealed that 142 million freshwater and 9.6 million salt water fish were kept as pet in the USA alone (APPMA, 2008). The growing interest in aquarium fish has resulted in steady increase in aquarium fish trade globally. Today, with a turn over of US $ 9.0 billion a year and an annual growth of 8.0%, production of ornamental fish is an important business activity as well as one of the most popular hobbies in the world (Yanar et al., 2008).

ABSTRACT

Coastal aquaculture in India is synonymous with shrimp culture since shrimp has a pronounced presence among the basket of commodities produced in the sector. In coastal aquaculture, maximum area is under shrimp culture due to its high profitability, ready marketability, premium price and unlimited export demand. Since the growth of shrimp has showed significant fluctuations in terms of area, production and productivity over time, this paper aims to seek and use appropriate methodology for computation of growth rates. Accordingly, the present study utilized nonparametric regression method for computation of growth rates. Results indicated that the methodology has been successful in extracting required information from the data set. The analysis revealed that growth of Indian shrimp farming is largely governed by east coast states. Potentiality of west coast states remains grossly underexploited. Broad results also indicate that growth rate is higher in commercial shrimp farming states compared to traditional farming states. Shrimp farming being a livelihood option for small and marginal farmers of the deprived sections of the population of a developing country, like India, consistent yield is more important than substantial growth in yield in shrimp farming.

Introduction

Water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, is such an aquatic plant that needs hardly any introduction. This aquatic plant is considered as nuisance weed found floating freely on fresh water bodies, proliferates aggressively and therefore, spreads like wild fire. It can infest all types of water bodies, chokes waterways, canals, channels, dams, and thus damages potential water resources. Evidently, two plants produces 300 offspring within 23 days only and under ideal environment, 10 plants can multiply to 6 lakh and may cover an acre area within a period

Introduction

Mangroves are the special group of plants or the ecosystem in a holistic scence on the inter-tidal coastal areas, edges of the islands and major estuarine mouths. The frequently tidal inundated forests on coastal areas, wetlands and the inter-tidal zones of sheltered bays or shore lines, estuarine mouths, sides of the tidal creeks, backwater, lagoons, marshes and mud-flats of the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Globe are the major mangrove habitats or zones. Mangrove ecosystem form an important ecological asset and economic resources of the coastal marine environment. These mangrove ecosystem is the most productive ecosystem, which can efficiently fertilize the sea and estuarine water and also physically protect the coastal zone, estuarine mouth from frequent natural calamities and vitally serves as the breeding ground, nursery and grazing place of diverse species of fish, shrimps, prawns, crabs and vast group of other marine and off-shore species.

Introduction

Aquaculture has developed quickly over the last three decades to turn into important economic activity world wide. It has been attracting heavy investment due to the availability of sound technologies and limitless potential for export especially shrimp. There are several forecasts on demand for aquatic foods and it is expected that it will be 183 million tonnes by 2030. As the capture fishery production is stagnating at around 90 million tonnes, aquaculture is seen as the only alternative to bridge the widening gap in demand and supply. Globally, Landings from worldwide aquaculture has increased 10-15 % per year in the last two decades and this growth was due to the combined effects of scientific farming, availability of infrastructure facilities, changing consumer preferences and export market potential to developed countries.

Shrimp farming is relatively new and its introduction on a commercial scale can be traced to the early seventies. Despite the recent introduction, one third of the world shrimp production is from farmed shrimp. The shrimp producing countries are found in all regions based on FAO statistics including Europe and Middle East. The major to five shrimp producing countries are China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. The future increase in world aquaculture production will be driven by China with South Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Europe providing small increases.

Introduction

Fisheries sector, a sunrise sector in India, has recorded a faster growth than that of crop and livestock sectors (Kumar et al., 2006). The sector contributes to the livelihood of a large section of economically-underprivileged population of the country. It has been recognized as a powerful income and employment generator as it stimulates growth of a number of subsidiary industries and is a source of cheap and nutritious food besides being a foreign exchange earner (Ayyappan and Krishnan, 2004).

With the changing composition pattern, emerging market forces and technological developments, it has assumed added importance in India. It is undergoing rapid transformation and the policy support, production strategies, public investment in infrastructure, and research and extension for fisheries have significantly contributed to the increased fish production. Particularly, after the mid-1980s, the development of carp polyculture technology has completely transformed the tradition backyard activity into a booming commercial enterprise. The aquaculture in the East Godavari delta region prospered with good yields and export driven demand. The paddy belt of the area rapidly converted into aquaculture hotspot owing to high economic benefits. But in recent years the dwindling of aquaculture and frequent losses caused and forced the farmers to withdraw from the once profit driven occupation. Apart from economic analysis, the motive behind this investigation is to find the efficiency of the farmers and the determinants. This will be useful in finding the lacunae in existing system of culture and will address necessities for shifting to new alternative.

Introduction

Cashew is an important horticultural crop. It has gained status of commercial crop from that of a forest component through technological advancements with respect to propagation, production and management. This has been possible as a result of increasing demand for raw cashew nuts and enhanced interest for its commercialization. The demand is mainly due to its good quality protein, unsaturated free fatty acids, rich blend of minerals and water-soluble vitamins, which altogether contribute an excellent dietary supplement. It is being cultivated by as many as 28 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America

Introduction

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands popularly known as the Bay Islands are situated 1200 Km away from Indian mainland and are well known for their wide range of biodiversity.The dreaded tsunami hit the island on 26th December, 2004 and it destroyed livelihood of thousands of people. CARI on a limited scale initiated process of restoration of livelihood by technological interventions with generous funding by DBT under project entitled “Integrated Rehabilitation of tsunami affected people through technological intervention in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands” in the adopted villages of Manjeri, Manglutan and Guptapara. (Three situations). A total 56 ha has been affected by tsunami in the adopted villages. Following three situations occurred after tsunami and for each situation appropriate technological interventions were taken up.

Introduction

With the advent of modern agricultural technology, especially during the period of the Green Revolution in the late sixties and early seventies, there was a continuous surge for diversified agriculture, primarily on economic considerations. The changes in cropping pattern, however, are the outcome of interactive effect of many factors which can be broadly categorized into the following five groups-

Resource related factors like irrigation, rainfall and soil fertility.

Technology related factors viz. seed, fertilizer, and water technologies on one hand and marketing, storage and processing on the other.

Household related factors like food and fodder requirement as well as investment capacity of the farmers.

Price related factors covering input and output prices and economic policies that affect these prices.

Institutional and infrastructure related factors pertaining to farm size and tenancy arrangements, research, extension and marketing systems and government regulatory policies.

Introduction

Research and development (R&D) is one of the main components to tackle the problems persisting or likely to take place in future. Priority areas of research are depending upon the overall situation and requirements of the problem under consideration. Under these broad areas, topic of interest for research may be varying at different geographical level from household to nation or global. If it is addressing vast geographical area like states, nations, regions and/or global, there may be many individuals/groups/institutions are working over similar type of problems. With the growing communication facilities and rising fund requirements, collaborative research programmes emerged to provide effective and economic solution to the problem with respect to time, money and manpower etc. Earlier, it was limited to high priority areas like defense and long run planning of the nations or kingdom at nation or state level. Declining environmental conditions and biological diversity became global concern in seventh decade of twentieth century. To tackle this problem, The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm) resolved to establish the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1972. Further, to speed up the progress, global community through world leaders had identified two burning priority areas during conference United Nations (U N) Environmental Programme Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, well known as Earth Summit. One of those two priority areas was Biological Diversity. To address the issues at global levels, The Convention on Biological Diversity was signed by party nations, which was later ratified by the 187 countries. India is also one of the signatory nations and need to fulfill some time bound commitments. Moreover, later, importance of biodiversity and germplasm has been underlined by different forum at regional and global level for its present and future values in the life of human kind. Countries and various geographical regions are now becoming more and more aware about its judicious exploitation, conservation and sustained higher output over period of time.

Introduction

Pulse production in India has fluctuated widely with no long-term trend, leading to a steady decline in per capita availability per day, i.e. from 60.7 grams to 33.40 grams during 1951 to 2001, while its average requirement is about 65 gram per day per head. The pulses used to serve a low cost food to meet the protein requirement of a large sector of people in India. But, the pulses are becoming out of reach for the common people of country because of its continuing shoring prices. A Technology Mission on Pulse production was launched by Government of India in 1986-87 as a special drive to increase the pulse production in the country. The vision of Technology Mission of Pulse is attaining self reliance in pulses for household nutritional security and sustainability of the production system. The mission statement was to increase Pulse production from existing (IX plan) 131.4 lakh tonnes to 162 lakh tonnes; Productivity from 594 kg/ha to 702 kg/ha and per capita availability of pulses from 35 g to 40 g per day at affordable price. Unfortunately, the country has not been able to achieve self-sufficiency in the pulse production. During the last 40 years, the acreage under pulse crops and its production remained almost between 21-24 million hectares and 10-15 million tonnes, respectively. Consequently, the country has had to depend on import of pulses every year to meet the part of its shortage. The National Commission of Agriculture had estimated that the country should plan to produce about 25 million tonnes of pulses by the end of 2000, but we could achieve only about 14 million tonnes. Presently, the area and the production of pulse crops account for about 18.50 and 7.20 per cent (2003-04) of total area under foodgrains and total food grains production in the country, respectively.

Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is a framework for designing change process, monitoring progress and evaluating impact. It is a powerful tool for project design, management, assessment, follow up and evaluation of projects. In designing change process, monitoring progress and evaluating impact, ordering the change process in a logical sequence where inputs or resources identify as necessary means for performing activities are very important. Specific activities are then identified because they result in outputs which are necessary to achieve objectives. The two terms i.e.; log frame and logical framework approach are sometimes confused by many. The log frame is a document whereas the logical framework approach is a project design methodology. LFA originally developed by the American Defense Department and was first formally adopted as a planning tool for United State Agency for International Development (USAID) by the end of 1960’s and today it is being used, in one form or other and with different names, by major organisations in the field of development co-operation and private industry. Among these are British DFID, the OECD expert group on Aid Evaluation, ISNAR International Service for National Agricultural Research, Germany’s GTZ and the Inter-American Development Bank. It has also been widely adopted by NGOs, though not without reservations and concerns by some. In the 1990s it was often mandatory for aid organisations to use the LFA in their project proposals.