eChapters

Introduction

The farmer’s socio-economic conditions continue to be poor. The job availability and opportunities are also very poor in rural areas and are declining with time. There are several instances of despair amongst farmers due to heavy burden of loan, which they took for procuring inputs for crop production. In majority of the cases loan is still borrowed from the local moneylenders on a very high rate of interest, as it is convenient and simple for them. The despair arises due to non-payment of loan in the event of crop failure or market crash for that crop, for which he had taken loan. The reason for crop failure may be adverse climatic conditions or pest attack, which could not be managed due lack of know-how and non-availability of good quality agro-chemicals. Report about the presence of spurious pesticide and fertilizers in the market are quite common in media. Farmers meet unfair treatment in the market while procuring inputs and marketing their produce. The market is uncertain and several times the farmers are not able to meet even the variable cost of production.  There is no other option left except ploughing back the crop in the field. The majorities of our farmers are small and marginal and unable to bear such losses on one hand and government doesn’t have a contingency plan to help the poor farmers on other hand. Even if it provides some help it doesn’t reach the affected farmers.

ABSTRACT

Central Plantation Crops Research Institute at Kasaragod maintains largest collection of coconut germplasm accessions representing different geographical regions. So far, morphological and isozyme markers were employed for germplasm characterization. To overcome the difficulties associated with the morphological markers, DNA based molecular markers are presently employed for germplasm characterization. In the present study, Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers are utilized to estimate the genetic diversity among South East Asian germplasm accessions. Nineteen ISSR primers were used to amplify 8 germplasm accessions (4 palms per accession referred as population). The PCR products were electrophoresed in 1.80 % agarose gels. Binary data were analyzed using the software POPGENE ver. 1.32. Dendrogram was constructed based on Nei’s unbiased measure of genetic distance. Nineteen ISSR primers detected a total of 85 polymorphic markers across 32 individuals belonging to eight populations. The average genetic distance among the eight populations ranged from 0.7908 to 0.9327 with a mean of 0.8540. Of the 28 pair wise comparisons the accessions Laguna Tall and Kongthienyong Tall (KTYT) showed the highest genetic identity (0.9327). The lowest identity (0.7908) was between San Roman Tall (SNRT) and Philippines Dalig Tall (PDLT). The Shannon’s index ranged from 0.1615 to 0.299. Diversity parameters viz. number of effective alleles, gene diversity, number of polymorphic markers were calculated for each population. The dendrogram constructed based on the genetic distance revealed clustering of Kongthienyong Tall (KTYT) and Laguna Tall (LAGT) while Philippines Dalig Tall (PDLT) was positioned separately. In the genetic improvement programmes the diverse accessions can be used in hybridization for increased heterosis.

Introduction

Climate change represents a threat not only to the existence of individual species, but also to the genetic diversity hidden within them. The finding promises to complicate assessments of how climate change will affect biodiversity, as well as conservationists’ task in preserving it.

Climate change comes as an additional factor affecting a livestock sector that is already highly dynamic and facing many challenges. Important objectives of AnGR management include ensuring that AnGR are effectively deployed to meet these challenges (i.e. are well matched to the production environments in which they are kept) and that the genetic diversity needed to adapt production systems to future changes is maintained. Climate change is likely to create a number of problems in many areas of animal husbandry (housing, feeding, health care, etc.) and threaten the sustainability of many livestock production systems and their associated AnGR. At the same time, many of the specific challenges associated with climate change (high temperatures, disruptions to feed supplies, disease outbreaks, etc,) as well as the general unpredictability it brings to the future of the livestock sector, highlight the importance of retaining diverse genetic options for the future. The upper critical temperature of dairy cattle is lower than other livestock species (Wathes et al.,1983).

The techniques used in disease management mainly based on two principles: Prevention or prophylaxis and cure. The first principle prevention includes disease management tactics applied before infection i.e., the plant is protected from disease. It includes: avoidance, exclusion, eradication, resistant & protection. Second principle curative action: functions with any measure applied after the plant is infected i.e., the plant is treated for the disease. It includes therapy.

Abstract

Local breeds of livestock represent embodiment of evolutionary wisdom fully in tune with ecosystem and able to produce and reproduce in spite of the prevalent hardships and shortages. Indigenous breeds survive and produce where others fail. Each of the recognized 144 indigenous breeds of livestock (covering cattle, sheep, yak etc.) has its unique qualities - some known and some yet unknown - but central to all features is ‘efficiency of production’ by local breeds. A breed in its own habitat makes the most efficient production system; under the same prevalent input system, any other breed from outside would not perform as efficiently. Another valuable common feature of the local breeds is their sustainability of survival and production. Production level may be medium as the animal has to spend energy in order to gain adaptability to high ambient heat, tolerance to drought, resistance to the prevalent diseases and be able to retain capability to digest low quality feed fodder which itself is not sufficiently available. In spite of such hardships, the local breed continues to survive and successfully procreates to sustainably maintain the production system over generations and thereby providing livelihoods to marginal people leading to inclusive growth. Innate features of sustainability of the local breeds provide sustainability to local livelihoods as well. It is noted that the livestock in its entirety, but especially the indigenous breeds proper, have the multifarious capability to provide livelihoods to our rural masses, infuse sustainability to animal-agriculture, and facilitate inclusive development by targeting and supporting the marginal people in the country.

Abstract

This chapter highlights the importance of re-engineering the functional processes prevalent in organizations today and realigning organizational resources with policies, procedures and systems that foster innovation in the technological and managerial space and institutionalize long term sustainability of businesses in emerging market economies such as India. These economies can serve as an engine for growth in a globalized era, if the intellectual capital of these economies is utilized and enhanced with maximum possible efficiency. It is in this scenario where entrepreneurial and decision making techniques based on the knowledge management-organizational learning continuum can help in the confluence of open innovation practices and stable management expertise. Such a comprehensive strategic shift from being a financial economy to a knowledge economy needs to be supported by integration of practical actions with the untapped cognitive potential of emerging economies. This chapter shall also be useful in explaining the importance of coexistence of competition and cooperation for enhancing the viability of the organizational ecosystem in the emergent Indian economy. 

Genus : Diospyros 
Species : kaki L.
Family : Ebenaceae 
Chromosome No. : 2n=60, 90

Persimmon-Kaki, though native of China, but it was in Japan where the fruit developed to its present status and much of the cultural practices were established or developed in Japan, hence the Japanese name by which it was popular in Japan was accepted all over the world. Japanese persimmon sometimes called as date plum and Chinese date-plum are the names generally used to describe persimmon in United States. The Chinese name is Shitz and in France it is called as plaquemine. In Japan Kaki is regarded to be their prime and best fruit and about 800 cultivars have been recorded and described. Likewise the Chinese also fancy persimmon and large areas have been put under its cultivation.

ABSTRACT

DNA based molecular marker technologies have been used extensively to study the genetic relationships and to develop markers for identification of cultivars/varieties in various crops. The present study is an attempt to assess the variability and relatedness among 49 varieties/ accessions of black pepper (Piper nigrum L) based on the data generated by both RAPD and AFLP analyses. The similarity matrix was subjected to cluster analysis and dendrogram generated using the software Ntsyspc 2.1. The dendrogram revealed an average similarity of 63 per cent among accessions. Two selections from the variety Karimunda, namely Sreekara and Subhakara, together formed a single cluster with almost 92 per cent similarity. The dissimilarity observed between the varieties Panniyur 1 and Panniyur 3 the progenies of the same parentage, Uthirankotta and Cheriyakanyakadan was only 18 per cent. Based on RAPD analysis 34 varieties were grouped into 5 clusters. Distinct clustering was not observed in AFLP analysis. The results obtained were correlated with the taxonomical interrelationships reported for these varieties. The overall study has thus helped in understanding the relationship among the local cultivars and released varieties.

1. HAND EMASCULATION AND POLLINATION

The male part of seed parent is removed by hand before anthesis to check the self pollination from the crop plants with bisexual flower having fertile male and female part. This process is known as emasculation. These emasculated flowers are then pollinated by the pollens collected from pollinator parent to produce hybrid seed (Fig. 1). Eg. Cotton, tomato, brinjal.

Morphological characteristics

Strychnos nux-vomica is a medium sized deciduous tree. The trunk is tall, thick, straight and cylindrical covered with yellowish-grey to dark grey, smooth and thin barks. Wood is dense, hard white and close grained. Branches are irregular and covered with smooth ash colored bark and shiny dark green young shoots. Leaves are broad, opposite, simple and entire, smooth, short-stalked, blade orbicular to broadly elliptical or ovate, base rounded to cordate, apex shortly acuminate or acute, glabrous and shiny above, minutely hairy especially on veins beneath, 3–5-veined from the base.

Floral characteristics

Inflorescence is terminal cymes, many-flowered and appears with young leaves at the end of branchlets or on axillary shoots. Flowers hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, homogamous, greenish-white colored, small in size, nectariferous, funnel-shaped and emits unpleasant odour. Flower are pentamerous; calyx lobes ovate, outside densely hairy. Corolla bears a slender tube of 1 cm long, abruptly widening at the throat, outside glabrous, having pubescence at base, lobes narrowly ovate, of 3 mm long, margin thickened and minutely hairy, greenish white to white; stamens inserted at the mouth of the corolla tube, exserted altering with corolla lobes. Anthers pale cream in color, dithecous, introrse and dehisce longitudinally. Ovary is superior, ovoid, glabrous, bicarpellary with axile placentation. The style is filiform, glabrous and as long as the corolla tube, stigma capitates (head-shaped).

Cell culture refers to removal of cells from an animal or plant and their subsequent growth in a favorable artificial environment. The cells may be removed from the tissue directly and disaggregated by enzymatic or mechanical means before cultivation, or they may be derived from a cell line or cell strain that has already been establwashed.

Primary culture refers to the stage of culture after the cells are isolated from tissue and proliferated under appropriate conditions until they occupy all of the available substrate (i.e., reach confluence). At this stage, the cells have to be subcultured (i.e passaged) by transferring them to a new vessel with fresh growth medium to provide more room for continued growth.

Pharmaceutical and chemical industries depend largely on toxicological evaluations to provide information regarding safety of their commercial products. Toxicologists so far have been relying on animal studies to investigate potentially beneficial or harmful effects of drugs and chemicals prior to testing them in humans. Traditionally, the safety assessment process during drug development has been based on screening indiscriminately a plethora of new chemical entities (NCEs) using large number of animals as testing models in order to identify new therapeutic agents with the expectation that one or a few of these NCEs have some competitive advantages over the existing therapeutic agents. That is why they are more efficacious, bioavailable, selective, and safer. This approach is costly, time-consuming, and requires large quantities of test material. Currently, it takes about 10-12 years and a huge expenditure for a drug to move from research laboratory to patent. Thus alternative cell culture models in the early phases of drug discovery process can save time and money both by eliminating least beneficial NCEs.

Introduction
A significant aspect of an animal’s existence is their adaptability to changing circumstances and their willingness to adapt their behaviour. An animal becomes more intelligent the more it learns. Associative and non-associative learning are the two main categories into which learning can be divided. Whereas associative learning involves classical conditioning, non-associative learning involves sensitization and habituation. When a stimulus
occurs frequently, an individual develops a gradual familiarity with it. This is known as habituation. Sensitization, on the other hand, is the increased response to the same stimulus that may or may not be related to other variables. In order to get the desired response, training is required for the behavioural responses to two independent stimuli that are kept associated during the conditioning process. In general, non-associative learning stems from an animal’s perception of its environment or circumstances, whereas conditioning is based on training-based learning.

Cassava is one of the leading staple food crop which is consumed as food and rest is used in industries and as feed to animal. Cassava has the potential to increase farm income, reduce rural and urban poverty and help to close the food gap (Nweke et al., 2001). It is used in many sectors like food processing, textile industries, glucose production etc. Salem stands first in area and has about 650 sago and starch industries acting as a prime reason for the intensive area under the cassava cultivation in Salem also 60 per cent of the starch produced in India comes from Salem District alone. Nearly 200 products can be made from cassava which leads to implementation of several interventions in the district which helped in imparting knowledge on cassava value addition techniques and improve adoption. Present study was undertaken to analyse the perceived impact by focusing on the effect of interventions of CTCRI and TNAU among the women growers in enhancing group approaches and empowerment through entrepreneurship activities.

Sunshine means incoming solar radiation, which consists of a bundle of rays of different wavelengths. At the top of the atmosphere, the amount of radiant energy received is found to be constant (1.94 cal/cm2/min). The receipt of the radiant energy, which is received on the earth and on crop surface, is influence by the cloudy and sunny or clear sky conditions. The brightness hours of the sunshine are an important parameter, which not only influence microclimate of a place but also the photosynthesis of the crop. The radiant energy of intensity of 0.17 cal/cm²/min or 120 W/m² and above is known to specify the bright sunshine.

Planning Research and Action Institute, Lucknow (1960) found that lack of initial capital considerably hindered the growth of Animal Husbandry Projects in Youth Clubs. It was also revealed that involvement of non-official agencies and training of youth organizers were very important for strengthening youth clubs.
Singh and Prasad (1963) identified that following deficiencies in the working of youth clubs.
    1.    Inadequate knowledge of youth club work on the part of members as well as on leaders
    2.    Non-availability of literature on youth clubs
    3.    Lack of active leadership‘
    4.    Rift between village youth clubs and village panchayat
    5.    Lack of proper guidance and follow up of youth club programme
Behniwal (1964) revealed the following factors as responsible for the successful working of youth clubs.
    1.    Strength of membership in a club 
    2.    Participation in project work
    3.    Participation in games
    4.    Frequency of meetings
    5.    Attendance in tours, rallies and games
    6.    Actual gains received  
Kumar (1965) found that in the successful clubs the youth had clear conception of the importance and objectives of the youth organization. 

A. Answer the following.

Q.1.     What is the difference between cell wall of Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria ?
Ans.     The cell wall of Gram positive bacteria is largely composed of peptidoglycans. These are chains of alternating N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylmuramic acid cross linked by short peptide side chains. On the other hand, the cell wall in Gram negative bacteria has thinner peptidoglycan layer, an outer membrane composed of a polysaccharide-lipid-protein structure. The oligosaccharide attached to a lipid (lipidA) and a series of repeating trisaccharides. The polysaccharide antigens are called ‘O’ antigens. The cell wall lipopolysaccharides of Gram negative bacteria are also called endotoxins.

Genus : Diospyros 
Species : kaki L.
Family : Ebenaceae 
Chromosome No. : 2n=60, 90

Persimmon-Kaki, though native of China, but it was in Japan where the fruit developed to its present status and much of the cultural practices were established or developed in Japan, hence the Japanese name by which it was popular in Japan was accepted all over the world. Japanese persimmon sometimes called as date plum and Chinese date-plum are the names generally used to describe persimmon in United States. The Chinese name is Shitz and in France it is called as plaquemine. In Japan Kaki is regarded to be their prime and best fruit and about 800 cultivars have been recorded and described. Likewise the Chinese also fancy persimmon and large areas have been put under its cultivation.

Introduction

Indian economy is characterized predominance of rural population and is heavily dependence on agriculture sector. The major challenges to the growth and prosperity of the country are unemployment and poverty. Various attempts by government in the past have yielded only marginal success. The problem of rural unemployment and poverty can be solved by creating some new avenues for employment generation in the rural areas. Majority of farmers are still using traditional farming practices. The concept of entrepreneurship in agriculture can play vital role in improving their livelihood security and alleviating the poverty.  The individuals involved in farming/industrial activity should posses drive, ambition, foresight, and imaginations to break their traditional barrier, overcome social inertia, transform theory into practice. The individuals performing these functions are the entrepreneurs, and their enterprising ability and skill can be termed as entrepreneurship (Kothari, 1989).

Abstract

The continental drifting and the movement of Indian plate to the tune of 6500 km in a time frame of 65 million years towards north north-easterly, its collision with Eurasian plate, the rise of mighty Himalayan mountains, the still prevalent northerly directed compressive force which has originally drifted the Indian plate and the disseminated intraplate seismicities have been the proven facts. In this context, a remote sensing based study carried out using IRS satellite images revealed that the whole Indian plate is whirling like a worm with series of alternately arranged E-W trending arches and deeps and N-S extensional/block faulting, NE-SW & NW-SE strike slip faults and E-W trending fracture swarms from Cape Comorin in the South to foot hills of Himalayas in the north. These ongoing tectonic activities have displayed hierarchy of geomorphic anomalies in the fluvial, coastal and hydrological systems and these suggest that the whole Indian subcontinent warrant detailed studies to understand the post drift kinematics and its impacts over the ecosystems, natural resources and natural disasters.

Introduction

Consequent to the continental drifting, the Indian plate has moved towards north northeasterly and collided with Eurasian plate, thus resulting into the rise of Mighty Himalayan Mountains along the junction of these two plate boundaries as demonstrated by many earlier Geoscientists. But the behaviour of the Indian plate, both during the collision and after that, has not been comprehensively studied and understood as to whether it has remained as an inert plate or suffered any mid plate deformations. However, disseminated information has been brought out by many earlier workers on the post trappean arches, deeps, horsts and grabens within the

Indian plate. Some of such tectonic grains from north to south in the Indian Peninsular are:

ABSTRACT

Grape is a commercially cultivated fruit crop in India. As a result of large-scale introduction, the origin and authenticity of many grape varieties is unclear and the subject of some controversy. Many of the varieties were mixed up and now have led to confusion regarding their correct identification. To explore the genetic relationships between different grape varieties and to analyze their diversity, molecular marker technique has proved to be useful. In the present study, 34 grape varieties have been characterized using Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) markers. Out of 93 ISSR primers screened initially, 11-showed good polymorphism. Total 174 bands were obtained, out of which 145 were polymorphic. The similarity indices were calculated using DICE coefficient and NTSYS Pc 2.1 software.

Cluster analysis resulted in the formation of two main clusters. One, of the varieties belonging to Vitis vinifera and other of V. labrusca. Varieties belonging to V. vinifera appeared more diverse by forming distinct sub-clusters based on their colour, flavour and seeds. Out of 34 varieties screened, 10 varieties are grouped in white berries cluster and 15 in coloured (red /black) berries cluster. Three white varieties- Italia, Queen of Vineyard and Thompson seedless are grouped into cluster of coloured varieties. The cluster of labrusca varieties showed homogeneity and had five varieties except Dakh, which belongs to vinifera. It may be wrong introduction. Concord separates initially from all other varieties. Incidentally, Concord is a pure selection from V. labrusca, while varieties like Bangalore blue, Black Muscat, Catawba and Muzzafar Nagar in labrusca group may be the hybrids of labrusca x vinifera. The current study thus revealed that genetic relationship among grape cultivars could be assessed using ISSR markers.