eChapters

Introduction 
Crop-weather models are sophisticated constructs, meticulously designed to replicate the dynamic and intricate interplay among atmospheric conditions, complex soil processes, nuanced plant physiology, and the decisive influence of human management interventions. The agricultural system is a prime example of a highly interconnected and non-linear system, where changes in one component can ripple through and affect many others, often with time lags and feedback loops. To truly comprehend, effectively design, rigorously develop, and clearly communicate the inner workings of such multifaceted simulations, relying solely on dense textual descriptions or abstract mathematical equations can prove daunting and often insufficient. This is precisely where relationship diagrams emerge as indispensable tools. At their core, relationship diagrams are powerful visual representations that translate the abstract scientific concepts and mathematical formulations embedded within crop-weather models into intuitive graphical formats. They are essentially the architectural blueprints and flowcharts of these complex systems, allowing us to see, rather than just read, how various components of the agricultural ecosystem interact. Imagine trying to understand the intricate wiring of a skyscraper or the precise movements of a symphony orchestra purely from a written description; diagrams provide the essential visual mapping that brings clarity and coherence to complexity. These diagrams are not mere aesthetic additions; they are fundamentally required because of the inherent complexity and interdisciplinary nature of crop modeling. They bridge critical gaps: Bridging Disciplinary Gaps: Agricultural system modeling brings together experts from diverse fields – agronomists who understand plant responses, meteorologists who provide weather insights, soil scientists who grasp soil physics and chemistry, and computer scientists who implement the models.

Key facts

    
•    Though water is the most widely occurring substance on earth, freshwater accounts for only 2.5% whereas the rest of water is saltwater. The agriculture sector uses more than 75% of freshwater available. 
    
•    The current observed climate change impacts on water resources include increased precipitation at high latitudes and temperate areas, decreasing precipitation at low latitudes; decreasing snow covers, and glaciers in most regions; decreasing flows in some river basins; floods and droughts in some countries and significant decreases in lake and river size in Africa.
    
•    A number of climate models projected that a doubling of atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ would increase global precipitation by at least 5%.  The precipitation is expected to increase in some areas, such as, at high latitudes and in the tropics (south east monsoon regions and over the tropical Pacific), whereas the precipitation is likely to decrease in the sub-tropics (e.g. much of North Africa and northern Sahara).

INTRODUCTION

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a branch of the field in computer science known as “Artificial Intelligence (AI)”. The field goes by many names, such as connectionism, parallel distributed processing, neuro-computing, machine learning, and artificial neural networks. A tremendous growth in interest of this computational mechanism has occurred since Rumelhart(1986) rediscovered a mathematically rigorous theoretical framework neural network. Traditional (physically-based) modeling of physical processes tries to explain the underlying processes. On the contrary, the data-driven models are based on a limited knowledge of the modeling process and rely on the data describing input and output characteristics. Data-driven models are based on pure relationships between input and output data and not the physical principle linking input and output. They offer real advantages over conventional methods, including the ability to handle large amounts of dynamic, non-linear or noisy data and such tools can be especially useful when the underlying relationship are not fully understood. Data-driven modeling uses results from such overlapping fields as data mining, artificial neural networks, rule-based type approaches such as expert systems, fuzzy logic concepts, and machine learning systems.

Artificial neural networks are suited to problems where relationships between the variables to be modeled are not well understood. Mathematically, an ANN may be treated as a universal approximator. The ability to learn and generalize ‘Knowledge’ from sufficient data pairs make it possible for ANN to solve large-scale complex problems such as non-linear modeling, pattern recognition, classification, control and others – all of which find application in water resources management today. Since the early nineties, ANNs have been successfully used in water management area such as rainfall-runoff modeling, stream flow prediction, groundwater modeling, water quality, hydrologic time series, and reservoir operation.

1. INTRODUCTION

Mushrooms are edible fungi of commercial importance and their cultivation has emerged as a promising agro-based land-independent enterprise. There are about 20 varieties of mushrooms being cultivated throughout the world for food. In India, only white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus J.E. Lange Imbach), oyster mushroom (Pleurotus spp. [Fr.] P. Kumm) and paddy straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea [Bul.] Singer) are grown commercially. Of these, white button mushroom contributes ~90% of the total production. Mushrooms have been recognized as an alternate source of good quality protein and produce the highest quantity of protein per unit area from agro-wastes. Besides, they provide potentiality for generating employment, improving economic status of growers, help in checking pollution and earn foreign exchange.

Out of the total production about 45% of mushrooms produced are consumed in the fresh form while the other 55% are processed, with 5% in dehydrated form and 50% in canned form. This is because their shelf-life in the fresh form is very short and hence mushrooms are traded in the world market mostly in the processed form. Fruiting bodies (reproductive phase) of Agaricus are appreciated not only for texture and flavour but also for their chemical and nutritional characteristics.

The profitability of dairy animals depends on milk yield and reproductive efficiency. High-yielding cows require more nutrients to support increased milk production. However, early lactating cows and buffaloes often face a Negative Energy Balance (NEB) due to inadequate energy intake, which hampers their performance. To enhance productivity, it is essential to minimize the extent and duration of NEB. One effective approach is the use of bypass nutrients, which safeguard essential dietary components like fat and protein from rumen fermentation, enabling better digestion and absorption in the lower digestive tract. Additionally, protected starch, chelated minerals, and vitamins can also boost animal performance.
“Bypass Nutrients” are nutrients that undergo minimal fermentation in the rumen, allowing them to remain intact for digestion and absorption in the lower gastrointestinal tract. These slowly degradable nutrients provide a steady nutrient supply to rumen microbes, unlike easily soluble nutrients that lead to sudden spikes in nutrient availability.
Rationale behind the protection of dietary nutrients
The potential benefits of delivering nutrients directly to the intestine in a form available for direct absorption and utilization by the animals are:
1. Prevention of energy losses associated with the degradation and fermentation of nutrients in the rumen, thus sparing available energy for productive purposes.
2. Ensuring that particular nutrients will be available to the host animal in their original form.
3. Taste masking of unpalatable substances.
4. Preventing interactions among nutrients and their oxidation during storage.

Abstract

Rise in global energy demand has led to an increase in consumption of fossil fuels. In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness about the consequences of pollution and global warming caused by burning of fossil fuels. This has led to an increased interest in the search for sustainable energy. Transportation sector is a major consumer of world’s energy resources. n-Butanol is one of the most promising alternative bio-fuels which has various advantages over other biofuels. The microbial n-butanol is produced by anaerobic conversion of the substrate to n-butyric acid and subsequently utilized to form n-butanol. The present chapter explores the scope of bacterial butanol production as need of the hour and its use as an alternative biofuel.

Introduction

Plant growth and productivity are adversely affected by various abiotic stresses. Plants are frequently exposed to a plethora of stress conditions such as low temperature, salt, drought, flooding, heat, and oxidative stress. Various anthropogenic activities have accentuated the existing stress factors. All these stress factors prevent them from reaching their full genetic potential and limit the crop productivity. In the event of growing concerns of uncertainties in climatic conditions, the abiotic stresses have become the major threat to agriculture production worldwide (Bray et al., 2000). The plant responses to abiotic stress condition are believed to be complex in nature as these are the reflections of integration of stress effects and responses at various levels of plant organization. To provide tolerance against stresses, plants are equipped with several inbuilt physiological and biochemical mechanisms occurring at cellular level. An understanding of processes linked to these mechanisms is vital in optimizing the crop growth and productivity under stress conditions.

Enzyme histochemistry constitutes a link between biochemistry and morphology (Hardonk et al., 1976) and provides important information complementary to conventional histology, immunohistochemistry and molecular pathology (Meier Ruge and Bruder 2008). It helps to detect any metabolic changes in tissues and thus can aid in disease diagnosis. It is based on the principal that, the substrates added to tissue are metabolized by enzyme and the reaction is visualized by an insoluble dye product. It is a very sensitive technique that detects even an early metabolic imbalance in the tissue. For example, alkaline phosphatase activity represents tissue barrier functions in brain capillaries, duodenal enterocyte and proximal kidney tubule brush borders and a decrease in enzyme activity will indicate some functional impairment. Similarly, an increase in lysosomal acid phosphatase activity is an early marker of ischemic tissue lesions and acetylcholinesterase enzyme histochemistry has been used for the diagnosis of Hirschsprung disease (Meier Ruge and Bruder, 2008). ATPase methods are used in combination to distinguish between type1 and type 2 muscle fibres and NADH diaphorase is used to detect very minor or early structural abnormality in the sarcoplasmic reticulum network of the fiber, as well as mitochondrial abnormalities eg. Mitochondrial myopathies (Sargaiyan and Bansal, 2014). It has been clearly shown that tumor tissue with high glycolytic activity is particularly resistant to radiotherapy (Mathupala et al., 2007). Enzyme histochemistry for dehydrogenase provides a quick, efficient and inexpensive orientation on the actual energy metabolism of a particular tumor and thus aid in therapeutic strategy (Nakagawa et al., 2002).
For the histoenzymic localization, fresh frozen unfixed tissues preferably 2 to 5 mm square size should be collected immediately after death/slaughtering of animals. Fixation in formalin will inactivate most of enzymes but formalin fixation is also employed to stop enzyme activity of lactic dehydrogenase and

Introduction

Taxonomy, which includes identification and classification has transformed into systematics and biosystematics in the recent times and is integrating itself into the biodiversity, which is now a global phenomenon occupying the main thrust of human life. The magnitude and cause of this biodiversity is the central problem of taxonomy and one of the key problems of science as a whole, not to speak of pest management. The science of taxonomy started in the late eighteenth century by a Swedish biologist, Carl Linnaeus who with a small number of similar minded scientists pioneered a standard system of using two Latin names for an organism, denoting “genus” and “species” that is still in use. This led to referring of biological organisms by an universally agreed name and identity, and further providing means for their realistic classifications. When these identifications and classifications got strengthened further with accumulated biological knowledge, it allowed the development of modern biology on a sustainable and stable base. In addition, in the recent times taxonomy has become more demanding subject for areas in science and technology, which are dependant on access to accumulated experience and knowledge for their survival and development. Insect pest management is one such area where taxonomy provides the essential scientific basis, without having any claims of its own and integrating itself in such a manner that its role is difficult to delineate precisely.

Key facts

    
•    Fish is an important source of animal protein for billions of people (estimate 2.6 billion people). About 200 million people and their dependants worldwide, mostly in developing countries, live by fishing and aquaculture. 
    
•    Fish living in temperate and Polar Regions could be benefited from climate changes since an increase in water temperature would extend the fish growing season. Moreover, rising temperature could reduce over-wintering stress normally experienced by temperate fishes.
    
•    Rise of temperature may cause a decrease in dissolved oxygen (DO) or hypoxic conditions (as temperature and DO are inversely related) and can impair fish reproduction and may cause endocrine disruption in fish (increase incidence of malformations and may alter sex differentiation and sex determination in fish).
    
•    Bioavailability and toxicity of common pollutants such as pesticides and heavy metals may be enhanced with increasing temperatures. Therefore, exposure of toxicants at elevated temperatures may cause a decline in recreational and commercial fisheries.

Introduction

Fermentation has been an integral part of food processing throughout the history of mankind. In beginning, it was mainly preservation method, then it became key process in substantial sensory characteristic development and now it is utilized to improve overall properties of outcome from major industries like bakery, dairy, beverages, etc. The human understanding of controlled fermentation process changes its fundamental objective by exploring its success in development of rheological and texture characteristics.

The biochemical transformation of raw food due to fermentation affects the organoleptic as well as rheological properties of a product. The changes in rheological as well as sensory properties is related with the modification of major component by the action of microorganism. For example, transformation of polysaccharides in bread dough by action of yeast produce ethanol, CO₂ and other simple compound which modify sensory as well as rheology of dough. The major micro-structural, bio-compositional and bio-chemical changes are due to microbial action are frequently described to understand the effect of fermentation on rheological as well as sensory properties of food products. The rate and quality of these associated major changes mainly depends upon concentration of saccharides for growth of microorganism as well as nature and existing microflorae. Hence, a proper monitoring of changes in rheological and sensory properties is necessary to optimize the controlled fermentation as well as design of process parameters from engineering and consumer point of view.

The biochemical changes directly responsible for changes in basic rheological and sensory characteristic including flow behavior, consistency, viscoelastic properties, hardness, adhesiveness, color, aroma, flavor and mouthfeel. The food industry is so diverse and exploring new and possibilities to catch diverse consumer worldwide, a proper understanding of effect of fermentation on mentioned properties will be key to hold competitive market. Hence, the present chapter will cover the basics of rheology and its role in food industry, effect of fermentation on rheological and sensory attributes of major class of food.

For growing fungi, a wide range of media are used. Media affect colony morphology and color. For utilizing different carbon sources some fungi lack the necessary enzymes. For growth and reproduction all fungi require several specific elements. The requirements for growth are generally less specific than for sporulation, so it is often necessary to try several types of media when attempting to identify a fungus in culture. Sporulating cultures should be used because repeated transfers of a pathogen on artificial media usually result in loss of sporulation or pathogenicity or both. Transfer should be made using spores and cultured alternately on nutrient rich and poor culture media. Most fungi thrive on potato dextrose agar (PDA), but in some fungi excessive mycelial growth is obtained at the expense of sporulation. Similarly, wood-inhabiting fungi and dematiaceous (dark pigmented) fungi often sporulate better on Corn meal agar (CMA) or Oat Agar, both of which have less easily digestible carbohydrate than PDA. Cellulose-destroying fungi grow on a weak medium such as Water Agar (WA) or Potato Carrot Agar (PCA). By adding pieces of tissue, such as filter paper, wheat straw, rice, grains, leaves or dung, often produces good sporulation dependent on the organism grown. Some special methods of inducing sporulation in fungi.

Phosphorus is present in soil both in inorganic form and organic form. The inorganic P can be divided into different pools. The major active inorganic forms are: P bound to aluminium (Al-P), iron (Fe-P), calcium (Ca-P) and silicate minerals and relatively less active forms are occluded and reductant soluble forms of P. On the other hand, the principal organic P compounds present in soil are (i) inositol phosphate, (ii)phospholipids, (iii)nucleicacid and other unidentified esters and phosphoproteins.

22.1 Determination of Available Soil P

The availability of soil P to plant varies greatly depending upon the reaction, minerological composition and amount of the soil colloid. Very little P is present in the soil solution except in recently fertilized or sodic soils. The type of phosphate ions present in the soil solution depends on the soil pH. In soils of neutral to slightly alkaline pH, HPO₄^2-ion is the dominant form. In slightly or moderately acidic soils, both HPO^-and HPO^2-ions prevail. At strongly acidic soil HPO 244 24 ion tends to dominate, while above pH 9.0, the PO₄^3-ion becomes more important - than H₂PO₄ .

As the P is drawn from soil solution largely through diffusion by the plant, it is replenished from solid phase pool of available P. P fertilizer is added to recharge this pool.

Introduction

The age-old necessities of life are food, clothing and shelter. The 20^th century had dramatized a fourth-energy. Energy starvation of the technological complex that maintains modern society may soon be as crucial a problem as feeding the hungry. Indeed, energy starvation could well precipitate more wide spread food starvation. Solutions for the energy crisis are strongly dependent on the technology of how energy is produced and used. To make a physical change in the world it is necessary to use four resources: energy, matter, space and time. How well a task has been performed can be measured in terms of amount of fuel consumed, the mass of material used, the space occupied, the hours of labour to accomplish it, and the ingenuity with which these resources are utilized. Squandering of irreplaceable energy resources, waste of materials, or large expenditure of space and time cannot be tolerated if the necessities of life are to be provided for all. Energy is intricately linked to development of a country. Growing demand on account of industrialization, urbanization, transportation and also increase consumption in rural areas is putting added pressure on energy supply network. Electricity generation has been increased from 1,400 MW in the year 1947 to 303,118 MW up to August 31, 2016 in India but still there is 10-15% shortage of power in peak hours and all villages are not electrified. Even many electrified villages receive 6 to 8 hours of electricity per day in India. To overcome this shortage there is a need to utilise new and renewable sources of energy. Fortunately, India is blessed with abundant solar energy. The arid parts of India receives much more radiation as compared to the rest of country i.e. maximum solar radiation i.e. 7600-8000 MJm^-2 (2111-2222 kWhm^-2) per annum, followed by semi-arid parts, 7200-7600 MJm^-2 (2000-2111 kWhm^-2), per annum and least on hilly areas where solar radiation is still appreciable i.e. 6000 MJm^-2 (1667 kWhm^-2) per annum (IMD 1985). In this chapter review of different solar thermal technologies in Indian perspective has been carried out.

Abstract

The normal human microbial flora comprises of both aerobes and anaerobes at various sites. Anaerobes are recognised as pathogens causing simple abscesses to life threatening human infections like gas gangrene. They are also incriminated in a large number of mixed bacterial infections and their diagnosis and specific therapy is important for better patient outcomes. The emergence of Clostridioides difficile as an important pathogen causing antibiotic associated diarrhoeas and its emerging resistance to antimicrobial agents has brought anaerobic microbiology into the forefront. Unfortunately, anaerobic clinical microbiology is difficult to practice with long turnaround time, difficult to grow pathogens, new genera and species being discovered based on 16S rRNA sequencing methods and increasing incidence of antimicrobial resistance being reported in anaerobes. This chapter delves into the important aspects required to improve utilization of anaerobic microbiology services and the variety of human infections we encounter in clinical practice due to anaerobic bacteria.

1. Basic Information on the Country and  Agricultural Status
 
1.1. Location of Côte d’Ivoire

Cote D’ivoire (Ivory Coast) is located in West Africa, between the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer, with an area of 3, 22,462 km². It is bordered on the north by Mali and Burkina Faso, no the west by Liberia and Guinea, on the east by Ghana and on the south by the Gulf of Guinea, stretching across nearly 550 km. The economic capital Abidjan is with a population of more than 3 million people and Yamoussoukro, the political capital, has more than 1,50,000 inhabitants.

1.2. Population 
The Ivorian population is 1,53,66,672 people in 1998, of which 26 per cent are foreigners (4,000,047), with an annual population growth rate of 3.3 per cent and a density of 48 habitants/km². 53.8 per cent of the population is under the age of 20 years. The age group between 21 and 60 years is 41 per cent. These figures show the youthfulness of the Ivorian population. The average life expectancy is 65 years.

Food preservation involves treating and safely handling food to prevent or delay spoilage while retaining colour, texture, flavour and nutritional value. Food deterioration may result from microbial growth, indigenous enzymes, oxidation, physical damage, insects, moisture, temperature and other environmental conditions. Bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms contaminate food through soil, water, air and biological sources. The effectiveness of preservation therefore depends on controlling intrinsic factors such as pH, water activity, nutrients and redox potential, together with extrinsic factors such as temperature, humidity and storage atmosphere. Understanding these mechanisms provides the scientific foundation for selecting safe and effective preservation methods.

1. INTRODUCTION

Vegetables occupy a prominent position in our diet especially to tone up our digestive system and provide nourishment. Regular use of vegetables, supply many essential health building and protective substances, such as vitamins and minerals. India ranks second in vegetable production in the world. The abundant production of vegetables during the season, results in a glut. Consequently, a large quantity of vegetables gets spoiled resulting in a considerable loss of natural resources. Therefore, preservation is the best way to save the wastage of vegetables and make them available even in the off-season (Plate 1).

Abstract
India faces a shortfall of 10 million tonnes in vegetable production against a demand of 135 million tonnes, exacerbated by extreme temperatures (5-48°C) that hinder year-round cultivation. Protected cultivation, including greenhouses, polyhouses, and shade nets, offers a solution by enabling off-season vegetable production, enhancing yield, quality, and input efficiency. In regions like Bundelkhand, where agriculture dominates the economy, low-cost protected structures have shown promise in cultivating high-value crops like tomatoes and capsicum, despite challenges such as farmer unawareness, limited capital, and poor infrastructure. Government initiatives, like those by Banda University of Agriculture and Technology, promote low-cost protected cultivation through training and infrastructure development, fostering agripreneurship and improving rural livelihoods by increasing yields and market prices.
Keywords: Protected Cultivation, Vegetable Production, Agripreneurship, Greenhouse Technology, Bundelkhand, Food Security, High-Value Crops, Low- Cost Structures, Rural Development, Input Efficiency