eChapters

12.1 Introduction

Rainfall is the major source of water that contributes lion’s share for irrigation to crops. Before it reaches the earth, it is to a great extent pure in nature. By the time it falls on the ground surface, it comes in contact with various types of gases and suspended materials of the atmosphere and also after it flows as runoff on the surface it gets dissolved with many types of salts, impurities etc. that render the water to be impure. Many a time the industrial waste, agricultural wastes, pesticides, fungicides, chemical fertilizers etc. get mixed with water and make it unsuitable for irrigation use. Water being a universal solvent, it dissolves all most all organic impurities, salts etc. which makes it objectionable for both domestic and agricultural uses.

Irrigated agriculture is dependent on an adequate water supply of usable quality. In the past, water quality concerns were neglected because good quality water supplies were plentiful and readily available. This situation is now changing in many areas. Especially, in the arid and semi-arid zones, water quality is fast deteriorating which is posing threat to irrigated agriculture.

Conceptually, water quality refers to the characteristics of a water supply that will influence its suitability for a specific use. On the other hand, it refers to the situation of how well the quality meets the needs of the user. There are three quality indicators. They are physical, chemical and biological indicators. Even a personal preference such as taste is a simple evaluation of acceptability. For example, if two drinking waters of equally good quality are available, people may express a preference for one supply rather than the other; the better tasting water becomes the preferred supply. In irrigated agriculture, emphasis is placed on the chemical and physical indicators of the water and rarely the biological indicator is considered important.

2.1. INTRODUCTION

Salt stress has become an ever increasing threat to food production. It is a major factor limiting the crop productivity in the arid and semi-arid areas of the world (Ashraf, 1994; Foolad and Jones, 1992) and it affects about 10% of the total global land area (Richards, 1995). Increased salinization of arable lands is expected to have devastating global effects, resulting in 30% land losses within the next 25 years and up to 50% by the year 2050 (Wang et al., 2003).

Soluble salts can cause harm to plant, if they are in high concentration in water or soils and it limit crop cultivation world wide. Generally an array of stresses interplay in saline soils and reduces productivity of salt sensitive crops. In India, about 12 mha of land has been affected with salinity and alkalinity (Yadav and Gupta, 1984); an area of nearly 4 mha of land suitable for rice affected with salinity (Paul and Ghosh, 1986). The optimum salt concentration for the growth of halophytes is found to be about 0.5 M NaCl (Flower and Yeo, 1981). Most of the crop plants are salt sensitive glycophytes.

Introduction

The need for water for human consumption and the industry keeps spiraling up in the cities in the wake of rural diaspora and urban sprawl. Groundwater is exploited at an unsustainable rate leading to depletion of aquifers. Worse still is the intrusion of salt water from adjoining coast into the aquifers leading to total wastage of remaining water.

Introduction

Accumulation of excess soluble salts in the root zone of soils resulting in partial or complete loss of soil productivity is a worldwide phenomenon. The problems of soil salinity are widespread in the arid and semi-arid areas but salt-affected soils also occur extensively in the sub-humid and humid climates particularly in the coastal regions where the ingress of sea water through estuaries and rivers and through ground water movement causes large scale soil and water salinisation. Soil salinity is also a serious problem in areas where ground waters of high salt content are the only source of water available for irrigation. By far the most serious problems of salinity are being faced in the irrigated, arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Our ability to manage salt-affected soils and waters both in the irrigated and in the unirrigated regions will constitute a major effort in meeting potential food requirements. The magnitude of the problem can be appreciated from the following.

The use of salt (Sodium Chloride) in food products is an important method of preservation. It not only imparts taste to the products but also helps in checking spoilage of fruit products. Salt is added to pickles, sauces, chutneys, ketchup, and many other products. Food Safety & Standards Regulation has specified the maximum limit of salt in different products. Therefore, the estimation of salt content in food products is considered as an important attribute in food quality control.
Direct Titration Method
Direct titration (Mohr’s) method is used for the determination of salt content in food products as a routine quality control. In this method, the sample is titrated against a standard solution of silver nitrate for the estimation of salt.
Reagents
0.1 N NaOH, Phenolphthalein 1% indicator solution
0.1N Silver nitrate (AgNO3)
5% Potassium Chromate

Next to the mineral frame work the salts in the soil deserve consideration. In fact these salts constitute the main food material of plants besides what the root hairs can get out of the mineral framework in the form of basic materials already dealt with. We are, however, not concerned with the plant food materials, but salts that are in excess and which alter the properties of the soil to such an extent as to influence its behaviour profoundly.

Salvadora the  “Grape of the Desert” and commonly known as Pilu or jaal is a popular  multipurpose tree (MPTS) found growing luxuriantly in Thar desert and Kutchh region of Gujarat. It is an extremely drought hardy and salinity tolerant plant, capable of growing in hostile weather conditions. Salvadora provides life and support to the people living in fragile ecosystem of Thar desert and hence can be rated as a life line tree. The two important species of Salvadora i.e. Salvadora oleoides Decne and Salvadora persica L. are known to exist in India and known by different vernacular names. S. oleoides is called jaal, Mitha jal (Rajasthani); Pilu (Sanskrit); Bhapilu (Hindi); Kankhina (Marathi); Pil (Punjabi) and Kalawa (Tamil) while S. persica is known as Pilu (Sanskrit), tooth brush tree (English); Chotapilu (Bengali); darakht-I-miswak (Persian); Pilu (Marathi); Varagogu (Telgu) Ughaiputtai (Tamil); goni-mara (Karnataka). Salvadora is native of India, East Africa and Arabia. It is found in wild form in extensive areas of Africa particularly, Turkama, Sambura and Marsabit districts of Northern Kenya, Ferli in North Senegal, South Sivani in Egypt and N. E. Tanzania. Salvadora is also of common occurrence in South coastal areas of Pakistan, Sindh and Baluchistan, Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern countries.

Once a pest, pathogen or a weed has been detected in the introduced planting material, quarantine officials must make all efforts to disinfect/decontaminate the material and make it available for further exploitation in the country without undue delay. However, it may be kept in mind that treatments, which only reduce the inoculum, may be acceptable for general agricultural practices, but they are not acceptable in plant quarantine. For quarantine purposes, tolerances are zero and, therefore, no residual inoculum of exotic pests/pathogens must remain. Fullproof eradicative treatments are required to be employed before release of the planting material from quarantine.

16.1. Fumigation

Fumigation of the material under atmospheric or under reduced pressure has been found acceptable as a quarantine treatment against insects and mites. Fumigants like methyl bromide, HCN, phosphine and EDCT (ethylene dichloride + carbon tetrachloride mixture) are commonly used.

In general, fumigation with Methyl bromide at 48g/cubic metre for 24 hours at 21ºC or above or 32g/cubic metre for 2 hours at 21ºC or above is used based on the kind of infected material and the pest to be salvaged.

Abstract: Ornamental salvia, native to Brazil is cultivated as bedding plant in the world. Many species have horticultural, commercial and medicinal values. Continued breeding and improvement of salvia is focused on disease resistance, new flower colours, seed oil content and abiotic stress tolerance. Interspecific hybridization is hampered by genomic differences, heterostyly, self incompatibility and low seed set. Breeders have created polyploid cultivars and mutants which have high ornamental value. Continued use of these and other modern techniques will ensure creation of new phenotypes for the market.

Keywords: Salvia, polyploidization, male sterility, inheritance, seed production.

Salvia belongs to family Lamiaceae. The genus Salvia comprises about 900 species which are grown for their ornamental flowers since they make excellent and showy borders in gardens. One of the species most commonly grown is Salvia splendens is a tender herbaceous perennial, but grown in India as winter season annual flowering plant. It bears racemes of bright scarlet flowers of large size. It has ability to grow under partial shade condition. It is commonly grown as bedding plant due to varying colours mostly scarlet, purple, orange, lavender and yellow and long lasting flowers. The word salvia was derived from Latin word ‘Salvare’ meaning ‘to heal or to be safe and unharmed’ (Blumenthal et al., 2000 and Kamatou et al., 2008) later it was translated in French as “sauge” or “sage” and in old English “Sawge” (Kamatou et al., 2008). Salvia has several ornamental, culinary and medicinal species (Codd, 1985, Paton, 1991, Gali-Muhtasib et al., 2000, Kamatou et al., 2008 and Bruna et al., 2006). It is also used in preservation of food, mainly meat and cheese, due to its antioxidant properties, as well a spice for flavouring food articles (Topuc, 2006). Chinese use its species to increase longivity and Roman use it in ceremonies as scared herb (Kamatou et al., 2008). The salvia species contain secondary metabolite the main are terpenoids and flavonoids and monoterpenes present in aerial parts of plant like flower and leaves and diterpenoids mostly in roots (Topuc, 2006).

ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION

The centre of origin of salvia is considered to be Afghanistan and Soviet Central Asia as a large number of primitive morphological species are present but the most of the diversity or species are present in Mexico (Paton, 1991 and Kamatou et al., 2008). The genus is sub-cosmopolitantly distributed worldwide, but is absent in the North and most of the low-lying tropical areas of the world such as the Amazon basin and central and west Africa (Paton, 1991), Jager and Van Staden (2000) and Kamatou et al. (2008) reported its absence not only in western Africa but also in central tropical Africa, Hedge (1974) and Kamatou et al. (2008) reported that West and the southern parts of Africa has greatest number of species (Kamatou et al., 2008).

The genus Salvia contains at least 900 species, because they readily cross pollinate, innumerable hybrids - both natural and manmade. Salvias are found on almost every continent in the world. Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist, wrote about their healing qualities back in the first century. In the early 17^th century, the English botanist John Gerard, in his famous Herbal, described a number of sages, including common garden sage and one that sounds similar to what we now call ‘Tricolor’ sage. He referred to the healing powers of these herbs as well. Until the 19^th century, most gardeners focused on growing plants for medicinal or culinary purposes; beauty was a secondary, much less important consideration.

The results of plant exploration in the 18^th and 19^th centuries brought scores of new salvias to English and European gardeners from Mexico, China and Africa. One, Salvia buchananii, was found in Mexico by an English woman, who gave it to a man serving in the army. Salvia coccinea, indigenous to Mexico and South America, was grown for decades as a wildflower. Both scarlet sage and mealy cup sage were discovered in the early 1800’s, the former in Brazil, the latter in Texas.

Salvia belongs to family Lamiaceae. The genus Salvia comprises about 900 species which are grown for their ornamental flowers since they make excellent and showy borders in gardens. One of the species most commonly grown is Salvia splendens is a tender herbaceous perennial, but grown in India as winter season annual flowering plant. It bears racemes of bright scarlet flowers of large size. It has ability to grow under partial shade condition. It is commonly grown as bedding plant due to varying colours mostly scarlet, purple, orange, lavender and yellow and long lasting flowers. The word salvia was derived from Latin word ‘Salvare’ meaning ‘to heal or to be safe and unharmed’ (Blumenthal et al., 2000 and Kamatou et al., 2008) later it was translated in French as “sauge” or “sage” and in old English “Sawge” (Kamatou et al., 2008).

The study and utilization of biomass for energy, composting, or other valueadded applications require accurate information about its properties. This begins with a scientifically sound process of sample collection, preparation, and analysis. Each step ensures that the data derived from biomass materials is representative, reliable, and applicable for research, industrial application, or environmental assessment.
Sample Collection
Biomass sampling methods vary depending on the biomass type and the analysis objective. For instance, truck-top sampling is used for biomass pellets, while quadrats are employed to gather cover crop biomass from fields. Regardless of the technique, the primary aim is to collect a representative sample that accurately reflects the overall characteristics of the biomass.
Purpose
The goal is to obtain a sample that accurately represents the average composition and properties of the entire biomass batch.
Biomass Types Commonly Sampled
• Agricultural by-products (e.g., husk, straw, stubble)
• Animal-derived waste (e.g., manure, poultry litter)
• Forest residues (e.g., bark, wood chips) • Organic or food waste
• Industrial biomass (e.g., bagasse, distillery by-products) Sampling Guidelines
• Random Sampling: Collect from multiple locations within a pile or batch to reduce sampling bias.
• Quantity: Gather a sufficient amount—typically several kilograms—based on whether physical, chemical, or energy content analysis is intended.
• Equipment: Use clean, non-corrosive tools such as stainless steel or plastic scoops.
• Preservation: Store in sealed containers or bags to maintain sample integrity and prevent contamination or moisture changes.

Scanning electron-microscopes are available nowadays which operate at high vacuum as well as low vacuum mode. Low vacuum mode allows viewing of wet samples, but compromise on very high resolution and high magnification images. In high vacuum mode the samples must be absolutely dry and free of any organic contaminants to avoid gas molecules interfering with both the primary electron beam and the secondary or backscattered electrons emitted from the sample. Biological specimens which are largely composed of water, necessitate additional preparatory steps to ensure that structure of the organism is retained in its natural form.
Sample preparation is essential in scanning electron microscopy. Improper sample preparations can undermine the quality of results and lead to false conclusions. SEM, unlike TEM, allows the processing of larger sized organisms and tissues. For Biological samples the smallest representative sample size should be used as the microscope’s detection capacity is as much as 1μm from the sample surface.
Samples for SEM preparations are normally collected by biopsy/ dissection/ sacrificing of an animal to remove tissues from the main body. Incisions should be done with fresh sharp blades to avoid tissue deformation from the physical forces applied with blunt blades. Collected samples should be immediately transferred to vial containing the fixative for fixation.
Microbial cultures fixation of bacteria and fungus needs to be carried out under strict safety measures. Biosafety cabinets should be used wherever possible and sample should be removed from the biosafety cabinets only after the

The preservation methods used for water samples differ depending on the experiment to be performed, and they are as follows:

1. Project is __________

a) Investment activity

b) Create productive assets

c) Realising benefits over time

d) All of these

Q.1 SRSWOR scheme is better (more efficient) them SRSWR scheme.

Q.2 The sampling variance of sample mean under SRSWOR scheme is more than that in SRSWR scheme.

.3 The sample variance s2 is an unbiased estimate of population M.S. (S2 ) in case of SRSWOR scheme.

4.1. INTRODUCTION

The number of individuals to be included in a research study (the sample size of the study), is an important consideration in the design of many studies. This chapter will provide information on basic factors that determine an appropriate sample size and provides methods for its calculation in some simple, yet common, cases. Sample size is closely tied to statistical power, which is the ability of a study to enable detection of a statistically significant difference. A trade-off exists between a feasible sample size and adequate statistical power. Strategies for reducing the necessary sample size while maintaining a reasonable power is also important.

How many individuals will I need to study? This question is commonly asked by the clinical, ecological and behavioural investigator and exposes one of many issues that are best settled before actually carrying out a study. Consultation with a statistician is worthwhile in addressing many issues of study design, but a statistician is not always readily available.

The amount of information that can be gained from a sample depends upon its absolute size and not upon its size as a proportion of the population size, Just as to decide if the wine is good we need only a sip, irrespective of the bottle size, similarly we do not need to know the exact size of the parent population, provided complete homogeneity exists, But in reality, and more so in biological sciences, such homogeneity is rarely seen. Therefore, appropriate sample size becomes pertinent for drawing valid conclusions and is among the most difficult decisions to be taken for a study.

The size of the sample would depend upon (i) the permissible error in assessment of inference i.e. accuracy and (ii) sampling error. Sampling error measures the amount of variability between sample results; the lesser it is the better. The main determinant of the sample size, therefore, is how accurate results do we used. This in turn, depends on the purpose and type of study.

True/False

Q.1.    The precision of an estimator increases as the sample size increases.
Q.2.    Statistical power is the probability that a statistical test will indicate a significant difference is true i.e. it is the probability of taking correct decision.