eChapters

Soil: Soil is the upper most crust of earth surface which supports plant growth. It is defined as a three phase system in which plants grow. These phases are solid, liquid and gas and are essential. Solid part is frame which provides space for other two. This consists of minerals, clay minerals and organic matter. The soil is also a living system with millions of microbes that breakdown organic matter and builds it again.

Some points are following

•    Microbes are essential and survive only when soil is well aerated and rich in organic matter and avoid of waterlogged conditions.

•    Texture of soil depends on the size of solid particles and classified as gravel, coarse and fine sand, silt and clay.

•    Soils are classified according to relative distribution of these particles and there are 12 textural classes.

•    Likewise, arrangement of these particles is referred as structure, and both texture and structure land soil physical properties like water holding capacity, aeration and bulk density.

Water: Water is one of the most important inputs essential for the production of crops. Plants need it continuously during their life and in huge quantities. It profoundly influences photosynthesis, respiration, absorption, translocation and utilization of mineral nutrients etc. Both its shortage and excess affects the growth and development of a plant directly and consequently its yield and quality.

Soil needs the application of water to:

•    Remove stress condition.

•    Release nutrients in the soil solution for absorption by plants.

•    Leach or wash out injurious salts from the soil.

•    Preparation of land for raising crops.

•    To maintain the temperature and humidity of the soil micro-climate and the activity of soil microbes at optimum level.

Horticultral plants are grown for their produce like fruit, vegetable, flower, medicinal, aromatic, spices etc. Therefore, these plants should be managed in such a way that human desires for the purpose of growing them are fully satisfied in terms of quality and quantity of produce. This demands direct manipulation of plant growth itself or plant environment through various inputs. In manipulation of plant development, training and pruning are important for which our knowledge about plant development and its phenology has to be complete. These practices are important in fruit crops.

Training: Physical techniques that control the shape, size and direction of plant growth are known as training or in other words training in effect is orientation of plant in space through techniques like tying, fastening, staking, supporting over a trellis or pergola in a certain fashion or pruning of some parts.

Origin and history: Guava (Amrud) is one of the most common fruits in India.  It is a very hardy sub-tropical plant and prolific bearer. In India, it is commonly called as “poor man’s apple” widely naturalized in the country. Allahabad has the reputation of growing the best guava in the country as well as in the world. Area wise guava comes under 4th position after Mango, Banana, Citrus, in India. Uttar Pradesh has the largest area fallowed by Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and West Bengal, however it is generally grown all over India and also grown in South Asia that is Srilanka, Myanmar and tropical and subtropical country. Beside Psidium guajava some other important species which are commercially grown for rootstock purpose that is :

5.1. INTRODUCTION

The word ‘probability’ means “reasonable likelihood of happening of an event”. In biology it is difficult to predict an outcome with absolute certainty. Probability helps us to estimate the occurrence of relative frequency of any (biological) event and is an accepted measure of uncertainty.

Mathematically, the probability ‘P’ that an event ‘E’ will occur, is expressed as:

Estrous cycle

After puberty the female enters a period of reproductive cyclicity, which continues throughout most of her productive life.  Estrous cycle is the rhythmic sexual behavioral pattern exhibited by the female, which begins at one estrus (heat) and ends at subsequent estrus.   It is the period between two estruses of the regular cycle.  The reproductive activity of the female is maintained by the co- ordinated functioning of different organs of reproduction (Table: 1.1). Estrous cycle provides repeated opportunities for the females to become pregnant. When conception does occur, the female enters a period of anestrous during pregnancy, which ends after parturition (giving birth) and uterine involution (repair and returning to normal size).

After the Second World War, the 1940’s and 1950’s was the wide spread establishment of artificial insemination and the introduction of frozen semen in cattle breeding.  In the late 1960s came revolution in measurement of hormones in the body fluid with the introduction of sensitive radio-immuno-assay (RIA) techniques, which provided a new approach to early pregnancy diagnosis, emerging around the same time were early forms of the ultrasonic which could also employed in the detection of pregnancy. The 1970’s were to see embryo transfer and freezing of embryos in cattle becoming commercial realities and their incorporation into increasingly effective breeding improvement programme with the availability of prostaglandins (PGs) and Gonadotrophin releasing hormones (GnRH) that decade also witnessed new possibilities for estrum control in cattle and horses.  Few years later came the ability to produce the cattle embryos in the laboratories in large numbers and at low cost.

The ultrasonography is a technique which uses sound waves of very high frequency to scan the various organs of the body. The ultrasound waves of 2-10 mHz frequency are used in veterinary practice. A quartz crystal when stimulated by short pulse current ultrasound waves are emitted. The ultrasound waves emitted are directed towards a specific target organ are reflected back as echoes. The echoes are received by the same quartz crystal and are processed in the electronic circuit and finally displayed as image on the monitor.

Non-specific uterine infections reduce the reproductive efficiency of livestock.  They are called nonspecific because the initial colonizing bacterium is not known and the specific bacteria causing the signs of infection are not known.  Even though numerous bacteria, in a variety of combinations, have been isolated from infected uteri, Corynebacterium pyogenes and Escherichia coli are usually associated with uterine infections in cattle and sheep.  Empirical therapeutic approach, prescriptions without scientific validation (extra-label use) or inadequate clinical judgment itself to ascertain the nature of uterine infection, obviously due to lack of diagnostic tools are the prime reasons for therapeutic failure for the unsuccessful treatment of uterine infection by large animal practitioners.

Production is based on reproduction and health of reproductive system. Economy of livestock industry is directly attached to the maintenance of high fertility in the herd so controlling the reproductive diseases in cattle is a must.  Reproductive health may be disturbed by reproductive infections like Brucellosis, Leptospirosis, Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and Bovine viral diarrhea.

Reproductive process involves many events that have to occur in a well balanced manner if satisfactory fertility rate is to be achieved. Any adverse  effect of  physiological, morphological  or environmental effect on the male  or  female may result  in failure  of  fertility  or reduced fertility  depending  on the severity of the cause. Apart from this, the role of person who stands between the cow and the bull play an important role. The efficiency of the person handling the semen and depositing in the reproductive tract of domestic animal will influence to a great extent on the conception rate in A.I. programme. It is observed that certain bovine population fails to conceive at a single service or series of services.   Some times there is loss of conceptus during gestation or produces a dead calf or weak calf that will die soon after birth.
 
Consequences of these factors affect cows and may have long calving interval, abortion or sterility, all of which tend to decrease the average daily production of milk.

Advancement of both biological sciences and computer technology gave birth today’s one of the hottest area known as bioinformatics. Gradually bioinformatics analysis has become an essential component to the continued improvement and development of any kind of biological research work. It has various applications in medicine, biotechnology, agriculture etc. Some of the applications of bioinformatics related to biological information analysis are as follows [1]
    
·    Information related to bio-molecules can be mapped (e.g.), the sequences can be parsed to find sites where so-called “restriction enzymes” will cut them.
    
·    Sequences can be compared, usually by aligning corresponding segments and looking for matching and mismatching letters in their sequences. Genes or proteins that are sufficiently similar are likely to be related and are therefore said to be “homologous” to each other.
    
·    If a homologous exists then a newly discovered protein may be modeled - that is 3D structure of the gene product can be predicted without doing laboratory experiments.
    
·    Bioinformatics is used to attempt to predict the function of actual gene products.

The success of any crop improvement programme springs mainly from sound and genetically investigations carried out in the fields. However, the moment such biological populations are subjected to field evaluation, some external and non-heritable agencies come into active role. As a result, these agencies or factors mask real differences among the tested populations which stem purely from heritable or genetic factors. Their influence gets confounded with the latter. Consequently authentic data related to genetic differences are not available due to controllable and non-controllable errors. Further, physical data that are assembled in an experiment are often so voluminous and so vast that is perhaps humanly not possible to arrive at meaningful conclusions. Hence, an adequate knowledge of statistical principles and their appropriate use warrant perfection to a point where all possible sources of error can be well accounted for.

Nanotechnology is a field of applied science focused on the design, synthesis, characterization and application of materials and devices on the nanoscale. It is a sub classification of technology in colloidal science, biology, physics, chemistry and other scientific fields and involves the study of phenomena and manipulation of material at the nanoscale. This is involved in the creation of useful materials, devices, and systems used to manipulate matter at an incredibly small scale; between 1 and 100 nanometers. With nanotechnology, a large set of materials with distinct properties (optical, electrical, or magnetic) can be fabricated. Nanotechnologically improved products rely on a change in the physical properties when the feature sizes are shrunk.

Biological sequences like the nucleotide and amino acid sequences can be analyzed by means of the sequence alignment. The objective behind this is to obtain knowledge regarding the similarity between the query and the target sequence to decipher the structure, function, homology of the query sequence.

ANN is a Mathematical model or Computational model based on biological neural networks. It consists of an interconnected group of artificial neurons and processes information using a connectionist approach to computation. Neural Networks are non-linear statistical data modeling tools. That can be used to model complex relationships between inputs and outputs or to find patterns in data.

Insights into the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a protein are of great assistance when we plan experiments to understand protein function and in assistance of the drug design process.

Homology modeling
    
·    Homology modeling consists of the extrapolation of the structure for a new (target) sequence from the known 3D-structure (X-ray crystallographic or NMR) of related family members (templates).
    
·    Homology modeling is for those targets that have homologous proteins with known structure (>30% identity)
    
·    Homology modeling is for easy targets.
    
·    Homology modeling treats the template in an alignment as a sequence and only sequence homology is used for prediction.
    
·    When the sequence identity between the target and template sequence is low (<25%), homology modeling may not produce a significance result.

In recent years, we have witnessed an explosion of biological information and the bioinformatics data arising from the rapid research and unprecedented progress in molecular biology. The novel genomic technologies have revolutionized the drug designing, discovery and development processes in government as well as private pharmaceutical industries through the use of these technologies. Various databases are doubling in size every year and fortunately we have the complete genome sequences of more than 100 organisms. At present, the pharmaceutical industries have clasped genomics as a source of drug targets. They also distinguish that the field of bioinformatics is crucial for validating these potential drug targets and for determining the ones that are most suitable for entering the drug development pipeline. Due to our increased understanding of molecular biology, there has been a change in the way that medicines are being developed. Once upon a time, new synthetic organic molecules were tested in animals or in whole organ preparations. Now this approach has been replaced with a molecular target in which in-vitro screening of compounds against purified, recombinant proteins or genetically modified cell lines is carried out with a high throughput as a consequence of better and ever improving knowledge of the molecular basis of disease.

This statement signifies that the casualty of people is not due to the earthquake but due to the damage of buildings by earthquake forces. In developed countries, the casualty and loss of property is very minimal in comparison to the death toll and losses in India in the event of earthquakes of same magnitude. It has been experienced in the past that on the event of earthquakes of Richter magnitude scale of 6 or more, the death toll in India is in terms of thousands where as in Western Countries, it is multiple of tens. The less casualty is due to less damage of buildings and other infrastructures which in turn is due to the design and construction of Buildings and other structures as per the earthquake resistant theory. This paper discusses the issues related to the earthquake hazards in India and the concept of earthquake resistant structures.

Mitochondria are key energy generators in most eukaryotic cells. In recent years a number of mitochondrial genomes have been completely sequenced, contributing to the knowledge of molecular features related to function and evolution of this peculiar genome (Boore, 1999). The pathways of mitochondrial DNA evolution are obscured by their extraordinary size. Gene content, gene rearrangement and mode of expression are the characteristics of mitochondrial genomes. The mitochondrial genomes from eukaryotes reveal large size differences between animal, fungal and plant species. The average size of animal mtDNA is ~ 16 kb (Boore, 1999), whereas plant mtDNAs range from 200 to 2500 kb (Palmer, 1990). The size of fungal mtDNA’s range from 19 kb to 176 kb (Hudspeth, 1995).The mtDNA genome has a limited number of protein coding genes such as NADH ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ND2 to ND5), cytochrome c oxidase (COX), succinate dehydrogenease (SDH), ATP synthase (ATP6), cytochrome (CYTB), etc. Among non-coding genes only rRNA and tRNA genes are found.Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) is a component of the ribosomes, the protein synthetic factories in the cell. rRNA molecules are extremely abundant. They make up at least 80% of the RNA molecules found in a typical eukaryotic cell. Synthesis of the three nucleolar rRNA molecules is unusual as they are made on one primary transcript that is chopped up into three mature rRNA molecules.

In the context of molecular biology, a consensus sequence is the minimum nucleotide sequence that shows the characteristics common to most members of the family among a set of related genetic sequences.It serves in representing the results of a multiple sequence alignment, where related sequences are compared to each other, and similar functional sequence motifs are found. It also shows conserved/variable residues. It is found several times in the genome and is thought to play the same role in its different locations. For example, many transcription factors recognize particular consensus sequences in the promoters of the genes they regulate. In the same way restriction enzymes usually have palindromic consensus sequences, usually corresponding to the site where they cut the DNA. Transposons act in much the same manner in their identification of target sequences for transposition. Splice sites, i.e. those sequences immediately surrounding the exon-intron boundaries, can also be considered as consensus sequences. Defining a consensus DNA binding site by examining consensus sequences is a key work carried out by biologists (Harley et al., 1994). Rareness or anomaly detection followed by in depth analyses in such sequences may reveal significant information regarding the structural, functional and biochemical mechanisms of the genes which are of much importance to biologists.

Neisseria meningitidis, also simply known as meningococcus, is a gram-negative bacterium best known for its role in meningitis. It only infects humans; there is no animal reservoir. It is the only form of bacterial meningitis known to cause epidemics. The carbohydrate capsule of N. meningitidis determines its virulence and is targeted by the immune system. Approximately 12 strains of N. meningitidis exist and are characterized by the polysaccharide expressed on its capsule: A, B, C, 29-E, H, I, K, L, W-135, X, Y and Z. Inhibition of Pencillin Binding proteins (PBPs) leads to irregularities in cell wall structure such as elongation, lesions, loss of selective permeability and eventual cell death and lysis. 3-D structure of PBP was studied using Bioinformatics tool. Using Homology modelling, converted protein sequence of penicillin binding protein, extracted from NCBI server, in FASTA format and performed PDB-BLAST to search a desired template. Selection of template was based on lower E-value, bit score and identity. Using MSA with the help of CLUSTAL W software conserved region was found between the target and template sequence, 1K25. The 3-D structure of penicillin binding protein was found with the help of Modeller 9v2 and molecular dynamics was performed using GROMACS software. The docking was performed (Autodock 3.0 software) using 3 ligands viz. Cefuroxime, Chloramphenicol, Cefalotoxime with standard Bioinformatics tools.

The coral reef ecosystem is one of the most diverse ecosystems, which is housing for an amazing diversity of organisms and estimation of species richness ranges from 650 000 to over 9 million. For this reason, coral reefs often are referred to as the “rainforests of the ocean”1.Prokaryotes represent overriding life form on the planet and are almost certainly the most diverse component of coral reef communities2. Corals have been known to harbour many different species of bacteria.

The rise in the number of drug-resistant pathogens and the limited success of strategies in providing new agents indicate an uncertain forecast for future antimicrobial therapy. So it is critical that new groups of microbes from unexplored habitats be pursued as sources of novel antibiotics. Marine actinomycetes serve as a logical target given the historical significance of their terrestrial counterparts in antibiotic production. Isolation strategies directed towards new marine-derived actinomycetes have been lacking, but it is clear that such procedures will increase the understanding of marine bacterial diversity and yield many novel marine natural products. Though recent literatures report the isolation of novel class of actinomycetes from marine sediments and sponges, reports on actinomycetes associated with corals are very scanty. Therefore in this study we attempted to characterize the actiomycetes diversity associated with the coral Acropora digitifera from the Gulf of Mannar, Southern coast of India. The antibacterial potential of the isolated actinomycetes was also investigated.

INTRODUCTION
 
Environment and ecological set up is maintained by the climatic conditions, presence and compositions of gases present in them, humidity level, temperature and the pollution. These conditions are responsible for the emerging of diseases in the environment. The diseases in plants, animals and human beings are due to the factors that affect the ecology. This also depends on the organism whether they are susceptible or resistant to the specific disease. This means the genetic level of the organism is an important factor.
Plant pathology or phytopathology is the study of diseases in plants. The disease evolution may be due to the climatic condition, humidity level, temperature and the genetic character of the plant and the pathogen. The parasitic adaptation of microorganisms to be plant pathogens includes acquisition of the following three abilities: 1) ability to enter into a plant, (2) ability to overcome the resistance of the host and (3) ability to evoke disease.

The dream of having genomes completely sequenced is now a reality. The complete sequence of many genomes including the human one is known. However, the understanding of probably half a million human proteins encoded by less than 30’000 genes is still a long way away and the hard work to unravel the complexity of biological systems is yet to come. A new fundamental concept called proteome (PROTEin complement to a genOME) has recently emerged that should drastically help to unravel biochemical and physiological mechanisms of complex multivariate diseases at the functional molecular level. Proteomics involves the systematic study of proteins in order to provide a comprehensive view of the structure, function and regulation of biological systems. Coupled with advances in bioinformatics, this approach to comprehensively describing biological systems will undoubtedly have a major impact on our understanding of the phenotypes of both normal and diseased cells. Initially, proteomics focused on the generation of protein maps using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

Introduction

Since the onset of human civilization molluscs have a tremendous impact on Indian tradition and economy. In India, molluscs have been in great demand as ornaments, currency, as popular panacea for illnesses and as mascot for ward off evil spirits in olden days. Now, molluscs have assumedgreater significance in our industrial, technological and aesthetic aspects of life, in addition to edible utility. Several species of gastropods and bivalves are traditionally fished for food and shell from time immemorial. About 80,000 - 1, 00,000 species of molluscs are recorded from the world over and a total of 3271 species are recorded from India. They are represented in 220 families and 591 general and the spectrum comprise of 1900 gastropods,1100 bivalves,210 cephalopods,41 polyplacophores and 20 scaphopods (edible and ornamental) and 14 species of cephalopods are exploited on commercial basis in India(Appukkuttan et al.,1989). It is difficult to categories shells satisfactorily according to their uses as many are collected for several purposes. The main categories are shown in the Table-1.

1.     Maintaining Embryonic Stem (ES) Cells
    
2.     Establishing ES Cells
    
3.     Freezing of ES Cells
    
4.     Thawing of Frozen ES Cells
    
5.     Production of Transgenic using ES Cells
    
6.     MTT Assay for Cell Viability

FEMUR

The femur has a relatively small shaft, which is cylindrical in its middle. The trochanter minor has the form of a rough tuberosity.

The trochanteric ridge connects it with the trochanter major. The third trochanter is absent. The supracondyloid fossa is shallow. The proximal extremity is very wide.

The fovea capitis is a small depression on the middle of the heacKfor the attachment of the round ligament.

The trochanter major is very massive and is undivided; its lateral surface is very rough. The trochanteric fossa is deep. The ridges of the trochlea are less oblique.

Fracture of meta-carpals and meta-tarsals comes under lower level fracture. Padded cloth and netted bamboo splint along with conjoint U plate has been considered as standard method of repair.

The fractufe is a lower level fracture involving the meta-carpal and meta- tarsal bones. (Fig.1 & Fig.2)

The fracture site is immobilized extending joint below and joint above level initially with cloth or cotton padding.(Fig.3)

Netted bamboo splint Is applied over it for support involving joint above and joint below which should not be too tight or too loose.(Flg.4)

Splints are retained in position by thread with knots. The ends of bamboo splint kept padded to avoid skin damage.(Fig.4)

More strength is given to immobilisation by application of conjoint U- plate.Conjoint U-plate is a U shaped metallic plate used for lower level fracture immobilisation. (Fig.5 & Fig.6)

At the end the entire bandage is covered with cloth or a bandage roll.The hoof should also be bandaged to avoid damage due to improper blood circulation.(Flg.6)

Fracture of radius-ulna & tibia-fibula comes under middle level fracture. Pop caste application or bandage along with Thomas splint has been considered as standard method of repair.

The fracture site is immobilized extending between joint below and joint above level with either gum bandage or pop caste bandage (Fig.1).

Pop caste bandage is generally applied after 7 days. Hence gum bandage is preferred than pop caste bandage because of immediate application after occurrence of fracture (Fig.2).

For gum bandage application, a 8-16 layer thick cloth is wrapped over the fracture region covering the joint above & joint below of the site after liberal application of fevicol gum. The cotton cloth Is placed in position with few cotton thread knots (Fig.3).

4 bamboo splints are kept on the 4 sites of the limb over cotton padding. The end of bamboo splints kept padded to avoid skin damage. Splints are retained in position by thread with knots (Fig.4).

A 2^nd layer fevicol gum is applied over entire bandage & finally the entire bandage cloth is covered with bandage roll (Fig.5).

At the end the immobilized limb is over strengthened with Thomas splint (Fig. 6).

To know the method of immobilization of the limb after repair of the transected gastrocnemius tendon (tendo achiles).

Procedure

The immobilization procedure of limb after gastrocnemius tendon repair is done in 2 stages.

1^ST Stage

Immobilization of limb for avoiding movement at tendon suture site.

It is done by placing the sutured area within a pre- fabricated metal frame so as to keep the limb undisturbed at the suture site.

The frame is given in Figure 1.

The purpose of addition of the metal frame is to immobilize the limb keeping the fetlock and foot away from in a flexed manner to avoid weight bearing during healing period.

The limb is immobilized with netted bamboo splint (Fig. 2).

The immobilized limb is placed within the metal frame keeping the fetlock and foot in a flexed manner

In contrast to the earlier and existing non-sustainable land use practices, agro forestry presents a more dynamic, productive and sustainable solution to the increasing demand of food, fodder, timber and other agricultural and tree goods. According to the United Nations,the world population was more than 7 billion in 2011 which is expected to go up to 9.3 billion by the mid-century. Consequently food production needs to be increased by over 60% by the year 2050. Agroforestry, which is a multifunctional, ecologically based, natural resource management system can help in dealing with such environmental, economic or social issues.

Introduction
 
Safety is one of the first, and most important, things to consider when we decide to apply the pesticides indoors to treat or prevent a pest infestation. If proper safety measures are not followed, the outcome may be harmful or fatal. Perhaps all of us more or less aware about the fact that there is no pesticide which is “absolutely safe” to human or other non target organisms. But we may call some are safer than others.

We usually use pesticide of various kinds in and around our home. We use these products to control insects (insecticides), termites (termiticides), rodents (rodenticides), fungi (fungicides) and microbes (disinfectants).

Introduction

Soil organisms contribute to the maintenance of soil quality in that they control the decomposition of plant and animal materials, biogeochemical cycling of elements, including nitrogen fixation; the formation of soil structure and the fate of organics and inorganics applied to soils. Soils and their biodiversity thus play a critical role in maintaining soil health. Non-return or diminished return of organic matter and residues deprive the soil biota of their food with loss of soil health and fertility. A large, diverse, and active population of soil organisms is the most important indicator of a healthy soil. The effects of physical and chemical degradation of soils are obvious. But the effects of biological degradation which is caused due to loss of specific soil organic matter (SOM) fractions (and consequently the loss of microbial species/communities dependent on them for nutrition) as well as and specific toxicity influences on soil flora and fauna are insidious. Proper management of soil biodiversity will help in sustainable agriculture and reduce the cost of external inputs especially for nutrient supply and crop protection.

Introduction

Soil biology is the study of the complex system of interrelationships existing among living organisms and their abiotic (physical and chemical) and biotic (living) environments and themselves. The abiotic factors in the environment determine the ability of organisms to live and reproduce. The chemical and physical sampling and analyses provide a broad picture of the parameters that define the aquatic environment. Biological investigation of soil can determine the extent of soil function and activity. To address environmental issues and increase land’s productive potential, we must now go beyond erosion control, soil fertility enhancement and management for soil quality.

Object: Preparation of solutions. 

Material required: Volumetric flask, measuring cylinder, beakers, pipettes, balance, distilled water and chemicals. 

Theory: The use of solution is common in experimental procedures of plant physiology. It is very important for a student to be familiar with their preparation. The substance dissolved in a solution is called solute and the medium in which it is dissolved is known as solvent. Solutions of two liquids (e.g. alcohol in water) and solid in liquid (e.g. NaCl in water) are most common. Solutions are thus a homogenous mixture of a solute in a solvent. 

Object: Growth analysis: Calculation of growth parameters. 

Material required: Primary data collected from individual plants or derived from whole canopies. 

Theory: The growth analysis study provides information on the growth of plants or of a plant community in a precise way with the available’ raw data. The study also provides precise information on the nature of plant and environment interaction in a particular habitat.

Abstract

Water Crisis or scarcity can be explained as when demand for fresh water goes high in comparison to the supply of fresh water. The condition is the cause when there is a high rate of aggregate demand from all water using sectors like food, agriculture etc. are compared with available supply under prevailing institutional and infrastructural conditions. It is evident from economic competition from water quantity and quality, disputes between users, irreversible depletion of ground water, and negative impacts on the environment. Water crisis is actually a relative and dynamic concept irrespective of any level of supply and demand. It is a social construct and its causes are directly related to human interference with the water cycle. This scarcity varies over time due to natural hydrological variability. But the stronger reasons could be more of functions of prevailing economic policy, planning and management approaches. 

Abstract

Arsenic, although a non-metal, is very often referred to as a heavy metal. Its provenance and contents in recently formed or least weathered soils depend on the type of rocks and intensity of geochemical processes. The variation is exemplified in shale, where As content varies from 1 to 900 mg kg-1. In highly weathered soils, where pedochemical processes exceed geochemical processes, the content is generally below the levels that are toxic to life forms. In the Bengal basin, As content is low in soils, but high in the ground water (beneath the vadose zone). This suggests that As has been sufficiently leached from soils. The solubility of most of the As-bearing soil minerals is high, and it occurs as anions (AsO33-, or AsO43-) in soil solution. The soils of the Bengal basin are alkaline in reaction, mostly fine textured with almost even distribution of particle size fractions, and moderately drained. Minerals like micas and feldspars dominate their coarse fractions, whereas illite (40-47%) and smectite (24-30%) are dominant in clay fractions. Both inorganic and organic colloids are negatively charged that cannot retain anions. In many soils in the world, leaching of As is well documented. 

Abstract
 
The field experiment was conducted during rabi season at the Baruipur Research Farm of the Calcutta University using treatments as T1-NPK 100%, T2- Compost 100%, T3- Compost 50%+NPK 50%, T4-Vermicompost. 100%, T5- Vermicompost 50%+NPK 50%, T6-FYM 100%, T7-FYM 50%+NPK 50%, in a Randomised Block Design (RBD) replicated thrice.  The results show that the amount of available N content in soil  has been found to be increased with the progress of crop growth upto 45 days of crop growth and thereafter, the amount of the same decreased with the crop growth irrespective of treatments. The amount of P content in soil has been found to be increased with different treatments, being maintained highest amount (18.30 kg/ha) in the treatment Vermicompost 50%+ NPK50% followed by the treatment where 100% NPK and 100 % vermicompost were applied. The results show that the amount of K content in soil was increased initially and thereafter, the amount of the same decreased with the progress of crop growth.

Abstract

In view of the fast depletion of ground water reserves, uncertainty of rains and growing food demands due to human population explosion, efficient use of water available for crops has become highly relevant. In recent years, the use of superabsorbent polymers (saps) has been viewed as an innovative tool to improve water use efficiency in agricultural operations. Pusa Hydrogel, an indigenous superabsorbent hydrogel technology, has been developed for improving water use efficiency of agricultural and horticultural crops. They can absorb a minimum of 400 times of their dry weight of pure water and gradually release it according to the needs of the crop plant. So, it is used as soil moisture conservator and reduces number of irrigation. Because of their neutral ph, they do not affect nutrient availability, soil chemical composition, action of other agro chemicals, viz. fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, etc. Pusa hydrogels are found to improve the physical properties of soils. Increase in porosity results in improvement in seed germination and rate of seedling emergence, root growth and density, and reduced soil erosion due to reduction in soil compaction. It also increases biological/microbial activities in the soil, which increase oxygen/air and nutrient availability in root zone of the plant. So, ultimately it is helpful for increasing crop productivity. 

Abstract 

A field investigation entitled, “Studies on growth and yield of aerobic rice in summer season under various moisture regimes and planting techniques in upland condition” was carried out at Regional Research Station, Gayeshpur, Nadia, West Bengal of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya. The field experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. The treatment consisted of three irrigation regimes in main plots viz., IW/CPE =1.0, IW/CPE =1.5 and IW/CPE = 2.0 and four treatments on planting techniques in sub plots viz., P1: Sprouted seeds, P2: Non-sprouted seed, P3: Soaking seeds overnight (12 hrs), P4: Soaking seeds overnight (12 hrs) followed by shade drying.

Precision Farming

Precision farming is a concept of proper crop management based on the observation, technology, measurement and response during inter and intra field variability in crops. It is also known as satellite farming or site specific crop management (SSCM).It is an application of right things, in right place, in the right way and at the right time. It has three main requirements viz. first identify various field location, second capture, interpret and analyzed the data in a proper scale & frequency and third, adjust the input with farming practices for efficient economic yields. There are 17 Precision Farming Development Centers (PFDC) located in different agro-climatic zones of India. It is mostly exist in SAUS, ICAR Institute and IIT Kharagpur. 

Male Reproductive System

Male reproductive system (Fig. 15) consists of testes, epididymis, vas deferens and papillae.

Cocks have two ovoid creamy white testes, of which the left one is slightly larger than the right. Testes are located in the fore end of the kidneys in the abdominal cavity. Closely attached to the testes is short epididymis that continues as vas deferens which ends in the cloaca. The copulatory apparatus consists of two papillae and a rudimentary copulatory organ, the phallus which is located on the median ventral portion of one of the transverse folds of cloaca. Accessory reproductive organs like seminal vesicles, prostrate and Cowper’s glands are absent in the cocks. The phallus is small and has associated lymph glands that produce a fluid which is added to the semen.

The spermatozoa pass through the epididymis and are stored in the distal end of the vas deferens. The sperm after mating is stored in the folds in the oviduct of the hen to effect fertility up to six days. The spermatozoa of the cock have a long cylindrical head with a pointed acrosome, a short mid-piece and a long tail. Cocks produce about 0.5 -1 ml of whitish semen per ejaculate with a sperm concentration of 2- 4 billion.

Importance of Backyard Poultry Farming in India

Commercial chicken production in India has undergone a remarkable change in the last three decades. While India is among the top five chicken producing and top seven duck producing countries in the world, the gap between the demand and production is still alarming. Average per capita availability of eggs in big cities is 170 while it stands at 9 eggs per annum in the rural areas. Though the commercial poultry sector has made a stupendous progress over the years, the conventional free and backyard poultry farming remain neglected. Backyard poultry farming contributes around 11% to the national production while in certain states like U.P. around 60% of the poultry population is indigenous fowls reared under backyard system. The backyard sector contributed to 23 per cent of the total egg production in 2005-06.

Commercial chicken production is capital intensive and is generally concentrated in and around urban areas. There is a wide disparity in consumption of the poultry products between urban and rural population. Around 75% of country’s population living in the rural areas has limited access to the protein rich poultry products. Protein deficiency is quite common in the diets of rural people. Adoption of rural poultry farming may ameliorate the high incidence of protein hunger in growing children and pregnant women.

It has been seen that the commercial birds have poor immunity against common poultry diseases. As production is inversely proportional to the viability traits, the nutrients absorbed are mostly diverted for growth in commercial chicken. On the other hand, indigenous birds reared in rural areas are resistant to many diseases and pests. Unlike the local breeds maintained in villages, the commercial breeds require high level of input pertaining to feed and health care to maintain production and check mortality.

Poultry industry in India has registered a phenomenal growth during the last four decades making it one among the world leaders in poultry production. The development of organized poultry has in fact masked the contribution of backyard poultry or house-hold poultry of rural sector. Backyard poultry production in India is characterized by small flock size consisting of 5-10 predominantly non-descript birds maintained in extensive system under zero input conditions but fetch the owners much needed animal protein and supplementary income. Importance of backyard poultry is well recognized by Government of India and special programmes are formulated for its promotion.

Non-descript Chicken

Maintaining small flocks of local non-descript fowls under free range condition by landless poor, small and marginal farmers are a common sight in rural areas. These birds are very popular due to their adaptability to local agro climatic conditions and management practices with prominent brooding behaviour and mothering ability. But these birds are small in size, poor layers (40-50 eggs/ annum), with small clutch size and intense brooding behavior, thus making them not suitable for commercial exploitation.

Mixed farming exists in many forms depending on external and internal factors. External factors are weather patterns, market prices, technological developments, etc. Internal factors relate to local soil characteristics, composition of the family and farmers’ ingenuity. Farmers can decide to opt for mixed enterprises when they want to save resources by interchanging them on the farm - because these permit wider crop rotations and thus reduce dependence on chemicals, because they consider mixed systems closer to nature, or because they allow diversification for better risk management. There is wide variation in mixed systems. Even pastoralists practice a form of mixed farming since their livelihood depends on the management of different feed resources and animal species. Mixed farms are systems that consist of different parts, which together should act as a whole. They thus need to be studied in their entirety and not as separate parts in order to understand the system and the factors that drive farmers and influence their decisions. It may be the most important principle to achieve increased production in mixed systems, together with the awareness that crops and animals have multiple functions.

Vices of poultry are undesirable behavioural pattern manifested by the bird in the flock and spreads fast among the members resulting in financial losses.

Types of Vices

Pecking

Cannibalism

Egg eating

1    Dental formulae and eruption of tooth

2    Ageing based on rings of the horn

3    General appearance of animal

4    Longevity of different animals