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Introduction

India is bestowed with a wide variety of agro-climatic conditions and has unique comparative advantage for growing almost all horticultural crops (fruits and vegetables) in the country. Horticulture has remained as a major sub-sector of agriculture and forms an integral part of food and nutritional security, employment generation and enhancing the farm income. The growing economic importance of these crops could be attributed to increasing demands in domestic as well as in overseas market. The total area under fruit is 6.10 million hectare and total production is 68.47 million tonnes which accounts for 11 per cent of the world total fruit production (Anonymous, 2009).

Since, there is a limited scope to enhance the horticultural production in traditionally growing areas, emphasis has to be laid on harnessing the potential of vast wasteland and dry land spread over more than half of the geographical area of the country. Dry and rainfed area constitutes a major share of wasteland and untapped land resource where several indigenous horticultural crop species can be commercially exploited to strengthen the agro-based industries and providing the livelihood to the masses.

Pattern of Growth Flushes in a Bearing Tree

Two or three peak periods of growth are usually observed in a bearing cashew tree, even though under favourable conditions the stray shoot growth may occur almost every month. The pattern of growth of a bearing tree consists of a generative flower flush (reproductive) and a vegetative flush. The vegetative flush, consisting of lateral shoots, always develops soon after the main crop has matured. Flowering is terminal and is universally preceded by the vegetative flush.

There are two types of branching in cashew, intensive and extensive.

Boost to crop production has been the ultimate goal of researchers involved in agriculture so as to feed the ever-increasing human and domestic herbivorous animal populations. Crop production is not only constrained by the limited inherent potential of available varieties currently in use, but is also largely affected by the limitations of soil nutrient availability and damages by diseases, insects and weeds. To counter later challenges, augmentation of soil nutrients through use of biofertilizers in integrated nutrient management programmes and restricting the use of chemical pesticide by integrating biopesticides in plant protection programmes has received much attention in recent years because of consumer’s preference for organic food.

Common name    :    English- Rangoon creeper
        Hindi- Madhumalti
        Odia- Madhumalati

Family    :    Combretaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
It is a climbing shrub (Fig. 89 a), cultivated widely in gardens and distributed throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is a twining climber blooming profusely throughout summer and can reach up to 70 feet in tropical climate. The leaves are elliptic-oblong and 7-15 cm long. Flowers are scented, pink-white to reddish-white in colour and grow in pendent racemes with a very fast rate. The plant flowers and bears fruits in most parts of the year.

In countries like India where majority of the population are vegetarians, leguminous vegetables serve as the major source of protein in the diet. In the developing third world countries, especially for the poor, the major protein source in the diet are vegetable legumes. Most leguminous vegetables are rich in phosphorus, calcium, iron and a number of essential vitamins. Crops like soybean, groundnut and Bamabara groundnut are also rich in fats which are needed by the body to absorb vitamin A.

Cinnamon butterfly: Chilasa clytia clytia : Papilionidae

Larvae defoliate plants. The larvae are pests on many crop plants and weeds and are common in the plains. The larvae are jet black at hatching. They develop a series of broad white patches. The adult is a common butterfly rich velvety brown, and spotted with white dots. The hind wings have arrow shaped streaks and crescent shaped spots.

Abstract

Increases in atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ are likely to have major physiological consequences for plants, due to the major effects of atmospheric CO₂ on photosynthetic rates and the centrality of photosynthesis to plant metabolism. We review what is known about the effects of growth at elevated levels of CO₂ on the protein and N concentrations of plants in general, and food crops in particular. Growth at elevated CO₂ typically reduces plant tissue N concentrations by 10-15%. The physiological mechanisms behind this decrease in tissue protein and N are likely complex, and include both dilution from increased tissue concentrations of non-structural carbohydrates and decreased root uptake of N.

VAM fungi are of worldwide distribution. They are present in the soil in form of chlamydospores, zygospores and azygospores and have been recovered from the soils of a variety of habitats e.g. agricultural fields, nutrient deficient soils, sand dunes and deserts, industrial wastes, sodic soils, polluted sites, sewage, eroded sites and others like forests, open woodlands, scrub, savana, heaths, grasslands, anthracite and bituminous coal wastes. There are several reports of VAM fungi from diverse habitats from India.

VA-mycorrhizal associations occur widely throughout the plant kingdom. They have  been reported to be present in Bryophytes, Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms and Angiosperms in nearly all the geographical regions of the world. Most of the agricultural and horticultural crops belonging to diverse families have been shown to form VA-mycorrhizae. Many species of plants of economically important families have been reported to be mycorrhizal. Likewise, many of the plantation crops like coffee, tea, citrus, timber trees, many of the fruit trees and medicinal plants have been shown to form VA-mycorrhiza.

Abstract

The available data revealed that the area under temperate fruits in Uttaranchal was about 1.4 lakh ha, which was more than 60 per cent of total area under fruit crops, whereas the production per annum was to the tune of 44.50 per cent  of the total fruit production in the state. The productivity status of apple (1.38 t/ha) was very low as compared to national average productivity of 4.98 t/ha. Unfortunately, the prevailing constraints such as non-availability of elite planting material; lack of technical know how; dry land horticulture; high cost of production, lack of credit awareness and availability; small and fragmented land holding; old and senile orchard; lack of transport and communication facilities; poor mechanization; lack of efficient marketing system and post harvest infrastructure do not allow the farmers to take advantage of the emerging opportunities in temperate fruit production.

Introduction

Nitrogen (N) fertilization assured centre stage for enhancing food production in developing countries especially after the introduction of high yielding and fertilizer responsive crop varieties. Almost half of the human population relies on N fertilizer for food production (Ladha et al., 2005), and about 56 percent of the N fertilizer is used for producing rice, maize, and wheat (IFA, 2002). It has contributed an estimated 40% to the increase in per capita food production over the past 50 years (Smil, 2002). However, excess use of chemical N fertilizer may negatively affect surface water, as well as groundwater, and the atmosphere (through leaching and runoff) through volatilization of N (Galloway et al., 2008).

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important vegetable crops cultivated in the world. It is used as raw in salads and also used as cooked vegetable in the preparation of curries. Processed items such as tomato puree, ketchup, pickle, chutney, whole peeled tomatoes and tomato powder are also consumed considerably. It is a rich source of Vitamins A & C. Lycopene and other flavonoids in tomato serve as good source of antioxidants. Tomato occupies 5 million hectares with a productivity of 34t/ha. in the world. In India it is cultivated in an area of 0.88 million hectares with productivity of 21 t/ha.

R    :    Gas constant.

R factors  R plasmids      :    Plasmids bearing one or more drug resistant genes.

R group    :    Shorthand for the side chain of an amino acid. 

INTRODUCTION

“An insect is like an old-fashion soldier: it does what it is ordered to do, and when it has no orders it does nothing” (a citation from Wright, 1963). The orders are very often given as chemical signals that induce certain behaviour or change the course of development in the insect. Chemical communication appears to be the primary mode of information transfer in insects. These chemicals are able to modify the behaviour of a perceiving organism at sub-micro/nanogram levels and are known as semiochemicals. The term is derived from the Greek Word Simeone, meaning a mark of a signal. These behaviour modifying chemicals are divided into two broad categories.

The Begonia family has a tropical and subtropical distribution in America, Asia and Africa. With approximately 100 species and 10,000 cultivated hybrids, they are very important as ornamental plants.A few reports describe Begonia as edible; the highest number of these species is found in America, some in Asia, and we have only one report of an edible Begonia in Africa.

The Begonia family has a tropical and subtropical distribution in America, Asia and Africa. There are approximately 600 species in America, and the same number in Asia.

Africa, including Madagascar and the Mascarenes, has 158 reported species, one third of which are endemic to Madagascar and associated Isles (Mascarenes, Seychelles and Comoros). Only ones species, B. grandis Dryander, is widely distributed in temperate regions, extending northwards near Beijing (Forrest & Hollingsworth, 2003; Plana, 2003).

Definition
The residue of incineration at 550-600ºC is the crude ash.

Reagent
Dilute hydrochloric acid -approximately 5 N prepared from concentrated hydrochloric acid. Dissolve 445 ml conc. hydrochloric acid (about 36 percent HCl) in one litre distilled water. 

Procedure for Total Ash Estimation
Take a vitreosil crucible in oven at 100ºC for six hours, remove and keep it in a desiccator and weigh up to constant weight. About 5-10 g of sample is taken in the weighted vitreosil crucible. The material in the crucible is charred on a low flame and the crucible is then kept in muffle furnace and temperature is allowed to raise to 600ºC and kept constant for two hours. It is removed on cooling and kept in a desiccator  and weight of crucible is taken.

Biological control of disease employs natural enemies of pests or pathogens to eradicate or control their population. Interactions that lead to biocontrol can include antibiosis, competition, induction of host resistance, and predation. Some of the microbial taxa that have been successfully commercialized and are currently marketed include bacteria belonging to the genera Agrobacterium, Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Streptomyces and fungi belonging to the genera Ampelomyces, Candida, Coniothyrium and Trichoderma.

•Dual Culture Technique: For in vitro screening, performance of antagonist isolates in dual culture (Morton and Stroube, 1955) with test pathogen can be tested.

•Pour 15-20 ml of sterilized melted PDA in 9 cm Petriplates and allowed to solidify.

•Place the bits (5 mm) of the test pathogen and antagonist on the PDA plates opposite to each other from 1.0 cm from the periphery of plates (if both are fast growing) or place it 2-3 cm apart (if both are slow growing).

•The Petriplates are incubated (at 28 ± 2^oC) for desired duration.

•Periodical observation on the growth of the antagonists and the ability of the antagonist to colonise the pathogen are recorded.

Fat-rich dairy products such as cream, makhan, butter, butter oil and ghee have played a pivotal role in growth and development of dairy industry in India as well as abroad from the time immemorial. The reference of makhan and ghee has been found in old Indian scriptures. Makhan was popularized by Lord Krishna about 5000 years before. In the traditional Indian dietary regimen, milk fat in the form of malai (cream), makhan (freshly churned butter) contributes significantly towards nourishment of people of almost all ages.

Indian dairy industry, over the years, has been converting surplus milk for the manufacture of fat-rich dairy products, especially ghee and butter with skimmilk as a byproduct because of technological and economic reasons. More than one-third of the total milk production is being utilized for the production of ghee and butter wherein milk lipids, the most expensive constituents of milk are conserved and preserved. Milk lipids play many diverse roles, some of which are essential for human health. Many of the desirable flavour and textural attributes of dairy products are due to their lipid components, consequently, butterfat has, traditionally, been highly valued. Significance of fat can also be realized from the fact that the consumer’s perception of food quality is largely based on the perceivable rich taste. Unfortunately, milk lipids are subject to chemical and enzymatic alterations which can cause flavour defects referred to as oxidative and hydrolytic rancidity, respectively. The storage stability of high-fat products is strongly influenced by these changes.

Synchronization of estrus is making a group of cows to come into estrus at the same time.  Effective estrus detection requires much time, labour, skill and expense and it is a major limiting factor in artificial insemination programme in cattle.  It was the principal stimulus that led to research in the development of progestational and prostaglandin compounds. 

Advantages

1.     Improve the efficiency of heat detection

2.     Management tool, better planning of breeding activities and wider use of artificial insemination 

3.     Solve problem of unobserved estrus

4.     Maintain short calving interval

5.     Overall improvement in herd productivity and reproductive efficiency

6.     Controlled lactation

7.     Management of replacement heifers

8.     Useful in embryo transfer programmes

9.     Reduce labour

10.     Possibly reduce involuntary culling for reproductive reasons

Introduction

Agriculture has always been vulnerable to fragile environmental conditions of dry areas, where droughts of varying amplitude and frequency influenced by insufficient and uncertain rainfall are common features. Recent anthropogenic activities have accelerated the rate of green house gas (GHGs) accumulation in atmosphere influencing atmospheric temperature and local patterns of temperature and precipitation, which ultimately affect agricultural production and food securities. About 35.5 percent of the total world’s population resides in dry areas, which is facing the problems of land degradation and food securities.

Object: Yield estimation of kharif crops.

Material required: Polythene bags, balance, gunny bags or baskets, pans and harvesting equipment like sickle, knife etc.

Theory: Yield is the ultimate objective of cultivating agricultural plants. Different plant parts constitute the economic yield in different crops, like grain in cereals, pulses and oil seeds, vegetative parts or fruits in record yield at the correct maturation stage. Do not allow excessive wilting or drying of the material. Estimate yield in a sufficiently large sample. Materials required only a representative crop to estimate yields. (Do not select plants of any particular type. Do not damage any plant part vegetable crops; bark or out growth in fiber crops (jute, cotton); and the entire plant in fodder crops. The yield per unit area (per M₂ or ha) is the product of yield per plant multiplied by the number of plants per unit area. It is, therefore, essential to know the yield components per plant as well as per unit area.