eChapters

Introduction

Cultivation of crops in greenhouse or protected structure has been increased tremendously in recent times and also has been spread from temperate regions to the warmer regions of tropics and subtropics. Plentiful technologies have been developed for heating the inside environment of greenhouse for optimum plant growth (Sethi et al. 2013). However, in hot arid areas, cultivation in greenhouse is very difficult as the temperature reaches to a very high level to sustain plant growth (Pek and Hayles 2004, Saran et al. 2010). Under such situation requirement for cooling the greenhouse microclimate environment is the necessity, but is very energy and water intensive. Hence, in such regions, reduction of air temperature inside the greenhouse or the regulation of temperature closer to the ambient temperature during summer is necessary for successful crop production. A typical diurnal variation of temperature and global solar radiation during late winter months inside a shade net structure has been plotted in Fig. 18.1. It has been found that global solar radiation has been decreased to almost 1/3 of the radiation received outside by using 75% shade net cover. The temperature inside structure during morning time has also been found higher than outside temperature and in summer such increase is expected to be much higher.

Therefore, cooling is considered as the basic necessity for greenhouse crop production in tropical and subtropical regions to overcome the problems of high temperatures during summer months. Development of suitable cooling system that provides congenial microclimate for crop growth is a difficult task as the design is closely related to the local environmental conditions. Different cooling techniques for greenhouse crop cultivation may be found in Kumar et al. (2009). Fan pad cooling system has been widely used for greenhouse cultivation however, requires large amount of water during evaporation based cooling. Since water resources are becoming scarce in future such fan-pad cooling system may not be viable in future specifically in hot arid region.

The application of (VCRS) Vapour compressor refrigeration system is in the air conditioners (window, split, central or precision), car air conditioners, domestic refrigerator etc. The different parts of a domestic refrigerator are: in the hermetical sealed compressor, air cooled condenser, capillary tube, thermo expansion device, filter, rotameter, solenoid valve, temperature control sensor.

Abstract

Soil Resource Appraisal helps in characterizing the existing land resources, assessing their suitability for various land uses and then helping the user to prepare a rational land use plan suitable for the integrated development of the area. Application of Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) helps not only in the characterization of the resource base, but also in the generation of various thematic maps and preparation of land use and action plans for effective implementation of various developmental plans at farm level.

Keywords : Soil Resource Appraisal, Land Use Plan, Farm level Developmental Plans

1.0 Introduction

A thorough knowledge and understanding of soils is basic to the development and management of agricultural resources. About 100 years ago, man began systematic study of soils in the field and tried to separate, classify and map their geographic distri­bution. Today we have sufficient knowledge about soils; however the characterisation, classification and mapping of soils is still tedious, time consuming and costly affair. Therefore the need for adopting new and more rapid and accurate methods of mapping soils has resulted in the use of satellite images with image interpretation techniques for soil survey and map­ping.

In India for the country as a whole, soil and other land resources information is available at 1:1 M scale, which was generated from the state level mapping done at 1:250,000 scale under the Soil Resources Mapping Project of India during the period from 1986 to 1995. This information is of general nature and useful for planning on a wide canvas and not particularly useful for farm or watershed level planning in the country. For site-specific needs and for developmental works at watershed level, we need detailed farm level database at 1:10,000 scale. Once this type of information is generated at village/watershed level, this will be useful for identifying site specific constraints, generation of area and site specific agro technologies, land-use options based on soil site suitability assessment, wasteland identification, identification of prime farm lands and farm clusters for zoning and Strategic planning, preparation of farm level development plans by line departments and proactive advice and technology transfer to farmers.

ABSTRACT

Petroleum exploration is the art of searching hydrocarbon reserves in unknown regions by geological, geophysical and geochemical methods. The selection of effective exploration targets is an important step to achieve success in oil exploration and its selection also dependents on study of basic petroleum geological conditions. Petroleum geologists generally consider basins to be a basic geological unit for petroleum exploration and their main task is to find and determine various sedimentary basins. The remote sensing images have characteristics of really and macroscopic to provide accurate and visualization data for directly determining geometric shapes of sedimentary basins. Remote sensing techniques are more effective in understanding the study of basins in an out-of-the-way about mountains and remote deserts.

Key words: Petroleum Exploration, Sedimentary basin, geology, basin, geometry.

Greenhouses have become an essential part of modern agriculture as they offer controlled environments for plant growth, research, and horticultural practices. This chapter discusses the various applications of greenhouses, which include extending growing seasons, improving crop yields, supporting botanical research, and producing ornamental plants. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of repair and maintenance in greenhouse operations. Understanding the repair and maintenance protocols is crucial to ensure the sustained functionality of heating systems, water management, and structural components.

7.1 General

Science and technology have been advancing rapidly, but unfortunately, their impact has been largely negative. Pollution is not the only issue we face today, but also the depletion of fossil fuels, climate change, and excessive land degradation. The persistent presence of heavy metals in soil poses a significant threat to our planet. Many efforts have been made to remediate soils contaminated with toxic chemicals.

There are several issues that need urgent attention at the moment, and a solution is necessary to tackle them all at once. Biochar is a great option because of its numerous benefits, such as a large surface area, high porosity, high carbon sequestration rate, excess nutrients, and potential to produce syngas and bio oil. By using biochar, we can reduce the bioavailability of pollutants in soil, combat climate change by sequestering carbon, and reduce the use of fossil fuels by producing syngas and bio-oil. Additionally, biochar improves soil health, which can contribute to food security.

Term Biotechnology was first coined in 1919 by Karl Ereky which means products are produced from raw materials with the aid of living organisms.

Bio means life.

Technology means application of knowledge for practical use.

In agriculture, sensors can monitor soil, water, vegetation, and environmental conditions. They assist farmers in enhancing crop quality, optimizing water usage, and making informed fertilizer choices.
CROP MONITORING
The primary function of remote sensing in agriculture is to assess crop health. Optical (VIR) sensing enables the observation of wavelengths beyond the visible spectrum, such as infrared; these wavelengths are highly responsive to crop vitality, damage, and stress. Recent advancements in this technology have enabled farmers to monitor their fields and execute prompt crop management decisions. Remote sensing for crop identification facilitates the detection of crops impacted by weather-related circumstances, pests, and other factors.
Pest Detection
Drones can administer insecticides and herbicides with greater precision, reducing chemical consumption and environmental repercussions. Drones can minimize chemical application by targeting specific regions impacted by pests or weeds, thereby safeguarding beneficial insects and mitigating the danger of pesticide resistance. Drones can also be utilized to deploy biological control agents, including beneficial insects or fungi, to address pest issues in an environmentally sustainable way.
Irrigation Management
A primary application of UAV technology in smart agriculture is crop irrigation management, which enhances water consumption efficiency by delivering the precise quantity of water at the most suitable location and time. UAVs equipped with suitable sensors can identify regions of a crop that necessitate supplementary irrigation. This positively impacts overall crop productivity. The

Drones have transformed agricultural operations, especially in crop monitoring, by providing farmers with an efficient and economical method to collect real-time data on their crops. Drones, outfitted with sophisticated sensors, cameras, and imaging technology, can obtain intricate aerial perspectives of extensive agricultural landscapes. This enables farmers to oversee crop health, identify early indicators of diseases, pests, and nutrient deficits, and evaluate water levels or irrigation requirements. Drones offer essential insights for precision agriculture, enabling farmers to make informed decisions that enhance output, minimize resource use, and improve overall crop management. Drones’ capacity to swiftly and precisely cover extensive regions has rendered them an essential instrument in contemporary agriculture.
UNDERSTANDING DRONE CROP MONITORING
Crop monitoring using drones is the deployment of drones fitted with specialized sensors and imaging systems to collect data regarding crops and their environment. The data undergoes processing and analysis, yielding outcomes that offer farmers practical insights to enhance crop output, decrease input costs, and mitigate environmental effect. The goal is to employ technology to enhance understanding of crop performance, so enabling more informed management decisions.
The procedure for drone crop monitoring generally encompasses the subsequent steps:

Farm tractor designs and styles differ greatly. Tractors are often used on a daily basis for several agricultural and non-agricultural tasks by attaching or operating light, medium to heavy implements, equipment and machineries according to the requirement and hp of tractors. Tractors are very versatile and can be used on sandy (light textured), loamy (medium textured) and clayey (heavy textured) soil at different topographic and agro-climatic conditions. Earlier, the proportion of tractor usage in agricultural and non-agricultural work was 70:30. This proportion has increased to about 55: 45 over the past two to three years. It is expected to reach 50:50 in (agricultural:non-agricultural applications) in the coming years. The major application of farm tractors for agricultural and non-agricultural sectors is given below.

2.1 INTRODUCTION

GIS is a tool that can be used in varied disciplines ranging from civil engineering to business. Remote sensing data is often brought into GIS to have a complete data set in many natural resource application areas. Full capability of GIS is not used widely. Many a times people use GIS only for digitising maps and to do simple query on maps. But it can also be used in modeling, simulation and forecasting, only then one may regard GIS technology is utilised to its full potential. Some GIS softwares handle simple problems for location based services while other complex softwares posses advanced modules to do all types of spatial, network and 3D analysis. Integration of softwares used in natural resources study are being interfaced with GIS to create scenarios.

Remote sensing and GIS technology is useful in the following fields:

Water is a primary source of life and sustains all human activities such as domestic needs, agriculture, industries etc. The allocation and management of water resources is becoming a difficult task due to increasing demands, decreasing supply and diminishing quality. This calls for judicious use of water resources. The geomorphology describes the environment in which the hydrological processes operate. A strong mutual correlation exists between geomorphological variables and hydrological characteristics. Such relationship can be applied to both surface and groundwater regime. Thus the linking of geomorphological parameters with hydrological characteristics of the basin provides a simple way to understand the hydrogeomorphological behaviour of different basins and particularly of un-gauged basins.

During the last few years various applications of hydrogeomorphology with reference to the Geographic Information System (GIS) and various other techniques have emerged as an extensively effective tool for analyzing and prioritizing natural resource management alternatives. Because natural resource management problems are spatial in nature the GIS technology provides a tool for defining the extent of the problem, and facilitates the design and implementation of alternative management strategies. The GIS is used to estimate the hydrogeomorphological parameters of the watershed, which can be used in watershed planning and management at micro and macro levels. The results of the study can be utilized to infer the hydrological features like runoff potential, infiltration and groundwater recharge of the region. Some of the applications of hydrogeomorphological studies are described below:

Mulching

The technique of covering the soil with plastic films or natural crop left over (residues) for soil and water conservations is called mulching.

This technique was practiced by farmers using dry leaves straw, trash, stones etc to conserve water. Presently plastic film have come into use for the purpose of mulching due to inherent advantages.

Abstract

Remote sensing is the art and science of obtaining information about an object or phenomenon without having any contact with the object concerned. Geographical information system is a tool to create, manage, retrieve and query spatial databases. Remote sensing in conjunction with Geographical Information System (GIS) has wide applications in all spheres of life and especially in agriculture. Specifically, this paper reveals some of the applications of remote sensing and GIS in the field of crop condition assessment viz., crop type classification, crop stress detection, crop yield estimation and pest and disease monitoring.

Keywords : Remote Sensing, GIS, Yield Forecasting, Crop Stress, Pest and Disease Monitoring

1.0 Introduction

Remote sensing is the art and science of obtaining information about an object or phenomenon without there being any physical contact. The information is so collected using a device called a sensor. The sensors are mounted on a platform at an advantageous position. Accordingly the remote sensing is called ground based (sensor is hand held or mounted on mast), air borne (sensor is on a balloon or aero plane) or space borne (sensor is mounted on a satellite). The basic principle in remote sensing is that each and every object has unique reflecting property like human thumb impression and when the solar energy is falling on an object a part of it gets reflected, which carries the information about the object. The reflected light is converted in to reflection percentage of incoming solar radiation. This percentage of reflection can be used to work out the vegetation indices which are surrogate measure of crop condition.

Geographical Information System (GIS) is software system which enable Collection of large volume of data with spatial relation Integration of data from different source is possible Analyze such data for our requirement Present the data in different formats (maps, table and reports)

Applications of Remote Sensing

The era of satellite remote sensing was open in the 1960s when cameras and electronic sensors were mounted on spacecraft. Nowadays there is a big assortment of satellite systems actively recording information about the Earth. A wide variety of imagery is available from satellites. Both active and passive sensors, operating from the microwave to the ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum collect a large amount of information about the earth’s surface every day. Each of the systems vary in terms of their spatial, spectral, radiometic and temporal resolution. Those characteristics play an important role in defining which applications the sensor is best suited for. The main benefits of satellite remote sensing are the following:

Abstract

Any country’s socio-economic development essentially depends on land and water resources. Resource depletion takes place when there is an overstretching due the exploding population, calling for prudent management of the resources. Application of remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) tools in the management of natural resources at different levels including watersheds is quite well known. In addition, applied geoinformatics are also used in research on management of these delicate resources also besides characterization. There is a continuous advent in technology in both hardware and software necessitating updation of application scientist/manager. Once an exclusive tool of elite institutions and government agencies, GISnow became an indispensible part of our day-to-day life. As the urge for information intensifies, new applications of GIS continue to evolve. A concerted effort is needed to develop an information system when vast expanses of natural resources are to be managed and a combination of information tools like remote sensing, global positioning system and GIS always updates the database effectively. However, the cost factor should not hinder the applications at micro level. This necessity calls for attention to popularize free and open sources of software (FOSS) and data (particularly digital elevation models (DEM) and satellite imagery) to put the techniques into use by enthusiasts at village level such that a database at a regional level can be built through participatory GIS. It is in this direc tion the av ailab le li terat ure on appl ied geoinformatics coupled with use of FOSS is reviewed and presented in this article to give an idea as to how an open ended information system could be developed to help the management.

Keywords: Natural resources, management, Remote sensing, GIS, FOSS, DEM

These three requirements are required to be followed in sequence for getting maximum benefits. However, integrated rural energy concept is a new area of work and not much experience is available in this field as compared to other rural development activities. It is difficult to give any guidelines for planning. One can only recommend approaches and not solutions to planning.

The rural area in developing countries are almost always rich in one or another sources of energy, which could be used separately or in combination with other sources in decentralized small scale units, or even on a household scale. Thus, the problem is one of good planning, management and a strong educational and promotions campaign, rather than the non availability of resources or the lack of technology. Further, after planning, prefect development of device and their effective operation is required.

The purpose of the Integrated Rural Energy Planning project should be clearly defined. It may design either for research and development or demonstration for Popularisation of system, education and training, promotion, health or combination of these.

It is usually better to start with a small size to gain experience and build up confidence before undertaking the large scale project. As defined earlier, one of primary requirement of Integrated Rural Energy Planning is to develop energy demand pattern, energy supply system and optimally match demand with supply.

6.1 Introduction

Aquaponics represents the relationship between water, aquatic life, bacteria, nutrient dynamics and plants, which grow together in waterways all over the world. Taking cues from nature, aquaponics harnesses the power of bio-integrating these individual components: exchanging the waste by-product from the fish as a food for the bacteria, to be converted into a perfect fertilizer for the plants, to return the water in a clean and safe form to the fish. Just like mother nature does in every aquatic ecosystem.

Aquaponics is basically a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics plant production in a close-loop water system where both vegetables and fish grow simultaneously. This is a closed-loop system and considered as highly efficient, produce more food compared to the traditional farming system. Importantly, it has virtually no waste and with double purpose, aquaponics farming might be an economical viable solution to the low provision of fish and vegetable in some countries. In many cases, aquaponics is advertised as a form of sustainable agriculture because it is water efficient, and has fewer environmental impacts than some forms of aquaculture. That is why, aquaponics is considered as super sustainable and highly efficient because of the healthy symbiotic relationships among the plants, fish and nitrogen-fixing bacteria as illustrated in Fig 6.1. As fish excrete into the water, the water is then pumped up to the plant beds, and bacteria break down the fish excrement so the plants can absorb it.

Aquaponics farming is quite different than hydroponics farming. As discussed in previous chapter, hydroponics is the process of growing plants in a soilless medium where nutrients are added to the water for the plants to absorb. Such systems are not as sustainable and viable as aquaponics because they require the addition of other supplemental nutrients to get desired plants growth. The quality of water decline with time and require proper disposal otherwise, it will contaminate water streams and other water sources. On the other hand, aquaponics incorporates fish to provide the natural fertilizers and nutrients plants need. This simple addition, eliminates the need to add “food” for plants. Best of all, aquaponics has a built in self-cleaning and filtration system that returns clean water to the fish. Aquaponics farming system can be more productive and economically feasible where land and water are limited. No doubt, aquaponics is complicated and requires considerable start-up costs. The production of fish and vegetables is the most visible output of aquaponics farming units. It is essential to understand that aquaponics is the management of a complete ecosystem that includes three major groups of organisms: fish, plants and bacteria.

An aquifer is a geologic formation, a part of a formation, or a group of formations that will yield water. The quantity of ground water that an aquifer will yield to wells depends partly on its thickness, extent, continuity, and homogeneity, and partly on its physical properties of permeability and porosity.

Groundwater is stored in subsurface void spaces below the water table. The geologic material that stores, transmits, and yields groundwater to wells and springs are called aquifers. The key word here is yields. To be an aquifer, it must store and transmit water at rates fast enough to supply reasonable amounts to wells and springs. Therefore, not all groundwater is stored in an aquifer. Productive aquifers can be comprised of sand and gravel, sandstone, limestone and dolomite, or basalt flows, whereas fractured igneous or metamorphic rocks are only marginal aquifers.

The classifications of aquifer are given below:

9.1 Introduction

The increase in world’s population and respective food demand has brought the global concern. The climate change alone has put a tremendous burden on the farming communities, and has become the major challenge to feed the burgeoning population. It has been estimated that by the end of the year 2050, the global population will be around 10 billion, meanwhile, the food demand will also be increased by 70-100 %. The traditional method of agricultural practices are not sufficient enough to meet the rising food demand. Therefore, to meet the increasing food demand, agriculture is intensified by the use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, which deteriorat the soil health. Thus, new automated/ mechanised systems have been introduced into the agriculture sector to ensure precision farming. These systems are quick in action, and satisfing the requirements along with generation of billions of employment worldwide. In a developing country like India, 65-70 per cent of the total population resides in rural areas, of which, most of the households are dependent on agriculture. The agriculture sector in India accounts for 18 per cent of the country’s GDP, and provide employment to 50 per cent of the total work force. The agriculture sector is one of the most sensitive sectors of Indian economy which supports all other sectors, and spreading its benefit to the far-reaching areas. Therefore, it becomes important for the developing country like India to develop agriculture sector to boost-up the rural economy.

With the advent of technology, a rapid transformation has been occurred in various industries, while agriculture remains the least digitized. Though, the application of aircraft/ drones in agriculture for fertilizer/ pesticides applications, image capturing, access to real-time quality data has adopted in some developed countries like Australia, USA, Japan, and some of the European countries. Moreover, these unmanned aerial vehicles could provide data of soil health, monitor crop health, assist in irrigation scheduling, yield estimation, and weather data analysis too. However, such development in agriculture is still lacking in developing countries. The agriculture development in the modern era could be done by taking the biological information and agricultural knowledge through integration of modern agriculture information technology with traditional agricultural practices. These knowledge integrations with mobile internet, cloud computing, and machine learning could enable to control the agricultural production system over stressed climate condition easily. Thus, Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is a sort of machine intelligence, an inbuilt set of programme and algorithms similar to the human brain in the current world is gaining more attention in agricultural application for precision farming.