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Introduction

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is equipment that combines the features of gas-liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify different substances within a test sample. Applications of GC-MS include drug detection, environmental analysis include pesticides residue in soil, water and plant crop produce, greenhouse gas quantification, food toxicants, assessment of antibiotic compounds, estimation of volatile organic compounds from biological systems besides identification of unknown compounds.

Gasification is a process that turns materials containing carbon, like wood, crops, coal, or waste, into a type of fuel called producer gas or syngas. This is done by heating the carbon-rich material with a controlled amount of oxygen at high temperatures. Gasification is a type of partial oxidation, which means using less oxygen than needed to burn the same amount of fuel. Knowing the necessary amount of air for the conversion process is important to run a gasifier correctly. This requires understanding the stoichiometry based on the composition of the biomass. A chemical formula for the biomass can be calculated by analyzing the elements present, which serves as the basis for estimating the air-fuel ratios through stoichiometric calculations. Gasification only uses 25 to 40% of the theoretical oxidant, producing heat for fuel conversion. In gasification, the main combustible products are carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

In recent years, there is gradual realization of the role of women in the field of agriculture & allied areas. Besides domestic work, they are involved in various types of field works relating to production of crops, milk, fish meat, egg, mushrooms & honey bee and other material. Employees in agriculture sector of the country, contributes nearby 80% of all economically active women (Bhatt, 2013). Therefore, rural India is now going through a process of “Feminization of Agriculture”.

Women are critical to the well-being of farm households. Besides child bearing and rearing, women are expected to prepare all meals, maintain the household jobs and assist in crop and animal production. Perhaps, ironically, it is because women who have so many responsibilities that they have been over-looked by agriculturalists and policy makers–it has been more convenient to label men as farmers and women as child raisers and cooks. Rural women form the most important productive work force in the economy of majority of the developing nations including India.

In spite of several efforts there still exists gender gap in the field of agriculture and allied areas. Closing the gender gap is not only the right thing to do; it is the smart thing to do for improved agriculture and food security for all. This was a key message for family farming interventions to close the gender gap.

World wide women play a major role in agriculture; including fisheries, forestry and livestock production. The nature and extent of their involvement is different in various agro production systems. Their role is diversified from management to landless labourer. In overall farm production, on an average women’s contribution is estimated at 55 to 66 per cent of the total labour (Singh, 2013).

Gender relates to socially assigned roles and responsibilities attributable to men and women. Gender roles are played by both women and men, which are not determined by biological factors, but by the socio-economic and cultural environment or situation (Mollel and Mtenga, 2000).

Women from poor households engage in a variety of income earning activities. In some cases, these activities supplement the contribution by males, while in others they are the primary or the sole source of household livelihoods (Kabeer 2003). Women are twice as likely as men to be involved in agricultural activities (Odame et al., 2002). According to Fernando (1998), activities, resources and opportunities of people are significantly influenced by gender that is, by the socio-economic and cultural dimension of being male or female. Moreover, different types of activities are generally allocated to women and men within the family with a view for subsistence production and marketable production. In most of the societies, tasks related to child bearing and care and maintenance of the household (cooking, fetching water and firewood) are assigned to women.

Pulse production is an integral part of food production, which helps in ensuring nutritional security by way of providing plant protein in human diet. In spite of several efforts, lots of people in third world countries suffer from nutritional deficiencies due to lack of balance diet. The women folk are the most sufferers, who are deprived of taking adequate quantity of protein rich food that helps in growth and development of human body.

Teaching, Research and Extension are interrelated and interwoven in development. It may be in any field, like agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry etc. Whenever we talk of extension, it implies the participation of clients in the program. Extension can never be defined without inclusion of participation of people. Extension approach means application of tools and methods by which we can reach people. The participation is the core value of extension but its use differs from situation to situation bringing out a degree of differences leading to variation in result. In extension the farmers are advised and the blue print prepared for them are recommended to be adopted. Such approach did not yield desirable result, as result regarding realization was under question the impact of extension on farming communities. The studies conducted on extension approaches tend to reveal poor result as the participants failed to own and shape the program designed for them.

Introduction Agriculture plays a vital role in human societies and economies around the world. It is the prime food source for human populations, ensuring a reliable supply of nutritious food for the health and well-being of people everywhere. It is a major contributor to the economy of many countries, particularly in the developing world, where it provides livelihoods for millions of people and supports local and national economies. Agriculture is both impacted by and contributes to climate change. However, sustainable agriculture cultivation can also help to reduce the consequences of climate change by decreasing emissions of greenhouse gas and increasing resilience to extreme weather events.

Introduction

Agriculture is that the back-bone of the economics of eveloping country likes India. It’s additionally the most “culture” for rural families even nowadays agriculture and allied activities build the one largest contribution to gross domestic product. Female are mother of the race and liaison between generations. Female’s role in agriculture and agricultural heritage described and recognized by the United Nations Organization (UNO) that has sustained the expansion of society wrought the long run of states. Within the rising advanced social state of affairs female have a role to play. Rural females are the foremost vital productive hands within the economy of majority of the developing nations together with India. Female are concerned all told the aspects of agriculture. India incorporates a preponderantly rural economy. Seventieth of her population is rural; of these households, have interaction in agriculture as their main supply of financial gain. It’s forever been India’s most vital economic sector. Female plays a significant role during this vital agricultural sector, as a result of it’s for the most part a ménage enterprise. Female in India are major producers of food in terms important, volume and variety of hours worked. Nearly 63% of all economically active men are engaged in agriculture as compared to seventy eight per cent of female. Nearly 50% of rural female employees are classified as agricultural labourers and thirty seventh as cultivators. Concerning 70% of farm work was performed by women. In several countries, women play a major and crucial role in agricultural development and agricultural allied fields together with, main crop production, live-stock production, gardening, post-harvesting operations, agro/social biology, fishing etc. as it is evident; it’s a reality long taken without any consideration however unheeded since ages. Hence, here a try has been created (i) to review the role of female in agriculture and changes in their position at small level, that’s village level (ii) to review the gender discrimination in land, labour and wage market.

Abstract

The paper examines some important issues of gender inequity in Agriculture. The issues are women’s contribution to agricultural GDP and their access to agricultural resources such as land, water, credit and technology. The paper also examines gender discrimination in agricultural wages. The paper is in three parts. The first part examines the contribution of women to agriculture in terms of time spent by women on activities and number of women engaged in productive agricultural activities with the help of the data from time use surveys and the National Sample Survey Organization’s Reports and the 2001 census. The second part of the paper then analyses Women’s poor access to land, water, credit and technology that reduces their productivity. The second part also elaborates how the women’s work is undervalued in the economy resulting in a huge amount of unpaid work in family agricultural enterprises and low wages in paid work. The third part explicitly elaborates the adverse consequences of such imbalance in terms of misallocation of resources to unsustainable agricultural production as against sustainable production.

Relevance of Gender Mainstreaming  in Agriculture

Indian agriculture is characterized by farming systems wherein men and women perform mutually interdependent as well as independent roles right from production, processing, marketing, and decision making as farmer, labourers and entrepreneurs. The extensive contribution by women in wide ranging tasks in production and processing in agriculture, influences household food security and determines national competitiveness in agro industry at large. Even though women make substantial economic contribution towards the sustenance of the farming systems and livelihood security, most often women’s roles remain invisible and their problems and needs are unaccounted and unattended. Historically dictated by social norms, family traditions and economic factors, participation of women and men in various farming contexts in India still remain gender specific and highly women discriminating. Women’s work is considered as unskilled and remains undervalued and underpaid. It is to be appreciated that at international and national level efforts of women empowerment and gender perspectives are being brought in development approaches and the situation during the past few decades is slowly changing as policies, efforts and budget are being specially allocated for the upliftment of rural farm women. But it is to be noticed that most of the programmes are of short term, narrow focussed and without continuity.

The general circulation of the atmosphere explains the formation of pressure belts and wind systems in the earth’s atmosphere. It is known that the earth receives more solar radiation near the equator and gets heated more. Consequently, the air gets heated more and rises vertically upwards. As there is more convection of the air near the equator, the atmospheric pressure will be less. The warm air which moves upwards up to a height about 14 km near the equator gets cooled and move towards the poles.

The upper air gets gradually cooled when it reaches a latitude of 30°N in the northern hemisphere and 30°S in the southern hemisphere. At about 30°latitude the cold air descends to the earth’s surface. Some of the cold air after descending to earth’s surface moves towards the equator. The circulation of air between the equator and 30°N or 30°S latitudes is called Hadley cells (Fig. 8.1).

The winds blowing from 30° latitude towards the equator at surface level are called trade winds. These trade winds which move towards the equator in both northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere converge near the equator and the zone of the convergence of these winds is called Inter Tropical Zone of Convergence. As the convergence of air takes place, due to convection of heat as a result of high temperatures leads to vertical lifting of moist air. Therefore, the Equatorial regions receive more rainfall and there are tropical forests in this region.

Analytical Reagents

Chemical reagents are supplied in different grades and each grade has a distinct purpose and range of uses. The purest grade is analytical reagent (AR), the second is laboratory reagent (LR), the third is guaranteed reagent (GR) and fourth is technical grade. Second and third form of reagents have a lot of impurities. Therefore, for the determination of micronutrients, AR grade reagents should be used.

Distilled Water

Distilled water is always used in chemical analysis. The quality of distilled water varies from single distilled water to double or triple distilled water depending upon the requirement of analytical technique(s) e.g. double distilled water (glass distilled) is always recommended for micro nutrient and heavy metal analysis.

Introduction
Project title:
Objective (S):

Volumetric Analysis Precautions

1. Use Clean Glassware: Ensure all glassware, such as burettes, pipettes, and volumetric flasks, is thoroughly cleaned and rinsed with distilled water to avoid contamination and ensure accurate measurements.

2. Clean Glassware Properly: Before use, all glass apparatus should be thoroughly cleaned with a cleansing mixture of potassium dichromate (K2 Cr2 O7 ) and concentrated sulfuric acid (H2 SO4 ) to remove any residual contaminants. After cleaning, rinse the glassware thoroughly with distilled water to ensure no traces of the cleansing mixture remain.

3. Proper Calibration: Calibrate all measuring instruments, including burettes, pipettes, and balances, before use to maintain accuracy in measurements.

4. Avoid Parallax Error: When reading the meniscus level in a burette or volumetric flask, ensure the eye is at the same level as the meniscus to prevent parallax error.

5. Use Correct Indicators: Choose the appropriate indicator for the titration based on the type of reaction and the pH range of the endpoint to ensure precise determination of the endpoint.

Introduction

The microorganisms exist as single cell or cluster of cells capable of orderly growth, metabolism and reproduction in two identical daughter cells. These includes cellular organisms {protozoa, algae and fungi (Eukaryotes), bacteria and archaea (Prokaryotes)} and viruses (non cellular entities). The study of microorganisms contribute to understanding of :

1. Basic biological sciences - It acts as a tool for providing the basic information for life processes. The discovery of DNA, RNA, proteins and enzyme functions all came from microbial study.
2. Applied biological sciences - Medicine, agriculture, industry, plant and animal pathology, immunology, plant and animal nutrition, biotechnology all have origin from the understanding of the cell function and metabolism of microorganisms.

A pH meter is very commonly used for the measurement of the reaction of a solution or a medium. The pH determination with the help of a pH meter is based on the measurement of the electromotive force (e.m.f) of a pH cell consisting of an electrode sensitive to W ions and a reference electrode.

Current Status of Seed Production

Organized seed production in India became possible with the formation of National Seed Corporation (NSC) during 1963, which paved the way for a sound seed industry to come as a consequence of the introduction of hybrid technology during 1961-65. The release of high yielding dwarf varieties of wheat and rice by the 1960’s gave further impetus to the growth of the seed industry in the country. For the total area under cultivation of 26.7 m ha and 65 per cent of the area) insect, disease and weeds (10-40 per cent loss) and also poor shelf-life. Hybrid technology have defined solution in several crop plants specially vegetables, cotton, rice etc. with the development of appropriate hybridization and seed production. In 1990-91, the area planted to ‘bought seed’ was about 10.35 per cent. The total ‘bought seed’ was estimated at around 5.91 lakh tonnes valued at Rs 679.80 crores.