eChapters

Technical Term              Definition

Land Use Capability     Capability is the inherent capacity of land to perform given at a level for a general use

Abstract

Continental erosion and fluvial transport play an important role enhancing mobilization of organic carbon from soils and transferring this pool to the ocean through downstream rivers and streams. The Ganges-Brahmaputra river system represents one of the largest transporters of terrestrial carbon to ocean. Intensive agriculture in the Ganges basin coupled with atmospheric deposition (AD) of nitrogen may render the soil more prone to erosion loss of carbon and nutrients. The aims of this study were to quantify atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (AD-N) in the watershed and to assess the influence of land use and AD-N on carbon and nitrogen transport in Ganga River. We collected samples in summer low flow along a 1595 km long transect of the river to assess the status of DOC under variable land use and AD-N input and, at monthly intervals along a 35 km long transect to understand seasonal patterns and the influence of local control. Our study shows average deposition of reactive-N (NO₃^- + NH₄⁺) range from 19.7 kg ha^-1yr-1 in upper stretch to 38.6 kg ha-1yr-1 in the middle stretch. The AD-N in lower stretch was almost similar to the values recorded in the middle stretch of the watershed. The average concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) in the river range from 0.62 to 5.3 mg L-1 and 52.0 to 385.6 µg L-1 respectively. The land-derived carbon and nitrogen emerging in surface runoff showed positive correlation with AD-N and the river DOC showed synchrony with land use, AD-N and autochthonous carbon pool. Our data indicate that DOC in Ganga River is rising and the land use together with AD-N is an important driver of rising DOC. We suggest that future climate model should consider large scale regional time series data on changing state of atmosphere-land-water coupling and associated shifts in carbon and nutrient transport of major rivers. This has relevance predicting region specific climate change drivers and preparing action plan for integrated river basin management (IRBM).

Land is merely an area of the earth’s surface comprising all physical, chemical and biological environments that influence the land use (FAO ,1976). Land refers not only to soil but also to climate, landforms, hydrology, geology, natural vegetation including fauna and flora. The land use simply means management of a land for specific uses to meet the human needs in all rural, urban and industrial context, whereas the land use plan refers to a coherent set of decisions about the ways to achieve the desired level preferably on economic background. Thus, the land use planning is the systematic evaluation and assessment of a land and associated attributes for the purpose of identifying the best land use options beneficial to landowners or users without degrading the land resources or environment. It includes not only the landowner or users, but also the policy or decision makers as well as economic experts for financial measures from planning stage or logistic planning to execution.

Land cover

Relates to the type of feature present on the surface of the earth e.g., Fields, trees, concrete high ways.

Land use

Relates to the human activity associated with a specific piece of land. The same land would have a land cover consisting of roofs, pavements, grass and trees. The land use in an area is really an intervention by the people over the existing natural eco-environment for satisfying their needs.

Land cover is distinct from land use despite the two terms often being used interchangeably. Land use is a description of how people utilize the land and socio-economic activity - urban and agricultural land uses are two of the most commonly recognised high-level classes of use. At any one point or place, there may be multiple and alternate land uses, the specification of which may have a political dimension.

Sustainable management of soil and water resources is essential for food, nutritional and environmental security of the country. The total and partial factor productivity of agricultures in India declined over years because of continued degradation of natural resources. The process leading to land degradation are generally triggered by excessive use of land and water resources to meet the growing demand of population for food, fibre and fodder. Various anthropogenic activities leading to accelerated land degradation through salinization, flooding, water logging, erosion of water and nutrients, drought reduced agricultural productivity and nutritional security in the country. These problems can be overcome by optimum utilization of land adopting suitable management practices. For effective land management practices, the soils should be interpreted in forms of their land capability, suitability for irrigation and crop growth. This will not only help the farming community and extension specialists, but also to the administrators and policy makers for using soils for sustainable agricultural production.

3.1. Land use classification

3.1.1. Classes

Capability class is the broadest category in the land capability classification system.

Class codes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are used to represent both irrigated and non-irrigated land capability classes.

Class 1: Soils have slight limitations that restrict their use.

Class 2: Soils have moderate limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require moderate conservation practices.

Class 3: Soils have severe limitations that reduce the choice of plants or require special conservation practices or both.

Abstract

The landslides of the hill ecosystems are either due to the natural morphotectonic and morphodynamics processes of the planet earth or due to the anthropogenic effects or due to the combinations of the both. In the Indian subcontinent, the landslides are reported from three major provinces viz: Himalayas, Westernghats and The Nilgiris. While the landslides of the Himalayas are demonstrated to be predominantly due to active tectonics, the landslides of the Westernghats are attributed to excessive weathering and rock fall. On the contrary the landslides of the Nilgiris have been thought to be due to extensive deforestation and the related increase in the pore pressure during rainy seasons. But the studies carried out in the recent years show that not only in the Nilgiris but also in other hill systems of Tamil Nadu, the landslides seem to be related to the recent earth movements. This is very significant in the context of fastly recurring seismicities in South India and hence this aspect warrants detailed studies for landslide mitigation.

Large Language Models are increasingly transforming software engineering by enabling automated code generation, completion, debugging, translation and documentation. This chapter examines how Transformer-based architectures trained on source code and natural-language datasets have expanded the capabilities of intelligent programming systems. It begins with the architectural foundations of code-oriented LLMs and explains how self-attention enables models to capture complex relationships within programming languages. The chapter discusses applications throughout the software development lifecycle, including natural-language-to-code generation, code completion, code translation, refactoring, automated unit testing, bug detection and documentation generation. It also examines training and fine-tuning methodologies and evaluation metrics designed to assess code correctness, functionality and quality. Deployment considerations such as latency, security, computational cost, licensing and human oversight are addressed. Particular attention is given to risks associated with hallucinated code, unreliable outputs and generalization beyond training distributions. Emerging directions, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation, continual learning and formal verification, are considered as mechanisms for improving reliability and developer trust.

INTRODUCTION

It is well accepted that the climatic changes also influence the geomorphic process efficiency and landform development (Ahamad, 1985). Glaciation, sea level changes, flooding and many other geo- environmental events are related with global and regional climatic changes along with tectonic and other non-tectonic factors like natural vegetation, soil, organic development etc. Considering the role of climate on landform development and dynamics of the Late Quaternary climate, a climato-geomorphic study was conducted on the coastal and paleo-coastal areas of the Bengal Basin namely-lower Western (West Bengal coast) and Eastern (Tripura Paleo-coastal Fold Belt Province) Geo-provences. The main objectives of the study were to investigate (i) Development of the landforms during Late Quaternary period with sea level changes and (ii) Climatological influences on the landform modifications.

A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. The term may also refer to the resulting grain itself (specifically “cereal grain”). Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop and are therefore staple crops. Edible grains from other plant families, such as buckwheat, quinoa and chia, are referred to as pseudo cereals. In their natural, unprocessed, whole grain form, cereals are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, oils, and protein. When processed by the removal of the bran and germ the remaining endosperm is mostly carbohydrate. In some developing countries, grain in the form of rice, wheat, millet, maize etc. constitutes a majority of daily sustenance. 

Sugarcane, (Saccharum officinarum), perennial grass crop of the family Poaceae, primarily cultivated for its juice from which sugar is processed. Most of the world’s sugarcane is grown in subtropical and tropical areas. The plant is also grown for biofuel production, especially in Brazil, as the canes can be used directly to produce ethyl alcohol (ethanol). The by-products from cane sugar processing, namely the straw and bagasse (cane fibres), can be used to produce cellulosic ethanol, a second-generation biofuel. Other sugarcane products include molasses, rum, and cachaça (a Brazilian alcohol), and the plant itself can be used as thatch and as livestock fodder.

Oilseed crops have been grown all over the world and are considered important crops due to their economic value. Oilseed crops are primarily grown for edible oil. Recently, oilseeds attracted more attention due to an increasing demand for their healthy vegetable oils, livestock feeds, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, and other oleochemical industrial uses. The increased interest resulted in an 82% expansion of oilseed crop cultivation areas and about a 240% increase in total world production over the last 30 years.

Pulses are high in protein, fibre, and various vitamins, provide amino acids, and are hearty crops. They are most popular in developing countries, but are increasingly becoming recognized as an excellent part of a healthy diet throughout the world. Pulse crops are one of the most sustainable crops a farmer can grow. It takes just 163 litres of water to produce 0.45 kg (1 pound) of pulses, compared with 818 litres for soybeans. They also contribute to soil fertility by fixing nitrogen in the soil.

Agriculture is the most important sector in India in terms of the population dependent on it. Although agriculture now accounts for on 14 per cent of GDP, it is still main source of livelihood for the majority of the rural population. Rapid growth of agriculture is critical for development of rural economy and viable development of rural economy will leads to overall development of country. Diversification in agriculture is need of the hour, any cropping system comprising crops with varied maturity period, crop canopy and high yielding potential is need for an average farmer. Again cropping systems depending upon the soil type, total rainfall and arrival of monsoon in the region. Low cost technology is essential for reducing financial burden on farmers and to increase production on sustainable manner.

Introduction

It is considered to be one of the most ancient machine tools, having evolved from the early tree lathe, which was a new mechanism for turning and milling items held between two nearby trees at the time. The job rotated sporadically due to a rope wound around the work, with one end linked to a flexible limb of a tree and the other end being pulled by a worker. Then hand tools were employed.

The machine was given the name “lathe” when a strip of wood called “lath” was used to support the rope during its construction. This technology evolved over centuries, and in 1797, an Englishman named Henry Maudslay invented the first screw-cutting lathe, which is the ancestor of today’s high-speed, heavy-duty production lathe.

Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.), also called chickling pea, is an important crop of economic significance in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Ethiopia. It is also cultivated in China, many countries of Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa. It is a food, feed and fodder crop belonging to the family Leguminacaae and the tribe vicieae (Smartt, 1990).

Grasspea is very tolerant to drought conditions and has been grown successfully in areas with an average annual precipitation of 380 to 650 mm. Despite its tolerance to drought, grasspea is not affected by excessive rainfall and can be grown on land subject to flooding (Sinha, 1977). It has a very hardy and penetrating root system and, therefore, can be grown on a wide range of soil type, including very poor soil and heavy clays. This hardiness together with its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen makes the crop ideally to grow under adverse conditions (Campbell et al. 1994). In India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, it is often broadcast into a standing rice crop one to two weeks before the rice is ready for harvest where it flourishes on the residual soil moisture after the rice has been harvested.

Despite all the advantages compared to other crops, relatively little efforts have been made to improve this very hardy pulse crop. The main reason has been the knowledge that excessive consumption of grasspea can lead to a neurological disorder, called Lathyrism in man and domestic animals (Jackson and Yunus, 1984). It appears when Lathyrys sativus forms the main component of the diet contributing to at least 30% of the caloric intake for a period of 3 to 4 months (Campbell et al. 1994).

In this chapter, we explore Latin square design (LSD), a specialized form of experimental design renowned for its efficiency in controlling variation. This chapter thoroughly discovers the foundational principles, structure, and application of LSD in experimental research. It details mathematical models for LSD and guides readers through the interpretation of ANOVA tables. Furthermore, the chapter provides a systematic approach to conducting LSD analysis using R software.

Latin Square Design

The LSD is a statistical design used extensively in experiments, especially when specific conditions are met:

• Controlled variation in two directions: LSD is particularly suited for experiments where variation can be controlled along two different factors. This design structures the experimental units into a square matrix, allowing two sources of variability to be accounted for.

• Adherence to experimental design principles: Like other designs, LSD follows the key principles of randomization, replication, and local control. Randomization in LSD is applied within the rows and columns of the square matrix, ensuring unbiased treatment comparisons.

• Efficient use of resources: LSD allows for an effective utilization of resources by controlling two variables simultaneously. This makes it a more efficient design compared to RBD or CRD when there are two sources of nuisance variables.

In production one or a combination of the following relationship are commonly observed:

1. The law of constant marginal returns (productivity)

 2. The law of increasing marginal returns (productivity)

 3. The law of decreasing marginal returns (productivity)

Formation of a Rectangle

Experiments are usually laid out in square or rectangular plots for data and yield estimation, even though the field may be irregular. The plot is usually placed on the contour, parallel with a road, or in a north-and-south alignment. To mark a plot, construct a right angle and then form a rectangle or square.

4.1. Area approach

National Credit Council was set up in December, 1967

Study group in October, 1968 under chairmanship of Prof. D R Gadgil found that Commercial Banks had penetrated only 5000 villages as of June, 1967 and its share was 1% compared to co-operatives.

Recommended the adoption of an area approach for bridging the spatial and structural credit gaps.

All India Rural Credit Review Committee 1969 also endorsed the view the Commercial Banks should increasingly came forward to finance activities in rural areas.

RBI accepted recommendation and formulated Lead Bank Scheme (LBS) in December, 1969

Each district had been assigned to different banks (Public and private) to act as a consortium leader to coordinate branch expansion and credit planning.

Nationalization of 14 major Commercial Banks in July 1969 (Another 6 banks in 1980), paved the way for branch expansion network in unbanked rural and semi urban areas.