eChapters

Rainfall is precipitation (falling of any type of condensed moisture to the ground) in the form of liquid drops larger than 0.5 mm in diameter falling on the earth surface. Ordinary rain drop size varies from 0.5-4.0 mm in diameter. Rainfall is measured in term of depth of rain water (millimeters) on a solid surface provided that rain water is neither allowed to percolate nor runoff or loss in any form.

ABSTRACT
Nisargruna biogas technology has been developed in BARC for processing different types of biodegradable waste. This technology is based on biphasic separation of aerobic and anaerobic stages. Introduction of aerobic predigester has increased the efficiency of the process in terms of enhancing the quality and quantity of methane and also reducing the retention time of the process. Process parameters of the plant were studied and found that the modified design has proved very effective in faster digestion of complex waste. The technology has been commercialised and has spread across different parts of country for processing variety of wastes including kitchen waste, municipal waste, agriculture waste, textile waste and poultry waste. Microbial population from different stages of the plant was also studied and found their ability to convert waste to biogas, containing mainly methane.

Keywords: biogas, biphasic digestion, green energy, methane, microbial fermentation, Nisargruna, waste management

Introduction

Birds lack sweat glands; hence non-evaporative cooling mechanism (radiation, conduction and convection) is the major route of heat dissipation within thermoneutral range. Beyond this TNZ, majority of heat loss occurs as insensible heat loss i.e., Panting. Panting is one of the visible responses in poultry during exposure to heat stress associated with considerable energy expenditure. This specialized form of respiration dissipates heat by evaporative cooling at the surface of the mouth and respiratory passage. Panting increase, the loss of CO2 from the lungs, this leads to a reduction in the partial pressure of CO2 and also reduces bicarbonate levels in blood plasma. In turn, the lowered concentration of hydrogen ions leads to rise in plasma pH, a condition generally referred to alkalosis (Daghir, 2009). Birds also respond by reducing their feed intake and thus metabolizable energy (ME) intake to reduce thermo genesis as an adoptive mechanism. If panting fails to prevent their body temperatures from rising, the birds become listless, comatose and soon die due to respiratory, circulatory or electrolyte imbalances (Saif et al., 2003).

Introduction

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2013) emphasized that warming of the climatic system is unequivocal and that anthropogenic warming will continue for centuries to come due to timescales associated with climate processes and feedbacks. While stresses caused by climate change are likely to negatively impact the agricultural and livestock sector and escalate existing small-scale farming challenges; agricultural and livestock productivity and sustainability have to improve to meet the needs of the growing human population (DEA, 2013; Zamykal and Everingham, 2009). Climate change is seen as a major threat to the survival of many species, ecosystems and the sustainability of poultry production systems in many parts of the world. Nevertheless, global demand for poultry products is expected to increase, as a result of the growing human population, and its growing af?uence. The extreme climatic conditions impose various stresses on poultry birds which adversely affect their growth, production and reproduction.

While climate change is a global phenomenon, its negative impacts are more severely felt by poor people in developing countries who rely mostly on the natural resource base for their livelihoods. Moreover, rural poor communities rely greatly for their survival on agriculture and poultry which belong to the most climate-sensitive economic sectors. Climate change is expected to intensify existing problems and create new combinations of risks and shift hazard zones. The incidences of draughts, snow-storms and blizzard like events have risen. The situation is made worst due to factors such as widespread poverty, inequitable land distribution, limited access to capital and technology inadequate infrastructure, long term weather forecasts and inadequate research and extension. Intensive poultry production has much less impact on global warming than organic or free-range production (Van der Sluis, 2007). Seo and Mendelsohn (2006) reported that small farms of poultry are better able to adapt to warming. However, organic egg production needs more energy than non-organic and increases most environmental burdens. The most disadvantageous, from environmental point of view, is litter-free breeding of birds which causes great amounts of liquid manure.

Introduction

We use our five senses to perceive the world around us. Some senses, like touch and taste, need contact with the objects. But we get most of our information about the environment through sight and hearing, which do not need close contact with the external objects. In scientific terms, we are doing remote- sensing all the time. Remote- sensing is the process of recording/observing/ perceiving (sensing) objects or events from a distance. Remote- sensing is a way of monitoring and detecting the features, usually physical, of a specific area by measuring its reflected and emitted radiation (usually from satellite or aircraft).

Introduction

Spectral signature: A spectral signature is the unique pattern of reflection and emission of a target at different wavelengths. This difference helps to classify remote sensing images based on the spectral signatures of different objects.

Electromagnetic (EM) spectrum: The EM spectrum is the range of all types of EM radiation. Some examples are visible light from a lamp, radio waves from a radio station, microwaves, infrared light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays.

Spectral response patterns: A spectral response pattern is the amount of energy that an object reflects or emits at different wavelengths. It shows how the object interacts with the EM radiation.

Introduction

There is an ongoing debate on global warming worldwide as it is seriously impacting climate change. The global temperature has been increased by 0.74±0.18°C during the last century and the climate model projections summarized in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report indicate that the global surface temperature will probably rise a further 1.1 to 6.4°C during the twenty-first century (IPCC, 2007). High ambient temperature is one of the most important stressors to poultry, which has a direct relationship on profitability of chicken meat and egg production. A seasonal problem in many parts of the world, high environmental temperature (35-43^oC in tropical countries) causes economic losses through reducing feed intake while decreasing nutrient utilization, live weight gain, egg production, egg quality and feed efficiency in poultry (Corzo et al., 2003; Panda et al., 2007a; 2008). The ideal temperature for broilers is 10-22^oC for optimum body weight and 15-27^oC for feed efficiency (NRC, 1994). Layers will produce egg constantly in the temperature range of 10-30^oC. Above 30^oC, performance in terms of growth and egg production declines.

Introduction

Crop discrimination is the process of using remote-sensing technologies to identify and characterize different types of crops based on their electromagnetic behavior at different wavelengths. Each crop has a unique spectral signature that reflects its response to the incident radiation. However, the spectral signature can also vary depending on the season, the angle of the sensor, crop’s features, illumination intensity, weather phenomenon, and topography among other external factors (Parida et al., 2023).

Abstract

The drainage pattern and the architecture are the reflections of not only the tectono fabric of a region, but also the active tectonic processes. From amongst many drainage patterns and anomalies, the eyed drainages, deflected drainages and the compressed meanders interpreted from satellite images for Pudukkottai region of Southern Tamil Nadu infer to reflect the active N-S block faults and NE-SW sinistral and NW-SE dextral faults related to post collision tectonic phenomena.

Introduction

The Geoscientists have long back recognized that the drainages are the reflections of the surface and subsurface lithology, structure and tectano fabric and also the active tectonic movements especially of the Quaternary period (Thornbury, 1985). Hence, the Geoscientists have all along been showing greater interest in mapping the drainage patterns. However, the mapping of the drainage patterns and detection of tectonic features there from have gained greater momentum only after the advent of modern Remote Sensing technology. Since the airborne and satellite borne spectral images have the credentials of showing the drainage pattern, the drainage anomalies and the tectonic features related to them all of which were studied in conjunction to bring out information on the geological history of the Quaternary period by many workers (Vaidyanadhan, 1971; Murthy and Sastri, 1981; Agarwal and Mitra, 1991; Ramasamy, 1991; Saravanavel and Ramasamy, 2014).

Introduction

To address the escalating food demands of the global population, a transformation in the agricultural sector is imperative (Velten et al., 2015; Lampridi et al., 2019). The current overdependence on finite resources is leading to their overexploitation, largely due to irresponsible usage (Velten et al., 2015; Lampridi et al., 2019). By adopting a site-specific approach, farmers can apply inputs only where they are necessary in the field (Velten et al., 2015; Lampridi et al., 2019). This method can enhance output, decrease labor costs, and mitigate the environmental damage caused by excessive input use (Velten et al., 2015; Lampridi et al., 2019).

1.1. Meteorology and Climatology
Atmospheric science encompasses the main subfields of meteorology and climatology that are similar in the scientific principles and phenomena being examined, but usually differ by approach, time scale, and application. Meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere and weather including weather forecasting. It is an interdisciplinary science that involves observing, understanding and predicting weather conditions likely to prevail well in advance (Fig.1.1). The study of meteorology has been around thousands of years, but significant progress did not begin until the 18th century. Climatology is an atmospheric science that focuses on the processes that create weather patterns and variability. Climatology was developed as a science that is based on weather data recorded at multiple locations for comparatively longer periods, usually for 30 years or more. The study of climatology based on the physical processes is influenced by the geographical features, topography and interaction between land and oceans.
1.2. Agricultural Production
Life demands food. The production of food depends upon 4 major factors that are soil, genetic material, management practices and weather. Over a period of time, formers have evolved the cropping strategies based on their local knowledge and experience on the changes in weather within a cropping season. With rapid advances in agricultural sciences, several new varieties of crops were developed, appropriate soil and water management practices were evolved and suitable measures for reducing abiotic and biotic stresses on crops were identified. However, the recent threats of climate change due to increased atmospheric

The atmosphere near Earth’s surface, often referred to as the boundary layer, exhibits unique properties influenced by the interaction between the surface and the atmosphere. These properties are crucial for understanding weather patterns, climate, and various environmental processes. Ancient Indians use to worship five natural elements i.e. earth, water, air, energy and the sky. Perhaps they were aware of the interactive effects and processes between these 5 elements that govern life on earth. In a sense, meteorology itself is a science based on interactive effects of these natural elements. Microclimatology is all about the effect of the interactions between these 5 elements on life over the earth. For a beginner of microclimatology, it is important to understand the properties of the atmosphere near the earth’s surface and get familiar with the concept and terminology used to describe/quantify the physical processes taking place between the lower layers of the atmosphere and the earth’s surface.
2.1. Energy
The major source of energy in the earth atmosphere system is solar energy (Fig.2.1). The outer surface of the sun is very hot and its temperature is estimated to be around 6000°Kelvin (symbol K).
The Kelvin is the base unit of temperature in the international system of units (SI). The Kelvin scale is the absolute temperature scale that begins at the lowest possible temperature that can be attained (absolute zero) taken as 0 degree K. The magnitude or value of each degree of temperature in the Centigrade scale and Kelvin scale is same. The temperature measured in centigrade scale can be converted to Kelvin scale by adding 273.15. The sun emits heat energy in the form of solar radiation. As the solar radiation passes through the atmosphere, it gets partly depleted before reaching the earth’s surface. The processes through which the solar radiation gets depleted in the

Introduction

Statistics generally refers to information about an activity or a process that is expressed in quantitate as well as qualitative traits. The quantitative research process is well structured whereas the qualitative one is fairly unstructured. It depends upon how a piece of information have been collected and analyzed. A good researchers need to have both types of skill. This article highlights about the operational procedure, about methods, procedures and techniques that are used in analysis of climate related data.

Parameter vs Statistic

When a data is collected with survey of all the individuals (like in a census) and analysed for certain values, it is called a parameter. But when, we guess the same value with a random sample and interpret for whole population it is called a statistic. Environmental parameters are: mean, variance, correlation, regression, heritability, repeatability etc. Again, there are two types of variables: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative variables can take any value in a specified range. So, they are of continuous type. But qualitative variables are very few types ( 2 ,3 or 4 types) and they are of discrete type. Body weight is an example of quantitative variable whereas, comb type is a qualitative variable.

energy plants need to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen. The carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis are used for vegetative and reproductive growth and to increase crop biomass. The solar energy required for photosynthesis is available during day time. In crop canopies radiation is transmitted through leaves and between leaves resulting in changes of spectral composition rapidly with depth. In the absence of vegetation, solar radiation reaches the earth surface after it gets depleted in the atmosphere due to:
• Reflection of incoming radiation by the cloud tops
• Absorption of ultraviolet radiation by the ozone present in the atmosphere and infrared radiation by the greenhouse gases and water vapour
• Scattering of radiation by the solid particles suspended in the atmosphere
The remaining parts of solar radiation called insolation i.e. incoming solar radiation reach the earth surface. After it is incident on the earth surface, a fraction of the solar radiation gets reflected back into the atmosphere. The difference between the incoming solar radiation and outgoing solar radiation is called net radiation. The net radiation can be calculated using radiation balance which takes into consideration both incoming solar radiation and outgoing solar radiation. The equation for radiation balance can be written as:

Introduction

Biomass is a major source of energy in developing countries, particularly in India. Biomass as a fuel used in residential sector of India is a major component of total energy use in India. Type of fuels used in residential sector in India varies with locations and availability of the local fuels and also by way of cooking food in the open fires or in the rural cook stoves (Earthen Chulhas). The majority of the household in the rural sector of the developing countries burns the biomass fuel under traditional open stoves or in advanced closed cook stove (Fullerton et al., 2008). Biomass fuel includes any material of plant or animal origin, which is deliberately burnt by the human being. Approximately, 2 billion people in the developing world use the biomass fuel as the major source of domestic energy (Balakrishnan et al., 2002). Out of residential fuels, 80-90% of the energy requirement in rural India are met with the use of biomass in the form of fuel wood, dung cakes, charcoal and agricultural residue (TEDDY, 2007). Burning of biomass from all these sources is well known to be associated with the emission of smoke/plumes consisting of particulate and gaseous species as these are not energy efficient processes and thus the fuels are not burnt completely. The species emitted and their concentrations depend on the nature of the source of biomass and other factors including the physical parameters associated with the consumption of the biomass. The fate of the initial fire emissions depends strongly on both their composition and the regional state of the atmosphere. Once airborne, the particles begin to grow slightly in size as they age through condensation and coagulation. Despite their high concentrations and widespread distribution in the atmosphere, the sources remain poorly characterized. Biomass burning has drawn global concerns in the past decades for its effects on visibility, human health and global climate by emitting particulate matter (PM) and other gaseous pollutants (Andreae et al., 2005). Biomass burning emits significant global source of PM emissions to the troposphere which leads to deleterious impact on the earth’s atmosphere. It has an impact on the chemical composition of the atmosphere, the formation of photo oxidants and thus on air quality on a regional scale and climate change (Andreae et al., 2005). They also have harmful impact on human health, natural environment and ecological system (Cheng et al., 2000). The various impacts of these emissions have been well studied by Cheng et al. (2000) and Bardouki et al. (2003). Interest in this topic grew when several studies suggested that biomass burning emissions could rival fossil fuel emissions (Crutzen and Andreae, 1990). Biomass burning has received considerable interest (Bowman et al., 2009).

Introduction

Agriculture is the mainstay of livelihood activity of about 70% of the state’s population. Madhya Pradesh is an agrarian state and the state’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture. Considering the sector’s sensitivity to climatic parameters it can be easily understood that the sector would be highly impacted by any change in these parameters.

Madhya Pradesh has a subtropical climate with three distinct seasons’ viz. winter from December to February, followed by summer season from March to May and rainy season extending from June to October. During winters the mean temperature remains around 10ºC and mean maximum temperature remains 25ºC and the minimum temperature goes down to 1°C in some regions. During summers, the mean minimum temperature is 22ºC and mean maximum is 38ºC. The maximum temperature during summer can go up to 48ºC, especially in May and June which are the hottest months.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined loss of water from vegetation and soil. When water is not a limiting factor at a site, the rate of ET is primarily controlled by meteorological factors like solar radiation, temperature, wind and relative humidity. The measurement of ET under natural conditions is of great importance in the water resource management and irrigation planning. Potential evapo-transpiration (PET) is the evaporation from a surface if water was never a limiting factor. PE-can also be calculated using empirical formulae.

Introduction

Nanopesticides are pesticides that use nanomaterials or nanotechnology to improve their effectiveness and safety in agriculture. Nanomaterials are materials that have at least one dimension between 1 and 200 nm. Nanomaterials have different properties than their bulk counterparts, such as higher surface area, reactivity, and mobility. Nanopesticides can be formulated in various ways, such as nanosized active ingredients, molecular active ingredient nanocarrier complexes, or active ingredients encapsulated or coated by nanomaterials (Deka et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2022).

Introduction

Crop models can be broadly classified into two categories: dynamic or process-based crop simulation models (CSMs), and reduced form statistical models. Since simulation models are based on various plant-related processes, they develop or alter in tandem with plant growth (Chetty 2009); as a result, they are inherently nonlinear (Olmstead 2009). To run, calibrate, and validate, they require a significant amount of date input. However, statistical models are helpful in situations where there is a lack of data because they describe the relationships between a subset of variables while keeping the others constant. (Chetty 2009).

The agro-meteorological data after the quality control is used to establish a relationship between the crop and weather or to understand their interactions. In agrometeorological data analysis, statistical tools are used. The frequent use of statistics terms and their computational formulas are given below for ready reference: