eChapters

Let‘s dive deeper into the processes of condensation and explore each in more detail:
• Adiabatic Processes: Adiabatic cooling occurs when air rises and expands, reducing its temperature (Fig. 9.1). This process can lead to condensation and cloud formation. There are several ways air can rise and cool adiabatically:
• Orographic Lift: When air is forced to rise over a mountain or hill, it cools, and condensation occurs, resulting in clouds and precipitation. This is why mountainous regions often experience more rainfall than surrounding are as.
• Frontal Lift: When two air masses with different temperatures and humidity levels meet, the warmer air is forced to rise, cool,
and condense, forming clouds and precipitation. This can lead to significant weather changes, such as the formation of fronts and lowpressure systems.
• Convection: When the sun heats the ground, it warms the air closest to the surface, causing it to rise and cool, leading to condensation and cloud formation. This process can lead to the development of cumulus clouds, thunderstorms, and other types of convective weather.

Standard Operating Protocol for Export of Banana
Banana is one of the important fruit grown in India, as far as its export is concerned it is very limited which is below 1%. For export market it should be harvested at 85% maturity or the bunch is ready to harvest in 80-82 days after shooting initiation. Bunches are to be harvested carefully with two people. One person cut the hand and another person put the bunch onto the padding shoulder. Bunches should be slant cut with sickle shaped sharp knife free from any contamination. For export purpose banana fingers should be square, lie close together, hard, clean and free from any infestation and mucilaginous thread of pulp should be 4-5 cm in length. Skin should not be separated from pulp and no brown spot under the skin. De-handing must be done with sharp chisel type de-handing tool, by leaving maximum crown attached to the hand. The crown should be cut evenly; otherwise its outer finger may be detached. Other way to De-handing by using the nylon thread. It is easy method and it allows maximum crown attach with the land with minimum latex flow. The hands should be carefully paced in clean water which has alum 1 gm litre-1 or sodium hypochlorite (200 ppm) as surfactant for removing the latex and killing the micro-organism after that fruit must be packed in 20-25 kg capacity crates having foam in bottom and in between hands also. The most effective control of post harvest diseases and control of ripening of banana is treating the hands with 1.0% CISH METWASH an organic formulation for 30-60 seconds after that it should be carefully removed from this organic formulation and keep it in front of high speed fan for drying.

Modifying microclimates in agriculture involves altering the local climate conditions surrounding crops or plants to create a more favorable environment for growth. This can be achieved through various techniques when the crops are subjected to weather related stresses.
14.1. To Mitigate Moisture Stress during Droughts
When the crops are under moisture stress, the principles involved are conservation of soil moisture and reduce the evapotranspiration from crops. The moisture conservation can be achieved by suppressing soil evaporation using mulches (Fig. 14.1). The evapotranspiration can be reduced using antitranspirants. Some antitranspirents close the stomata of the leaves to reduce evapotranspiration. Some anti-transpirants increase the reflectance of radiation from the crops, thereby reducing heat load on crops. When crops are grown under irrigation in isolated patches, micro shelter belts can be provided across the predominant wind direction to reduce the increased evapotranspiration from advection. Advection is phenomena of horizontal transport of heat due to strong hot and dry winds.

1. Introduction

Agriculture has always been greatly dependent on climate patterns and variations, and is considered to be particularly at risk to the influences of climate change (James et al., 2014). Climate change is manifest in the form of reduction in rainfall and drought experienced in the last decade, pushing the agrarian community into real distress (MSSRF, 2020). To reduce the adverse impact of climate change on agriculture, adaptation is considered a crucial component of any policy response related with agriculture and climate change (Deressa et al., 2009). Adaptation to climate change involves changes in agricultural management practices in response to changes in climate conditions (Akinnagbe and Irohibe, 2014). Having knowledge about climatic adaptation practices by the farming communities would make them better equipped to deal with climate change related challenges (Mwazi&Ndokosho, 2011). Though smallholder cultivators are one of the most vulnerable groups to climate change, efforts to support their adaptation strategies are hindered by the lack of information on how they are experiencing and responding to climate change (Harvey et al., 2018). Senapati (2019) argues that farm households with access to weather-related information and extension agency contact have lesser level of vulnerability to climate change and enhanced adaptive capacity. Kavi Kumar (2009) contends the need to have region specific adaptation measures in farming as the key to address challenges of climate change.

Applied agroclimatology integrates climatology with agronomy to understand and manage interactions between weather, climate, crops, soils and agricultural resources. It converts climatic observations and forecasts into practical information for sowing, irrigation, fertilizer application, pest management and harvesting. This chapter introduces agro-meteorological processes, crop-environment relationships, resource management and climate-smart decision-making. It explains how increasing temperatures, altered rainfall, droughts, floods and extreme weather threaten agricultural productivity and farmer livelihoods. Agroclimatic zoning, crop-calendar adjustment, suitable variety selection, early-warning systems and weather-based insurance are discussed as important approaches for strengthening food security, managing climate risks and developing resilient agricultural systems.

The acts for Environment Protection are :

        The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act
        The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act
        The Wildlife Protection Act
        Forest Conservation Act
        Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)
        Citizens Actions and Action Groups
        Public Awareness and Awakening

Air is one of the primary things that make life on earth possible. The earth’s atmosphere or air is made up of variety of gases and other particles. The dynamic layer surrounding the earth’s surface containing various mixture of gases, moisture and solid particles (aerosols) is called atmosphere. The atmosphere is generally defined as the gaseous envelop surrounding the earth.

The formation of the earth was believed to be about five billion years ago. In the first 500 million years, a thick atmosphere emerged from the vapour and gases that were expelled from the interior of the earth. Hydrogen (H2 ), water vapour, methane and carbon dioxide were some of the gases believed to be initially formed in the atmosphere due to out gassing from the interior of the earth. About 3.5 billion years ago, the atmosphere consisted of carbon dioxide (CO2 ), Carbon monoxide (CO), water vapour (H2 O), nitrogen (N2 ) and hydrogen present in atmospheric layers like troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere (Fig. 2.1). The condensation of water vapour into water led to the formation of oceans in which sedimentation occurred and the hydrosphere was created. In the initial and ancient environment, oxygen was not present. Anaerobic is technical word which literally means without air (where air is generally used to mean oxygen and aerobic indicates the presence of oxygen). Evidence of such an anaerobic reducing atmosphere was hidden in early rock formations such as iron and uranium in their reduced states.

1. Introduction

Biochar, produced from pyrolytic decomposition of lignocellulosic biomass, is a solid hard product and a unique green material for soil amendments. Its use has been identified in Amazon fertility as ancient indigenous practice. Through ‘pyrolysis’ (heating without oxygen) process (‘pyro’ which means caused by heat whereas ‘lysis’ means dis-integration), there are three types of yields we get: a solid product (biochar), a gaseous product (syngas/ synthesis gas), and a liquid (bio-oil). The solid item, biochar, is applied for soil amendments. It can be used in agricultural, industrial, and environmental as a functional material. Solid char, a common pyrolytic outcome is charcoal, typically used to designate the solid char product that is ignited for fuel, whereas “biochar” designates the unique solid char purposively used as a soil amendment agent. On the other hand, the gaseous and liquid counterparts of pyrolysis have commercial applications like green energy, feedstock raw materials, and precursors (Fig.1).

ABSTRACT

Using a hand auger of 2 m length, upper, middle and lower core sediment samples of seventy nine in number have been collected from the Vaippar river, its tributaries and Vaippar beach in order to understand the role of Vaippar river and its tributaries in making up the Vaippar beach placer deposits. The heavies are found to be concentrated abundantly in fine and very fine size grades of all the samples collected from both the environments. The average heavy mineral concentration varies from 3.13 to 17.40 % in river bed while it is 6.19 – 64.82 % in the beach. In river bed, the pattern of concentration of heavies in upper, middle and lower core samples does not show any characteristic uniform pattern and inferred that it is controlled by the grain size of the parent rock, supply of sediments from the source, geomorphological features of the river and hydrological characters of running water. In the beach, the concentration of heavies are effected mainly due to the winnowing action of waves. However, a phenomenal increase in the heavy mineral concentration of beach samples might be due to the supply of sediments from other source besides the Vaippar river.

Introduction

Despite recent significant increases in global food production Sustainable development goal- “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture” seems unachievable. Globally, 1 in 9 people are undernourished, the vast majority of whom live in developing countries. Under nutrition causes wasting or severe wasting of 52 million children worldwide. It contributes to nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children per.Today, the majority of the world’s hungry people—nearly 870 million—live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Climate change impacts on food security and livelihoods are already alarming and affecting millions of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (FAO, 2016).

In view of today’s 795 million hungry and the additional 2 billion people expected by 2050, there is an urgent need for a change of global food and agriculture systems in order to sustainably increase food production (UN, 2016). This will exert intense pressure on agro-ecosystems that are already overburdened, particularly in developing countries as most of those increases in production have to occur in this part of the world. The environmental impacts of satisfying this increased food demand will be further aggravated by climate change. With increased frequency and severity of droughts, extreme heat conditions and over dependence on rainfed agriculture, there is a growing agricultural productivity crisis, dwindling household food availability and the economic prosperity of countries whose national economies are dependent on agriculture. Considering that climate change impacts are felt differently within regions, context-specific adaptation measures are required to reduce risks and build adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers (Altieri, M.Aet al.2017).

Soil moisture is the water retained within soil pores and represents a critical link between precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, infiltration and groundwater recharge. It provides the principal water supply for plant growth and strongly influences crop establishment, nutrient availability and yield. This chapter discusses soil-moisture storage, field capacity, permanent wilting point, available water, infiltration, percolation and root-zone dynamics. It examines methods of measurement, estimation and monitoring and explains how soil texture, structure, organic matter, vegetation and weather influence moisture conditions. Effective soil-moisture management supports irrigation scheduling, drought mitigation, water-use efficiency and prevention of waterlogging, thereby strengthening agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability.

ABSTRACT

Mapping and exploration of iron ore deposits in parts of Salem District is carried out based on the detailed field work and the interpretations of IRS-1C PAN data in the scale of 1:12,500 and aerial photographs (NRSA, Scale 1:4,000). The study results that the major rock types of the study area are banded magnetite quartzite, garnetiferous pyroxene granulite, amphibolite, garnetiferous pyroxenite, charnokite, talc tremolite, actionalite and dunite rocks. The Banded Magnetite Quartzite’s (BMQ) occur as enclaves within the hornblende gneisses at several parts of the study area. Topographically, the rocks constitute small low-lying linear ridges at some places it is found to be closely associated with garnet pyroxene granulites. A remarkable feature about the mode of occurrence of magnetite quartzite is its linear nature and the physical form, which could be described as a “Band”. All the bands possess an ENE-WSW strike and the dip is found to be steep (above 70 degrees) towards north. The rock in the hills of Godumalai, Vellalagundam, and Singipuram are highly deformed and contact with garnetiferous pyroxene granulite and hornblende gneisses. In hand specimen, the magnetite quartzite rock exhibits fine banding. In general no variation in grain size or thickness of banding could be seen megascopically. However, occasional increase in size of magnetite might be possible as seen from the coarser magnetite pebbles strewn in the channels of the area. There are two types of folds observed namely F1 and F2. The axial plane trace of the F1 varies in trend from WNW-ESE to WSW – ENE. The joints are traced in the directions of NNW-SSE to NNE – SSW and WNW – ESE to ENE-WSW. The interpretation of lineaments shows their trend directions of NNE-SSW, NE-SWand NNW-SSE. The above said work has carried out through detailed field work and interpretations using by IRS-1C PAN data in the scale of 1:12,500 and aerial photographs of NRSA, in the scale of 1:4,000 for the study area.

It is a well known fact that natural disasters strikes countries, both developed and developing, causing enormous destruction and creating human sufferings and producing negative impacts on national economies. Due to diverse geo-climatic conditions prevalent in different parts of the globe, different types of natural disasters like floods, droughts, earthquakes, cyclones, landslides, volcanoes, etc. strikes according to the vulnerability of the area. India is considered as the world’s most disaster prone country. It has witnessed devastating natural disasters in recent past like droughts, floods, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, etc. 

Continental drift is the theory that continents move slowly about the earth’s surface, changing their positions relative to one another and to the poles of the earth. It includes the idea that former continents may have broken apart and that the fragments have recombined in different patterns (Fig. 15.1). Some authorities have considered that this happened only once, beginning within the past 200 million years; others believe that it has long been a continuous process, so that all existing continents are mosaics. Those who accept the theory believe that the rates of motion have been only a few inches a year. Earlier, it was considered that the continents moved like ships through a slightly plastic ocean floor. Today some consider that the continents are frozen into the earth’s surface like rafts in ice, and that the motions are the result of growth of the sea floor along certain midocean ridges and reabsorption of the sea floor elsewhere beneath deep ocean trenches and young mountains. The continents are carried passively about embedded in moving plates of the surface. Some authorities  now  agree  that  there  is  a  deformable  layer,  called  the asthenosphere, at depths of from about 50 to 400 kilometers within the earth. It is white hot, and slightly viscous, and many believe that the surface can break into plates which slide over it.

Introduction

Horticultural crops comprising of fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants, and mushrooms play an important role in meeting the livelihood, nutritional security and socio-economic development of farmers. India’s horticulture production (287 mt) surpassed food grain output (265 mt) fifth year in a row in 2016-17 (First Advance Estimates, 2016-17). Horticultural crops together contribute around 30.4% to the agricultural GDP from nearly 14% of the total cropped area, and contribute nearly 37% to the export of the agricultural commodity from the country (Anonymous, 2015). Fruits and vegetables are an important part of the human diet and a major source of biologically active substances such as vitamins and secondary metabolites. India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, with a combined production of 260.7 million metric tons (91.7 million metric tons of fruits and 169 million metric tons of vegetables) during 2016-17.

Rapid growth in horticultural production has been accompanied by heavy use of pesticides thus causing major concern over health effects. Heavy pesticide use occurs, in part, because numerous pests attack horticultural crops, including the fruit itself, reducing market value and yield on high-value crops. Pesticide use raises safety concerns for agricultural workers who apply pesticides. Concern is particularly high in flower production because of heavy spraying in enclosed conditions. Potential food safety risks from pesticide residues are also a significant issue for importers of fresh fruits and vegetables and a market-risk factor for exporters who may have shipments detained or rejected if residues exceed allowable limits (George et al., 2003).

The increased use of chemical pesticides on horticultural crops has raised a number of economic, ecological and health concern. Economic concerns arise from the over reliance and use of chemical pesticides which increase the costs of production. Indiscriminate use of pesticides has resulted in ecological problems of common pests developing resistance, elimination of natural enemies and other beneficial arthropods, and environmental pollution. Human health concerns focus on risks from shortcomings in protective clothing, large deviations from recommended doses/situations, and excessive run-off into the soil and water sources. These concerns are exacerbated by poorly regulated internal markets for pesticides that have fostered usage of banned or outdated products; creating a situation that if not stopped will negatively impact on horticultural exports to countries with more stringent regulatory requirements for fresh crop produce. Meeting these food safety requirements has become a major challenge for the fresh produce export sector of many countries. To ensure and maintain export compliance, grower and consumer safety, and environmental integrity; farmers, government and development partners are developing programmes designed to improve pesticides usage, regulation and management on horticultural crops (Karungi et al., 2011). In this chapter, major important horticultural crops grown in India have been selected to illustrate trends in pesticide usage and regulation, and the development and application of alternative pest management practices through farmer participation and training.

ABSTRACT

The upper Agniar and Vellar river basins principally consist of three major rock typesnamely pink granite, gneiss and charnockite. The major geochemical pattern of these igneous rocks when studied indicate that charnockites have a trend of low Mg2+ and high Ca2+ + Na O to high K+ end, whereas the same is vice – versa for hornblende biotite gneiss and also for granite gneiss. The pink granite has an intermediate trend between the charnockite and hornblende biotite gneiss. The value of SiO2 in all the rock types was found to increase with the increase of K2O, Na2O and Al2O3. Further, a decrease in the values of MgO, Fe2O3, TiO2 and CaO was noticed with an increase in SiO2. On the basis of the distribution pattern of these elements, the origin of the igneous suites in the above two basins was inferred.

Introduction

Vegetables are important constituents of Indian agriculture and play important role in nutritional security due to their short duration, high yield, nutritional richness, economic viability and ability to generate on-farm and off-farm employment. Vegetables form an integral part of staple diet in India where 42% population is vegetarian and vegetables are sources of daily requirement of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Our country is blessed with diverse agro-climates with distinct seasons, making it possible to grow wide array of vegetables. The role of vegetable cultivation in the country’s nutritional security, poverty alleviation and employment generation is becoming increasingly important. There are vast opportunities available in export sector, which need to be harnessed to their fullest ability. Vegetable crops have high yield potential and calories per unit area compared to that of cereals in the shortest time. Additionally, vegetable cultivation creates employment in rural sector, as it is a labour intensive farming practice. Vegetables are good source of ready farm income, besides being rich in health building substances, especially protective nutrients (Kalia, 2010 and Meena et al., 2016).

Energy, food production and various other natural resources are the limiting factors on this earth. The result of this bitter truth has been published in a book titled ‘The Limits to Growth’ in 1972. If the enormously growing population and the industrial process is not checked, then the earth’s civilization may come to an end within next hundred years.

By considering the space travel, we can very well understand about the Ecosystem. When we go away from the biosphere, it will be appropriate to develop unlimited environment through the energy accumulated from the sunlight in space. For the space travel for some days to moon and back to earth, we need not establish the entire ecological system as greater quantity of O₂ and food stuffs can be stored and CO₂ and other unwanted materials can be fixed for establishing space colonies, we have to build a special space ship with important abiotic components which can be recycled for use again and again. The vital processes of production, consumption and decomposition can be established and balanced through biotic components. In other words we are creating a complete mini human ecological machine. Before we established this system, we should be quite familiar about the space problems and its implications.

Introduction

In order to keep pace with the development there is rise in energy use but it has adverse effects on climate due to greenhouse gas emissions from burning of fast depleting fossil fuels. In this context, we need to harness and use more and more renewable forms of energy, especially solar energy that is plentiful on most part of India. Also, at several locations harnessing wind power and utilizing biomass could be effective alternatives. Solar based devices may also work in an integrated manner with small wind turbines as hybrid devices. At present, about 20% of the country’s installed electricity generation capacity is contributed by renewable sources e.g. wind, solar, bioenergy, hydro etc., which is about 71.325 Giga Watt (GW) as on 30^th June, 2018. In agricultural sector, energy is directly used for pumping irrigation water, operating different mechanized farm implements/tools and processing of foods. Share of agricultural sector in total energy consumption is about 7-8% and further increase in energy use from its present value of 1.6 kW ha^-1 to 2.5 kW ha^-1 is expected to meet the production target of next 20 years.