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Soil testing kit is developed to determine the available nutrient status of soil by rapid test methods. With this system of soil testing, a farmer can test his own soil as often and, in as many places as he feels necessary, and after gauging the need of his soil, he can apply the fertilizers as required. The present mode of soil testing in laboratories usually takes few days and sometime weeks and the farmers may have to travel long distances to submit the soil sample.

To set up a soil-testing laboratory the minimum requirements are as follows:

8.1 Laboratory floor area

Minimum four rooms are needed. They are as follows:

1. Office room, floor size: 18’x 12’

This room is used for registration of the soil samples received, recording recommendations along with soil test results in laboratory book and in report sheet, their dispatch, accounts etc.

Introduction

Stress represents the reaction of body to stimuli that disturb normal physiological equilibrium or homeostasis, often with detrimental effects (Khansari et al., 1990). Domestic animals undergo various kinds of stress such as physical, nutritional, chemical, psychological and thermal stress (Marai et al., 2007; Nardone et al., 2010). Figure 1 summarises the different types of stressors and their effects on animals.

2.1. Open source satellite data

The satellite images have been invaluable information sources for Natural Resource Management. They provide synoptic view of the Earth periodically helping in inventory, surveying, and monitoring in agriculture, hydrology, geology, mineralogy, land cover, land use and environment. Free global satellite image data of spatial resolutions of 1m to 1 km and spectral resolution of single band to hyperspectral are available from an increasing number of sources (Table 2.1).

The satellite data is available in raster format. Raster data consists of two – dimensional array of pixels or grids which stores the values representing features. All the pixels are of same size and shape with their particular coordinate location. A raster data format is shown below.

Sensors onboard the satellite records the intensity of emitted or reflected electromagnetic radiations in the form of digital number (DN) for each pixel. These digital numbers can be transformed to more meaningful intensity units like radiance or reflectance. This process of conversion of digital numbers to radiance or reflectance is known as radiometric calibration. Sensor specific information is required to conduct radiometric calibration.

Raster transformations involve mathematical manipulation of raster layers to generate new raster images. These transformed raster images either contain the information of interest or highlight the features which are not discernible in the original image. Transformations are also performed to preserve the essential information in reduced number of dimensions or layers. In this chapter, we are going to discuss few most commonly used transformation tools listed below:

8.1 Climate Change

Climate change is a broad term of global negative phenomena as created predominantly by burning of fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping gases to earth’s atmosphere. The over accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere lead to increased temperature and this is called as global warming. As a result, sea-level rise; ice mass loss in Greenland, Antarctica, Arctic and mountain glaciers worldwide; shifts in flowering/ plant blooming; and extreme weather events occur.

Atmosphere can be defined as the gaseous envelope surrounding the earth. It is retained by earth’s gravity. The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 × 10¹⁸ kg, three quarters of which is within about 11 km of the surface. The imaginary ‘Karman line’ lies at an altitude of 100 km above the earth’s sea level, and commonly represents the boundary between the earth’s atmosphere and outer space. The study of earth’s atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science or ‘aerology’.

An agrometeorological observatory or station is a place where all the necessary instruments and structures are installed and maintained to observe and record the weather parameters at stipulated time interval.

Table 15.1. Instruments used for measuring weather parameters in observatories and laboratories

Farmyard Manure is the manure prepared by using the mixture of dung and urine soaked litter by microorganisms.

Good farmyard manure is one

Integrated plant nutrition system conceptualized by food and agriculture organization is the maintenance or adjustment of soil fertility and of plant nutrient supply to an optimum level for sustaining the desired productivity through optimization of benefits from all possible sources of plant nutrients viz. organic manures, fertilizers, crop residues, compost or nitrogen fixing crops etc. in an integrated manner.

Salt affected soils occupy 962.2 m ha globally which accounts for 33% of the arable land. In India 8.373 m ha is affected with salts. Of which 2.359 m ha are alkali soils, 3.829 m ha are saline soils and 2.185 m ha coastal saline soils. Reclamation of these soils provides additional area for food grains production and employment.

Pongamia pinnata or Mellettia pinnata or Pongamia glabra or Derris indica (2n=2x=22) is a tropical ever green fast growing leguminous tree, with glabrous, glossy and deciduous leaves. The tree is native to India and South Asia and also found in Oceania.

Historical Development of Soil Science/Agriculture

Francis Bacon (1561-1624 A.D.): Found the water as nutrient of plants.

Van Helmont (1577-1644): Give the ideas about the role of soil as a simple source of water and minerals for the plants.

1. White alkali soils also know as

a. Acid soil                  b. Saline soil

c. Saline sodic soil    d. Sodic soil

1. Amoeba are unicellular organisms that feed on

a. Bacteria and algae     b. Bacteria and fungi

c. Fungi and algae        d. Nematode and fungi

1. Central Fertilizer Quality Control & Training Institute (CFQC&TI) is situated at

a. Mysore           b. Karnal

c. Faridabad        d. Coimbatore