eChapters

Crop performance depends on how closely environmental conditions match genetic requirements. Cardinal temperatures define the minimum, optimum and maximum thresholds within which germination, growth and development occur. This chapter explains these thresholds and presents their relevance to major crops. It also examines rainfall, sunshine, humidity, photoperiod and other agroclimatic requirements determining where and when crops can be cultivated successfully. Knowledge of crop-specific requirements supports agroclimatic zoning, variety selection, sowing-date adjustment and assessment of climate-change impacts. Matching crops and cultivars to suitable environmental conditions reduces weather-related risk, improves resource efficiency and helps realize crop-yield potential under present and changing climatic conditions.

ABSTRACT

Assessment of groundwater potential has wide importance in the exploration, management and development of groundwater resource. The fact that geologic and topographic factors, such as, geomorphology, lithology, structure, soil and slope control the occurrence and movement of groundwater in a region has been made use of in satellite remote sensing to aid groundwater exploration. In hard rock terrains, due to lack of primary porosity, lineaments have greater importance as those can be zones of secondary porosity trapping groundwater in its pore spaces.

In the present study, an attempt has been made to delineate groundwater potential zones in the hard rock terrain in the Gayatri River basin in Kerala, India, using satellite data. The study area which lies between 10o 26’N and 10o 45’N latitudes and 76o 21’E and 76o 54’E longitudes covering an area of about 1000 square kilometers is a drought-prone area. Landsat 7 ETM image of Gayatri River basin has been interpreted visually in a digital environment using ERDAS Imagine software to create geomorphology and lineament maps. Further, with the help of ancillary data, various thematic layers like, lithology, soil, drainage density, etc. have been created and subsequently updated using information obtained from the satellite data. Slope map of the basin has been created using Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) data. Integration of the thematic layers has been done in Arc/Info GRID GIS environment by giving weights to various thematic layers according to their importance in terms of groundwater occurrence. Finally, groundwater potential map of the basin has been prepared by classifying groundwater potential zones as good, moderate and poor.

India is one of the unique countries in the world with great diversity in climate. The annual rainfall varies from about 180 mm in North western part of India to almost 11,777 mm at Cherrapunji in Meghalaya. For a considerable amount of time, Cherrapunji had occupied the position of wettest place in India. However, off late, observations revealed that it is Mawsynram which receives the maximum amount of annual rainfall. Hence, Mawsynram with 11,872 mm annual rainfall is the wettest place in India. Both the places-Mawsynram and Cherrapunji-are located within 16 kilometers from each other in the East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya. The maximum temperature at Churu in western Rajasthan is 50ºC and the lowest minimum temperature at Leh in Ladakh region is as low as -35ºC. In view of such great diversity in the distribution of rainfall and temperature in the country, it is necessary to have clear understanding on regional, seasonal and diurnal variation in different weather parameters (Fig. 13.1).

Natural-fibre-reinforced green composites represent an important alternative to conventional synthetic-fibre composites. This chapter examines renewable fibres such as hemp, jute, flax, and sisal and their integration with bio-based polymer matrices. The discussion covers material composition, processing methods, environmental considerations, sustainability, applications, advantages, limitations, and current research developments. Natural fibres offer low density, renewability, biodegradability, and cost advantages, although hydrophilicity, variability, and processing limitations can affect composite performance. Surface treatments and appropriate fabrication methods are therefore important for improving mechanical, thermal, and durability characteristics. Applications in automotive, construction, packaging, and biomedical sectors demonstrate the growing potential of these sustainable composite materials.

Abstract

Food security to the increasing population on one side and the increasing export of food grains on the other side has lead to the immediate attention on to raise the food production in our country. The decreasing land availability for agriculture due to the increased degraded lands and use of agricultural lands for non agricultural purposes has still worsened the situation. In order to match with the food requirement from decreasing agricultural lands, Indian agriculture has been pushed towards indiscriminate use of farm inputs exploiting the non renewable natural resources without any concern to the environmental ill effects leading to further degrading of the situation. Even though the concept of sustainability is age old, the importance is felt recently. Sustainable use of resources at farm level can magnify the effect of conserving non renewable resources and reducing ill effects on the environment at state level and to the country. Sustained farm production is a key to manage our resources and environment. Adoption of new information technologies with the conventional agronomic practices to increase farm production is made inevitable due to our past experience. The advancement in the technology tools like Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System, Global Positioning System and Decision Support Systems have paved way for better and effective management of crop production at farm level. 46 Geospatial Technologies for Natural Resources Management

A systematic approach of management involving advanced technologies and conventional agronomic practices through understanding the factors like soil variability, weather parameters and crops that contribute for the sustainable farm production is need of the hour. The spatial and temporal variability of the farm production parameters are to be studied and mapped in relation to historical data of the farm for successful site specific management. Site specific management tools may improve decisions related to site conditions, thereby reducing the aspect of uncertainty in the management system. This approach of farm management using advanced technologies viz., Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System, Global Positioning System, Variable rate technology, crop production modeling and Decision Support System can enable sustainable farm production with beneficial effect on the environment in future.

Keywords : Remote sensing, GIS, Sustainable Farm production, Site Specific Management

The development of green nanocomposites requires more than replacing conventional materials with renewable alternatives; it also requires responsible sourcing, efficient resource utilization, and consideration of the complete material life cycle. This chapter examines green and eco-friendly nanocomposites from the perspective of sustainable material selection and circular economy principles. It discusses strategies for obtaining renewable raw materials, reducing environmental impacts, improving resource efficiency, and designing materials for reuse, recycling, and recovery. Applications of green nanocomposites are also considered in relation to sustainability objectives. By connecting material development with circular economy strategies, the chapter provides a framework for developing nanocomposites that combine functional performance with reduced environmental burden.

Abstract

The present study discusses the cropping pattern changes in Andhra Pradesh agriculture will leads to crop diversification and crop concentration using with Geographical Information System (GIS). Crop data were compiled for the triennium ending period 1980-81, 1990-91, 2000-01 and 2004-05 from various statistical abstracts of Andhra Pradesh. For measuring the crop diversification indices, we have used the Herfindahle index and for crop specialization is measured by using the Location quotient method. The level of crop diversification in the some districts of the state in the eighties is very high. However with the advent of green revolution, there had been a moderate crop unification or crop concentration in the eighties. This trend of crop unification is found to be reversed after 1990-91, though the magnitude of the change is not very striking. The crop diversification is observed to differ across the districts. The level of crop diversification is high in the agricultural backward regions of Rayalaseema and Telangana districts and low in the agriculturally progressive Coastal Andhra districts. During the period 1990-91 to 2004-05, the major trends in crop concentration are increase in the concentration of rice in the districts where it is popularly grown and decline in the concentration of coarse cereal crops, pulses and oilseeds. The concentration of spice crops and fruits and vegetables are also on an increasing trend, which they are popularly grown in their respective districts.

Keywords : Cropping Pattern, Diversification, Location Quotient, Andhra Pradesh, GIS

ABSTRACT

With the increasing use of ground water for various activities, the fast decline in groundwater takes place. In order to prevent the aquifers from fast depletion, the ground water recharge is necessary. This study attempts to identify the favourable areas for groundwater recharge and suggest suitable recharge structures toaugment the aquifer system of the study area using Remote Sensing and GIS. The various thematic maps such as Geomorphology, Geology and lineaments, Soil, Slope, Land use, Drainage, Runoff, Depth to weathered zone, Groundwater level fluctuation and Water quality are used in the analysis. The favourable areas for groundwater recharge have been categorized into highly favourable, moderately favourable, less favourable and poor. To delineate areas favourable for recharge zone various themes are interpreted. The identification of ground water recharge zones for the study area is useful for improvement of water quality, quantity and better augmentation & management of Groundwater recharge.

Abstract

The rapid development and integration of spatial technologies viz., Geographical Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) along with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) provide functional alternatives to revolutionize the conventional entomological approaches like surveillance, spatial/temporal distribution of insect populations, pest distribution mapping and predictive modeling. Application of these technologies for insect problems is well established in the fields of forest, range land, medical and agricultural entomology elsewhere. Nevertheless, in India its field relevance in agricultural entomology is still limited owing to lack of proven field prototype studies and collaborative efforts among stakeholders. It’s time to gain real momentum to integrate these progressive technologies to formulate sustainable integrated pest management programs.

Key words: GIS, Remote Sensing, Insect Populations, Field Applications

Introduction

Flat plate collector is the heart of a solar heat collection system designed for delivery of heated fluid in the low to medium temperature range (5o70oC above ambient temperature) for applications, such as water heating, space heating, drying and similar industrial applications. The flat plate collectors absorb both beam and diffuse radiation. The absorbed radiation is converted into heat which is transferred to water or air flowing through the collector tubes or duct, respectively. Such collectors do not require tracking of the sun and little maintenance is required.

The conventional flat plate solar air heater, shown in Fig. 7.1, consists of a flat blackened absorber plate, a transparent cover (such as a glass cover) at the top and insulation at the bottom and on the sides. The air to be heated flows through the rectangular duct below the absorber plate. The glass cover transmits a major part of solar radiation incident upon it to the absorber plate where it is converted into heat. The glass is, however, opaque to longwavelength radiation and thus it does not allow the infrared radiation from the heated absorber plate to escape.

Karwa et al. (2002) have presented the following deductions of heat collection rate and pumping power equations for the flat plate solar air heater.

Introduction

According to FAO estimates, about 50% total geographical area in India is under various degraded hazards and about 2.1 million ha of land is getting degraded and deforested annually (Sehgal et al. 1998). Out of that underground water in arid and semi-arid areas is saline or sodic in nature. While spices, medicinal and aromatic plants may be a boon for these areas, which not only withstand under adverse conditions but also could be productive and helps in mitigating these problems. However, other crops are remain less or unproductive in these areas.

Spices are low volume and high value crops and have tremendous export potential, which is witnessed by several invasions faced by this Indian peninsula during ancient time. Medicinal and aromatic plants have unequally market potential with the world demand of herbal products growing at the rate of 7 percent per annum (Aishwath and Tarafdar, 2007). Seed spices and aromatic plants are the natural source of flavour, perfumes and fragrance widely exploited by essential oil industries in the world. Owing to considerably diversity of edaphoclimatic conditions ranging from temperate to tropical and arid to sub-humid that prevails in India and an array of medicinal and aromatic flora occurs in wild state. Many exotic essential oil bearing plants, including mints, citronella, geranium, patchouli, lavender and chamomile have been naturalized in India. As the country has emerged as one of the main producers of seed spices and some of the essential oils, theses plants are significant foreign exchange earners. Some of the aromatic plants especially grasses can sustain both biotic as well as abiotc stresses, even in the areas unsuitable for conventional crops (Aishwath et al., 2008). Most of the seed spices crops are seasonal crops and comes up well with limited moisture and nutrients. Therefore, underutilized natural resources can be utilized profitably by crop diversification.

ABSTRACT

The estimation of the water requirement of crop is one of the basic needs for crop planning on the farm and for the planning of any irrigation project. Water requirements of crops include the losses due to Evapotranspiration (ET) plus the losses during the application of irrigation water (unavailable losses) and the quantity of water required for special operations such as transplanting and leaching of excess salts for crop growth. It is therefore necessary to estimate the ET and Crop Water Requirement (CWR) for the efficient use of water and increased crop production. In the present study, meteorological data were collected and the crop ET (ETc) and the CWR were estimated using FAO Penmann – Monteith method for the cropping pattern of the Buthangudy canal command area situated at a distance of 2Km from the popular village Sethiathope, Cuddalore district, of Tamil Nadu, India, which is located in between the Kumbhakonam – Chennai NH – 45 main road. The methodology combines the capability of GIS and CWR to produce maps showing spatial distribution of water resources over large areas.

Introduction

The sun is an abundant source of solar energy (average value on horizontal surface 6 kW m^-2 day^-1), which is freely available. This huge source of energy is non-polluting and inexhaustible in nature. It has the potential of supplementing the conventional energy sources to a great extent. There is acute shortage of conventional energy sources, which affects the overall development. Work on the utilization of such a huge, non-polluting and everlasting energy source has been carried out at CAZRI, Jodhpur for various domestic, industrial and agricultural applications in order to supplement the energy demand. This includes the development of a lot of solar thermal devices, such as, solar still, solar dryer, solar cooker, animal feed solar cooker, solar candle device and cool chamber. The details of some of these devices are given as following.

Abstract

Soil quality assessment has been recognized as an important step towards understanding the long term effects of land management practices within agricultural watersheds. Potential soil quality issues include continued high rates of erosion, losses of organic matter, reductions in soil fertility and productivity, as well as chemical and heavy metal contamination. This case study addressed the spatial variability of soil properties and its quality at the watershed level using geostatistical methods. Soil samples from the 0- to 20-cm depth were collected on a 100- by 100-m grid across an 88-ha watershed at Sakaliseripalli village in the Nalgonda District in Andhra Pradesh State, India. Geostatistical analysis showed that most of the soil parameters were moderately spatially dependent. An assessment framework, that included a minimum data set, linear scoring technique, and additive indices, was used to evaluate the soil quality index (SQI). Through principal component analysis, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable Na percentage, DTPA-extractable Zn, available P, available water, and dehydrogenase activity have been emerged as the most important indicators for evaluating soil quality. A kriged map of SQI was prepared for the watershed. The SQI was found to be higher in irrigated systems than under rainfed conditions. In the study, potential soil loss calculated using the Universal Soil Loss Equation and crop yield were identified as the quantifiable management goals; the results indicated that soils having higher soil quality indices were more productive and less erosion prone.

Keyword : Principal Component analysis, SQI, Watershed, Geostatistics, Potential soil loss

Introduction

Indian arid zone is one of the largest subtropical deserts of the world of which 20% is arid and rest is semi-arid. Hot arid zone is spread over 31.7 million ha area and mainly confined in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. The major part of hot arid region of the country lies in western Rajasthan (19.62 mha) followed by North-western Gujarat (2.16 mha). It is characterized by high aridity index, extremes of temperature low and variable precipitation, very high wind velocity and dust storm, high soil pH, high infiltration rate, very limited availability of groundwater and saline ground irrigation water (More, 2010). Under such harsh climatic conditions cultivation of vegetable crops in open condition results in very low and poor-quality yield which fetches less return per unit area. By creating the suitable micro-climate for plant growth round the year cultivation of vegetables can be done under adverse climatic conditions. It is possible through protected cultivation which has tremendous scope in peri-urban areas of the country (Singh and Sirohi, 2004). It is the best way to increase the productivity and quality of vegetables, especially cucurbits. India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world next only to China. Presently India has 178.17 million tonnes of total vegetable production, but the productivity and quality of most of the vegetable crops is very poor (17.40 t/ ha) due to several biotic and abiotic stresses due to open field cultivation. In Rajasthan, the total production of vegetables is very less i.e. only 1.81 million tonnes from an area of 0.17 m ha with a productivity of 10.66 t/ ha.

A forest is a large area dominated by trees. Many definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing and ecological function. Although a forest is usually defined by the presence of trees, under many definitions an area completely lacking trees may still be considered a forest if it grew trees in the past, will grow trees in the future, or was legally designated as a forest regardless of vegetation type. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, forests covered 4 billion hectares or approximately 30% of the world’s land area in 2006. Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of earth, and are distributed around the globe. Forests account for 75% of the gross primary production of the earth’s biosphere, and contain 80% of the earth’s plant biomass

Classification Of Forest

Forests have been classified in different ways. Forests can be classified on the basis of method of regeneration, age, composition, object of management, ownership, canopy density, stand density or growing stock.

Abstract

Agroforestry is an integrated self-sustainable land use management system that is not only capable of producing food from marginal agricultural land but also capable of maintaining and improving the quality of environment. It plays a vital role in achieving integrated rural and urban development. But reliable data on number of trees and area under agroforestry is not available as methodology for estimation of even area under agroforestry is not yet standardized. In this paper, a methodology for estimation of number of trees under agroforestry using high resolution satellite data has been proposed and estimation of number of trees as well as area under agroforestry in Ludhiana district of Punjab State has been done using the proposed methodology. Land use/land cover map of the district has also been generated using ERDAS IMAGINE software. It has been observed from the accuracy assessment that the estimates of number of trees as well as area under agroforestry obtained using the proposed methodology under this study are very reliable. Therefore, the proposed methodology may be replicated for estimating number of trees as well as area under agroforestry in other parts of the country.

Keywords: Agroforestry; Estimation of number of trees, Area estimation; Remote Sensing; GIS

India’s economic security continues to be predicated upon the agriculture sector, and the situation is not likely to change in the foreseeable future. Even now, agriculture supports 58% of the Indian population, as against about 75% at the time of independence. In the identical period, the contribution of agriculture and allied sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fallen from 61 to 13%. As of today, India supports 16.8% of world’s population on 4.2% of world’s water resources and 2.3% of global land resources. Also per caput availability of resources is about 4 to 6 times less than that of world average. This will further decrease due to increasing demographic pressure and consequent diversion of the land for non-agricultural uses. Around 51% of India’s geographical area is already under cultivation as compared to 11% of the world average. The present cropping intensity is 136% and it has been registered an increase of only 25% since independence. Further, rainfed and dry-lands area constitute approximately 65% of the total net sown area. There is also an unprecedented degradation of land (107 million ha) and groundwater resource, and also fall in the rate of growth of total factor productivity. This deceleration needs to be arrested and agricultural productivity has to be doubled to meet growing demands of the population by 2050. Efficiency-mediated improvement in productivity is the most viable option to raise production of various commodities including horticulture.

Abstract

The sustainable management of plant genetic resources is of great concern as increasing population and rapid technological strides are putting enormous pressure on this country’s nutritional and food security. Management of plant genetic resources at national level generates and uses enormous data and analysis of these data is crucial to the effectiveness of PGR management process and can add significantly to the value of genetic resources. A GIS is a database management system that can simultaneously handle data representing spatial objects and their attribute data. GIS allows us to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. It can play an important role in the management of large and complex PGR datasets. The article analyses the potential uses of GIS in plant genetic resources management in India covering various activities such as germplasm exploration and collection, characterization and evaluation, plant health management, documentation and conservation.

Key words : plant genetic resources, germplasm, conservation, documentation, DIVA-GIS,

Introduction

Soil is a silent foundation and a dynamic part of Earth’s complex ecosystem. It sustains life, influences plant growth and is involved in various environmental processes. However, the balance of this vital resource is increasingly threatened by the pervasive effects of climate change, manifested by rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and changes in atmospheric conditions. As global temperatures rise and weather patterns change, the relationship between soil and climate poses transformative challenges with far-reaching consequences. This research addresses the complexity of this interaction and examines how climate change affects agriculture, soil health, composition and functionality. Soil health, a holistic concept that includes physical, chemical and biological aspects of soils, is closely linked to climate change. A notable consequence of climate change is the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods. These events disrupt the delicate balance of soil ecosystems and lead to erosion, loss of topsoil and reduced fertility. Additionally, increased temperatures contribute to soil moisture depletion, reducing water availability for plants and microorganisms and further compromising soil health. A central issue at the interface between soil science and climate change is the role of soil as a carbon sink. Soils store large amounts of carbon in the form of organic material, thereby influencing the environment.