eChapters

The agriculture sector in India accounts for about 20.2 per cent of its gross value added (GVA) and 17.34 per cent of the total export earnings. It employs approximately 60 per cent of the country’s workforce. It is an unavoidable source for generating demand for industrial goods and services, and domestic savings in rural India are a huge source of resource mobilization in the Indian economy. This sector plays a key role in ensuring national food security and, in the meantime, national security as well. For these reasons, the development of agriculture has a strong multiplier effect on the economy. There is also an increasing consensus that a globalizing economy and a long-term economic development plan for India are practicable only if it has agriculture and raises rural incomes as its central concern.

ICT and Information Needs of the Stakeholders

Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extension-related term used in information technology (IT) that emphasizes the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications like wireless signals and telephone systems and computers; it is also useful in the software system, middleware, storage, and audio-visual, that enable users to store, transmit, access, manipulate information by understanding the whole process.

1.1. History of Cultivation

Prehistoric people lived as hunters and gatherers. About ten thousand years since now they unveiled the mystery of germination and engaged themselves in production of plant from seed. Since then it was practiced in the open field fully exposed to sun, rainfall, ambient temperature & humidity, etc. Gradually, with the development of society, they improved the package of practice and became accustomed to produce better crop in accordance with these natural conditions.

Backdrop of modern agriculture technology: Since the late 19^th century, population all over the world increased rapidly, which demanded more food production. This situation prompted crop production as a profitable business. New scientific inventions were incorporated in farming practices to increase the production per unit area (yield). On the other hand, repeated cultivation of same or similar crops in the same land, year after years, gradually reduced the productivity of soil. Hence, need arose for increase of crop yield through further improvement in farming technology.

First-phase development: The incorporation of ‘chemicals’ into the soil as plant nutrients(fertilizers) coupled with the use of ‘high-yielding varieties’ changed the scenario of crop production in the sixties of last century. This, along with ‘mechanization’, increased crop yield many-fold and helped to bring large areas under the plough. Countries, which developed these technologies, made good amount of money/profit from this development. Gradually, the rest of the world adopted or purchased these technologies particularly to meet up the rising demand of food in their respective country.

Subsequent problem: This systemof cultivation solvedthe food scarcity problem initially but use of chemicals, cultivation of similar crop over a large area etc. destroyed the agro- ecological balance. These technological developments, coupled with adoption of labour saving technologies, gradually created problems like gradual loss of soil health, lowering of nutrient-use-efficiency and subsequent yield. This invited severe attack of pests like insect, disease, weed and related social problem like unemployment.

1.1 Carbohydrates Biochemistry
Carbohydrates are essential for life, both in plants and in animals. They are organic chemical compounds made of C, H, and O. These elements get arranged in different ways so that several simple, and stored complex compounds (starch in plants and glycogen in animals) are available in abundance on the Earth. They are involved in enormous biological and nonbiological functions. Their biological functions, found in all living things, are the chief energy source for men and animals, even for herbivorous fishlike carp and rohu fingerlings. Carbohydrates are also essential structural components like nucleic acids, containing genetic information. One must recognize the protective function in cells, plants, and human health management. Even bacteria form a glycocalyx and biofilm for protection. Knowledge about their involvement in blood groups helped to identify universal donors, universal recipients, and genuine donors for the recipient to save a life. Carbohydrates are found as a storage structure for energy in emergency conditions.
Upon combustion, they yield carbon dioxide and water. Autotrophs (plants) synthesize them from carbon dioxide and water to grow, reproduce, and store, but heterotrophs (humans and other animals) use them, too. In plants, they occur as fibers, supporting structures, and simple sugars. The plant carbohydrates are used for preparing adhesives, fermentation, foods, and papers. Cotton fibers are used to make clothes to cover the body and protect humans and animals against adverse climatic conditions.

Introduction

Human beings are the most critical components of an organization. The organization’s survival has improved all the facets contributing to its success. In a competitive world, human resources are sine qua non in an organization. Quality of work life (QWL) is critical for deciding organizational employee- related outcomes. Human resource management has a unique role in any organization. Organizational goals in an organization are achieved through planning, organization, staffing, direction, coordination, and control. 

Fruits and vegetables are very important food commodities. India has become the largest producer of fruits and the second largest producer of vegetables. Though the production of fruits and vegetables make us believe in our strength for self-sufficiency, a significant qualitative and quantitative loss occur in the produce from harvest till consumption.  For self sufficiency and also for processing, export and to meet additional requirements, a lot of emphasis need to be given to reduce post harvest losses, besides increasing  production and productivity of horticultural produces. Processing plays an important role in  conservation and effective utilisation of these perishable commodities. However, only less than 2% of total production of fruits and vegetables are processed.  The new industrial policy has placed this sector in the list of high priority areas.

1. FOOD AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

Food is the basic necessity of all the living world and the man is no exception to this. The basic purpose of food is to provide energy for the routine body functions and protect the body from various diseases. Life cannot be sustained without adequate nourishment for a healthy and active life, diets should therefore, be planned and consumed on sound nutritional principles (Fig. 1). For want of nutritious foods, consequence is the prevalence of malnutrition. There are several diseases that are related with deficiency of nutrition food, if not consumed. Such diseases include Kwashiorkor that can develop in children consuming insufficient protein even if total calories are sufficient. Marasmus is often due to the cessation of breast feeding and the attempt to replace it with foods, inadequate in protein such as rice broth. Other nutritional diseases still found particularly in the developing world are childhood blindness (vitamin A deficiency), rickets (vitamin D deficiency), beri-beri and infantile beri-beri (inadequate thiamin intake), pellagra (inadequate niacin intake), anemia (iron deficiency), goiter (iodine deficiency), etc. To cope up with this, the diet needs to be supplemented with nutritious food components including fruits and vegetables to make it more suitable for the growth and development of body.

Out of different types of foods, the fruits and vegetables constitute an important component of the food. Horticultural crops occupy a prominent position both in the importance and production in the world. The temperate fruits and vegetables are an important part of the horticultural crops, in terms of production and role in human health. These crops assume all the more importance due to their antioxidant activity, and presence of minerals and vitamins. Both fresh and processed fruits and vegetable, their different products are consumed. They are also called as protective foods. Fruits and vegetables are major sources of important vitamins like B and C and minerals such as Ca, Fe, P and K.

Nearly 19.9% of India's GDP (Statistics Times.com, 2021) and 54.6% (According to the 2011 census of India) of the people are employed in agriculture, which is important for the country's economy. Despite making up the majority of landowners, small and marginal farmers confront a number of obstacles including restricted access to government services, contemporary technologies, and financial choices. In addition, they frequently experience crop failures and are heavily dependent on shady middlemen and local loan sharks. Following the Y.K. Alagh Committee's recommendations, the Indian government introduced the idea of Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) in 2001. These organisations are designed to empower small-scale farmers by giving them the ability to communicate directly with consumers and strengthen their negotiating position.

Small-scale farmer groups known as FPOs band together to promote their shared products and pool resources. In India, there are already over 7,300 FPOs registered, with over 1.5 million farmers joining. The Indian government wants to bring together over a million farmers under the FPO umbrella by setting an ambitious objective of 10,000 new FPOs being established by 2024–25.

Agriculture continues to be the occupation and way of life for more than half of the Indian population even today. Sustainable prosperity of this class-the farmers, the landless agricultural labourers holds the key for improving the overall human resource development scenario in the country. Indian agriculture had been on traditional lines till the first waves of Green Revolution gave a sudden boost to the production and productivity of major cereals in the assured irrigated areas. Quick dissemination of technological information from the agriculture research system to the farmers in the field and reporting of farmers feed back to the research system is one of the critical inputs in transfer of agricultural technology. The information and communication support during last 50 years has mainly been conventional. The extension personnel of the departments of agriculture disseminated the technological message to the farmers through personal approach. This approach has not been able to reach and satisfy majority of the farmers who are spread across the whole country with varied interests. This gap remains a challenge for the Extension System even today.

To reach over 110 million farmers, spread over 500 districts and over 6000 blocks is an uphill task. The diversity of agro-ecological situations adds to this challenge further. The success of Green revolution was mainly achieved due to concerted homogenous extension strategy. Farmer’s needs are much more diversified and the knowledge required to address them is beyond the capacity of the grass root level extension functionaries.

There are basically two aspects of extension: the education function which aims to help farmers gain knowledge, acquire skills and change attitudes for their own benefit; and the communication function which transfers information about suitable technologies to farmers and growers and offers them alternative solutions to improve their situations. The aim is to transform the information into knowledge timely and accurately to create an environment for farmers to use it. IT will be indispensable in transferring information between research and extension organizations.

Introduction

India with exceeding population of 1027.01 million with 741 million living in rural areas is on the path of development. With 40% of population below poverty line, our country faces the problem of quality life. The lack of access to and control over resources is said to be the cause of poverty. The central aim of enhancing economic productivity of India is to improve the overall welfare of those residing under poverty line. To combat poverty, ‘self help promotion’ is of recent paradigm that has attracted attention of all sections of population. Now it is a matter of concern for all those social consciousness driven people who wants to vanish poverty through this concept known as Self Help Group.

As per the report of ILO, by the year 2050 about 33% of people in the developed countries and 19% in developing countries will be sixty years or older and most of them incidentally will be women. 2001 census reveals that unorganized labour account for more than 40% of the total work force and total employment in both sectors in our country is 397 crores. Out of the unorganized sector workers, 237 crores are employed in agriculture.

Women form half of our population. They have significant roles in overall development. Rural development concept in our country attaches more importance to women development. Through various projects and research, it has been recognized that group approach is only means of reaching disadvantaged people in our society within which women are included. Many countries in Asia have proved effectiveness of group approach in achieving development.

With increasing emphasis on development, quality life, livelihood, etc. group concept has to be worked out in development prospective. The advantages of group concept over individual approach are i) Democratizations ii) Visualization of common problem iii) Interaction to become homogeneous iv) Power to present problem before authorities v) Farming base for grass root level planning vi) Realization of one’s potentiality compared to others vii) Protection from risk or sharing of risk viii) Enabling to form acceptable rule and regulation and ix) feeling of empowerment.

1.1 Importance of Food Process Engineering

Food occupies the first position among the hierarchal needs of human beings. It is more important than shelter and clothing. After production and be forec on sumpti on, food commodities are subjected to nume rous unfavourable physical, chemical, microbial or parasitic factors which may cause their spoilage or disease when consumed. To prevent such spoilage, a process engineer has to understand these and provide remedial measures. The two primary goals of processing operation are first to minimize post harvest losses and second value addition of raw food commodities through preservation and processing.

Present level of production of different types of food commodities and their estimated post-harvest losses along with monetary values are given in Table 1.1. It shows that various food items get lost, to the tune of 65 million tonnes, worth Rs. 76,000 crores per annum, during post-harvest phase. A substantial amount of these losses could be prevented if appropriate agro processing centers, having backward linkage with farmers to ensure constant supply of quality raw food materials, are established and operated. Profit generated through value addition must also be shared with farmers, who are only people in the world to create wealth every year, in the form of food, fiber and other commodities necessary for human survival. It can bring sea change in rural areas, where 65-70% population live, in respect of economy, health and happiness.

It sounds simple, but the above process is fairly complex and requires lot of coordination in order to succeed. The major challenge is to minimize the losses during the various post harvest operations and keep the food as fresh as possible. In order to do so, one must first try to understand the various causes of post harvest losses of food commodities and the various factors that influence theses causes. Secondly, we must use those food processing operations that will not only extend the shelf life of the produce but also convert the raw food commodities to more acceptable product to the consumer.

India’s agrarian culture and economy is undergoing drastic changes. In this progressive path of agricultural resurrection, a comprehensive multidimensional understanding of agricultural development is of great importance. In the present context of Kerala, where the local administrative bodies are vested with more powers to plan and execute need based agricultural development activities, a clear understanding of the concept of agricultural development among the major stakeholders shall serve as a firm base for development.

Concept of Inventory

‘Inventory’ may be defined as ‘usable but idle resource’. If resource is some physical and tangible object such as materials, then it is generally termed as stock. Thus stock or inventory are synonymous terms though inventory has wider implications. Broadly speaking, the problem of inventory management is one of maintaining, for a given financial investment, an adequate supply of something to meet an expected demand pattern. This could be raw materials work in progress finished products or the spares and other indirect materials. Inventory can be one of the indicators of the management effectiveness on the materials management front. Inventory turnover ratio (annual demand/average inventory) is an index of business performance. A soundly managed organization will have higher inventory turnover ratio and vice-versa. Inventory management deals with the determination of optimal policies and procedures for procurement of commodities. Since it is quite difficult to imagine a real work situation in which the required material will be made available at the point of use instantaneously, hence maintaining, inventories becomes almost necessary. Thus inventories could be visualized as ‘necessary evil’.

ABSTRACT

Agriculture can act as a catalyst in accelerating growth and reducing poverty. Agriculture can be an important engine of growth and poverty reduction. But in spite of its futuristic capabilities, the sector is underperforming because the productivity is reduced because of the constraints faced by the women in agriculture and allied sector. The women are the backbone of agricultural workforce but worldwide their hard works have mostly been unpaid. They have to perform most tedious and back breaking part of work in agriculture, animal husbandry and at homes. The tribal women play a significant and crucial role in agricultural development and allied fields including in the main crop production, livestock production, horticulture, post harvest operations, agro / social forestry, fisheries, etc. Tribal women have to manage, often, complex and multiple livelihood strategies. Their activities typically include producing agricultural crops, tending animals, processing and preparing food, working for wages in agricultural or other rural enterprises, collecting fuel and water, engaging in trade and marketing, caring for family members and maintaining their homes. Women’s participation in rural labour markets varies considerably across regions, but invariably women are over represented in unpaid, seasonal and part-time work, and the available evidence suggests that women are often paid less than men, for the same work.

ABSTRACT

Rural youths represent both a challenge to and an opportunity for reducing rural poverty. To overcome this challenge and seize the opportunity concerted efforts are needed to generate decent employment opportunities. A complementary set of awareness generation, entrepreneurship development, enabling policy, capacity building and technical support activities need to be designed for creating an enabling environment that meets the multi-dimensional needs of rural youths. Sustainable poverty reduction and rural economic development can only be achieved when national enabling environments facilitates and empower young people to achieve their full potential. Agriculture being the core of rural activity, potentiality of farming sector to create employment opportunity both in primary as well as in secondary agriculture needs to be highlighted with proven success before the rural youths. Enabling environment in all aspect needs to be created to motivate the educated youths to live in villages and launch a new agricultural movement based on integrated application of science and social wisdom. The untapped demographic dividend will become our greatest strength when the aspiration turns into reality.

Abstract

Majority of basic research in our country has foundations in Universities and various Institutions linked to them. This paves way for discovering wilder varieties of the present known cereals and other food crops. Such findings help in bioprospecting the required gene/genetic material for the improvement of the existing crops. As per the Biodiversity Act of 2002, it is the responsibility of these institutions to document the same. But, as research scientists are geared to meet the challenges? Being used to socialistic system from the days of Independence where knowledge generated was open to everyone or closed and kept under the mountains of files, the TRIPS agreement has come as a shock. But the true impact of it was realized in 1999-2000, when the patent amendments were taken up. The private institution/ companies went into the act immediately.  We in the University neither were slow to react nor were we prepared to take the shock.  In this paper some of the problems pertaining to IPR and scenario of Indian Universities and Institutions in this regard were highlighted.

1. INTRODUCTION

The agricultural paradigm in the developing world including Iran will have to be recast to take advantage of knowledge availability to achieve multiple goals of income, food, jobs, etc. Although, many farming communities in developing countries need timely expert advices to make them more productive and competitive, they are still facing a multitude of problems to maximize agricultural productivity. In spite of successful and promising researches conducted on new agricultural practices, majority of the farmers are not getting upper-bound yield due to several reasons. One of them is that scientific agricultural advice is not reaching the farming community in a timely manner. A wide information gap exists between research and practice.

To cope with this problem different countries have taken various measures. What is common in the extension systems of developing countries is that in a backdrop of rapid organizational and social changes in agriculture, new hardware and software devices have to be applied for better responsiveness to increasing farmers demand for timely and accurate information. At the pace of recent progress in ICT, within a decade it will be possible to provide instantaneous connectivity to millions of people, enabling mass customization and personalized services (Reddy and Ankaiah, 2005). Data mining technology can be used to extract useful knowledge from huge database and simulation technology can be used to predict in to the future (Wiederhold, 2002).

1. INTRODUCTION

There is increasing recognition that information and knowledge are now at the heart of socio-economic development. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and broadband are enabling tools and infrastructures for accessing, developing, using and sharing information and knowledge. Accordingly, Irish Government policy has focused on promoting the adoption and use of ICT in the home, in education and in the workplace.

There have been significant increases in levels of engagement with ICT in Ireland in recent years. Almost two-thirds of all adults now have access to the internet, compared with only 1 in 20 in 1996, while four out of every five adults own a mobile phone. This chapter critiques the level of adoption of ICTs among the farming community and compares this with levels of adoption by the general population. It analyses the use of ICTs by the government and by public and private extension agencies in Ireland and identifies constraints to their adoption.

The Ministry of Agriculture has been among the most enthusiastic supporters of the Government of Ireland’s policy by promoting the adoption and use of ICTs among its clients. It sought to facilitate easier transmission of information to clients, to minimise the collection of new data by using existing electronic information and to integrate with clients’ own systems. These projects are described in this chapter.

The use of ICTs by the public extension system is also critiqued; it has been innovative in using ICTs to disseminate information to its clients and the use of mobile telephony has been particularly effective. Internet based services to deliver online training and advisory information have also been developed and are critiqued.

Introduction

Agriculture as a primary sector in India is mostly production oriented. Global agriculture is experiencing significant changes in terms of technological and digital revolution, rapid urbanization, faster growth in middle income groups, changing food habits, market oscillations, and above all, climate change. During the last 50 years, India has recorded 4 to 10-fold increase in agriculture and food production(food grains-290 MT, horticultural produce -315 MT, milk production nearly 180 MT, and fish production approaching 12 MT), rendering the country as the second largest agrarian economy in the world (Singh, 2019). Despite the excellent progress, the country is home to over one third of the world’s small and marginal farm holders, with scattered land holding. Eighty f ive percent of the farmers are small and marginal. On the other hand, world’s population is growing and to meet the growing food demand there is a need to increase agricultural output by at least 60 percent globally, and 100 percent in developing countries (FAO, 2014a)

1. INTRODUCTION

The contribution of Extension and research to Israel’s agricultural productivity and profitability is a collaborative effort with research hailing back to the late 19^th century. It facilitated technological innovation in agriculture, transfer of information, training of farmers and connectivity. These were in effect a dictate of continuously deteriorating agricultural terms of trade, crippling water shortages and severe climate and soil constraints.

The Israeli Extension Service’s (IES) adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) significantly enhanced extension’s capabilities and scope of activities. ICT empowered extension’s ability to develop, introduce and adopt innovative agricultural technologies and collaborate with research and other partners. Adoption of ICT as one of the tools of technological innovation dramatically improved the transfer and management of information, production chain efficiencies and integration within and with the agricultural sector. These were and are critical success factors contributing to Israeli Extension, Research, Services and Farmers ability to sustain a profitable and thriving agriculture sector. As such the overall results are a major contribution to rural viability and an illuminating case study of technological innovation adoption.

Introduction

The concept of food security having relevance at global, national, regional, state, household and individual level is well understood as a core issue over the last three decades in the world. The World Food Conference of 1974, organized in the wake of the world food crisis of 1972-74, was largely concerned with global food security. It was felt as the common responsibility of all nations that international approaches were needed to achieve the goal of improved world food security. The food security at national level means arrangements for providing physical supply of a minimum level of food during all periods including those having harvest failures. FAO (1983) had formulated that the basic concept of food security implied that all people at all times have physical and economic access to the basic food they need. The World Bank (1986) has modified this formulation to indicate that food security is access by all people at all times to enough food for an active healthy life.

In this direction, the conference on Environment and Development held in Rio (1992), the Joint FAO/WHO Conference on Nutrition held in Rome (1992), the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna (1993), the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo (1994), the World Summit on Social Development held in Copenhagen (1995), the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing (1995), the Habitat II Conference held at Istanbul (1996), the World Food Summit held in Rome (1996), etc. deliberated on various facets of food security like food security and sustainable development, right for nutritionally fit and safe food, population growth and food production, global measures to satisfy the food needs, campaign against hunger, women in food production, rural-urban linkages and so on.