eChapters

The dream of having genomes completely sequenced is now a reality. The complete sequence of many genomes including the human one is known. However, the understanding of probably half a million human proteins encoded by less than 30’000 genes is still a long way away and the hard work to unravel the complexity of biological systems is yet to come. A new fundamental concept called proteome (PROTEin complement to a genOME) has recently emerged that should drastically help to unravel biochemical and physiological mechanisms of complex multivariate diseases at the functional molecular level. Proteomics involves the systematic study of proteins in order to provide a comprehensive view of the structure, function and regulation of biological systems. Coupled with advances in bioinformatics, this approach to comprehensively describing biological systems will undoubtedly have a major impact on our understanding of the phenotypes of both normal and diseased cells. Initially, proteomics focused on the generation of protein maps using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

If the 1990s were the decade of genomics, the first ten years of the new century are set to become the decade of proteomics. For the first time, the technologies of proteomics make it possible to generate quantitative protein expression data on a scale and sensitivity comparable to that achieved at the genetic level. This advance has major implications for our understanding of cellular organisation in health and disease and for pharmaceutical and agricultural biotechnology. Indeed, proteomics is already yielding important findings, across a wide range of applications. Most proteomics research, however, is directed towards the more proximal goal of investigating protein expression and function under specified physiological conditions.

The rapid evolution of proteomics has continued during the past years with a series of innovations in the core technologies of two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, and a diversity of productive research programmes. Well annotated proteomics databases are now emerging in a number of fields to provide a platform for systematic research, with particularly promising progress in clinical applications such as cardiology and oncology. Large-scale quantitative research, comparable in power and sensitivity to that achieved for gene expression, is thus becoming a reality at the protein level.

11.1 Total DNA Extraction by cTAB Method
    
11.2 Extraction, Purification Estimation of DNA
    
11.3 Potassium Acetate Procedure
    
11.4 DNA  Estimation
    
11.5 Restriction Enzymes

1. Introduction

Psyohrometrio is the study thermal and physical properties of gas-vapour mixtures. Ambient air is the mixture of dry air and water vapour and some pollutants. The moisture and pollutant content vary from place to place. The amount of pollutant and water vapour decrease with increase in the altitude. The air is completely dry above 10 km altitude. In many unit operations moist air is required and properties of air changes with temperature and pressure. The pollutants has to be removed before using moist air as a process air either by filtration or circulation. So it is necessary to determine the amount of water present in the air and effect of different unit operation on thermal properties and change in the heat and moisture content of mixture.The International Joint Committee of psychrometric data have fixed the composition of dry by mole fraction as: Oxygen: 0.2095, Nitrogen: 0.7803, Argon: 0.0093, Carbon dioxide: 0.0003. The following are the properties of the dry air

Molecular weight    28.966

Abstract

In view of the fast depletion of ground water reserves, uncertainty of rains and growing food demands due to human population explosion, efficient use of water available for crops has become highly relevant. In recent years, the use of superabsorbent polymers (saps) has been viewed as an innovative tool to improve water use efficiency in agricultural operations. Pusa Hydrogel, an indigenous superabsorbent hydrogel technology, has been developed for improving water use efficiency of agricultural and horticultural crops. They can absorb a minimum of 400 times of their dry weight of pure water and gradually release it according to the needs of the crop plant. So, it is used as soil moisture conservator and reduces number of irrigation. Because of their neutral ph, they do not affect nutrient availability, soil chemical composition, action of other agro chemicals, viz. fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, etc. Pusa hydrogels are found to improve the physical properties of soils. Increase in porosity results in improvement in seed germination and rate of seedling emergence, root growth and density, and reduced soil erosion due to reduction in soil compaction. It also increases biological/microbial activities in the soil, which increase oxygen/air and nutrient availability in root zone of the plant. So, ultimately it is helpful for increasing crop productivity. 

1. Introduction

Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae sp. ), a high altitudinal, thorny, temperate, deciduous, dioecious, actinorhizal shrub or small tree belonging to the Kingdom-Plantae, Clades-Angiosperms, Eudicots and Rosids, Order- Rosales, Family-Elaeagnaceae and native to Eurasean Countries like India, China, Russia, Nepal, Pakistan, etc. (Barik et al., 2016). SBT is having tolerance towards a wide group of pests and insects, can grow in extreme nutrient deficient conditions and temperature range of -40 °C to 40 °C. It contains more than 190 reported invaluable phytochemicals and has the potential for multidimensional use as food, fodder, medicine, fuel, and conservation of soil and bio diversity (Qinxiao and Hongyan, 2003; Barik et al., 2016). SBT berries, leaves, stem and root barks also contain nutrients and bioactive compounds which mainly include lipids, sugars, amino acids, organic acids, fatty acids, carotenoids (β-carotenes, lycopene, zeaxanthin), tocopherols (α β, γ, δ), sterols (ergosterol, campesterol), Vitamins (A, C, E and K), phenolic and flavonoid compounds (gallic acid, caeffeic acid, ferulic acid, isorhamnetin, kaemferol, quercetin, myricetin) and isoprenols (Tiitinen et al., 2005; Anderson et al., 2009; Barik et al., 2016). All these studies are primarily based on the prominent SBT species Hippophae rhamnoides. However, Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae salicifolia) of North East India is an underutilized non-conventional plant and its potential is not yet fully explored. Very scanty literatures are available on the identification, documentation and preliminary qualitative phytochemical characterization of SBT from North East India (Basistha et al., 2010; Pradhan et al., 2015). But there is no any report on systematic qualitative phytochemical characterization of all the plant parts of SBT from North East India in general and SBT of Arunachal Pradesh in partcular.

1. Introduction

Jackfruit is the largest edible tree borne fruit in the world (Baliga et al., 2011). According to Haq (2006) India is considered as the birth place of jackfruit. The major jackfruit producing states in India are Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, the foothills of the Himalayas and South Indian States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Jackfruit is a fruit prized in some areas of the world and allowed to go waste in others. According to Sidhu (2012) the extent to which jackfruit is being wasted in India is not exactly documented however, the wastage is approximately 75%. On an average a fully developed fruit may weigh 10-25 kg. Seeds occupy around 10 to 15% of the total weight of the jackfruit (Bobbio et al., 1978). It is reported that jackfruit seeds contain high amount of protein, fiber and carbohydrate (Ocloo et al., 2010). The seeds are viable for not more than three or four days (Sidhu, 2012). According to Abedin et al. (2012) the industrial utilization of jackfruit pulp are varied but the seeds are discarded from those food industries. Moreover, mature fresh seeds cannot remain fresh for long as they tend to germinate easily. So, converting jackfruit seed into flour is an option in order to increase the shelf- life of the seed and can substitute various cereal based flours for developing food products. Dumpling is a type of food which is made out of small pieces of dough wrapped around a filling that may include vegetables, meat, or other ingredients mixed together.

Natural disasters are of meteorological or hydrometeorological origin. Disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis are occasional, but rainfall-related hazards, flood or drought, are very frequent and thus call for proper monitoring of large-scale rainfall variation, and better manage- ment and planning to combat the problem(s). Variation in rainfall is very large spatially and temporally compared to any other atmospheric parameter, such as pressure or temperature. The large temporal variability in the Indian rainfall has produced frequent flood/drought and periods of above/below normal rainfall for several centuries past. Areas of high rainfall and runoff are flooded in the summer monsoon season whereas others face water stress and drought conditions. The influence of global warming on rainfall variations over India is reported in numerous observational (Singh et al., 1991, 1992) and modelling studies (Lal, 1994). 

Introduction

Rainfall is the principal source of water in arid areas, which augments soil moisture, groundwater and surface flows. Agriculture and several of the other economic activities in arid areas depend on rain. This region is devoid of any well defined perennial river system. Under such circumstances every drop of water becomes very precious. Of the total water use about 85% of water is used for irrigation and remaining 15% is used for drinking, industrial and other purposes. About 65% of irrigation water and 30-40% of drinking water is subjected to serious losses. Hence, increasing water use efficiency coupled with increasing availability of water through rainwater harvesting and management is of prime importance for sustainable development of arid areas. Rainwater harvesting, its conservation and efficient utilization can solve problem of water scarcity to the greater extend. Rainwater harvesting in small ponds (nadis), underground tanks (tankas), Khadins (Low lying areas) etc. is an age-old tradition in arid zone of Rajasthan. These traditional rainwater harvesting structures vary in design, shape and size. These traditional methods have undergone several changes for being more economical and efficient. Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur since its inception in year 1959 is continuously working for development and refinement of water efficient techniques for crop production, individuals and for the communities for development in hot arid zone of India.

In our previous chapters, we have discussed various sampling designs or techniques such as simple random sampling, stratified sampling, systematic sampling and cluster sampling recently we have discussed unequal probability sampling i.e., probability proportional to size sampling. In all these sampling designs the variable of interest (generally there is only one variable of interest) which we have considered and perform our estimation based on that single variable. There are some other variables which are related to our variable of interest and if we utilize those variables, we may gain some efficiency in our estimator i.e., if we take some correlated variables with our variable of interest or study variable by this, we can enhance our estimation. The variable which is correlated with the study variable is usually known auxiliary variable or supporting variable or supplementary variable or benchmark variable. This auxiliary variable is utilized in two stages either in the design stage or estimation stage.

Graunt (1662) was the first who used auxiliary information to estimate the population size of England. After this Laplace used auxiliary information for the estimation of the population in France.

Introduction

Development of feeding strategies that are more efficient and more eco-friendly by reducing waste is one of the key priorities in poultry production today. Thus, there is a focus on reduction of the crude protein content in a diet fortified with adequate amounts of currently available free amino acids (e.g. L-Lys, DL-Met, L-Thr, L-Val and L-Trp) in order to optimize protein utilization efficiency while maintaining production performance and reducing nitrogen excretion in chicken. Baker et al (1978) reported that animals do not need dietary protein to provide amino acids. Since, then numerous studies have been conducted to study amino acid requirement of poultry. They are components of tissue proteins and provision at insufficient levels leads to reduced protein synthesis. Provision of the different essential amino acids is therefore a prerequisite for maintaining optimal rates of protein synthesis. However, optimizing amino acid nutrition requires consideration of the different functions of amino acids, which are recognized to have several significant influences. Amino acids are precursors of important molecules.

1.    Introduction

2.    Materials for Boat Construction

3.    Engines and Propellers

4.    Fuel Saving

5.    Development of Computer Aided Designing (CAD)

6.    Type and Size of Boats
    
    6.1    Trawlers
    6.2    Otter trawlers
    6.3    Side trawlers
    6.4    Stern trawlers
    6.5    Freezer trawlers
    6.6    Purse seiners
    6.7    Long liners
    
7.    Fishing Equipment
    
    7.1    Echo sounders and sonars
    7.2    Global positioning system (GPS)
    
8.    Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)
    
    8.1    Advantages of the GMDSS over the current system
    8.2    Implementation of the GMDSS requirements
    8.3    The main types of equipment used in GMDSS
    
9.    Distress Alert Transmitters (DAT)
    
10.    Automatic Identification System (AIS)
    
11.    Handling Equipments
    
    11.1    Advances in deck machinery
    11.2    Automated long line system
    11.3    Automated squid jigging machines
    11.4    Net haulers
    11.5    Net drums
    11.6    Gantries
    11.7    Stern ramp
    
12.    Side Thruster
    
13.    Satellites and Remote Sensing
    
14.    Vessel Monitoring System (VMS)
    
References

Introduction

Minerals are essentially required for growth maintenance, egg and meat production, health, nutrient metabolism, physiological function, reproduction, skeletal growth and development and maintenance of normal immune function. There are 25 essential minerals, seven are major minerals, as they are present in relatively higher amount in the body than the trace minerals and need to be supplemented in higher quantities in the feed. These major minerals are calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, chloride, potassium, and sulphur. The micro minerals are present in small quantities in the body and their requirements in the diet are below 100 mg/kg. The 18 trace minerals are iron, copper, zinc, manganese, iodine, selenium, cobalt, molybdenum, chromium, tin, vanadium, fluorine, silicon, nickel, arsenic, aluminium, lead and rubidium. Among these, the first nine micro minerals have been identified to play a significant role in birds. Total minerals in diet include feed sources and supplementary sources. 

After the Second World War, the 1940’s and 1950’s was the wide spread establishment of artificial insemination and the introduction of frozen semen in cattle breeding.  In the late 1960s came revolution in measurement of hormones in the body fluid with the introduction of sensitive radio-immuno-assay (RIA) techniques, which provided a new approach to early pregnancy diagnosis, emerging around the same time were early forms of the ultrasonic which could also employed in the detection of pregnancy. The 1970’s were to see embryo transfer and freezing of embryos in cattle becoming commercial realities and their incorporation into increasingly effective breeding improvement programme with the availability of prostaglandins (PGs) and Gonadotrophin releasing hormones (GnRH) that decade also witnessed new possibilities for estrum control in cattle and horses.  Few years later came the ability to produce the cattle embryos in the laboratories in large numbers and at low cost.

Water is the most critical component of life system. Irrigation plays vital role in rising and stabilizing yield and maintaining quality of fruit crops grown in tropical or sub-tropical climate. Micro irrigation is one of the modern and advanced methods of irrigation which is becoming popular in areas having problems like water scarcity and poor quality of water. Since the competition for water between agricultural and non-agricultural sector is increasing day by day, the efficient management of water resources is very essential to meet the water requirement. It is anticipated to reduce water use for agriculture by 70% in the coming decade, where the present day share is 80%. Demand for water is increasing in non-agricultural sectors like industry, energy, domestic use etc. Hence, policy makers and researchers consider water as the main obstacle for growing enough food crops in the coming years. In India where population is increasing at alarming rate, the area under irrigation should go up from 60 million hectares to 114 million hectares by the year 2050. In this context, micro irrigation plays a major role under limiter water agro ecosystem.

Introduction

India is a rich center of plant diversity due to varied climatic conditions as well as soil qualities which provide a better platform for the diverse plant groups. In India around 45000 plant species are spread over the area (Mayers, 1988). These plant species multiply and produces the new plant. The multiplication of plants is termed as propagation and the art of propagation is as old as civilization of human being. The history of civilization began with the propagation and growing of plants. Plant propagation was in practice in pre-historic period. However, the propagation process has got commercial popularity only recently. The success in plant propagation depends on a thorough knowledge of the growth of plants, choice of suitable method and technical skill. In nature, plants multiply naturally to perpetuate themselves. Now-a-days, propagation practices have been totally modernized and became advanced from field to in vitro. Variation in plant propagation can be observed in the nature like some plants are producing many seeds for future generation with their unique type of dispersal mechanism. Among a large

Introduction : Need to Change

During the era of Green Revolution, India remarkably achieved self-sufficiency in food production with the introduction of high-yielding varieties, extension in the irrigated cultivable land, high use of chemical fertilizer such as Urea and other sources of NPK fertilizers and increase in cropping intensity.During these processes, relative contribution of organic manures as a source of plant nutrients declined substantially. Due to heavy application of chemical pesticides an increase in resistance of insect pests has also been noticed for most of the regular used plant protection chemicals. Health hazards associated with intensive modern agriculture, such as pesticides residues in food products and groundwater contamination are matter of concern. In the progress of green revolution technologies and chemical dependent nutrient management has declined the overall productive capacity of the soil due to no judicious fertilizer use. Such concerns and problems faced by modern-day agriculture gave birth to new concepts in farming, such as organic farming, natural farming, biodynamic agriculture, donothing agriculture, eco-farming, etc. The essential feature of such farming practices imply, i.e., back to nature.

1. Introduction
The era of genome sequencing was exploded by the upcoming of Human Genome Project (1989), coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institute of Health to identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes, 3 billion chemical base pairs, store this information in databases, improve the tools for data analysis, transfer related technologies to the private sector, and address the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) that may arise from the project. The dawn of genome sequencing began with Fredric Sanger’s sequencing almost twenty-five years ago. The time consuming and labor intensive gel preparation and their running, as well as the cost of such experiments replaced the conventional sequencing by “shotgun” sequencing.

1.    Modern Packaging Systems
    1.1    Modified atmosphere packaging
    1.2    Active packaging-principles and applications
    1.3    Aseptic packaging
    1.4    Shrink packaging
    1.5    Vacuum packaging
    1.6    Thermal processing
    1.7     Retort pouch packaging
    
2.    Packaging of Fish and Fishery Products
    2.1    Packaging materials used
    
3.    Packaging Requirements for Fish and Fishery Products
    3.1    Packaging of fresh fish
    3.2     Packaging of processed seafoods
    
Suggested Reading

Introduction

India has about 18% of the human and 15% of the livestock population of the world that needs to be supported from only 2% of the earth’s land area. The per capita land availability has declined from 0.89 ha in 1951 to 0.37 ha in 1991 and is likely to be 0.20 ha by 2035 (Singh, 2005). It is estimated that demand for green and dry fodder would be short by 64 and 24% by 2020, while it was short by 62 and 22% in 2005. The current sustainable production of firewood is 17 million tons from forest areas and 98 million tons from non-forest areas, leaving a net deficit of 86 million tons which is removed illicitly from forest and scrub formations all over the country. Nearly 32.67% of India’s geographical area is affected by various forms of soil erosion and land degradation. The area reported to be degraded in India varies widely, ranging from 63.9 million ha (Anonymous, 2000) to 187.70 million ha (Sehgal and Abrol, 1994), due to variations in approaches used to define degraded lands. The area under wastelands is estimated to occupy 63.85 million ha which is 20% of the country’s geographical area.

Introduction

There has been a slow evolution of information technologies in fruit crop production as innovators combined their prior field experience with an attitude of learning by doing while looking for practical applications for farm management. As a suite of technologies became available for use in agriculture production, a new management strategy that combined information with decision making became known as Precision farming. Precision farming is the emerging technology which involves maintaining of crop inputs on site specific basis with reducing waste, increasing the profits and maintaining the quality of environment. The main tools involved in this are Geographical Information System (GIS), Variable Rate Technology (VRT), Global Positioning System (GPS), Yield Monitoring and Remote Sensing.

Abstract

Horticulture crops play significant role in improving the productivity of land, generating employment, enhancing exports, improving economic conditions of the farmers and entrepreneurs and providing food and nutritional security to the people. For better management of the existing crops and to bring more area under horticulture crops, updated and accurate database is necessary for systematic planning and decision making. Remote sensing (RS) is an advanced tool that aids in gathering and updating information to develop scientific management plans. Many types of sensors namely microwave radiometers, laser meters, magnetic sensors and cameras collect electromagnetic information to derive accurate, large-scale information about the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. Because these data and images are digital, they can easily be quantified and manipulated using computers. RS can be used in efforts to reduce the risk and minimize damage. The same data can be analyzed in different ways for different applications. A number of studies were aiming at identification of crop, area estimation, disease and pest identification, etc. using satellite data in horticulture. The potential use of RS techniques in Horticulture is briefly reviewed in orde

Introduction 

Conservation tillage has been defined based on percent cover of the soil surface with crop residue (CTIC, 2000). Quantifying crop residue cover on the soil surface is important for improving estimates of surface energy balance, net primary productivity, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration. Quantifying crop residue cover is also an important factor in controlling soil erosion and evaluating the effectiveness of conservation tillage practices (Barnes et al., 2003). Collecting this information by conventional method of survey and line transact are time-consuming, labor intensive, costly and can involve destructive sampling (Morrison et al., 1993). Moreover, field data are limited because they provide point, rather than area information. Remote sensing technique revealed as promising tool in providing such spatial data over a large area in a time and cost-effective manner.

Introduction

In India, Fruits and vegetables comprises nearly 90% of the total horticulture production. India is now the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world and leader in several horticultural crops, namely mango, banana, papaya, cashewnut, arecanut, potato, and okra (National Horticulture Board, 2015). The total area occupied by horticultural crops in India was 23.69  million ha and total production was 283 million tonnes in 2015-16 (Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare). Different horticultural crops like fruits, vegetables, spices, medicinal plants and plantation crops comprises a large chunk of the total crop sales value of the country and also secures nutritional security of the persons of the country. For systematic and efficient management of existing crops and to bring more area of the country under the cultivation of horticultural crops to increase overall horticultural production in term of time and area, a database must be created for decision making and planning. 

Production is based on reproduction and health of reproductive system. Economy of livestock industry is directly attached to the maintenance of high fertility in the herd so controlling the reproductive diseases in cattle is a must.  Reproductive health may be disturbed by reproductive infections like Brucellosis, Leptospirosis, Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and Bovine viral diarrhea.

1    Large animals

2    Canines

3    Suggested antimicrobial/antifungal agents for intra-uterine administration

4    Commercial preparations of hormone(s) and recommended dosage protocol in cows

5    Drugs safe & contra indicated in pregnancy

The  information on normal reproductive traits in domestic animals like calving interval, age at first calving etc, is essential for getting the maximal reproductive efficiency of the animal by the farmer. It also helps in improving the reproductive efficiency of the animals by different required means viz nutrient/mineral supplementation, antibiotic, hormonal therapy etc.

Introduction

The Indo-Gangetic plain (IGP) is of great importance for the food security of India. It extends over 1,600 km with a width of 320 km, including the arid and semi arid environments in Rajasthan and Punjab and the humid and per humid deltaic plains in west Bengal (Shankaranarayana, 1982). During the green revolution period in the early 1960s, production increased through area expansion and intensification of the rice –wheat system. Driving forces included suitable thermal regimes for rice and wheat cultivation, development of short- duration, nitrogen responsive cultivars, expansion of irrigation and an ever increasing demand for food from the rising population. The rice –wheat system, covering an area of around 10 million hectares (mha), is the major cropping system in the IGP. These two crops together contribute more than 70 % of total cereals production in India from an area of around 25 mha under wheat and about 40 mha under rice. The small states of Punjab and Haryana contribute 20 % of the total national grain production and 50 % and 85 % of the government procurement of rice and wheat, respectively (Singh, 2000).

Conservation agriculture (CA) refers to a set of agricultural practices involving three basic principles of proven scientific soundness. These include continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance; permanent organic soil cover with crop residues or cover crops; and diversified, efficient, economically viable, appropriate spatial and temporal crop sequences providing opportunities for saving on inputs (labor, fuel, machinery etc.), improving resource use efficiency (water, nutrient, energy etc.) and mitigating GHGs emission with climate change adaptation. Recently research efforts have been made to refine the crop management technologies which are more resource efficient, improve production and income, and reduce GHGs emission compared to the conventional practices. Resource conserving technologies (RCTs) are increasingly being adopted by farmers in the rice-wheat belt of the Indo-Gangetic Plains because of advantages of saving on labor, water, fuel and cost along with timeliness in operations particularly early planting of wheat.

Introduction

The subject of conservation agriculture CA has emerged as a need given the declining productivity of land and increasing costs of input that is putting tremendous pressure on the farming community. Higher yield expectation from land given also brings pressure to the subject of food security. Considering the markets with the globalisation influence is beyond a farmer’s means of influence and price realisation is not a point of control, the situation has deteriorated to their disadvantage. Climate change and soil degradation on the other hand is a reality and agriculture is both a sufferer and contributor, and cannot ignore this reality. Good physical management of soils is one of the key factors to maintain or improve agricultural productivity, in tropical and subtropical regions, and to reduce soil and environmental degradation (Lal, 2000). Tropical soils often have a stable structure and are well aggregated but management practices like intensive ploughing or avoiding the use of cover crops can lead to rapid deterioration (Madari et al., 2005).

Introduction

Rice is grown 43.7 m ha land in India. It is cultivated in 39.51 m ha under kharif and 4.26 m ha under rabi season. As a whole, rice production in India was 104.32 m t (2011-12) with an average productivity of around 2.6 t ha-1. Majority of rice grown in India in the eastern part of the country comprises the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand. Maximum area under rice in eastern India in West Bengal (5.94 m ha) with a production of 15.04 mt. Productivity was maximum in West Bengal followed by Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, Orissa and Chattisgarh (DOSE, MOA, GOA, 2011). There is a plenty of scope to increase the productivity of these region with proper policies and technological interventions. Rice area in eastern region (23.4 m ha) would be divided in different ecologies, namely, irrigated (23.2%), rainfed upland (17.9%), rainfed lowland (43.1%) and flood prone areas (25.1%).

Climate change is a statistical variation in properties of the climate system that includes changes in global temperature, precipitation, etc due to natural or human drivers over a long period of time. It may affect distribution and quality of natural resources thereby influencing livelihood security of the people (Status of Indian Agriculture, 2013). Recent climate change activities is the increase in earth’s temperature by 0.74^ºC between 1906 to 2005 (IPCC 2007) due to increase in anthropogenic emissions of green house gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), ozone (O₃), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs). Increase in concentration of green house gases influence future climate as well as agriculture (Mall et al., 2006; IPCC, 2001; Aggarwal, 2003: Bhatia et al., 2004). For Indian region under South Asia, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007 projected a rise in temperature from 0.5-1.2^ºC by 2020, 0.88-3.16 oC by 2050, and 1.56 - 5.44^ºC by 2080. This may anticipate greater instability in agricultural production (Aggarwal, 2008). Beside this, climate change also affects the dynamics and frequency of extreme events like tropical cyclones, associated storm surges, and rainfall events. Low lying regions are more vulnerable to climate change as increase in temperature melt down the glaciers causing floods, submergence, and degradation of these regions. Therefore, there is a need for a ‘wake up call’ at this stage to aware farmers about the climate change, extreme weather events like hailstorm, heat and cold waves, drought, flash and river floods and landslides, and its affect on crop and agriculture, and strategies to overcome it.

1. Introduction

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a tropical fruit having good sensorial characteristics such as, mechanical properties, flavor, acidity/sweetness ratio, color; and nutritional. Pineapple is known to be a good source of vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin B and antioxidants. The free radical scavenging activity of pineapple is found to be much higher than banana and is comparable to that of guava (Alothman et al., 2009). However, it is a perishable cash crop that grows in abundance in a short time. This necessitates protecting the perishable fruit against quality loss during storage and distribution.

Fruit leathers are an economic and convenient substitute for natural fruits with high nutritional components. Leathers are made by removing moisture from wet pulp until the desired cohesive “leathery” composition is obtained. Since it is light and low in moisture it has minimum storage problems and is economical to ship (Moyls, 1981). Therefore, making fruit leather from fresh fruits is an effective way to preserve fruits (Maskan et al., 2002). Furthermore, fruit leather has far fewer calories, less than 100 kcal per serving (Huang and Hsieh, 2005) and have a far greater nutritional value (e. g., especially in terms of energy, minerals, antioxidants and fiber) than the fresh fruits because all nutrients are concentrated. There are large numbers of fruit leather available in the market, such as mango leather, apricot fruit leather, grape leather, berry leather, kiwifruit leather, and jackfruit leather (Torres et al., 2015).

4.1. INTRODUCTION

Rice (Oryza sativa) is the major food crop in the world. Nearly 40% of the world population consumes rice as the major staple food. Most of the people, who depend on rice as primary food, live in the less developed countries.  Archeological evidence on rice in India dates back to 1500-1000 B.C. Since the dawn of civilization, rice has served humans as a life-giving cereal in the humid regions of Asia and, to a lesser extent, in West Africa. Introduction of rice into Europe and the America has led to its increased use in human diets. There are 42 rice producing countries throughout the world but China and India are major rice production centers. Rice is grown in wide range of agro-climatic conditions ranging from mountainous (Jammu) lands to low land delta areas (Sundarban), spanning an area from 53° latitude north to 35° south of the world but about 90% of the crop is grown and consumed in Asia. Rice provides fully 60% of the food intake in Southeast Asia and about 35% in East Asia and South Asia. The highest level of per capita rice consumption (130-180 kg per year, 55-80% of total caloric source) takes place in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Vietnam (Kenneth and Kriemhild, 2000). In many cultures of the world rice is the central part of people’s life and culture. Rice is an excellent food and is an excellent source of carbohydrates and energy.

Eastern India is frequently affected by weather hazards, such as drought, flood and heat wave. The region consists of Orissa, West Bengal, and Bihar. The coastal states of Orissa and West Bengal frequently face cyclones, while Bihar and eastern U.P. face cold wave. Due to unfavorable seasonal weather, crop productivity is poor. However, the recent change in climate induced by global warming has further threatened the agricultural productivity in the region. Rice is the principal crop of Eastern India and rice based cropping systems has long been practiced in the region. While rice-rice is the most dominant cropping system in Orissa and West Bengal, rice-wheat is in Bihar and eastern U.P. Besides, rice-groundnut occupies a considerable area in the region. It is now doubtful whether the resilience of these cropping systems would continue sustaining the productivity under the climate change. The major aim of the proposal was to identify suitable adaptation measures of crop production under projected climate change. Climate change is expected to alter precipitation pattern, increase temperature, change in humidity level and decrease sunshine. As a result it is like to influence right from land preparation to the harvest and post harvest process. Thus the project aim was to revisiting the existing package of practices of selected cropping systems by simulation modelling, deduce suitable adaptation measures and validate these by OTC experiments.

13.1    Biochemical Changes During Banana Ripening
    
13.2    Commercial Ripening

Principal Scientist and I/c Head, Division of Social Sciences and Training IIHR, Hessaraghatta Lake Post, Bangalore - 560 089, Karnataka

Introduction

The word ‘risk’ derives from the early Italian risicare, which means ‘to dare’. In this sense, risk is a choice rather than a fate (Bernstein, 1996).

It is an inherent trait in humans to take chances. We believe that even though the future is uncertain we can make calculated choices based on our knowledge of past occurrences and the outcomes will be skewed in our favour. 

Introduction

Among vertebrate pests such as birds and wild animals, Well-known rodents include mice, rats, squirrels, dogs, gerbils etc., are great importance. Among rodents, rat and mice come under class Mammalia. They are small mammals belonging to order Rodentia and under sub family Murinae in the Family Muridae. Rat and mice cause severe damage to various crops like sugarcane, rice, maize etc. both directly and indirectly by gnawing, spoilage, contamination and hoarding activities. Beside this, it is big problem in house, store godown, warehouse, urban cities and industries. Rats and mice have caused more human suffering and more economic damage than any other vertebrate pest. It is also known to introduce secondary pest like fleas, mites and ticks into premises cause additional problem.  Statisticians estimate that rats and mice destroy 20 per cent of the world’s food supply every year directly by feeding and indirectly through contamination. It has adapted to nearly all human environments. They live in granaries, fields, city sewers, attics, basements, street trees, on top of 30-story buildings, and inside subway tunnels. Rats may be also responsible for the spread of many diseases. Some of the more important diseases associated with rats are plague, murine typhus fever, rat bite fever, salmonella food poisoning, and trichinosis. Adult mice have a small, triangular head with a small nose and little delicate feet as compared to the body. The mouse ears are very large relative to their heads. Rat ears are smaller relative to their heads. Rats have thicker tails than mice.

Abstract: Agroforestry, is a sustainable land use system being practiced since long time through out the country. A diverse climatic, edaphic, and environmental conditions prevailing in the country has made it possible to practice different kinds of agroforestry systems. Karnataka state has four major agro-ecological regions and coffee agroforests are prevalent in the region of Western Ghats of Karnataka, which has tropical climate. With in Karnataka, Kodagu district has highest area under coffee agroforests with a total area of 1,00,079 hectares and is the largest producer of coffee in the country. The area under coffee agroforests is increasing at the cost of natural forested landscapes, which is considered as a looming threat to biological diversity. But, at the same time there are arguments that these coffee agroforests also supports high level of biological diversity. There are very few studies to justify this argument. With this background the present study is an attempt to enumerate the biological diversity of coffee based agroforests of Kodagu.

The importance of Plant Pathology has been realized over the years owing to number of crop failures in different parts of the world. Plant disease control is indispensable for qualitative production and to compete in global agricultural trade. There is great need of sensitization of our research in various aspects which shall guide the generation to come for managing plant diseases not only for enhancing crop production but also in facilitating trade by conserving the biodiversity and environment.

Research Trend in Plant Pathology

Like in other sciences, there has been a change in the trend of research in Plant Pathology with passage of time. Up to the late 1960s most of the interest in plant pathology was concentrated in crop diseases mostly caused by fungi. Physiology of microorganisms and physiology of parasitism became increasingly popular fields of interest in 1960s.

Vaccines
    
Veterinary v/s Human Vaccines
    
Modern Veterinary Vaccines
    
rDNA Technology to Prepare Vaccines
    
Veterinary Viral Vaccines
    
Live Vaccines
    
Killed Vaccines
    
Genetically Engineered Viral Vaccines
    
Veterinary Bacterial Diseases Vaccines
    
Veterinary Parasitic Vaccines
    
Vaccines against cancer
    
Swine Flu
    
Foot and Mouth Disease
    
Adenovirus Vector Vaccine
    
Johne’s Disease
    
Diseases of Poultry
    
Newcastle Disease in Poultry
    
Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)
    
Rabies
    
Disease Diagnostics
    
The Nucleic Acid-hybridization Technique
    
Diagnostics Based on pcr
    
Diagnosis by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms and Related DNA-based Approaches
    
Diagnosis by DNA Probes and DNA Microarray Technology
    
Antigen-Capture Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) Proteomics
    
Disease Diagnosis Kits Developed
    
Brucelosis
    
Rabies
    
Canine Distemper and Canine Parvo Virus
    
Canine Hepatitis Virus
    
Foot and Mouth Disease
    
New Castle Disease
    
Egg Drop Syndrome Virus-76 (EDS-76)
    
Proteomics for Disease Diagnostics
    
Nanotechnologies in Diagnosis and Vaccine Development
    
Monoclonal Antibodies
    
Immunotherapy
    
Problems
    
Animal Genomics for Disease Resistance
    
Gene Knockout Technology
    
Gene Pharming
    
Gene Therapy
    
Types of Gene Therapy
    
Germ Line Gene Therapy
    
Somatic Gene Therapy

Introduction

Climate is one of the main determinants of agricultural production. Throughout the world there is significant concern about the effects of climate change and its variability on agricultural production. Researchers and administrators are concerned with the potential damages and benefits that may arise in future from climate change impacts on agriculture, since these will affect domestic and international policies, trading pattern, resource use and food security. The climate change is any change in climate over time that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (IPCC, 2007).

Introduction

In order to define climate it is important to distinguish it from weather. The weather that we experience on a day-to-day basis is a momentary atmospheric state characterized by temperature, precipitation, wind, and so on, and seems to vary in an irregular way, not following any particular pattern. Climate is a very general term that has a variety of closely related meanings. Usually, climate refers to the average weather conditions observed over a long period of time for a given area. In contrast to the instantaneous conditions described by weather, the timescale upon which climate statistics are calculated is typically thirty years. There can be variations in climate from year to year, or one decade to another, one century to another, or any longer time scale. The climate of a region depends on many factors including the amount of sunlight it receives, its height above sea level, the shape of the land, distance from the equator and how close it is to oceans. Generally speaking, the climate remains stable over long periods of time if the various elements within the system remain stable. However, if one or more of the components of the system is altered, the stability of the whole system is compromised and can lead to uncharacteristic behaviour and give rise to weather, which is outside the usual range of expectations. This situation can be described as climate change.

Introduction

Natural phenomena such as solar radiation, volcanic activity and ocean circulation influence climate and contribute to its variability. Evidence suggests that climate is now also changing as a result of human activities, such as the emission of greenhouse gases and changing land uses. The fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) concluded that the global average mean temperature and the frequency of hot extremes, heat waves, and heavy precipitation will very likely increase in response to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Society will have to make decisions in the coming years about how to adapt to a changing climate. Climate variability and climate change create risks to all sectors of the economy. Climate is already a prime factor in 9 out of 10 disasters, many of which cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives. Effective preparation for the possible effects of climate change requires the engagement of resource managers, planners, public works officials, local managers, community development specialists, businesses, residents, and property owners. The challenge is to provide these diverse stakeholders with trusted, useful, science-based information so that they in turn can make informed decisions. 

Introduction

Development, refinement and adoption of machinery for a range of soil and cropping situations will be fundamental in any success to promote conservation agriculture systems. This chapter reports on the performance of machinery for minimum/zero tillage, bed cultivation system and crop residues management in different cropping system and outlines the need for continuing efforts. Particularly, the focus will be on developing equipments/implements for fixed path / controlled traffic to minimize the ill effects of wheels in the longer terms.

Introduction

The wide range of agro-climatic and agro-ecological situations that prevail in the country supports cultivation of a variety of horticultural crops. The horticultural sector in the country is experiencing a phenomenal growth as far as increase in area, production and productivity are concerned. However, there is a lot of opportunities for enhancing productivity, post- harvest processing, value addition, hi-tech horticulture and precision farming etc. Hence, it will be enterprising to develop this sector, especially among the marginal and small farmers, so that that it will help them doubling their income from farm sector. 

Abstract 

The district Murshidabad lies within the Younger Deltaic Plain and the Bhagirathi Recent Surface has been considered as the severe flood affected district of West Bengal state, India. Murshidabad is highlighted one in terms of occurrence of flood due to its typical geographic location and diverse geomorphological characteristics. The district witnessed frequent floods because of high intensity of rain fall in the basin area of Bhairavi-Jalangi-sealmari rivers. Inflow of flood water from Ganga-Padma in high spate condition further aggravates the congestion of drainage. Lack of proper drainage is also responsible for flood in the upstream side in the western part as well as beyond the Berhampur town. Flood management may be undertaken through physical and socio-economic measures, which includes the scientific control of reservoirs; construction of new barrages, improvement of river channels, removal of human encroachment along river side, timely flood warning and forecasting, preparedness of essential services along with proper flood plain planning are indispensable. Addressing of socio-economic problems may help to combat the flood situation in an effective way.

Abstract

Organic farming is a method of crop and livestock production that involves much more than choosing not to use pesticides, fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, antibiotics and growth hormones. Organic fruit production essentially excludes the use of many inputs associated with modern farming, most notably synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Organic agriculture, the innovative farming system can build-on and enhance the traditional knowledge and practices of local and indigenous communities. Indigenous Knowledge can be broadly defined as the knowledge that anindigenous (local) community accumulates over generations of living in a particular environment. ITK in fruit production is important for reducing the cost of cultivation, reducing the pollution and also the natural resource base. It is very important to understand these age old practices to address the local problems and to document it before is vanished away.

Introduction

ICT is an acronym for Information and Communication Technology.  The information refers to accessibility of digital data in an easy way to retrieve relevant facts. The communication refers to the medium or the way to transmit the information from one place to another place or one media to another media. The advancement in these areas refers to technology. The collectively ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form. For example, personal computers, digital television, email, robots.

Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather around longer-term average conditions (i.e., more or fewer extreme weather events). The change lasts for an extended period of time i.e., decades to millions of years has also been considered as climate change. The causing factors of climate change are biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. The affecting factors seems to be irreversible, it has become the today’s necessity to develop improved next generation technologies which processes the current and future shifts in the climate system. In particular, the Agriculture will be most affected domain due to climate over the next few decades (Brown and Funk, 2008). The development of crop modeling tools pointed out that climate change is likely to decrease agricultural production.