eChapters

Introduction

Landscaping refers to art and science of proper utilization of garden forms, methods and materials for the overall improvement of the place in such a way that it blends with surrounding and creates aesthetics. It is an approach to enhance the appearance of land by altering its contours, and planting trees, shrubs, climbers and various ornamental plants for aesthetic effects. It is the prerequisite for the urban areas that are highly polluted and densely populated. The urbanites now-a-days are facing many problems relating to the health because of imbalance in the environmental conditions.In today’s world, with the rapid pace of urbanization and the growing concern for climate change led to the increasing trend of bringing nature back into cities. Removal of greenery and replaced them with buildings and paved streets increase the surface radiation and air temperature that result to drier and hotter environment for urban cities compared to the rural areas. In this context, the demand for planned and creative exterior landscaping increases which allows the man to re-create an aesthetic environment with breath taking life. Exterior landscaping is the means of bringing man closer to the nature. It is also referred as outdoor landscaping and has gained wide popularity now-a-days because of the expansion of the urban areas along with increase interest of people towards healthier and cleaner environment.

Introduction

The gut microbiota is the complex and dynamic community of microorganisms that includes various bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms, proliferate and lead a symbiotic/mutual relationship with the host system. These microorganisms protect the host against pathogens by unique mechanisms, helps to maintain shape and strengthen the intestinal epithelium and boost immune response. Diverse bacterial metabolites can immigrate the host bloodstream and other parts of the body via various channels in humans and animals, such as gut-microbiota-brain, gut microbiota-skin, gut-vagina, gut liver, gut-bones etc. However, many aspects of modern lifestyle would alter the gut microbiota and lead to numerous diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Probiotics and other beneficial microbes exert many beneficial effects on their hosts by modulating the gut microbiota. While the term probiotic is reserved only for well-characterised strains with clinically proven health benefits, other beneficial microorganisms include, organisms responsible for the fermentation of foods viz. yogurt, kefir, kombucha, kimchi and many others that have been shown to have distinct health benefits. Interestingly, major group of these beneficial organisms belong to lactic acid bacteria.

Abstract

Though India is second largest producer of fruits and vegetables but is far behind in per capita availability of this protective food as compared to many developed countries. Floriculture and allied horticulture crop production (spices, medicinal & aromatic crops, mushroom etc.) have great potential to generate high income, jobs and new careers. Hi-tech horticulture is the need of all the developing countries and it refers to “the precise production techniques for efficient use of inputs at appropriate time and quantity for maximization of yield and quality of crops”. Various ways to make horticulture hi-tech include modern nursery management including micro propagation, protected crop production, high density planting including canopy management, use of agrochemicals, rejuvenation technique, interated nutrient management, integrated water management, integrated pest and disease management. Inspite of this, in present context, major emphasis has been given on clean horticulture production with bio-derived, renewable energy sources for developing a profitable CEA (controlled environment agriculture) that would help in sustaining the system, improving socio-economic status of growers and of-course environment-friendly.

ABSTRACT

Indian agriculture is an economic symbiosis of crop and cattle population. Millions of family dairy farming dominates India’s dairy industry, contributing 62 percent of total milk produced in the country. So, encouraging family dairy farming in rural areas is necessary to increase the milk production at national level and increase the socioeconomic status of landless and marginal farmer. In rural areas there is a major problem of milk marketing. In urban scarcity of quality milk, other side in villages especially faraway from city there is surplus milk and farmers are not interested to rear more dairy animals. Marketing of surplus milk is main problem because milk is a highly perishable item and farmers not having time and also due to less quantity of surplus milk (3-5 liter) they are not interested to go market. For this we can work in group and collect milk at one place from all members and one person go to market for selling of milk. Extra milk can be used to manufacture other milk products like ghee, peda, paneeretc by other member. Some members also engaged in other work like treatment of animals, collect information of different schemes from related offices. While engaging with rural communities, we recognised that village women are the primary caretakers of cattle and play a significant role in dairy farming. As a result, the Village Woman Dairy DevelopmentProgramme - an initiative focusing on empowering village women engaged in dairy farming. Benefits in dairy farming depend on cost of feeding, medicines, labour and income from sale of milk. Milk price is fixed and not in farmers control so we increase the income through reducing the cost of milk production. Approx 70% cost of milk production on feeding of animals. To reduce cost of feeding and medicine we fed balanced ration to dairy animals. Also reducing cost of production by feeding locally available unconventional feeds through total mixed ration feeding and urea mineral molasses block supplementation.

Introduction

India has progressed well on food production from 51 million tonnes (mt) in 1947, 286 mt in 2018-2019 owing to the largest contribution from wheat and rice (about 213 mt). But simultaneously our population has also grown to about 135 billion in 2018. Therefore, the impact of higher production is not realized in absolute terms. Indian agriculture has come a long way since independence achieving food security in major crops, declining rate of rural poverty, rise in agricultural incomes and nutrition levels have gone up. Higher production has also been recorded in sugar, cotton, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, milk, fisheries and poultry. All this has made us a proud with achieving self-sufficiency in food security. However, on the socio-economic front, the picture does not become rosy as we have a lower strength of socio-economic development indicators even among developing countries. Still the reports of under nourishment, hunger and poverty rings the bell. However, the importance of agriculture cannot be negated because it provides sustenance to mankind, food and employment to all. Considering the emerging challenges of climate change impacting agricultural productivity and increasing variability, poor investment in research, skill development of farmers, post-harvest losses etc. New strategies and innovations in agriculture, particularly on the development of climate resilient varieties with high productivity and better nutritive quality are called for, which has to be led by structural reforms and infrastructural augmentation.

Introduction

Pulses belong to the taxonomic family Fabaceae, containing over 18,000 species divided into the three sub-families Mimosoideae, Caesalpinoideae and Papilionoideae. Pulses are commonly cultivated for several decades in all over the world because of the nutritional value of their seeds. Among different pulses, soybean, chickpea, common bean, cowpea, green gram, black gram and pigeon pea contribute significantly to serve the major protein source for the diets of large numbers of people living in Asia, Africa, and South America.

Production and Productivity of Pulses in india

In India, the production of pulses has not been able to keep pace with their domestic demand, resulting in import of 4-5 million tonnes of pulses per annum, especially from the countries like Canada, Myanmar and Australia to meet its domestic requirement (Kumar et al., 2018). India is the largest producer (around 25% of global production), however it consumes 27% and imports around 14% of its pulses requirements. The yield of pulses in India is quite low at 781 kg/ha which might be due to various factors. Pulse crops does not show any significant increase in area and production during 1950-51 to 2009-10, however, significant growth in area and production has been recorded during the last five years (i.e., 2010-2011 to 2016-17), with the adoption of high yielding varieties, increased usage of agricultural inputs like fertilizers and manures etc. The pulses under irrigation are cultivated in about 37% of the area while 63% of pulses are grown under rainfed conditions.

The productivity of pulses has increased about 77% at 779 kg/ha during 2016-17 from the level of 441 kg/ha during 1950-51. It is imperative to mention that the New Agriculture Technology (NAT) introduced during mid-sixties has increased the production of food-grains from 50.82 million tonnes during 1950-51 to 275.68 million tonnes during 2016-17 with the increase in area from 97.32 million hectares to 128 million hectares. In order to achieve self- sufficiency in pulses, the projected requirement by the year 2025 is estimated at 27.5 MT and to meet this requirement, the productivity needs to be enhanced to 1000 kg/ha.

New Seed Policy

Ministry of Agriculture, vide Letter No.11-71/88-SD-1 dated September 16,1988, has brought out ‘New Policy on Seed Development’, with the aim of providing to the farmers the best planting materials available in the world so as to increase productivity and thereby increasing farm income and export earnings. The Policy covers the import of seeds of coarse cereals/pulses/oil seeds; vegetable and flower seeds; bulbs/tubers of flowers; cuttings/ saplings/bud/wood etc., of flowers; and seeds & planting material of fruits. The following are the guidelines for the import of above categories of seed/planting material under the Seed Policy

Import of Seeds of Coarse Cereals/Pulses/Oil Seeds

The import of seeds of coarse cereals/pulses/oil seeds is permitted for a period not exceeding two years by companies that have technical/financial collaboration with companies abroad, provided that the latter agree to supply parental lines/nucleus or breeder seed technology to the Indian firm within two years of first shipment of commercial consignment. The bulk import is permitted by the importer based on the recommendation issued by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC) after considering the trial/evaluation report of the varieties/hybrids, which he intends to import. PPA or any other officer notified for the said purpose issues the import permit based on the recommendation of DAC. However the recommendation of DAC is not required for import of trial material. The quantities of the seed permitted for import for initial trials by the importer, for ICAR multi-location trials & agronomic trials or combined trials (vide Letter No. 11-71/88/S.D.I dated 30^th January 1989 issued by the Ministry of Agriculture) as per Para 4.3.5 of Seed Policy shall be in accordance with Schedule-XII and also the quantities of seeds of parental lines required to be sampled and submitted in sealed condition for accession to gene bank of National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi (vide Letter No. 11-102/88-S.D.I dated 5^th February 1991) as per Para 4.3.8 of Seed Policy. The imported consignment shall be subjected to detailed testing for a period of 30-35 days and the same purpose the consignment will be held under detention in AAI warehouse or any customs bonded warehouse at the cost of importer.

Abstract

Leafy vegetables have largely been portrayed as fulfilling an important nutritional supplement in local people’s diets, as a safety net function to rural households during periods when agricultural production is low and as a food supplement for the poverty stricken. In this paper we present evidence to show that the consumption of wild leafy vegetables (pot-herbs) represents more then just an important source of nutrition and/or a safety net function for poor households, but that they also fulfil an important cultural function for both poor and wealthy Xhosa speaking people in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. We show that the consumption of food needs to be studied as a bio-cultural phenomenon which includes both nutritional and anthropological understanding.

Privatization of Agricultural Extension

Process of funding and delivering the extension services by private individual or organization is called Private Extension. Privatization is the act of reducing the role of Government or increasing the role of private sector in an activity or in the ownership of assets. Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of business from the public sector (Government) to the private sector (business). Private Extension is solely the act of private individuals or organizations where the decision of privatization solely rests with Government implemented in liaison with private extension service provider.

The 1980s and 1990s saw a few shifts in how we view development. There has been a significant ideological change in favour of privatisation. Since the 1990s, there has been an increase in the participation of the private sector (which deals with agro-inputs, agribusiness, and financial services), non governmental organisations (both local and international), producer groups, cooperatives, and associations, as well as independent and connected to or employed by agri-business/producer associations consultants and ICT (Information and Communication technologies) based services.

  1.    Gender Sensitization: Change of Attitude of people towards gender equality, gender roles etc.

  2.    Public-Private Partnership: Involvement of private stakeholders with public entreprises

  3.    Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Use of computer. fax, video, telephones in information sharing & transfer of technology.

  4.    Cyber Extension: Use of computers in extension management.

  5.    Broad Based Extension: Farming system use for maximum use of all available resource to maximize profit

  6.    Bottom-up Approach: Planning from lowest level of society.

  7.    ITK (Indegenous Technological Knowledge): Use of farm community knowledge for development

  8.    Market Led Extension: Transfer of technology basing on assured & confirmed market of the product.

Introduction

The natural economic movement of a country goes from agrarian economy which is the primary sector to an industrial economy (secondary sector) and then only to the tertiary sector i.e., service economy. But due to various socio-economic factors, India has jumped from an agrarian economy to a service economy in the past and had a low growth in secondary sector.

Though primary sector is vital, there is a natural limit on how much can be extracted from this. The country is witnessing a peak in food grains production (285.21 million tonnes) nonetheless rupees 92,000 crores worth food grains are wasted annually (MOFPI annual report 2018-19). Hence, with an increasing population, decreasing arable land (52.6%), irrigation water resources and with present level of climate change scenario, food processing should be considered as a need to enhance the profitability and sustainability of agriculture in the country (Swaminathan and Bhavani, 2013). Thus, effective post-harvest management is one of the strategies for envisaging an evergreen revolution along with increasing yields. A well-developed food processing industry increases farm gate prices reduce wastages, ensure value addition, promote crop diversification, generate employment opportunities as well as export earnings.

ND is a viral disease of poultry, wild and cage birds characterized by marked variation in morbidity, mortality, signs and lesions. Reported in 235 species of birds.

A disease of primary importance and concern worldwide which causes continuous massive economic loss. It is a reportable disease in many countries of the world.

Occurrence

Species: All birds susceptible. Temporary conjunctivitis may develop in people who come in close contact with NDV for the first time.

Abstract
 
Technological advancement, increased urbanization, awareness and interest of consumer for variety products have given a great challenge to the food sector to develop inexpensive foods that are nutritionally superior and acceptable to the intended consumers. Keeping this objective in view, we have made an attempt to develop technology for variety products from wheat and corn and suitability of available varieties judged. With the emerging trends of food market towards fast foods, there are vast prospects for efficient utilization of cereals by exploring varieties products. A steamed bread (a Chinese traditional product) and Tortilla and corn chips (Mexican snacks) were developed. Steamed bread is defined as the product resulting from cooking or steaming fermented dough. Recipe and method for its preparation was standardized. Nutritionally rich steamed bread can be prepared by supplementing 10% level of chickpea and defatted soybean flour. Corn snacks have become a prime target of some consumer advocates and nutritionists who have referred them as a source of ‘empty calories’. But reality is that these snacks provide instant energy, as they are rich storehouse of nutrients. Process and recipe for the preparation of Tortilla and corn chips from Indian maize were standardized. The quality and acceptability of these snacks were worked out and found that these products were highly acceptable. Indian consumers have versatile taste, so these products will be readily accepted in Indian market. 

A newsletter is a communication tool that plays a vital role in public relations (PR) by fostering engagement, building relationships, and sharing relevant information with a target audience. It is a periodic publication, either digital or printed, distributed to a targeted audience to share updates, news, and information. In public relations (PR), newsletters act as a strategic communication tool to strengthen relationships and disseminate relevant content.
Role of Newsletters in Public Relations
1. Information Dissemination
• Share updates about organizational achievements, new initiatives, or industry news.
• Provide expert insights to position the organization as a thought leader.
2. Building Relationships
• Strengthen connections with stakeholders, customers, and the public.
• Foster loyalty by engaging audiences with regular, valuable content.
3. Enhancing Brand Visibility
• Consistent newsletters ensure that the brand remains visible and top-of-mind.
• Showcase brand values, culture, and mission to reinforce identity.
4. Supporting PR Campaigns
• Amplify key messages from broader campaigns.
• Promote events, partnerships, or corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

It is important to reflect on the path we have traversed throughout this book. We embarked on a journey tracing the evolution of how weather and climate insights are applied to the intricate world of agriculture. From rudimentary observations to the sophisticated analyses of modern agrometeorology, we‘ve witnessed a growing understanding of the critical interplay between atmospheric conditions and crop production. We‘ve explored the groundbreaking integration of remote sensing technologies, offering an unprecedented bird‘s-eye view of agricultural landscapes, and the power of Geographic Information Systems to contextualize this data within specific spatial boundaries. The emergence of advanced data analytics, including the transformative capabilities of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, has been a recurring theme, demonstrating how vast datasets can be harnessed to extract meaningful patterns and drive predictive insights.
• This progression has culminated in the central concept of precision agrometeorological advisory services – the focus of our in-depth exploration. We‘ve examined how moving beyond generalized recommendations towards tailored guidance, customized to the unique characteristics of individual farms and fields, represents a paradigm shift in agricultural support. This precision approach, underpinned by accurate, localized data and scientifically validated models, holds the key to addressing some of the most pressing challenges faced by today‘s farmers. From navigating the increasing unpredictability of weather patterns and the growing threats posed by climate variability to optimizing the use of increasingly scarce and expensive resources like water and nutrients, precision agrometeorology offers practical and impactful solutions. It empowers farmers to make timely and informed decisions, minimizing risks, maximizing efficiency, and ultimately enhancing the productivity and sustainability of their agricultural endeavors. This empowerment is not just about boosting yields; it‘s about fostering greater economic stability, promoting environmental stewardship, and ensuring food security for a growing global population.
This final chapter, „Next Generation Agrometeorology: Empowering Farmers with Precision,“ is designed to consolidate the wealth of knowledge and insights we‘ve gathered. We will synthesize the key findings and highlight the practical implications of embracing these next-generation approaches. Beyond a simple summary, we aim to provide a clear understanding of how the principles

1. Introduction

The present library system has been designated as a treasure of knowledge in virtual environment. The concept of modern library has been considered as the source of high level-information using web technology, digitization, networking,e-resources and multimedia. The rapid development of modern information and communication technologies and smart usage of computers in library and information system and services has given rise to new generation of libraries. The last two decades have radically transformed the library system with new avenues of information transfer in virtual world. An incredible amount of growth in increasing new interfaces have been developed utilising latest technologies to optimise the delivery of contents and services in the context of web environment. The emerging new vision of library interfaces has involved web technologies, digital collection of texts and images, documents, genealogy of records and other materials of importance for the user community. The major shift of new technology has developed the subscription of e-journals, e-books, and e-databases collection in libraries. Such library interface is compelled to provide equal access to the contents or these collection to all users irrespective of area or locality. Another remarkable trend in library technology field is the emergence of open-source software movement that enabled to transform the automation and digital library interface. Open Source Software efforts such as OAI, Grenstone, DSpace, Koha etc, have drastically transformed the library technology scenario in terms of sophistication and functionality. This article/ chapter is dealt with the state of digital library system with stages of generation of digital libraries and future directions.

7.1 Plant Tissue Culture

Spices have great socio-economic impact in moden food habit of human but loss of resources day by day due to various reasons (industrialization, high population pressure) make the access of these valuable spices limited to people. Low production is general phenomena of common spices due to lack of high yielding varieties. Hence there is a need to improve the propagation method to meet the gap between demand and supply. Conventional vegatative propagation method is common approach for propagation but low multiplication rate, seasonal dependency and susceptible to abiotic stresses and diseases are major problems to achieve the optimum productivity. To overcome these drawbacks scientists have chosen the plant tissue culture technique (a modern approach of biotechnology which deals with the propagation the valuable/endangered plants under laboratory condition). Details about this technique and its role on spices are given below.

Plant Tissue Culture: Basic Components and Objectives

The technique of growing of a whole plant cell, tissue or organ under an aseptic condition in suitable synthetic medium is termed as plant tissue culture (Thorpe, 2007). De-differentiation and re-differentiation are two essential fundamental processes which help in the physio-morphological development of the plant.

INTRODUCTION

DNA sequencing is a process of deciphering the complete order of nucleotide in the DNA molecule with precision. Over the past few years, there has been a shifting from the automated Sanger’s method of sequencing to next generation technologies. There was a milestone in the year 2003 for the researchers when fine sequence of human genome project was declared complete. The project was completed in 13 years with nearly $3 billion expenditure and more than 20,000 researchers and technicians took part in it all over the Globe. DNA sequence determination is performed using dideoxy chain termination technology (Ronaghi, 2001). The dideoxy sequencing method was developed by Frederick Sanger and his colleagues (Sanger et al., 1977) and is called as First-generation sequencing technology. Since early 2000s, there became drastic improvements in the sequencing technologies from Sanger’s method used for Human genome project to Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies used these days. The change in technologies not only reduced the expenditure to the minimal but also involved minimum use of human resource and time. High –throughput sequencing technologies are increasingly being used to address varied range of biological objectives. It provides a promising approach to increase the scale, robustness and efficiency of the results of whole genome within few hours and minimum expense. Key players in the field of NGS are 454 GX Flex Roche, Solexa Illumina, SOLiD ABI (Applied Biosystems), ViSiGen biotechnologies, Helicose Biosciences and Polonater systems.

ABSTRACT

Genomics is a relatively new scientific discipline, having DNA sequencing as its core technology. As technology has improved the cost and scale of genome characterization over sequencing’s 40-year history, the scope of investigation has commensurately broadened. Demand has never been greater for revolutionary technologies that deliver fast, inexpensive and accurate genome information. This challenge has catalyzed the development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. Over the past few years, massively parallel DNA sequencing platforms have become widely available, reducing the cost of DNA sequencing by over two orders of magnitude, and democratizing the field by putting the sequencing capacity of a major genome center in the hands of individual investigators. These new technologies are rapidly evolving, and near-term challenges include the development of strong protocols for generating sequencing libraries, building effective new approaches to data-analysis, and often a rethinking of experimental design. Next-generation DNA sequencing has the potential to dramatically accelerate biological and biomedical research, by enabling the comprehensive analysis of genomes, transcriptomes and interactomes to become inexpensive, routine and widespread, rather than requiring significant production-scale efforts. This article explains the methods, advantages and disadvantages of methods and softwares of Next Generation Sequencing with its impact and applications on genomics and other related field of biology.

Introduction
Next-generation sequencing (NGS), a High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) methodology, sometimes referred to as deep sequencing or massively parallel sequencing, has completely changed genomic research and DNA sequencing. Compared to the traditional Sanger sequencing approach, which took more than ten years to finish the human genome project, this state-of-the-arttechnology allows scientists to sequence a full human genome in a single day (Behjati and Tarpey, 2013). Although Sanger sequencing has mostly been replaced by NGS in research areas, it is still not widely used in clinical areas (Slatko et al., 2018). High-throughput DNA sequencing techniques have developed quickly over the past 20 years, and new approaches are constantly being developed. A greater range of applications in the basic and applied sciences become available as these technologies advance (Reis-Filho, 2009).
Overfishing, pollution, and climate change are putting the world’s aquatic ecosystems, which are home to a wide variety of fish species under previously unheard-of strain (Prakash, 2021). For effective conservation and management, accurate and efficient monitoring of fish diversity is therefore essential (Meinam et al., 2023). Techniques like physical capture and morphological identification have been used historically, but they can be intrusive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. A new age of fish diversity monitoring has been brought about by the development of NGS technologies, which provide a potent and noninvasive substitute (Kumar and Kocour, 2017). Rapid and thorough genetic material analysis is made possible by NGS, which offers previously unheardof insights into the distribution, composition, and population dynamics of species.

Data-centric artificial intelligence has transformed medical imaging, clinical prediction and electronic health-record analysis, but purely data-driven models face limitations involving generalization, bias, privacy and interpretability. This chapter examines the transition toward knowledge-aware and hybrid healthcare systems that combine machine learning with clinical knowledge, ontologies and knowledge graphs. It discusses explainable AI, clinical reasoning and the integration of structured knowledge into intelligent decision support. Applications include acute-care support, precision medicine, genomic oncology and population-health management. Ethical issues, regulatory compliance, fairness and privacy-preserving technologies are also considered. Future directions include quantum computing, large language models, multimodal integration and equity-focused healthcare-system development.

Introduction

The term, “non-governmental organization” or NGO, came into use in 1945 because of the need for the UN to differentiate in its Charter between participation rights for intergovernmental specialized agencies and those for international private organizations. At the UN, virtually all types of private bodies can be recognized as NGOs .They only have to be independent from government control, not seeking to challenge governments either as a political party or by a narrow focus on human rights, non-profit-making and non-criminal (Ali Mostashari, 2005). On the contrary India is one the poorest countries housing one third of the total world poor population. 43% of Indian children are malnourished, a third ofthe world’s total. Over 25% of Indians are illiterate, and more than 20 million children are out of school (Asheesh Bisht et al., 2013). India is a highly populated and predominantly rural country. It is classified as a country of medium human development, ranked 128th in the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index 2007. Life expectancy is 63.7 years at birth, and four fifths of the population lives on less than $2/day. The adult literacy rate is 61 percentages. India has a long history of civil society based on the concepts of daana (giving) and seva (service). Numerous organizations were established during this period, including the Friend-in-Need Society (1858), Prathana Samaj (1864), Satya Shodhan Samaj (1873), Arya Samaj (1875), the National Council for Women in India (1875), and the Indian National Conference (1887). Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India in 1916 shifted the focus of development activities to economic self sufficiency.

Introduction and History

Niger, Guizotia abyssinica (L.f.) Cass. [Asteraceae] is commonly known as nigerseed [English]; noug, guizotia oléifère [French]; verbesina da Índia, abisin, negrillo, ramtilla [Spanish]; ramtil, nigersaat [Dutch]; [Amharic];[Chinese]; Ram-til[Hindi]; Gurellu [Kannada]; Verri-nuvvulu (Telugu) Karalle[Marathi] and Jhusetil [Nepali] Niger’s other synonym is Guizotia oleifera DC., Polynya abyssinica L. f.

Niger (Guizotia abyssinica (L. f.) Cass.) is an oilseed crop cultivated in Ethiopia and India for its edible oil. Niger plant is originated in highlands of Northern Ethiopia (Weiss, 2000). The crop is reported to have been introduced into India from Ethiopia during around2000BC. The Ancient Agau people of Ethiopia had a well-developed agriculture, who traded with Egypt which facilitated the exchange by barter that included Niger too (Weiss, 2000). Currently, Niger is an important oilseed crop of Ethiopia. Ground niger seeds and chillies are the main components of the traditional stew known as wat of Ethiopia. Niger is the most important oilseed crop of Ethiopia contributing to 50% of the country’s oilseed production. Although the crop is grown throughout the country, the main production centres are Begemdir, Gojam and Welaga (Weiss, 2000). Since the Ethiopian government actively supports the oilseed industry, production was on steady increase till 1974. With the fall in the production post-civil war in 1974, most of the niger produced is consumed domestically and the exports got dwindled.

1. INTRODUCTION

In the past, conventional ICTs that have been applied to agricultural extension services include the use of television, radio, etc., and these media have been criticized as archetypical, passive, top-down in nature; hence they have not created meaningful impact on agricultural information delivery (Akpabio, 2007). As a result of this, extension roles have undergone several transformation, over the years. One of the objectives of agricultural extension is to create conducive platform for empowerment so that food security can be guaranteed. In order to guarantee food security there is need to utilize faster and more efficient techniques of project identification, selection, implementation and evaluation in the agricultural extension process (Braimoh and Oladele, 2000). The inadequacies of interpersonal communication strategy in development gave credence to the use of media support in development process (Yahaya, 2000). In recent times, further improvements have been made on the use of media support through digital media. This is what makes contemporary ICT more relevant.

Modern ICTs emerged in Nigeria at a time when there was need for change in the agricultural extension delivery system to suit the contemporary situation. The conventional forms of communication used by extension agents include written (bulletin, leaflets, newspapers, articles, personal letters, circular, etc.); spoken (general meeting, special meeting, farm and home visit, official calls, telephone calls and radio); visual (result demonstration, exhibits, posters, motion pictures, charts, slide) and spoken/visual (method demonstration meeting, result demonstration meeting, meeting involving motion pictures, meeting involving charts).Torimiro et al.,(2000) noted the non-usage of telephone calls in extension work, giving reasons as preference for the locally accessible and affordable forms of communication they can employ.

Nipah virus infection is an emerging zoonotic disease first described in 1999 and the virus is under the genus Henipavirus and family Paramyxoviridae. The disease is similar to another emerging zoonotic disease caused by Hendra virus and can spread from its wildlife reservoir to pigs and humans where it causes an often fatal disease. It is a notifiable disease in most countries and to be handled under highest biological security level 4 (BSL-4). In Malayasia an outbreak of viral encephalitis occurred over a 35 week period from September 29, 1998 to 31^st May, 1999 among pig farmers creating considerable anxiety and fear. Of the 265 cases reported to the Ministry of Health in Malaysia, 105 were fatal and the case fatality rate was 39.6%. The outbreak also spread to neighbouring Singapore where 11 workers of an abattoir developed the disease with one fatality. 93% of the reported cases involved those directly in the pig farming industries namely pig farm workers, pig farm proprietors, housewives and family members assisting in the farms. The majority of the cases occurred in those aged 20 and above (92.4%) and actively engaged in pig industry followed by the age group 10-19 years (6.4%). About 82.6% of the cases are male.

Etiology: Henipavirus is a genus of the family Paramyxoviridae and order Mononegavirales containing two members, Hendravirus and Nipah virus. The henipaviruses are naturally harboured by Pteropid fruit bats (flying foxes) and are characterized by a large genome (18.2 Kb), wide host range and their recent emergence as zoonotic pathogens capable of causing illness and death in domestic animals and humans.

The viruses are pleomorphic ranging in size from 40-600 nm in diameter. They possess a lipid membrane overlying a shell of viral matrix protein. At the core is a single helical strand of genomic RNA tightly bound to N (nucleocapsid) protein and associated with the L (large) and P (phospoprotein) proteins which provides the RNA polymerase activity. F (fusion) protein trimers and G (attachment) protein tetramers are embedded within the lipid membrane. The genome of the Nipah virus consists of a non-segmented, single stranded negative sense RNA. In common with other members of the Paramyxovirinae subfamily, the number of nucleotides in the Henipavirus genome is a multiple of six, known as the 'rule of six'. The Nipah virus has been classified by the CDC as a Category C agent.

INTRODUCTION

Among plant nutrients, our soils are particularly low in nitrogen and therefore, require is high doses of nitrogenous fertilizers for getting optimum productivity. Added to this is the problem of poor efficiency of nitrogeneous fertilizers which under normal conditions is only 40 – 50 %, still less for rice ranging from 25 – 35 %, and the residual effect for the succeeding crops is never more than 10 %. The rest of the applied nitrogen is lost either through volatilization, leaching or denitrification (Kashyap, 1978). The high cost of nitrogenous fertilizers and their poor utilization efficiency very much add to the high cost of cultivation. Hence, the need of the hour is to decrease our dependence on chemical fertilizers and increase the efficiency of the fertilizer thus used. The increase in nitrogen efficiency in crop plants can be achieved by reducing denitrification with the use of nitrification inhibitors, reducing the soil compaction, improving drainage conditions, use of soil improving crops, and adopting carefully the irrigation procedures (Carlson, 1980). No doubt exploration of this possibility is a big task, nevertheless, the understanding of physiology and biochemistry of nitrogen nutrition at molecular level is obligatory and is likely to add insight to achieve the hard task goal.

Abstract

Nitrogen is the most important element in terms of nutrition for plants, nitrate being the most preferred form. Nitrate not only acts as nutritional element but also as a signal to modulate metabolism and plant architecture. Nitrate sensing mostly happens in the root tip through a hitherto unknown mechanism, but its response can be demonstrated on an organism-wide scale. Functional genomic studies revealed over a thousand nitrate-responsive genes, involved not only in N and C metabolism, but also in various other physio-logical processes. Identification of nitrate response element/s common to all these genes could pave the way to unravel the mechanism of nitrate signaling, but findings in this direction have remained inconclusive so far. Several trans-acting factors have been implicated in N signaling and response, but none of these have been convincingly demonstrated to be specific to this response. Nitrate uptake, which is sometimes associated with nitrate sensing, is also highly regulated process and involves multiple transport systems like HATS, LATS and dual affinity transporters.

INTRODUCTION

? Nitrate poisoning is generally caused when animals eat too much forage that is high in nitrates not changed to protein in the plant.

? Poisoning can also happen when animals eat too much urea or nitrogen fertilizer spilled in the field or left where the animals can find it.

? Nitrate fertilizer is palatable, especially to cattle.

? Nitrates are relatively non-toxic.

? Reduction of nitrates depends on the supply of fermentable energy as carbohydrates supply hydrogen ions for reduction of nitrates and production of nitrite in rumen.

Nitrates and nitrites are known to have injurious effects on animals when excess amounts are ingested. Nitrites are much more toxic but nitrates are reduced to nitrites by bacterial action in the digestive tract

Nitrites (NO₂) are rarely found in plants  in appreciable amounts except under very unusual conditions such as severe disease infections; therefore, the results are usually reported in terms of nitrates (NO₃). The usual method is to determine the total nitrate and nitrite in terms of nitrate. However, the method can also be used to determine the nitrite content of a feed separately if a nitrite problem is suspected.

The main action of this drug is on the outlets of the body where the mucous membrane and the skin meet; these pain as from splinters. Marked improvement of symptoms while riding in a carriage. Acts best on the dark complexioned and past middle life. Syphilis after abuse of mercury. Pains appear and disappear rapidly. All discharges very offensive especially urine, faeces, and perspiration. Persons who have chronic diseases and take cold easily and disposed to diarrhoea. Excessive physical irritability.

The human body has many outlets where the mucous membranes and the skin meet. Any pain on account of problems in these regions is severe. It is a sticking pain. It is a pain as if somebody is piercing the surface with splinters. Nitric Acid is the remedy for problems of this type.

The skin and the mucous membrane join at the corners of the mouth, in the nose and at the anus. On the lips the corners crack, get ulcerated and swollen. In the mouth there are blisters with a lot of pus and swelling. The gums are swollen, ulcerated and spongy. Fissures occur in the canthi. Nitric Acid is the first remedy in such cases.

At the point where ammonium is produced, the reactions involved in organic nitrogen mineralization come to a halt. This most reduced form of inorganic nitrogen is the starting point for the nitrification process, which involves the biological synthesis of nitrate or nitrite from reduced nitrogen molecules. The ability of nitrifying bacteria to create nitrate, which is the primary nitrogen source ingested by higher plants, determines their relevance. Nitrate is formed in a variety of places, including soil, marine environments, manure piles, and sewage treatment, where it is the result of the final stage of turning organic nitrogen inoffensive.

The most oxidizable form of nitrogen is nitrate nitrogen (NO3 -N), which is found in minimal amounts in surface waters but can reach considerable concentrations in some aquifers. An essential plant nutrient, nitrate also contributes to eutrophication in receiving water bodies.
Principle
Nitrate reacts with phenol disulphonic acid and produces a nitro-derivative which in alkaline solution develops yellow colour due to rearrangement of its structure. The yellow colour follows Beer’s law and is proportional to the concentration of nitrate present in the sample. Ultraviolet (UV) technique measures the absorbance of nitrate at 220 nm, which is suitable for screening uncontaminated water (low in organic matter). A second measurement made at 275 nm, may be used to correct the nitrate value (because 275 nm is not absorbed by nitrate, but absorbed by other matter). The nitrate calibration curve follows Beer’s law up to 11mg NO3 -N /L.
Reagents
1. Stock nitrate solution (1ml=100 µg NO3 -N): Dry potassium nitrate (KNO3) in an oven at 105 oC for 24 h. Take 360.9 mg potassium nitrate and dissolve in distilled water and dilute to 500 ml. Preserve it with adding 1 ml of chloroform in per 500 ml stock nitrate solution. This solution will stable for at least 6 months.
2. Intermediate nitrate solution (1 ml = 10µg NO3 -N): Take 100 ml of stock nitrate solution and dilute it to 1000 ml of distilled water. This solution can be preserve by adding 2 ml of chloroform per 1000 ml. This Intermediate nitrate solution will stable for at least 6 months.
3. Hydrochloric acid (HCL) solution, 1N: Take 83 ml of hydrochloric acid and dilute it to 1000 ml of distilled water

Nitrite (NO2-) is formed in waters by oxidation of ammonia compounds (by aerobic nitrifying bacteria, e.g. Nitrosomonas) or by reduction of nitrate (by facultative anaerobic denitrifying bacteria, e.g. Pseudomonas). Such oxidation and reduction may occur in wastewater treatment plants, water distribution system, and natural waters. As an intermediate stage in nitrogen cycle, it is unstable. Very high nitrite levels are usually associated with waters having unsatisfactory microbiological activity.
Principle (Colorimetric method)
When nitrite (NO2 -) as nitrous acid (HNO2) mixes with sulfanilamide in an acidic environment (pH 2-2.5), a diazonium salt is created. This salt then combines with N-(1-naphthyl)-ethylenediamine dihydrochloride (NED dihydrochloride) to make a vivid pinkish red azo-dye. The amount of nitrite in the sample directly correlates with the colour that is created. At 543 nm, the colour follows Beer’s law up to 180 µg/L with a 1 cm light path. By diluting a sample, a higher nitrite concentration can be determined. Sulfanilamide + HNO2 + HCl ? Diazonium salt + H2O.
Diazonium salt + NED-dihydrochloride ? Red colouredazo dye

Plants take up nitrogen from soil either in the form of nitrate or ammonia. Nitrate taken by plants is reduced by nitrate reductase and nitrite reductase enzymes. They catalyze step-wise reduction of nitrate to nitrite and nitrite to ammonia. Ammonia occupies the key position in nitrogen metabolism for the synthesis of organic nitrogen. Glutamic acid dehydrogenase, GOGAT and GS are important enzymes which are involved in the conversion of ammonia into glutamic acid, a primary amino acid. The ?-amino group of several amino acids is formed as a result of transamination reaction through transaminase/ aminotransferase enzymes. This process is of great significance in amino acid metabolism.

Principle

The nitrogen of protein and other compounds is transformed into ammonium sulphate by acid digestion with boiling sulphuric acid. the acid digest is cooled, dilute with water, and made strongly basic with sodium hydroxide. The released ammonia is distilled into a boric acid solution or standard sulphuric acid solution. When boric acid is used to collect ammonia then is the titrated with standard sulphuric acid or standard hydrochloric acid. When standard sulphuric acid is used to collect ammonia then it is titrated with standard sodium hydroxide solution.

12.1 Introduction-Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element which has the symbol N and atomic number 7. Elemental nitrogen is a colourless, odourless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.1% by volume of Earth’s atmosphere. Nitrogen is a constituent element of all living tissues and amino acids. Many industrial important compounds, such as ammonia, nitric acid, and cyanides are made up of nitrogen.

12.1.1 History

Nitrogen (Latin nitrogenium, where nitrum (from Greek nitron) means “native soda”and genes means “forming”) is formally considered to have been discovered by Daniel Rutherford in 1772, who called it noxious air or fixed air. That there is a fraction of air that did not support combustion is well known to the late 18th century.

Argon was discovered when it is noticed that nitrogen from air is not identical to nitrogen from chemical reactions. Compounds of nitrogen were known in the Middle Ages. The alchemists knew nitric acid as aqua fortis (strong water). The mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids is known as aqua regia (royal water), celebrated for its ability to dissolve gold (the king of metals). The earliest industrial and agricultural applications of nitrogen compounds involved uses in the form of saltpeter (sodium- or potassium nitrate), notably in gunpowder, and much later, as fertilizer, and later still, as a chemical feedstock.

Nitrogen is a nutrient and occurs in many forms including ammonia, organic, nitrate and nitriteeach of which may be tested for in a variety of ways. Under normal circumstances, the nitrite form of nitrogen will not be present in large quantities due to its rapid oxidation orconversion to nitrate. The presence of large concentrationsof ammonia in a stream or lake can create a large oxygen demand. This demand is caused by the conversion of ammonia to nitrate. High concentrations of nitrate in waste water treatment plant effluent can cause algae to grow in large quantities.

Current status

For many years, the protein contentof foods has been determined on the basis of total nitrogen content, while the Kjeldahl (or similar) method has beenalmost universally applied to determine nitrogen content (AOAC, 2000).Nitrogen content is then multiplied by a factor to arrive at protein content. This approach is based on two assumptions: thatdietary carbohydratesand fats do not contain nitrogen, and thatnearly allof the nitrogen in the dietis present as amino acids in proteins. On the basis of early determinations, the average nitrogen (N) content of proteins was found to be about 16 per cent, which led to use of the calculation Nx6.25(1/0.16 = 6.25) to convertnitrogen contentinto protein content.

Nitrogen assimilation is the formation of organic nitrogen compounds like amino acids from inorganic nitrogen compounds present in the environment. Organisms like plants, fungi and certain bacteria that cannot fix nitrogen gas (N₂) depend on the ability to assimilate nitrate or ammonia for their needs. Other organisms, like animals, depend entirely on organic nitrogen from their food.

Plants absorb nitrogen from the soil in the form of nitrate (NO₃ ^-) and ammonia (NH₄). In aerobic soils where nitrification can occur, nitrate is usually the predominant form of available nitrogen that is absorbed. However this need not always be the case as ammonia can predominate in grasslands and in flooded, anaerobic soils like rice paddies. Plant roots themselves can affect the abundance of various forms of nitrogen by changing the pH and secreting organic compounds or oxygen. This influences microbial activities like the interconversion of various nitrogen species, the release of ammonia from organic matter in the soil and the fixation of nitrogen by non-nodule-forming bacteria.

There are two mini-cycles in the soil nitrogen cycle:

1. Soil-based processes such as mineralization, ammonification, nitrification, and immobilisation include the conversion of organic nitrogenous molecules to plant-useable mineral forms, and subsequently back to biomass (microbial, plant and indirectly animal biomass).
2. The process of converting atmospheric nitrogen into forms available to the living components of the ecosystem, i.e. nitrogen fixation and the transformations within the soil, as well as the return of the fixed nitrogen to atmospheric inert forms of nitrogen through denitrification, are all soil and biosphere resident processes.

Soil microorganisms are the most important agents in the cycling or transformation of various elements (N, P, K, S, Fe etc.) in the biosphere; where the essential elements undergo cyclic alterations between the inorganic state as free elements in nature and the combined state in living organisms. Life on earth is dependent on the cycling of nutrient elements from their elemental states to inorganic compounds to organic compounds and back into their elemental states.

The microbes through the process of biochemical reactions convert / breakdown complex organic compounds into simple inorganic compounds and finally into their constituent elements. This process is known as “Mineralization”.

Mineralization of organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, and iron by soil microorganisms makes these elements available for reuse by plants. In the following paragraphs the cycling or transformations of some of the important elements are discussed.

To meet the food needs of the burgeoning population, India will need to produce 300 million tonnes of food grains by 2020. At present more than 75% of the total food grains produced in the country are of rice and wheat. Use of nitrogenous fertilizers has contributed much to the remarkable increase in production of rice and wheat in India that has occurred during the past three decades. During the last half-decade or so while fertilizer N consumption is touching new heights, the production of both rice and wheat is showing a trend of plateauing. In fact, fertilizer N efficiency of food grain production expressed as partial factor productivity of N (PFPN) has been decreasing exponentially since 1965. The PFPN is an aggregate efficiency index that includes contributions to crop yield derived from uptake of indigenous soil N. fertilizer N uptake efficiency, and the efficiency with which N acquired by the plant is converted to grain yield. A decrease in PFPN occurs as farmers move yields higher along a fixed N response function, unless other factors shift the response function up. In other words, an initial decline in PFPN is an expected consequence of the adoption of N fertilizers by farmers and not necessarily bad within a system’s context

Under agricultural conditions, the nitrogen removed is usually greater than the nitrogen input. To maintain fertility, nitrogen must be returned to the soil. This takes place mainly by biological nitrogen fixation, which is responsible for the major reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia that is used by the plants. Biological nitrogen fixation accounts for most of the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen in to Ammonium, thus representing the key entry point of molecular nitrogen into the biogeochemical cycle of nitrogen (Fig.4.1). Some bacteria can convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium. Most of this nitrogen fixing prokaryote is free living in the soil.

Nitrogen is the most important element on which depends growth and productivity of plants. It is also the most abundant molecule in the atmosphere (80%), yet it cannot be utilized by plants. The plant utilizable form of nitrogen is either, its most oxidized form, the nitrates or the most reduced state, the ammonia.  The indiscriminate use of nitrogenous fertilizers amounts to depletion of non-renewable fossil fuels used in fertilizer production. Sustainable agriculture depends largely on renewable resources and on-farm nitrogen contributions are achieved largely through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), which helps in maintaining and/or improving soil fertility by using atmospheric nitrogen. Annually BNF is estimated to be around 175 million tonnes of which close to 79% is accounted for by terrestrial fixation.

Although the Dacron bag technique for protein degradation measurement is relatively simple and not too expensive as compared to in vivo measurements, the technique is not easily adaptable in laboratories that are not fully equipped to maintain cannulated animals. Therefore, different alternative approaches such as measurement of protein solubilities in buffer, enzymes and detergent solutions have been tried (Pichard and Van Soest, 1978; Krishnamoorthy et al., 1982, 1983, 1995; Aufrere et al.,1991; Prabhu et al., 1996; Licitra et al., 1996 and 1998). The advantages of these approaches are that, they are simple, rapid, economical and repeatable. However, since the enzymes used are not of rumen microbial origin, degradation obtained from these enzymes may not be a true .reflection of degradation occurring in the rumen. Nevertheless, because of their simplicity and rapidity, in situations where large number of samples are to be compared, in vitro techniques serve as useful tools.

Introduction

As per statement of Dr. Henneberg of Weende Experiment Station (Göttingen, Germany) the carbohydrates are divided into two groups; crude fiber and nitrogen free extract. The nitrogen free extract, which  comprises the sugars, starch and a large part of the material classed as hemicellulose, is determined by difference. It is represented by the figure obtained when the sum of the water, ash, protein, fat and crude fiber of a feed is subtracted from 100. Since the figure is determined by difference instead of directly, it includes the cumulative errors of the other determinations and thus is not an exact value.

21.1 Determination of Total Nitrogen in Soil (Modified Kjeldahl Method)

Nitrogen mostly present in soil in organic form. Relatively small amount of nitrogen usually occurs in ammonium and nitrate form, the available form. The Kjeldahl method of total N determination includes both organic and ammonium forms and with modification nitrate form of N can also be included.

Principle

When soil is digested with concentrated sulphuric acid organic nitrogen is converted to ammonium sulphate. To speed up the reaction a digestion mixture composed of sodium (or potassium) sulphate (to raise the boiling point of H₂SO₄) and cupric sulphate (CuSO₄) - selenium powder (catalyst) is used.

14.1. Determination of Total Nitrogen in Soil (Modified Kjeldahl Method)

Nitrogen mostly present in soil in organic form. Relatively small amount of nitrogen usually occur in ammonium and nitrate form, the available form. The Kjeldahl method of total N determination includes both organic and ammonium form and with modification nitrate form of N can also be included.

Abstract

Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient controlling production of all agricultural systems. Application of N fertilizer has increased food production tremendously all over the world. However, it also contributes towards global warming and ozone layer depletion through emission of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas (GHG). Therefore, there is a need to assess the possibilities of N management for climate change abatement and food security enhancement, while minimizing environmental and human health impacts. In this chapter, role of gaseous-N emission on N use and various mitigation options for Indian agriculture have been discussed. For the base year 2007, the direct and indirect N₂O emissions from Indian agricultural soils was estimated to be 136.29 Gg (35.3 Tg CO₂ equivalent) and 30.61 Gg (5.8 Tg CO₂ equivalent), respectively.

Before the invention of N fertilizer, mineralization of organic N ( present in dead plants and animals or manure) was the main method used to obtain ammonium and nitrate nitrogen. Mineralization is conducted by soil microbes resulting in ammonium ion. Most Nitrogen is absorbed by plants in the form of Nitrate (NO-₃). Ammonium is converted to Nitrate with the help of  soil bacteria. Nitrogen is a very mobile element and is easily lost from the soil. Ammonium (NH₄+) can be converted to Ammonia (NH₃). The gaseous ammonia can be lost to the atmosphere.  Nitrate can be lost through denitrification. Nitrate nitrogen is reduced to nitrous oxide (N₂O), elemental nitrogen (N₂) and nitric oxide (NO). All are volatile. Denitrification occurs under conditions of high water availability and temperatures higher than 10^ºC.