eChapters

ABSTRACT

Over the last three decades, SAC has been engaged in the development and dissemination of remote sensing and GIS technologies for national development. These developments have originated from various initiatives related to national projects, sensor related research and in-house research and development on applications. A large multidisciplinary team of scientists develop technologies in various fields of applications like agriculture, coastal zone management, urban planning, forest and environment, etc. In addition, significant efforts are directed towards technology development for generic applications like photogrammetry and applications involving synergistic usage of remote sensing, GIS, GPS and satellite communication. Some specific examples of recent technological developments pertain to simulation modeling of crop yields, horticultural crop management, site selections for aquaculture, location of cold storage plants, large area crop production forecasting, base map creation, telegeoprocessing, mobile satellite services for fleet management, automated procedures for linear infrastructure planning, urban land use allocation planning.

An overview of these technologies and the modalities for their effective utilization by government, industries and users are summarized. Dissemination of these technologies for public bodies and private sector has been taken in the form of promotion of consultancy services in different application areas. Some major areas where these sectors have benefited through consultancies are estimation of cash and other field crops, city development planning, site selection for industry, land use change detection studies for environmental impact assessment, coastal regulation zone compliances and land use scenario, forestry related applications like catchment area treatment, forest fires monitoring, etc. Examples of consultancy services for private sector are included.

Keywords : Technology dissemination, technology development, remote sensing applications.

Example: Isolation and Characterization of Protease Inhibitor Gene and Promoter from Black gram (Vigna mungo L.) and Genetic Transformation and Molecular Analysis of Transgenic Tobacco

9.1 General Description

Education can help farmers in impoverished nations move away from environmentally damaging slash-and-burn agriculture (Nganje et al. 2001). The goal of their study was to see how much extension education can help people embrace agricultural strategies other than slash and burn. In Cameroon, farmers' cropping patterns are modelled as a function of farm size, farmer educational level, and extension professional visits, whether slash and burn, varied crops, or monocropping. According to the data, higher extension visiting rates reduce not just the risk of farmers choosing slash and burn agriculture, but also encourage them to switch to monocropping. Because monocropping is a trend toward export-oriented agriculture in Cameroon, it may help to promote greater economic development in Western Africa (Nganje et al. 2001). Continued extension education activities are therefore vital in decreasing the environmental damage caused by slash and burn agriculture while also encouraging the adoption of more profitable cropping strategies.

The negative impacts of shifting cultivation on the environment as farmers strive to provide for higher populations and the associated decline of shifting cultivation into an unproductive system have led most governments in Southeast Asia to perceive it as a backward method of cultivation (Thanh and Vien 2017). Consequently, governments throughout the region have tried to ban shifting cultivation. In Malaysia, for example, huge development programmes have been implemented to improve shifting cultivators livelihoods when they abandon shifting cultivation (Majid, 1983). The government of Laos has enacted land-use and forestry policies aiming at expanding forest cover, eliminating shifting farming, and supporting intensive commercial agriculture (Castella et al., 2013). For many years, the Vietnamese government has implemented strict rules and procedures to combat shifting cultivation. These include a large-scale programme called 'Fixed Cultivation, Fixed Residence' (officially known as Resolution No. 38/CP), which aims to permanently settle 'shifting fields' and 'shifting people' (McElwee, 2004), as well as a forestlandallocation policy that ties people to specific plots of land, effectively making shifting cultivation impossible (Castella et al., 2005).

Insects generally reproduce by laying eggs or ‘ova’. The initiation of growth inside an egg, which in most cases is preceded by fertilization, leads to a long series of changes, finally attaining the adult stage and in due course to sexual maturity and finally to reproduction of a new generation. This chain of events from the egg stage to adult constitutes the ‘life history’ or ‘life cycle’ of an insect.

Insects generally reproduce by laying eggs or ‘ova’. The initiation of growth inside an egg, which in most cases is preceded by fertilization, leads to a long series of changes, finally attaining the adult stage and in due course to sexual maturity and finally to reproduction of a new generation. This chain of events from the egg stage to death constitutes the ‘life history’ or ‘life cycle’ of an insect.

Eggs are laid singly or in batches of only a few or up to hundreds or  even thousands. Generally eggs are laid under conditions, where food is available for the feeding of the future young ones.  The eggs are generally smooth, elliptical or oval, but some have diverse shapes such as, disc-like, hemispherical, conical, globular, spindle and many other forms. The egg surface may also have a variety of textures. In some aquatic insects, the eggs are covered with a gelatinous secretion, which swells in water forming a jelly-like spawn. In mosquitoes, the lateral sides of the eggs are expanded, which serve as floats. Eggs vary in size, from microscopic to about 3.0 mm. in diameter and 5.0 - 6.0 mm. or even more in length.

The development of an insect is a continuous process, but on the basis of external manifestations, it is divided into definite stages. The stage within the egg is termed ‘embryonic development’, that after hatching ‘post-embryonic development’ and the changes of form during the post-embryonic development constitute ‘metamorphosis’.

Developing a nutraceutical or functional food is becoming mandatory as looking at the current nutritional status of the population over the world. Nutraceutical foods are proven to cause several health benefits to people. Hence the basic aim behind developing the nutraceutical chocolate bar was to fulfill the nutritional demands and provide some additional benefits to people. The product mainly contains two key ingredients that are, Drumstick (Morings oleifera) which has the most qualities to call a Superfood” and Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) which is referred to as “Mother of all grains”.

1. VARIETY

Variety is a seed/crop which suit the prevailing agroclimatic conditions, high yielding and possessing desirable attributes such as disease resistance, earliness and grain quality. Similarly, the seed should be pure, appropriate classes, and obtained from an authorised official agency.

Introduction Sea food processing is one of the major contributors in food processing sector. The purpose of seafood processing is to prevent the wastage and prolong the shelf life of highly perishable commodity. It also increases the economy of the country through exports (Gopal et al., 2014). India produce 9.6 million MT of sea food during the every year and is one of the largest fish producers in the world. 23% of marine products are processed currently in India (Sathianandan, 2017). Pasteurized crab meat is one type of processed marine commodity exported from India. Globally, the pasteurized blue crab and swimming crabs are the major contributors to the economic wellbeing of the seafood industry. In India, pasteurized crab meat industries are significantly contributing to the export markets. Among the crab export, 70-80% is exported as pasteurized crab meat (Jebadurai17, 2014).

32.1 Introduction

Development or embryogenesis refers to the events that occur after fertilisation. Embryogenesis in fish includes the formation of stages up to fingerlings. The process is similar in all fishes, but there are some differences between teleosts and elasmobranchs. The development of telolecithal eggs in fish begins soon after sperm fertilisation.

ABSTRACT

Mandarin Orange (Citrus reticulata Blanco.), known as ‘Suntala’ to the local populace, is a major cash crop and was once a pride of Darjeeling hills. It is grown in approximately 930 ha with an annual production of 148.224 metric tones and annual turnover of Rs. 25 crores approximately. Since early 1970s, orange orchards in the Darjeeling hills started to be unproductive inflicting huge economic loss showing severe citrus decline. Gradually the malady assumed alarming proportions and threatening the cultivation of the crop. The major causes for the bottleneck of the citrus industry in Darjeeling hills  is  the heavy incidence of insect pests, diseases and nutritional deficiencies.

Post-traumatic bleeding, caused by accidents or battlefield injuries, is a major worldwide issue due to the associated high fatality rate. Significant efforts have been made to develop hemostatic medications that help reduce post-traumatic bleeding. The use of naturally abundant and highly biocompatible polymers, such as alginate, can have a substantial impact on the efficacy, safety and cost effectiveness of hemostatic medicines.We haveexaminedthe effectiveness of developed hemostatic hydrogel (SA-CZ) containing calcium (Ca2+) and zinc (Zn2+) in treating low-pressure bleeding wounds with the added benefit of promoting faster wound healing. The hydrogel nature of the hemostatic formulation poses limitation as hemostatic material due to its fluid absorption capability. Therefore, we converted the formulation in the form of dry formulation. Further, we explored the use of dry hemostatic particles (SA-CZ DHP) made from sodium alginate supplemented with Ca2+ and Zn2+ to manage excessive blood loss after post-traumatic hemorrhage.SA-CZ DHP showed substantial in-vitro efficacy, as observed by the significant reduction in coagulation time with better blood coagulation index (BCI) and no evident hemolysis in human blood. SA CZ also showed enhanced cellular migration (1.58-fold) in-vitroand improved wound closure (≈70%) as compared with betadine (≈38%) at the 7th-day post-wound creation in-vivo (p<0.005).The safe SA-CZ DHP showed high absorption and accelerated blood clotting kineticswith reduced coagulation time (≈70%, p<0.0001) in whole human blood. SA-CZ DHP significantlyreduced the mean blood loss (≈90% in SD rats tail incision), and bleeding time (≈60%in BALB/c mice tail incision) was at par with commercially available Celox™hemostatic granules.

Materials required
Material : Wheat Flour (1000g), Shortening (350 g), Fine Sugar (400 g), Sodium bicarbonate (10 g), Dextrose solution (100 ml) i.e 25 g Dextrose hydrate in 500 ml water, Distilled water (50 ml), salt (8 g).
Equipments: Mixer, rolling pin, Tray, cookies cutter, baking oven etc.
Principle: Cookies are made from soft wheat are having high sugar and fat content. They contain relatively low moisture content and have fairy high shelf life. Biscuits are similar name used in Europe and UK. Cookies are chemically leavened. Sugar and shortening are creamed to form dough with flour and leavening agents. When cookies dough enters the oven, the fat starts melting and sugar is dissolved which allow the cookies to spread as a function of gravity. The leavening agents expand it in all direction and structure is stabilized with high temperature prevailing in the oven.

4.1 Introduction

The objective of this chapter is to design a mobile app for agricultural field automation with Blynk app. Mobile app is designed to control the water management in field as per requirement. The complete system comprises of two sections sensor node and mobile app. Sensor node comprises of Node MCU, Power supply, LCD, Relay board, soil sensor and Ultrasonic sensor. The system is designed to establish control and communication with specific agricultural field to take sensory data from soil and ultrasonic level sensor and control the PUMP IN motor and PUMP OUT motor with the help of mobile app.Fig.4.1 shows a block diagram for a system to control specific agricultural field with mobile app and IoT modem.

Principle

Adenoviral, oncoretroviral, and lentiviral vectors are commonly utilised for gene delivery in mammalian cell culture and in vivo. Additional important examples of viral gene transfer involve baculovirus and vaccinia virus vectors. Stable cell lines produced with lentivirus technology provide consistent, long-term protein expression compared to the short-term expression achieved through transient transfection. This chapter focuses on cell transformation by lentiviruses.

Equipment

a) Biosafety cabinet level 2 (B2)

b) Carbon Dioxide (CO2 ) Incubator (set to 37°C with a 5% CO2 in air atmosphere)

c) Refrigerated centrifuge

d) Refrigerator

e) Inverted Microscope

f) Micro pipettes (1-10 μl, 10-200 μl, 100-1000 μl)

g) -86°C/-80°C deep freezer h) Autoclave

i) Hot air oven

j) Filtration Assembly

Introduction

The globally growing demand for water has ushered the need for its efficient and judicial utilizations in all fields, and agriculture in particular being a single largest consumer of water. The majority of irrigation projects in India perform at a very low efficiency, which calls for application of efficient water management technologies for meeting the increasing water demands. Estimation of soil moisture or crop evapotranspiration from climatic parameters provides objective criteria for irrigation management. Methods to estimate evapotranspiration require huge climatic data, which are seldom available and not applied by common crop growers. Determining crop water requirement through soil moisture measurement at several locations is time consuming, destructive exercise, and may not give proper assessment of crop water need. The plant based indicator approach considers the plant water status for scheduling irrigation. This might be considered as the ideal criterion because the plant water is a good integrator of the soil, water and climatic parameters.

Introduction

Crops diseases are caused by bacteria, virus, fungi and phytoplasmas. The detection of pathogenic bacteria and viruses in plants, planting material, vectors or natural reservoirs is essential to ensure safe and sustainable agriculture. The molecular based techniques, have evolved significantly during recent past that  allows the rapid and reliable detection of pathogens. The detection and diagnosis of plant pathogens is essential to take control measures and subsequently for eradication of the disease that causes.  Molecular detection is largely based on PCR or RT-PCR amplification following purification of nucleic acids from the samples, with the extraction of the target DNA.

Introduction
Introduction: The digestive system, or gastrointestinal (GI) tract, plays a fundamental role in the overall health and well-being of animals. In veterinary anatomy, understanding the structure and function of the digestive system is essential for diagnosing and treating various disorders that affect food intake, digestion, and nutrient absorption. This complex system is responsible for the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food, the absorption of nutrients, and the elimination of waste, making it crucial for maintaining homeostasis in animal species. Structural Organization: The digestive system can be divided into two main categories: the gastrointestinal tract and the accessory digestive organs. The gastrointestinal tract is a continuous tube extending from the mouth to the anus and includes the oral cavity, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum, and anus. Each segment of the GI tract is specialized for specific functions, reflecting the dietary habits and evolutionary adaptations of different species. Mouth and Esophagus: The digestive process begins in the mouth, where food is mechanically broken down by teeth and mixed with saliva, which contains enzymes like amylase that initiate carbohydrate digestion. The esophagus serves as a conduit for food, transporting it to the stomach through peristaltic movements. Stomach: The stomach is a muscular organ that serves as a site for food storage and initial digestion. It secretes gastric juices, including hydrochloric acid and pepsin, to denature proteins and activate digestive enzymes. The morphology of the stomach can vary significantly across species. In ruminants—such as cattle, sheep, and goats—the stomach is uniquely adapted for processing fibrous plant material through a complex structure consisting of four compartments: the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum.
1. Rumen: The largest compartment, the rumen, acts as a fermentation chamber where microbial digestion occurs. It is lined with a stratified squamous epithelium and contains millions of microorganisms, including bacteria, protozoa, and fungi, that help break down cellulose and other complex carbohydrates. The rumen’s large surface area, facilitated by papillae, enhances absorption of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) produced during fermentation, which serve as a primary energy source for ruminants.

Most often, a plant gets diseased when it is harmed by an abiotic agents or attacked by a pathogen. As a result, in the first scenario, interaction and contact between the pathogen and the plant are required for the occurrence of a plant disease. No disease develops even though a pathogen and a plant come into contact if the weather is too extreme at the time of the pathogen’s contact with the plant and for a while afterwards. This could be because the plant is able to fend off the pathogen’s attack or because the pathogen is unable to attack at all. Therefore, it would appear that in order for disease to manifest, a third component—a set of environmental factors falling within a favorable range—must also exist. The degree of disease severity in both individual plants and plant populations is impacted by changes in any one of the three components, which can each show significant fluctuation. Plants can exhibit genetic uniformity over a wide area, be of a species or variety that may be more or less resistant to the pathogen, or they may be too young or too old for the pathogen to prefer. All of these factors can either accelerate or slow down the rate at which a particular pathogen causes disease. The way the three elements of disease interact has frequently been represented as a triangle (Fig. 2-1), which is commonly known as the “disease triangle.”

Introduction
The development of disease in plants is a complex process influenced by the interplay between the host plant, the pathogen, and the environment. Understanding the stages and mechanisms involved in disease development is crucial for effective disease management strategies. This chapter will explore the disease triangle, the disease cycle, and the role of environmental factors in disease epidemiology.
The Disease Triangle
The disease triangle is a fundamental concept in plant pathology that illustrates the three essential components for disease development: the host, the pathogen, and the environment. All three elements must be present for a disease to occur.
a) Host: The host is the plant species that can support the growth and reproduction of the pathogen. Different plants exhibit varying levels of susceptibility to diseases, influenced by factors such as genetic resistance, nutritional status, and overall health.

Introduction
The endocrine system consists of glands and cells that secrete hormones directly into surrounding tissues or into the bloodstream to regulate various physiological processes. These hormones help maintain homeostasis, working closely with the nervous system, especially through the hypothalamo-hypophyseal connection, where the endocrine and nervous systems integrate their functions.
Pituitary Gland (Hypophysis)
The pituitary gland, often considered the “master gland,” is formed from oral and neural ectoderm. It is divided into two main parts: the anterior pituitary (adenohypophysis) and the posterior pituitary (neurohypophysis). Adenohypophysis: This portion develops from the roof of the stomodeum (primitive mouth) and consists of three parts: the pars distalis, pars intermedia, and pars tuberalis. It contains several cell types, including acidophils, basophils, and chromophobes, which secrete various hormones. For instance, acidophils release growth hormone (GH) and prolactin, while basophils produce hormones like adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and gonadotropins (LH and FSH). The secretion of these hormones is regulated by the hypothalamus through releasing and inhibitory factors delivered via the hypophyseal portal system. Neurohypophysis: Originating from the floor of the diencephalon, the neurohypophysis consists of the median eminence, infundibular stalk, and neural lobe. It stores and releases antidiuretic hormone (ADH) and oxytocin, both synthesized in the hypothalamus and transported to the posterior pituitary. ADH regulates water balance, while oxytocin controls uterine contractions and milk ejection during lactation.
Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System
The hypothalamus and pituitary gland form a unified control system. The hypothalamoadenohypophyseal system is responsible for regulating the anterior pituitary’s hormonal