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Fruits are an essential component of a human’s healthy diet. Fruits are used as a supplement to primary foods. When compared to grains, many fruits have far greater nutritional potential. The common fig is one of the most important and widely consumed fruits (Ficus carica).

Cowpea is a quick growing leguminous forage crop. It is usually grown mixed with cereal fodders and grasses to improve the nutritive value of the herbage. It contains 20 – 24 % crude protein, 43 - 49 % neutral detergent fibre, 34 – 37 % acid detergent fibre, 23– 25 % cellulose and 5 – 6 % hemicelluloses on dry matter basis. The digestibility of cowpea fodder is above 70%. Cowpea can be grown under partial shaded conditions. It is an excellent cover crop, which suppresses weeds and enriches the soil. Cowpea requires warm climate with good atmospheric humidity. It can be grown in kharif as well as in zaid season.

Cumbu Napier hybrid grass is a cross between Cumbu (Pennisetum glaucum) and Napier grass (P. purpureum Schumach.), widely cultivated across India, Africa, Sri Lanka and South East Asian countries. As the hybrid is a triploid, it displays complete sterility and high vegetative growth. In Tamil Nadu, land area utilized for growing fodder is negligible, accounting only 1.6 per cent of the total cultivated area.

Forages: The term forages denote plants that are used for feeding the animals that are cultivated in the farm, or it may be a wild used for stock feeding grown for the vegetative purpose. The vegetative phase is encouraged and the reproductive phase is suppressed.

History of jute in India: In Mahabharata times the mention has been made regarding Jute garments as pattagam (patta produced) for jute fibre products and kitajam (insect produced) for silk products. In Ain-e-Akbari, there is mention of sack cloth made from jute, in Rangapur district.

Cotton is often called as “white gold”. True to its name cotton supports the largest agro based industries in India and cotton industry ranks first in the agro based industries and engages 4 to 5 million people in cotton growing. The industrial sector employs 1.0 million people. At present there are 3660 ginning and 1570 textile mills in India. India earns foreign exchange to a tune of Rs. 2500 million through exports of cotton textiles and products. Cotton is cultivated for ‘lint’ which is used for preparing threads, yarns and medical cotton mixed with synthetic fibre and for various other purposes.

The earlier view was that the cultivated sesame originated from Ethiopia. But Bedigian and Harlen (1984) established evidence to indicate that sesame is native of India. In vedic period, liberal mention about Til (Gingelly seed) and Taila (Gingelly oil) are mentioned. The Charred seeds of Gingelly were extracted from Harappa (2500-1500 B.C).

Oilseed crops are crops which are rich in fatty acid, cultivated for the production of vegetable oil. They are used either for edible or industrial or medicinal purposes. The important oilseeds are groundnut or peanut, sesame or gingelly, sunflower, rapeseed and mustard, soybean, castor, linseed or flax, niger and safflower.

Mungbean is one of the most important pulse crops. It is grown in almost all parts of the country. Mungbean is primarily a crop of rainy season; however, with the development of early maturing varieties, it has proved to be an ideal crop for spring and summer seasons. Middle of March to last week of June is the most suitable growing period where there is a plenty of life-giving sunshine. During this period high temperature and low humidity keep insects and disease infestations at their lowest. Summer season offers an excellent opportunity for raising short duration pulses.

Pulses are seeds of leguminous plants used as food. They produce dal rich in protein. The important pulse crops are greengram, blackgram, redgram, bengal gram, soybean, cowpea, peas, lentil and lathyrus. The total area under pulses in India is 29.81 m ha with a production of 25.42 m t and the productivity is 853 kg / ha. Pulses can grow both in rainfed and irrigated conditions.

Finger millet (Ragi/ Mandua) is the principal small millet grown in South Asia. It is believed to be native of India (De condole, 1886) but according to Vavilov (1926) it originated in Abyssinia.

Sorghum is probably originated in Africa. Because of the great diversity of types grown in East Central Africa, in and around Ethiopia and Sudan, it seems probable that it originated in that area (De Condole, 1884).

Maize is one of the world’s leading crops cultivated over an area of about 194 million hectares with a production of about 1147 million tonnes of grain (2020). Among the maize growing countries, USA has the largest area followed by China, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine and India. In respect of production also USA stands first followed by China. Regarding average yield per hectare USA ranks first followed by China. The average maize yield in India is only 3065 kg per hectare which is much lower than most of the maize growing countries of the world.

System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was first developed in Madagascar during the 1980s SRI uses less inputs. It uses less seed, water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides but uses more organic manures. Rice grown with SRI technology has large root volume, profuse and strong tillers with big panicles, more and wellfilled spikelets with higher grain weight

The field is ploughed once and harrowed twice or thrice until the soil becomes well puddle. Beds are made slightly raised of 1 – 1.5 m in width and conveniently large in size and drainage channels in between the beds. The total area of nursery required to plant one hectare of land is 20 cents (800 m2 ). This method is suited where assured irrigation facilities are available. The beds should not be allowed to dry because they develop cracks and the seedlings will get spoiled. This method keeps down the weeds in the nursery. Seedlings are transplanted at 21-25 and 25-30 days age for SDV and MDV, respectively. Sparse sowing is recommended in case of hybrid rice. One kg of hybrid seed is sown in one cent area of nursery. This helps in good tillering and robust seedlings and makes it possible to transplant single seedling per hill. Seedlings are planted at 20-25 days.

Cereal grain contains 60 to 70% of starch and is excellent energy rich foods for humans. In almost every country and region, cereals provide the staple food. In the world as a whole, only 5% of starchy staple food comes from root crops (mainly cassava, potato, and yams, depending on climate), whereas the rest is from cereal. Cereals are an excellent source of fat-soluble vitamin E, which is an essential antioxidant. Whole cereal grains contain 20 to 30% of the daily requirements of the minerals such as selenium, calcium, zinc and copper.

Pulses may be defined as the dried edible seeds of cultivated legumes. They belong to the family of peas, beans and lentils (Family: Fabaceae). English word pulse is taken from the Latin word ‘Puls’, meaning pouage or thick pap. Pulses are a large family and various species are capable of surviving in very different climates and soils. Pulses are cultivated in all parts of the world and they occupy an important place in human diet.

The word cereal was derived from Ceres, the name of the Roman goddess of harvest and agriculture. Cereals are grasses (members of the monocot family Poaceae, also known as Gramineae) cultivated for the edible components of their grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ and bran. Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop and therefore they are called staple crops.

Introduction

Gastro-intestinal parasites are considered as the 'silent killers' and remain hidden or undiagnosed by the livestock owners or veterinarians as the infected animals manifest meagre clinical signs. These parasites often have detrimental effects on the growth and development of animals where they can potentiate mortality especially among young, weak or nutritionally compromised animals. They negatively impact animal health in terms of reduced weight gain, anorexia, digestive disturbance, impaired reproductive performance, condemnation of affected organs, mortality in infected animals and ultimately affect animal production, contributing to huge economic losses to the livestock owners. At present, chemotherapy is the most practical and widely practiced approach to curb these infestations. But frequent and indiscriminate use of anthelmintics imposes a threat on the sustainability of current control measures. Thus, there is an urgent need for incorporation of alternate control approaches while designing our worm control programs, so that we can reduce the usage of anthelmintics and prolong their effectiveness. The effectiveness or success of any worm control strategy is evaluated based on integrated parameters like the ultimate goal of increasing production, minimizing risks regarding drug resistance and considering consumer's concerns about health and environment-associated problems. In general, gastro-intestinal nematode control strategies can target either the parasite population inside the host or the free-living stages of parasites in the environment. Here, we are discussing some of the components of sustainable control measures for these parasites in detail.

Introduction

Incidence of ectoparasitism is on rise in the livestock population, impeding its production and performance. Those areas which were free of ectoparasites are now under great parasite load because of changing climatic conditions and global warming. Global warming has resulted in vectors shifting their habitats to temperate regions also. Ectoparasites are not only causing irritation to livestock by blood sucking and associated pruritus, they are serving as vectors for a variety of haemoprotozoan and rickettsiae leading to far-flung complications. Major ectoparasites infesting ruminants are ticks, lice, fleas and flies. Though ticks and flies are proclaimed as notorious for transmission of haemoprotozoans, now a days evidences are on rise reporting the role of fleas and lice as vectors for various haemoprotozoan and viral diseases. The need of the hour is to explore more and more ectoparasites to identify their vector potential and their effective control measures. While addressing the ectoparasitism in livestock, another major problem arises with their control. Most ectoparasitism is of seasonal nature at least in temperate areas, while it is a round the year phenomenon in tropics. Only very few compounds are available as ectoparasiticides and used by clinicians, and has resulted in onset of resistance among ectoparasites. New compounds need to be developed and marketed to counter this and at the same time it should be environment friendly also. Lest their rising use can lead to eradication of friendly fauna which can be more detrimental to the ecosystem. Now a days researches are focusing on the development of integrated tick/vector control measures which are making use of minimal chemical compounds and utilizing the synergistic application of farming techniques/practices and cultivating plants of acaricidal properties. In this era of pandemic, zoonotic nature of various haemoprotozoan/rickettsiae affecting livestock is also of concern to the mankind. So, they need to be addressed at the earliest considering their impact. The susceptibility to ectoparasitism varies from animal to animal.