eChapters

To address the present day problems in agriculture and horticultural sectors and also to equip the graduating and postgraduate agricultural students, the ICAR has been continuously striving to bring necessary reforms for quality enhancement in agricultural education. The Council has appointed National Core Group and BSMA Committee for revision and restructuring of Post graduate and Doctoral syllabi in consultation with all the stakeholders to meet the challenges and harness opportunities in various disciplines of agriculture and allied sciences. It has been felt that a paradigm shift is necessary in academic regulations to comply with various provisions of National Education Policy-2020. The syllabus of Masters’ and Doctoral programs was restructured and new courses were introduced.

Group dynamics and formation represent fundamental processes in community mobilization that determine how individuals come together to form collective entities capable of achieving shared goals while building social capital and institutional capacity that can sustain long-term community development efforts. Understanding these processes provides essential insights into how communities can organize themselves effectively while creating groups that can navigate complex challenges and maintain cohesion through the inevitable difficulties and conflicts that arise during collective action initiatives. The science of group dynamics encompasses the complex social, psychological, and organizational factors that influence how groups form, develop, function, and achieve their objectives while building understanding of the internal processes that enable or constrain group effectiveness and sustainability. This knowledge has evolved through decades of research in social psychology, organizational behavior, and community

Group contact method in communication involves engaging with multiple individuals simultaneously to convey information, facilitate discussions, or stimulate collective action. It encompasses various techniques such as group meetings, result demonstrations, method demonstrations, and study tours, among others. The primary aim of group contact methods is to leverage the power of collective engagement to disseminate knowledge, foster collaboration, and promote the adoption of desired behaviors or practices within communities. These methods enable extension workers to reach larger audiences efficiently, promote peer learning, and create supportive environments conducive to positive behavioral change.

Result Demonstration

Result Demonstration involves showcasing the superior outcomes of a new agricultural practice to motivate its adoption within a community. It serves as an effective means of technology transfer, inspiring farmers to experiment with innovations themselves.

Objectives include illustrating the practical advantages of newly recommended practices, motivating community groups to adopt them, bolstering confidence among farmers and extension agents, and fostering innovation leadership.

Techniques

Planning and Preparation • Analyze the local farming context. • Select cooperative farmers with adequate resources and community acceptance. • Choose representative demonstration sites. • Establish a clear schedule of operations.

Fungicide which is effective only if applied prior to fungal infection is called a protectant, eg. Zineb, Sulphur. Protectant fungicides are prophylactic in their behaviour.

Place of Microorganisms in Living World

Haeckel’s kingdom Protista

E.H. Haeckel, 1866 proposed this concept. Apart from plant and animal kingdom, the third kingdom “Protista” was developed by him. The protista includes unicellular organisms that are typically neither plant nor animal. These organisms, the protists, include bacteria, algae, fungi and protozoa. Bacteria are referred as lower protists and others are called as higher protists.

Whittaker’s five kingdom concept

R.H.Whittaker (1969) proposed the concept of five kingdom. He divided the living things in to 5 kingdoms.

Genetic purity (GP) is a crucial seed quality factor. Several steps and precautions are involved in achieving the desired levels of genetic purity in the seed. Right from the choice of genetically pure seed for seed production up to final packing of the seed produced, at any stage, genetic purity can get affected. Field inspection and postharvest checks help in verifying conformity to seed quality standards especially genetic purity. Wherever seed characteristics are clear, examination of samples in the quality assurance laboratory for other distinguishable varieties (ODV) gives an idea of the genetic purity status. Among the several methods available for GP assessment, Grow Out Test is one.

In this context, some basic principles and procedures and guidelines relating to GOT are presented with more of information in tabular forms. In brief, the aspects covered include objectives, principles, kinds of GOT, genetic purity standards, procedure, main factors for observations, evaluation, and recording and reporting. Table 4.1 gives the submitted sample size for GOT; and Table 4.2 shows the minimum number of days required for evaluation from sowing and Table 4.3 deals with maximum weight of submitted sample and minimum weight of working sample for GPM, GOT and ODV.

I. FILL UPS

1. _____ is the official measure for controlling the genetic purity of the seed lot.
2. _____ serves as ‘pre-control’ as well as ‘post-control’ for avoiding genetic contaminations.
3. _____ can also be used as a measure to judge the efficacy of the certification agency or the inspector.
4. The minimum population requirement for taking the observations shall be _____ plants.

The farming of striped murrel is quite old in many south-eastern and south Asian countries including India under traditional farming system. Wee (1981) has given an account of traditional farming of striped murrel in Thailand, where seed of wild stock was stocked in very high density (75-460 numbers/m²) in ponds. Freshwater small fish (FSF) were fed to the seed during pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons and subsequently marine small fish (MSF) mixed with rice bran to satiation level. The fish grew to 700-1000 g in 7-10 months with an FCR of 6.5:1 and production of 9.0-15.6 kg/m². In another culture trial, Diana et al. (1985) have described a poor survival of 9-13%, when they stocked seed @ 40-80 number/m² collected from wild sources and fed them on FSF for 9-11 months. There are records of backyard production of this species also (Wan et al., 1992). The major problems with traditional farming were poor & uncertain survivals, problems of getting SFs and occurrence of diseases due to poor management protocols.

Therefore for a scientific farming of this species, the major bottlenecks are the non- availability of hatchery seed, species & size specific feed, cannibalism at all stages and disease occurrence. These bottlenecks have been addressed to a greater extent by the researchers in recent and protocols for hatchery seed production and cannibalism reduction have been simplified to a greater extent with the availability of commercial pellet diets to boost its farming. Vietnam has been pioneer in the production of farmed striped murrel in recent, following new initiatives and based on its success, neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, Camobodia, Thailand, Myanmar, etc have also taken initiatives to boost production of this high value species in their countries.

1. FIELD OF APPLICABILITY

Grow-out test is the official measure for controlling the genetic purity of the seed lot. It serves as ‘pre-control’ as well as a ‘post control’ test for avoiding genetic contaminations. According to the official regulations in India, it is prerequisite for seed certification of hybrids of certain species such as cotton, castor, musk melon and brinjal.

The test is conducted for checking the sellers label with respect to genetic purity status of the seed lot under the provisions of the Seeds Act 1966. In addition, grow-out test can also be used as a measure to judge the efficacy of the certification agency or the inspector.

This chapter introduces environmental management and automation in greenhouse production. It explains how temperature, light, humidity, carbon dioxide and root-zone conditions influence plant growth and flower quality. The chapter discusses ventilation, evaporative cooling, supplemental lighting, sensors, automation systems, solar greenhouses and retractable greenhouses. It also introduces government support and guidelines for protected cultivation, including MIDH assistance. The chapter emphasizes precision environmental control, resource-use efficiency and technology-enabled production.

Soil is the main growing medium. Natural as well as synthetic substitutes to soils are cropping up. Under greenhouse cultivation growing medium is generally top soil as used in open field/traditional farming. The practices of soil preparation for planting crops are more or less same as under open field. Generally, crops are planted on raise beds. As under open conventional farming soil preparation are made as per the crops or their varieties/hybrids to be grown. To enrich the soil with nutrients soil is tested for its physical and chemical properties and amended accordingly keeping in view the crop requirement. The soil composition is checked with each crop cycle and amended as per requirement of next crop. To avoid the harmful microbes and insects build up in the soil it is advisable to solarize or fumigate the greenhouse soil each year during hottest month of the year. Soil solarisation is an environment friendly soil pathogen management method and practiced widely in north India.

Soil Solarisation

Soil solarisation is an environment friendly method of using solar thermal power for controlling pests such as soil borne plant pathogens including fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and insect and mite pests along with weed seeds and seedlings in the moist soil by mulching the soil usually with a transparent polyethylene cover, to trap solar energy in greenhouses. It may also be described as a method of decontaminating soil or soil disinfestation using sunlight or solar thermal power. This energy/temperature causes desirable physical, chemical, and biological changes in the soil.

Abstract

Himachal Pradesh is endowed with varied type of climate providing conditions to grow temperate and sub  tropical fruits. Persimmon (Diospyros kaki) appears to be readily adapted to wide range of climatic conditions and offer a good potential for diversification of fruit culture. Though it was introduced in Himachal Pradesh in early nineties by the European missionaries but it could not be established as commercial fruit crop. Persimmon cultivation suffers from lack of organized plantings, inadequate vegetatively propagated plant material, non-availability of suitable cultivars and standardization of various orchard management practices. Besides, problems of poor fruit set, heavy fruit drop, astringent nature and lack of sufficient knowledge regarding fruit maturity and marketing mired its cultivation. The efforts made in recent years to overcome the problems the fruit seems to be on the thresh hold of popularity and with diversification in the fruit culture this fruit has great future.

Object: Growth analysis: Calculation of growth parameters. 

Material required: Primary data collected from individual plants or derived from whole canopies. 

Theory: The growth analysis study provides information on the growth of plants or of a plant community in a precise way with the available’ raw data. The study also provides precise information on the nature of plant and environment interaction in a particular habitat.

Growth and Development are the most fundamental and conspicuous characteristics of all living organisms. According to dictionary, growth is the advancement towards maturity and development is a gradual increase in size. The plant physiological definition of growth is ‘an irreversible increase in mass, weight or volume of a living organism, organ or cell.

Growth represents overall performance of a plant under a particular environment. Generally, we restrict to the above ground plant parts for growth studies, however, a better understanding of plant growth and development would be achieved if total dry matter (including above ground shoot as well as underground root) were taken into consideration.

The basic principles behind growth analysis constitutes (i) data on plant height and (ii) leaf area. The quantitative analysis of growth is based upon several terms, which are described below (Hunt, 1978).

1. Growth

Growth is an irreversible increase in size which may or may not be accompanied by an increase in dry weight. It is the sum total of all the metabolic activities and normally results from the excess of anabolism over catabolism. In general, it refers to quantitative changes in the life cycle of plants. However, there are a few examples where growth is not accompanied by an increase in dry weight such as (i) germinating seeds and, (ii) etiolated plants.

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the genotypic variability with respect to agronomic and physiological traits of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc.) landraces collected from three contrasting environments during 2010-11 in a randomized complete block design with nine replications under transparent shade house at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus in Semenyih, Selangor.

Growth is defined as an irreversible change in the size of a cell, organ or whole organism. Commonly, growth is the increase in the amount of living material (protoplasm) which leads to an increase in cell size and ultimately cell division. Growth occurs only in living cells by metabolic process involved in the synthesis of proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and CHO at the expense of metabolic energy provided by photosynthesis and respiration.

Plant growth is defined as the progressive development which is irreversible. It is expressed in terms of dry weight plants, height of plants, girth or diameter of the stem or tree trunks, spread of the tree canopy, number of branches or tillers. Plant growth is a function or various factors which may be expressed as G = f (x, x₂, x₃ x_n ).Some factors may be controlled while some cannot be controlled. The following are the factors which influence the plant growth.

Growth is the fundamental property of all living organisms. It is an irreversible permanent increase in size, volume or mass of a cell or organ or whole organism accompanied by an increase in dry weight. Where, development is sum total of growth and differentiation. It is governed by both environmental and internal factors. The development of a plant is highly complex phenomena (Table 1).

The response of a plant to the relative length of day and night is called as

A. Photosynthesis      B. Phytochrome

C. Photoperiodism     D. Photo respiration