eChapters

Introduction

The need of the agricultural community was the force of motivation for the development of broad-spectrum pesticides towards the management of pests and diseases of cultivated crops. Advances in pesticide were measured exclusively by the assessment of its efficacy in management alone. But today food production has ceased to be a major concern, due to stable population levels and success of innovative agricultural technologies. At this juncture, the agrochemical industry that primarily recognized the farmers as their customers has failed to acknowledge the public as an important client. Perception of the public reflects that, the negative aspects of pesticides seem to outnumber their benefits. The increased reflection on environmental concern over pesticide use has been instrumental in a large upsurge of biological disease control. Development of fungicide resistance among the pathogens, ground water and foodstuff pollution and the development of oncogenic risks has further encouraged for the exploitation of antagonistic microflora in disease management

Introduction

Plant parasitic nematodes are important pests, causing major damage to the world’s food and fibre crops. The management of nematodes is more difficult than that of other pests because nematodes mostly inhabit the soil and usually attack the underground parts of the plants. Nematodes in soil are subject to infections by bacteria and fungi. This creates the possibility of using soil microorganisms to control plant-parasitic nematodes. Biocontrol of nematodes was first studied by Duddington (1951). The development of biological control agents is also considered an effective alternative for nematode control on vegetables (Van Gundy, 1985; Kerry, 1987). There are more than 200 species of nematophagous fungi described. Based on the infection mechanism, they are commonly subdivided into three main groups: the nematode-trapping fungi that captures free living nematodes using specialized morphological structures (i.e., traps), the endoparasitic fungi that infects nematodes using adhesive spores, and the egg- and cyst-parasitic fungi that infect these stages with their hyphal tips (Barron, 1977). The nematophagous fungi that have received most attention for biological control of plant-parasitic nematodes include various species of the nematode-trapping fungi Arthrobotrys spp. (Stirling and Smith, 1998), and the egg-parasitic fungi Pochonia chlamydosporium (Kerry, 2001) and Paecilomyces lilacinus (Gaspard et al., 1990).

Introduction

The soil around plant roots that forms the rhizosphere is a dynamic, complex zone. All plant parasitic nematodes are obligate parasities and must enter this zone to reach their host and cause damage (Kerry, 2000). Nematodes in soil are subject to infections by bacteria and fungi. This creates the possibility of using soil microorganisms to control plant-parasitic nematodes. Bacteria are numerically the most abundant organisms in soil, and some of them, for example members of the genera Pasteuria, Pseudomonas and Bacillus have shown great potential for the biological control of nematodes. Nematophagous bacteria are distributed broadly, possess diverse modes of action, and have broad host ranges. A variety of nematophagous bacterial groups have been isolated from soil, host-plant tissues, and nematodes and their eggs and cysts (Siddiqui and Mahmood, 1999; Kerry, 2000; Meyer, 2003).

They affect nematodes by a variety of modes: for example parasitizing; producing toxins, antibiotics, or enzymes; interfering with nematode–plant-host recognition; competing for nutrients; inducing systemic resistance of plants; and promoting plant health (Siddiqui and Mahmood, 1999). They form a network with complex interactions among bacteria, nematodes, plants and the environment to control populations of plant-parasitic nematodes in natural conditions (Kerry, 2000).

Introduction

India is transforming from the phase of revolution to commercial mode of agriculture, a step ahead of self-sufficiency. It further evolves to reach a goal of self-reliant on agriculture and allied sector. The present phase demands several technological innovations, their application and implementation in the market. Meanwhile this phase needs due attention for handling the issues on conservation of natural resources, especially germplasm resource, biodiversity conservation, socio-cultural-economic values of our country, etc. The whole process requires good investment on research and development, various economic measures and implementation. It is only possible with vibrant governance and policy implementation of a Government. Already Government of India has taken several measures to transform agriculture. Recent analysis showed that Indian agriculture is the silent ever green revolution. Food production is kept pace with the growing population since independence. Further, it needs several innovations on technologies coupled with policy support to fill the demand. India is placed 49^th position in the world on innovations. Analysis suggested the huge potential for innovation due to its huge human capital, which perhaps need for the country like India to meet the food demand of 333 million tonnes by the year 2050. These innovations must be focussed for growth to efficiency, employment generation, food security to nutrition and health, shortage management to surplus management, input intensive to knowledge intensive agriculture, climate change and sustainability, production and producers, policy interventions, regulations and reforms. The Government emphasize usage of e-trading platforms to sell the farmers’ produce of their choice rather using mandis. This will enable contract farming and inter-state trade. However, major innovations and investment must be implemented on transportation, logistics, and digital access and payments to enable widespread prosperity. Thus, focus must be on the complete agricultural value chain. In fact, focus needed on value addition, rural infrastructure, logistics, warehousing, and quality certification of agriculture produce. India has greatest challenges to face in the future for food and nutritional security, adaptation and mitigation to climate change and sustainable use of essential and scared resources like water, land and energy.

The basic principles of biological control of pests and diseases remain the same, whether applied to insect pests, nematodes or plant pathogens. In the recent years, there is a paradigm shift towards studying antibiosis and its application in biological suppression of pathogens, yet the classical bio-control will remain as relevant as ever. The following discussion is based on recapitulating the basic principles of classical biological control as applicable to plant parasitic nematodes.

Biological control agents (BCAs) have been exploited for pest control in different ways. One way is to manipulate the naturally occurring BCAs by augmenting their populations to pest suppressive levels. In this approach no BCAs are introduced, but various means such as agronomic practices, introduction of organic matter etc. are adopted to favour the build-up of BCAs. The second way is the introduction of BCAs, either as inoculative or inundative release. In the former case, the BCAs are introduced in small quantities and allowed to build-up gradually in due course of time. However, in the latter approach, BCAs are introduced in large quantities so that quick pest suppression can be achieved. Each method has its own merits and demerits (Table 1).

Introduction

India is considered as one of the emerging superpowers of the world. This potential is attributed to several indicators, the primary one being its demographic trends and a rapidly expanding economy. In 2015, India became the world’s fastest growing economy with a 7.5% estimated GDP rate. But in the year 2020, the pandemic lockdown situation created adverse impact on the global economy. At this juncture, there is an urgent need to focus on native and indigenous resource mapping and judicious utilization of it to be a self-reliant. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a new set of reforms to strengthen the economy. The first mention of this came in the form of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ or ‘Self-Reliant India Mission’ by the Government of India during the announcement of the coronavirus pandemic related economic package on 12^th May 2020. Almost 70% of India’s population depends directly and indirectly on agriculture for their survival. This means the country cannot have a development model that ignores agriculture.

It’s time to take a look at India’s agriculture economy. Over the last 10 years, (2008-19) India has been a net exporter of many farm produce. In fact, in 2018, the government has come up with a new agricultural export policy aimed at doubling farm income by 2022. However, in 2019-20, agri-exports were just $36 billion and the agri-trade surplus was $11.2 billion. The net agri-trade surplus has been falling over a period of time, making it difficult to achieve doubling of farmers’ income and doubling of agriculture exports by 2022as well.

India is not yet self-reliant in various essential agriculture commodities and depends heavily on imports. India imports around 15 million tonnes of edible oil every year — more than 9 million tonnes of palm oil and about 2.5 million tonnes each of soybean oil and sunflower oil. It buys palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and soy and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine and Russia. There is a need to create self-reliance in theses commodities enhancing productivity of Indian farms to create competitive advantage for domestic producers. India can step up cultivation of sunflower, groundnuts, mustard and oil palms. Presently, India has about two million hectares of land that is suitable for oil palm cultivation.

Historical Perspective of Agricultural Education Policy in India

Pre-Independence Era

During the reign of the British Crown, vocational education and training suffered a great setback and there was a lack of emphasis on agricultural education, even though the Indian economy, to a great extent, depended on agriculture. In 1901, only five institutions were imparting theoretical and practical instruction in agriculture, but that education was not used in extension or fieldwork—it served only as an opening for government white-collar jobs (Crane, 1965).

Post-Independence Era

Prior to the establishment of agricultural universities, university-level education in agriculture, animal science, horticulture, agricultural engineering, and allied subjects were largely conducted by colleges affiliated with general universities that had no special commitment to the farming community. The University Education Commission of 1947, among other things, examined the state of agricultural education in India. The report of this Commission emphasized the need for having what was termed “Rural Universities.” In 1954, the First Joint Indo-American Team on Agricultural Research and Education fully endorsed the recommendations of the University Education Commission and strongly recommended the immediate establishment of agricultural universities in a few selected states. The U.S. agricultural advisors who began to arrive in India in the early 1950s were products of the land-grant university system, and many of them naturally believed India could benefit by creating a similar system (Goldsmith, 1988). The Government of India accepted this recommendation and the first agricultural university in Uttar Pradesh now named as Govind Ballab Pant of Agriculture & Technology was established in 1960, patterned on the land-grant university model of the United States. This was a significant turning point in the history of agricultural education in India. The Second Joint Indo-American Commission (1959) reiterated the recommendations of the First and recommended that at least one agricultural university be established in each state. Agricultural universities have now been established in 21 of the 28 states and the concept of the agricultural university now forms an essential part of the national policy on education.

Introduction

Agricultural Extension is as ancient as agriculture itself. When it moves in agricultural trends, the importance on extension has also been transformed. Firstly, agricultural extension was the component of the research-extension-farmer approach. In the Training and Visit (T&V) period, communication of innovation was the crucial concept and the role of extension was to successfully disseminate the technological interventions. However, after the green revolution, the gap between resource rich and resource poor farmers widened with information and extension reaching only a few of them. With the conceptualization of new models, like Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems (AKIS), the focus of extension has changed to formation of groups and collective farming. In time, the private sector has also entered into the agricultural arena, introducing the concept of pluralism in extension. Emphasis on mass media has also increased. More recently, Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) is introduced within the innovation systems framework. It focuses on the actors, their interactions, the institutions, and the policy environment to support or hinder it. Communication for innovation is the key AIS concept tried to identify the actors in systems, their core activities and bring them into an innovation platform for effective service and successful innovations (Saravanan, 2017).

Introduction

The food production in India has been on a rising trajectory and the country is among the top producers of several crops. It is the highest producer of milk and second highest producer of fruits and vegetables. Total food grain production in the country is estimated at record 291.95 million tonnes (MT; Second Advance Estimates for 2019-20) which is 6.74 MT higher over 2018-19. While enhanced field productivity is an essential component of agricultural sector, improved postharvest handling, marketing and processing is equally essential to reduce the waste, particularly in a country where such losses are substantial and add stress on limited farming resources, appropriate agrilogistic is needed. Post-production management and marketing infrastructure is therefore, not only vital but a priority. Such infrastructure and the services they provide are essential not only for the efficient performance of various marketing functions, but also for effective expansion of the size of markets which allows for growth.An efficient post-harvest logistics network not only ensures that produce will reach destination markets in quality and quantity, but should also trigger a steady reverse flow of market information to the source.

Introduction

India is predominantly an agricultural economy and about half of the workforce is engaged in agriculture sector. Around 48 per cent of households in the country are agricultural household and they derive the monthly income from crop cultivation. India is leading in production of many agricultural crops but finding a market for marketed surplus and getting fair prices have always been a major challenge. Long time ago, traditional market system was existed in India. Marketing implied greater magnitude as yields and production started rising after farmers embraced with advanced technologies such as high-yielding varieties, fertilizers, chemical inputs, block chain development, farmers business network, market linkages, diversification towards high value crops, integrated farming system approach, precision farming including digital agriculture, drones, GIS technology, remote sensing, soil health management, crop and livestock insurance, mobile apps, web portal, machine learning and many mores. These catered the need of efficient regulated marketing system to support the farmers and keep away from them getting manipulated in the market.

India has gained self-sufficiency in the agriculture production. There is need to translate this production into better remuneration for the farming community by focusing into agricultural marketing system. The agricultural marketing system is characterized by various short comings like heavy sale of commodities at primary level immediately after the harvesting period, absence of on-farm grading of produce, poor packaging, insufficient marketing infrastructure, long marketing channels, existence of various malpractices in the marketing of agri-produce, nontransparent price discovery mechanism, lack of market information system, low marketable surplus especially of small and marginal farmers, etc.

Rising population and increasing demand for food are prominent factors driving the digital farming market. Moreover, the growing demand to efficiently deal with pests, weeds, and other diseases is encouraging farmers to digitize their farm. In developing regions, cheaper internet data and strong penetration of smart devices (especially smartphones) are driving the digital farming market. Active participation of governments in digitizing farms through investment is also driving the digital farm market.

Introduction

The Indian fisheries sector is set in a unique and diverse set of resources ranging from the pristine waters of the Himalayas to the sprawling Indian Ocean. The fisheries biodiversity of the country encompasses a wide spectrum of physical and biological components that support the livelihoods of millions of people. Fisheries resources are set in different ecosystems. With growing population and the increasing demand for fish protein, the need for sustainable development of aquatic resources is now felt much more than ever before.

Fisheries and aquaculture remain important sources of food, nutrition, income and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Global capture and culture fish production during 2019 were 97 and 82 million tonnes, respectively with India being second largest producer of fish in the world after China. From 0.75 million tonnes in 1950-51, total fish production of India touched 12.59 million tonnes in 2018-19 with a contribution of 8.90 million tonnes (70.60%) from inland sector. The sunrise fisheries sector contributes about 0.96 % to National Gross Value Added (GVA) and 5.37% to agricultural GVA (2018-19) while engaging over 14.5 million people (2003 census) at the primary level and almost twice the number along the value chain. During 2018-19 the export of marine products that includes production from aquaculture reached 13,77,244 tonnes valued at INR 46589 crore (US $ 6.93 billion). The inland sector grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 6.5% between 1979 and 2018, while overall fish production witnessed 4.5% growth, which is double the growth rate of food grains production in India.

Introduction

Animal husbandry has been an integral component of Indian agriculture since time immemorial. It is still continuing as one of the major avocations in India contributing nearly 4.9% to the national GDP and 28.4% of the agricultural GDP. Livestock population in the country as per Livestock Census 2019 is 535.78 million which is an increase of 4.6% over Livestock Census 2012 (BAHS, 2019; DAHD, 2019). Cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goats are the major livestock in the country. Today, India is the global leader in milk and milk products with a production of 187.7 million tonnes (MT) and the availability of 394 ml milk per capita per day. The per capita availability of milk has increased substantially during last four decades. The anticipated milk demand is expected to be 266.5 MT by 2030 based on per capita consumption of 468 ml/day (Table 1). It has been made possible with the active involvement of farming community and by creating awareness about high yielding breeds of livestock, improved rearing methods and milking, management of pests and diseases and most importantly, the feeding of the animal. The crop residue constitutes a major chunk of fodder to the livestock in many parts of the country. However due to their low nutritive values and poor palatability, it is not helping to realize the full milking potential of animals. A huge opportunity exists in livestock sector as there is a growing demand for animal products particularly milk and meat (NDDB, 2019). In addition, for promoting organic farming particularly the need of farm yard manure has necessitated the farming community to keep livestock as a complementary component of his farming. It provides draught power and organic manure to crop sector and hides, skin, bones, blood and fibers to the industrial sector. Therefore, the importance of livestock goes beyond its food production function, and has become even more significant (Birthal et al., 2002).

Introduction

The post-harvest and marketing system comprised of a series of interconnected activities which starts after the harvesting process and continues until the distribution of food products to the consumers. An effective post-harvest system makes sure that the food product reaches the customer in a short time without sacrificing volume, quality, and safety of the food product (Gardas et al., 2018). Increasing population growth in the last few centuries and the requirements from industrialization forces the need for sustainable food production and better food processing technologies. There is a requirement of balance between sustainable food production practices, a healthy environment, and a healthy population due to the rapid changes in the climate and population. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), there will be a requirement of a 70% increase in food production in 2050 due to the growing population across the world (FAO, 2017).

The challenges such as improper land use, decrease in biodiversity, aquatic eutrophication by over-fertilization, global warming, water shortages due to improper irrigation etc. imposed awareness among the stakeholders to bring more efficient approaches in agricultural and food production practices. This brings the idea of terms such as recyclable and eco-friendly packaging, buy local, whole foods, free-from, and fair-trade (Boye and Arcand, 2013). Recent trends in climate and changes in the environment may pose challenges to achieve the required food production in the future. In addition to the steps taken for increasing food production, the steps to reduce food loss are important. In 2011, it was calculated that 11.3 billion tonnes of food was wasted in a year, which is almost one- third of the total food production (FAO, 2011).

Introduction

More than 380 million urban population living in town and cities generates 62 million tones of municipal waste every year out of which 75% is recyclable but only 30% is recycled and reused whereas less than 15% of municipal solid waste is treated. Generally municipal authorities of the country dump the waste outside the city to keep the urban area clean. According to World Bank report, by the year 2025, waste generation will reach 377,000 tonnes per day in India (CPCB 2020). The waste generated in industrial and urban area of the country is tangible and concerning. This is the high time to address this issue with a great sensitivity and planning. Ragpickers works as the informal waste collection and recycling sector which plays an important role in waste management and leads to lesser waste to the landfills (Gupta et al., 1998).

Waste management is the process of treatment and disposal of solid, organic and hazardous waste. It can be categorized based on the source sector i) urban waste; ii) electrical waste iii) medical waste; iv) waste produced by disasters; v) agricultural waste vi) industrial waste etc. The type of waste has variable potential harms for human health, social implications, policies and the environment (FICCI, 2011). Agriculture itself is a big source of waste generated at different paths of food supply chain that occurs as follows:

Introduction

The digital farming solutions by various advanced tools and technologies became a prime important to see the future smart agriculture in India with enhanced productivity and farmer’s lifestyle upliftment. The agriculture industry facing challenges from farm to market by climate interfacing and energy conservations practices during farming operations. The use of innovative industry 5.0 is targeting a farming society to achieve high productivity by hardware devices like Robots, Drones, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) working on the basis of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning (DL), Big-Data, IoT and Cloud-based software tools and interactive software programs.

The use of tractors, combine harvesters, power tillers etc. like advanced machineries are practiced in present farming practices by youth farmers; however the digital tools with an automation of existing advanced farm machinery became an attraction to see human comfort. The custom operative design and development of digital tools are essentially becomes a need to innovate and exercise in finding best technologies for Indian farming society. The agricultural society spent several years and now also synthesizing an operational description for digital farming. There are several ways of opting solutions by using new digital logistic tools with software and hardware engagements. As we know agricultural production is influenced by climate, weather, soil properties, plant genetic profile, plant peripheral environment, plant protection, plant nourishing, harvesting and post harvesting like operational tasks. All such a challenging task can be handled by advanced digital tools and technologies.

Introduction

The country’s population is growing at fast pace putting pressure on agriculture sector to grow more with declining resources. Proper planning and management become ever more crucial to ensure the sustainability of food production with minimal environmental footprints. Space technologies have unique advantages of providing large area synoptic coverage, with repetitive, objective and scientific datasets essential for monitoring a hugely vast and heterogeneous country like India. Agriculture being very dynamic and highly dependent on different natural resources needs continuous monitoring. Therefore these technologies have immense potential for application in the agriculture sector of the country. Space based technologies provide information on crops and natural resources on a real-time basis, proving unmatched opportunity for planning including in-season manipulation of crop production and management practices improving the resilience of farming against weather aberrations. Advanced estimates of regional agricultural output are critical to anticipate and mitigate the course of food shortage from sudden crop failure.

Incidentally, the first practical application of remote sensing in India was in the field of agriculture, wherein early detection of coconut wilt disease in Kerala was possible using air borne infrared cameras (Dakshinamurty et al. 1971). To explore the potential of space technology through satellites Joint Experiment Programme (JEP) started for defining the appropriate configurations of sensors in Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites during the early 1980s. After exhaustive field experimentation, the potential of remote sensing (RS) technology to estimate crop yield and area to forecast its productivity at district and regional level due to the multispectral, large area and repetitive coverage was established. By that time this technology was being used operationally used by a few advance nations. With the launch of the first IRS satellite IRS-1A in 1988, in India

Introduction

The protected cultivation aims to create a favorable environment for harnessing maximum potential even in adverse climatic conditions. Farmers in India are facing different challenges including small and fragmented land holdings, climate change, vagaries of weather, poor soil health and lack of knowledge and exposure to modern agricultural technologies. The protected cultivation farming is emerging as one of the better alternatives in agriculture and gaining foothold in India. However, for successful protected cultivation farming, one needs to understand the protected cultivation structures, climate control, production technologies, plant protection, water management, marketing, guidelines and policies. At present, various innovations are adopted under the greenhouse technology viz., Soil based cultivation and soil less cultivation. Soil less cultivation consist of solid media based and liquid media based. Solid media include coco-peat, vermiculite, perlite, rice husk, sawdust, mass grass, wheat - paddy straw, sand, gravels, rock wool etc. whereas liquid based media include hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponics cultivation.

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.

Introduction

Bundelkhand is an important region of Central India which is often called as heartland of the nation. It is spread in the geographical area of 7.08 mha, includes 14 districts seven, each of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and supports 1.84 crore (as per 2011 census) of socio-economically and culturally diverse population. The present region of Bundelkhand lies between approximately 23°10’ and 26°27’ (north) latitude and 78°4’ and 810 34’ (east) longitude. It lies between the Indo-Gangetic Plain to the north and the Vindhya Range to the south. Bundelkhand is a hot and semi- humid climate with highly variable depending on the region and with gently sloping upland, distinguished by barren hilly terrain with sparse vegetation, although it was historically forested. As with the rest of the Indian sub-continent, Bundelkhand experiences two main seasons, monsoon and dry. The monsoon brings over 90 percent of the annual rainfall between the months of June and September with the highest precipitation occurring in July and August. On an average, the region receives 75 cm to 125 cm of rain each year. The dry plains in the north usually receive less rain compared to the south- eastern part of the region. Minimum temperature varies from around 6-12 ^?C and maximum temperature varies from 38- 48 ^?C.

The region is blessed with plenty of natural resources. It had truly been endowed by nature, with beautiful mountains, good perennial rivers, fast flowing seasonal rivulets, large rich forest areas with valuable timber, fruit trees, numerous medicinal plants / herbs in almost each district. The rainfall here had been on average much better than many parts of India. Bundelkhand is a part of the central zone of India with a group of north-bound perennial rivers flowing and paying tribute to river Yamuna. From west to east these are Sind, Pahuj, Betwa, Dhasan, Ken, Baghein Paisuni and Tons. Along with Chambal and Yamuna these are ten major rivers. Other water resources in Bundelkhand are in form of water stored / conserved on surface termed as ponds, tanks, lakes etc. Bundelkhand has, undoubtedly, been one of the regions in India very much known for its historical rain-water management through man-made ponds, tanks and lakes. Topography here helped to build such structures but more than anything it reflected fore-sight and positive attitude of those rulers towards conservation of nature.

Introduction

Coastal zone represents a broad transitional zone between land and sea which is strongly influenced by both the shoreline ecosystems and the near shore sub-littoral land-based ecosystems. The coastal areas of the country occupy about 10.8 million ha of land and are spread over the 7517 km long coastline along the Bay of Bengal in the East coast, Arabian sea in the West coast and two islands territories. The coastline of the country in its journey covers 9 states (West Bengal Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat Goa) 2 union territories (Puducherry and Daman and Diu) and 2 groups of islands (Andaman & Nicobar group in the Bay of Bengal and Lakshadeep and Minicoy group in the Arabian sea) in the country. The region has varied geomorphic and topographical features of mountains, valleys, coastal plains, riverine systems climatic conditions, soil conditions, water budgets and a wide range of cultivated crops. It also supports diverse vegetation ranging from rich tropical rain forests to coastal mangroves and highly rich in biodiversity. The entire coastal ecosystem is highly fragile and vulnerable to climate change and highly endangered by the sea level rise following global warming. Agriculture is the major occupation of the people in the rural areas of coastal regions of the country but it is highly complex risk-prone and entirely dependent on the vagaries of nature.

Since, the problems of coastal agriculture are widely variable there is no universally applicable remedial measure for self-reliant coastal agriculture and it is likely that the remedial measures or the technological interventions will be variable according to the problems associated with the concerned area. It is highly necessary that technological improvement aimed at enhancement of the productivity of coastal agriculture and the livelihood of the farming communities must be simple in use to suit the skill and resource poor farmers and, to be operative at small scale farming as the majority of the farmers are in marginal and small categories with very poor landholdings.